The garden

Over the last three years our poor vegetable garden has been abandoned. In 2011 I was pregnant, worked full time and we had just started building our huge extension. A year later we had a 6 month old baby, I was back at work and The Husband still spend every available minute building. Last year, well, I was pregnant again and Little Brother was born in May. 

So now our vegetable garden looks like this.  

Abandoned, overgrown, messy. 

It's a disgrace. 

It was lovely to see those veggies grow in our garden; potatoes, tomatoes, cucumber, pumpkin, courgette, beans, onions, leeks, sweetcorn, rhubarb. We had it all. 
There was also some fruit; strawberries, raspberries, black berries, gooseberries, apples, plums. 
Those apples and plums seem to be the only thing we have left. 

The good news is that our house is almost, almost completely finished. And so we can make time for the garden again. 
It is going to take a lot of clearing, weeding, digging and probably cursing. But it'll be worth it. 
 

Monday morning

Sitting at the table.
Doing some writing and menu planning.
While Little Brother is enjoying chunks of fresh pineapple.
We're battling colds and coughs and snot and fevers in this house.
And yes he's wearing a tea towel as I was too lazy to go upstairs to get a bib.
That's life.

It gets easier

It must be one of the most annoying statements a mother with a small baby will ever hear. It comes from mothers with slightly older babies. Even as much as a month seems to 'allow' them to tell you this. 

But really: when you're in the middle of it (whatever 'it' may be) being told it'll get easier doesn't help. It actually makes it worse. Because what will be better in a few weeks time doesn't help you now. 

Going shopping with the two boys was something I avoided. We don't have a double buggy so Big Brother would be on the buggy board and Little Brother in the buggy. But Big Brother is bound to get tired/bored/jealous/moody/hungry and refuses to stay on te board. So you carry a 2,5 year old while pushing the baby in the buggy. Fun, in the middle of a shopping centre. 

But let's face it: if I want these kids to wear clothes that fit and don't have holes in them I need to get out and get them some. So we did. 

I decided not to be too ambitious and made a very small list of things to get and do. 

And really, if you ignore the part where the kids were inside the locked up car and I was outside the car, it all went very well. Big Brother decided to love the buggy board, modelled the cardigan I was thinking of getting him, picked up the socks Little Brother kept taking of and dropping on the floor and said a very nice 'thankyouwel' (a combination of thank you and its Dutch translation dankjewel) when the man at the cafe handed him a biscuit. 

So. 

I'm sorry to say it. 

And never thought I would. 

But. 

It gets easier. 

Just never give your toddler the car keys when you're getting the buggy out of the car. Because he might just lock himself and his brother in the car.