Mummy's Coffee Morning

Come on, it can't just be me that is filled with a sinking feeling of pure dread when faced with a toddler group? Before we moved, I was a part time working mummy and although it was good to have the social aspect of work and the money of course, I found it very hard to find a balance and felt a bit like I didn't fit in, in either place. At work, I always felt like I had missed important or new information on the two days I wasn't in and at home i felt so wiped on my two days with Oscar that I didn't feel like tackling toddler groups (which were all miles away anyway). Once a week we went to A, not at all inexpensive, Music class which was enjoyable and exhausting but it was only 45 minutes long and did not really offer Oscar the time to socialise or me the time to meet any of the mum's. Since we have moved and I have become a stay at home mummy, I have been to morevtoddler groups than ever before. However we still haven't found our routine, for some reason

Hey! Christmas. Christmas has always been immensely exciting for me, I absolutely adore Christmas...Or at least I did. This year, I struggled to find my Christmas cheer. Stuck in a house that didn't feel like home we were faced with the prospect of a strange Christmas with just the three of us. I have never spent a Christmas day away from my mum, not once, in 28 years. In fact once I stayed over at a boyfriend's house on Christmas eve and I made my mum pick us up at about 8 in the morning so I didn't miss a second of Christmas... It came as no surprise to me then, that I felt utterly unethused and quite miserable at the prospect of Christmas on our own. I spent the entire run up to the big day miserable and moody. Everything seemed like too much effort and exactly the same time, nothing felt special enough. I am a big organiser, we've hosted Christmas five years in a row and I loved every second. Even when I had a new born to breast feed, I still planned the menu

After a year of unbelievable stress we have finally moved!! I was desperate to vacate our little one bed flat, with a lovely toddler we had all but outgrown the space and the walls were bursting at the seams with four years of accumulation. However, when the time came to leave I had mixed feelings. We may have been about to embark on an exciting new journey in a house-with actual inside stairs and it's own garden- but we were also leaving the area we grew up in and both of our families. Our relocation further into Kent was not necessarily a choice we made, rather a neccesesity. The need for more space was the strongest drive for us and the place we choice was simply the next affordable place out. The relocation to a place neither of us know also meant that I was forced to leave my job as a teaching assistant in a local primary school! Well, we are finally in our new house and it is slightly chaotic...okay it's insanely chaotic. The baby gates are you wide for the doors, the