You and only you

24.

"Mummy"

"Mummy" I feel a little hand shake my shoulder. I turn my head slightly and half open my eyes to see Arthur and Nelly standing beside the bed

"Mummy I think Santa has been" Nelly whispers

"What time is it" I pick up my phone from the bedside table and see that it's 8:05

"Can you get up so we can go downstairs"

"How about you both hop in here for a few more minutes" I try to convince them to get into bed

"No" Arthur shouts

"Arthur be quiet, Leah's still sleeping"

"No I'm not" she rolls over and smiles at us

"Sorry" I apologise on his behalf

"It's ok"

"Leah can we see if Santa has been" Nelly asks groggily as her and Arthur start to shuffle around unable to contain their excitement

"Yeahhhh, shall we go wake Amanda and Jacob up"

"Yess" they jump with joy

"Right Leah can go wake Amanda and Jacob up but you two have got to put some socks or slippers on before we go down, come on" I say as me and Leah get out of bed

As Leah opens her bedroom door I see two stockings hanging off the handle. She pulls them both off and hands me the pink one.

"What's this"

"Mum gets me and Jacob stockings every year, she obviously got you one as well"

Once I've put socks on both of them we make our way back out to the landing where a very tired Jacob and very excited Amanda and Leah are waiting for us

"Can we go down now" Arthur shouts

"Of course we can" Amanda matches his tone as we all make our way downstairs following Arthur and Nelly's lead. That is until we get to the living room door, which is shut

"I'm scared, what if he's still in there"

"Will I go in first and make sure he's not there and then I'll come back out and tell you" Jacob offers to which they both nod. We all step away from the door as Jacob opens it and walks in, after a couple of seconds he pops his head out grinning from ear to ear

"I think you're going to want to see this" he pulls the door open and they run in, as I go to walk in someone behind me places their hands on both of my shoulders. I turn around slightly and see her smiling, a little twinkle in her eye.

Whenever anyone asks me what it's like to be a mom, my immediate response is always "it's the best", but in reality it's fucking hard, I mean your literally responsible for another human being. And there are days where I question my ability, or my choices. There are also days where all I want to do it pull my hair out, but it's in moment like this where I sit back and think I am genuinely the luckiest person in the world, and being a mom is actually the best thing ever.

"Oh my god" Nelly shouted as she makes a b-line for one side of the room

"Dinos" Arthur shouts as he makes a b-line for the other side

"Mummy look" they both shout at the same time while holding something up to show me which causes everyone to laugh

"Aaahhhhhh mummy look" Arthur shouts and points at the plate on the floor

"What is it" I play clueless

"Rudolph ate half of the carrot" he says picking it up to show everyone. When Leah sees it she lets out a chuckle and makes direct eye contact with me and I can't help but reminisce on last nights events