Sacred Days

Last night daddy and I were talking about the notion of spending 15 minutes a day with your children (amongst other things) It doesn't seem enough to me and it must of played on my mind all night because I woke this morning feeling guilty that I don't spend enough time with my children and I don't do enough with them. And as if the smalls heard me...

Bean reminded me that he has wanted to make a t-shirt for a long time. We have discussed on and off what this will involve and how long it might take but today he was ready to start it. Which was good as a friend had dropped off a few items of clothing XL and so we set to work. We haven't got that far but we had a really good time starting it. Pumpkin and Plum played happily on the piano.

We also built a den and added the boy's torches. Bean wanted to add lampshades and had a pretty good plan how to go about it. I showed him the traditional Chinese paper lantern model and we made two of those. This was followed by building a pirate ship with Pumpkin upstairs ready for him to sleep in tonight.

And lastly we went to the park around the corner on our bikes.

It went downhill in the afternoon but mostly due to the fact I had an altercation with taxman which took an hour and a half! But it was a comparatively small blip in the day.

Pumpkin hiding from me

This fine day

I know I've said it before but, I love Sundays.

Daddy bought me a cup of tea in bed today (not unusual) but he had already driven to Portslade and back this morning to collect Pumpkin's birthday present. He then set about helping with getting the smalls ready for the day :)

Church day saw us running out the door at the last minute (again) and then the car not starting! Fortunately after a little time it got itself going. Pumpkin was a bit out of sorts whilst we were out but generally it was a good outing.

The afternoon saw daddy building a Lego castle with Bean and me and Pumpkin getting busy in the kitchen making popcorn and pasta sauce and egg mayonnaise. We had lots of fun with Plum too who is beginning to be able to roll a ball back to you and put things into boxes and hit with hammers and rip pages out of books and giggle when you giggle . All good fun.

Have a nice day

Saturday 12th January 2013

I didn't get up until 11am today! Thank you daddy. A very long night with Plum. Not settled at all and finally passed out at about 3am but still tossing and turning and needing to be in contact with me at all times. She woke early for her too (on high insight I think she didn't really wake just stirred and I didn't give her enough time to settle again but never mind.)

I took Pumpkin to the shops today as last night he requested that we made pizzas so we put dough to make in the bread maker and headed to the shops for toppings. It was a great little venture for just us (and Plum sleeping in the buggy.) daddy took Bean out for a bike ride except he remembered at the last minute that he had left his bike at work so daddy had to jog alongside, very amusing image as daddy does not do running!

The pizza had a funny turn as well as I had put the setting onto bread baking instead of dough! Whoops! Fortunately Pumpkin thought this was funny so as daddy had to journey into town to get his phone fixed we ordered some pizza bases too (Plum went with him too to have another sleep) and then when it came to it Pumpkin didn't want to help make the pizza anymore and Bean came to help instead. This then spurred Pumpkin to help too so the boys made the dinner tonight. I had bought garlic bread but Bean wanted to know how to make it so tomorrow's adventure will include making garlic bread.

Another unsettled evening with Plum.

One day more

Daddy is upstairs trying to settle Plum as she is unsettled and I wonder how anyone lets their children cry and cry and cry all alone with no-one to comfort them. It seems that the only controlled part of controlled crying is the person with the power to do so enforcing their will on someone who has no choice in the matter. I often think that this wouldn't happen or be acceptable in any other situation. I wouldn't leave an elderly asking for help or daddy without food if he was in bed poorly or my child who was able to speak and ask for a cuddle just because they wanted one, I wouldn't leave them just because I could and they couldn't do anything about it. Ludicrous. Don't know how that turned into a rant. Rant over.

Many hours later...
Daddy soon appeared with Plum in tow. A very miserable Plum. Had a bit of a feed and sat and cuddled for a few hours and then struggled to sleep solidly, just dozed and woke for a few more hours. Then fell asleep for two solid hours, woke and fed, slept for two hours, woke and fed etc.

The rest of the day had mostly focused around den making. Bean built his own den and I helped put the blankets over it. Pumpkin wanted his own den so we turned the lower bunk into a music studio using the pots and pans for instruments. This inspired Bean to do the same, which made for a very musical and loud few hours!

We took a trip to the farm shop to buy some much needed fruit and veg and stopped at the play area on the way back. With no bikes the games the boys played changed quite drastically and Plum was asleep so I had lots of time to play with the boys. Mostly the boys set about finding out how high the swing could go, how bouncy the see-saw could be and how fast they could stand the round-a-bout. Lots of fun and laughter.

The day ended with more puzzles, marble run and some stories.

At the end of the day

Our big adventure today was taking the train to Crawley. We had a Christmas pressie that needed exchanging and to make the shopping trip more eventful I decided that taking our first train trip without daddy was the way to do it. The boys would much rather take the train than any other form of transport. It all worked out pretty well except they don't have a lift to cross the platform and I had taken the buggy so it was a mammoth walk around to the other side but the boys were adventurous and it all worked out okay. We were all a little tired when we got home though.

Back at home there was more puzzle collaboration (a puzzle a day!) some drawing, reading of books, watching, computer games on the iPad, lots of talk about time zones and time differences between different places and how it feels to miss our friends when we don't get to see them.

We have also managed to find something new to watch that Bean is comfortable with. The Kipper series based on the Kipper books. It seems that things that have been introduced in book form are the way forward as long as nothing too dramatic happens in the tale.

Just another day

A crazy 24 hours in which daddy had to unexpectedly drive to Kent to see Grandad who had been taken to hospital and not knowing when he would return. He did return and asked how things had been here. It's so impossible to remember or record everything that goes on even on a relatively relaxed day.

A very late start to the day. Boys waking at 7.30am and Plum at 9.40am consequently second breakfast wasn't served until nearly 11. We were heading into town just as the two primary schools down our road were having lunch! Love the freedom of home ed. we headed for the library, returning a whooping 28books (which I carried) and bringing home a significantly smaller selection.

Bean drew some pictures in his new sketch book, we read more books, watched tv, talked about where water comes from, watched dominoes falling on YouTube, counted our fingers, cooked dinner, made pudding, got our own drinks, and was it today that I came downstairs and found Bean had cleared ALL the plates and cups of the table after breakfast? Wow!

The boys are also working together on a new puzzle they have been given, reigniting their interest in sea creatures but just as importantly they worked in peaceful collaboration on it, so beautiful to watch.

I sold something today too, putting money into our holiday pot. I'm determined to make it across the pond and so the great garage sale begins.

Another Day

A busy day with a trip to Fisher's Farm followed by play at a friend's house and then home to wrestle with a very tired baby.

Fisher's farm have an indoor pass deal for January which we are taking advantage of. We spent two hours charging around with lots of friends before there were some tale tell signs that we were running out of energy. On the drive to our friends house both Plum and Pumpkin fell asleep. Both woke up when we got there. Which is fine for Pumpkin but a 10 minute nap is not long enough for a baby girl.

We spent over an hour with the smalls all playing various games mostly independent of each other and Bean demonstrated his anxiety over watching new things on the tele, not helped by his overtired ness and we took the opportuntity to head home where he almost fell asleep in the car. Plum fell asleep again.

However, Pumpkin decided to wake her by hurting her when we arrived home. I'm not sure what he did as I was getting out the car when it happened and he was not willing to give details but I sat with her for an hour with her dozing on and off but not sleeping this was coupled with the boys arguing over various things and charging noisily up and down the stairs. It was a reasonably stressful hour, mostly because it could have been avoided. Plum had a feed and was happier to crawl around. The boys had turned the screen around on the computer too (I have no idea how) and I had a little fiddle with it but decided best to wait till daddy came home or I had some space and time to have a good look at it.

After dinner saw a flurry of activity, again. Showing Bean how to play scrabble and him listing the five words in the world that he knows how to spell (cat, dog, Isaac, anna, ox,) Pumpkin looking at books, reading fairy tales with mummy, playing piano.

Bean was in bed by 8, Pumpkin fel asleep on the sofa watching cars about 9.15 and Plum was in bed by 9. Now for some mummy and daddy time watching a little something from lovefilm streamed mmm delightful.