Friday, Friday, my how you've changed. I remember a time when Friday meant counting down the minutes 'til 5pm and then high tailing it out of work to the nearest wine bar, debit card ready for another weekend of impromptu partying and catching up with friends (particularly my good friends Pinot and Grigio) Life has changed incredibly in the last 15 years, my early to late twenties were spent in a blur of friends/booze/work/clubbing/buying stupidly expensive shoes and bags and generally being young, free and single.
I met Mr T many years ago but we didn't get 'together' as a couple until we were 27. Throughout my entire late teens and mid twenties I was foot loose and answered to no-one, I had my own flat and loved being completetely irresponsible and pleasing only myself. Though actually, that's not strictly speaking true, I did have one ill advised 'engagement' and a couple of unsuitable flings but nothing and no-one had ever made me want to clear a space in my girl-pad for any man and their assorted smells & noises. Until Mr T. One horrific home cooked meal (it smelt like sick and looked worse quite frankly) a few dates later and he moved in - african mask, golf clubs and all.
So my thirties hit me a bit like a freight train, 2 days before my 30th birthday I did the ol' peeing on a stick routine and BAM, what do ya' know, I was pregnant. Life changed as soon as those 2 lines appeared. No more long, lazy (in truth, hungover) weekends. Now we had a baby to think about. All I remember from being pregnant with Jbird is an overwhelming urge to eat chicken and rice. Poor Mr T, every evening he'd hopefully ask what we were having for dinner (my inner 50's housewife having reared her head, I was doing most of the cooking at this stage) and every night the answer would be the same 'chicken, rice and tomatoes'. Poor bloke. 5 months of that he put up with. Anyway, Jbird arrived, shook our world, changed the way we looked at things and made us realise we quite liked being parents. We didn't like the projectile vomit much (reflux) nor the late nights(J's a party animal, always has been and didn't sleep through until he was nearly 3) but mostly we liked this sparky, energetic little creature with the ernomous brown eyes. So, that's where Oli-in-the-middle entered our lives, a gentle, placid wee soul who shocked us both by showing us that we could love another baby as much as we did his older brother. The gentle, placid wee soul turned out to be a fire cracker mind you, so initial appearances can be deceptive it seems. We were happy with our two little blokes, life was getting easier, Ol was starting school in 18 months and we were getting used to not having to cart pushchairs/nappies etc etc around with us. What's that? Yep, Oli-in-the-middle is Oli-IN-THE-MIDDLE indicating there's another one. Our little surprise, our brucie bonus, the full house, icing on the cake Leni-lou.
Now there's a shocker, not only was she a big suprise (well, as surprising as being pregnant when you're 36 and have done it twice before can be anyway!) but she's a whole new kind of little T. Where her brothers have dark, flashing eyes and mops of dark brown curls, she has the most amazing grey eyes and blonde curls. Truly a genetic throw back to her maternal grandmother's Scottish ancestry .... and two fingers up to her Dad's dark Spanish genes which we thought was a dead cert to bully out any recessive pale genes that I carry.
That's us in a nutshell, 2 parents, 3 kids, an axllotl (look it up, all I'll say is I'm mighty glad that thing can't be imported to NZ and will have to be found a new home!!) There's nothing extraordinary about us, we don't set the world alight or save lives on a daily basis but I do know for a fact that my kids are the most amazing, beautiful, clever, funny kids in the entire world. Ever. I'd even go so far as to say that I pity other parents that they don't have my kids ... because that's been my biggest life lesson since my good friends Pinot and Grigio were tossed aside for nappies and night feeds - every parent feels that way about their children. Your children will drive you demented by moments but you know that they're the most important people in the world. So, whilst you're reading this, you're probably thinking 'ha, I pity HER not having MY kids' and that's ok, because we both know that I'm thinking the same about you.
Happy Friday!
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