Happy Talk

Today we discovered that Plum can say more words than we thought! Clearly (to us, anyhow) she has said, 'Raggles', 'Rosie' (she has a toy of each bought for her for her first birthday by her brothers,) she has said, 'ball,' 'ipad,' 'nappy poo,' and  'hair.' I suspect to the untrained ear that none of these are articulated well enough but that's the way it goes.

We have had a couple of days with daddy in tow and more planned next week. Wednesday took us to our friend's house and a walk in their nearby woods. The smalls, six in total, swapped minecraft tips and played cars and lego and collected large sticks on the walk. Mummy followed this by going to the monthly home ed grown-ups rejuvenating evening, which lived up to it's name and included therapeutic mulled wine and discussions ranging from onsies to recent unschooling articles in the press.

Thursday is traditionally gymnastics day but has been a waning event in recent weeks and the boys choose to go swimming instead (a possibility with daddy around) and we spent over an hour with the pool to ourselves. Both the boys can touch the bottom in the deepest part which has contributed to an increase in confidence and Plum was a brave little girl boldly walking into ever deeper waters (closely follwed by mummy.) 
We followed this with a trip to the dentist, a family excursion. Bean had already said that he didn't want to go, which was fine but he still had to tag along as both mummy and daddy had a check-up booked. The boys both came into the surgery with mummy and Pumpkin went and sat straight onto the dentist chair. It was daddy who later pointed out that Pumpkin really enjoys brushing his teeth and always shows them off and asks if they are shiny. Mummy went next and then Bean went and sat on the dentist chair too. He paused for a moment and asked if he could sit on my lap (which he did) and then had his teeth checked. I suspect a combination of watching two people go before him and the dentist engaging with him (easily done when Bean has clearly lost three teeth.) 

Today has been an at home day with a late outing to Boys Brigade for their Christmas party. Bean went with his pj's on under his clothes as he didn't want to stay, just collect the craft items from previous weeks. Pumpkin joined in and i took Bean and Plum into a side room, Plum soon disappeared and went and joined Pumpkin. After about 15 minutes Bean went and joined in too. The rest of the day has been minecraft and Christmas gift making. Plum enjoying sensory play, working on rush hour with Bean and teaching him quarto (which he won!) and baking banana muffins.