Change change change

Wednesday 17th April 2013

Today's adventures were planned to be at home, although we had been invited to join friends out we had declined at the last minute as Bean continues to feel run down...but then...an hour after we were to meet friends Bean says, was that today? Can we go now? And as it was, and we could, we did! And from there on in the shape of our whole day changed. We followed a play with several home ed families at the sand/ chalk pit in Rackham with a play at friend's house and then home late afternoon.

Pumpkin had a nap on the way home, as did Plum but Bean kept going until 7pm when he took himself to bed absolutely exhausted. Definately an at home day tomorrow.

Our play in Rackham saw Bean becoming ever more confident with his climbing and Pumpkin starting to challenge himself a little and loving being at the top and just contemplating. We also built several sand castles together and had a game of hide and seek.

I love ewe

Friday 19th April 2013

I had this grand plan today that involved me finding time to prepare something special for this evening to celebrate mummy and daddy's 10th wedding anniversary. I really must learn to either a) be more organised or b) not put so much pressure n myself. By the time time daddy announced that he was planning on arriving home an hour earlier than usual, I had to ask him to go and buy most of the goodies for the evening meal that I had planned! I had also taken the smalls out for the day and we had an excellent time but I had forgotten to calculate in the guaranteed  sleep that Pumpkin would have as we drove home, in turn guaranteeing that our romantic meal for two would have at least a plus one. Fortunately his choice of activity for the evening was to watch some iplayer so he sat solo in the living room whilst mummy and daddy had a late candle lit dinner (with the occasional interruption)

Today's adventures had taken us to Gaston Farm. I think we went three times last year and pumpkin immediately remembered that he had 'fiddled with the car' and it had broken down! Pumpkin jumped straight in with the animal handling and had a cuddle with two chicks of different ages (and sizes) and an enormous duck! Bean slightly more hesitant but after pumpkin had held all three animals bean was ready to hold a small chick.

This was followed by our first tractor ride and another mother offered to take our photo for me. It's the first time anyone has done this, and I've not thought to ask, it was so nice to have a photo of the four of us and I might think of doing it more often. The boys played on the stationary tractor and we went to have a look at the expecting ewes (no action) and pumpkin went to hold a lamb. This triggered a whole number of questions about sheep's wool and the difference between wool and fleece and my favourite was Pumpkin announcing that lambs are made of wool. They are very soft to touch though.

We picnicked and then did the whole thing again. This included pumpkin handling the animals again and as it was quiet I got to have a go too. And then when we had finished Bean was ready for his turn.

When we went to visit the ewes the second time we saw twins being born and we truly covered the birthing section of any sex ed curriculum. The questions came thick and fast. Bean was particularly concerned about the amount of time it was taking (about 10minutes as the shepherdess was helping out because the first lamb was large and the ewes pelvis was small, so quicker than a completely natural birth) they can take up to one and half hours, so I told Bean that he took a whole day and a whole night. This impressed him. The questions from the boys included, what's that? (Numerous times, to different things) how do they get out? What's she doing? Why is the ewe eating it? Why are the lambs covered in stuff? Was I covered in stuff too? What's that sack? What's it for? And many more.

And after all this we went to play in the village play area. It's a beautiful village with lovely views. We waved to daddy at work only 8 miles away and grandma and pops on the other side of Portsmouth, well, okay, we couldn't see any further than Portsmouth and they are a fair bit further than that but it was fun and we could see the IOW. We also watched the rain fall from a rain cloud far away and spent time on and off all day finding shapes in the clouds.

It really was a great day out.

Common blue

Saturday 20th April 2013

Today's adventures took us to see our best man and his family for the day. We see them maybe two or three times a year but this didn't hinder the smalls all playing along together like they see each other every day. Our best man's daughters are both a little older than our boys but it makes no difference and they spent the whole day moving between one game and the next. They had a till and food out, a tent, tricycle, guess who, chess, elefun (he really was a fun elephant!), they played 'it' all the way to the park and then hide and seek, climbing, see saw, general park running around and climbing. There was not one cross word from any of them all day.

The mummies took the smalls to the park whilst the daddy's stayed at home, rested and had a catch up together. We found a butterfly on the path on the way to the park and we all stopped to look at it. Pumpkin stopped longer than the rest and made me take a photo of it so that we could look and see if we could find it on our butterfly spotters poster. He also made me move it under the shade of a tree so it would be safe and we had quite the discussion about whether it had gone to heaven.

Bean was disappointed to see that we hadn't sold anything again today. But he has new plans afoot! He managed to stay awake on the journey home and watched a little before taking himself to bed. Both pumpkin and plum fell asleep in the car but it took a while to settle plum when we arrived home. She wasn't awake but she was very unsettled and was refusing cuddles and milk for a while. She eventually took the milk, calmed and slept.

Run run run

Church day today

but before we mention that...fa1 and fa2 both took part in the marathon today. well worth a sentence in the blog i think. how proud of them are we? fit to bursting :)

We on, on the other hand woke up at 8.30 to the delightful smiles of Plum and found only Bean was up and out of bed. It was a quick breakfast and washed and dressed so that we could be a church for 10.30am. Again, church saw us separate as a family going to be with different groups but all happily under one roof with our church family. Bean and mummy both learnt about trusting God in their respective classes, daddy completed his study on Revelation and Pumpkin continued the story of Abraham and made a mini tent.

We had a BBQ at ours with a few friends and some extra smalls. It was a great afternoon. The boys played bows and arrows and swords and one of their friends made arrows from short bamboo canes and a target from cardboard and some paints and string to tie it to a tree stump. We all played a mixed game of hide and seek and tag that Bean made up. And we ate a lot of food.

Pumpkin went indoors at one point and played with the entire contents of Plum's toy box but mostly we were all enjoying the garden. Except for Plum who slept for over two hours. Rather unusually but probably due to the fact that she woke twice last night which is also becoming a rarity.

Dirt Girl

At some point today Bean tried to explain to Pumpkin why the tall tower today was in fact not as tall as the clouds. Bean said it was to do with *enter mysterious and made up word that I wish I could remember* but followed this with a perfect explanation of perspective complete with a demonstration on how when you move to a new place and look from a different angle, what you see is also different. It was a great moment to watch.

We spent three hours in the garden this morning. Plum crawls around on the patio but will not crawl onto the grass. I planted 3 tubs for lettuce and a row of flower seeds and radish, carrots, beet root, swede, and peas. Pumpkin suggested that we make a scarecrow so we gathered our resources and made a very pleasing scarecrow that flutters very satisfactorily in the breeze. Bean helped too and then followed this by wanting to make an obstacle course which we all had to do, although it was rather built for small children so we had great amusement at mummy trying to fit under, over and through some of the obstacles.

Bean is still not feeling great so the afternoon was spent in a more relaxed fashion indoors, except for Plum! The great thing about having nice weather is even if we are not outside the doors can all be open and Plum took advantage of this and spent at least an hour of the afternoon sat in the back step playing with a knights hat that would not stay on her head. She had had an hour and half sleep at lunch time and was in great spirits all afternoon. The longer sleep definately made a huge difference to her temperament.

Bean requested something chocolate to eat mid afternoon but I didn't have anything. I suggested that he made cakes and he took me up on the offer. We upped that anti this time and made icing to go on the top of them too so by the time that dinner was done so were the cakes (there are a few left!)

The boys are really into watching Octonaughts at the moment. They watch the same episodes endlessly. But as we were eating this evening they sat and recounted fact after fact after fact about sea creatures, some of which I've never heard of. It got me thinking about how we could maybe delve into this a bit more...watch this space.

And finally, due to a little illness for Bean, a later night than usual and an early morning for Pumpkin, and one long midday sleep for Plum, all the smalls were in bed and sleeping by 8pm tonight.

A new dawn

No photos today!

Today's adventures saw us returning to the children and family centre on our doorstep. We haven't been there since last July, that's nine months ago. We drive past it several times a week and last week Bean asked if we could go back and see the staff and say hello. So, today, as we were up and alert in time to go when it was officially open, we went. It was strange doing the walk there again so long, especially as the boys followed exactly the same routine as they used to all those months ago, taking the same detours and hiding in the same places. Intriguing.

Bean was being contrary this morning. First he asked to scoot to gymnastics and then decided that he was too tired and could we go in the car. When it came to leave in the car he wanted to scoot. Fortunately he is quite easy to reason with if you explain things in a way he can grasp so we went in the car. then when we arrived he decided that he was too tired to do gymnastics. After so many weeks absence dur to his sickness he now has a horrible cough and cold and was not feeling up to a session. We stayed and watched just in case he changed his mind but as the day has progressed he has decided that he doesn't want to do gymnastics any more.

We joined several home ed families in the park for the early part of the afternoon and Pumpkin enjoyed playing with Bean and began to play with a boy who we have met several times over the past year. I'm secretly hoping that this friendship will develop over the summer. It was only a small moment today but a pleasing one. We also spent some time on the swings, mummy, Bean and Pumpkin. And pumpkin went on the zip wire on his own and was so bouncingly proud, it was great to see. Bean was keen to come home and Pumpkin was obliging, although it took him a while to move in the right direction but it worked out well.

The rest of the afternoon was mostly watching tv until we ate dinner together, daddy too, and went and played rugby and skittles in the garden and Pumpkin helped me to move our seedlings into the greenhouse. Pumpkin's sunflower has germinated (phew!) and so have mummy's sweet corn and broad beans. Tomorrow we have an at home, garden play, planting day planned.

Plum has been out of sorts again. She seems happy when she is eating, which she does a lot of, nibbling really, but seems very tired in the afternoons even though she has had a sleep, it doesn't  quite seem enough but she won't go back to sleep! She finally gave in whilst I was cooking the dinner (in the sling) but it was a long afternoon of trying to calm her.

Plum has gone to bed now, with daddy, who often falls asleep as he is cuddling her. Pumpkin is asleep on the sofa, too heavy for me to carry upstairs so he is awaiting daddy too and Bean is watching Mr.Men stories. Mr.Men is a theme in our house at the moment as we have also borrowed the new stories from friends. I wonder what Mr.Men they would invent?

Dormez vous

Saturday 13th April

Today's adventures have been a stay indoors, it's raining, let's make an annual tradition of making cheesecake and watching films to celebrate our anniversay...at least until we have recovered from the general lack of sleep that small children bring with them, then we will return to our former city gallivanting, sight seeing and cultural encounters. But for now, we're happy for the rest, the relaxation and being together.

Sleep is a major topic at the moment. Margaret Thatcher famously only sleet for four hours at a time, something which daddy often does but i can't even imagine! I spent a lot of my life being told when to get up (and shouted at because I wasn't getting up and I was going to be late), a lot of times being told it was silly to sleep in the day and just to go to bed early and hearing of and reading research that says eight hours is the correct number of hours sleep and always feeling tired! It wasn't until I first went to Uganda and we stayed with some friend's of daddy's that I realised it was okay to sleep when your tired. The lady we were staying with excused herself in the middle of the afternoon because she was tired and was going to take a nap. This was revolutionary to me. It was what I had dreamt of for years but had been denied and here was a woman confidently doing just that! I don't know if this was when i started my journey to finding my own sleep happiness or whether this was the point that i started to feel okay about it but things did change from here on. 

The next biggest realisation for me was getting married. Daddy has completely different sleep rhythms to me and it took us a long time to adjust to each others sleeping habits as they are so completely different. There are nights when I can go to bed solo and wake up in the morning solo and have no idea whether or when daddy did sleep. So, i got to a point in my life where i could recognise and be happy with the idea that i needed more sleep than *average* and then we started having a family. Babies don't care how much sleep you want or in when you want it! But it's working out okay and i don't sleep as much as i would like but it's okay because if i need to and i can then i do, without hesitation or guilt.

And our children, they choose their own sleep patterns. And they are all different. Plum has struggled today. Sometimes it's the change of venue or situation, sometimes it's the transfering from car to sling or buggy or bed, today i don't know why but she hasn't settled despite being obviously tired. Generally she will have either two  x one hour naps, one in the morning and one in the afternoon or she will have one sleep mid afternoon maybe one or two hours and then settles down for the night between 8.30 and 9.30pm but this is not written in stone! 

Bean tends to rise between 6-7am and rarely takes a daytime nap. He will go to sleep about 8.30pm sometimes 9pm depending on what we're doing in the evening.

Pumpkin gets up more often than not with his brother between 6 and 7am but i suspect he would like to sleep longer. He can stay awake all day but will often zone out in the afternoon for a while or fall asleep on the sof or in the car and then go to bed between 9 and 11pm. He is a much more even tempered boy when he does this. If he stays awake all day he will sleep from about 8pm. 

For today daddy and I will probably rest without sleeping but enjoy the down time :)

Legomania, the return

Friday 12th April

26 photos to log today's adventure. A return trip to Legomania at the Living History Museum in Basingstoke.  A long car journey for us but one filled with innumerable questions and conversations, music and stories both

 there and back again. And this time a small diversion as we took a wrong turn on the way there, thank God for smart phones. I'm going to talk through the photos today and try my best to remember a great day out.

First photo is Tower Bridge made from lego, as most things are in this photo account. I make a point of saying it is Tower  Bridge as the man next to me was telling his kid that it was London Bridge. Now i know that I don't know everything in the world but when your standing next to something and your telling your children that it is one thing and another adult is telling their child it is another and they are within ear shot you find yourself a) questioning your knowledge and b) having to justify what you are telling your own smalls. I had to double check with daddy when we arrived home as it really threw me!

The second photo is Bean standing next to the displayed photo of his competition entry Fire engine. He was feeling very happy and a little surprised to see something he had made up on the wall. I guess it's still a little abstract how an emailed photo appears somewhere else.

My personal favourite of all the lego models were from the Lord of the Rings set and I'm secretly harbouring a desire to own the hobbit house!

And below, the reason for the return journey, to see the model truck, that when we first went was only two wheels. They had had a small mishap with the steering wheel section but we wouldn't have known this unless a museum official had told us, it just looked like they were finishing the last section. In fact, a child had explored the truck a little too closely and accidentally broke this section. I'm glad we had seen it nearer the beginning of the project as it was quite difficult to tell that it was in fact made from lego and with the absence of the craftsman it attracted less interest. 

The museum was decidedly busier than our previous visit, due to the fact that it was the Easter holidays. We had pre booked which helped with a quicker and guaranteed entrance and inside the crowd disperserd considerable but not entirely and I was struggling to keep tabs on Pumpkin. Amongst other things we stopped to take this photo of him just in case we found ourselves parted and we had to call on assisstance to help locate each other. He has a wonderful, and inherited, habit of stopping when something catches his eye, without warning or announcement or changing direction to satisfy his curiosity of what is around the corner! We didn't lose each other but I must have said numerous times, 'where's Pumpkin?'

We took a matching photo of Bean to match.

Bean took this photo of the inside of Westminster Abbey. I love the mini figures in the crowd. No ordinary attendees here, aliens, witches, wizards, builders, spacemen and deep sea divers, to name but a few add character and a little quirkiness to the exhibit.

The Star Wars models, again, took most of our time and attention. Lots of questions about different scenes and characters and close observations of details in each exhibit. The rotating Death Star taking most of our time and repeat looks.  

Our friends posted photo on FB today of them standing next to a space shuttle, so I couldn't resist taking this photo as we saw a space shuttle of our own (not quite the same but as good as it gets for now) We had missed this section on our previous visit and really only knew it was here because of other blog posts we have read. It did mean that we had additional reasons to return and gave us something new to look at which brought something new to the day. We also found these table top lego activities, some of which the boys did with enthusiasm and others they left.

We had also missed the olympic stadium before and Bean was really impressed with it. He managed to locate the podium and identify the sport being presented for and loved identifying the other sports on the field, although he was a little put out that they had included a skateboarder! He also liked the detail on the back of the stadium as they had included the steps to the seating, 'just like we walked up.'

Pumpkin was far more taken with the other things that the museum had to offer, hence the wandering. This bus actually allowed you on and the boys explored the interior for some time. In the picture below, we found Pumpkin sitting on the curb pondering the need for road work barriers as, 'you could still walk over those bricks. it would only be a little bit bumpy.'

The lego building section saw us returning to the pyramid building theme that had begun on our previous trip. Both boys built a pyramid and Pumpkin filled his with treasure. The board below shows a house that Pumpkin built, flat onto the board and a house that Bean began to build 3d. 

Pumpkin moved to his own duplo table as soon as one became available and built this river and bridge. Again, a repeat theme from our previous visit and not one that has been replicated at home.

Bean's two story house.

And finally, just before we left, a trip down the arcade aisle. There was a lot more happening here this time as the volume of people meant more games were in use. There was a definate divid in the things that interested the smalls. Pumpkin was drawn to the electronic shows and mechanical puppetry where as Bean was trying to work out how to play the games.

We shot home to be met by grandma and Pops who have come to stay with the boys for the weekend as mummy and daddy ( and Plum) go to a wonderful little house we know to spend the weekend in their annual celebration of their wedding anniversary. There have been, in the past 24 hours, protests from both the boys about us going but as soon as they saw Grandma and Pops and the Easter eggs and the box of Coco pops and the promises of adventures for the weekend, all such objections were gone and they both said goodbye very happily. So I left them settled and happy and headed off with Plum to pick daddy up from work.

Knit one

Today's adventures saw us going to play with friends. This is the first friend meet that we have had in a while (because of the three weeks sickness) and Pumpkin continues to be in the @home mood and was reluctant to go. He loved it once we got there! The smalls all had a great time and it was so good to be in the land of the living again! I'm not even entirely sure what they did play but it seemed to move seamlessly from one thing to another, indoors, outdoors, upstairs, downstairs. There was definitely some mud pie creations which bean stood about six foot back from but Pumpkin was splattered in mud and showed me his mud trap.

Plum got tired whilst we  were there and attempted a sleep about 12 noon but got woken, she then slept on the way home and then woke up again when we arrived. After something to eat she curled up again on my lap an was woken after 10 minutes as the boiler engineer arrived. i then put her in the sling and she fell asleep again. She stayed asleep as i put her onto the bed where she slept for two hours finally waking at 5.30 pm. After a milk feed and some dinner and some play outdoor she started getting tired again and was a little warm to the touch. She went to sleep again about 8pm and i'm praying she's not sickening too badly for something.

Pumpkin also feel asleep on the way home but he stayed asleep for about two hours. bean spent the time watching iplayer and doing a bit of crafting from a kit he found in our doodle draws and setting up a kitchen in the garden where he made his own mud pies and wanted to know what would happen if he cooked them. so, there are currently mud pies in the oven overnight! (Bean's idea) it's using the remaining  heat from dinner to slow cook...a bit like a meringue.

When Pumpkin woke up he went and joined Bean and they sat on the top of the slide together bird watching using their binoculars. very sweet to watch.

And we are ending our day with Pumpkin watching Cars (again) whilst daddy and mummy are getting things ready for a big day out tomorrow and a weekend away...just mummy and daddy (and Plum) I'm tired and will probably be going to bed before Pumpkin.

Sparkle and shine

Today's adventures were full of sparkle. Having returned from FA#1's house yesterday with a few goodies the boys were straight into cog building this morning. Breakfast was quickly followed by a pirate walking the plank game which Pumpkin loved and a pirate puzzle that Pumpkin insisted he wanted to do on his own even though it frustrated him in places and took him over half an hour. 

We have also been tending our sunflower seedlings and mummy tended her seeds too although I didn't get into the garden to plant more as planned but never mind. 

This afternoon's sparkle was brought to us by the craft delivery and we got stuck straight into the hamma beads. These are a new venture for us but having read how popular they are with friends of ours we thought we'd like to try them. Pumpkin and I copied a picture to make the truck and Bean made the sunflower complete with red stem and black roots. After dinner Bean went on to make a fire truck with ladder, he used the truck design to start him off and them altered it to make it look like a fire engine.

Bean also helped prepare dinner tonight by peeling the carrots. He is getting quite excited by the idea of preparing food and is very pleased with himself. 

The boys stayed in their pj's all day today but as the clothes we wear don't hinder or enhance our learning we don't fuss about it!

At home days are becoming much more relaxed somehow and easy to manage (although I wouldn't want to do it every day) It is interesting to me how we have grown and evolved into a much calmer state. much better all round.