We’ve all heard of cabin fever…

but what about “couple fever”? I may have just made the phrase up but I really do think it’s a real thing and I’m certain that other couples who end up spending significantly more time with each other than usual have felt the same way. Sam’s now been off work/in between jobs (thanks to he last employment unfortunately not ending very well when his back went) since just before Christmas and this is the first time in ages that we’ve spent so much time together. In fact I think it’s the most time we’ve ever spent with each other in the six years we’ve been together. In lots of ways it’s been great. For example: he’s been getting up with Hudson most mornings to give me a lie-in/time to relax for half an hour whilst he changes Hudson and gives him his breakfast and now that Hudson is much more mobile it makes it more tricky for me to do things like shower (without him knocking himself myself out as he “cruises” around the bath and edge of the toilet!) so having an extra person to look after him has been really handy. The best part though has definitely been seeing Sam’s bond with Hudson grow even stronger after all the extra time they’ve had together. Hudson now gets really excited when Sam comes in the room and when he wakes up and sees his daddy.

However – more time together has also meant more silly disagreements and fall outs! I think it’s inevitable when I had become used to having the house to myself during the day and I can be a bit pernickity about the way things are done or where things are left/put away. Sam’s also been feeling pretty stressed out and down at times about his work situation after the last two jobs ended so badly through no fault of his own which hasn’t resulted in more arguments than usual due to his reactions to things and then my reaction to him. It also didn’t help that we had a few weeks of Hudson’s sleep getting even worse which really stressed me out and I think Sam really struggles seeing me get like that. Ultimately this all culminated in him going to his Dad’s house for a couple of nights for some time to de-stress, think and get some advice too as sometimes it doesn’t help to talk to the person you are finding it hard to see eye-to-eye with. Things have been much better since then and I think it was what we all needed.

I also think it all comes down the idea of “self care” – making sure one looks after all areas of one’s life: physical; spiritual (whatever that means to you, doesn’t have to be religion); social; intellectual; creative and emotional. I’ve used my love of lists and organisation to make a little plan for Sam and I for 2017 to look after all of these areas that includes things like trying to read a book a month (me), eating three good meals a day with healthy snacks in between (Sam), start taking guitar lessons (Sam) and keep a Gratitude Journal (both of us!). I’m hoping this’ll help Sam feel more positive about things and make sure we look after ourselves a bit better after spending so much time only caring for Hudson.

A Very Cheeky Boy

Now that Hudson is very nearly walking he spends most of his time pulling himself up on things to reach our stuff or things he’s not meant to play with (the remote, our phones and anything cardboard are his favourites!) or crawling mega fast towards more things he should touch in the hope we won’t notice. He even stops en route to look at us with a huge grin on his face – very cheeky but equally as funny.

He’s going through a phase of emptying things at the moment and his particular favourites are the changing bag and the book/DVD shelves. He removes some things one by one mostly to drop to the floor unless something looks particularly “chewable”. It’s so funny! He’s so excited about it that he pants whilst he looks for the next thing to grab and remove.

Hes also started smiling and laughing at things more. Before his laughing was mostly due to us tickling him or blowing raspberries on him whereas he’s now looking at things or doing things himself and laughing which is adorable. The only exception this this was when he slapped me smack to the side of my eye yesterday and then laughed at the comedic “thwack” noise it made! He does get a bit flappy and slappy with his hands when he gets overexcited, mostly when he’s about to get boob or when he’s near the cats. We can’t wait to see how his personality continues to grow as he gets older.

Soft Play Initiation

Taking Hudson to a soft play place had been one of the things we’d been dreading. We had visions of it just being awful – a bit grotty and full of kids hyped-up on juice and chocolate knocking each other over. We were at a loss as to what to do on Sunday and I thought it was time to be braver and try one out now that Hudson’s so mobile. A friend recommended one called Summit Indoor Adventure in Selby so we went to check it out. It’s in the leisure centre there and as well as soft and adventure play areas it has a skate park area, an aerial trek zone and a really impressive selection of climbing walls. As Hudson is under a year old it’s free to take him in which was a bonus. We took him into the designated toddler zone which had some soft play items in along with a big game of naughts and crosses that Velcroed to the wall. He loved it, especially crawling through the tunnels and climbing the big foam steps. The bigger kids’ area looked great and we can’t wait until he’s a bit older and is walking so we can take him in there. An even bigger bonus was the fact he had his second nap of the day on the way home thanks to him tiring himself out playing.

Now we’ve had out first experience of soft play we’ll definitely try some others out when we have a free day and he needs tiring out.