Anniversaries

Last month Paul and I celebrated our tenth wedding anniversary.  I know - doesn't time fly...  We celebrated the day with a number of friends and family.  Here we are cutting a cake that I made:

This cake is a copy of the middle tier of our chocolate wedding cake, although the flowers are a slightly less demure colour than they were on the original... 

It's amazing to think that we've been married for a decade.  Apart from the fact that we obviously don't look old enough (well - in our heads anyway... ) it just seems like a decade would feel longer somehow.

Not that we've been idle in the last ten years.  Anything but...  In the decade we have got married, bought our first house, finished my degree, got my first proper job, got pregnant (twice!), given birth (twice!!), bought a bigger house (necessitated by previous activities in list...), given up job...  and that's just the big things.  I think it's the little things that really pass the time.  Somewhere between your first child's first tooth appearing, and it falling out you've passed through five years - but been too busy to notice really.

Still, surely the next decade can't be so eventful...  But who knows?  In my head though - I have entitled the next decade "carry on!"  By that I mean that it probably won't be filled with so many new things (or children!), but it will be carrying on with the ones I have...

Another anniversary crept by without me even noticing.  My one year blogging anniversary passed me by at the start of this month - probably as I've been a bit tardy on the old blogging front recently...  I'm grateful to all of you who have read and commented on my blog over the past year (after all - nobody likes the thought they that are just wittering on to themselves!...)  I was wondering if you had a favourite post over the last year?  Or maybe a type of post you'd like me to write more of...  more Ikea-related poetry perhaps...  I hope the blog will continue to be of interest, maybe funny at times, encouraging etc... 

Anyway...

Carry on!

Words and Letters

It's always exciting when your kids learn to do something new...  Having learnt all his letters now, Nathan is just starting to look at letters together - and work out the words that they spell. 

It's great when he introduces himself.  For days now he's been saying "Hello - it's me - Nathan!" by way of introduction; but yesterday when talking to a friend of mine, he said: "Hello - it's me - Nathan - n-a-t-h-a-n - Nathan!"  Marvellous.

Obviously, the opportunities for reading are endless, after all - there are words everywhere.  It's always interesting what takes his attention; it's not always the things you would expect.

Yesterday he was very proud having read the word 'bus' - no surprises there.  Transport features very highly in Nathan's favourite things.

What made me laugh, was when - sitting at the dinner table - he finished his drink - sat looking at the bottom of his glass - and pronounced: "i-k-e-a - Ikea!"  Of all the words in all the world... :o)

Ikea: A sonnet

How do we love you? Let me count the ways...
We love you for your deepest shade of blue
And for the car park full of vehicles there
parking for free, one hour or maybe two.

We love the random names of all your things;
The poangs, trofast, mammut and the malm.
The maps and all the arrows on the floor,
Play areas to keep the grown-ups calm.

But most of all the inexpensive food
Which fills us up with meatballs and with joy,
The refillable cups of tea for mum
And Daimbar cake for every growing boy.

A place to go on any rainy day
That doesn't break the bank - hip hip hooray!