The Gallery - Motherhood, then and now.

Yes, yes, I know - I've not been posting again. A lot has been going on and I had a job interview today which I'm waiting to hear about. So I thought I'd get back on the horse as it were and do another entry into the Gallery at Sticky Fingers. This week's prompt is Motherhood. I haven't had time to come up with a fantastic new photo  - and to be honest, I am not a great photographer - so I've got two photos which kind of depict the then and now of my journey into motherhood - well, actually, the start of life as a mother of two children.

Here's the "then" photo: (it's a bit blurry, but not my photography!)

This is me with my two, literally minutes after I'd got home from hospital. I actually spent a few days in our marvellous midwife led unit that is just down the road here, after transferring from the big bad maternity unit in Preston. It was bliss and I could have stayed there for weeks, but come home I had to do. Missy Woo was 5 days old in that pic, Monkey 16 months old. I look happy, but I think I was terrified at the prospect of two of them, particularly as Monkey had not been a good sleeper as a tiny baby. Thankfully, Missy Woo was brilliant - so much so I used to have to wake her up to feed her before she got too hungry! Monkey was overjoyed with his new friend, so much so that his first word was "sister". And looking at that photo, I think that is about the most Missy Woo wore in the first 3 weeks of her life as it was so hot then. 

Before I post the "now" photo, I must make an apology. A lot of you who follow me on Twitter have already seen this pic before because it was, for a while, my profile pic (and it was on here too, which I've now changed.) It is, however, one of my favourite pictures of me with my two. It's getting on for a year old actually, but it depicts how they have changed since the first photo. 

Here goes:

This picture was taken in Pizza Express as you can see. I met up with some mummies that I have known online for some time. They were meeting up in Manchester and I took the chance to tag along with mine to put a few faces to names (hence the sticky label attached to my boob). 

Now, personally, I love this photo. It is similar in pose to the "then" picture in that I have got my arms around both of them so we are all cuddled together as a unit. I'm happy and relaxed, largely because my children are behaving, albeit for a few minutes. Both of them are extremely photogenic as you can see. They are the same, but different. You can see that Missy Woo has dark eyes in this picture whereas Monkey has, like me, pale green eyes. Their hair colour looks the same but Missy Woo's is darker, more golden, blonde whereas Monkey has a whiter blonde. (Sadly, like me, they are both likely to end up brunettes.) What they both share is that mischievous glint in their eyes - nothing particularly evil (most of the time!) but you know anything is possible.

This is my brood. They make me laugh, they make me cry, they frustrate me, anger me but they also love me, as I love them, to bits. It was a long road from that first morning at home but here we are. Two beautiful, funny, smart children. Oh, and one frazzled mummy. ;)