just another week

Hello again. I don't have anything exciting to say, nor do I have any very interesting photos - just some ordinary days I guess! We were down in FW with my family on Thursday/Friday last week and met up with Joseph & Carolyn and family and Jett & Evelyn & family, however, I left my camera at home, so sadly, no pics from then. We had a nice time, though very short visit. Abigail really enjoyed playing with her cousins. Other than that, though, just the usual day to day things really.

Abigail & Benjamin continue to keep me busy as ever, especially trying to keep my eyes on an ever climbing little boy! He thinks everything around him is meant to climb on & over and although he's generally been pretty safe lately, he had two falls today. First he climbed on his train table and fell backwards on the floor. He cried quite a bit, but didn't show any signs of being hurt. Then about 5 minutes later he climbed up on the arm of the couch (a favourite spot) where he holds onto the frame of the fireguard and rocks back & forth. But poor thing, he fell down right on his face and hit his forehead on the edge of his train table, which left a very nasty mark (near cut) and bruise. But he's very determined to continue climbing no matter what, and will do it again, and again, and again, and again! So when I'm in the kitchen cooking, I have to peek out and check on him every few seconds to make sure he's not in too much danger!

Anyway, here are a few pics - not feeling overly talkative this time (unlike my last posting!

Here's Abigail just out of the bath, I was trying to give her "pig tails" for the first time. Not really sure what to do with her hair, now that it's getting so long. It's always in her face, which annoys her, and gives Benjamin something to pull! (Yeah, he loves pulling his sister's hair!) I think it might be easier to manage if she had a fringe (bangs), but I know that it's a real pain to grow them out in later years when you want to be able to have your hair pulled back/all be the same length (as I did eventually when I was younger!), so maybe I should just keep trying to do something with her hair for now.

Benjamin's favourite activity (when not climbing or pulling hair - lol). Really though, he loves to read books and will sit for ages looking at them.

Hyacinths - they smell wonderful and fill the whole downstairs with a lovely fragrance. I got the pot of them (just sprouted, before the flowers came) from Tesco for only 50p! They happen to have a "sell by date", and so they were reduced from £5 down to 50p, complete with a nice ceramic pot, and it's not like they were dying - they'd barely come up! (I also got two other plants on the same occasion, one a 2ft tall Benjamin Ficus which was also originally £5, for only 20p - and it is lovely & healthy too!)

A climbing little boy - and if you look closely, you'll see his sister is standing in a chair in the background!

Abigail sitting at the bottom of the stairs enjoying some sunshine!

Building with Lego - and sitting in the drawer too!

And here's Benjamin in the drawer as well - they seem to think it's meant to sit in while you play with its contents.
And here is Benjamin actually sitting on the train table. I don't think he'll ever learn his lesson about falling. I tried to explain to him about it and that he'd fallen earlier today. He repeated "fall" (said very well too, in my opinion) but still continues to climb....oh well.

Goodnight. :)

Homeschool meet-up, gardening, and children ... of course!

Seems it's been a busy week or so, with one thing or another. We had friends round for dinner on Thursday. On Friday morning we went to Inverness to meet up with several other homeschooling families. We took the train instead of driving. At first I thought it was a bit hectic to try and get to the station in time to catch the train, but once we were on it, it was actually far more relaxing than going by car. And I realised that it actually saved time! Had we gone by car, I would have needed probably an extra 15 minutes at least to change nappies, give Benjamin a feed etc. But going by train, I just took the children as they were (well, dressed, shoes & coats on first, of course) - but on the train you can change nappies and feed babies as you go along! So I enjoyed a different method of transport for once! :)

Anyway, as for the meet-up, it was organised through (in the name of) the Highland Christian Schools Trust, but really I guess it's become a point of contact for some of the few Christian families in the area who are teaching their children at home. There are two new families interested and who came along (well, the mothers & children came), so that was encouraging. And we hope to have a monthly get-together now (last week being the first one) for the children to do activities together and also for the parents to chat with each other etc. Obviously Abigail & Benjamin aren't yet at the age for formal education, but I think it's still good to be able to see what others are doing, get ideas, encourage each 0ther, and just be able to have contact with others who share the same ideas about bringing up our children. Although the trust has Highland in the name, there weren't *any* Scottish people represented there (mainly English, as well as N Irish and American - me!). It's not as if there aren't people doing home education in the area - I think there are quite a few - but they're not Christians! So either the local Christian people in the Highlands think the schools are doing a good enough job, or just can't break away from traditions, I'm not sure! Anyway, we had a nice time on Friday. And guess what? Benjamin got to meet a little boy who shares the same exact birthday with him! The little boy was born the same day & year as him, just a few hours earlier! So the two little boys had fun playing together. Abigail had fun too, though there wasn't anyone really that close to her age. But she enjoyed watching the older children doing races and playing sports/games etc. And she was so tired afterwards that she fell asleep in the car on the way home from the train station (about a 3 minute drive at most, I'd think!).

Saturday turned out nice & dry (weather wise). I'd bought some flowers (about 80 small plants, in trays of 10) about a week ago but it seemd that every day was wet, or if it was dry, I had something else I had to do! I was nearly afraid they would die in their trays before they got planted! Abigail continued to be diappointed, as she loves to help mummy in the garden. I put Benjamin down for a nap around mid/late morning and he slept for over 1.5 hours, which allowed Abigail & I to get the whole back garden finished (well, the row of "garden" that I try to keep planted with something). We did a bit on Thursday (with Benjamin outside) but he got too cold, so I was reluctant to try it again, as I think Saturday was actually colder. Here are a couple pics of what we did - nothing too exciting, that's for sure! But hopefully with the bark mulch it will prevent at least some of the millions of weeds that have always plagued me back there!

Hopefully the plants will get a bit bigger, as it still looks a bit bare, even with nearly 80 plants!

Close up of the flowers

My little gardening helper - minus her wellies at this point! We were just coming in for lunch, but she managed to get back outside in her socks.

Here is Benjamin, doing what he enjoys best at the moment - pulling everything out of the freezer and onto the kitchen floor! He's got an ice cream sandwich in his hand too! And looks like there are at least 5 tubs of ice cream out ... hmm, maybe I shouldn't buy so much at once! LOL

My lovely little girl - I took this pic this morning and thought she looked really sweet in it! :)

And my adventurous little boy! He likes to climb over the wooden arm of the couch and ride it like it's a horse or something, holding onto the fire guard the whole time. You think he'll ever learn to stop doing dangerous things, or will it only get worse as he gets bigger?! :)

Looking quite pleased with himself

As I said in a previous post, we got Benjamin a wooden train set for his birthday. However, I soon realised that it was nearly impossible to keep any of the pieces together with it sitting on the floor. I'd been looking all around on the internet (even tried Freecycle, but without success!) to see if I could find a play/train table. There were all sorts on eBay, mostly "collection only" (and in the South of England!), or if they would ship, they were rather pricey. Well, this morning I managed to find someone in the Inverness area who listed on a local section of an online classifieds board. The ad was over 2.5 weeks old, so I was sure it would be gone by now. But it was still available! And only £30. A table that looks exactly like this in the GLTC catalogue sells for £150, so this seemed a bargain! It did mean Peter had to go pick it up (and probably took an hour to get there, with a 15 minute delay sitting in front of temporary traffic lights). So the above photo shows it all set up, in the middle of my sitting room! Not sure if I'm crazy or what though. I finally got rid of the coffee table (gave it away on Freecycle) so we'd have more space, and then I get a train table that must be twice the size of it! Hmmm It's not like we have a big house, it's actually very small, and full of thousands of books! So, we'll see how long I feel like a monster table in the centre of the only free space downstairs! I could always banish it to Abigail's room, though her room has a fair few pieces of furniture already.

Well, seems this post has nearly turned into a book! Ooops! I bet I've said too much - that's what happens when my fingers get away from me and I just keep on talking with the keyboard. I guess I ought to get to bed. This week doesn't look any less busy. On Wedneday I hope to go to a Tots Swap event in a nearby town. Our local Real Nappy Project is hosting it and you just bring along your unwanted kids clothes, toys & gear and swap it for other things. They're also doing events for children about waste awareness and recycling, have a bouncy castle for the little ones to play on, and....are hosting a real nappy fashion show! (Real nappy = cloth diaper, for any Americans reading this!) So it sounds fun and I hope to go along to it. Then on Thursday we're going down to Fort William to meet up with Joseph, Carolyn, Julia & Jenna! Abigail is all excited about seeing the girls again, so that will be fun. Just a very short visit (overnight) but still nice to get to see them.

OK, THE END - must get to bed and stop boring the few people who might be reading this. Goodnight. :)

Benjamin's First Birthday (post 1 of pics)

Blogger was giving me error messages, so the first 4 photos are here, with the remaining 10 below. I'll just give these quick captions (hopefully) and most of my ramblings are in the post below. :)

I hung up a couple of birthday banners/flags for Benjamin. Whenever I would say "It's Benjamin's birthday today" he would look up at the ceiling (as seen in the pic above) and sometimes point too!

The birthday boy with his pile of presents

Starting to open his first one - he seemed to have no trouble knowing the paper was to be torn off, tho he did need a little help to get it completely removed. Abigail was only too happy to help him! :)

A Leapfrog Alphabet/Phonics Fridge Magnet set

OK...remaining "post" in post below!

Benjamin's First Birthday

I have 14 or 15 photos to upload - managed to get 10 of them up here and now blogger is giving me an error message! Grr. So, this is not where the pics are meant to start --- but guess I'll attempt to put these up anyway and whenever it works again, post the remaining 5 pics above here.

Benjamin turned 1 on Tuesday. Abigail had been excited about his birthday for *months*! She'd often remind me that "Benjamin will have a birthday in a few months" and talk about making his cake etc. So I think she was delighted when the day finally came. So here are a few pics from the day.

Benjamin opening one of his presents (a big one)

"This looks fun" (or so the look on his face seems to say) - a wooden train set

Benjamin's train set all put together - now I just need to find a play table that is big enough for it. Doesn't work very well on the floor as it just gets wrecked by little hands and feet (not just Benjamin's either).

Some birthday cards

Playing with his new Leapfrog Alphabet Fridge Magnet set. I think he is enjoying this present the best. Each of the letters plays a song saying its name and the sound(s) it makes and another button plays the ABC song. So he is having lots of fun with it. We'll see if he can make as much progress as Abigail did with letters - as she knew the whole alphabet at 18 months! Of course, it wasn't any electronic device that taught her, but guess you just get more time to spend with a first born.

"Patch" - Benjamin's birthday cake. I wanted to use Grandma Rogers recipe for the cake, but couldn't get a hold of the recipe on time. So I Googled for "Yellow Party Cake" and came up with one which turned out very moist and tasty. However, I could have done with lining the bottom of the tin with greaseproof paper (instead of just grease & flouring it), as it sort of came in two in the middle. However, it went back together and the buttercream frosting covered everything over and you'd have never known if I hadn't said, huh?! lol My cake decorating never turns out as good as the pictures in the books, but at least you can tell it's a dog, right?! :)

I think Benjamin thinks this dog is meant for cuddling, as every time he saw the cake he wanted to reach out and grab it!

The day after his birthday - sitting in a chair reading books. He's really into climbing at the moment and gets on all sorts of things. He started climbing into the rocking chair today, which is rather higher than anything else he's tried so far.

Abigail with a bit of a forced grin, I think! She wasn't really wanting her picture taken, but she turned round and smiled for me anyway!

A tired out Benjamin! He had his 12 month review with the health visitor yesterday (Wednesday) morning. His weight continues to be between the 75th and 91st centile - not bad for a baby who was *nearly* exclusively breastfed for 10 months or so. (OK he did have bit of food now and again, but it's only in the past month that he's actually having food regularly and now - finally - letting me feed him! Which means more food in his tummy and less mess.) Anyway, Benjamin now weighs 24lb 15oz.

OK, off to bed. I'm exhausted and want some sleeeeeeep! Goodnight.

Lots more photos & hopefully a few sentences too...

Hello again! Thanks for the comments on my previous posts & sorry I've not managed to reply to some! Seems I've been rather busy lately, though not exactly sure why! Just the usual things, as far as I can remember! But I guess that's quite enough really. :)

I've realised how having more than 1 little one means lots bigger messes! Well, what I mean is the older one can get to things the younger one can't reach and then leave them out for the baby to make messes with! It usually happens with food or drinks - Abigail will leave a bag/dish of snacks out and Benjamin will eat a few, spit several out again, crush them into the floor, walk/crawl on top of them etc. Usually not on purpose - but happen it does! Abigail likes to help herself to small pots of yoghurt from the fridge. She tries to be careful herself, as she likes to keep her hands/face/clothes clean. The other evening I was cooking dinner and Abigail was thinking ahead to her pudding afterwards (or maybe getting hungry cause I was taking too long) so she got some yoghurt out - one for herself and one for Benjamin (she's always thoughtful and thinks of her little brother - she never seems to only get one for herself). Anyway, she put them on the table and Benjamin obviously saw it! He's tall enough to reach quite far on the table and got it down. He managed to crush the pot or something (bite it, squeeze it etc) and below you can see the results:

A very messy Benjamin and very messy carpet! I must admit that I laughed when I saw it as he looked so cute with it smeared everywhere (couch & fireguard got some - and he ate as much as he could too!). It was a lot to clean up, but I couldn't help taking photos first! ;-)


Here's Abigail and her *favourite* pussy cat - he's getting his photo taken! She sleeps with him every night and takes him everywhere she goes. (Baby dolls - of which she must have 8 or more - are totally forgotten and everything meant for dolls is "for pussy cat".) I guess it's just a phase she's going through.

Speaking of Abigail, she's been doing really well at night and slept through the past two nights! Yay!! :) On Thursday she went to sleep around 7:45pm and didn't wake up till 6:30am and on Friday night she went to sleep around 7:15pm and woke up at 5:30am (thankfully she went back to sleep for another 2 hours). I wondered if she'd ever sleep through at night, but it seems we're making progress! It's several months ago now that I started making an effort to help her get to bed earlier in the evenings (rather than midnight) - starting with eliminating naps. And I think she's much happier and more rested with getting lots of hours of sleep at night. Benjamin has cut down on his sleep during the day - sometimes hardly having any at all (which is a bit tough for me - no "break" from keeping an eye on him all day!). He usually has at least one nap, though occasionally it is a nap in my lap while he feeds...and then he sits up & smiles once I lay him down! :) But in any case, less day time sleep means he is often going to sleep for the night around 7-8ish (of course waking for a few feeds etc, but not staying awake or being any trouble). So quieter evenings are most welcome! It's just a bit of a race to get dinner finished, dishes washed (tho sometimes I'm back in the kitchen to do them once the children are in bed), baths done if it's bath night, and then putting each of them to sleep without the one waiting to be put to sleep getting too fed up! But it's lots of fun being a mother and they bring lots of joy - just have to try and stay as organised as possible so the necessary things can get done each day.

I managed to do a bit of sewing this week! I finished up a skirt for Abigail (matching fabric to a skirt I made for my sister Anna the other week) and I made some shorts for Benjamin. Not much time in the day for sewing, especially since the sewing machine would wake the children up in the evening - but I found a few minutes here & there & managed to sew a few things recently, which was enjoyable.

Benjamin wearing the shorts I'd just finished sewing.

Here he is walking away in the said shorts

And Abigail in the skirt I made her

My two lovely children sitting in the kitchen floor playing while I'm cooking dinner :)

Benjamin's first pet! I got him a goldfish on Thursday. I was thinking it would be nice for him to have one since Abigail got fish for her 1st birthday and since she already has 6 of her own fish. I spotted an unusual looking fish in one of the tanks at the pet store. It turned out it came by mistake in their delivery the previous day, so he wasn't something they ususally sold. The lady said he was a Lionhead Oranda but the photos of them on the internet don't really look like this one. His face looks a bit like Disney's Nemo, I think!

Here's Benjamin having a good look at his new fish and getting rather excited! He smiles and looks rather interested whenever I tell him he's having a birthday next week. I can't believe he's already nearly a year!

Pressing his face/nose against the glass - he had fun looking at me through the other side

Benjamin invented his own play tunnel last night! There were a couple of flattened cardboard boxes leaning against the wall and he (all on his own) knocked one down and then crawled back & forth in it for *ages*! I think he must have entertained himself for a good half hour or so with just this one box! I thought the above photo was really cute with him sitting in it.

And last, but certainly not least, a smile from Abigail! (Just excuse the messy face - she'd just finished her dinner & was eating an ice cream.)

Well, seems I only talk about my children here! Perhaps my blog should have a different title, or perhaps it's just my "daily life" as my blog states! :) In any case, I have yet again posted a very long blog (well, it's long with all the photos, anyway!). I do hope I've not bored too many of you! Good night for now.

1st haircut & other photos from past week

Here I am again - it's been rather a while since I last posted, apart from the video I put up the other night of Benjamin walking. Sorry I post rather infrequently, and as a result put up a weekly-ish post with sooooo many photos! Perhaps rather boring for some readers, but hopefully appreciated by family who are far away & don't get to see the children growing up. So, for your sakes, I try to keep plenty of photos - nothing overly exciting, just our (or their!) daily life.

Last Saturday I gave Benjamin his first haircut! :) I was a bit nervous about taking scissors to his hair, but it was getting rather long & messy looking, so I thought I'd just better give it a go! I've given *numerous* haircuts to my brothers over the years, but only ever with clippers. So it was a new experience to cut hair with scissors, but I think it turned out OK. Not perfect, but better than it was, I hope! He was asleep for his afternoon nap (in my lap) when I cut it. Made it a bit difficult to cut round the back since he was lying down, but I thought it would be near impossible to do it while he was awake! Here's a before & after pic:

Just before his hair was cut, and then after he woke up

Abigail needing her hair brushed! lol

A happy little boy wanting to clap his hands!

Abigail & Benjamin playing together (well, maybe he was eating his sister's leftover yoghurt, or by this stage, chewing the pot & spoon! He likes to eat anything she leaves behind.)

Awwww - Abigail giving her brother a cuddle :)

Benjamin eating his first ice cream cone! He really enjoyed it (I think it helped his sore gums) and he actually ate it properly (whereas the first thing Abigail has always done with an ice cream is turn it upside down and bite the bottom of the cone! Which always results in a mess. lol)

We went out for a quick (well, 1 hour or so) walk on Wednesday afternoon. It started to rain as we went up the hill behind our house but thankfully it didn't last for long and we didn't get too wet. The above photo was as we were coming down again, looking out towards The Black Isle.

Benjamin fell asleep while we were out, nice & cosy and under the raincover on his pushchair (so he stayed dry & out of the wind). I slipped the camera under the raincover to snap this pic. :)

A smiling Abigail - taken on Thursday evening when I was trying to get pics/video of Benjamin walking. She wanted to have her photo taken too and gave me this lovely smile.

I love this pic here! Such a cute & sweet expression. I can't remember if he was thinking about clapping his hands or just excited. He was playing with a pile of (clean) cloth nappies, which he finds lots of fun!

And here he loves his nappies so much he wants to eat them! lol

Well, all is quiet just now! Abigail and Benjamin both went to sleep as soon as possible this evening! I think they were both exhausted for some reason. This week Abigail's been waking up a bit earlier than previously - she's up at about 7am each morning, whereas she used to wake up closer to 9. We had dinner at about 5:30 this evening. I made a variation of Vegetable Risotto. Basically Italian rice with eggplant (aubergine), onions, red pepper, shallots, garlic, and plum tomatoes cooked in olive oil first and then simmered in vegetable stock and I mixed in some diced free-range turkey breasts which I had also cooked in olive oil. I thought it turned out quite nicely and the children nearly cleaned their plates, so that's always a bonus! I think they like pasta or rice dishes that are a one-pot dish. They both enjoyed a Chili Con Carne that I made on Wednesday.

So, I better head for my bed now. Benjamin will need his "nighttime nappy" on (a Minki fleece pocket nappy, stuffed with a bamboo prefold, for anyone who is interested in cloth nappies! lol) and once he's been disturbed to have his nappy changed he'll want a quick feed. And then hopefully I can fall asleep. So goodnight. :)