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?
Our Tribe
Monday, 15 April 2013
Sunday, 14 April 2013
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 :)
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.
Thursday, 11 April 2013
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.
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.
Tuesday, 9 April 2013
Sparkle and shine
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.
Friday, 5 April 2013
where we belong
we have completely found our collective groove again but surprisingly, after nearly three weeks at home, we are settled into an at home rhythm. The plan had been to take a relaxed and very overdue trip to the library today. it ticked all the boxes including the warm indoor destination box (as we still had no heating) but Bean said he didn't want to go out as it made him too tired and Pumpkin was happy with the idea of staying in.
The dens from yesterday are still up in the boys room and socktopus made an appearance dressed as a knight today. Plum didn't wake until 10am so the morning was spent cooking scrambled eggs together and playing on reading eggs.
After Plum had woken, the boys followed me upstairs and spent some time playing lego and Bean got to drawing plans again. this time he wanted to post them and made one for everybody. After some time and him finding a good postal bag we all had to go to our own bedroom so that he could post them to us. This led to the suggestion that we should have a postbox each in case we weren't in when he delivered. We set to decorating our own postboxes, which didn't last long but Bean made a birthday card ready for his friend's birthday party tomorrow.
We got out the cotton buds that Plum had distributed all over the first floor the other day and Bean had suggested that we make something with them. We went through a few options and he chose to make skeletons with them. Pumpkin joined us and made a volcano picture with lava coming out.
The boiler was temporally fixed this afternoon and hopefully will stay so until they return with a new part. We have spent a large part of today learning about how to keep warm and imagining what it must be like to live without heating. We have blankets and duvets galore in the living room and a small heater to take the edge off the cold. We have wrapped ourselves in layers and layers and layers and had the oven on constantly baking or slow cooking stews. Our house is small enough that the oven heats the two rooms downstairs quite nicely.
And just before dinner was ready Bean decided to organise a treasure hunt for us all in the garden. Bean and Pumpkin spent an hour playing outside after they had eaten. Daddy bathed all the smalls tonight and read stories and the boys went very sleepily to bed about 8.30pm.
The dens from yesterday are still up in the boys room and socktopus made an appearance dressed as a knight today. Plum didn't wake until 10am so the morning was spent cooking scrambled eggs together and playing on reading eggs.
After Plum had woken, the boys followed me upstairs and spent some time playing lego and Bean got to drawing plans again. this time he wanted to post them and made one for everybody. After some time and him finding a good postal bag we all had to go to our own bedroom so that he could post them to us. This led to the suggestion that we should have a postbox each in case we weren't in when he delivered. We set to decorating our own postboxes, which didn't last long but Bean made a birthday card ready for his friend's birthday party tomorrow.
We got out the cotton buds that Plum had distributed all over the first floor the other day and Bean had suggested that we make something with them. We went through a few options and he chose to make skeletons with them. Pumpkin joined us and made a volcano picture with lava coming out.
The boiler was temporally fixed this afternoon and hopefully will stay so until they return with a new part. We have spent a large part of today learning about how to keep warm and imagining what it must be like to live without heating. We have blankets and duvets galore in the living room and a small heater to take the edge off the cold. We have wrapped ourselves in layers and layers and layers and had the oven on constantly baking or slow cooking stews. Our house is small enough that the oven heats the two rooms downstairs quite nicely.
And just before dinner was ready Bean decided to organise a treasure hunt for us all in the garden. Bean and Pumpkin spent an hour playing outside after they had eaten. Daddy bathed all the smalls tonight and read stories and the boys went very sleepily to bed about 8.30pm.
I want to break free
Thursday 4th April 2013
Today is the first day in weeks that i am beginning to feel that we are getting back into a regular rhythm. Bean especially was on top form. He has been at the lego and we have been sewing and baking and he has been really keen to do new things and be active rather than sitting and resting and watching (although there has been some of that too)
I found these socktopus on pinterest and we really enjoyed putting them together. they are the perfet sewing project for young beginners. just the right skills level and time commitment and a brilliant end result. Bean loved them. Pumpkin had a go later in the day too although i did most of his, he did help with the stffing and leg cutting.
Bean simultaneously set about drawing plans for his stone quarry machine that he wants to make. He wanted to put together a plan for me so i would know what items he needed to be able to build it. This led to him building a den in his bedroom specifically so that he could draw plan in it. He found a clipboard and pencil and has been putting together plans on and off all day. He scrolls them up and ties them with string and has used his money pot to store them in and moved his money into an old money box.
Pumpkin wanted a den too so we turned his bed into one. The plan is to sleep in his den tonight.
The need for an excessive amount of baking has risen as, yet again, we have no heating. Being that we live in a smallish house, putting the oven on does heat the two downstairs rooms nicely. Bean requested banana muffins and then helped to make them. i actually think it wont be long before he could follow this recipe independently. Then later in the day, i resurrected an old favourite and he came and helped with that too.
We also had friends come to play so they all disappeared upstairs to play in the dens in the bedroom and me and Plum spent some time playing together. She continues to love socks and toothbrushes and riding her scuttlebug but has also discovered walking by pushing the brick trolley and she took to it very quickly, being able to walk very quickly and turn it around.
Daddy popped home briefly this evening before heading out again to visit a friend which meant that i took his normal role of bathing and stories and putting on pjs before the evening shift. Pumpkin has returned to a more regular afternoon snooze and later evening bedtime and Bean is getting back into his normal rhythm and Plum is unphased by the clock change and dutifully still goes to sleep about 9pm which now is actually 10pm. This evening has seen a viewing of PeppaPig, Bean continuing to sketch things out on his clipboard including joining up the dots on his own made dot-to-dot and drawing a static excersise bicycle and one that you can actually pedal around (his words)
Today is the first day in weeks that i am beginning to feel that we are getting back into a regular rhythm. Bean especially was on top form. He has been at the lego and we have been sewing and baking and he has been really keen to do new things and be active rather than sitting and resting and watching (although there has been some of that too)
I found these socktopus on pinterest and we really enjoyed putting them together. they are the perfet sewing project for young beginners. just the right skills level and time commitment and a brilliant end result. Bean loved them. Pumpkin had a go later in the day too although i did most of his, he did help with the stffing and leg cutting.
Bean simultaneously set about drawing plans for his stone quarry machine that he wants to make. He wanted to put together a plan for me so i would know what items he needed to be able to build it. This led to him building a den in his bedroom specifically so that he could draw plan in it. He found a clipboard and pencil and has been putting together plans on and off all day. He scrolls them up and ties them with string and has used his money pot to store them in and moved his money into an old money box.
Pumpkin wanted a den too so we turned his bed into one. The plan is to sleep in his den tonight.
The need for an excessive amount of baking has risen as, yet again, we have no heating. Being that we live in a smallish house, putting the oven on does heat the two downstairs rooms nicely. Bean requested banana muffins and then helped to make them. i actually think it wont be long before he could follow this recipe independently. Then later in the day, i resurrected an old favourite and he came and helped with that too.
We also had friends come to play so they all disappeared upstairs to play in the dens in the bedroom and me and Plum spent some time playing together. She continues to love socks and toothbrushes and riding her scuttlebug but has also discovered walking by pushing the brick trolley and she took to it very quickly, being able to walk very quickly and turn it around.
Daddy popped home briefly this evening before heading out again to visit a friend which meant that i took his normal role of bathing and stories and putting on pjs before the evening shift. Pumpkin has returned to a more regular afternoon snooze and later evening bedtime and Bean is getting back into his normal rhythm and Plum is unphased by the clock change and dutifully still goes to sleep about 9pm which now is actually 10pm. This evening has seen a viewing of PeppaPig, Bean continuing to sketch things out on his clipboard including joining up the dots on his own made dot-to-dot and drawing a static excersise bicycle and one that you can actually pedal around (his words)
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