Hello friends, happy Sunday! Welcome to our Monthly Musings: October 2026 post —I hope it finds you well. I am stopping by for the briefest of moments with a very condensed post for the month, because if I don’t share this now I fear the whole month will get away from me! How are you? Did you have a lovely September? I am flabbergasted that we are into October already(?!), but also thrilled because I love this time of year! The slight chill in the air, the crispy orange leaves, the cosy oversized jumpers, and the hankering to add more cinnamon to everything. Isn’t it just the best?
Let’s get into it, shall we? I’m writing this on borrowed time as Bean is taking a slightly longer nap than usual… but more on that, along with our usual ramblings, listed below. All the usual suspects are there — baby update, travel talk, movie + book chatter, etc. —, just a little on the lighter side.
Enjoy!
monthly musings: october 2026
On the baby bulletin: I have so much to say here that I don’t even know where to start! Yesterday, two days ahead of her actual birthday (more on this below!), we had a little birthday party for Bean with our immediate families and besties. The house was all done up, everyone was arriving — and suddenly Bean’s temperature went up to 39.3°C, so we had to drop everything and head into the emergency room. It came on so fast and so out of the blue; one second she was fine, the next she was burning up and cuddling into my chest with her eyes closed, whimpering. It was terrifying, but thankfully the CHI team at Tallaght really looked after us and we were back home just in time for Bean’s normal bedtime. Apparently it’s some sort of viral infection, so all we can do is wait it out, give plenty of fluids, and make sure she gets lots of rest. Grateful it wasn’t anything more serious!
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Related: I cannot believe that Bean missed her first ever birthday party. I mean, obvz, there was nothing we could’ve done about the situation — but it was so sad!! Husband and I spent hours hanging up decorations the night before, and literally about 10-minutes after most people arrived, we were on the phone to the doctor getting the advice to head to the ER. I poured my heart and soul into making so many cute crafty DIYs and it breaks my heart that I wasn’t there to chat to people about them! Everyone did stay after we left though, enjoying the food and taking some photographic evidence, but it bums me out so bad that Bean couldn’t enjoy it 💔
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Also related: Bean is turning one tomorrow! I can’t believe we’ll have a little one year old on our hands! This whole year has flown by so fast and, other than yesterday, it has mostly gone off without any hiccups! I’m still in shock that we’ve known Bean for a full 365-days! She has grown into the most lovely little toddler-to-be: she’s very chatty, loves to sing the opening line of Baa Baa Black Sheep, is the ultimate nosy parker, a cheddar cheese afficionado, an 11-hour through-the-night sleeper, and, generally speaking, a pretty chill little lady. We all have our moments, but for the most part, she has made this parenting thing pretty dang lovely ❤️
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Okay, one last related thought: as sad as it was that we missed the party, I am so! glad! that it didn’t happen on her actual birthday. We were always planning to have a special family day, but now I am determined to make it even more so because of yesterday. We will be donning the special birthday outfit — that was whipped off after 10-minutes in an effort to cool her down —, wearing our birthday crown, and plan to hit up the local aquarium for some fishy fun! Please cross your fingers and toes that our day goes off without a hitch tomorrow!
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In travel news: we went to Nantes last month! We had some issues with Bean settling down for daytime naps and the exhausted hysterical baby this issue created, but, by and large, the trip went mostly well. We had some good food, did a lot of easy tourist-ing — Le Grand Éléphant being a particular highlight —, and, although we enjoyed the break from our home reality, neither of us really connected with the city? We just didn’t vibe with it in the same way we do other French cities, but it’s always nice to explore a new place regardless. Have you visited Nantes before?
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In case you missed it, a recap of our foodie day in town hit the blog last month: A Saturday in Dublin, Ireland. The post details everywhere Husband and I stopped on our mini food-crawl across the city back in July, and even just looking through the photos makes me hungry! I hope you love it, friends.
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According to my StoryGraph, I shockingly didn’t finish one single book last month! After my foray into the Off-Campus series, I took a hard left turn and started reading Lena Dunham’s memoir, Famesick. I’m not usually a memoir reader, and as I’m coming to the end of this one, I think I’ll stick to fiction from here on out. How is your autumnal reading going?
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Have you seen anything great recently? Movie-wise, our most fun new-to-us viewings were Rebuilding, Over Your Dead Body, and The Love Hypothesis — although none of them lit our world on fire. Fun rewatches include One Hour Photo, Labour Day, Gothika, and The Mule, all of which were so fun! TV-wise, I think the only new series we watched was Crew Girl? It was cheese-tastic & generally not great, but watchable all the same. To follow along with our movie watching in real-time on Letterboxd, click here.
Okay, that’s all I have time for! I’ll be back next week with a full post about every single detail from Bean’s first birthday party — I can’t wait for you to see it; it’s so cute!
My love to you,
Vicki xo
PS: photo of me + Bean taken by Husband in Passage Pommeraye, Nantes!
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