What a difference a day makes

Friday 13th, Saturday 14th and Sunday 15th July

I don't often bundle days together on the blog but these last few days have been different. This weekend saw the annual anniversary weekend away for daddy and me. It began with grandma and pops meeting me, Bean, Pumpkin and Plum at Amberley Museum. This is the third time we have been in the last month and therefore reclaiming our membership fee already. Grandma and pops haven't been before but we knew they would love it! As always, having the extra pair (or two) of hands helped even with only practicalities like toilet trips and supervision whilst feeding Plum. 

Highlights of today's trip included a bus and train ride both on vehicles we haven't ridden before. Watching the wood turner as he polished his latest creation (some mice) and pops finding some wild orchids and a ringlet butterfly.

The boys went home to our house with grandma and pops and I took Plum to meet daddy from work and travel to grandma and pop's house for the weekend.

Saturday consisted of us lazily milling around the house, a trip to the supermarket and baking. We made the most wonderful looking chocolate cake I have ever made as a thank you/ birthday cake for my parents. This sadly meant that we only got to look at it. I hope it taste as good as it looked. We also baked a white chocolate and almond cheesecake... delicious. 


Plum enjoyed her brother free time and slept for an amazing 2 1/2 hours in the afternoon. This was then followed by a early evening nap and then up with mummy and daddy to share our 'dinner and a movie' night. Completely out of her own rhythm, she didn't go to bed until 10.30pm. 

Sunday we ventured out into the world a little further and after lazily milling around the house in the morning we went to find somewhere to eat. We had lunch out and then a wet boggy stroll in the New Forest. Our journey home saw us picking up daddy's bike from work and Plum having lots of cuddles with grandma and pops. The boys were already in bed. Plum then decided that she rather liked our company and stayed happily awake until 10.15 tonight. 

Bean and Pumpkin have spent the weekend enjoying Southwater Country Park and Warnham Nature Reserve (where Bean spotted a newt by himself.)

I am glad to be home and be with my family again but I am very glad we went away and did nothing! Pops sounded a bit disappointed that we had spent Saturday doing nothing but it was the bestest bestest for us. The running around, busy, busy, busy is great and completely what Bean and Pumpkin need but it is good to stop and for me and daddy just to have 5 minutes. It felt like a weeks holiday. 

Pump it up!

Arundel Museum is a boys' heaven. Lots of people in sheds (mostly men) following time old pursuits and hobbies. Today we saw the blacksmith, wood turner, wood whittlers, print workshop, train enthusiasts fixing the brakes, a bus, and a trailer pulled by a machine that looked and sounded like it belonged in the film 'one of our dinosaurs is missing.' 

The museum also has historic artefacts and machines galore. Everytime we go we find something new and you could probably go a hundred times and still not have seen all of it (or learnt it all or understand it all.)

Today we kept coming across different water pumps: hand pumps, wind pumps, electric pumps, machine pumps. It seemed that every time Bean asked me 'what's this?' It was another pump! The hand pumps in the picture below actually worked and the boys spent the whole time I was breast feeding Plum pumping water.

The whole museum is set out over quite a large space, brilliant for a run around or walk along. We took the train to the far end of the museum grounds and then walked back. We played around with the telephone exchange a little and managed to coordinate Pumpkin calling the exchange where Bean answered. It really is quite complicated!


In another exhibition we saw three electricity displays behind a screen in a room. I'll be honest, I didn't really understand what the volunteer was saying but he used a lot of technical words and large numbers and there was a lot of sparks (I mean 4 ft long sparks) and some white flame and cracking and banging. Definitely ticked an awe and wonder box.

Plum is becoming more and more interested in food. Watching our every move, beginning to grab things and put them in her mouth. Crying when we sit at the table to eat and she thinks she's been left behind (not true) and being very happy when she comes to join us. She's beginning to be able to hold herself up sitting too. All moving towards the introduction of solid foods. We first heard about 'baby led-weaning' (not sure about the title myself but let's focus on the process) when coming to the weaning stage with Bean. It's something we embarked on very happily and successfully with both Bean and Pumpkin and now our journey continues with Plum. I have had to refresh myself a little just to make sure I don't miss something obvious. The basic idea is that babies eat whenever you eat and whatever you are eating, not puréed or chopped or mushed anymore than you would do for yourself (i.e.soup is generally whizzed and porridge is what ever consistency you enjoy your porridge.) They have the control. They feed themselves. I'll be honest (again! Second time in this post!) we do tend to eat more chip shaped food during the initial stages as babies find it easier to hold a stick shaped item (see cucumber above.) 
Found this on someone else's blog along with a few other bits that I might re-post.

Some of the great things I love about the concept behind BLW are that:

• There is no additional cooking needed, i.e. no separate meals
• Babies are involved in the experience from the start
• As there is no force-feeding occurring, eating doesn’t have a negative connotation (so no here comes a train, open the tunnel, the aeroplane wants to land!)
• They can eat till they are full and then stop.
• We can eat as a family together. No separate mealtimes required (according to Sue Palmer in her book Toxic Childhood what the modern world is doing to your children and what you can do about it, all children in a merit class she was involved in, without exception, had one thing in common they all had dedicated family meal times at the dinner table).
• BLW babies are more adventurous eaters as they’ve learned to explore new textures and flavours. 

A few other bonuses of BLW mentioned that I had not thought about before are:

• Long term health. If a baby is breastfed and BLW, they still have breast milk for much longer than a baby weaned on to purees (as they are fuller and require less milk)
• No stressful meal times
• Fewer food phobias etc
• Less need for games or tricks
• Eating out is easier as baby can eat something off your plate, making it also…
• Cheaper

The only downside to BLW is the mess. And boy, can it be messy.

The Runaway Train (and other steam powered vehicles)

Saturday 9th June


A slightly unusual day today as daddy and I went our separate ways and split the children between us. I went off to spend the day with our church family, taking Bean and Plum with me and daddy headed off with Pumpkin.


I mostly spent the day with the adults from our church family and Bean headed off to the children's group. It was one large group today with Bean being the youngest member up to the 16 year old girls. He settled into the group very quickly (obviously knowing all the others from church) and was keen for me to leave him there. I think I was probably more nervous than he was. The great thing about a group like this is that it is not age defined (one older boy waited when the group went off so that he could take Bean with him,) there is the freedom to join in with what you want to and not participate in the things you don't want to (unlike school) and that if he had wanted he could have left the group completely and come and found me (that's more than one thing, isn't it?)


I did go swimming with him however in the lovely outdoor pool. Plum had just fed so she sat pool side wrapped up in someone's fleece in the arms of friends being blown by the cold breeze whilst Bean and I played around the shallow end (about 1m deep.) He was really very confident and loved the time we had in the pool.

Pumpkin spent the day with daddy, requesting a swim too when he saw me packing our swim things and after spending over an our at the Pavilions, jumped on a train down to Amberley Museum to enjoy the steam day. Which, according to daddy, he enjoyed very much.