Paint a Pot

As Father's Day approaches I took Theo and Louis to the Paint a Pot place in Ilkley to get Adam's present sorted. Last year we decorated a pasta bowl with Theo's hand print so this year I thought we'd do the same again but with Louis handprint too.

The thing is, at 4 months, Louis was not exactly a willing participant and we couldn't get his hand flat on the bowl . My very sensible friend, who had come out to play with her daughter too, suggested we try a footprint instead. That was much more succesful. I'll post a photo of the finished bowl after we have given it to Adam.

Theo also painted a moon money box, to go with the star and the elephant we already have at home. I think we're going to have to downscale to ceramic tiles in future, I'm running out of room for money boxes and pasta bowls.

I took my niece Dana and her friend to play too as a birthday present, she'll be 10 on Wednesday. It must have been a success because I've not known anything else keep 2 9 / 10 year old girls quiet for 2 hours LOL

Aww

I've been e-mailing a local breeder about getting a border terrier Adam says no but I'm working on him. I asked Theo if he wanted a little dog like Romi (my friend's Jack Russell Terrier) to come and live here and he said yes, like Nigel the cat but not Nigel the cat, Nigel the dog. Aww

I was reading Theo one of his bedtime stories, a house inside my mummy, and when I'd finished we had a conversation about how I'd made him in my tummy then I made Louis in my tummy for him. He said he didn't want me to make another because then there would be too many but we could get a little dog like Romi instead.

Bank Holiday Weekend

We haven't done much this bank holiday weekend apart from a little bedroom re arranging and some scrapping.

Louis is fast outgrowing the moses basket that he sleeps in at the moment so we needed to put the cot up in our room for him to move into, preferably before he totally outgrows the moses basket so we can put the moses basket into the cot to get used to the cot gradually. Anyway, in order to put the cot up for Louis, first we need to extend Theo's bed and get him a new mattress because the cot mattress is on his bed at the moment. To extend Theo's bed we first have to move the chest of drawers that are at the bottom of his bed and find somewhere new to secure them. To move the drawers first we need to shift bags of clothes that don't fit him anymore into the loft.

To be honest if we'd done it properly it seemed like a never ending list of things that needed doing, each one required before the next one could be started, just to get Louis into his cot. What we ended up doing was putting enough stuff in the loft to make room for Theo's bed to be extended to full size and a sort through the junk in our room to make space for the cot.

The next job was to buy a new mattress for Theo. Easier said than done. His bed cam from Ikea and like much of their stuff, it's not standard size. It's 80cm x 200cm rather than the standard 75 x 190cm. After deciding against using the Ikea mattress (cause it's just foam) we hunted round for a standard 2'6" mattress and that was a hard enough job in itself. We found one online eventually so that's being delivered on Wednesday. In the meantime we've put the cot mattress back on Theo's bed (and put large cushions in the bottom of the bed) and Louis is in the cot but in his moses basket so he can live without the cot mattress for a couple of days. Oh yes and we bought some single bed bedding too 'cause we didn't have any of that either.

We spent most of the rest of the weekend vegging, watching Toy Story and Toy Story 2 (over and over!! I know, baaad mummy) and I've been getting pages ready for my 2007 journal / album, yes I know, it's almost June . I'll post some photos when I've taken them.

Soup Kitchen

Had a bit of a boo boo today. Theo wanted soup for lunch so I made him some and put what was left in the fridge, except... I wasn't watching what I was doing and let go of the tub before I got to the shelf, hence 'soup kitchen'.

It looked like I'd murdered something, tomato soup all over the place. Mainly on the inside of the fridge but a nice big puddle on the floor and splashes all up every surface, cupboard doors, oven, boxes (which, I know, I should have unpacked already).

Theo seemed to enjoy telling Daddy that it was Mummy who made the mess this time and not him.

Pwetty beads

My comissioned beads arrived today and I am sooo pleased with them. I already have beads on my bracelet to represent Adam and Louis and I comssioned 2 beads from Manda at Mango beads for Theo and Dad. Theo's bead is called Buzz and is inspired by Buzz Lightyear, seeing as he is such a big fan and the second bead, for Dad and is inspired by Glenfiddich Whisky, his favoured tipple.

It's difficult to see from the photo but Glen is absolutely gorgeous, the green glass is a perfect colour for a whisky bottle and the burgandy circles have gold flecks in them.

This is the bracelet with all my beads so far.

Double Oww

Louis had more jabs today. His last lot for 8 months now. It was three needles this time , poor little man. He cried at first but calmed down almost instantly and so far so good, he hasn't been poorly with it although the health visitor said that could happen anytime up to tomorrow morning.

And if Louis in pain wasn't enough to make me feel bad I went and trapped my finger in the car door on the way into the Drs just to make me feel that little bit worse. I now have a nice big dent in my finger, it's not nice

MOT

I took my car for it's MOT this morning whilst Theo was at nursery. Well MOT and puncture repair, I've had one tyre that's needed pumping up every 5 days ish, I've a store of 20p in my dash. Anyway all sorted. The nice men at Kwik fit repaired the puncture and MOT'd the car. All sorted til next year, phew.

8 Years

It's our 8th Wedding Anniversary today. We went to Maxi's Chinese Restaurant in Leeds and took Theo with us. Lisa looked after Louis for the evening. The restaurant was amazing, lots of red and gold decor and dragons evenerywhere, Theo loved it. The food was amazing too, diet went on hold (again!) as we treated ourselves to the banquet for 2 which was more than enough food for the two of us plus Theo. They were really child friendly too, even providing a cushion for his chair so he could reach the table and rigging a pair of chopsticks with an elastic band and some folded up paper so they were hinged and sprung open for him to use. It was very funny watching him try, and he did really well too, managed to pick up his pieces of spring roll without too much fuss.

Adam bought me a couple of silver Troll beads for my bracelet, a cherub holding a no 8 and a lady bug. My pressies for Adam haven't arrived yet . I'm hoping they'll arrive tomorrow.

Splish splash splosh

We took Louis swimming for the first time today.

Theo has been nagging to go swimming for ages but I can't take him during the week because the pool have rules that say children under 5 should be accompanied by 1 adult per child, not that I'd want to have to keep an eye on Theo and Louis at the same time in the pool.

Anyway, we finally got there this morning and they both seemed to enjoy themselves. Well Theo definitely did and Louis was grinning a lot so I think he did too, sat in his inflatable chair thingy. It's a pity that you're not allowed to take photos at the swimming baths, I'd love to have had piccies to show you too.

After swimming we went to Idle rec for a picnic and a play on the slide and see-saw thingies (animal shaped seats on springs) then off for a trip to Morrisons for food shopping. It made a nice change from sitting in the house and vegging all weekend.

Which one has the most paint on him?

Theo and I did some 'messy play' today.

This involved Theo laying on a piece of paper whilst I drew round him. He wriggled a bit so now we have felt pen marks on his t-shirt but I'm sure they'll wash out LOL.

He was really pleased with the outline though and after I'd cut it out and he got down to painting he had a great time mixing his colours and generally getting in a mess. We started with hand and foot prints in (almost) the appropriate places, not that you can see these because he got a bit enthusiastic and pretty much painted over them. Theo was quite adamant that he was going to be Sportacus so he was painting it blue (mixed with all the other colours ) and he spent lots of time in the belt buckle area painting his crystal.

I'm not sure how long this large painting is going to survive on the fridge so he may be transferred upstairs to Theo's bedroom soon.

Banner

I did it, Wahay.

Of course you already know that 'cause you've seen it already

So what on earth am I talking about? Well my banner of course (the bit at the top of the page with the blog name on it). I changed it from plain blue to this pretty picture, which I also made myself using some photos and Photoshop. How clever am I? Modest too LOL

Playgym

I met with some friends at the local playgym today so we could have a natter and the children could play. This photo is Theo at said playgym (but this one's not today though). Theo had great fun in the ball pool and going down the big slide with Harry and his mummy .

Baad day

I have had a pig of a day with Theo today He's been whingy and miserable 80% of the time. He gets so contrary when he's like this and it's so frustrating. In the car he'll cry and cry that he doesn't want to go home then he'll ask where we're going, I'll tell him and he'll start again then 'I don't want to go ...., I want to go home' Aargh. He wouldn't eat his lunch today either so I refused to let him snack during the afternoon which didn't help his mood. This evening when we got home from visiting mum and sister he threw a proper tantrum (1st ever) with the screaming and throwing himself on the floor bashing feet and fists against the floor and everything. This went on for about 30 / 40 mins.

Adam ended up taking him upstairs, in the middle of dinner, and telling him he could come down when he was feeling better. He went up for him about 20 minutes or so later when it had all gone quiet. A much calmer Theo came downstairs and then went into the kitchen and ate his dinner, all of it, which is quite unusual in itself, we even have a reward chart going for 'empty plates' at the moment, and an ice cream for pud.

By then he was my lovely little boy again and you would never imagine the sweetheart I put to bed could turn into the little monster I've had to deal with today (well I couldn't anyway). Lets hope he keeps up the good behaviour for visiting with Vicky and Natalie tomorrow.

A Rate of knots

Took Louis to baby clinic today to get him weighed, 16lb 4.5oz!! (that's 7.42kg in new money). He's growing at a rate of knots is my little boy. You can see him eyeing up your dinner when you're eating. I keep half expecting him to spit out his milk and demand steak 'n' chips LOL

Camping? Who me? Nah

I got me a camping table. To do my scrapping on .

I've just set it up in the living room to see how it goes together and what 70 x 70 x 70cm actually looks like. It's a good size and a nice height for working on from the sofa or computer chair. Thing is... it's not just a quick fold out / fold away jobby, it involves attaching 10 little grippy things (and taking them off again to put it away) but it does fold away very small.

Hopefully I'll get more scrapping done now I've got a table to work at. Yes I know I've got a dining table but that's in the kitchen and I can't see the telly from there, Doh. Now all I have to do is drag all my scrapping stuff upstairs to the living room and maybe even my robo and do some scrapping, oh and expain to Adam why I needed to buy a table when we've got a perfectly good one already (although it is in the kitchen as I've already said) and we're trying to empty our home of crap not fill it up even more.. Ooops

Oh, did I mention that it was reduced in price? No? Well that makes all the difference you know.

Holmfirth Festival of Folk

We went to Holmfirth Festival of Folk and it was surprisingly good fun even though it rained on and off all day, then we came home via Pizza Hut and I threw my diet out of the window for a couple of hours lol

This cheerful lot were heading up to the graveyard where the 'procession' started. Theo, Adam and I watched Morris Dancers 'march' as Theo called it because their shoes made the stomping sound of marchers (Louis was asleep in the puschair) followed by a percussion group who were very very entertaining and even stayed out in the rain to do an extra performance 'cause everyone was enjoying it so much.

Theo had his compulsory ice-cream (well you have to at these things don't you) behind the rain hood of the pushchair then when the rain stopped he refused to stand on a nearby wall to watch the procession go by so Adam carried him closer to the road, I stood on the wall though ('cause I had to stay back from the road edge with the pushchair, it takes up a fair bit of space that beastie LOL)

I think the weather was actually a blessing though 'cause the day still went well and there were a lot fewer people than there could have been.

Anyway, that's it from me tonight, I'm off to watch Eurovision, go UK (yeah right) LOL

Bye bye puss

My Nigel died . Two weeks ago now, the day after we took him to the cattery for his holiday.

Paula at the cattery phoned me to say he wasn't well and she was taking him to the vets. The vet said he'd got blood clots that were cutting off the blood supply to 3 of his leg and he was in a lot of pain. After a long discussion and many tears (on my part not the vets obviously) I passed the phone to Adam and let him tell the vet to 'do the necessary'.

BSL, here we go again

I got my exam results today and unfortunately I failed the part 2 exam which means I will have to resit it in a week or two. Not looking forward to that .

I got 12 out of 26 and needed 13 for a pass. Damn! So close yet so far.... Hey ho

Toot Toot Mango Beads

I got a bead from Mango Beads (Manda) a couple of weeks ago as a pressie from Mum and I've had a nightmare with Royal Mail.

Manda posted the bead Recorded Delivery on the Monday and by the Friday (when I was going on holiday) it hadn't arrived. I contacted Manda who offered me a full refund but I suggested we wait until I got back from Holiday (the following Friday). I got home to find the envelope in an RM baggy with a note apologising that it had been damaged. There were holes in the baggy and the envelope so I feared the worst . On opening the envelope I found my bead and leather necklets were all in there but there was a tear in the organze bag and tissue paper right through to the bead so I suspect someone had seen the 'handmade jewellery' sticker on the envelope and had opened it but decided it wasn't their kind of jewellery. The clasp on one of the leather necklets was broken so Manda said she'd replace it.

I collected a recorded delivery envelope from Manda this morning and not only did it have my replacement necklet but also a fabulous free bead too, it's the unnamed one in my photo.

Talk about customer service, that is amazing, I am so impressed. Makes me want to buy another one of her beads just to send more business her way.

Left to right the beads are

Mango Beads (Buddy) - Unnamed Freebie

Mango Beads (Buddy) - Ceylon - Pressie from Mum

Trollbead - Blue & White Armadillo - Pressie from DH for losing 1 stone

Trollbead - Silver elephant - Pressie from DH for losing 1/2 stone

Trollbead - Green & Lilac Armadillo - To remind me of DH

A String of Beads (Dolly) - Baby's Blanket - To remind me of DS2

Pie!

I made a pie....AND it tasted nice too.

I know it may seem odd to be proud of a pie but if you know me you'll know I'm no domestic goddess so making a successful pie from scratch is quite an achievement especially as it was steak and kidney. I know it doesn't look very pretty but I didn't have a pie dish so I had to use a Pyrex dish instead LOL. Anyway, watch this space...I may well have another go, minced beef and onion next time I think.

Success!

Ooh, I'm so excited, someone found one of my books .

I posted a week or so ago about having discovered the BookCrossing website and thought it would be a fun way of disposing of my book mountain. Well I left one book in the holiday cottage we stayed in last week and another in the ladies loo in a Little Chef on the Northbound A1 on the way home.

I've just had an e-mail from the BookCrossing website to say that the book I left in the Little Chef has been found and the person who found it has posted an entry on the website here. Wohoo.

Right, I'm off to register some more books and think of some good places to leave them. Ta ta

Keighley & Worth Valley Railway

We took a trip out to see the steam trains at Keighley & Worth Valley Railway today. To be honest we didn't actually see much of the steam engine as we took the train from Oxenhope and travelled to Keighley and back so mostly we saw the carriage we were in and the view from the train, which was very pleasent incidentally.

Adam and Theo taking in the view as we chug by.

Louis is in the blue shopping bag on the table (no it's not really a shopping bag, it's a carry cot but it looks like a shopping bag )

This was probably the best view we had of the engine. Once on the platform you couldn't really see the train for people.

We did notice that there is a picnic area just outside the station at Oxenhope, just over the fence from the end of the track, ideally placed to watch the trains so next time I think we'll take a picnic and just go and watch the steam trains. Should be more for Theo to see, and it's free LOL

We're Ba-ack

Just a quick post to say that we're now home from our weeks holiday in a lovely cottage in Babraham, a village just outside Cambridge.

We had a great time either lazing in the cottage and 1/3rd acre enclosed garden, complete with climbing frame and trampoline, or going out to visit local attractions. The weather was amazing for the most part and the tourist attractions were fairly quiet because it's term time and most people were at work or school. Add to that the fact that I spent the weekend at a scrapbooking retreat glueing and sticking and generally getting in a mess (felt like I was a 10 year old again, great fun), we couldn't have asked for a better week I think.

Here's a photo of the cottage, click on the little pic 'cause the main picture is a lot longer and you can see much more.

I'll be back with more news and photos from the holiday later today hopefully.
Edited to add: I've added the holiday photos etc on the dates they were taken so if you're reading this chronologically then you will have already seen them

Mountftitchet Castle

With the success of yesterdays morning out and afternoon in the cottage, we did the same again today, the last day of our holiday.

First thing we went to Mountfitchet Castle. I told Theo that was where we were going so he was looking forward to being a King. Unfortunately it's a Norman sesttlement from 1066 so the term 'castle' actually refers to a stone tower built onto a central hut. Not a castle as Theo understood it. So much so that on the way home he was asking when were going to see that castle so he could be a king.

At the entrance to the grounds you can buy a bag of food and they encourage you to feed the animals in the grounds (goats, sheep, fallow deer and various fowl). Don't. Not if you have young children with you. Don't even take out a bag that looks like it may contain food, because you'll get mobbed by the birds, which can be very scary when some of them (geese mainly) are almost as big as you (if you're a 2 yr old child of course).

I made the mistake of taking out the bag of food fairly soon after we'd arrived. As soon as I got the bag of food out we were mobbed by birds which panicked Theo and that set the tone for the rest of the visit. Every time any birds came anywhere near us Theo panicked and insisted on being picked up because the birds were going to eat him. He didn't want to go into any of the huts because they were too dark and the life size models that were in them we're too scary. He enjoyed it when I posed in the stocks for a photo though .

In the same grounds there is a Toy Museum which we went to see next. Again Theo was unwilling to visit most of it, especially as lots of the exhibits moved and made noise but when he found the lego table he was more than happy to sit and play. Which was just as well because my handcream leaked in my handbag and I had to empty the contents and clean it all up, including my camera which was, fortunately, undamaged.

Well that's it from School Cottage. We have to be out my 10 in the morning so we'll be spending tonight packing up and tomorrow driving.

When are you going to start giving me REAL food Mum?

Louis has taken to chewing his fingers whenever he doesn't have a bottle or a dummy in his mouth, unless he's chatting away which he does quite a lots these days, to me, Adam, Theo and the faeries .

Well Travelled

First things first

Happy 4th Birthday Toby

Wednesday saw us spending the morning at Duxford Imperial War Museum and an afternoon lazing in the cottage, a very enjoyable way to spend the day I must say.

We basically visited each hanger in turn to look at the various planes, tanks and other exhibits. First stop was hanger 1 where, among others, Concorde was waiting. Adam took Theo up so he could have a look around inside and I could get this picture proving he's been on Concorde

Theo wasn't overly interested unless he could climb aboard and run around but then that's to be expected when you're only 2 years old lol. He got to climb in various commercial type aeroplanes which were outside and there was a midget submarine, in one of the hangers, that was kind of cut in half with big glass panes over the end of each half so you could see inside without going in. He seemed to think it was interesting (even if it was just somewhere to play hide and seek) but just looking at the amount of space there was inside was making Adam claustrophobic.

In the gift shop Theo nagged for a toy aeroplane so Adam bought him an air-fix one. Apparently he's planning on putting it together and painting it with Theo back at the cottage. That should be fun to watch

A Ride on Percy at Whipsnade Zoo

Today we went to Whipsnade Zoo. A bit much considering we went to Linton Zoo yesterday but why not, we're on holiday lol

Getting there was fun, we told the sat nav to get us there quickest route and it wanted to send us down the M11, around the M25 and then up again (I forget which road) a round trip of just over 70 miles! The shortest route was left out of the cottage, right onto the A505 and then about 30 miles later you're there. Easy. You'd think so anyway but Tom Tom tried so hard to complicate it, he got a little upset at one point when it thought we were driving through fields but we got there in the end.

I have to admit that I was a little disappointed with the Zoo. I thought, as it was a 'drive around' zoo I was expecting close encounters with lions and monkey testicles (my car has windows in the roof!!) but it was more a case of drive from car park to car park, get out and look at the animals in their cages then get back in and drive some more. The only bit of the park that was open to cars only with instructions everywhere NOT to get out of your car (sounding hopeful she says with baited breath) had antelope / deer type animals and camels??? Oh and erm thingies, Yaks, that's 'em, really exciting stuff for Theo to look at through the window, not.

Don't get me wrong, as far as zoos go, it was OK. Especially as the weather was glorious and there were very few people there so there was no queueing for anything. Oh and you can now go into the banded lemur pen and have them inches from you without cages in the way.

Theo enjoyed the kiddies play area most, with it's climbing frames and slides and what not. We played there (well he played, we watched) whilst waiting for the train which was the highlight of the day for him I think. The train was a green steam train therefore it must have been Percy (Thomas the Tank's friend incase you didn't know) and he had a great time sitting right behind the engine and watching the driver shovel coal into the fire. He came back a bit grubbier than when he set off though. I stayed in the play area with Louis and we watched a wandering peacock. Whopee doo