Louis Toilet Bleach

Well today is the day.  My baby is 2 today.  Can you believe at?  Time seems to have flown by.

We started with a leisurely morning opening pressies in our pyjamas, well the boys were in their pyjamas anyway.

Louis definitely seemed a lot more interested in these presents than he did in the ones at Christmas but that today was all about him whereas Christmas is for everyone.

In all honesty, we could have probably stopped with the presents after he opened his little Upsy Daisy because he was happy then... but we didn't.

When we first saw the present with Theo's name on it we thought the Birthday Fairy must have gotten confused.  I was going to put the present to one side and let her come and collect it tonight but Theo figured it out.  She'd brought a present for him too so that he didn't feel left out what with Louis getting all the presents. lol  She did a good job too, Power Rangers jigsaw was just the ticket :D

Adam wrote the envelope for Louis' card from us.  He likes the way Louis says 'watermelon'.  That and the fact that if you call him something, he says not... whatever it is you've called him.  Like, aww my baby..'NOT baby', is Louis grumpy? .. 'NOT gwumpy' and so on.  Adam asked him if he was a watermelon last night ??? And the response was... 'NOT watermelon'

Now naturally there was a bunfight to be had.  We all decamped to Tiddleypeeps with 18 other littlies and watched them run around for a couple of hours.  I actually think it went really well.  Adam and I pumped up 20 or so modelling ballons in the morning which we took with us.  Lots of the children just wanted the long balloons, then I made a couple of swords which prompted requests for more and Richard, they guy who runs Tiddleypeeps then decided to show of his balloon modelling skills which resulted in him being inundated with requests too.

After having discovered on Thursday that he could do the big slide, there was no stopping Louis, and when I tried to extricate him from the climbing frame to do the birthday cake thing I ended up pushing him, face first (from hands and knees though, not from standing) into the carpet, oops, sorry babe.  He didn't seem to notice though and after a bot of distracting tickling, I managed to pursuade him to come back to the table rather than go and play on the slide.  Unfortunately Richard doesn't do things by halves so bringing the cake out involved 2 or 3 renditions of Happy Birthday as they weren't loud enough, followed by a discussion / arguement about who's birthday it was.  By the time we got round to the blowing out of the candles Louis was screaming because he wanted to go and play and I couldn't put him down!!

He did come round though, when he saw that he got to blow out the candles.

Theo enjoyed the playing too, especially as his best friend from school, Ezra, was there.

After the party we went home to open the mountain of presents he had received from all the party guests.

This picture is the one I've chosen for today's Photo a Day project.  Louis, sporting one of Richards balloon creations, hiding behind a present.

Tina, Jack and Hannah bought Louis this spiderman top, and as soon as he saw what it was he told me he wanted to take his short of and wear it.  So that's what we did.

And I just like this photo.  Louis unwrapping presents without relinquishing the lolly pop

Now finally, why Louis toilet bleach?  Well, as you may be aware, littlies usually need a little help with their writing.  So, in order to help Jack with Louis card, Tina wrote Louis name on a piece of paper for Jack to copy.  She left him writing the card then when she came back, read what he had written "Louis Toilet Bleach".  When she asked him why he had written that he said he had just copied what his mum had written.  Tina checked to find she had written on the bottom of her shopping list and as she wasn't there to tell him to stop, Jack had just kept copying.  I'll be keeping that (handmade) card and re telling that story in years to come.  Hehe

Catch up

Yesterday I took myself off to Costco to get a fabulous photo storage box that one of the ladies at Saturdays crop was toting.  Unfortunately I couldn't find any.  I did manage to buy 10L of Bold 2 in 1, 6 million nappies and sweeties and dried fruit packs to go in the party bags at the weekend so it wasn't a wasted journey.

I accidentally ended up in Hobbycraft!  It was an accident, honestly.  I was following Satnag instructions for going home but I got into the wrong lane, a left turn only lane which took me into the Crown Point retail park so I just HAD to go to Hobbycraft rather than just turn around and drive out again.

I got modelling balloons for Louis' party, watch this space.

After all that traipsing round I had to rest my poor weary feet so I called into Costa for a skinny decaf latte and a spicy meatball sandwich and this photo opportunity presented itself.

On Wednesdays Louis is in nursery until 5 so after I pick Theo up from school we have a couple of hours together, just the two of us.  Today it was spent 'practicing' with the modelling balloons.  We had fun and Theo now has a balloon sword and a flower (which was supposed to be a sword but I ran out balloon after doing the handle so now it's a flower).

Today Louis and I went to Tiddleypeeps for a play and to confirm numbers for the party on Saturday.  I didn't realise it was parent toddler morning so it only cost me £3 and Louis got fed and watered :D  He climbed the stairs and slid down the big slide on his own for the first time today.  We did it once together and then there was no stopping him.  I think he'll be having a great time there on Saturday.  On the bad side, he was attacked by a very unpleasant little boy whilst he was playing in the cars!  Louis was sat happily playing when the boy just walked up to him and grabbed his face, he's got finger nail marks near his ears and scratches all down his cheeks.  The monster's Gran saw and was right behind me as I dash over and pulled him off Louis.  She took him away and told him off.  5 minutes later he did it to a little girl!  I saw his Gran pick him up and leave with him kicking and screaming under her arm.

This afternoon we went to have a cuppa and a natter with one of the mums from school.  Well when I say we, Louis fell asleep in the pushchair on the way there and didn't wake up until we were at school waiting for Theo.  I had a really pleasant afternoon, I'm hoping to return the favour next week.

Today's photo is Theo ready for his swimming lesson, showing off his new goggles.

Swimming for Fun

Adam had to go to work again today so Theo, Louis and I finished off putting together my drawers.  A group effort that involved Theo passing bits to me, me fastening them where they need to go and Louis jabbing at the drawers with a screwdriver.  Twas a tad scary at times.

That done I sat and had a play with my phone some more.

Louis finally succumbed to an afternoon nap at about 3, which meant he was still asleep after Adam got home from work at it was time to leave to go swimming.  I ended up leaving Adam and Louis at home and taking Theo swimming myself.  

Theo was really excited about the swimming.  He likes 'swimming for fun' as opposed to swimming lessons and we've recently convinced him that it's OK to get your face wet.  Now he loves to swim under water and dive to the bottom for toys and rings.  So... we decided to buy him some prescription goggles.  Only £20 for a pair of +8.0.  I know his glasses prescription is +10 but 8 is as high as they go off the shelf, if you want anything higher then you are talking silly money and at 4yrs old, swimming for fun, £20 is more than enough to spend on goggles in my opinion.  And +8.0 has got to be better than nothing.  Adam gave him his goggles at bathtime last night and he's been desperate to use them ever since.

As the parent child session is the last one of the day, I took my camera in the hopes of getting a sneaky pic of the changing room for todays photo.  At the speed we get changed, we were almost the last to leave so I managed to get one or two pics.  I didn't use flash, I didn't want to startle anyone in any nearby cubicles (or make it obvious I was taking photos where I'm pretty sure it's not allowed).

Flat Packing

By the exciting nature of todays photo you could be easily fooled into thinking I was housebound again.. but you'd be wrong.

I went out to play today.

Vicky and I are organising, between us, a scrapbooking crop at Samuel Taylors / Embsay Crafts in Embsay and today was our first proper date (we did have a bit of a drop in day in November just to give people an idea of what we were doing).  It was full!  Initially we thought we'd be lucky if we got 6 people but 16 people came and there are more than that on the mailing list now (29 to be exact).

I had a great time and spent too much money, like you do.  And from all the comments we've had, it sounds like everyone else enjoyed themselves too.  The shop must've made plenty of money out of us too, £40 in crops fees then everybodys spending.  If mine was anything to go by, they made a fortune (oops).

I went home via Next to collect some school trousers I had ordered for Theo, then Tina's to pick up Louis party bag and to beg some babysitting favours, thank you Tina <3

Louis had had a party invitation for the afternoon and Adam couldn't take him so Tina offered seeing as Hannah was going too.  She actually had him nearly all day!  I dropped him off about 9, on my way to the crop, so that he could play with Hannah.  He stayed and played, then they went to the party and he fell asleep in the car on the way back to Tina's so he didn't get home until just after 4pm!  Busy day!

When I got home just before 6pm it was to find that Adam and Theo had been re arranging funiture and my bed was buried under a mountain of clothes.  They had moved my drawers out of our room and into the boys room so that we could put the new drawers into our room (they've been sitting in the utility room, flat packed, since before Louis was born!).  The new drawers were still in pieces, layed out in the space where they were going to live.

Adam and I spent a couple of hours putting the frame and drawers together before bed.  Tomorrow I just need to finish up the drawers with the centre support and then they need securing onto the runners and I can start filling them up.

And last but by no means least.  Just as I was loading up the car to leave this morning the lovely postie delivered my new phone, the T-Mobile G1.  So I stuck that in my bag and whilst I was chattering away, meeting new people and setting up my workspace, I dug it out of the box, put in the sim card and battery and put it on charge.

Unfortunately there is no phone signal in the shop so I didn't get to actually play with the phone until I was in the car in the car park at the end of the day but at least it was charged and ready to play with.  It's taking a bit of getting used to, I didn't realise how much I relied on predictive texting, with a full keyboard this thing doesn't have it.  I love the touch screen though.  The camera is 3.2, same as my old phone, but this one doesn't have a flash which is a pain, I hadn't realised that.  Still, I like it so far and I'm stuck with it for 18 months so it's just as well.

Housebound

Theo stayed off school again today.  He was definitely better than yesterday but still a bit green around the gills.  His temperature shot up again early afternoon which another dose of Calprofen sorted and he soon picked up.  He's been fine since though so hopefully he's seen the last of this bug, he can have a pleasant weekend and be back to school on Monday.

So obviously with a poorly child we haven't been out anywhere today so todays photo is what came into the house.  the nice postie delivered these for me today.  15 x 10ml pots of Dr Martens Wonder Balsam to keep my new boots in tip top condition.  I actually ordered 1 lot of 10pots from an ebay seller before Christmas.  He added the extra 5 pots for free because of the delay.

Under the Weather

At one O'Clock this morning Adam was cleaning up sick off our bedroom floor and I was trying to coax Theo into taking the rest of the Calprofen he'd just so recently parted with!  His tummy ache was better though.

Here he is cuddled up on the sofa with Teddy and a blanket.  I've kept him home from school today, which is just as well cause he was fast asleep by lunchtime and has had more Calprofen to bring his temperature down and get rid of his headache.  I heard that chicken pox is doing the rounds so I asked him if he had any spots, to which he replied 'no, but I have stripes on my Power Ranger suit.' lol

A rare moment of peace.

French Today

Tuesday evenings are Theo's french lessons.  Well kind of.  A friend of mine is a modern languages teacher and she has 2 children, both slightly younger than mine.  We go round there on a Tuesday evening, Theo and her daughter have 20 minutes or so learning french whilst I look after Louis and her son then they all have a play and stay for dinner.

This week Theo refused to take part in the french and both the littlies pottered in and out of both rooms.  My friend and her daughter had fun learning about animals in french though.  

Todays photo is of one of the books at my friends house.  It was going to be a bowl of peppers 'cause that's pretty and artistic (well kind of) but I want the photos to represent the day, somehow, more of a photo diary if I can.

Has it been a year already?

I can't believe it's been a year since Mum died.  I took myself off to the cemetery this afternoon.  I'm not entirely sure why though.  It's not as if I took flowers, or planned on sitting and chatting or anything.  It just felt like it should be done.

As it turned out, I couldn't find the plot anyway.  I wandered up and down the general area but as we haven't had a headstone or anything done and she'd come back just to give us a roasting if we even thought about putting a cross there, there was nothing to identify it by.  Lisa did say there was a rose bush but that it was almost dead last time she was there so I assume someone removed it.

I must have a chat with everybody and see what we can afford to mark it with.  Will probably save my tears next year, or at least some of them.

I took this photo whilst I was there.  I took a couple of others too but my camera battery died, typical, and fitting for a cemetery, heh.  I think I might go back with my DSLR camera one day when the boys are otherwise occupied and get some decent photos.  There were lots of lovely flowers and beautiful headstones there.

On a cheerier note, I took the boys to Jack and George's birthday party this morning.  I think they both had a great time.  There was a magician to start with, followed by eating then game playing.  Oh, and did I mention it was fancy dress?

Theo asked Adam and me this afternoon if we believed in Jesus!  He said that Christians did and he did because they had learned about Jesus at Christmas.  I asked if that made him a Christian he said yes.  A bit young to be making those sorts of decisions in my opinion but who am I to stop him?  I'm sure next week he'll decide he's a Power Ranger or something equally exciting instead lol.

BEDraggled

My little man is poorly.  He's got a temperature and feeling very grotty.  Last night was the worst, 2 lots of Calprofen were required (with a 6 hour interval of course).  After a nice long lie in this morning, thanks to Adam taking Theo to school, he seemed to perk up a bit.  He's still spent most of the day cuddled up on my knee but there were bouts of playfulness.  By dinner time this evening he was definitely flagging though and didn't eat anything until Adam got home when he ate a fair bit of his dinner.

I'm hoping he'll be feeling better tomorrow but we'll just have to see how tonight goes and see how much sleep he gets.

As a result, today's photo is a picture of Louis bed, seeing as that's what most of today was about.  He didn't get up until about 11 this morning.

Theo on the other hand, seemed to have a great day.  He came home from school telling me all about a story they'd had about an African girl who'd had a basket of fruit that she carried on her head.  The fruit was stolen by animals then a goat thing (but it wasn't a goat, he was certain of this) butted a tree and filled the basket up again with oranges falling from the tree.  He was very animated telling me all about it and the game they played afterwards with animal masks.  All in all a good day at school it seems.

Oh and at dinner he started singing a song about the fruit that the girl had in her basket.

Theo is doing really well with his reading.  He came home from school yesterday showing me his reading record book.  He'd read 3 books at school and brought a 4th home (which we read this evening)  His teacher wrote 'Theo told me this story in his own words using the pictures.  Brilliant!"  I have to admit, I thought learning to read was all about reading the words in the book, not making up your own story from the pictures but apparently that's a big part of it.  This was a book he had read at home with me though.  

The next comment says "Theo read this beautifully.  Super understanding of the story (skipped some more (in November his teacher wrote "I have skipped a few books to challenge Theo a bit more.  We'll see how he gets on" it looks like he got on well cause they've skipped some more))  The last book he read at school yesterday was 'Push!' and Mrs Kelly said "Fabulous reading.  What a star!"  We've got a little genius on our hands, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Tyred of the Snow

First day back at school today and we woke up to a light covering of snow, which was nice.  Pretty but not enough to make walking difficult.  Theo was really looking forward to seeing his friends again and I was looking forward to getting out of the house.  I know we have been out and about this holiday but it really feels like I've spent 2 weeks sitting on my bum.  The walk to school was just what I needed I think.

My photo a day for today

I noticed this pattern in the tyres of the pushchair after traipsing through the mm's of snow to school this morning.

I tried to get a better picture with my 300D but zooming in closer to cut out the body of the pushchair meant losing the heart effect of the tyre pattern. This time compact triumphs over DSLR. 

Little Green Toes

Today was a messy play day and Louis REALLY got into it.

This is my 'photo a day' photo.  I just love the vibrant green outlining his little toes.

I'm happier with pictures like this of the kids for this project. Creative and familial in one rather than just snaps of the boys.

We had originally planned to go bowling this morning but ended up sorting through the boys clothes instead.  So to stave off the boredom I decided to let the boys loose with paint :D

I think these photos need no explaining, just enjoy.

Golden Acre Park

More pictures of Golden Acre Park.  Adam and the boys waiting whilst mummy takes yet another photo.  This was just before Louis gave in and succumbed to the call of the pushchair with fleecy cosytoes.

Theo decided to hide from me in a tree, only showing himself after the threat of giving all of his toys to Louis.  (Naturally I could see exactly where he was but it was funny)

We definitely enjoyed this walk.  Next time we'll be taking a bicycle and duck food.  And hopefully fewer layers as the weather will be nicer...  hmmm, I can dream can't I lol

The Morning After

After the late night last night Theo didn't want to get up.  The problem with a family hotel room is that we're all in the same room so as soon as one is up, everyone is up.  This is how Louis solved the problem of Theo not waking up.  He climbed in his bed lol.  Theo does look a little puzzled to see him there.

My Big Fat Greek Birthday (Party)

This is the reason we came to London this week, my Father-In-Law's 73rd birthday.  

The thing I've learned from these get togethers is that, 1st you fuel the kids up with sweets and chocolates all day then watch them bounce around the house all night.  This was about 10.30pm in the middle of a game of musical statues, both Theo and Louis still bouncing off the walls so the staying still part was definitely hard work for them and unsurprisingly Theo got a tad upset when he was out.  Still, he soon recovered and joined in again.  Poor Teddy was a casualty of the evening and came home with a groin injury after a tug of war between the various cousins,  Mummy will be performing bear surgery later on this week.

All the relatives arrived for the party from about 8pm.  Furniture was rearranged and tables brought in from the garden to seat everyone at the table for the seemingly endless flow of food, most of which was new to me so just had to be sampled.  I tell you, if we ever stay there longer than a day or two I'm going to come away the size of a house.  I think once everyone had arrived there were about a dozen children between the ages of 1 and 8 and about 20 adults.  

We called it a night somewhere round about midnight.  Louis was unconscious on the sofa, Theo was just dozing  and Adam was nicely pickled.  Somehow we managed to loose one of Louis shoes between the house and the hotel, oops.

More photos to follow, this one is my 1 for my photo a day project (I think my challenge is going to be narrowing it down to 1 photo per day lol)

NB if the post dates are confusing you, I am not telling to future, I adjusted the dates so the photo for the day appears on the correct date

Hoteyal

Todays photo is a picture of our hotel room at Premier Travel Inn Enfield (wohoo).  I took a couple of photos before this one and Adam held a pillow up infront of his face to avoid being in the pictures.  Louis is just copying him, honestly.

Among my many photos of the hotel today there are one or two shots of the door.  For some strange reason Adam thinks I'm insane.  I wonder why that is??

Christmas Day 2

OK so I couldn't narrow down the photo selection at all.  Here are a few more from the day

Theo and Louis investigating the contents of a gift bag.

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Theo reading the tags and giving out the presents.  He was so excited I ended up surrounded in everybodys presents because he was dishing them out faster than they could be opened. 

Finally, something I'm allowed to bash

Louis 'reading' his (upside down) Night Garden book

After dinner at Lisa's we all had a play on Liam's new Wii.  Here Lisa and I are playing tennis.   I won, yay.

Relative Relations

About 6 months ago my older sister Sheila and I had a falling out.  Not to go into details but needless to say that until recently we haven't spoken to each other.

Well anyway, cut a long story short (and prevent any further fallings out), our cousin had a birthday party to which we were both invited and from there conversation kinda happened.  Things are not perfect but they are certainly improving.

Just incase a big family get together at Christmas was a bit too much so soon, we decided to all meet at Farnley Working Mens club for a bit of an early Christmas to exchange gifts etc.  I took  a couple of boxes of mince pies, a tin of chocolates and a box of crackers and we pretty much made an evening of it.  We decided before hand the we were going to let the kids open their presents there so we could see.

This is a picture of Theo wearing the Spiderman3 mask that Toby got from Aunty Lisa.  Do you like his snazzy shirt and tie?  I had my first ever shopping trip to Next this week and found this.  Not only is it a shirt and tue just like Daddy wears, but it has cuff links too, just like Daddys.  Someone was very pleased to be wearing this out, he likes to be smart :D  (and I like Next! Why have I never shopped there before?)

This is a picture of Theo in the PowerRangers outfit that Aunty Lisa bought him

and here is a photo of Louis with Theo's Power Ranger mask on.

Lets see, what else was there?  Theo got a creative box set from Aunty Sheila with lots of different crafty things to do.  He's already tried the glitter one :D

Louis got a Kid Knex Penguin from Aunty Lisa and a Bath toy set from Aunty Sheila.  He played with them in the club but he hasn't had chance to play with them in the bath yet.  The will come, he loves playing in the bath :D

Another Quick Update

Theo went to a school friend's birthday party at one of the local playgym's.  There was a face painter there and initially Theo was just going to get an eye patch to go with his pirate outfit.  However, he saw Seth with a Batman face so he changed his mind :D

Adam and the boys decorating the Christmas tree.

This is Theo's school nativity play.  If you look carefully you can see Theo near the middle, he's a brown donkey.  He did really well if I do say so myself.  Only a little fidgeting and nose picking (bleurgh).

This is my latest masterpiece.  A denim / flannel rag quilt I made as a Christmas gift for my niece Tayler-Marie.  The squares are 6" so you can see it's about 4' x 6'6".  If you look carefully about 1/3 or the way down and 1/3 of the way up there are pockets in the denim patches.  I'm really pleased with this.  Next job is to make one for her sister :D

The last picture of this entry (for some reason I can only put 5 pictures in each entry) is my sleeping beauty.  Look at all those gorgeous curls.

More to come later but right now it's late so I'm off to bed.

Night all

Karen

xx

October and November

We went to Durham to visit Adam's Nan in the middle of November.  This is Theo and Adam playing with her wheelchair!  Good job she was nice and comfy sat on her bed at the time.

We had a great time seeing Nan and it was especially nice as Morgan, Alec and the kids came up too so we went for dinner with the after.  Had a good old natter and a catch up.  I even got have a cuddle of my newest niece, Amy-Louise, awwww.

Theo and Louis all dressed up for the Hallowe'en party at Tiddleypeeps (and trick or treating the following night)

On the recommendation of my friend Ali, I took the boys to Sundown Adventureland and here's the evidence.

Theo playing in the pirate ship,

Louis outside one of the houses in Storybook Village

and both of the boys emerging from one story houses, looks like Hansel and Gretel but I could be wrong.

It's a great place to go with them.  Probably better on a warmer day but still, we had fun.  It is designed for younger families.  There are a few short train rides but apart from that all of the attractions are interactive displays.  Lots of things for little hands to touch and feel and do.  We'll definitely be going back, but maybe on a warmer day lol