Them Bones

13th March 2013

In preparation for today's puppet show, Bean drew posters to advertise it. He did all the writing on his own (it's spelt perfectly) and, much to my surprise, he choose to do a type of bubble writing on the poster. He explained that this was to make it big so people could read it when he put it up. I did the other one as we sat next to each other, it was a lovely thing to do together. 

The theatre also underwent a transformation today as Bean drew curtains and we then painted them together. He then asked me to cut them out for him. Bean and Pumpkin played out in the garden whilst I did this. They knocked a ball into our neighbours garden and asked if they could go and ask for it back. I agreed to the request, although I did follow behind them at a distance, but they were so confident and knocking on their door and asking. I'm so glad we have friendly neighbours who we speak to often.

During some tv watching today the subject of bones came up again and i found this toddler sized skeletal print out that i had up my sleeve for yesterday (but hadn't needed) so I got it out today and we put it together and talked about our different bones and felt some of them and named some of them. It took about 15 minutes altogether but i'm sure we covered more in 15 minutes than a whole afternoons work in school! We had a lot of fun doing it too and i'm sure it wont be the last we hear of our bones!

FA#3 and cousinC arrived soon after this and we are were treated to the puppet show when daddy arrived home. This is the first ever show that has been put on for us. I have memories as a child putting on dance shows and puppet shows for my parents and i'm sure this wont be our last one. It mostly consisted of Bean telling Pumpkin to 'say something' and then promptly beating Pumpkin's puppet in a Punch and Judy style way. It was a play in 5 acts and although the characters changed, the story line didn't!

It's cold outside

Pumpkin's choice of clothing for the day (shorts) temperature outside 2 degrees.

Not many photos today as my phone was hijacked (as it is regularly) to play Temple Run2 and Angry Birds!

The weather forecast had promised cold cold cold and the snow lay on the ground this morning although it thawed to nothing as the day progressed. I had a few things up my sleeve but, as is often the way, they were not needed (if I hadn't been prepared i would have kicked myself!) 

Today's adventures began 5.45am when Bean arose! I'm so thankful that daddy get's up early as i think it would kill me! Pumpkin also got up before daddy left. Daddy (along with the gritters) seems to be the only person who has to go to work in this weather and extra early too...boo. Plum woke at 9, which is more my style!

The day progressed smoothly through Reading Eggs and de-cluttering Anna's bedroom to accommodate fa#3 and cousinC coming to stay tomorrow night. Bean produced a model of Egypt (must take a photo) which included four pyramids joined together by a wall in a square with a fifth pyramid in the middle. I found two large boxes in the clear out, which Bean has been asking for, to make a tractor with. We had a good half an hour of fun hiding in it for Plum to find him and building various style houses with them until he eventually decided that they would be a puppet theatre. He also drew a clock which informed you when the show time is. We cut out the back of the theatre and it was all set up to go but he insisted that the show had to be at the right time (3pm) so it sat and waited.

Daddy and I have been having some discussions about how we can help and manage Bean with his aggression. One of the things we discussed was food. He doesn't eat any fruit or veg atm and very little carbs (...what does he eat?) Anyhow, we thought that we should try having more of the things he does like readily available. so, today we had food out on the table all day and it worked well. He certainly ate more than usual  and there was less aggressive behaviour although it has to be seen whether this will always be the case. We also took a walk this afternoon to buy fruit and veg as we are completely out. Despite the shop only being a 15 minute round trip including purchasing, it took us one and a half hours. I have no idea what took so long! Stopping here to look at icicles, stopping there to look at the building site. Bean choose grapes and corn on the cob and french beans and apples. Pumpkin choose bananas and pears and carrots and strawberries and blueberries. Just by way of contrast, this is what Pumpkin has eaten today: cheerios; porridge, cheerios and toast; cream crackers, cheese and ham; pasta and pesto and cheese x3; a plum, strawberries, banana; chicken pie, potatoes, corn on the cob; 2 banana muffins. No problems with his food consumption!

Pumpkin and I read the same Cars book as yesterday another three times. He is really trying to sort the story line out in his head. 

And daddy came home from work a few hours early, always a welcome treat, although we missed the 3pm theatre viewing as we were out on our walk to the shops. It's been rescheduled for tomorrow.

Better is one day in Your house

Sunday 10th March 2013

Church day. Saw mummy being woken with extra kisses and cuddles and a box of maltesers as it is also Mother's day. By mid afternoon the boys were requesting I share the chocolates which were as yet unopened and I had had the crazy idea that i would save them for after the smalls were all in bed and share them with daddy (what was i thinking?!) 

Church saw us all going our separate ways again as daddy took one class, Bean went to his own class and mummy took Pumpkin's class, Plum stayed downstairs with friends and slept through the message as continues to be her only regular sleeping habit (no comment!) It actually works well for us as we all have our own contribution to the after church conversation, mostly this benefits Pumpkin as he has his own thing to say rather than tagging on the end of Bean's thoughts.

The afternoon was spent with daddy and Pumpkin going for a swim, Plum sleeping a little, Bean and me working on Reading eggs together and then he opted to watch some iplayer and I decluttered the piano top and three shelves in the conservatory (slowly slowly) Plum has also been enjoying her scuttle bug and can now get on and off it herself. Bean often pushes her around and today Pumpkin pumped up the tires for her. 

The blog is one year old today, that deserves a glass of wine, I think. This time last year I was busy introducing you to each of the smalls and their personalities and interests. I thought an update might be in order:

Bean

The good Lord gave us Bean nearly six years ago. He takes after daddy in many ways especially in the way he absorbs information, he is like a sponge and remembers every detail. He has a very strong sense of right and wrong and playing by the rules and is every much the big brother, wanting to be in control but also caring very much for his siblings. He is incredibly articulate and very good at putting together an argument in favour of his case.

He is especially interested in outerspace, castles, the body, lego, nature and being outdoors and heenjoys reading, riding his bike, going to museums and beaches and the park. Bean loves the library. He loves for us to sit and read and piles books up for us to bring home. He loves a good story and will endure adventure and thrill and excitement in a book that he would never entertain on a screen.  He loves to build things and will use any materials going. Lego is probably his best medium but any recyclable materials are likely to be eyed up for some robot or castle construction.

Pumpkin

The good Lord placed Pumpkin in our care 4 years ago. He placed him in our family to remind us always that life should always have a little fun in it. Pumpkin mostly lives in his own world and only visits the real world when he chooses, and we are not always aware when he is visiting! My family always used to say that i had selective hearing and now i understand what they meant for Pumpkin only hears when he is visiting the real world and we have yet to find the key into his world. but it must be a great place because he has a lot of fun whilst he's there! 

Pumpkin is kind and thoughtful and will do anything to make others happy, he is silly and daft and crazy. He chooses to go out when the rest of the world stays in and wear shorts and tshirt when everyone else is in thermals, he likes the world upside down and the grass between his toes, he will question the way things *should* be and try it out all other ways just to be sure which is best.

Pumpkin enjoys pirates and lego and superheros and space and anything physical and outdoors. He loves his siblings and is an affectionate boy. We have discovered his love of rollercoasters this year and belly laughing to You've Been Framed. He loves snuggling up to stories and playing music. He is also developing an interest in light and shadows. His love of food and eating continues and he joins in the baking quite frequently.

Plum

The good Lord timed the arrival of Plum one year ago (almost exactly three year after Pumpkin) She loves to say 'hello' and kisses a lot! She also enjoys drinking my tea and Pumpkin's orange juice! She enjoys having music on and moves along to it in her own way. She has her own rhythm to life which no one else can fathom but she knows when she wants to sleep and when she wants to eat and when she wants milk and can communicate these things with ease so it's straight forward enough to meet these basic needs but no two days patterns are the same!

She loves pushing the toy cars around and rolling balls, she picks up almost anything she can and pretends it's a phone, she loves her scuttle bug and has found a little selection of books that she returns to daily but mostly she loves one special kitchen cupboard which she empties daily to distribute around the ground floor of our house. 

Snow is falling

All asleep at 7.15am when daddy left this morning, five minutes just for me to drink a lovely hot cup of tea in bed mmmm...

7.30am and the day began leisurely with the boys helping to get their breakfast, which we are finding helps with the contrary Pumpkin who asks for one thing and then cries loudly when it is put infront of him because it's not what he wanted. it has been getting a little wearing but this new strategy seems to be helping. The boys then loaded up Reading Eggs and Bean asked me to help him write a story for the story writing competition and I drank a second cup of hot tea whilst they played happily together. Plum didn't wake until gone 9am. We were all ready for our days activities by 10 which was a good thing as i hadn't factored in the 15 minutes it takes to get everyone suited and booted and then the car defrosted and cleared of snow! 

Pumpkin decorated his eyes today whilst out at Little Verse
(the eye lids are coloured too)

Bean continues to enjoy his gymnastics class and it's lovely to see how he is begining to do things that he once worried about. Today he did a forward roll on the beam without falling off and jumped onto the vault with very little assistance. 

We followed Little Verse and gymnastics with a trip to the park as Pumpkin was very keen to play in the snow. It was completely absent of any other (crazy?) families and we had the whole place to ourselves. The boys chose to go to the maze and spent a very happy and excited 45 minutes running around and playing hide and seek and tiptoeing through puddles. On the way back Pumpkin wanted to check and see if the ducks were okay. They were clearly expecting bread as they were very happy to see us and very noisy too!

Pumpkin making a grassy path in the path     

It was snowing quite hard whilst we were out!

The afternoon was spent drinking hot chocolate, Reading Eggs, designing our own lego mini figures, emptying the kitchen cupboard, making banana muffins, drawing, cart-wheeling, scuttle-bugging and playing musical cushions.

Bean's glow in the dark figure
(the orange outline is the glow)

Pumpkin drew the planets. He took the photo so it's difficult to see but there is definitely a sun, earth with moon nearby, Saturn with its rings, Jupiter with its red spot and enough other spheres to represent each planet.

Plum's favourite game: emptying the kitchen cupboard

Cart-wheeling

Plum in her new best position!

Legomania

A bridge. If you look hard enough you will see the gap for the river to flow under (bottom right between grey and pink brick)

giraffe

star wars lego

Plum giving it a go

Plum in the castle built by her brothers

Thursday 28th February 2013

Legomania in Basingstoke! Our furthest journey to date. I normal cap travelling time with the smalls to 1 hour especially when going solo but thought this might be worth the trek and i was right. It is actually placed within the living history museum but i don't seem to have any photos of the museum bits. We did enjoy looking at vehicles and old arcade games and buying our ration of sweets from the sweet shop plus looking on at the dressed up characters from different eras. But most of all we enjoyed the lego.

We made and watched and look at meticulously. The star wars death star (pictured above) rotated and Bean was fascinated by all the detail in it. He watched it solidly for 15 minutes and then kept returning to it. This display was a much more friendly version than the one he had screamed his way around at lego land and he loved it.

Pumpkin was fascinated by this light projector which projected the moving star wars logo onto the floor.

My personal favourite was the Lord of the Rings set.

They say it's spring

Monday 4th March

Some say it's spring...but they are wrong! there are a few more days to go before it's officially here but today's weather gave us a little taste of what we expect, although the forecast says this is only a tantaliser as the weather is due to become wintery again very soon. 

but today, the sun is out! so, today extended our normal monday to a warm sun filled play in the park with friends. plum is still suffering at night with her cough so she slept until 9.30 so we didn't make it to our favourite rhyme session but gymnastics has been brought forward a little so it worked out well. 

i had forgotten the freedoms that the park can bring and am thankful that the boys are able to exlore and play and that this gives them a place to do that with some great equipment and landscape to use which they do make full use of!

i also like 5 minutes to chat with friends :) 

all in the mix

Friday 1st March 2013

inspired by yesterday's legomania trip today has been more of a lego day than usual. plum continues to be poorly in the night so we settled for an at home day and the boys busied themselves with lego for the duration.

inspired by a friends pyramid yesterday both bean and pumpkin set to building their own. bean also found and modified and lego fire engine to submit into the build your dream transport competition. He took the photos himself and i think this may be the first thing that he has said he wanted to do and then followed it through to the end.

I am always in a quandary over desserts: we like a dessert but i often forget until the last minute or generally don't want to spend an enormous amount of time on it. today we found a recipe for these individual sized chocolate sponge puddings, easy to whip up as long as i leave enough cooking time. yum yum. one to add to our (very small) list.