Moving on

This is my first post on the new format of Mummy Zen so I'm feeling a bit of pressure! No, not really. Rather, I'm welcoming it as an ideal change during a significant period of transition in my personal life. September and October are big months for my family and I. Our lives are soon to change in ways we have no way of predicting. It's exciting but also a little scary. Here's what we have going on....

At the end of this week, we have to say a sad farewell to some very dear friends who are leaving London to head back home to the US after a two-year stint here. They have a son similarly aged to mine and the two boys became fast friends and have spent a lot of time together. My son also adores the mother, with whom I have struck up a strong friendship and our husbands come from the same state in the US and get along really well too. We've watched their family grow from three to four and they've watched ours in progress....They are the people we spend most time with so we will certainly miss them a great deal.

Maybe it's good timing as a distraction from the departing friends, but next week my son starts nursery. A big change for him and I! The first two weeks are 'settling in' weeks, which my American mummy friends have told me doesn't exist in the States. For my US readers, the settling in period involves usually the mum, going along to the nursery for the first week or two and making the separation a gradual process, instead of just dropping off the child on the first morning and leaving. If your child seems to adapt and settle in a few days then you don't need to keep going every day but it's done on a case by case basis.I'm excited for my son to start nursery but this morning when it occurred to me that this is our last full week together 'at home', I also felt a pang of sadness or maybe that's too strong a word....

The third big change on the horizon is the new addition to our family, due to arrive next month! I don't need to tell you what that might bring but suffice it to say, we'll certainly have our hands full.

We're doing our best to prepare our son and ourselves for the twists and turns to come but any advice from my readers is welcome :-). Do share any thoughts or tips for dealing with any of the three things I've mentioned: helping a toddler deal with their best friend leaving, starting nursery and a new baby/sibling in the family.