Trip to Elgin and lots of other random photos

Seems it's been 10 days since I last posted anything here, though I'm sure no one will have even noticed my lack of blogging! ;-) Got plenty of photos to make up for it (14 to be exact!). Once again, I'm feeling sleepy (not even 9pm on this occasion - rare to have a post from me soooo early in the evening). Anyway, so probably won't be loads of paragraphs, but rather pics with a bit of ramblings below them!

Here's Abigail all cuddled up with some of her stuffed cats. Although she doesn't have naps during the day (apart from the odd time where she needs a catch up), quite frequently she likes to "have a wee rest" with various of her stuffed cats, pillows, and favourite blanket etc. She doesn't fall asleep but I think it helps her to feel more rested. :)

"Coming to get you!" says Benjamin - I think they'd spend the whole day outside if I let them. Unfortunately, I wouldn't be able to get much done in the house since I couldn't keep an eye on them, and lately we've not had *that* many days with nice weather. These photos were from a day which was both mild & sunny.

Running around outside

Smiling for her mummy :)

And my little boy also smiling for me

Benjamin showing his toy cat Pilchard his goldfish (the large fish clearly in view). Sadly however, his fish died within the next 24 hours. :( I had cleaned the tank out that evening (not removing the water, just all the plants & filter etc for cleaning) and apparently overnight the other fish attacked him. I put him in a small tank on his own as soon as I noticed it that morning, but it was too late and he died by the next morning. I think Benjamin is really missing him. He got really upset and started crying when he went to the tank the other day and kept looking at the tank saying "Bens-fei" (or something like that) which he'd always say when he spotted his own fish. It was the biggest one in the tank and very peculiar looking, so easy for him to spot. Abigail decided he could have one of her ordinary goldfish, but afraid he'd not understand since he knew when we got his fish that it was his and it looked different. Anyway, it's just a fish, but I did feel bad for Benjamin being sad about it.

A dress I made for Abigail last week. Got the pattern and both fabrics off eBay! There are some fabric stores on eBay which have good prices on their fabrics (even including postage!), so I'm glad to have finally found a source of inexpensive fabrics since the shops in Inverness can be quite expensive. Mind you, the fabric at the bottom wasn't actually cheap (it was a "fat quarter" remnant of an American fabric) but the kittens were so cute I bought it anyway and pieced it together for the bottom of the dress! :)

Elgin Cathedral, which dates back to 1224! On Monday we met Dad and the kids in Elgin. We got there at lunchtime and had a picnic in the park. It was a bit cold and windy but the sun eventually came out and it warmed up. We had a nice day together. We went round the cathedral, Biblical Gardens, Elgin Museum, and a few shops too, of course!

A family photo of us, taken in The Biblical Gardens (across from Elgin Cathedral)

Elgin Cathedral again (opposite end of it)

Abigail riding on a horse at the museum

Benjamin's turn on the same horse

I love his expression here - having a good look at a stuffed badger (in the museum)

Here is he running at me! This was taken the other night after Abigail had gone to bed. I think I was downstairs doing dishes and he wouldn't go to sleep, so he was keeping me company (or giving me more work to do, as it so happened) - he kept emptying cupboards of both food & dishes and throwing stuff in the floor everywhere. He's lots of fun, of course (as can be seen in the above photo!). :-)

OK, time for me to end this. Benjamin's still awake - guess he had too late of a nap and he keeps wanting my computer.

Sewing & A Sandy Saturday at the Seaside

It's me again, and it's not even a week since I last posted - wow! Wonder if I've ever done more than 1 post within 7 days (and to think of the many bloggers who post everyday!). Anyway, this post is rather picture-heavy (like 14 photos, I think!).

Here is Abigail modelling a dress I made for her on Friday night (she wanted her brother in the photo with her - complete with violin - and they've got quite funny expressions on their faces). Abigail was really excited when she woke up on Saturday morning to find the "bear dress" finished (I'd cut the pieces out a couple of days earlier and she didn't know I was sewing it while she slept). Anyway, I couldn't tell if the dress was going to look a bit dated (the pattern was an older Burda one that I found on eBay) but I think it's quite cute anyway. I had to hand embroidery the bear's eyes, nose & mouth, and there was elastic to put into casings in the back, etc, so not totally straight forward like some dresses - it took me about 2.5 to 3 hours in total, so not toooo bad. The pattern comes with options for shorts or trousers, so Abigail is really keen that I make Benjamin a matching outfit with the remaining fabric, but I'm not totally sure how the fabric/style would suit a little boy. Might be quite cute, but I'd probably have to make it first to see! However, I'm already starting on another dress for Abigail - another Burda pattern from eBay (this time a modern one) and fabric from eBay too. I'm sure I'll post pics of it too if I ever get round to sewing it! I've cut all the pieces out this afternoon but felt too tired to sew it tonight. Maybe tomorrow! :)

Right....sewing topic finished, now onto the "sandy Saturday at the seaside"! it was rather wet on Saturday (at least around town) so Peter suggested we go for a drive (rather than a walk, as we'd first thought of doing). He mentioned going to Portmahomack (and I thought, Yay, sand & seaside for Abigail), so I packed a lunch and off we went. We weren't sure if it would be any drier than it was here, but it turned out quite nice really. Overall, a mixture of sun & showers, but it stayed bright most of the day. So here are some photos to guide you through our outing! :)

A smiling Abigail as we begin our drive

Benjamin eating a cheesy breadstick

This is the lighthouse in Portmahomack. Benjamin fell asleep soon after we started out and Abigail dropped off too, only about 5 minutes before we got there (as seen in photo below). So we drove on to see the lighthouse while they got a few minutes more sleep. Eventually Peter & I ate our lunch while they slept, and then I fed them some food once we finished & they woke up!

Two sleeping beauties :)

A view of what's below the lighthouse

The beach in Portmahomack

How you dress when you go to the seaside in Scotland in the spring - warm coats, hats and mittens!

A funny photo with each of them looking another direction!

Thinking about heading off for an adventure on his own!

Building a sandcastle

Father & Son! :) (Peter was struggling to get Benjamin's mitten back on - Benjamin likes to pull them off the first chance he gets, using his teeth if necessary.)

They played in the sand for quite a while but eventually got too cold. So we headed off for Tain and had a wee walk around. Went in one bookshop (didn't buy anything) and then into the Blythswood charity shop, where we got a half dozen or so children's books (can never have too many of them!).

Abigail climbing down from a tall pulpit inside an ancient church in Tain

A very big oil rig that was in at Invergordon

.....and so ends the photographed adventure! It was really nice to have a relaxing day out and Abigail is still talking about the sand and the sea. :) Hopefully we'll get at least one hot day this summer where she can actually enjoy it without eventually freezing!

Snow flurries, language explosion etc

Seems it's been over a week since I last put something here, so I thought I should try to post before the weekend arrives! It's been rather a busy week. Peter's mum has been in hospital since last Friday, so he was down there twice a day every day, taking clothes/things for her, sorting things out, etc. She'd been having trouble with fluid in her legs and is too weak to be able to walk about or exercise them at all, so the doctor thought she should go in for a week to get tests done and see if they could get the fluids down. She's back home today, though I'm not sure they were able to accomplish very much.

Well, seems spring isn't here afterall! We've had several bouts of snow since I last posted and it's been quite cold at times. I took a photo of the rapidly falling snow the other day but it didn't seem to turn out very well (wasn't impressive looking), so I've omitted it from my blog. We had hail falling today - it made quite a noise too. Thankfully it didn't last for very long, and was only in the afternoon.

We had quite a lot of rain this morning, but I managed to put Abigail in a pushchair with raincover and I wore Benjamin in a sling and carried an umbrella with my other hand and we got out to the library this morning. I thought Abigail might enjoy going to the library's "rhyme time", so we went for that, as well as getting more books (we usually have at least 10 library books at any one time - and today we actually returned 16!). Anyway, we'd never been to the rhyme time before, so I wasn't sure what it would be like, but I thought it was quite good and Abigail had fun too. It would possibly be better called "story time", as the lady read at least 4 books. They also had a few songs and rhymes with actions (a current favourite of Abigail). The rest of today I mainly just did the usual things, though I did sew a skirt for Peter's mum and started cutting out a dress for Abigail. I'm kind of in a sewing mood at the moment and would like to make several dresses for Abigail, but not sure how much time I really have for sewing. We'll see!

As my title suggests, there's been a language explosion in the house! lol Benjamin wants to talk *all* day long! (Nearly the whole time we were at the library today he kept pointing to the walls and saying "book, book, book, book"!) Anyway, he will make a fair attempt at saying just about anything you ask him too - he can say zebra very clearly. Obviously, if someone just heard him chatting to himself, they might not immediately know what he's saying - but if you asked him to say something, then I think you'd quickly realise just how clearly he is repeating the words. At the moment some of his favourite words are book (of course!), "oh no" (and no, but telling himself no about things he's not meant to be doing, rather than saying it to us), Bob the Builder, Postman Pat, baby pig (and mummy pig), Bible, kitty/cat, bird (said all day long when he looks out the window at the many birds flying about), tickle toes, ten, and many other words too, but can't think of them at the moment. If you ask him to say duck, he replies with "quack", or sheep is "baa", cow is "moo", etc. So it's lots of fun with all the things he's learning. Abigail tries to teach him words too and will say "Benjamin say zebra" for example. But with all the talking, it means he thinks it's OK to talk all the time, and it's quite difficult for him to be quiet when he needs to be! :)

Well, past my bedtime, but I must give some quick captions to the below photos.

Benjamin sitting on *top* of my flowers in the front garden (nothing very exciting, but they think it's OK to walk and sit on everything!)

Abigail giving Benjamin a lesson about something!

Sliding in the front garden (before the colder/snowy weather came)

Looking a bit serious - he seems to always be thinking!

Holding a stick and her beloved pussycat (it goes with her *everywhere* - just hope it never gets lost, as she sleeps with it everynight and would panic if she couldn't find it in the night!)

Benjamin wishing he knew how to open the stair gate

Hair flying everywhere! :)

Bit of a fuzzy photo, but I thought it was cute of them playing together

Taken this morning - playing with her kitchen

A lovely big smile to end this post! (He was giggling at me playing peek-a-boo with him.)

OK, goodnight everyone.

Planting seeds, nice weather etc

Here I am again. (Not sure how other bloggers begin a post, I seem to always think of it either as a "letter" or diary entry! lol And then I'm not sure how to start it off.) Anyway, we've had some really nice weather lately. Today was so warm that when we went out for an afternoon walk I was just in short sleeves (no jacket or anything). I got quite hot going up the steep hill and was glad I didn't have anything warmer on! I think Abigail really enjoyed being out in the sunshine (Benjamin just fell asleep in the back of the pushchair, as he'd failed to have his nap this morning). Along the way I picked up a few pine cones, a bit of a pine tree, and a dandelion for Abigail and she was so excited to hold and investigate these "treasures". We also got to see some tiny lambs which are in a field not far from the house. One ewe had 3 small lambs and when we came up to the fence they started "crying" and their mother came back to check on them quite quickly! It's lovely to have everything coming back to life again - plants, animals and longer days. For some reason this winter has seemed to be especially long. Abigail often talks about things she wants to do in the summer - especially going to the seaside - she's mentioned that several times already this week! It felt so warm today that I thought it might have been just perfect for that; however, post had to be done this evening, so maybe another day.

Here's Benjamin having fun poking at his chubby tummy!

Abigail & Benjamin in the garden. Abigail *really* wanted to buy some strawberry plants from Lidl last week (they were already out in bloom). I wasn't sure if it would be warm enough to grow them (without a greenhouse), but since they were only £1.49 (half price) for 6 good sized plants, I thought I'd risk it since she was so excited about strawberry plants! So, on Thursday last week (occasion pictured above) we planted them in some grow bags in the shed (which has a "greenhouse" sort of roof and gets very warm if there's sunshine).

My gardening helper - she loves doing anything outdoors!

In the travel cot/playpen (for a short time) - he soon got fed up with being in there & his daddy let him out in the garden and he had lots & lots of fun running about. I was afraid he'd eat everything in sight (he did put lots of gravel in his mouth) or have too many falls not being totally steady on his feet, but he did really well and was quite stable.

Who said cloth nappies have to be boring? LOL - I'm a bit crazy taking pics of nappies out on the line, but I think it's fun all the different colours & styles that you can have (and I only have a very limited selection of what's available!).

Looking for some tasty gravel! (fortunately no pics posted here of him with gravel actually in his mouth!!) Abigail also loved to put the dirty things in her mouth (for ages it seemed) but she's still alive & healthy, so don't guess it will do him much harm.

Planting lettuce seeds - I think they're just beginning to sprout (well the few that are close to the surface - afraid some little fingers buried a lot of them too deeply, so not sure what we'll actually get here). We also planted some yellow sunburst squash (again, Abigail's shopping at Lidl on a *different* occasion), and some sunflower seeds (from a mail-in offer from the back of a cereal box). The sunflower seedlings have come up today, so it will be fun to let Abigail watch them grow.

Benjamin running around outside

A rare opportunity of a photo of me (self portrait too!) - Benjamin had a late nap the other day and woke up quite fussy just as I needed to be in the kitchen cooking dinner, so I put him on my back in my mei tai sling and he was happy as can be (tho he still looks half asleep in the above photo).

Always with his nose in a book - he did end up getting a bit bored riding around on mummy's back, so I gave him some books to look at and he was quite pleased! :)

Well, that's all from me tonight. Goodnight.