Baby boom

One of my favourite things about being in a community church is welcoming new babies. It's always a joy, but just lately there have been quite a few extra special ones, and it's been so moving watching people light up when they realise the new babies have arrived at the meeting for the first time - lots of cuddles all round, lots of love and encouragements to the new 'big brothers or sisters', lots of wonder at babies' teeny feet and perfect little heads etc etc - we can't get enough of it! The way time flies... the way we can't remember anyone being so small before... the way they look like their parents....it's as if it's a brand new concept each time!

I am really proud of church during these times - meal rotas kick in and boy do they hit the spot. I remember being on the receiving end myself - we'd be almost hopping up and down with excitement waiting to see what was for dinner. And it was delivered by someone who was excited for us and gave us yet more attention as well as the meal! Fabulous. There's nothing like the ravenous hunger of a new mum, and to have a full meal without having had to cook it, well it was perfect. Sitting amongst piles of washing, with bleary eyes and a body that ached from head to toe, I tucked in and I loved it. I had a lot of wine too (for medicinal purposes).

I think in church these babies have the most enormous extended family but they don't know it yet. I can't wait to see them grow up and to see what they add to the mix. But for now, welcome little babes; you are already a part of us and we couldn't be happier to have you.

The Cake

It's that time of year again - rolling out the ready-made icing on to different shaped layers of goo. Why do we do it? In the Autumn I was in the baking aisle, highly stressed but unable to do anything but push onwards. Where were the long thin biscuity things that would make good axles for the wheels of a skateboard cake?? Where?? Sighing and groaning maybe a little too loudly, I became aware of another lady scanning the shelves. "What are you looking for?" I asked. "Ughhhh, something for googly eyes for Halloween" she replied. We then had quite a sisterly little moment looking together for green things. But the pupils had to be black, it was just the irises that needed to be green... would the child know? Would he care? Probably not. But we know! We care! She was one like me - not really in a competition with other mums but with herself.

The truth is I love it. It's one of the things I looked forward to about being a mum. Don't get me wrong, there's been tears over the years (no, not Colin's). Ridiculous I know, but true. But really I love it - I could plan parties til the cows come home, just because I like it, I have a flexible job so I can make time for it and it makes me happy, otherwise I wouldn't do it. What makes me giggle though is that when pictures of cakes appear on the interweb we all write "ooo you're a great mum!" based on a cake. I want to say "I can't comment on your motherliness but hey, you're a great cake decorator!"

What makes a great mum? I put it to the court that it has not much to do with icing sugar. Some mums are brilliant at going to the park (not me), some mums are brilliant at putting themselves last (not me), some mums don't bat an eyelid at vomit (not me!!), some mums are always on time (getting better at that), some mums are great at robotic dancing (oo! me! me!). Some have children with special needs who drain every ounce of life from them, so making a cake is an irrelevancy - who's telling them they're a "totally awesome mom"? (Sorry I've been looking at a lot of cakes made by American moms on the internet!).

They say it takes a village to raise a child. Well I think it takes a village to make a mum too. So thanks to Kellie for icing sugar lessons, Lynn for finding the ice cream cones in Tescos yesterday, Rachel H for the brainstorm, Maria for the pep talk, Bob for the advice on folding royal icing a year ago, Becky for the other pep talk (with a fry up so slightly better) ...and all this has been drawn upon this one afternoon just for The Cake. Imagine the input I've had on the bigger issues over the years, the stuff that really matters - now that's totally awesome!!

Happy New-ish Year!

OK OK I went quiet for a bit - it's not too difficult to guess why - we bit off more than we could chew last term. But chew it we did, and slowly, slowly swallowed it. (I'm not sure where this analogy has come from, and it's not that pleasant so I'll get on.)

So, as Evie says, we're "through with baby Jesus" . He's so last year. We're on to 'growing things' if you're in Reception class, 'birds' if you're in Year 3 and 'space' if you're getting on a bit and in Year 5. Yes, in school you get the luxury of a brand new topic every term. However in real life you find you're still catching up from last term. Us Nichols, we're still eating everything up from last term! We even ended up with chocolate spoons over Christmas. I think this invention neatly sums up the spirit of Christmas these days: "We can't possibly make do with normal spoons over Christmas!! We must have spoons of pure chocolate!!" (*clap clap* spoons magically appear, stage left). It is no great hardship to eat everything up of course, and we are soldiering on with the task. We will not be beaten until the very last chocolate button has gone.

In an effort to counterbalance all this chomping, hubs and I are going to go dancing tonight. Get ready Worthing, to receive the gift that is.... Nichols and Nichols Dance Troupe. It is time for us to give something back to the town. It has to be said we don't have a good track record with dancing, but we're way more mature than the days where I'd strop off because Col wouldn't stop shimmying or embellishing the moves the teacher told us. And Col's way more understanding than the days where he'd beg me incessantly to jump into his arms without any back up. What can possibly go wrong this time. It's jivey-cerocy-hipetty hoppy, it'll be marvellous, you wait.

And after that - ohhh the joy of perfect television: Mary Portas taking on the issue of bad service in shops in Britain. I can barely contain myself. It is one of my all time pet peeves - don't even get me started.....

Appendix 1: For more sensitive readers we wish to make it clear that in no way do we really consider Jesus to be 'last year' but very very present and relevant in all ways on all days.