Home again, home again

I had some unexpected time with just the boys this morning. First Pumpkin disappeared so that he could indulge in his recent love of puzzles. Bean wanted to know how to write blue tit, millipede, beetle grub and heron. Did you know that it is impossible to separate reading, writing. And speech development, that one greatly impacts and draws on the other? It is so pleasing to have the freedoms to let them develop naturally together but even more astonishing than that I had an ingenious idea (doesn't happen that often) So, here it is: we have had to remove the magnetic letters from the fridge since Plum is now on the move and they have been sat in a tub for w few days now. Today I put them in an old metal biscuit tin and we picked out the sounds and letters we needed to make the words and put the onto the lid. Bean now has his own tin of words and letters to play with. Genius (well, I thought so and it works for us.)

This was followed by Bean wanting to write the words out so I left him to it and went to find Pumpkin who let me help him with his puzzles. We did one of them three times.

I woke Plum at 12noon so that we could go to the farm shop. She had slept since 9pm last night with one milk feed at 8.30am when she promptly went back to sleep. The lady in the farm shop is kindly fitting in with the drill now and knows that the boys always have something to pay for and tells them how much and gives them their change and their receipt. I really appreciate it when other adults engage with the smalls in this way, it is too rare a thing.

Lunch was followed by Bean drawing a picture and requesting to send to it to some relatives who we rarely see. We posted it on the way to the playground. The boys both rode their bikes but it proved to be too much for Bean who spent the whole time yelling at his brother and using him like a punch bag. It had been Pumpkin's request to go out and I was glad of it on such a lovely day and having been at home for so many days in a row but I had to call an end to it even though Pumpkin insisted it was okay, it wasn't.

Rest is seriously under rated these days. The smalls are far more in tune with when they need to slow down or maybe it's just that they listen instead of dosing up on meds and carrying on. Bean is still suffering with his cold and the journeying out wore him out entirely. Plum continues to suffer with her cold too and it probably explains her need to sleep so much (not that I'm complaining, 2 nights in a row with 8 hours sleep for me. That's only 2 out of three since she arrived and doesn't include the sleepless pregnancy nights!) I'm still in the position of trying to balance this out with Pumpkin's need to excercise and go for a ride.

Needless to say the remainder of the smalls day consisted of Plum sleeping in the sling whilst I did chores and dinner and the boys watching iplayer. Post dinner was board games and bath before both boys headed to bed about 8 and Plum cuddling all evening before going to sleep about 9.30.