A few lines & photos from me again

I might get this blog post up tonight ... that is, if Benjamin decides to let me! :) He keeps pulling my mouse, hitting the keys, and grabbing anything else that's within reach (which probably means quite a lot, since my desk is so messy!).

It's just been another usual week. Nothing out of the ordinary happening. Been very dark and damp too, so means being rather confined to the house. Can't really get out and do much of anything in the rain. The sun finally came out today - first time in like a week, I think. So I decided I'd had enough of being in the house and would take Abigail and Benjamin out for a bit this morning. I'd forgotten to get onions when I did shopping on Tuesday, so we went to Lidl to get some, since the recipe I was making for dinner required them. I get groceries on Tuesdays and Fridays, but usually go by car - so doesn't really feel like getting out of the house to take a 2 minute car trip to Lidl & Tesco! Sometimes I wish I only had to get groceries once a week, but I don't think my fridge/freezer is really big enough, hence why I go twice a week.

Seems I've rather rambled past what I started out talking about - going out this morning with A & B (not that it was anything exciting). Anyway, the sun came & went, as did the rain - got a bit wet, though I think the kids stayed fairly dry under the hoods of the pushchair. (Must find a new raincover to go along with my new double pushchair - then we can go out in downpours even! lol) We popped in a few shops along the high street too. In one of the charity shops I found a "vintage" (1971) Fisher Price school set, complete with children, teacher, desks, swing set, and merry-go-round. I know Abigail has loads of toys, but I found it hard to pass up something that I had as a child! :) No, I wasn't around in 1971, but these toy sets were still very much on the go when I was younger and I spent *many* hours of my childhood playing with Fisher Price little people. Anyway, not sure Peter thought it's asking price of £2 was a bargain, since it was so old - but I had a look on eBay later and found that people pay as much as £20-£30 (inc postage) for these sets, so looks like I got a real bargain! :-)

OK, enough of my silly nonsense. No one will be interested in such detail about my charity shop find - except maybe Sarah! ;-) lol Pity I can't think of anything more interesting to say. Oh yes, my little boy has turned into a duck! .... His newest thing to say is "quack quack" and it sounds very duck-like too! Not sure what he means by it, but it's really funny.

Here are a few photos of my children once again - and then I'll be off to bed!

Benjamin standing up at the fish tank. He finds it fascinating to watch them swim around and will stand there for ages.

Benjamin standing in his cot and a "shy" Abigail hiding her eyes from the camera

Abigail taking over Daddy's computer

Standing up at Mummy's lap

Look what we found under this box! Well, you can only see his socks in this photo, but there's a Benjamin under here! I heard a sound from under the box and was very surprised to find what was inside. He was happy too - not scared at all.

And no, he didn't come to any harm from the above incident. Here he is, as happy as ever, playing with his big sister.

OK, my weekly blog post is now finished. Seems I never get round to it more than once a week, so that's why you get a whole bunch of photos at once - sorry! But I'm sure someone, at least great-grandparents in Texas :-) will be glad to see them!

I'm still around - are you? :)

Hello again!

It's now over a week since I said anything here, but I'm still alive & well! Not sure anyone is reading this, as there weren't any comments on my last two posts! ;-) Then again, maybe they were just too boring!

Nothing out of the ordinary has happened lately. Just all the usual day to day things involved in looking after children (husband too!) and selling books. Abigail and Benjamin are as active as ever. I know I've said it before, but I hardly remember Benjamin ever being a baby. It feels nearly like I have two toddlers. If it wasn't for the fact that Benjamin still lives on just mummy's milk (and the occasional nibbles of food, though not to satisfy his hunger), I'd forget he was still a baby! :) He continues to spend lots of time on his feet and is really getting good at keeping his balance. He walks along furniture and even moves from one piece of furniture to another, provided there isn't toooo big of a gap between them. I'm just waiting for him to start walking next! He certainly keeps me busy, as he loves to eat paper and anything else he can fit into his mouth. At least Abigail like to help monitor his actions, though it results in lots of "No Benjamin, No Benjamin, No Benjamin" - and occasionly she thinks it's fun to tell him "No" for no reason at all! But at least they're such best friends and love playing with each other. You should see Benjamin's smile when he sees his sister coming up to him! Just not so good when Abigail prefers him to be awake at all times, and will wake him up just to play with her! :) She is doing a bit better though, and today she played in her room for quite a long time while he slept in the cot and she never tried to disturb him.

Here are a few photos - of A & B of course! ;-)

Benjamin just after a bath - he can't stay still for 2 seconds! lol He's already sat up and has a carrier bag in one hand and bubble wrap in the other (yeah, untidy mum's fault for leaving stuff on the bed), but really it's a big struggle for every nappy change even! He's determined that he's meant to be on the move 24/7!

The two of them playing together

and again

Standing up at his walker in the kitchen

Two in a bed :) Abigail really wanted benjamin to lie in bed with her, so we manged to tuck him in for a few seconds and I got this pic. But she was rather annoyed that he wanted to crawl out immediately!

OK, it's gone 10pm, my new bed time. I've got myself on a bit of a new routine. I decided to keep my computer completely turned off all during the day so I'll not get distracted with it and can get more useful things done. So it doesn't come on until sometime in the evening, once Abigail is asleep or when I'm putting her to sleep. Today is my 3rd day since this change and I think it's loads better than before. It's been too easy to just sit down in front of it for unknown lengths of time and waste too much time that should be spent doing something else. Early bedtime is also part of the change (like heading for bed at 10ish), so I can cope with Abigail wanting to get up early in the mornings.

Goodnight & hope I haven't chased everyone off with my boring ramblings! :)

Photos from Abigail's birthday - part 2

This is the second half of photos from Abigail's birthday, so please scroll down and see post 1 first! :-)

Another photo of Abigail and her guests

Abigail trying out her slide and Gerrit holding her lovely baby doll that she got from her Grandpa, Aunties, and Uncles

Abigail playing with her basket of "shopping" (also a gift from dad and the kids). This was taken on Wednesday morning and she's been having loads of fun with it all and having lots of tea parties! :)

Some birthday cards

Not birthday related ... but here's a pic of Benjamin taken today. He's discovered that this lamp is a touch lamp and he loves to stand in the crib and tap it to make the light go on and off! I think it's quite clever for an 8 mo baby - but then again, most mums probably think their babies are clever! ;-)

Ok, that's me for tonight! Must get some sleep. Probably could think of other rambling things to say, but will leave it for now! :) Goodnight!

Abigail: 2 going on 24!

Conversation this evening:

Mummy: "Abigail, how old are you?"

Abigail: "Ummm...."

Mummy: "Abigail, how many years old are you?"

Abigail: "Twenty-four!"

- - - - -

Abigail's 2nd birthday was on Monday. We invited Dad and the kids to come and stay the night with us, which they agreed to! :) Abigail was all excited for nearly a week before they actually came. I think she was wondering if her birthday would ever come - though she kept telling us that "Abigail's birthday is next week" or "Abigail's birthday is on Monday", so she had some idea when it was!

Abigail was quite decided on the idea of having a "kitty cat" cake, so I got a couple of cake decorating books from the library to get some ideas about how to create a cat. The books were all for really very talented people and I could have never made a cake like the ones in the books, but it did give me a few ideas anyway. I decided to do my decorations (from sugarpaste coloured with food colouring) last week, so I would only have the cake to bake and the buttercream icing to make on Monday. Anyway, it was fun, even if it didn't turn out as well as it might have done. And most importantly, it was good enough for Abigail, who asked later that day: "I want to see Abigail's lovely kitty cat cake!" :-)

So here are a few photos now:

Birthday cake!

Abigail pointing to her cake just after I finished it

Not very sure about candles! She wasn't very keen on the idea of blowing them out, but for the rest of the evening she kept on talking about her birthday and "blowing up" the candles! :-D

Opening presents

Abigail and her "party" guests (aunties & uncles), with her new slide from Mummy & Daddy in the background

.....more photos to come in a few minutes in second post

Snow

I realised that although I've posted quite a few blogs of photos, it has been a while since I actually said anything! Not sure this blog will be much different though, as I've already got the limit of 5 photos uploaded here! Oh well. Maybe I should have said I was doing a photo blog rather than a chatty one?! ;-)

Haven't been up to much out of the ordinary these past couple of weeks. Just trying to catch up with things and get back to normal. Finally made a start at some housework like dusting and hoovering - only managed to get the downstairs a bit more tidy, as Abigail was sleeping & didn't want to wake her. Maybe I'll have some energy tomorrow to do upstairs, which is actually worse ... and the bathroom too! :-p

I'm trying to see if we can cut out Abigail's naps (at least afternoon ones) and see if she sleeps better at night. She went to sleep at 7 last night and did wake a couple of times, but otherwise not bad and a quiet evening for me! But it meant she was ready to start the day at 6am this morning! :) But that was OK, at least I'd got into bed before 11 last night (rare for me!) and was nice she got me out of bed early. She went to sleep this evening at 8 and so far (nearly 11 now) she's only been awake briefly when the sound of some packaging tape woke her up. We'll see if I can get to bed before she wakes again!

Here are a couple of photos of what it looked like outside this morning. There was snow on the low lying hills around the town, and a big blanket on the "local" mountain (as seen in 2nd pic)! I took these photos from Abigail's bedroom window. The snow wasn't a total surprise though, as we had about 3 minutes of snow flurries yesterday afternoon - nothing stuck though.

Snow on the hills around town.

Big white object is Ben Wyvis covered in snow! Brrrr

Benjamin now wants to stand up at every object he can find! Here he is standing at Abigail's bed (with Abigail making a rather funny face beside him). Benjamin is also practicing climbing and was on a box yesterday. I don't think it will be long until he's walking. Seems I nearly have two toddlers already, rather than a toddler and an 8mo! Sometimes I feel I can hardly remember him actually being a baby - he just wants to grow up so quickly.

Abigail and Benjamin playing in a tent that Aunty Leah got for Abigail. The two of them are *always* playing together - they're such great friends! :-)

This photo here isn't staged at all and I thought it was too cute to miss getting a photo of. She was playing "house/mummy" in her room with her dolls, teddy bears, kitchen and pretend food. Here she is "cooking dinner" while she is wearing her "baby" in her sling (which on this occasion happens to be a tiny bear). But it was just so sweet to see her doing this all on her own. :) She looks so grown up.

OK, I'm signing off now & getting into bed. Morning will come all too soon, not to mention babies (or not so babies!) waking up in the night multiple times!

Photos from Texas - final post!

Here's my last installment of photos from Texas. It's possible that this long list of photos (30 in all) has run on to multiple pages, so you may have to click "older posts" to see them all.

Abigail showing great interest in the train magazine her daddy was looking at!

Benjamin wearing his biscuit rather than eating it! ;-)

2nd cousins: Matthew, Claire, and Abigail

cousins again :)

Uncle Ernie reading a story to Abigail ..... photo taken by Nat, with his camera

Photos from Texas - post 5

Abigail & Uncle Nat again

Abigail in an underwater tunnel at the zoo

I thought she'd be scared of the tunnel, but she didn't want to come out!! :)

Abigail brushing the goats at the petting zoo

A Zebra

Photos from Texas - post 4

Abigail and Uncle Nat

Abigail sitting with an "elephant"

Giraffes

Abigail & daddy at the zoo

One of the giraffes

Photos from Texas - post 3

Sorry for the delay in further photos! Here's a few more...we'll see how many I get done tonight! :) Peter & Abigail (drawing in the sand) at the beach in Galveston

At the beach again...Peter trying to tell Abigail to look at the camera, but didn't work!

Lovely photo! Daddy and his little girl walking in the sand as the waves wash ashore.

Family photo of us at the Houston Zoo, near the lion cage, but can't see anything in this photo.

Zoo again - a female lion is lying near one of the large rocks

Photos from Texas - post 2

Abigail and her cousin Claire

Me pushing Benjamin and Abigail on the Strand in Galveston

Benjamin on the Strand in Galveston

Abigail and her Daddy on the Strand

Abigail running after her Daddy at the beach in Galveston

...... might be tomorrow before I finish posting photos, as it's late & both kids are still awake! :-S