It’s been a fairly quiet week here, we’re slowly settling into some sort of routine. We’ve started putting Gabe to bed at the same time as Toby now which means we’re getting our evenings back and that couple of hours makes all the difference. Gabe is still sleeping really well at night too, although he’s not a huge fan of the daytime nap. I remember Toby was the same though – I spent a lot of time taking him for walks to get him to sleep in the first few months but from about three months his daytime sleep improved and he started napping in his cot without any trouble. I’m just hoping Gabe follows in his brother’s footsteps!

Speaking of Toby, he has moved to a new nursery this week. After a short settling in session on Thursday he went for a full afternoon on Friday and apart from a few tears when I dropped him off on Friday he was an absolute superstar. I hope he’s still so settled when we go back again tomorrow.

I managed a successful trip to toddler group with both boys this week too. I put Gabe in the carrier and he slept the whole time, and I had both hands free to play with Toby so it was much less stressful than the week before when I’d just been holding Gabe (after optimistically assuming I would be able to leave him in the pram!).

I had another outing on my own with both boys on Friday too. We went to the cafe in the big park in our town to meet up with two of the girls from our original NCT class. They both have toddlers the same age as Toby, and they’re both pregnant too. I wouldn’t say it was entirely stress-free – Toby was being a bit clingy and didn’t want to go into the little soft play that’s there, and then he was being a bit picky about the food I’d got him for lunch, and Gabe was crying while I tried to sort Toby’s lunch out because he wanted feeding, and Toby knocked a whole pot of yoghurt all over the table…but do you know what? We all survived, we went out, I did manage to talk to my friends a bit, everyone got fed and no one was hurt so I’m chalking that one up as a victory. Every time I go out with both boys on my own, whether it’s to toddler group, or a cafe or the supermarket, I think of ways I can make it easier for next time so things can only get better from here!

Anyway, to this week’s Living Arrows pictures…the first is Toby – today we went to one of those ceramic painting places near where we live. We didn’t do any painting but it’s got a nice little cafe and a small soft play area that is free and that Toby can just go and play in on his own. He was having so much fun in there and seeing him off playing on his own gives me a little lump in my throat – it really shows me how much my baby boy is growing up.

Of course my new baby boy is still very much a baby. He still looks really like Toby did when he was the same age, especially when he’s wearing Toby’s hand me downs. This sleepsuit was Toby’s before going to my friend’s twins, and now back to Gabe again. I reckon Gabe is even longer than Toby was though, his feet are at the bottom of this sleepsuit already and it’s 0-3 months! I wonder if he’s going to end up even taller than his brother?