October was the month my baby turned 5. Each year when the trees are at their most glorious and we kick through piles of leaves, I remember driving home from hospital with my newborn. Those first walks as a family of three in countryside lit in shades of yellows and reds. Finding my feet as […]
parenting
Do Dolphins Sleep…?
Dear Isaac and Flora You are 4 and 1 (Flora, you will be 21 months old tomorrow). I have a window today where the worlds of nap time and nursery have collided, and instead of having a doze myself, or catching up on emails, or reading, I am writing this. I was sitting here […]
My Night Owl
She calls out for me with a shriek that yanks me from sleep, scattering my forty winks. She’s sitting up in her cot, arms outstretched. Hold me please. Hair sticking up in tufts on the top of her head, big eyes blinking. I pick her up and cuddle her, but she flaps around in my […]
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These Days
There are days when it feels like I’m swimming upstream, Or treading water just to keep afloat. Hit by waves of guilt For having to split myself in two. And I feel like I’m sinking under the weight of all there is to do. The hard days, the long days, the days when I’m fuelled […]
Dear Flora
Dear Flora This is the first time I’ve written about you since you were born, 11 months ago. I don’t have a record of your early days like I do for your brother. I don’t have pages after pages of journal scribbles and regular blog posts to record all the milestones. You haven’t had hours of my […]
Hello from this mother…
As this is my first post on my new blog I wanted to say a little hello and tell you a bit about why I’ve started This Mother. I’m Emma, living in Aberdeenshire, and still adjusting to life as a working mother of two. I first started blogging after I became a mum to Isaac in 2012. […]
Your Working Mama
What you know about me at a year and a half: I am mama, I like cuddles, I love books, I love nothing more than to cuddle and read books with you. You know my smile, my laughter, my smell, the rings on my fingers, the lines etched beside my eyes, my not-so-in-tune singing. You know […]
Change is in the air
You are 11 months old today. It seems unreal to me, as if the days have suddenly been picked up and carried away on the wind. It’s that time of year when change is hanging in the air; when 5.45am feels so much earlier than it did a few months ago, when the temperature drops, […]
Images of summer
Sun-soaked days, drenched with your long belly laughter. Bird-watching, wave-watching, grass-pulling, sand-grabbing, branch-in-the-breeze-catching, sun hat-throwing. Kiss-giving. Little steps turning to quick steps. Your tight grip around our fingers as you waddle around the garden, smiling to yourself. Wisps of your fluffy down hair lit white in the sunshine. Waving, waving, […]
My little one
You turned 6 months old this week and decided to mark the occasion by sitting on your own. I was fastening a button on your dungarees as you sat trying to grab your toes, when I realised how steady you were. I put some cushions around you and gradually eased away – will you stay […]