MIND READING

Teeny - 365

"Oh no it's all over my face mommy" he says as he holds his head in his hand.  "It should actually be in my belly." 

 

Ok, so you are too young to have said all of that, but I know that is exactly what you are thinking.

OVERRUN

D - 365

I don't know how it happened, but you always seem to be surrounded by girls.  Occasionally you get a bit tired of it if they are being a bit too "girlish" (that is your sister's word) and I feel bad for you being subjected to dressing up and make up so often because it just really isn't your thing.  When you are outdoors though the fact that you are sometimes outnumbered doesn't phase you in the slightest; you had so much fun with the girls  today (Teeny isn't capable of running around with you yet) and it was the perfect way for you all to spend a late summers morning.

ANOTHER GIRL!

D - 365

Aside from your little brother, you seem to spend most of your time surrounded by little ladies and so I think your new cousin came as a teeny bit of a disappointment.  Another girl, I hear you sigh and I think that face says it all.  Nonetheless you are such a sensitive soul that I know that you are growing to love her already.

"LIKE WILLIAM"

D - 365

"Like William".  A phrase I hear so much that I would pretty much be a millionaire if I had had £1 for every one of those times.  When we shop for clothes; when we see certain caps or footwear or motorbikes or cars.  When we see people who do the same job as him or who own the same things as he owns.  The list is pretty much endless; not that  I mind though.  There are only a handful of men that I wouldn't mind you idolising (almost) as much as your daddy and he is certainly one of them. 

STRIKE A POSE

A - 365

"Mama, you take a photograph and I'll pose!"

EH-YO

Teeny - 365

Why is it that, even when there are plenty of toys to play with, you (like your brother and sister before you and no doubt millions of other children) love  to play with things you aren't supposed to?  At the moment picking up the phone and saying "eh-yo" into it is one of your favourite things to do .  You aren't yet walking, but your sounds and 'words' are coming on by the day so I suspect that you may well have inherited another of your sister's traits, talking for England!

BREASTFEEDING AWARENESS WEEK 2013 - DAY FIVE

And here we have the fifth photograph in my series of seven.

 

This photo of me breastfeeding Teeny (not that you can tell) was taken in line to see Father Christmas at Thomas Land where we had gone as a treat for A&D's fourth birthday.  That's one of the great things about breastfeeding; you can do it completely on the go  which is a necessity when buzzing around a theme park with two (not quite) four year olds.  After all there's "no time to stop Mommy".

NO!

D - 89/365

This photograph followed this conversation.

Me - Baby, can I take a photograph of you while we're waiting for Daddy because I don't have one for today?

D - No! (as he turns his head away from me to make it difficult for me to take a half decent one.)

Me - Thanks.

PANCAKE DAY

A - 43/365

Mix a pancake,

Stir a pancake,

Pop it in the pan;

Fry the pancake,

Toss the pancake,

Catch it if you can

 

Christina G. Rossetti

NURSERY BLOG

D - 38/365

Everyday at least five times per day I hear the phrase "can we see if Mr Walby has blogged a new blog yet?" from either you or your sister.  Mr Walby works so hard updating your nursery blog, but it is never enough for the two of you.  So D here you are checking out one or two new posts on the blog from today.  You are so lucky to go to such a lovely nursery and have such fantastic teachers.  Fingers crossed for school places there.

IN GRANDAD'S CHAIR

D - 29/365

Grandad Bobby has his own special chair, but on a visit to see him you are always quick to jump in it when you think he's not watching.  Be careful or he will "thump your lump"*.

 

*He won't really that is just his catchphrase.

TEAR STAINED

A - 16/365

I never want to crush your fighting spirit, but maybe I need to help you to better understand when to use it because today it resulted in tear stains to your face and to my heart.  I ended up letting you cry it out on the short drive home and this is how I found you when we got there; asleep from crying so hard and when you awoke and I asked you why you were cross you replied with "I don't know, but I am cross at myself now" and then the tears flowed all over again.

BANANA PIE

A - 7/365

Today A wanted a job and to do while I was making the dinner so I asked her to put the potatoes I had peeled and cut into the empty saucepan.  When I came back into the room she was chattering away to herself as she often does (and as I often remember doing when I was a child).

 

Me - What are you doing sweetheart?

A - Making banana pie Mommy.

Me - Oh ok; what is in banana pie?

A - Banana, carrots, parsnips.  It's erm simply delicious you know!

A SPECIAL PLACE

My poor little lovelies have all been full of coughs and colds this weekend, but despite them all feeling quite poorly they have been lovely and I have had very few complaints from any of them.  It is most unlike A to have a daytime nap, but she seems to have been hit the worst and so this afternoon she took one in the same place that I like to be when I am poorly - cuddled up with her Daddy - and as much as he hates it when his babies are poorly I think he was secretly quite pleased.

"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."  MAYA ANGELOU

EID MUBARAK

A & D are lucky to attend a nursery where the class is very culturally diverse and before they broke up from nursery for half term they made Eid cards.  When  I picked them up that day and they told me what they had been doing I asked them what they had learned about Eid.  A told me that it is a celebration and that they have to take their shoes off and wash their toes!  (Oh the things that children remember!)  She also asked me if we would be celebrating Eid.  I explained that we would not because Eid is celebrated by Muslims and we are not muslim, but that we could go and take the cards to our next door neighbours as they would be celebrating Eid and that if they had any questions about Eid they could ask their little friend next door or her mommy who I am sure would be more than happy to answer them.

 

So this afternoon they very proudly trotted off next door with Daddy to take their cards and I was very proud of them for being so happy and excited to celebrate people's differences. 

So following my children's lead can I wish all of those celebrating today Eid Mubarak.

 

"While we try to teach our children all about life, our children teach us what life is all about." ANGELA SCHWINDT

MY EQUAL

 

 "He is my most beloved friend and my bitterest rival, my confidant and my betrayer, my sustainer and my dependent, and scariest of all, my equal." GREGG LEVOY

I JUST WANT TO PRESS PAUSE

So yesterday A&D finished pre-school and will be going to the school nursery in September ready for school the following year.  It only seems like five minutes ago that I was writing this post yet here we are; they have done a whole school year, grown and developed in an indescribable way and made some lovely friends in the process.  However despite all this I feel a little bit sad and I just want to press the pause button; their life is passing by far too quickly.  A had got to the stage where she was running into pre-school and most mornings forgetting to even kiss me and in typical boy fashion D will let me kiss him and then wipe it off!  It was not so long ago that I could cuddle up with them for hours if I wanted to and now 10 minutes is my lot!  Oh how I wish I could go back to when they were tiny and enjoy them as babies instead of stressing so much about everything and feeling like I had something to prove.

A&D's pre-school presentation after their
olympic themed leavers party

Then there is Teeny's too.  I cannot believe that he will be 13 weeks old tomorrow.  Where did that go?  I have already had to force myself to take the wedge out of Teeny's car seat last week because he was so squashed up in it, but I was am so desperate to keep him small I hadn't been able to take it out.  I feel so sad that already he needs me less.  I know most people yearn for their baby to sleep  through the night and I am pretty sure I did with A&D (it was a very difference experience with them though), but I feel a little sad that, apart from the odd occasion, Teeny does not need to nurse during the night anymore.  It was our one time to have a sneaky little cuddle; for me to smell him and be in awe of the lovely little life before me without anybody to disturb us and now that is over far too quickly  Where has my teeny tiny squidgy baby gone?

Not So Squidgy

Maybe I am feeling it more because I know Teeny is very likely to be my last baby.  I don't think I will ever be one of those women who says they never want another baby, but at some point reality has to kick in.  I am not very materialistic, but I do not want us to struggle financially as they grow up and we are really not that well off now so as much as I would love to have more I think we would really struggle if we did.  I also want to have a new career vocation once they are all at school; I feel very blessed that we have a situation that works for us in that we both work and get to spend a great amount of time with our children, but the job that I will go back to after my maternity leave is the means to an end for us, you know a stopgap and not something I want to do for the rest of my life.  I want to do something meaningful that I am passionate about and for my children to see that passion in me.  I never want them to think that they have to settle.

I peruse so many "mommy blogs" which are beautiful and filled with love and endless hours of mommies doing so many wonderful things with their children and I really yearn for that kind of lifestyle because I don't want to have regrets about what I missed out on when my children were growing up, but I have no idea how to make that a reality.  I am by no means any kind of super housewife and I certainly don't live in a show home (if only), but a lot of the time life just takes over and I am desperate to relax and make more special time with the wonderful children I have and cherish them in every way possible.

I just want to press pause to keep them still and small and just hold them and never let them go, but even if it were possible it would be selfish.  I know that what I actually have to do is nurture them and encourage their independence so that when it is time their wings will open and they won't be afraid to fly.

I'm off now for a little cry...

"The greatest gifts you can give your children are the roots of responsibility and the wings of independence."  DENIS WAITLEY

SUNSHINE, SWIMMING POOLS AND SECRET GARDENS

Well if we ignore some bombshell news on Saturday (which I really don't feel ready to think about let alone talk or write about at the moment) we have had a lovely weekend. 

In spite of the fact that it is October we are having gorgeous weather and so we took the opportunity to have a friend of ours along with her son, who is just one, and daughter who is just 15 days younger than my two over for a barbecue on Friday.  Unfortunately her lovely husband was working away so was unable to indulge with us.

I love getting together with Christy and her little ones.  She is just a sweetie and the children always play so lovely together.  Friday was no different the children had a whale of a time playing in the play house, trampoline and paddling pool amongst other things.  Yes that's right my children were playing in their paddling pool on 30 September yet they have not been able to play in it over the actual summer!  Bizarre!

We did have a minor hiccup (okay maybe a fairly major one) in that my normally quite domesticated husband hadn't bothered to clean the barbecue last time we used it (as with most men the barbecue is his domain) and because our summer has been so rubbish and the last time we used it seems like forever ago it was in no fit state to cook food on so Muggins here ended up having to cook it all on the cooker.  Seeing as the teeny bit of domestic goddess that I have in me had spent the day shopping for lovely barbecue food and then the rest of it marinading meat, making beef burgers, seasoning  potatoes, making salad, etc, etc, etc I was not impressed by the fact that I then had to cook it all!  That was so not the deal!

Anyway needless to say it all turned out lovely in the end and we had a really nice afternoon/evening with some really great friends and the kids were absolutely warn out.  I did, however, forget to send Christy's husband his doggy bag for when he got back from work though.  Sorry about that lovely!

H enjoying her ice cream

A being the cool chilled out little boy that he always is

A & D - As thick as thieves

My little lady all wrapped up and dishevelled after a dip in the pool

H bouncing around

Can I just ask though, why is it that no matter how much you have worn them (and yourselves) out your kids NEVER seem to want to have a lie in, just once, just for half an hour?  Ha ha, can you tell I am desperate for a lie in? 

Lucky for us we got to see some more of our fabulous friends (we really are privileged in that department) on Saturday.  They recently moved into their new house and so obviously we had to go and have a nose round.  I had intended to make chocolate orange muffins to take as a housewarming pressie, but was prevented from doing so by having to use my oven to cook the barbecue food on Friday night so hence no room for the muffins on Friday and no time on Saturday morning!  I am sure that they will get them at some point, but when I am not quite sure now.

Their new house is just lovely and has so much potential to be a fabulous family home.  They waited so long to sell their house and had a short list of houses to view, but actually ended up buying one  which had just come on the market so it is clearly fate and meant to be.  I am so pleased for them that things have all worked out.  It also has an added bonus for me of them being closer to us so when maternity leave kicks in for that precious cargo they have on board I will be able to pop round for cuddles in next to no time, although I am not sure that they will be so impressed by that prospect!  Ha ha.  Just kidding.  While the boys talked shop (well loft conversions and conservatories) I was given the guided tour of their new home by my beautiful surrogate niece who is five months younger than my two and VERY excited to be living in a new house.  I feel very blessed that she loves her Auntie Rach.

The main attraction of the new house for the children was it's fabulous garden which is very mature and just fabulous, it sort of has three separate sections and reminded me a bit of a secret garden.  I thought it was just lovely, but if I had been a kid I would have been in my element as obviously the children were.  It has a few little paths, a veg patch, apple trees, grass, decking, a teeny pond (which we did not draw the children's attention to) and the list just goes on.  The highlight for my two was using the toy wheelbarrow to collect all of the apples that had fallen off the tree; not just the obvious ones, but they were even foraging for the ones that had fallen into bushes and plants and Auntie Maz was very impressed that they had saved her a job.

Look at all my hard work mommy!

Thanks so much guys for sharing your weekend with us.  We are truly blessed to have you.

"It is your friends who make your world."  WILLIAM JAMES