Gently, Gently....

Tl'u is sleeping in his room again tonight. He did fight going to sleep so I think he was a little anxious; but eventually the late night last night and a fun day at Kids Planet with the childminder won out and his beautiful blue eyes closed and he slipped into dreamland. Snoring like a trouper because he has a runny nose again.

Sunday he slept in his room with only a slight murmur at half ten and then nothing. I was all set to go up but as he went quiet I decided to wait for abit, when I checked him he was fast asleep.
Monday, again went to sleep fine in his room, he did wake up at 4:30am crying so I immediately brought him in with me and he snuggled down and went straight back to sleep.
Tuesday because of the Imbolc celebration and excessively late night he wanted to sleep with me and then tonight; there he is, in his room asleep - even more impressive in that he breastfed for a while but tonight just couldn't seem to find a comfortable position so his teeth were digging in rather painfully at the top of my nipple and after half hour I couldn't bear the sensation any longer and moved away and just laid there. He laid quietly, half asleep for about ten to twenty minutes, his eyes fluttering open and shut as he fought the sandman; but eventually he lost. So while there was some anxiety around me eventually leaving the room; he did nonetheless feel comfortable enough to allow sleep without also breastfeeding - and that doesn't happen very often. Tl'u is a bit of a boob man, it has to be said.

Clearly, I just need to keep to the gently gently approach and not force it. Besides there is a great deal of satisfaction in knowing that my son has fallen asleep in his room because he is secure and feels safe and knows if he needs me I'll be there... and not because he's exhausted from crying his heart out.

Imbolc

Tuesday I had the day at home because of the ice and no trains running. Felt a bit of a fraud calling into work to tell them I wouldn't be in when it was beautiful sunshine and the "icy conditions" didn't actually look as bad as predicted. Still, it was taken out of my hands by lack of trains.

One could say the powers that be had a hand to play as it turned out to be the perfect day for my and the little 'un's Imbolc celebration. The morning was spent happily sat at the table drawing with chalks, glitter pens, felt tip pens, crayons, water colour paints and then posterpaints to create a lovely firery backdrop to the season table representing the fire element of Imbolc. I also began crocheting a flower garland for the table too.

My circle's imbolc celebration was Tuesday night too, so I made bread and plaited the dough and shaped it into a horseshoe shape for the offering. The ritual was lovely and included recognition of a sister adopting her craft name permanently (which does suit her far better). This celebration was at Q's house so the little man stayed up and participated, in a fashion. He certainly enjoyed the "May you never thirst, may you never hunger" part and shoved the bread in his mouth with great gusto.

I thoroughly enjoyed yesterday, I even dug out the plasticine (must make salt dough though; the plasticine didn't really feel that nice), which Tl'u loved playing with; we did make a flower, "corn" dolly and a fire for the table; but then after his bath (just before going out to the ritual) he started playing with it and now all the colours are mixed together - it almost looks like a bigger fire.

Not long now.

Really chuffed with the way the lion has turned out. :)
Our "new" dining table is getting plenty of use - it's just so nice to sit at the table with the little 'un and eat our meals - and have room to properly set the table too.
Mmm, that was a mighty fine loaf - humongous; but really tasty with a lovely soft crumb. We had the last of it today as toast as it was starting to get a bit stale - so lasted well as I made it on Monday.

First signs of spring, crocuses poking through the ground; rather appropriate with Imbolc at the beggining of Feb. Its not normally a festival I would mark, being that I'm not Wiccan; recently though I've come to the conclusion it doesn't matter whether these are bonafide agricultural/pagan ancestors' festivals or not - of course Imbolc is a celtic fire festival, although the debate rages red hot (pardon the pun) in scholarly circles as to it's true nature and even down to what "Imbolc" means - most pagan sites will quote "ewe's milk" or "in the belly" - all that matters is the intent and, actually, its a really nice way to introduce the little 'one to nature and to help me keep connected as mundane life can sometimes get in the way.
I've packed away the winter/yule season table decorations. The spring table is rather sparse, I thought it would be nice to do some arts and crafts with the little 'un, maybe go down to the pebble beach and collect some stones etc.

Last pictures are of our garden. At the mo, it's an expanse of lawn with boarders that need weeding. I keep toying with using some of the garden as a veg patch; but I've not made my mind up yet; plus I'm not overly green fingered so perhaps container veg plot would be best this year to see how I get on; plus easy to move out of the way of any children I may be minding.

Writing of minding, its really not that long now. Rather pleased that work has agreed to me working 2 full days one week and 3 full days the next week rather than 2.5 days each week. The half day is rather expensive in terms of train fares and this way it will save me a bit of money and, more importantly, allow me to take the little 'un along to the toddler group that "Nice" (tl'u's way of saying my CM's name) takes him too on a Thursday. He apparently loves it, and I rarely have the opportunity to see him play with other children, looking forward to that.

May manage a visit to Kids Planet during my days off this week - I've discovered its not that far to walk from here (well according to Google anyway) and again "Nice" has taken him there with her other minded children and by all accounts loves it. Rather depends on my tendons - the copious extra weight I'm carrying is putting a lot of strain on my heels and because I do so much more walking these days than I did my heels are incredibly painful. First thing on a morning, or when I've been sat down for a while, I hobble and grimace a lot until the stiffness fades a bit. On the up side, it really is very painful and so encouraging me to finally get my head into gear to get a couple of stone (at least) off to ease the pressure on my heels. The daft thing is I can easily loose that amount in about 3 to 4 weeks (without doing anything drastic) and just 2 stone would make such a difference. Sure, I would still have a vast amount of weight to get rid off to be slim; but I'm not really fussed about getting down to a size 10 or 12 or a set weight - I want to loose enough to feel comfortable and not to be restricted by the weight as I am now.

Wow, enough rambling, I need bed, only had a few hours kip the past few nights (own fault, staying up too late and then needing to be up around half five for work) and boy am I feeling it now. I could quite snuggle back into my arm chair and just go to sleep - except I would stiffen up horribly and then be in agony.