A refreshing morning at church where Plum went with her brothers to the Sunday School class without mummy and I stayed in the main service for the first time in .....???? An excellent message given by a gifted man can be heard here.
A relaxing day (I'm not sure we can get much more relaxed atm but still we managed it.) The smalls enjoying lots of time to do their own thing, calling on mummy and daddy to show what they wanted to or ask for help when they needed it. Mummy and Bean built a piston operated door in minecraft (very proud of me) and Pumpkin has been trying out survival mode on the ipad version. Plum spent half an hour with mummy tucked up in bed reading board books and practising her words some more. Mummy was very impressed with 'lion,' 'elephant,' 'apple,' 'bear,' 'ssssss' (for snake,) 'camel,' and 'giraffe.' Daddy spent the afternoon working on his website and launched it, exciting times.
Plum has been busy rooting through the dvd shelf and found the Lion King ('roar') and we had an unexpected moment of connections, bringing together Plum's excitement in cats/animals, Bean's interest in Star Wars as James Earl Jones is the voice of Vader and Mufasa, and Pumpkin's enjoyment of Mr.Bean as Rowen Atkinson is the voice of Zazu.
Our Tribe
Sunday, 5 January 2014
Saturday, 4 January 2014
Moving, just keep moving
It seems we have entered a happy groove. One where the days drift by happily, we are busy with things but not pressured by having to do them and enjoying the slow pace and cosy house. The biggest news today is that we have booked a date to have our windows done, hurray! Eight and a half years of living with moulding windows and finally we will have clean and insulating ones. We're planning on getting the guttering done too, for anyone who has tried to enter our house in the lashing rain and had to come through the waterfall infront of our door! Anyway, i'm a little bit excited about the windows being done and not having to clean and scrub growing black mould of off them especially through the winter months.
In other, more relevant news, we have had water beads out today. Originally intended for Plum but the boys have been dipping their hands in as they pass by and Bean announced that they don't bounce. He knows this because he tried throwing them on the floor. Plum has also been busy with her doll's house and we are losing count of the words that are now becoming more and more recognisable. Today's main words have been, 'Bob the builder,' 'Peppa,' 'more,' 'chair,' 'tea,' and 'dolly.'
Pumpkin continues to wear his Spiderman outfit (day eight) but did get dressed underneath it today with the intention of going to the park, but he never made it. Instead he has been submerging himself in Stampycat and a few other minecraft videos. We have noted that he has really gone off breakfast except for toast so this morning was a bit disastrous as we had no bread in the house. Recently (in the last month) Pumpkin has taken to falling asleep in mummy and daddy's bed. Daddy moves him when he comes to bed and Pumpkin sleeps the rest of the night in his own bed. Yesterday morning I woke up to the sound of Pumpkin quietly sobbing into his pillow because he wanted to still be in our bed :( It made me sad and, as daddy was already up and getting ready for work, Pumpkin came back to bed with me and fell back to sleep. Last night he slept all night with mummy and Plum. He woke me at about 4am just to tell me that he loved sleeping with mummy, and then he went back to sleep. Happy boy.
Daddy took Bean and Plum to the park when there was a break in the weather and mummy and Pumpkin stayed home. I began to put away the Christmas decorations and Pumpkin disappeared upstairs, i think to avoid even being asked if he wanted to help. We're having a small rearrange of toy boxes and i have realised that i really don't like keeping things as they are. I regularly move things around or try and make things better suit our needs and accommodate our family. It has to be managed carefully now though as Bean would prefer things to stay the same so we have spent three days talking through different ideas and visualising and walking through what is going to happen. Fortunately he is keen to have his toy box move upstairs into his room, so, so far so good.
In other, more relevant news, we have had water beads out today. Originally intended for Plum but the boys have been dipping their hands in as they pass by and Bean announced that they don't bounce. He knows this because he tried throwing them on the floor. Plum has also been busy with her doll's house and we are losing count of the words that are now becoming more and more recognisable. Today's main words have been, 'Bob the builder,' 'Peppa,' 'more,' 'chair,' 'tea,' and 'dolly.'
Pumpkin continues to wear his Spiderman outfit (day eight) but did get dressed underneath it today with the intention of going to the park, but he never made it. Instead he has been submerging himself in Stampycat and a few other minecraft videos. We have noted that he has really gone off breakfast except for toast so this morning was a bit disastrous as we had no bread in the house. Recently (in the last month) Pumpkin has taken to falling asleep in mummy and daddy's bed. Daddy moves him when he comes to bed and Pumpkin sleeps the rest of the night in his own bed. Yesterday morning I woke up to the sound of Pumpkin quietly sobbing into his pillow because he wanted to still be in our bed :( It made me sad and, as daddy was already up and getting ready for work, Pumpkin came back to bed with me and fell back to sleep. Last night he slept all night with mummy and Plum. He woke me at about 4am just to tell me that he loved sleeping with mummy, and then he went back to sleep. Happy boy.
Daddy took Bean and Plum to the park when there was a break in the weather and mummy and Pumpkin stayed home. I began to put away the Christmas decorations and Pumpkin disappeared upstairs, i think to avoid even being asked if he wanted to help. We're having a small rearrange of toy boxes and i have realised that i really don't like keeping things as they are. I regularly move things around or try and make things better suit our needs and accommodate our family. It has to be managed carefully now though as Bean would prefer things to stay the same so we have spent three days talking through different ideas and visualising and walking through what is going to happen. Fortunately he is keen to have his toy box move upstairs into his room, so, so far so good.
Friday, 3 January 2014
The Fantastic Day
It's been a legotastical kind of day. Inspired by the late arrival of Christmas gifts for the boys who immediately set to building their new models. Bean determined to complete it solomio, did just that and Pumpkin giving it a good go but lost enthusiasm half way through so i completed it for him. Lego continued as the postman brought the latest addition of the Lego magazine and the boys set to completing mazes and planning new lego models inspired by the magazine whilst we ate lunch.
We set to take advantage of a dry clear spell this afternoon but barely got five metres from our front door before disharmony struck. Bean and Pumpkin disagreeing over who was going to ride in front and the longer we stood and discussed it, the colder we got and the more frayed the tempers became we returned home after an unsuccessful outing. Bean and Plum were disappointed, Pumpkin was not, but i had to leave it that tomorrow daddy would be home and we could accomodate both those who wanted to stay home bound and those who chose to venture out (weather permitting.)
Pumpkin and I made Rudolph cakes today, his idea. He washed his hands in preperation and then listed all the things that we needed for cake making and observed that we always measure the same amount for each ingredient.
Bean and I unpacked Plum's Sylvannian sets today, with her looking on and playing with the pieces as we went. He used the pictures on the boxes to recreate the same scene in the doll's house.
Plum has been trying out some new vocabulary, 'minecraft' and 'hat' have been clear repeated favourites today.
And in between all this i managed to put away two weeks worth of clean laundry (no easy task) and began to think about our plans for January. Feeling very relaxed and motivated after the Christmas festivities but enjoying the new home vibe, which might be a good thing as the weather forecast for next week is stormy.
We set to take advantage of a dry clear spell this afternoon but barely got five metres from our front door before disharmony struck. Bean and Pumpkin disagreeing over who was going to ride in front and the longer we stood and discussed it, the colder we got and the more frayed the tempers became we returned home after an unsuccessful outing. Bean and Plum were disappointed, Pumpkin was not, but i had to leave it that tomorrow daddy would be home and we could accomodate both those who wanted to stay home bound and those who chose to venture out (weather permitting.)
Pumpkin and I made Rudolph cakes today, his idea. He washed his hands in preperation and then listed all the things that we needed for cake making and observed that we always measure the same amount for each ingredient.
Bean and I unpacked Plum's Sylvannian sets today, with her looking on and playing with the pieces as we went. He used the pictures on the boxes to recreate the same scene in the doll's house.
Plum has been trying out some new vocabulary, 'minecraft' and 'hat' have been clear repeated favourites today.
And in between all this i managed to put away two weeks worth of clean laundry (no easy task) and began to think about our plans for January. Feeling very relaxed and motivated after the Christmas festivities but enjoying the new home vibe, which might be a good thing as the weather forecast for next week is stormy.
Thursday, 2 January 2014
It's all about you (Plum)
Today's post will be (mostly) entirely about Plum. Plum, aka Anna Grace, is two today. You can read her birth story here. Me and the three smalls took advantage of the blue skies today and went down to Worthing with a plan to play in the play area on the seafront and scoot along the promenade. We arrived just before lunch time and chose to scoot/walk to the cafe and eat first. We got slightly distracted by the fair ground rides and had several turns on the trampolines and squirty water affairs. Plum rode on a bus ride and a Bob the builder ride. By the time we had done this and walked back to the car it was late and growing grim and cold again. Pumpkin had ridden in the buggy on the return journey with Plum pushing him the whole way. We collected several shells and different types of seaweed for us to investigate further when we got home.
By the time we made it home both Plum and Pumpkin were asleep and continued to do so when i had transferred them indoors. Bean and I spent a happy and content hour and a half making birthday cards for Plum, wrapping her presents, preparing birthday tea, building together in minecraft and drinking tea. SGS and SGG made a surprise visit with a gift for Plum and daddy came home from work early so we could enjoy birthday tea together. The party blowers were a big hit!
Plum is expressing her character evermore-so, as it should be. She has definite preferences when it comes to dressing and what she wants to wear, she doesn't have a favourite colour as such but prefers things which are bright. She drinks breast milk at least four times a day and is not generally big on eating but will try most things going. She is petit but robust, measuring two inches shorter than Bean at the same age and four inches shorter than Pumpkin. She loves playing with her dollies (hence the abundance of dolly gifts for Christmas) and enjoys the boy's doll house (hence the Sylvanian gifts for her birthday.) She can't help but move and dance when she hears music and sings to us all day. Plum likes drawing and squiggling and sensory play, she loves the swings and the slide at the park and running around with the older children. She likes to try things on her own and we have to let her have a go at things first before she will allow us to do it for her (those things which we know she won't be able to do.) She sleeps next to mummy and every morning mummy gets a kiss and then Plum takes off the duvet and fetches me my slippers and takes me to the bathroom where she gives me my toothbrush. She loves watching Everything's Rosie, Raa Raa, Peter Rabbit and Sarah and Duck and she asks us to read every board book going in the house!
By the time we made it home both Plum and Pumpkin were asleep and continued to do so when i had transferred them indoors. Bean and I spent a happy and content hour and a half making birthday cards for Plum, wrapping her presents, preparing birthday tea, building together in minecraft and drinking tea. SGS and SGG made a surprise visit with a gift for Plum and daddy came home from work early so we could enjoy birthday tea together. The party blowers were a big hit!
Plum is expressing her character evermore-so, as it should be. She has definite preferences when it comes to dressing and what she wants to wear, she doesn't have a favourite colour as such but prefers things which are bright. She drinks breast milk at least four times a day and is not generally big on eating but will try most things going. She is petit but robust, measuring two inches shorter than Bean at the same age and four inches shorter than Pumpkin. She loves playing with her dollies (hence the abundance of dolly gifts for Christmas) and enjoys the boy's doll house (hence the Sylvanian gifts for her birthday.) She can't help but move and dance when she hears music and sings to us all day. Plum likes drawing and squiggling and sensory play, she loves the swings and the slide at the park and running around with the older children. She likes to try things on her own and we have to let her have a go at things first before she will allow us to do it for her (those things which we know she won't be able to do.) She sleeps next to mummy and every morning mummy gets a kiss and then Plum takes off the duvet and fetches me my slippers and takes me to the bathroom where she gives me my toothbrush. She loves watching Everything's Rosie, Raa Raa, Peter Rabbit and Sarah and Duck and she asks us to read every board book going in the house!
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| Everything's Rosie birthday cake |
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| Continuing to wear his spiderman costume for the sixth day and night in a row...Pumpkin |
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| Contemplation (Pumpkin) |
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| Having mastered the party blower, Plum aims it at Pumpkin |
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| Long longs on your head |
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| Rocking Horse from Grandma and Pops |
Monday, 30 December 2013
It's cold outside
A Christmas review full of Christmassy things like presents, time spent with family and friends, food and celebrations. Not a lot else to report as we have become incredibly seasonal in our home ed journey and have spent multiple days snuggled up on the sofa(s) watching endless tv and cuddling in the warm. The combination of dark days, school holidays, cold and wet, windy weather have encouraged us to spend more time as a family enjoying all things at home together.
I have got into house planning, how can we make our indoor environment work better for us as a family...and daddy has been obliging and listened to my grand plans. Mostly lego storage. Bean was inspired by his friends lego arrangements and i am secretly glad as i have it in me to organise such things well i have just been itching to organise the lego but holding off until the smalls show an interest otherwise it would be me getting frustrated that no-one was using the system correctly! Bean has mostly been immersed in minecraft (books,gaming and youtube videos) with Pumpkin looking on and joining in. Bean and I have played all his new board games together, several times over. The Star Wars Lego game is a big hit. We're enjoying Flat Stanley books and have more Paddington bear lined up on the book shelf.
Pumpkin has also been enjoying his joke kit and watching Mr. Bean and Dennis the Menace as he relaxes in his new Spiderman suit (which he has owned for 48 hours and hasn't taken it off yet) I finally feel like we might have found something that makes him tick after several viewings of Mr.Bean and the whoopee cushion having endless uses. Pumpkin is really testing out the 'how much control do i have in my life?' scenario atm especially with the endless supply of chocolates and sweets around, coupled with the refusal to wash or brush his hair, and his need to constantly wear the same outfit, ironically though he is fastidious about brushing his teeth.
Plum has been learning new words at a rate of knots and in the two weeks that it's been since we wrote a family newsletter and wrote down about 25 words that she could say, i reckon that she's doubled that easily. The very best being that she now says 'mummy' without prompting, hurray! We have read every board book in the house and have spent hours rolling marbles down the marble run together.
The lull between Christmas and New Year has allowed a little thought to be put into January's birthday fest (Plum 2nd, Pumpkin 20th, Cousin J 18th, FA#3 20th) Plum and Pumpkin's will be small affaris this year, by choice. Pumpkin has requested a family day where he and Bean wear their spiderman outfits and we will be venturing out as a family for Plum's birthday too.
I have got into house planning, how can we make our indoor environment work better for us as a family...and daddy has been obliging and listened to my grand plans. Mostly lego storage. Bean was inspired by his friends lego arrangements and i am secretly glad as i have it in me to organise such things well i have just been itching to organise the lego but holding off until the smalls show an interest otherwise it would be me getting frustrated that no-one was using the system correctly! Bean has mostly been immersed in minecraft (books,gaming and youtube videos) with Pumpkin looking on and joining in. Bean and I have played all his new board games together, several times over. The Star Wars Lego game is a big hit. We're enjoying Flat Stanley books and have more Paddington bear lined up on the book shelf.
Pumpkin has also been enjoying his joke kit and watching Mr. Bean and Dennis the Menace as he relaxes in his new Spiderman suit (which he has owned for 48 hours and hasn't taken it off yet) I finally feel like we might have found something that makes him tick after several viewings of Mr.Bean and the whoopee cushion having endless uses. Pumpkin is really testing out the 'how much control do i have in my life?' scenario atm especially with the endless supply of chocolates and sweets around, coupled with the refusal to wash or brush his hair, and his need to constantly wear the same outfit, ironically though he is fastidious about brushing his teeth.
Plum has been learning new words at a rate of knots and in the two weeks that it's been since we wrote a family newsletter and wrote down about 25 words that she could say, i reckon that she's doubled that easily. The very best being that she now says 'mummy' without prompting, hurray! We have read every board book in the house and have spent hours rolling marbles down the marble run together.
The lull between Christmas and New Year has allowed a little thought to be put into January's birthday fest (Plum 2nd, Pumpkin 20th, Cousin J 18th, FA#3 20th) Plum and Pumpkin's will be small affaris this year, by choice. Pumpkin has requested a family day where he and Bean wear their spiderman outfits and we will be venturing out as a family for Plum's birthday too.
Wednesday, 18 December 2013
London's calling
Yesterday the whole family ventured to London. It began with Pumpkin refusing to go and then moving to 'i'll give it a try but if i don't like it then i want to come home' as we drove to the station. Great things that happened on our trip were visiting Winter Wonderland and the smalls riding on various fair ground rides. Bean choose to ride on the vehicle round about ride twice, Pumpkin joined him for one of the turns. Bean then carefully choose the fun house. It took him a long time of wandering to and fro past it to be sure that this is what he wanted to do but he loved it so much that he wanted to take us all on it. Pumpkin also chose the helter skelter, which he loved and struggled to choose between a return visit to the roundabout with his brother, the helter skelter or the aeroplane ride. He went for the aeroplane ride. And daddy took Plum on a Rudolph carriage ride. We ate candy floss and had lunch sat by the Serpentine. I had made rather crumbly egg and bacon pie which was an invitation for every bird going to visit our bench!
We took several buses on our route back to the station travelling via Oxford St and Regent St and onto Convent Garden to take in all the Christmas lights. We found the lego creation in Convent Garden which predictably the boys loved and we spent quite some time analysing the different building and all their lego components. Bean noticed the use of robot pieces on The Houses of Parliament. The journey home was eased with a kids meal. It was a busy and tiring day and i'm glad that we took the stroller as well as the sling as both were well used.
The whole experience confirmed for me that solo trips to London with the smalls are really not an option at the moment.
Today took us to our Home Ed Winter Wednesday group where we had a Christmas theme. I completed the snow globes that we had started a few weeks ago, with the help of my creative friend, and Plum had her face painted as a cat (very topical for her atm) the boys ran around and play fought with their friends. Pumpkin is clearly tired and was quite fractious at times but changed completely after taking himself off on his own for a few minutes. There was music and food and balloons and lots and lots of friends.
We took several buses on our route back to the station travelling via Oxford St and Regent St and onto Convent Garden to take in all the Christmas lights. We found the lego creation in Convent Garden which predictably the boys loved and we spent quite some time analysing the different building and all their lego components. Bean noticed the use of robot pieces on The Houses of Parliament. The journey home was eased with a kids meal. It was a busy and tiring day and i'm glad that we took the stroller as well as the sling as both were well used.
The whole experience confirmed for me that solo trips to London with the smalls are really not an option at the moment.
Today took us to our Home Ed Winter Wednesday group where we had a Christmas theme. I completed the snow globes that we had started a few weeks ago, with the help of my creative friend, and Plum had her face painted as a cat (very topical for her atm) the boys ran around and play fought with their friends. Pumpkin is clearly tired and was quite fractious at times but changed completely after taking himself off on his own for a few minutes. There was music and food and balloons and lots and lots of friends.
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| a tornado by Pumpkin |
Monday, 16 December 2013
Oh Christmas tree
The Christmas tree is up, the decorations are up and there is Christmas spirit in the air! This is only the second year that we have had a tree and daddy went off on Saturday with the boys in tow to go and choose a fitting one for our house. Santa doesn't make an appearance during our festive celebrations but we are carving our own family traditions and the next week or so will be full of them, helped by daddy having four days off work (yippee!)
Today we went to the Booth Museum in Brighton, inspired by the boys interest at the recent dinosaur and taxidermy and stones on display at Summer's Place, a nearby auction house, we ventured out to find more of the same and we were not disappointed. It was a friend who mentioned that museum to us and how she had spent many an hour there with her son enjoying the natural history collections and draws of specimens of eggs and butterflies and bones and feathers and fossils and glass eyes! Each showcase of taxidermy provided enough scope for the scene of a story and there was no shortage of those. The smalls were all taken with the collection of skeletons from the huge to the tiny and Pumpkin announced, 'i want to come here everyday!' so a revisit is definitely in the diary. We bought a few items from the shop on the way out, Bean linked up a range of interests and found some fools gold in a pirate bag, joining his interest in stones with that of pirates and Pumpkin found a dinosaur fossil kit. We were interested to read that dinosaurs were first found in Sussex and the very first tooth dug up in a village that we had driven through on our way to Brighton.
We went down to the seafront to picnic, we ate in the car and watched the waves crashing onto the beach. It has been a very wet and windy day and grey grey grey, not long now until the winter solstice and it is grim and cold and miserable out there....but hey, who wouldn't want to go for a walk on the beach in this weather? Well, mummy actually, and i exercised my right to stay in the car for once and daddy took the keen and excited smalls onto the beach. They were so excited by their walk that they returned to the car and insisted that i went back with them. This time it was just mummy and the boys and they showed me their game of running away from the tide, the only rule being that if you got your shoes wet you were out. The waves were monstrously fierce, averaging as tall as mummy (5ft) and we had a roarcous time playing this game, even when we didn't see one tide coming and all got very wet, there was laughter and joy. And we were once again glad that mummy carries spare clothing around in the boot of the car. Well done mummy.
Today we went to the Booth Museum in Brighton, inspired by the boys interest at the recent dinosaur and taxidermy and stones on display at Summer's Place, a nearby auction house, we ventured out to find more of the same and we were not disappointed. It was a friend who mentioned that museum to us and how she had spent many an hour there with her son enjoying the natural history collections and draws of specimens of eggs and butterflies and bones and feathers and fossils and glass eyes! Each showcase of taxidermy provided enough scope for the scene of a story and there was no shortage of those. The smalls were all taken with the collection of skeletons from the huge to the tiny and Pumpkin announced, 'i want to come here everyday!' so a revisit is definitely in the diary. We bought a few items from the shop on the way out, Bean linked up a range of interests and found some fools gold in a pirate bag, joining his interest in stones with that of pirates and Pumpkin found a dinosaur fossil kit. We were interested to read that dinosaurs were first found in Sussex and the very first tooth dug up in a village that we had driven through on our way to Brighton.
We went down to the seafront to picnic, we ate in the car and watched the waves crashing onto the beach. It has been a very wet and windy day and grey grey grey, not long now until the winter solstice and it is grim and cold and miserable out there....but hey, who wouldn't want to go for a walk on the beach in this weather? Well, mummy actually, and i exercised my right to stay in the car for once and daddy took the keen and excited smalls onto the beach. They were so excited by their walk that they returned to the car and insisted that i went back with them. This time it was just mummy and the boys and they showed me their game of running away from the tide, the only rule being that if you got your shoes wet you were out. The waves were monstrously fierce, averaging as tall as mummy (5ft) and we had a roarcous time playing this game, even when we didn't see one tide coming and all got very wet, there was laughter and joy. And we were once again glad that mummy carries spare clothing around in the boot of the car. Well done mummy.
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| guinea pig skeleton |
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