Another month gone! I really can’t believe where November has gone – it seems to have disappeared before my eyes! Unfortunately November has been a month of illness, broken sleep, hard days at work and unrelenting tiredness.

The month started well with Toby finally deciding he was ready to walk…but then after about a week, and a nasty tumble at nursery (which may or may not have been related) he stopped walking again and wouldn’t bear weight on his right leg. A visit to minor injuries, our GP and finally A&E and despite two x-rays we were still none the wiser as to what was wrong with him. Two weeks of daily painkillers later and it seemed to be getting better and then a few days later he seemed to be completely cured! We’ll never actually know what was the matter but whatever it was I’m glad it has got better and Toby is toddling all over the place again.

While we were still trying to figure out what was wrong with Toby’s foot, I got a nasty cold which left me with no voice at all (interesting when you’re trying to get a class full of unruly teenagers to be quiet!). I actually didn’t feel to bad apart from a horrible cough and no voice but the Toby and Barry both caught it off me and really suffered. After three days of temperatures up to 39.5 we took another trip to our local hospital, this time for the out of hours GP. Fortunately it was only viral and apart from a nose which is still constantly dripping snot Toby seems much recovered. Barry’s feeling better too, after a day off work early in the week and I’m pretty much fully recovered too! I’m really hoping we can all avoid getting ill again in December but with me teaching over 300 different kids a week and Toby in full time nursery I’m sure more germs will be coming our way soon!

So, all in all November hasn’t been the best of months for us but it is ending on a more positive note – last night Toby slept from 8 pm to 7 am without a single wake up for the first time in months and we managed to get this month’s Me & Mine Family Portrait out in the garden today – the first one with a walking Toby in it! And of course there’s so much to look forward to in December – of course there’s Christmas but that also means two weeks off school and getting to see all our family too. Here’s hoping December brings us good health – and plenty more sleep!

Taking this month’s photo was a bit more of a challenge now Toby is walking – he wasn’t that keen on staying in shot so I thought I’d just include this little montage as he walked further and further out of the frame!