Still around...

Well, I haven't got myself packed into a box yet! ;-) In fact, we don't really have anything in boxes yet - and only like 10 days till we sign papers and get the house! :-O But I've been doing lots of major decluttering - lots of bags gone to charity shops (or out at the door for the charity bag collectors - which means I don't have to haul them anywhere!). So I think we're accomplishing something - and I cleared out 6 pushchairs, which is progress for sure! Hopefully once we're ready to start boxing things up it won't take too much effort to sort things out - or at least that's the idea. But we hope to move and reassemble the shelving and books (as in, the multiple thousands of books that are for sale!) first, since that's not connected with what we need for eating/sleeping!

I think I'll just post these photos and then get to bed, as I never seem to get near enough sleep. We all ended up with a nasty cold/flu type thing - apparently connected with the virus that gave Benjamin the croup over 2 weeks ago. Abigail, Clement and I still have rather noisy/wheezy breathing from it, but hopefully that won't last too much longer.These first three photos are from today

"We don't do baby rice here - big boy food all the way - pass the baguettes, please!" :-) He loves to teethe on big bits of bread, especially the "crusts" from homemade pizza!

Smiling at his mummy, of course!

Making a funny face, and thinking about where he might be able to go

"Mummy says I must wear shoes when I'm outside .... so does that mean her shoes will do?" ;-)

Watching mummy in the kitchen

Again, watching his mummy in the kitchen (you might think I live in there! ;-) ) - he's quite enjoying the baby walker which we got when Benjamin was about his age!

Chewing a biscuit (cracker), but I had to soon take it from him, as he bit off a huge piece and looked in danger of choking!

Yep, he's one of us ... he loves books! ... tho eating them is even better!

Benjamin playing in a big box

Cooking a pretend meal

Soaking up the sunshine

A close up of Benjamin's face! lol

And Abigail too, as she didn't want to be left out

On Wednesday we went to see my friend Ruth, who's just had a lovely little baby girl! :-) She's called Lois and we went over to meet her, which was nice! Made Clement look like he's not a baby anymore to see a newborn!

Afterwards we went for a walk near Tore. The above photo shows Abigail and her work of art (she's got a big creative streak!). She and Benjamin collected lots of interesting objects - pine cones, acorns, hay, feathers, leaves, etc and when we got home Abigail arranged them all in her trainers, which looked quite clever really!

And this is what I collected during our walk:

19 of the 22 cooking apples we picked/collected! We were walking along a path where a old railway once was and we found a lone apple tree there! No idea how it got there, but I made a *lovely* apple crumble with 3 of the apples that evening! Now I must make sure I make something else with some of them tomorrow, as Abigail was rather disappointed that I didn't make a pie or cake today!

Ok, I'm off to bed now - I hope! :-)

Photos of all sorts

I'm falling asleep at the computer - well, I feel a bit like it! Clement is having his midnight top up! He always likes a feed before I go to sleep for the night. But I'm feeling rather exhausted just now - probably due to always staying up too late! And added to that, last week & this week were a bit more hectic with Peter being out most of the 2 weeks for jury duty at the High Court. So I had all the normal things to do, as well as trying to get book orders out and posted on the normal days, etc. But he's finished the jury duty today, so we're hopefully back to normal, in that regard.

Brothers having a cuddle!

Lying in the kitchen floor, all dressed for bed it seems!

Yummy fingers

My 3 precious children, with Clement trying to look like he's as big as the others!

Big sister and littlest brother

Clement's legs are actually strong enough to stand up at something, though at 4.5 months he can't actually do it - but he does have the strength in his legs to stand and support his weight for quite a long time!

In the high chair with a cup of water. Clement has decided he wants food early. And I guess the idea of "baby led weaning" means the baby gets to decide?! LOL In any case, he's made it very clear that he's ready for it and able to eat too! The first time I finally gave in to let him taste something (a cooked carrot stick) he bit a piece off, chewed it up (like a pro!) and promptly swallowed it! :-O I was shocked! I was sure that babies had to learn to swallow things, and their gag reflex (I think that's what it's called) has to be lost, meaning they start by spitting the food out again, before learning to swallow. But he chewed & swallowed the *first* time, at only 4 months! I was always of the mind to delay giving solids as long as possible, and since Clement is nearly 19lbs (several pounds heavier than lots of 1 year olds!!), and almost on the 98th centile for his weight, it's clear he's getting plenty to eat. But I guess he had different ideas, and is a natural male ... likes his food! LOL So we're exploring all sorts of fruits & veggies, which is fun. And he likes everything he's given - so far!

Chewing his toys - everything goes in mouth

My latest pushchair [blush] ! I've always wanted to try a Phil & Teds - and at long last, I've got one! And I think it's fantastic - it is so easy to push, and soooo compact. So I've been having a mega clearout and trying to downsize my pushchair collection (I think I had 5 singles and 3 doubles). So far only 1 single has left the house, meaning there are 4 doubles currently here! But most of them are on the way out the door - either ending soon on ebay, or to be picked up by people, etc. I'll really miss the big shoping basket on my Kolcraft Contours Options Tandem, as the P&T has a very small basket compared to the other, but I think I'll be happy with the switch. And glad to have less clutter when we move house!

Isn't he cute?!

2 boys with tongues! Doesn't Benjamin look grown up here? I don't think he looks like just a 2.5yo!

Teething on a raw carrot!

Benjamin and his lovely soft "Very Hungry Caterpillar", which we won in a lovely giveaway from Leah (not my sister, on this occasion!). It arrived in the post this morning, on just the perfect day to cheer Benjamin up! :-) He's feeling quite poorly just now - I think he's got Croup! :-( He's got awful barking cough, slight fever, and bad sounds with his breathing - meaning he's getting rather breathless at times, which can be a bit scary. But I'm just trying to keep him calm and not let him get upset about things, and that helps him to not get out of breath. Hopefully he'll get over it soon and be OK. Though I worry about him at times, as he seems to be always catching something or poorly in one way or another. Thankfully we've been keeping the eczema fairly under control lately. I think the manuka honey cream is helping in that regard. Last week I had forgotten to order another tub in time, so we ran out over the weekend and he had a bit of a flareup, with it coming back worse. But it's calmed down since we got the cream again. So just have to make sure I don't forget again and let us run out of it! Obviously his skin isn't perfect, but it doesn't seem so out of control as before.

Clement's first time on Mummy's back, today. But I think I tied the straps wrong (so don't anyone follow the photo! lol), since I usually wear him on the front. But I think I'll be having him on my back a lot more now that he's bigger!

A happy little boy - and mummy's hands are free to cook dinner!

and 20 minutes later, a peacefully sleeping baby! :-) Amazing!

Ok, off to bed at last. If I don't post anything for a while, I might have accidentally packed myself away in a moving box! ;-) We're closing on the house a week earlier, so should start moving before the end of the month!!

We're buying....

A bigger house!! :-)

Yes, we're hoping to move soon! We've put in an offer for the house and it was accepted, and we've agreed a date of entry by the 5th of October. Don't think I've really got an idea of how much work it will be to pack everything up and move, but I'm still excited! I don't know if I've mentioned here before about our plans to build an extension on our exisiting house, to make a office and a dining room behind the house. Well, we contacted the architects back in December last year and had hoped that work might start by around March...but it's now nearly *September*, and they've still not finished all the planning work. So we have no idea how long it would be before it was possible to even *start* the building work - much less when it would be finished! So thinking about this, I began to think I really wasn't sure we could cope with having the house torn apart (well, at least the back of the downstairs) while having active toddlers. And if it happened during the winter months, then they'd be confined in a very small space indoors. Not to mention the fact that Clement would be crawling (if not walking) by then - and Benjamin's eczema adds enough stress to life! Sooo, long story short, I started looking for houses - determined that I was sure I could find something in the wider area at least that would actually in the end be more economical than an extension. And the above house is what I found - slightly more space than what we'd have if we'd had the extension built, but hopefully laid out in a way to make the space more usable - and still plenty of garden space (front & back) for the children to play in! (That was one issue with the extension here - we'd have hardly any garden out the back - and the front is small enough as it is.) And the house is in walk-in condition, though we'll need to floor the attic and build another garden shed to have some extra storage space! :-) The house is about 25 miles north of where we are now - but good road there, so only just over half an hour's drive - not far off the main road, but in a small estate, so not too many houses around.

So here are a few more pics of inside the house, copied from the brochure:

Kitchen (obviously!)

Dining room, looking down from the stairs

The current lounge (sitting room) which is upstairs! However, we're hoping to use the front entry room (in front of the kitchen) as a sitting room, and this upstairs room (which is quite large) will be divided to be a bedroom for Abigail at the back and play/school room at the front.

Master bedroom, with good sized walk-in closet

So, plenty of work to be done clearing out clutter here and packing up soon! And the task of getting this house emptied and up for sale! Sooooo, if anyone is looking for a house in the Highlands of Scotland... ;-) our house here will soon be up for sale! Peter has started putting together a website, though our house won't be officially for sale yet, as we're required to have a home report (survey) first, which will be when the house is empty! But just to see if there's any initial interest! :-) http://yourhighlandhome.weebly.com

No time to say anything much else, as I need to get to bed soon! So just one photo of my lovely wee boy, who isn't all that very wee! :-)

Afternoon at Rosemarkie & other photos

Guess it's been a couple of weeks since I last posted here. Benjamin got over his "flu" symptoms and none of us got it either, which was rather strange. Still not sure what it was. The following week was very difficult with his eczema - I think there were 3 days/nights in a row where he was waking in the night with frantic scratching and it was hard to calm him down. So not a lot of sleep for either us or him. Eventually on Thursday last week I decided I had to take him to the doctor, as his body was almost entirely covered in awful red eczema, :-( and it looked quite infected too. So far we'd managed to keep infection at bay with the various creams we use, but this time nothing was working. So the doctor gave us oral and topical antibiotics (along with 1% hydocortisone). The oral ones he prescribed tasted *awful* - so bad we couldn't get a drop into him! Thankfully that evening he re-prescribed a different one (Co-Amoxiclav) which tastes a lot better, and we were able to get Benjamin to take that. Unfortunately though, between the confusion of me picking up the first one that morning and Peter picking up the 2nd one that evening, I didn't realise it had to be stored in the fridge. :-S (I'll blame it on the lack of sleep! lol) Anyway, I only noticed it 3 full days later, when the colour and consistency seemed to be rather odd. So on Monday the doctor had to represcribe it again, as it wouldn't have been doing any good for him. So it was annoying that he had to re-start the 7 day course, especially since it's given him quite an upset tummy. But it has been quite effective in clearing the eczema up. So he's much better just now in that regard (though might be a different story next week when he finishes the medicines). But I think that's the whole point of steroids - to calm things down when it gets really bad - and then you try and manage without them for a while until they're needed again to suppress it for a bit. Though I wish we could get by without them! Anyway, last night Benjamin has come down with a very runny nose/congested head and a bit of a temperature. It's only 2 weeks since he was last ill - so I don't know what it is this time. I'm guessing he's just got a very weak immune system - hoping it's nothing more serious than that.



I mentioned last time that I would possibly post about detergents & soaps, but not had any time for that. In any case, I started making my own clothes washing powder with soap flakes (maybe I already said that?) and got rid of all cleaners etc. Not sure it's done any good (at least not yet) but it's nice to know there aren't any harmful chemicals being used anymore - even natural shampoos & bar soaps! :) And a very big thank you to Jo for ordering me some soap nuts! They arrived in a lovely red cotton bag all tied up like a present! And best of all, I'm amazed at how well they clean! I've been using them on Benjamin's clothes and his nappies and they smell very fresh! If anyone doesn't know what soap nuts are, you can see here: http://www.inasoapnutshell.com/ So I'm using my soap flakes mix every now & again to brighten things up a bit (if necessary), but using the soap nuts for most all the washes. It's really neat how you can put 8 half nut shells into a bag and then do 6 or more loads of laundry with the same nuts!!



Well, Clement is already 4 months old! He had his check with the health visitor yesterday and weighed in at 18lbs exactly! So that makes him well above the 91st centile, climbing up there towards the 98th centile! He's one big boy! He's still not mastered rolling over - doesn't seem to be very bothered with the idea of doing it. But he does get half way over and curls backwards a bit, like this here:





Last Saturday we had our annual outing to the seaside in Rosemarkie with our homeschool group. Unfortunately most of the families weren't able to make it, but we still had a nice time. Abigail and Benjamin enjoyed playing in the sand for hours, though Clement seemed to be having a bad day and cried (ie screamed!) for rather a long time! So not as many photos as I might have have liked, but here are a few.

Smiling at last - after finally having a sleep and feed! He's rather mega teething at the moment (tho no sign of teeth yet) and it makes him quite grumpy and difficult at times. Still lots of smiles, but he can refuse to eat when he's actually very hungry!

And this (above) was the children at the end of their day out to the seaside. They all had a long nap (well, not Clement) - which meant a late night!

My fat little boy with his big sister

Chewing his favourite toy

a rather poor attempt at getting all 3 of them together! lol

The two boys still in their pyjamas - and Abigail already dressed! She's usually the first one in the house to get dressed - sometimes while I'm still in bed! [blush]

A Mei Tai sling that I made today! Fabric was a 50p charity shop find - something I picked up a couple of years ago and always thought I'd make some sort of curtains out of it! Found out recently that it originally retailed at over 22 pounds per metre (and I had over 2 metres). Since it was so nice & sturdy I thought I'd make a sling out of it - even if a bit of an unusual colour/pattern scheme! lol

At least Clement likes it! :-)

Ok, off to bed.

Eczema, flu symptoms etc

Benjamin woke up this morning with flu symptoms (well started yesterday) but only more obvious today. His temperature isn't overly high, but is elevated. But has everything from cough/runny nose to a runny tummy! With all the talk out there of "swine flu" it makes one more nervous of what one would usually think of as normal viruses! I don't know what exactly he has, but since it's always possible it's the said flu, we're keeping him (and the rest of us) home & indoors until we know what it is. Just hoping we'll not all be down with it soon!

I was thinking the other day that perhaps I should rename this "my eczema blog", but since so much of what I do all day & night relates to Benjamin's eczema, I think "my daily life" is quite accurate enough, even when I go on a fair bit about eczema! LOL So anyway, regarding this subject (beware! might be long!!!) .... Benjamin's skin was getting quite out of hand after the prescribed steroids (from dermatologist appointment nearly a month ago). Although "more potent" they seemed to be less effective than hydrocortisone (which is considered very mild, by doctors). We had been thinking about trying some form of manuka honey on his skin and eventually ordered some creams last week, on Mon/Tue. Before they arrived, I decided to try the Emulsiderm bath emollient for Benjamin (prescribed to use when skin was broken) since his scratches (which were very many) were looking rather sad an infected. I'd been reluctant to bathe him in something like that (antibacterial stuff) since he often gets water in eyes/mouth, but thought maybe it would help heal his skin. Well, at 1:30am that night (Tuesday last week) he woke up very upset & miserable. I figured it was nothing out of the ordinary, so we kept trying to settle him and keep him from scratching/rubbing feet together. Peter & I took turns, without much success. We both tried to fall asleep cuddling him, so we could hopefully get some rest at the same time, but nothing was working. Finally at 3am I was just about going crazy - was too tired to think, and couldn't understand why he wouldn't settle. Well, I then took Benjamin into the bathroom and took his pyjamas off and THIS is what I found!! (I've put the photo in as a link instead of here visible, since it looks rather bad.) Anyway, in all the areas where he had existing eczema, it was flame red patches and some purple (esp on face). He looked very ill and was nearly getting delirious, as if he was about to go into a fit with itching. I've *never* seen him like this before, and was certain we'd soon end up in hospital with him! Thinking it was perhaps a reaction to the Emulsiderm, I got a cloth wet with Aveeno bath oil and washed him down and re-applied his beeswax cream, and by 3:45am he was sleeping peacefully and did so until his usual just before 7am waking. His skin was still quite angry in the morning and I was very pleased when the post lady brought some Calendula cream that Leah sent for us to try! :-) It seemed to really calm him down that day and the redness went down a lot. The next day (Thursday) we received the Manuka honey creams (Madeleine Ritchie from NZ company) and started putting them on him. By that evening the results were already amazing - the cracked & bleeding wrists were healing up. And 24 hours later even better. And these two photos below, taken 2 days after starting the creams (with manuka honey, propolis, vit E, calendula, evening primrose oil, etc) show the results:

So we have been quite impressed with the improvement to his overall skin condition. Steroids had been the only thing that "zapped" the eczema, yet his skin always looked damaged afterwards, and the returning rash (after stopping the steroids) was always very agressive. However, despite good creams, we obviously have to work out what's causing the eczema. Because on Monday this week it started coming back (though gradually, rather than all at once). But having noticed that he got several patches of it on his arm, the exact arm that he had resting on the carpet at the top of the stairs for 1-2 hours that day (doing jigsaws), it seems obvious that it must be a "contact eczema", rather than dietary etc. Not that we can know for sure yet, but having been able to remove the eczema so drastically from his skin, I was able to monitor him closely to see when/where it reappeared.

I've come across a theory about detergent allergy and using only pure soap for *everything* in the house, which I'm trying to implement. It's quite complicated & involved (both to put into practice & to explain!) so perhaps I'll blog about it next time.

Random photos here for now, and I'm off to bed.

Looking very grown up!

Sister to brother chat! :-)

Impossible to get all 3 of them smiling at the same time! lol

Getting to be a very big boy - and mega teething too, even if no teeth in sight!

Always happy when next to his mummy! ;-)

Very yummy fingers