It’s so strange to be writing this post as it feels like we should still have summer holidays left. The weather has been pretty hit and miss and, added to the pandemic ups and downs, this summer is over before it’s got started. We’ve done so much and yet at times it doesn’t feel like we’ve had much summer at all.
Personal
I was Raped as a Teenager
*Warning: the following article may be triggering for some readers.
There are some things that I said I would never write about on here. Stories that I never wanted to tell or at least, ones I never wanted to put my name to. But, over the last few years I’ve thought about why I don’t want to tell my story and it always comes back to the same thing – shame.
I’m heading towards 40 and, looking back, I now realise that no-one should feel shame over the things that happen to them. No-one should be ashamed or embarrassed because something was inflicted upon them without their consent. So now, I am owning my story and writing about it in the hope it helps to heal old wounds and maybe, in some small way, helps someone else.
Half My Life Ago
Do you ever think about the years gone by, the things that happened and how far you’ve come? Well, half my life ago I had just turned seventeen, it was two weeks before Christmas and I was homeless.
Things I Always Want to Remember
I have always known that we would only have two children. Although after Little Man was born, and up until he turned one – maybe even two – I could have quite happily had another, I knew that wasn’t right for our family – two was always going to be the right number.
A Year Ago We Started Speech Therapy
A year ago we started the process for Little Man to have speech therapy. It was something I’d been through as a child too and when it was first suggested that he needed help with his speech I was so emotional. I wasn’t sad that he needed speech therapy it was more that we had been working on helping him speak for so long that hearing someone outside of our family confirm our concerns was really emotional. But, it meant that he could start having the help he needed.
Little Man’s First Haircut
Last week was a big thing for our little family. Little Man had his first hair cut! LP hasn’t had a haircut yet so it’s the first time Dave and I had to take a child for a haircut – What an experience!
Walking…
Little Man is coming on leaps and bounds and since learning to stand up and climb up things he has now started to make use of his wooden walker and push it from one end of the room to the other regularly.
Sleeping Through
Little Man had the worst sleep in months whilst we were on holiday. He woke frequently, needed a lot of night feeds and spent long periods of each night crying. It was very unlike him and I’ve put it down to teething and maybe being slightly under the weather. We spent the week exhausted but still managed to have a lovely holiday.
Little Man’s Time For a New Car Seat
Little Man has been getting steadily bigger and for a couple of months now I haven’t been able to lift Little Man out of the car whilst still in his baby car seat, instead choosing to leave the car seat in the car and just put Little Man in and out. I noticed a few weeks ago that Little Man’s legs were getting long for the seat, his head was getting high up the back of the seat and it was getting very difficult to actually get him into the seat safely. It was time for Little Man to go into his Big Boy car seat.
Little Man’s Latest Milestone
Over the last three months I’ve written about Little Man learning to sit at Christmas, learning to crawl in January and then being happy to stand when we put him up against something – his trick for February. March has brought us something new altogether. Little Man has learnt to pull himself up!