Still December??

Here's Benjamin to say hello to you at the top of this blog post! :) I meant this photo to be at the bottom, but accidentally deleted it, and now I'm unable to put it back where I wanted it (apart from re-uploading every single photo, one at a time). So, here he is at the top! Photo was taken last night while I was doing the dishes (probably around 9pm!), as unfortunately, if he has a nap at all, he won't go to sleep at a sensible time. However, he occasionally look/acts as if he *really* needs a bit of daytime sleep, so I just have to give up my otherwise quiet evening & keep him from disturbing a sleeping Abigail...until about 10pm!

So yes, it's still December. When I posted the week before last I was thinking I'd probably not put anything here until the new year. However, I felt like posting, so here I am.

Wonder what interesting (or, more likely, boring) news I might have. OH yes, last week I passed the theory part of my UK driving test!!! :-D I was soooo pleased. My first attempt and I passed it. Phew, what a relief! Now, I must try to tackle the practical (actual driving!) part of the test, as I'd really like to get my driving license before baby #3 arrives. Peter thinks I should at least have 1 lesson with a trained instructor to see if they think I'm ready for it, but so far haven't done anything in that direction. Maybe once the holidays are over I'll do something.

Here's Abigail & Benjamin having a picnic together - something they frequently enjoy doing - tea parties too!

Benjamin's idea of a cuddly toy! :-) He felt like climbing in bed for a wee rest the other afternoon (he often does this when he feels tired, but doesn't actually go to sleep on his own) and he brought his "campie" (what he calls camper vans, or most vans even!) to bed with him and insisted that he wanted it tucked in with him.

Benjamin wearing the "baby" trousers that I recently finished crocheting. Yes, they were meant to be tiny trousers but something went very wrong (obviously!) and I ended up with quite large ones. I'm guessing I used a much bigger yarn than the pattern called for and possibly a bigger hook too. In any case they were meant to be "newborn sized" but looked rather like 6-9 months when I finished them - however, in actual fact, they fit Benjamin quite nicely, who wears size 18-24m clothes (tho maybe slightly short in the legs)! The pattern doesn't even give instructions for making them that big - only up to 12-18m, so don't know what happened.

Back view of crocheted trousers. They're not bad really (in my opinion!) but just *not* what they were supposed to be. :)

Last Saturday when we were in Tesco I spotted that they'd reduced some gingerbread house kits down from 5 pounds to a mere 9 pence!!! I don't think they're actually very tasty to eat, but I thought you can't possibly go wrong with spending 9p for an art project/toddler activity....even without eating it! So Abigail & Benjamin had fun helping put it together & decorate it on Saturday afternoon. Benjamin was quite excited when he realised the decorations were edible - and we had to keep him from eating them all before they got stuck on.

Close up of our masterpiece! haha

So, what else I wonder? Oh yeah, I've been back to the doctors again yesterday as the wheezing in my lungs hasn't gone away...and got rather worse when I did dusting/hoovering under the bed, etc. Soooo, I think I'm allergic to my dirty/dusty house! Anyway, after reading up on asthma I was thinking it sounded rather like what I've had (as well as having problems in the past with breathing after being around cigarette smoke or mould). And the doctor yesterday said again that he thinks the problems are asthmatic, even if I don't have a severe case of it. However, the wheezing I had yesterday was very loud and it's especially important during pregnancy to deal with asthma, as the baby needs to be sufficiently oxygenated. So, the doctor has increased my "reliever" inhaler to 4 times a day, and has given me a new prescription for a steroid "preventer" inhaler which I'm meant to take twice a day. Naturally, I'm rather reluctant to want to take something like steroids when I'm pregnant, but supposedly it's a low level of them. Also, I'm told (both by doctor & online information) that the lack of oxygen can be more harmful to the baby than medications to treat the asthma...so guess I better take what I'm given and try to get better.

Right, must get to sleep, but I'll leave you with this photo of my lovely little boy. Doesn't he have the cutest smile? OK, I will be biased since I'm the mummy, but he really is a darling. He's all dressed warm (as in, 2 pairs of pyjamas), as it's *very* cold outside - everything has been frozen solid for days and it's several degrees below freezing. I think this is the coldest I've ever experienced here in Scotland - brrr! Can't wait for it to thaw.

Nearly 2009

Not sure where this year has gone, but seems to have just flown by. Or at least the last 6 months have. One week seems to begin and before I know it, it's already Friday again. Anyway, thought I'd try to get another post done before December is over - though I'm not sure anyone is still reading this. However, I felt like posting, so here I am, even if I'm just talking to myself! :-)

Here's Benjamin showing Tigger and his favourite teddy bear (which Evelyn gave him) out the window. He loves to stand on his train table and look at the passing cars, trucks, vans, etc that are on the main road (beyond the row of houses which back onto our gardens). He only gets a passing glimpse of them between two houses, but it's exciting for him even still.

Climbing on mummy's computer chair - I think he's a born climber, which can be rather scary at times (especially when it's the fire guard or bunk bed that he's getting on). But he doesn't seem to have any sense of danger yet - wonder when that will come?!

Not sure what Abigail was doing here, but seems I'm rather low on photos of her today, so thought I'd include it anyway. She likes to help mummy out whenever she can (though isn't always keen on tidying up messes). Having said that, she did a really good job on her bedroom yesterday (without even being told - she just realised it was a mess and was determined to keep working until it was clean). She likes to help with laundry, and even went in the kitchen last week and tried to do the dishes all by herself. Unfortunately she didn't have clean water to do them in, so I had to wash them again later - but I didn't have the heart to stop her, as she was really trying hard to help me, since she thought I wasn't feeling too well.

Benjamin's new pastime: reading the Motor section of the local weekly newspaper! :-) He gets soooo excited when he sees this and thinks it's especially for him - he'll spend ages studying them all. He was telling me this evening (when the above photo was taken) "a black Rover car" - see, he's already into what make/brand the cars are! LOL However, I think it might have been a BMW (or something totally different - don't think it was a Rover, but was certainly a good guess). But he's quite mad about cars and talks about wanting to drive daddy's car.

I'm sure I've mentioned before what a chatter box Benjamin is. He's always surprising me with the big words that he comes out with. He listens carefully to all conversations or whenever someone is reading something and he picks out words that he's not heard before, which sound unusual (like place names in the Bible, or names like Zebedee!) and he repeats them multiple times. His new phrase today is "I think so". But it's amazing how clearly he says things too - I have such fun just listening to him talk. He was being very friendly today in Tesco and kept saying hello to just about everyone he met, and commenting to a lady about the melon in her shopping trolly! He never has really interacted like that before with people in shops, so it was quite funny. He's also really trying to learn letters at the moment - maybe he wants to pass Abigail up and learn to read before her! LOL The other day he found a Z and said "Z for Zoo" and then a G and said "G for Granny" and he likes to spot letters in the middle of words. However, the magnetic M's, he prefers to say they are W's (when upside down), his favourite being a yellow & orange one, which he brought to both lunch & dinner yesterday! I think he knows all the ordinary colours, identifies them correctly, and always says the colour of something at the same time as saying what it is, as colours are very important to him!

My big little boy again - must stop talking about him so much, or this will be a Benjamin post! :-) However, I'll just say that I'm pleased to report that he's doing very well with sleeping at night - yay! Several times in the past week he's slept from 7:30pm to 7:30am, completely in his own bed, in the other room with Abigail. He occasionally wakes up once or twice and stirs a bit, but once I help him with his cup (he seems to get very thirsty in the night) he's back asleep again. A couple of times he got rather cold (having got out from under his duvet) and after trying to settle him back down again in his bed, he sat up and said "Mummy, get Benjy ... cuddle", to which I couldn't possibly say no! :-) So a couple of times I've taken him back to our bed to warm him up and he wraps his arms around my neck, as he *loves* cuddles just now - all day long he'll come up to me and say "Mummy cug" or "Mummy cuddle" - he can say cuddle perfectly, but still likes to use "cug" instead, quite frequently. Anyway, regarding sleep, unfortunately Benjamin sleeping through at night isn't meaning I'm getting all that much extra sleep, as Abigail has started night wakings just at the *very* same time as he started sleeping! :-( She'd occasionally wake up and get a drink from her cup by her bed and climb back in bed quite happily, but lately she's been a bit worried about the dark etc and wanders into our room or climbs in our bed etc. I often take her back to her bed and lie down with her, but she doesn't seem to be falling asleep again as quickly as before. I'm just hoping it's a short phase and she's back to sleeping through the night again as she's done for many months now.

My lovely little girl, who looks very grown up here (along with her brother being silly).

Hmmm, seems I've done enough talking for one night - if not the whole month! ;-) I ought to get to sleep soon. I've not been feeling well lately - well, ever since I had a cold in the middle of September - yes, 3 months ago! I've had lingering cold symptoms (mainly chest congestion and wheezing/short of breath). I've been hoping it would go away on it's own, but I seemed to be getting worse yesterday and was feeling quite weak with the lack of breath/noisy wheezing in my lungs. So, I finally went to see a doctor today. Not sure if he knew exactly what was wrong, but since it seems there might be a bit of infection, I've got a course of antibiotics to take and he's also prescribed me an inhaler to try and help with the wheezing. He thought I sounded a bit asthmatic, but I wouldn't have thought so myself. Anyway, just hope to start feeling better soon.

OK, goodnight everyone - or rather, anyone who might happen to still be reading my boring words.

Spynie Palace, Snow etc

Last weekend Historic Scotland was doing a "free entry weekend" for a number of their properties. It included exciting places like Edinburgh & Stirling Castles, however, I thought that would be too far of a journey to do on a Saturday (esp with icy road conditions, etc), so we opted for a more managable day out and went to Elgin, where we visited Spynie Palace. It dates back to the 15th century. I think Peter thought it might be rather boring going to a rather ruined site, however, I think that made it a lot more fun for the children - they could run around and there wasn't anything they were forbidden to touch! Benjamin & Abigail didn't want to leave, but eventually we got rather frozen (as it was just above freezing point there - and below freezing back home!), so when the sun went away, it was *cold*! Anyway, here are a few photos from the outing - however, they're rather poor quality. It turns out I not only forgot my camera's memory card (so only had the tiny internal memory), but also had nearly dead batteries - so we only barely managed to turn it on for a few seconds here & there to snap one photo before it died again, meaning the pics were rushed & poor quality. But, these pics are all I have!



Walking down the path to the palace

Can't really see any faces here - well, not hardly!

Not very good photo of me (too dark anyway) and only a bit of Abigail, and can't see Benjamin at all really!

Lookout point from the top of the biggest tower - there were *lots* of stairs to climb to get up here!

Bits of wall, where I think they had a chapel at one point (like 1600s) - was a palace for bishops.

The tower we climbed up, with viewing point visible at the right corner. Benjamin thought the place was so exciting - he kept running in circles with Abigail and saying "big castle"!

On Tuesday we had lots of snow! Well, it seemed like it to me anyway. I think Abigail must have been telling Benjamin about the idea of building a snowman (tho they didn't do it), because for the next 24 hours Benjamin kept talking about "snowman". Cute smile on Abigail's face, but B is looking the other way.

In the front garden again - both looking at the camera this time!

Abigail on her own, enjoying the snow!

OK, you say, what is this?! :-) Well, it's a prize I won! Back in June I wrote an article about cloth nappies for a competition (on a cloth nappy website) and I won! Nothing special, as only one other person wrote one as well, and just a dozen or so people voted - but still, it was fun! There were various delays in the prize getting here - as the person who worked for the company that sponsered the prize no longer worked there, so emails weren't getting through, and eventually when 2 weeks ago contact was made the the owner of the company, I thought I would get it at last. But 2 weeks elapsed...and no sign of it (only coming from Wales). In the end, it arrived...the cause for the delay...Australia was written after my address ! LOL It was complete with customs label, Airmail postage & sticker etc. It was marked in Australia and they wrote "try UK", so it came to me at last! It's a lovely Wonderoos "birth to potty" pocket nappy, with microfibre inserts, 2 cloth reusable wipes, and some lovely smelling soap samples for making up wipe solution.

Benjamin looking pleased in his new nappy - even if he has a funny look on his face and is poking out his tummy! :-)

Back view of prize nappy!

OK, enough of my boring talk...I'm off to bed...tho maybe first I'll crochet a few stitches in some baby trousers I'm working on! ;-)

Can't think of anything new...but still alive!

Seems it's been 2 weeks since I last said anything here, so thought I should post before another week passes. However, can't really think of anything new or interesting to say! Perhaps I'm just too sleepy to think. Anyway, there are photos here, so might think of captions and a few words more. :)

Two sleepy children in the afternoon last week. They often get a bit tired in the afternoons (not having naps), so they like to have a wee rest in someone's bed for a few minutes. It never happens that they actually fall asleep, but I guess it helps to recharge their batteries! Every now and again I put Benjamin to sleep in the afternoon (when he seems like he really *can't* cope going all day long), and thankfully the past two times this has happened he still went to sleep before 9pm (better than 10pm, anyway!), even when he slept for well over an hour, and didn't wake up till nearly 5pm. However, today he only had about a 10 minute sleep when he was coming back in the car this afternoon - so I was sure he'd go to sleep as usual at 7:30, but he seemed full of energy and it was 9pm before I put him in his bed! Oh well. I'm beginning to think being a mum just about revolves around what time you do things (meals, sleeps etc) and getting children to bed at the right times, etc. Phew - does get tiring! Especially if it takes over an hour to put a wiggly toddler to sleep...and one still has dishes to do afterwards and tidying up downstairs! :-) Not to mention wanting to do a blog post...and eventually one of these days I'll try to study my driving theory questions, as I *really* do want to try and pass a driving test before 3rd baby arrives...but doesn't look like I'm determined enough to study for it, so don't know if it will happen. :(

On Saturday last week we went out for a walk. It was quite cold, hence the children being in "snow suits" and all wrapped up warm! Brrr! Abigail requested to walk along the canal and see the ducks, so that was fun for them both - especially since there was a whole crowd of noisy ducks when we went on a bridge over them.

Quiet Saturday afternoon/evening. They put the chairs out themselves and looked quite cute with books in hand. At least it's a better use of the chairs than their sometimes preferred use of them - as a way to climb up to the kitchen counters and look for pens or chocolate!

I thought this was a nice pic of Abigail

Benjamin showing off his "new" (pre-loved) Bob the Builder nappy wrap! :-) He was really excited when it arrived in the post. I've been doing lots of selling/swapping/buying of nappies lately! First I was trying to build up a good stash of small nappies for when the baby is born. And once I'd just about done that (with several different kinds etc), then I thought that maybe Benjamin prefers fleece lined pocket nappies rather than fitted/shaped terry nappies - I think they're more comfy for his itchy skin. He usually wants his nappy changed as *soon* as it's wet, which means I often spend a *lot* of time changing nappies every day - especially since he wears layers of clothes to keep him from scratching himself! So anyway, I sold or swapped some of my excess shaped nappies (Tots Bots, various bamboo nappies, and other odd nappies) and reinvested the money in pocket nappies such as Fuzzibunz and Wonderoos, and a few other brands (Happy Heiny, Pocket Bots, etc) to try. I still have quite a large stash of nappies, but the number has gone down, which is good - as they were beginning to pile up, and with so many not really being used, it was fun to get different/hopefully better ones. So we'll see how I get on with them. If all else fails, I can always sell them on again or swap them with someone else for something different. :-) (Yeah, it is fun! [blush] )

Abigail & Benjamin on the top bunk bed! Occasionally they remember that they can climb from the bottom mattress, up to the window, and then onto the top bunk. Not something their mummy wants them doing yet, so I have to watch them closely.

Having an elevated view out the window

Benjamin in his own big boy bed! He really loves it too. He likes to climb in, get cosy and say "Benjy bed, Benjy sleep!" I've not yet tried to let him fall asleep on his own there because Abigail thinks the idea is quite funny and then they both get quite hyper. But hopefully he'll eventually get to fall asleep on his own in his bed, like Abigail does.

Playing with Abigails play dough set ;-) (Yes, she did allow him to - they were playing together, tho she was sitting in my chair above him when I took the photo.) Anyway, Naomi gave Abigail the set for her birthday and I was thinking it would be best for her to use it when Benjamin was asleep or something. So I wasn't sure what would happen when she wanted to get it out when he was awake this afternoon...but I was amazed to see that Benjamin sat still for a whole *hour*! And he didn't make a single mess either - I'm sure Abigail had more dough on her clothes than he did! And he was so intrigued with it all that he didn't even pay attention when he was offered a biscuit & juice. So, didn't know he had a creative streak in him! :-)

Well, guess I better get myself to bed now. Seems I've said rather enough...especially for starting out thinking I had *nothing* to say! Ooops, I guess I can be too talkative at times.

Abigail is 3!!

Abigail's 3rd birthday was yesterday. It seems hard to believe she's already three years old! Here are a dozen or so photos from the day.

I put up this banner and balloons the night before so she'd have a wee surprise when she woke up in the morning. She's been counting the days till her birthday for months now - birthdays are quite special to her it seems, so I didn't want her to feel too disappointed.

I put her presents and more balloons on the couch for her to find when she woke up.

Abigail looking happy at 7am! Benjamin decided to wake me up at 5am (for the 2nd day in a row) and was rather miserable. He didn't want to be awake but didn't go to sleep again either. So I struggled with him for about an hour (hoping he'd go back to sleep again). Eventually his noisy self woke Abigail at 6am, but I managed to keep them upstairs for another hour or so. I was too tired to feel like going downstairs at 6am for her to open her presents etc. My tiredness was increased by the fact that Benjamin woke up at 11pm last night (having been in his bed since around 7:30pm) and I didn't get him to settle again until well after 12am - so really not enough sleep to have only slept from after midnight till 5am - certainly not when pregnant too! LOL). But anyway, by 7am I was just about coping, so we went down to "begin her birthday"!

Opening her first present (not sure what Benjamin was doing - funny face anyway!) She started with the smallest present and nearly went according to size, with the biggest one last. I'm sure when I was a child I'd have wanted to know what the biggest one was first!

Stick horses - for both of them! Galloping away - they make noises too, and so far they've been having lots of fun with them.

Looking at a set of toy pots & pans

Benjamin helping Abigail open the packaging. :-)

And also being sure to help play with it too! It's a lovely little set with mini cooking tools as well as pots & pans, which look just like the real thing.

And a new pram! So far it's just had baby dolls in it - hopefully it will stay that way too! LOL Most of the time her smaller pushchair has been full of toy cats, but she seems to think this looks more like the real thing and is meant for babies. :)

Abigail's birthday cake! I made the flowers out of royal icing (took me a full 2 hours one evening last week just to make the 30 flowers). She really wanted a cake with flowers, but I wasn't sure if it might look a bit too grown up for a 3 year old, so I bought a small Pooh bear to sit with the flowers.

Birthday lunch - Abigail wanted to have "tasty things to eat" for her lunch, so she picked various things out at Lidl and I modified some ideas as well. ;-)

Last year Abigail wasn't really sure what to do with candles, but this time round she was sooooo quick blowing them out that I didn't even get to catch it with the camera! Dad and Anna arrived at the house just before dinner time, so we had the cake after the meal. By this time (7pm) Abigail was rather exhausted, but she enjoyed the cake even so.

Snow in October & random ramblings

Last Tuesday (28 Oct) we woke up to this:

Snow! Obviously the above photo shows the hills around our town, so they have more snow being higher up. But we had a fair sprinkling of snow down around the houses here as well. Hadn't expected winter to hit *quite* so early. Abigail & Benjamin were both quite impressed & excited. Several of the below photos show the near blizzard conditions we encountered later that day when we went out for food shopping. Meant to post a blog *last* week with these photos, so they seem a bit out of date now.

Here's Benjamin, who was looking out the window at the snow. He's also modeling some further "eczema pyjamas"! I managed to get 4 pairs of them off eBay the other day, which I was really pleased about! :) It's not like there are many of them up there either. But I paid less than £10 for all 4 of them (including postage!), and 3 of them were ones that sell for £32 each new! Obviously not new, but with plenty of wear left for Benjamin, who will probably outgrow a couple of them soon! So an excellent bargain find.

Here's Abigail with clothes in hand, about to get dressed for the day! She's still doing brilliantly with potty training! Basically we're dry both day *and* night! Yay! I have some special Motherease Bedwetter Pants for her (like cloth Pull-Ups, though a bit bulky) and they're brilliant for nights. When we first got them she was still often wet once in the night, and we had no leaks at all. But now she's wearing them just to be safe - but I'm sure we've had over a week with dry nights every night. So that's certainly progress! And day time is usually just as good - even going out to shops, church etc. It's certainly nice to have less nappies to wash - I'm back to my "every-other-day" washing routine, rather than my nearly daily one.

Here's the children all wrapped up warm & ready to brave the cold & snow!

Benjamin enjoying the snow - or trying to work out what it is exactly - as he was rather younger when he saw snow before.

A smiling Abigail! :-)

Abigail & Benjamin with their Daddy

Walking out of the square and to the car - in rather blizzard like conditions!

Later in the day (last Tuesday) sitting in a nice warm house, thanks to the wood burning stove!

A photo of me, especially for Sarah - who wondered just how big I might be! LOL :-) I'll be 19 weeks tomorrow. Only 1 week away from being half way through my pregnancy - wow! I think the baby will be here before I know it. :)

And here's Benjamin looking deep in thought.

Now, I'm sure there were several things I was going to say about Benjamin but haven't got there yet - and this post is rather long already! Anyway, his speech is really quite impressive - and he's actually talking in a few sentences too! First one we noticed was him telling his daddy "I need choc!" LOL And then sometime last week he wanted to be carried down the stairs (as he's gotten rather lazy in his old age!) so he held out his hands and said "Mummy carry me" - said *perfectly* clearly! Of course I had to comply! :-) Also the other day he was having a drink of mummy but decided it would be more fun to go see Abigail's night light (while she was falling asleep) so he sat up and said "I'm finished". Had he not had a nap that day, he probably would have been asleep already - but naps mean it's a real struggle to get him to sleep at night.

Speaking of sleep, last night Benjamin slept through the entire night, in his own bed (big boy/toddler bed), in the same room as Abigail! They both were asleep by 7:30pm and Abigail woke up around 6:30am this morning. Unfortunately she woke her brother up at the same time (when he would have probably preferred to get another hour of sleep, at least) but oh well. He was happy enough. It's actually the first time she's woke him since he started sleeping in her room (only been since last week tho) but hopefully she'll get better about letting him have some quiet a bit longer. Previously Benjamin has been sleeping in his cot in our room (next to my bed) but I felt it wasn't possible for him to get used to sleeping properly while he was in a room that had noise & lights on until nearly midnight each night. He would often sleep through a lot of it, but it can't be good for a poor child - certainly not one as old as nearly 20 months! But I've been afraid of putting them in the same room, as it's been hard enough to get Abigail trained to sleep at night and I didn't want to disrupt that. But thankfully they've done quite well together so far, and certainly haven't disturbed each other during the night. I couldn't just move his cot in there, as he head dives out of the cot over the rails (it was only vaguely safe in our room, since next to our bed). But anyway, I got him a lovely bed off Freecycle - just had to buy a new mattress for it. But it's a very heavy/sturdy & pretty light pine bed and I think Benjamin quite likes it too.

Oh yes, one final Benjamin tale before I go to bed (should have gone sooner, as I know children will be up early in the morning!) Anyway, he's super attached to his Daddy and has to keep tabs on Peter all day long! Whenever Peter goes out (even if it's only to the garden or on a different aisle in a shop!) Benjamin gets sad and asks for his daddy. Now he's learned to say "daddy back" in a questioning way, and when I reassure him that Yes, his daddy will come back - then he asks again "soon?". :-) About a week ago he got really upset when Peter would leave the house for something, but now he's a bit better about it once he's made sure that his daddy *will* come back, and soon too! But it's really sweet how much he loves his daddy. Yes, he does like his mummy - quite a lot too - but there's something extra special about daddy! He likes to go to the bottom of the stairs and shout out "Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!" for him to come down for meals etc - but sometimes he does it just because he wants him to come see him!

OK, enough of my little boy - I'll have everyone bored! Goodnight. :)