Snow, Snow, Snow!

This photo here shows child-led homeschooling! LOL

I was getting breakfast ready one morning last week and looked in the sitting room to find ALL 3 children with a spelling/counting flip-book! It was so cute that I had to grab the camera of course! It was just too funny that even Clement at only 8 months was doing the same as the others! :)

Playing in the kitchen!

This wooden parking garage seems to be a favourite of Clement's! I think it was a well spent 4 pounds (charity shop bargain, of course!).

Peek-a-boo! :-)

On Saturday it started snowing - with a white covering to the ground, the children were determined to make a snowman!

Even if he was a very tiny one! :-) If only they'd known what snow was coming over the next few days....

We woke up the next morning to LOTS of snow - perhaps the most I've ever seen in my life (but since I'm from Texas, that's not surprising! ;-) ) I think we had about 6 inches! Thankfully we were able to "dig" the car out and go to church without too much difficulty, partly thanks to a neighbour giving our car a push to get it through the snow in the carpark. We had been invited to the manse for lunch after the service, which was really nice. We had a lovely meal and enjoyed the fellowship.

Back garden, taken from kitchen window

back garden & shed

Front garden and our car in the background!

The snow was still there on Monday and the children finally got out to play in it that afternoon. They made a bigger snowman, but we didn't get a pic of him until today (Tuesday) as seen above, with some sunshine too! Still lots of snow though, and it was snowing again tonight! Brrrrr! On Monday we went to the shops and got a week's worth of food in the house in case it got worse. So I'm just staying home until it thaws! :-)

My big, fat, healthy, happy, always hungry, darling Clement! :-D And yes, I love him to pieces (as I do all my children, of course!). But Clement just gives the best of smiles and always cheers everyone up! :)

He *loves* to watch the washing machine and dryer going round & round - esp watching the bubbles! I was trying to get a photo of him grabbing at it and looking very interested, but as soon as he heard my camera, he came after me! He's now learned that the camera has a little screen with him on it and he begs to see it - so it might be more difficult now to get photos of him! :) He's just about got 2 teeth now too and is almost properly crawling, though he still moves faster by pulling himself along with one arm tucked under him - he almost looks like a crippled person trying to move!

Don't suppose there's much else to report here. Benjamin's eczema stays about the same as it's been for the past couple of months now. It goes back and forth in how severe it is. We probably are using Eumovate (moderate potency steroid) for a couple of days every 10-12 days or so. I try to go as long as possible without it, but sooner or later he's scratching too much to do anything else. But thankfully it's really his hands/arms/wrists that are actually severely affected with the eczema. He still had it behind his knees but nothing bad (probably mainly because it's always covered with clothes) and a patch on his foot has returned slightly. But it's just a wonderful blessing to see him so much better than he was 6 months ago. And the fact that he nearly always sleeps through the night is amazing in itself, as parents of eczema children often talk about their children who are 3 and 4 times his age, and who've never slept through the night. He does wake up on occasions, but 6 months ago he was waking sometimes nearly every hour, or being awake and scratching for 1-2 hours solid. So we have a lot to be thankful for in this regard! And I've started giving him some liquid vitamins to see if we can build up his immune system at all to reduce the colds/bugs he seems to catch!

OK, it's ever so late, I must get to sleep!

Cold and Frosty (er, Frozen!) December!

Yes, it's cold here! Most days it's quite frozen and icy outside. Not that I'm out there much to know about it, but it's often a white view out the window! Some days it thaws a bit when the sun shines but other times (like today) it stays white and looks bitterly cold. Benjamin was asking for summer this morning. The poor things are in the house a lot of the time, especially days like today where their noses are already streaming - not sure below freezing temperatures would benefit them!

But they do have fun indoors too, as seen in the above pic! Sitting on the stairs playing with teddy bears.

...while Clement likes to get up to mischief!

On Wednesday last week we went along with a group of other local homeschoolers for an afternoon in a forest about 7 miles north of here. I think they usually go there once a month and a man from the forestry commission comes and does various activities with the youngsters. It was quite good fun (even if it was very cold). We went on a walk along this path and eventually came to a loch - which was frozen over! Well, a thin layer of ice was across it. Unfortunately one of the little boys (thankfully not one of mine) fell into the icy water! He didn't seem to mind really! So we all headed back and made a "camp fire" and roasted smores! It was quite dark by the time we finished (as seen a couple of photos down).

Abigail, Benjamin and Peter as we were beginning the walk (children trying to eat sandwiches in pita bread while walking!).

Round the camp fire, though can't see any flames here!

All warm and cosy in his bear snowsuit.

Clement feeding himself. Some days it seems he's only happy if he's stuffing his face! He's always going across the floor in his baby walker with a biscuit or rice cake in one hand and crumbs and mess following him - or rolling back on top of the said crumbs! I'm just very glad that we've got lovely solid floors in this house - it would have been a real nightmare to have his messes on carpet!

Brothers playing together!

Cuddles too! :-)

Never seems possible to get a photo of the 3 of them all looking at me at the same time, but this one isn't toooo bad!

Isn't he big??!

And he's big too!

Another one with the 3 together, and they're all looking at me too! But not sure Clement wants to be held so tightly! ;-)

Playing with a wooden parking garage

which he thinks is lots of fun (tho it would be even better if his big brother hadn't taken all the cars away!).

Playing with his tongue

Feeding Clement some yoghurt - and not making a mess either!

But this occasion was different - they've both got yoghurt beards! LOL

My sweet little girl who doesn't seem very little! Holding her doll that I bought for her from eBay! My mom bought me the same doll for my first birthday and having seen some listed for sale, I just had to buy one for my daughter! :-)

Now, I was probably going to say more but since it's quite late already (or early!), I think I'll just leave it here with photos and think of something to say another time!

A visit from Nat!

Yes, my lovely brother has flown all the way from Texas just to see us! We feel very special! :-D He arrived on Saturday last week and already goes back on Friday! :( We're really enjoying having him here, but I think he's seen us at our worst, as we've really been dragging or barely alive with the remains of the nasty cold/flu stuff that started *2* full weeks ago! So it's a shame we've all been so poorly, and the weather has been very wet, wild & windy, so fairly stuck in the house! Anyway, it's lovely to have him here! Clement was a bit slower to come round, as he's not so sure of strangers. But Abigail and Benjamin are *too* comfortable with him, so he might be ready for a break from them by Friday! :-) LOL

So yes, we're still coughing - at least me & my little boys are! But the boys are nothing like what they were at the weekend! Basically Clement developed croup on Friday night and then Benjamin woke up with croup on Saturday morning. He wasn't too bad during the day and managed OK to go along to the airport in Inverness to pick up his Uncle Nat. But the cough was getting a lot worse by bedtime - resulting in him being sick in his bed only 45 min after he'd gone to sleep, having just had a bath! :-( This meant the poor child had to get in the bath again so I could clean him up - I felt terrible, as he must have been so cold (at least, I always feel cold when I'm awakened unexpectedly), so having to get into the bath again, when he'd finally dried/warmed up must have been awful. Though I think he handled it better than I did - I was in tears and he was quite OK. He settled afterwards on the couch while I was giving cuddles to Clement, who was also quite poorly. But Benjamin seemed to get worse overnight and by morning he was very wheezy and his breathing wasn't normal or the way it should be. I felt that I should get a doctor to look at him but didn't think he was severe enough for Peter to stay home from church, so he, Abigail & Nat went out and I stayed in with the boys. I first tried to ring the local health centre to see if there was an out of hours number but the recording said I had to phone the dreaded NHS24, which I did. Having given the details to the lady on the phone I waited for them to ring me back. The nurse who phoned about 20 minutes later wasn't exactly the most polite person and told me there was no one local to see him (as in GPs) and that because he was a toddler it was very dangerous to have breathing problems and I needed to let her send an ambulance here! I felt it was rather over the top, especially since he was alert and playing/walking around, but she near enough shouted at me (tho in a low voice) that I needed to allow her to do this and basically was being very bad to even hesitate about the idea! Since she said the paramedics would assess him at the house first before deciding we had to go away anywhere, I eventually said OK. So a very few minutes later they arrived - and they said that Benjamin needed to be seen by a doctor. Thankfully a GP was on duty in the local county hospital (Invergordon), as I was dreading anyone saying we might have to go to Inverness. So I left a note on the table to tell Peter where we were and Benjamin, Clement and I were taken in the ambulance. At least it meant we got to go straight in and be seen, rather than having to wait for very long. The peramedics put a oxygen "mask" on Benjamin while we rode, and I was very impressed that he didn't mind it on him! He just sat perfectly still the whole time and I think the extra air helped him to calm down a bit too. The doctor said Benjamin needed some oral steroids (which is what I knew they give for croup and felt he needed, even if I wasn't keen on the idea of steroids in an even more potent form than he has had before, in creams). Basically croup is an infection of the larynx (voice box) and trachea (windpipe) and it affects young children because theirs is small and when it's inflamed it can cause problems with breathing. So the steroids reduce the inflammation. Benjamin had a dissolved tablet of it while at hospital and they sent him home with another one for the following day. Thankfully Peter was back home by the time we were just about finished, so I rang him and he was able to come collect us and take us back home. Quite an ordeal really, but thankful for prompt help and that the medicine relieved Benjamin's breathing. The cough isn't totally gone but hopefully we'll not have too many more days of it now.

Clement playing with his present from Aunty Leah

Saturday afternoon, Abigail and Benjamin enjoying the many presents delivered by Uncle Nat, which he brought over from Leah, Sarah etc

Can you see my brand new tooth? :-) Yes, Clement has his first tooth - there on the bottom if you can see it! Abigail and Benjamin started with teeth on the top, but Clement just has to be different! ;-D

And isn't he lovely here?! :)

I couldn't possibly get them to all look at me, so a very chaotic photo!

What the children are usually doing when I'm cooking dinner - the older two like to sit on the counter and watch me - or make messes, more likely!

And now I must get some sleep, or I'll never get over my sinus infection (or whatever it is I have!).

Abigail is 4!

Yes, my little girl is already 4 years old! Abigail's birthday was on Thursday. She absolutely loves the idea of birthdays and has been nearly counting down the days since her last one! And sure enough, she's already talking about how long till she's 5! LOL

Presents, balloons, cards, etc waiting for her in the morning!

Opening said presents

A funny pose!

A new scooter

Playing with balloons

Clement escaping from birthday excitement and paying a visit to the Book Shop (aka Daddy's office!).

Playing with another of her presents - a lovely paper doll house, meant to be an exact reproduction of the house of Anne of Green Gables.

Birthday cake! Abigail specifically requested a "Hello Kitty" cake, so I had to attempt one! Looking at her placemat (seen in above photo) I tried to copy that, but I think I could do with some lessons in cake decorating! lol

Blowing out the candles, with help from Benjamin!

Then yesterday (day after her birthday) I took the 3 children on the train and we met my good friend Ruth and her 2 little ones, Jonathan & Lois. We had a lovely morning/afternoon at Runaround, which is an indoor soft play place. It's only for under 5s, so is a nice & safe place for little ones to get their energy out and play with numerous toys, including slides and a bouncy castle, and *lots* of riding toys! Leaving the mums to have a chat and cups of tea! :-D So we had lunch together there (there's also a cafe) and then the kids and I got the train back home.

Benjamin started feeling poorly last night - coughing, which then led to vomiting. I'm guessing it's the cold that Abigail seemed to come down with the day before her birthday. However, she seems to always find some energy at various points in the day. But Benjamin has been flat out with it today - not eating (he's gagging on foods) and sleeping a lot of the day, or just wanting to be held. He's got a temp of 102.8f (39C) just now and is drifting off to sleep for the 3rd or 4th time today. He's only eaten his cereal at breakfast and hasn't been able to cope with any food since- just trying to keep giving him fluids. And then to make matters worse, I slipped on a fleece cloth (on kitchen floor) *while* I was carrying Benjamin (who was asleep) and fell flat on my face on the floor on top of poor Benjamin! :( He seemed to be OK, though rather frightened. But I hit my face on the door jamb, and did something to my arm (between elbow and wrist) and it's hurting quite badly still. I don't think anything is broken, but maybe it's sprained in some way.

My big happy 7 month old! :-) He loves his baby walker and goes all round the house in it.

In the walker again!

Eating biscuits - yum yum!

Joiner (builder) in the making! :-D Wearing Benjamin's new yellow wellies and his hard hat.

Story time with daddy - something they all enjoy! Especially Clement when it's a book with animal sounds! We're beginning to think he's a parrot - the only way to explain how he copies complicated sounds after we tell him something! Last week we were waiting in the car and I was holding Clement when a cat walked past the car window. I pointed it out to him saying "Kitty-cat says miaow" and he responded with "kie-kaa" several times. And then whenever I would just saw miaow, he'd say "kie-kaa"! And he also says "moo" and "baaa" at times when we're talking about cows and sheep! And what's really sweet is when he says "lov-ya" or, more commonly, "lov-ya dadda" and looks at his daddy with a big smile! :-D He also attempts to repeat all sorts of words, some which really catch us by surprise, like digger. I'm sure there are others I'm not thinking of too. It's just really neat to watch the way his speaking develops - he certainly wants to talk!

Benjamin taking his eczema treatment into his own hands! LOL Spreading Eucerin cream on his face! We've had a few nasty flare ups lately. With one I ended up (being naughty) and using some of Clement's anti-fungal cream on Benjamin's skin, as I thought it looked rather like a fungal infection. It cleared up very nicely - redness went away very quickly. But unfortunately his skin was very dry and he got rather itchy not very many days later. So then I ended up putting some Eumovate (moderate potency steroid) on him earlier this week, because once he gets to scratching (and chewing his fingers/wrists/hands) there's just no stopping him, and it results in both him & me getting stressed, and then that just makes him even worse! I only put the Eumovate on him about 3 times and then back to his manuka honey cream, and his skin was looking really nice. But his hands/wrists are quite bad again just now. I don't know how to break his recently begun habit of chewing his hands! It is very damaging to his skin, and they're just covered in sores. :-( But otherwise, his legs/feet are OK at the moment - it's really limited to his hands and the odd patch on his neck and arms.

Doesn't he look fat?! LOL But poor Clement has been having skin issues too - his face is quite sensitive to fabrics. He'll go super red on his cheeks if he's held next to me while I'm wearing a wool coat. Or if he comes in contact with something that's washed in detergent/fabric softener - like a pillow case that I pulled out the other day, which hadn't been used since we went over to no fabric softener or detergent! And also having issues with "nappy rash", though I'm starting to think he might be getting eczema there, possibly from the stitching on some of his cloth nappies! So I keep doing "testing" to try and determine that brings him out with the rash, since it usually goes away when he's in disposables. But he's been wearing cloth nappies since birth without problems - so it seems he's becoming more and more allergic/sensitive to things that were previously ok.

Well, I think all my children are asleep now, so I better get the dishes and other chores done before having a shower. I feel like I've been sitting on the couch most of the day with Benjamin being poorly, so the house is rather upside down!