All Change

How is it Autumn half term already?

The last time I posted I was still sporting a humongous baby belly and basking out in what seemed to be an endless summer. Now the leaves on the oak tree in the garden are falling and we are overrun with apples (send your dessert apple recipe ideas my way please).

Those spinning leaves are the least of the changes going on in our household.

Here are just a few of them:

• We are now a family of five! Our new mini-hiker and outdoor adventurer joined us at the beginning of September and has been thrown straight in the deep end.
  

  A snuggly bub and a bleary eyed Mum out on the hiking trail. This Hugabub wrap has to be my absolute favourite for the very early days with a new baby.

It’s true what they say about third babies – they have no option but to slot right into family life from day one. With Roo, every time she hit a new growth spurt I happily took the advice proffered on every baby forum to grab the TV remote and put my feet up, settling in for some serious sofa/feeding time. Now I just laugh at that advice. None of us can even remember when or where we last saw our TV remote. Except for perhaps two year old Beth. And she’s not telling…

• My hubby finally has some male back-up. After two girls, we are now proud parents to a little boy, who is currently going by the online nickname of Bear. If you count the cats though, our household is still over 70% female…
  

  Our new Baby Bear doing his best impression to live up to his nickname.

• Roo has started school! Far from the tiny little bundle whom I started my Baby Routes adventuring with all those years ago, our grown up girl is now skipping off to school in uniform every day. Luckily her school suits her down to the ground, with plenty of outdoor time and heaps of lovely new footpaths nearby for Beth, Bear and I to explore too..
• Roo has turned five! The theme? It had to be space. Roo is still obsessed after visiting the Science Museum and Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles this time last year. It has turned out to be more than just a fleeting phase, proving that travel with children really can be inspiring and educational as well as downright good fun.

A space rocket cake for a 5 year old Roo.

All these changes have meant the writing side of Baby Routes has taken a back seat recently. We are still getting out and about though. Bear was taken out on his first proper Baby Route at a mere seven days old across the common from Maidensgrove to Pishill. He even got to experience his first trip to a pub for lunch on the same walk (and slightly less glamorous, his first pub loos nappy change)!

Our first Baby Route as a family of five, when baby was seven days old.

For six weeks we’ve mainly been adjusting to the new pace of life. It’s been a blur of school runs, visitors, birthday preparations and gorgeous baby cuddles. Writing time has been pretty much nil. Finally though we’ve made it to half term and the fog is lifting. I’m back into writing mode again and those bags under my eyes are getting a little less dark.

Those early baby days and the bitter sweet moment of sending Roo off to school have reminded me how precious and fleeting this moments of infancy are. Forgive me if the pace is a little slow or stop-start over the next few months on Baby Routes – I’ll be savoring every moment of family time and writing is going to have to fit in around that. Don’t worry though – I’ll still be hitting the trails and writing up those child-friendly routes whenever I get a moment – the reason all this started those five long years ago.

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