#thesearethedays

Clare Locker - 15 Nov 15

I love Instagram. Yes I do.

I started posting on Instagram about five years ago as a way of capturing photos of eldest boy and keeping them all in one place (not to mention that fact that I thought the filters made my pics look ultra professional, yeah right!)

When my Mum and Dad got themselves on the iPhone bandwagon I hooked them up on Insta and it became a way of keeping them up to date with the goings on with the grandkids. It was especially useful for holidays, when two weeks away for some reason feels like two months to Grandma and she acts like we are never coming back.

So yes, I over share on my personal Instagram account but I love it and it’s a great way to look back and reminise at how much my babas have grown. Cue teary eyed exclamations to the husband that they are getting too big and we need to have another (he’s having none of it by the way!)

Recently I’ve found myself posting a lot of photos with the hashtag #thesearethedays.

“Whats that all about then?” the other half asked.

“Well they are” I replied.

Because, well, these really are the days.

I don’t know about you, but for me and Mr L, in the early days, you know the first flush of love (and lust) when you can’t get enough of each other and you stay up all night, ahem, talking, we weren’t dreaming of making millions and spending our days easting oysters and drinking champers on a yacht in the Med somewhere (though come to mention it that doesn’t sound half bad). Instead we dreamed about what our house would look like, how many kids we would have, what we’d call them and would they have his big brown eyes and my brains or, God forbid, his fuzzy hair and my dimply chin?

Falling in love, getting married, settling down in the dream home then trying for a baby or three, that was our dream and now here were are, living it.

At 7.30m a rainy Monday morning in November, wrestling school shoes, hats and gloves on to what can only be described as a couple of octopus on speed after a weekend of kids parties, projectile vomiting and 3am wake up calls to shouts of “Mummy, Mummy I need a wee”, it can be hard be hard to remember that you are, in fact, living the dream.

But then you have those moments, you know, when you step back and watch, snap a picture or two of them riding their new bike, swimming, blowing out the candles on their birthday cake. And wham! It hits you square in the face, these are the days, and you better enjoy them while they last because the days may be long but they years are very short.

Clare x

Clare Locker

Mama to two boys, wife, teacher. Juggling the chaos, fuelled by coffee. Twitter: @chaos_coffee Insta: chaoscoffee

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