The weeks just fly by. It doesn't seem very long since Deborah was born, yet she's already 5.5 weeks old! Our darling baby is quite a delightful little girl - she's beginning to smile and coo at us, which is always a wonderful development in a baby! :-) She continues to be perfect at nights - couldn't ask for a better baby. She does like to feed a fair bit in the evenings, but she is obviously stocking up for the night! Between 9 and 10pm she settles for the night and sleeps in her little rocking bed (carrycot) downstairs until I'm ready for bed. Then I carry her up, give her a dry nappy and a quick feed, and tuck her in beside me in bed, and that's it. For the first few weeks she was sleeping through solid until about 6-8am. But she seems to be waking for one feed in the night, somewhere around 4-5am. Of course, the wonderful thing about co-sleeping means I can near enough stay asleep through her feeds! :-) But in any case, a newborn only waking once max per night (since birth!) is pretty amazing.
This photo was also taken today, at 5.5 weeks old.
Clement "holding" Deborah yesterday. He's finally started saying her name this week and it's quite cute. Ever since she was born he has refused to admit what her name is - she was just "bay-beee". He's starting to say quite a few things these days and loves to sing. For a while his favourite thing to sing has been Psalm 100 (All people that on earth do dwell) and he probably knows all the words to it too! He likes someone else to sing along with him, but you can hear him starting the next word with the correct sound (not totally clearly spoken always) but he obviously has the words memorised even if he can't say them perfectly. He's the same with Psalms 23 and 121. Now he's also going around singing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star", after enjoying looking at the stars in the sky! And he loves to sing his ABCs too - but seems to prefer the American "Zee" rather than "Zed" for the last letter of the alphabet! And it's *not* me who says "zee" to him either, I think he got it off Benjamin - or possibly they both got it from a Richard Scarry's ABC video! :-) Anyway, Clement is a very keen observer and follows me around the house watching *everything* I do and trying to copy everything. He'll soon know how to run the house himself! I can hardly peel a carrot without him finding his way into the kitchen to "help". And he also uses his observation skills to get up to mischief - and he's very, very quick! He'll often realise I'm at the computer and he'll go in the kitchen to "mess" with the baby, so I'll run to get Deborah, by which time he's ran back to my laptop to try and pull the keys off. Or he'll listen to hear if someone shuts the bathroom door after themselves. Or if he sees someone has gone out the front door and not locked it, he'll look out the front window to see if the gate is left open so he can attempt an escape, etc. Lots of fun - and the need for a few extra pairs of eyes, that's for sure! But he's always smiling and making us smile too - as he's been doing since he was about 3 weeks old! lol
The Benjamin - as cheeky as can be! I took this photo earlier today when I took him and Abigail out late afternoon with their scooters. He was in desperate need of getting rid of some energy, so I thought a bit of exercise might help! We just went round the pavements nearby before it got dark. Thankfully his eczema continues to be at bay (still using a
tiny amount of a potent steroid every other day on his hand to keep it away). But he makes up for the eczema with plenty of challenging behaviour, which can be quite a challenge to deal with, and requires a huge amount of patience! Most days I feel like I spend about 80% of my mental energy (and nearly as much of my time) looking after him. It seems the best thing is to keep him occupied the whole time he's awake, mostly with something to keep his hands busy - though nothing is a perfect solution. One positive thing is that at last, he's potty trained!!!! :-) Between the eczema and other perhaps not so related "itching/scratching" issues, he's spent the last 2 years of his life in rather more secure clothing to most children, which made the idea of potty training seem impossible. But I was aware that it really needed to be done since he was 3.5 years old, just didn't have the energy at the time, being 39 weeks pregnant. But Benjamin told me he wanted to potty train, and told me that I was a silly mummy(!) for putting nappies on him, and that he should be wearing big boy pants (underpants). We went back and forth the first week or two, and I put disposable pants on him at first, because I couldn't really cope with puddles in the floor when I was about to give birth! lol Anyway, with pratice over the next few weeks, he mastered it all - and pretty much all at once too! And he's been fully dry days and nights for 2 weeks now - not an accident at all! So we're very pleased and thankful about that!
Abigail with her scooter earlier today - our big 5 year old daughter! Her birthday was Friday last week (12th), so plenty of photos from then below. She's really such a big help to me, not least in spending time with Clement and lovingly looking after him. They play together quite a lot - particularly with her toy kitchen, as Clement loves to have pretend tea parties with her. :) Anyway, whilst it can be a bit hectic having 4 children so young and close together, I have to say a child as young as 5 can be quite a help! This evening she was doing hoovering and dusting - she thought it was quite fun too - but probably this opinion will have changed by the time she's a few years older. lol
Here she is looking all grown up! :-)
Lots of pressies!
Beginning to open them
and again
A much wanted plush Hello Kitty
And a fleece blanket ... yep, she likes Hello Kitty! :-)
Princess birthday cake! I was happy with how it turned out, though I'm well aware of my lack of proper cake decorating skills! :-)
admiring her cake
Benjamin making himself a party hat out of a napkin!
Blowing out the candles
The children pretending to bake a cake one morning (before breakfast!).
Deborah was not quite 4 weeks old here - wearing a "fancy" cloth nappy made by Flutterby Fluff (a UK work-at-home-mum). A lovely, soft velour nappy which I won earlier this year in a competition for a nappy review I wrote.
Again, not quite 4 weeks old. Another nappy photo (yes, I like cloth nappies!). This time she's got a lovely nappy cover from Tots Bots (Glasgow based company), one of their new style wraps, which is really fantastic in all possible ways.
Me and my baby, 4.5 weeks old - attempting to take a self portrait in the mirror, so it's not very good quality.
Getting big - 5 weeks old!
Playing dress-up - Clement wearing Abigail's dressing up outfit that she got for her birthday
All in pink (and a bit of purple) - Abigail's idea for them to all wear pink! lol
The weeks just fly by. It doesn't seem very long since Deborah was born, yet she's already 5.5 weeks old! Our darling baby is quite a delightful little girl - she's beginning to smile and coo at us, which is always a wonderful development in a baby! :-) She continues to be perfect at nights - couldn't ask for a better baby. She does like to feed a fair bit in the evenings, but she is obviously stocking up for the night! Between 9 and 10pm she settles for the night and sleeps in her little rocking bed (carrycot) downstairs until I'm ready for bed. Then I carry her up, give her a dry nappy and a quick feed, and tuck her in beside me in bed, and that's it. For the first few weeks she was sleeping through solid until about 6-8am. But she seems to be waking for one feed in the night, somewhere around 4-5am. Of course, the wonderful thing about co-sleeping means I can near enough stay asleep through her feeds! :-) But in any case, a newborn only waking once max per night (since birth!) is pretty amazing.
This photo was also taken today, at 5.5 weeks old.
Clement "holding" Deborah yesterday. He's finally started saying her name this week and it's quite cute. Ever since she was born he has refused to admit what her name is - she was just "bay-beee". He's starting to say quite a few things these days and loves to sing. For a while his favourite thing to sing has been Psalm 100 (All people that on earth do dwell) and he probably knows all the words to it too! He likes someone else to sing along with him, but you can hear him starting the next word with the correct sound (not totally clearly spoken always) but he obviously has the words memorised even if he can't say them perfectly. He's the same with Psalms 23 and 121. Now he's also going around singing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star", after enjoying looking at the stars in the sky! And he loves to sing his ABCs too - but seems to prefer the American "Zee" rather than "Zed" for the last letter of the alphabet! And it's *not* me who says "zee" to him either, I think he got it off Benjamin - or possibly they both got it from a Richard Scarry's ABC video! :-) Anyway, Clement is a very keen observer and follows me around the house watching *everything* I do and trying to copy everything. He'll soon know how to run the house himself! I can hardly peel a carrot without him finding his way into the kitchen to "help". And he also uses his observation skills to get up to mischief - and he's very, very quick! He'll often realise I'm at the computer and he'll go in the kitchen to "mess" with the baby, so I'll run to get Deborah, by which time he's ran back to my laptop to try and pull the keys off. Or he'll listen to hear if someone shuts the bathroom door after themselves. Or if he sees someone has gone out the front door and not locked it, he'll look out the front window to see if the gate is left open so he can attempt an escape, etc. Lots of fun - and the need for a few extra pairs of eyes, that's for sure! But he's always smiling and making us smile too - as he's been doing since he was about 3 weeks old! lol
The Benjamin - as cheeky as can be! I took this photo earlier today when I took him and Abigail out late afternoon with their scooters. He was in desperate need of getting rid of some energy, so I thought a bit of exercise might help! We just went round the pavements nearby before it got dark. Thankfully his eczema continues to be at bay (still using a tiny amount of a potent steroid every other day on his hand to keep it away). But he makes up for the eczema with plenty of challenging behaviour, which can be quite a challenge to deal with, and requires a huge amount of patience! Most days I feel like I spend about 80% of my mental energy (and nearly as much of my time) looking after him. It seems the best thing is to keep him occupied the whole time he's awake, mostly with something to keep his hands busy - though nothing is a perfect solution. One positive thing is that at last, he's potty trained!!!! :-) Between the eczema and other perhaps not so related "itching/scratching" issues, he's spent the last 2 years of his life in rather more secure clothing to most children, which made the idea of potty training seem impossible. But I was aware that it really needed to be done since he was 3.5 years old, just didn't have the energy at the time, being 39 weeks pregnant. But Benjamin told me he wanted to potty train, and told me that I was a silly mummy(!) for putting nappies on him, and that he should be wearing big boy pants (underpants). We went back and forth the first week or two, and I put disposable pants on him at first, because I couldn't really cope with puddles in the floor when I was about to give birth! lol Anyway, with pratice over the next few weeks, he mastered it all - and pretty much all at once too! And he's been fully dry days and nights for 2 weeks now - not an accident at all! So we're very pleased and thankful about that!
Abigail with her scooter earlier today - our big 5 year old daughter! Her birthday was Friday last week (12th), so plenty of photos from then below. She's really such a big help to me, not least in spending time with Clement and lovingly looking after him. They play together quite a lot - particularly with her toy kitchen, as Clement loves to have pretend tea parties with her. :) Anyway, whilst it can be a bit hectic having 4 children so young and close together, I have to say a child as young as 5 can be quite a help! This evening she was doing hoovering and dusting - she thought it was quite fun too - but probably this opinion will have changed by the time she's a few years older. lol
Here she is looking all grown up! :-)
Lots of pressies!
Beginning to open them
and again
A much wanted plush Hello Kitty
And a fleece blanket ... yep, she likes Hello Kitty! :-)
Princess birthday cake! I was happy with how it turned out, though I'm well aware of my lack of proper cake decorating skills! :-)
admiring her cake
Benjamin making himself a party hat out of a napkin!
Blowing out the candles
The children pretending to bake a cake one morning (before breakfast!).
Deborah was not quite 4 weeks old here - wearing a "fancy" cloth nappy made by Flutterby Fluff (a UK work-at-home-mum). A lovely, soft velour nappy which I won earlier this year in a competition for a nappy review I wrote.
Again, not quite 4 weeks old. Another nappy photo (yes, I like cloth nappies!). This time she's got a lovely nappy cover from Tots Bots (Glasgow based company), one of their new style wraps, which is really fantastic in all possible ways.
Me and my baby, 4.5 weeks old - attempting to take a self portrait in the mirror, so it's not very good quality.
Getting big - 5 weeks old!
Playing dress-up - Clement wearing Abigail's dressing up outfit that she got for her birthday
All in pink (and a bit of purple) - Abigail's idea for them to all wear pink! lol
