Living Arrows, Week 3

When my daughter and son in law announced in the autumn of 2019 they were expecting I immediately blocked out a month either side of their due date. A natural born worrier I was convinced their baby would arrive early and not wanting to miss out, I vowed that we would absolutely be around. My Christmas present that year was a guide to the world’s most scenic railways and an instruction from Bruce to pick one for us to do. Peru. Peru on a train for a week followed by a week at Machu Pichu. Well that clearly wasn’t going to happen until that baby was well and truly here safe and well.

And then Covid hit.

So any plans we had of a weekend away, a night out, a week in the summer were cancelled anyway. Peru became very much consigned to the “we will get there one day” pile.

How lucky are we though that we only live a short drive away and that in June when Lily was six weeks old we were allowed to form a support bubble with another family. How lucky that I have a job that allows me so much flexibility that I can be around for play dates. How lucky that we live in a part of the world with wide open spaces on our doorstep that allow us meet up and get some fresh air. How lucky that it finally stopped raining this week for just long enough that we could get outside for an hour for a walk somewhere that had a cafe for a hot chocolate afterwards. How lucky am I to be able to see Lily every week.

This week has seen Lily trying a whole corn on the cob for the first time, and sneaking a bit of home made parkin after realising the cake tin made a fabulous drum and that it had something edible inside. It was only a tiny bit though as it was packed with sugary gubbins but it is so lovely to see her trying all sorts of new foods. So far it looks as though she isnt allergic to anything as there is only shellfish left on the allergen list to be tested now, a huge relief. It was also a relief to finally get corner protectors on all the furniture in the lounge this week, you dont realise how sharp table corners are until you have a toddler cruising round them! And cruising round furniture is her new favourite thing. There are now even moments of standing unaided too, and she isnt even 8 months old yet!

The days are getting longer and I have to keep telling myself we are a step closer every day to lockdown being lifted. My gorgeous mum in law received the first of her two Pfizer vaccinations this week too which is thrilling. We haven’t seen her for so long and still have a big pile of family Christmas presents to give her, so we really hope this is the home straight. Please let this be the home straight!