Hello! It's been such a long time since I've blogged, I really wanted to do more since Freya arrived but then came the year of the pandemic and lockdowns, she turned from a baby into a toddler right before my very eyes and suddenly needed chasing after, lots of cuddles, milk, storytimes, a million park trips and the never ending cycle of cooking and scrubbing of the high chair along with trying to fit bits of work in where I can so it's pretty much been about survival rather than having much time to think about blogging. {Plus Instagram pretty much is a blog these days right where I'm sure you see enough of us?!} But now I'm pregnant again! Eeeek! And it's winter, and she's pretty good at taking a long lunchtime nap now and I'm not *so* exhausted anymore where I feel too sick or need to just close my eyes for the five minutes I get at the end of running around getting everything done so it's been nice to log back into this space. I'm typing this from my bed, it's a cold grey January day just after Lockdown 3 has been announced. I wanted to document this time, for me and the future baby to look back upon {I've set a precedent with Freya's pregnancy story that I don't want to start that classic second child not as many milestones documented off already ha} and because that first trimester is so so lonely - especially this year with lockdown after lockdown. You're full of crazy symptoms but probably haven't told many people yet, you're googling everything, trying to tick the weeks off and wondering what's normal and I'm always so happy when I get messages - still 2 years on - from mama's saying how helpful the pregnancy blogs were first time around. So this will probably be a little samey to Freya's pregnancy story but I wanted to document it all nonetheless and share this special journey so far... 

*just to note - please don't take any of this as anything other than my personal experience, I'm certainly no medical expert and every pregnancy is so individual and different so please don't worry if you have a very different experience. Just sharing my personal perspective xx 

Long term readers may remember our trip to Lake Garda last September when Freya was a tiny 8 week old baby {I blogged all about it here}. And last week, we went back there with our now one year old. We just loved that lake so much, it ticked so many holiday boxes for us and I already know we'll go back again. 

We didn't know if we'd get to travel this summer with Covid 19 and if we did - we thought we might drive to France or have a staycation. But when we started looking into it, with my parents who were also up for a trip after our family holiday had been cancelled earlier in June, we realised how expensive the ferry crossings were and how much accommodation was booked up - I guess as August is always a peak time for summer holidays regardless of the pandemic and then from lots of people not wanting to fly. The airbridges got announced and Italy had amazing flights to Milan and some of the lowest rates of infections in Europe. My parents had their trip back in May to Lake Garda cancelled and it was their 30th wedding anniversary which we all wanted to celebrate with them. So we went for it. I know that travel is not for everybody right now and everyone has a very different take on their level of risk during this time, so I'm really not writing this blog to try and justify our decision nor try to encourage anybody to go, a lot of people just wanted to hear about our experience of travel with Freya at this age and take inspiration for the future when everything will hopefully be back to normal? Here are some photos, although they're pretty much the same as last year I think albeit with a super grown up looking toddler?! plus some thoughts... 

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