Long Longs

Two hours of happy lego playing inspired by the gift of lego for Bean's birthday being built after breakfast. And yes, we are in our pyjama's :)

A spontaneous enactment of Michael Rosen's poem 'Shorts' -

Long shorts

short longs

short shorts

long shorts up high

long shorts down low

long longs on his head

-and a lot of laughter.

And food art rearing it's head again, this time in the marshmallows and ice-cream left over from the birthday party at the weekend. It is an alien with three eyes, a nose and a mouth.
And pumpkin creating a snowy scene in lego land using one of Plum's muslin cloths, whipping it away suddenly and shouting excitedly 'it's melted!'

Our adventures this afternoon took us to the library, where Bean only selected two books (very very unusual) followed by a mosey about Horsham museum to see the Matisse collection. I found a Matisse book in granddad's vast library of art books at the weekend and have had it loitering around the house since. The boys recognised 'l'escargot' immediately and the piece next to it is on the cover of the book. We were only in the art gallery fleetingly but the boys were fascinated by the idea that these pictures were all cut out.

viewing the scissors collection

Pumpkin was more taken with the working grandfather clock and an urgent trip to the toilet for Bean took us into new unexplored museum territory so we actually spent more time here than I had expected and we will undoubtedly be returning.
The walk home I decided to take along the river as Bean has been asking a lot of questions about where the river comes from and goes to. We enjoyed the leisurely walk home looking at the river, enjoying it's sounds and observing its changes in such a short stretch.  

Early Learning

I'm really enjoying our relaxed week. Today was little builders at Kingdom Faith Church where somehow I managed to reverse into another car, fortunately she was also reversing so there was no damage. The boys coloured, food crafted and made sun catchers. The actual skill needed for all these things is fairly minimal but I'm sure that it's since we've been attending here that they have become more interested in making things. Bean even picked up a glued piece of paper yesterday without too much caution.
We had good good friends to lunch who helped us eat leftovers and play wildly. Lots of running around, garden exloring, climbing, hide and seek, full body learning.

Plum has napped today presumably because she slept 14 hours last night, with feeds of course. This seems to be a regular occurrence and she is often the last to rise. I wonder why it is third that sleeps so long? Not that the boys slept bad, just early risers.

Today's news seems to bring to light the detrimental effects of an early school age. Of course this is not news to early childhood practitioners. It still amazes me that Joe Bloggs thinks our children have to be in school for Reception class, that is 4, when it is actually the term after they're five and not necessarily in school just in schooling. This means Bean is not legally required to be educated until September which is the equivalent of Year 1. As if we could stop him learning before then! But this is discussing formal education. Sit down learning. I must impart knowledge to you that I think you should know right now. Please don't talk to me about skeletal structure and planetary systems we don't cover that until next year and you're too young to understand that now.
It just seems that some people find it hard to comprehend the 'less is more' approach: slowly slowly; and fail to see that it is detrimental to peoples social development as well as mental health, self confidence, personal responsibility, autonomy etc etc. Maybe I have studied it for too long so it has become second nature, obvious, or maybe I watched play succeed and structured learning crush too many but I am in full support of more freedom to play, freedom to learn.

Taking it easy

After all the birthday running around in the last three weeks this week feels rather slow and I was beginning to feel like we should be 'doing' something, then I chilled out and remembered we all need to take it easy sometimes.

We went to the needles Children and Family Centre this morning which resulted in a lot of building things, namely houses and boats. This seems to be a recurring theme in both the boys building and drawing lately.

Other activities today included Pumpkin requesting to play on the piano as we were listening to piano music on the radio. Both boys spent 20 minutes or so trying out various sounds, together and solo. Bean asked to play me at chess. He has been rather persistent in his desire to learn how and I found an app that showed you where your pieces could move to and an undo button - useful for if you want to try again. I know what the pieces do but beyond that I'm not much good, so today I won my first game of chess (against my 5 year old!)

We also had a tournament game of fruit ninja on my phone which Bean won. The photo here is off his victory pose.
And lastly the boys got fed up of not going out (again because of the rain) and put their coats and wellies on to play in the garden. At one point it was raining quite hard but they carried on.

And all that jazz

We had rather an unfortunate event this morning in which we arrived at our regular Monday morning place with Bean in a very cross mood continuously hitting me. There were a few other parents there. One was very helpful and opened a door for me so we weren't at the top of the stairwell but it was hard to say how the other two were viewing the scene. Bean, obviously not being at school, is by far the oldest participant in this group but successfully demonstrated today that even 5 year olds get angry. Fortunately there were some good friends of ours there and they came and tried to help calm him down, let's not forget that I also had Pumpkin (who was being very unclingy and found his own space on a chair next to me - unusual but I was grateful) and Plum in her sling. And Bean, well, he did what he always does which is very quickly stops the hitting and thrashing out and cries, then looks at his mummy and he doesn't need to say anything but I know that he knows that he shouldn't be hitting me and I ask him, 'would you like to tell me what is making you upset?' and I sit him on my lap and we cuddle and when he's ready, he talks. And after he has calmed and we have done our best to resolve what caused the upset I tell him that when someone hurts someone else and they know it's wrong and they feel sad that they did it, then we say we are sorry and 1/2 an hour later he comes to me and sits on my lap again and says 'i'm sorry I hit you mummy' and I am pleased that we have resolved his upset and that he has taken it upon himself to apologise and I knew we had done alright at working it through. Still don't know what the other parents thought but I'm happy with how it worked out. Now just got to work out how to avoid it escalating to that in the first place. 

Tried our hand at writing today. Not something that happens spontaneously in our house. I suggested we should write and say thank you to our friends and family for the birthday gifts they gave Bean. I found some special cards and gave him my pen and off we went. He only wrote two but that is two more than ever before and we had lots of talk about words and letters.

Bean got some new lego for his birthday and set about building some more ships. This seems to be quite a popular lego theme with him and they come in all shapes and sizes and of course all have to be tested out in the sink before bath time to make sure that they float.

Pumpkin has spent the day practising his forward rolls, drawing endless faces, ferrying lego men around the farm in the tractor trailer, and playing balloon with his brother.

Plum has had an unusual afternoon where by she wanted to be held all the time. Not usual for her as she does enjoy playing with a few toys or sitting and watching me busy about but that wasn't for her today, today it was all about the cuddles. This might inconvenience some and consequently my house was slightly more chaotic than normal but I had a lovely afternoon playing with my girl and I am cherishing every minute of it. Third time round you really do know how quickly the time goes. 

And can it be that I should gain

Feeling very blessed today. I read in a magazine ‘If you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life’ – and that’s certainly how I feel. How blessed am I that I am in a position to be with my children all day every day? And I don’t mean I don’t ‘work’ because as any stay at home mum or home educator knows we work very hard but how fortunate not to have to work long hours at something I don’t enjoy just to survive or slave for the fortune of someone else? 

I’m also feeling blessed at the beautiful gift of children. I’m blessed to have three healthy, happy children and a wonderful extended family. Today was the birthday trip to the in-laws, a large gathering, party lunch and wonderful cake courtesy of favourite auntie #3. I have mentioned how important family are to us before and there is no exception here. Some people have been surprised by my fondness for my in-laws as if it is the written law that everyone should be at odds with theirs, well I am not (so nerr) 

The boys today got busy drawing, something that I know nana and granddad will appreciate greatly being that way inclined themselves and the accompaniment of classical music in the background gave a very relaxed feel to the room. There  was also some individual pursuits in building and reading but mostly there was playing with L and J in the garden, all having a lovely time and all getting along fantastically considering it’s only the second time they’ve met. On the way home Bean asked, ‘how old is L?’ We weren’t sure so suggested we could ask fav auntie#3 or bfg. Bean suggested we could ask L. Brilliant! Why didn’t I think of that?

I rounded off the day attending church with Plum whilst daddy put the boys to bed. Had an update on a charity we support, Raising Hope Foundation, which only added to my feeling of how blessed I am. Daddy also cooked some supper for us. A very blessed day indeed.

It's my party

Party day arrived with a busy start to the day all round. A much earlier rise than recent days, a combination of excitment and sunshine finally arriving! Even Plum woke early which is very unusual.
Plum and I had a town trip planned. I had to have extra tests at the opticians, followed by some last minute present shopping and prayer at church.
Daddy was left organising at home, namely tidying up especially the garden which has been neglected in recent weeks and now with the arrival of the sun we decided to take advantage of it for the party.
Bean welcomed his guests from 2.30 and we did all the things he had planned: pizza making, party games (pass the parcel, musical statues, musical chairs (on cushions)) rocket making, cake decorating and a party tea full of all the foods he choose.
There was a few really beautiful moments- when two party guests realised they knew each other from a ballet class, one of the boys gave up his cushion for one of the girls rending him out of the game, the youngest party guest age just 3 offering to help take out the food, and Bean giving his prize to the runner up because 'I have enough presents.' All in all a successful afternoon. It was only when Bean was going to bed (which was a very traumatic last hour to the day) that he remembered a toy we had not given out and then he suggested we give it to the one party guest who was unable to come.
I am also very grateful to good friends of ours who stayed a little longer and did washing up otherwise I'd still be clearing up now (9.30pm)
Oh and just because I never want to forget...Bean dressed up as an 'invisible alien.'

Happy Birthday Bean

A Birth Story
(yes, a birth story so look away now if you don't want to know)

Bean was born on day like today, at least the weather at 3am was similar as I stood in Worthing Hospital car park waiting for them to open the door and let us in, the rain poured and the wind blew but that's rather starting in the middle of the story! About 25 hours earlier I had woken up with small niggling feelings and they came and went every 20 minutes, I knew Bean was on his way. I slept excitedly for the remainder of the night and got up about 6am and had a bath. This was when daddy knew something was up...I am never up happily at 6am! Being my first labour I had very little idea of what to expect but had a game plan: natural birth, labour as much as possible at home, and maybe a water birth please. I put on my TENS machine unsure whether it would have any affect or not and went out with a friend and her two children, she was very relaxed having a pre-labouring woman around. The afternoon was spent at home sitting on my large gym ball whilst daddy, who worked at home in those days, was taking photos of wine glasses set up in his light tent in the living room. We popped out to get a pizza from the supermarket for our tea and this is the first memory I have of really being in labour, daddy asking me what type of pizza I would like and me holding on to the trolley, doing the breathing and signalling him to wait a minute. I think we first rang the hospital after supper and they advised us to stay at home a little longer which we did happily. I wasn't very keen on the idea of going to hospital, never having  been myself for any reason before and we had entertained a home birth but I wanted the security of knowing I was in a place that could help 'just in case.' By 10pm I was labouring in what was to be Bean's bedroom, daddy was extremely wonderful and encouraging but by midnight was very tired and went to rest in our bed so he would be able to safely make the drive to the hospital. I laid next to him on a mountain of pillows and spare duvets lying on my front, I actually think I dozed on and off. About 2am my waters broke and I threw up all over the bed. Daddy rang the hospital again and they told us to come in, they didn't even speak to me this time. (Daddy also put all the bedding in the washing machine and put clean linen on the bed whilst I changed.) When we got there I must have had 5 or 6 contractions from the car up to the labour ward. It took us nearly 15 minutes to make the short walk. I insisted on walking up the stairs too (a combination of not being too keen on lifts and remembering the parent craft talk telling us this would help) which only encourages contractions and I was continuously losing water. When we got to the ward I had another contraction as they were signing us in and they skipped the friendly introductions and 'tell me about your birth plan' bit to examine me straight away, I was convinced they were going to send me home and remember begging the mid wife not to. She was very kind and smiled at me as she said, 'your 9 1/2 cm, your not going anywhere.' This was music to my ears and really boosted me to carry on. Daddy did enquire about the water birth but a second mid wife told him by the time they ran the pool baby would be here. And she was right. They left me to it and really only stood by to catch the baby! I remember taking off the TENS machine which was annoying me by now and then being on all fours on the floor, gripping onto the rail on the bed and daddy's hand. I briefly tried the gas and air but it made me very dizzy so I did without. I remember feeling baby coming down and the enormous relief when he was born. Unfortunately his cord was really short so I couldn't see him or hold him until it had been cut. Daddy declined the offer to do this, he always felt it was a bit like declaring something open by cutting the ribbon! So 20 minutes after arriving on the labour ward we had a beautiful baby boy, welcome to the world baby Bean :)
Delivering the placenta took a while and after waiting and waiting and waiting for over an hour it finally came. Mostly Bean had lots of skin to skin with daddy during this time but I also tried to put Bean to the breast but he was far too tired and didn't feed until a few hours later. I was on the delivery suite by breakfast so had a second breakfast after having eaten on the labour ward and a few hours later we were on our way home. One happy family.