It's. Been. Too. Long.

Oh my goodness, where has the time gone????  In precisely 3 weeks, 1hour and 32minutes, Emily will be 1 year old.   One Whole Year.  Like that!!  

I keep thinking about Blog-related topics, especially when I am out walking with Emily (gasping in this heat I might add!) ... what it means to be a mum (absolutely delicious, unbelievable, lucky, amazing, incredible, beautiful, precious, intimate, sincere, unreal, over-the moon, surreal, in love, love, LOVE!); what it feels like to be a working mum (hard but satisfying, especially when it's pay day yay!); what it's like when you're tired and baby's not (interesting!); how I feel about still breastfeeding Emily in the evenings (amazing, not sure I am ready to stop, I am a little addicted!!) and life in general...

But I always find something else to do - usually checking Facebook or watching crap on TV!  But now's the time.  Now.  A crisp white page awaits me.  SO what's been happening lately, gosh where to start?  I guess we can congratulate ourselves on a very successful end of the year - with Chris on the Christmas shirt, he was working 5am/6am - 6pm/7pm most days there for a while, with not many days off so we didn't see a lot of each other, or Chris of Emily, and I was the main parent, all day, every day, every evening which was pretty full on as work was crazy in December for me.  It always is!  But we made it.  I timed my return to work exquisitely, only having 7 weeks of work until break up for 2 weeks... yessss!  It was divine leaving on that last day and fetching Emily from The One's and heading home, knowing I didn't have to think about work for over 2 weeks.  Such bliss :) 

We had a wonderful Christmas (at home and with Chris's family - Nana and Grandad) and New Year's (spent with guests and my parents at their Lodge) and generally were very lazy, ate too much, drank too much and lived life peacefully.  We saw the New Year in with Emily waking at 5am on the 1st of January from the light/heat/who knows so had gorgeous family cuddles in bed for ages - that's got to be my best New Year's yet!

And then all too soon it was back to work.  Yuck.  It's been a frantic first month back.  A new HRIS.  6 (??) new staff, I have actually lost count.  But all of that has meant a lot of work.  And that got me thinking how I really enjoy my work.  I like getting things done.  But I do think about work waaaay too much.  So I need to stop that silliness because life is for living!  This past week I haven't done much more than my usual working day, so not much time out of hours etc so I am feeling better tonight than other Fridays.  As Emily is such a little dream and goes to sleep early and easily, and Chris doesn't get home till quite a bit later, I was finding myself 'just quickly doing the odd bit/bob' which, as you know, is never quite that and easily turned into an hour or two extra some days.  Not exactly my usual style.  I am dedicated but let's get real.  Put it in perspective Jen! It's not that important.  In fact it's not important at all.  I just make it out to be because I am a bit of a diva/drama queen!

And so onto 2015... what does that hold for us?  Who knows.  All I care about is my beautiful little family (and of course wider family and friends!) and spending as much time together as possible, making gorgeous memories and having special times together.  The year has started off with our first official Daddy / Daughter Day, with Chris looking after Emily on Mondays!  So cute - they seem to have SOOO much fun!  Paddling pool, jolly jumper, tickles, cuddles, stories, walks, you name it.  It is so great they have this time together and Chris was kind enough to say that 'it's so easy being at home with Emily, but you Jen have trained her so well with her routine' Hehe.  I had to chuckle!  She hasn't yet had a teething Monday, and they haven't gone grocery shopping, where it's go-go-go from wake up to sleep time and trying to fit in the shopping and make it home in time for Emily's sleep - rush, rush, rush!  So that will be a fun day for them I am sure :)   But until then... sleep tight!