A trying day.

The day began with promise; beautiful sunrise, lots of cuddles from my bouncy, giggly son, lots of boobie, a bit more snoozing, more cuddles, puzzles in bed, more boobie.  Then downstairs for play with cars, play dough, some colouring, then we walked down to the nursery to pick up my mindee, stopped at the park on the way home for 20 mins or so.

Not long after the snot appeared.  Rye does not like snot, so there has been much wailing about "snot in me nose," and floods of tears when asked to stop doing something that is beginning wear my patience out.  Couple in manic, simply not listening behaviour and it quickly became a very, very trying day.  In the end I sent Rye upstairs before I lost my temper and threw my toys out of the pram.  I felt a cow, poor lad is ill, although the guilty feelings did dissipate a tad when he stood at top of stairs screaming down at me.. and out came the pointy finger and the firm, "bed!"   Ohhh the wailing, oh the banging and throwing.  Such a cruel mama. :-(

After a few moments the desire to scream at him had faded and I called him back downstairs to listen to story time and for us to make up and have "couchcuddles".  After my mindee had left for the day, he quickly flagged, and was soon snoring and dribbling down my arm again.  I gently laid him on the sofa with blankets and cushions and tidied and cleaned up.  A friend popped round for coffee after reading my FB status, bless her.  Rye woke up snotty, croaky and not very happy at all.  I'm anticipating a loooong night. 
 

Boobs for Babes, Tits for Tots Breastfeeding Awareness Campaign.

This is going so well, more donations still needed, so please, give if you can, and promote this worthy compaign on your blogs, facebook, twitter etc.

Both Claire and Rachael have worked really hard, they have sponsors donating make up, snacks for the shoot, nappies etc from Ellie's Kitchen to even Sainsburys!  Wonderful, absolutely wonderful - and then the proceeds from the calendar will be used to help promote breastfeeding by donating to local initiatives, helping folks who want to do the peer support breastfeeding training etc etc.

So, please, please, help to make this as successful as possible - who knows, like the WI calendar, it might even end up being a film


Boobs for Babes, Tits for Tots, Breastfeeding Awareness Campaign.

Boobs for Babes Calendar - donations needed.

Some friends are putting together a pro bfing awareness calendar and need donations from folks to help cover the costs of helping all the mama's who are travelling to London to take part and have their photos taken while bfing.


Boobs for Babes, Tits for Tots donation page.

Donataions start from £1.  So please, make a £1 donation (or more if you're able).


Thank you.

Working from home.

I have been a full time work outside the home mum, a part time work outside the mum, a full time stay at home mum, and now I'm a work from home mum (wfhm).  Working from home means I have more time with Rye, right?  Well, no.  Childminding means I am paid to care for the child(ren) of parents who work. As I have worked outside the home, I am very sensitive to the ache a mother feels when the carer seems to know her child better, can understand the burgeoning language skills easier, sees all those firsts, all those developments and wonders that young children experience.

That sensitivity means I often do not mention new words spoken, or new skills learned, but rather wait for mum to discover her child's new skill and then smile indulgently with her as she proudly tells me of her child's achievement.  I take photos, I write detailed accounts of activities, I care for her child, almost like she were my own... and inevitably this means some of my time with my own child is compromised.

Such compromises are not necessarily negative; my mindees brings friendship and companionship on an almost daily basis for my son, without knowing it, she is teaching him responsibility, empathy, honour, and limitations. She is furthering his socialisation skills, and he in turn is effectively a big brother to her; protecting, sharing, teasing, laughing, and encouraging her to try new things, to push her development ever forward.  It is a delight to watch, if sometimes my ears grow weary of the inevitable squabbling between almost 2yr old little girl and an almost 4yr old little boy.

She brings much to our household and she takes too.  Some activites are not suitable for her, so they are delayed, indeed sometimes I feel I am constantly saying to Rye, "Later, hun, when it's just the two of us", and explaining that C is too young for XY&Z.  For the most part I am able blend the needs of two children who are developmentally really rather different with some success, and for Rye's part he is very attached to my mindee. 

The balancing act between having time for just the two of us, tempered with time needed for my own pleasures and chores is challenging.  I have enjoyed the last few weekends where I've had a day extra with just Rye.  We've gone to the park together, we've watched dvds, made meals together, read stories, sang songs.  Perhaps not a whole lot different from when my mindee is with us - yet, I cherish the alone time with my son.  I cherish being able to bring out the paints without first having to protect the entire lounge from my mindee's enthusiasm and keep a constant eye on her to ensure she does not eat the paints, paint brushes, paper.... hand prints on the wall etc.  She keeps me on my toes, that's for sure.

How much I've cherished the simple task of making breakfast - dinosaur toast... Rye helping me in the kitchen to cut out the shapes in the bread, and once toasted Rye buttered and added lemon curd to his toast.  He was so proud of himself - and I realised it has been a while since he's helped me in the kitchen because I normally prepare the meals first thing for the day, or in the afternoon when they are napping.

How lovely to  be woken up by Rye coming through from his own bedroom, to snuggle and have boobie, then cuddling and snoozing for a bit longer afterwards, to be woken again by Rye, his voice chirping, "Is it time to get up and go downstairs, yet?".  I miss mornings with Rye, normally I am awake and downstairs before he wakes up, and once my mindee arrives, cuddles and snuggles with Rye become impossible as she naturally, wants to be a part of the fun too, and while it's lovely to snuggle two warm little bodies and smile at their antics, the kisses and cuddles they give each other - oh, how I miss my morning snuggles with Rye.

It has been a stiff learning curve.  Childminding is perfect for me.  I adore being home, I adore providing a service for parents whose jobs mean they cannot care for their own children during the day.  I am so very grateful that I am able to remain home to tend to Rye's needs, I wish it could have been so when he was a baby, but it wasn't I had to return to work full time.  At the time I was desperate too, and then very quickly equally desperate to be back home with him.   Those few months of full time work opened my eyes and were instrumental in shaping the homelife I became determined to provide for my son.

And now this current contract has shown me how careful I need to be when taking on new ones.  Sure the money has been nice, but the severe reduction in time for myself and for Rye and me is not worth it.  From September my mindee will be going to nursery on a Thursday and Friday morning.  This translates to her being with us full time Monday to Wednesday, not at all on a Thursday, and a Friday afternoon, and a Saturday morning.  A much better balance and once I'm determined to maintain; from September Thursdays will be sancrosant, nor will I take on any further contracts that require weekend minding.

My heart continues to wrench in sympathy for my client and her daughter who have so little time together.

Lazy Start to Mothers' Day.

The pitter patter of little feet roused me around 5am this morning, and then rustle of a warm little body climbing into bed beside me and snuggling up, whispering "Cuddle mumeee,"  Then we dropped back off to sleep, waking a little later than normal and Rye leaning over me happily chirping, "It's time to get up, and get dressed!"  Along with my usual morning greeting; "I'm hungreeeee", to which I replied, "There's a suprise for you downstairs on the table", down he ran; but alas my plan of leaving out some snacks so I could have a nice loooooong lie in was foiled by my boy coming back upstairs and announcing, "I'm not hungreeee mumee, I want to cuddle."

So back into bed he climbed and snuggled down, latching on again, while stroking my skin... when he surfaced, and I rolled onto my back, he told me I have, "Flannel boobs"... now I confess I'm stumped by this; or perhaps I choose to be stumped because there is a little voice right, right at the back of my mind that is whispering, "he means floppy".  He then proceeded to tell me I had a big nose,ears, eyes and mouth..oh and big boobs and big belly button.  Love you too son!

Downstairs, once Rye had realised that C wouldn't be with us today, he became very animated requesting lots of painting and crafts.  Unfortunately for my son, I am not one of these people that leaps out of bed full of enthusiasm; I build up to it slowly; I like a drink, a bite to eat and a slow awakening to the possibility of the day... so I countered with baking muffins, which was enthusiastically embraced.  I find baking muffins on a morning very relaxing; of course they are mind bogglingly easy to make and require very little effort.  My kind of baking upon waking!

Naturally, the flour must be kissed and tasted to ensure its "Purfect" for baking;

And then impatiently wait for them to cook AND cool down a bit and for mummy toarrange the muffins on a plate.
"Hurreee up mummeeeee",
"Cheeky little boy",  I reply laughing.

And then positioning one's self at the table with the muffins; and when mama says that's enough; steal one quickly and take a bite to yet another laughing exclamation of,
"Cheeky little boy!".

A simple, lovely day.

This morning was delightful.  Rye half skipped, half toddled through to my room and climbed on the bed and loomed over me with a big grin on his face.  He proudly told me he'd slept in his room all night, in his own bed.  I told him how proud I was and we had lots of lovely cuddles and snuggles - even a little breastfeed and to my utter suprise there was still a touch of milk there!  Rather randomly, he also told me that my other boob looked like a cake.

Then it was time to fling the duvet back and start the day - although it wasn't done with that much exuberance; I intensely dislike getting out of bed in the morning; not matter how well (or not), I've slept.  A cosy snug bed is just too delicious to leave.  Alas needs must. 

This morning deserved pancakes.  Rye had about 6 with a touch of golddust honey on them and I had two small ones and a pile of sliced pear and apple, and gorgeous blood orange freshly squeezed juice, mmmm.
My charge arrived and looked slightly miffed that she'd missed the feast, (we were just finishing up when she arrived), although, mostly she turns her nose up at pancakes.

The spotty lurgy is clearing up nicely, spots all drying up so contagion over and even higher spirits resumed.  At 9:30am I suggested a walk; both children raced to the door.  Togged them both up and Rye enjoyed a ride around on his bike and C tottered in her new wellies.  Bit grey and murky, oh so nice to be out in the fresh, if nippy, air and both kids clearly relished stretching their limbs.

Watching the seagulls as they swooped and dived and made a unholy racket

We arrived back home in time for snack time, which the children virtually inhaled.  Nothing like a bit of fresh air and exercise to improve the apetite :-)  While they devoured my vegboxes arrived;

A mixed fruit and veg box, salad box and then yoghurt, milk, eggs, lemons and blood oranges as extras.  I have a lot of lettuce; there was a lettuce in both boxes and I have a couple bags of water cress from last week still left over and another lettuce.  LOL we'll be eating a lot of greens this week.  Maybe have a go at a green juice.  Thank goodness for my salad leaf dryer, makes quick work of drying leaves after washing them in salted water.

After snacktime, we played with the jigsaw puzzles again and I even brought out the xlyaphone and little electronic keyboard, which both kids played quite tunefully, rather than just bashing the heck out of em.  We were having so much fun with the puzzles, reading, music and singing songs that it was my rumbling tummy that gave hint lunch time was nearing.  We had some of the left over dahl and rice for lunch, including fresh bread rolls - well actually these were suppose to be Nigella's flatbreads but I'm assuming the overnight proving and use of wholemeal is why didn't turn out particularly flatbreadish, (normally, they are kinda like a thicker pitta bread).

Prettiness isn't perhaps a word to describe the look of these breads; but mmmm, very, very tasty.  Once lunch was over, naptime for C.  I barely read a page of my book before the Sandman worked his magic.  I came downstairs to discover Rye nodding off to cbeebies.  Cheerfully turned that off and pottered in the kitchen and then online while sipping a lovely hot cup of coffee, mmmm, bliss.

Tea was delicious, roasted vegetables with halloumi cheese and rosemary, with dressed salad leaves and a little more of the bread.  YUM.  Halloumi roasted is wonderfully delicious and it takes the edge off the squeakiness of the cheese.  Then it was time for the little one to go home and once she'd gone Rye requested we go outside again.  Well, how could I resist?  The murkiness of this morning had disappeared as the day wore on, until in the afternoon we had lovely bright sunshine and a brisk wind to accompany.

Loved the walk with Rye, very cold but again just lovely to be out of the house again.

Rye pointed out the moon to me - so beautiful.

We walked around sections of the estate I've not been around before.  All a muchness to be honest; and a bit claustophobic just how jampacked in the houses are and also such a waste of space too; the drives are really long but quite narrow so most people only park at the top end; but the entire stretch along the houses are either slabbed or concreted.  My drive is the same, and I lament at the loss of space frequently.  If I owned the house I'd rip it all up and reclaim the soil back, move the fence up and thus increase the size of my garden by quite a bit - especially as the small shed would  then fit on the reclaimed part.

Saying that, even if I had the cash, I wouldn't buy this house as it's too near the motorway, the houses are very small and well, I'd like a house with a bit of character if I were to buy.

Anyhow, back to our walk.  Inspite of the feeling of being enclosed in, and actually I live right on the edge of the countryside.. thing is, it's kinda blocked off by the M20, which is a shame because the countryside on my doorstep (almost), is the Downs; we had a lovely walk around and Rye thoroughly enjoyed himself and has really got the knack of the balance bike.  

When we arrived back home, he wanted to stay out in the garden for a bit, I watched him as I cleaned up the kitchen and he sat on his yellow tractor, and chattered away to the moon, waving and blowing kisses - bless him. :-)  Eventually, the cold got the better of him and he slammed back into the kitchen, decoated and wellied himself and then flung himself onto my lap and demanded cuddles. :-)

Then bath and bed.  The bed part too a wee while, but eventually after a few stories and a few renditions of the "Wheels on a Bus", he finally sighed and fell asleep. 

And now and nice hot cuppa, bliss.

Mishmash.

Lovely morning snuggles

Couldn't resist I had to see how the hat looked on him :-)

Please sleep

He is full of beans, playing hiding with my dressing gown.

Although he did ask for "boob juice" a moment ago so I'm hoping he is actually starting to feel tired! I did find it quite amusing though that he's equated my milk as juice and is now asking me to fill up his bottle...lmao.

OMG the craziness of toddlers!

Various Photos.

Rye's has for a while been attempting to write numbers and a few letters, I was very suprised when looking at his work to discover this section, where he's clearly written a "1, 2, 3, 4, 7", and "A" and an on it's side "M". He is very interested in the written word and loves asking what the words say.
















Rye was desperate to have a go at taking a photo; this is his effort.... his thumb and part of my blanket.
















Lovely snuggly morning, leisurely breastfeeding.
















I was in the kitchen cooking tea, when I realised he was very quiet, popped my head round the door and discovered him "reading", chattering away telling the story to himself. He clearly has an excellent memory because I've not read the various little Thomas the Tank Engine books to him often, well frankly, because they are rubbish, but oh, he so loves all things train at the moment.
















Hehehe, I love this photo, he looks like a right little bruiser, when in actual fact he's just got his mouth full of food.
















My friend became very excited when she saw this photo thinking Rye was an engineering genius and built the fairy megablock castle himself; he hadn't of course, I had helped him build it, and just followed his directions of when he wanted a window, an archway etc, which fitted just lovely over the traintrack
















Another of the photos taken the morning we leisurely breastfed and played with taking silly photos with the camera. ( I love lazy mornings)
















Bless him, he is a bit of a boob monster; not bothered generally through the day; but oh he does kick up a fuss if he doesn't get his morning and evening "boooobssss" :-)

Rye's language skills have improved dramatically over the last few weeks, he's now speaking in quite complex sentences; unfortnately his clarity isn't as good as he often jumbles the words into one another. My hearing issues aren't helping either so I need to make a GP appointment to get them checked out as its been years since I bothered, and get Rye checked and maybe on a list for some speech therapy to help with his clarity.

We've also noticed he has a bit of a lazy eye, which is definitely becoming more noticable - it's not bad, it's just I can see when his eyes aren't always quite aligned better. I had popped into the opticians but they've said he needs a referral to the hospital because of his age. Bit of a nuisence but still, the quicker the squint is sorted the easier it will be, especially while it's only a slight problem - much easier to fix.

Sunny Sands.

Another afternoon spent down at the beach.
This morning I had some phone calls to make etc and then weeeee, we were off to the beach. I was initially a bit dismayed because it looked like the tide was in.. thankfully, it was on it's way out.
I popped Rye in the ring sling and paddled in the water to try and get him use to the sea, but he wasn't very happy :-(

So we sat on the minute bit of sand left and built sand castles, tunnels for his cars, and played with his ball, which because of the wind kept going in the sea. Rye did get it himself once, but a wave came in gently and wet his feet and he legged it and wouldn't go within 5 feet of the sea after that.

Sadly, our time ended all too quickly and we had to head back to the car; Rye was creamcrackered and fell asleep immediately. Rather creamcrackered myself too, so I treated us to chips for tea.

Rye is now watch Tractor Tom again. This has become his favourite DVD and if he can get into my room, it's the first thing he does. Still, I've relaxed my stance on dvd's a bit of late; solong we've done "stuff" during the day I don't mind him putting a dvd on before bed, and as he can only watch it upstairs; it does mean it only happens if I fancy lazing on the bed while he watches :-)

And his verbal skills, wow they have steamed a head in the past week or so. He's now speaking in simple sentences and constantly chattering away to himself and parroting every word he hears so having to be very careful.

Ohhh and final note; I was dead chuffed to see a lady on the beach with her child in a mei tai - I think it was a connecta type, and she was breastfeeding too! Made me want to grab Rye and start breastfeeding him too - solidarity and all that. And you know, I don't think anyone really noticed either. Brilliant!

And yet more celebrations

Ok, I admit it, any excuse to burn things and eat lots of yummy food :-)

Circle had decided last week we'd have a pot luck supper tonight as we decided we'd get together on Sunday to celebrate the Solstice. So, I made a scrummy lemon and strawberry cheesecake - I perhaps made it a tad large, I think we'll be eating it for days to come, and I made a couscous salad and pizza. The girls brought an assortment of potatoe salad, coleslaw, houmous, quiche, quorn pork pie, olives and feta cheese and so forth... oh, and a prodigious amount of alcohol.

We ate well tonight. We also grilled pineapple on the bbq and made a tia mai syrup to pour over with icecream - YUUUUM. The little man, had much fun running around the garden, and showed a healthy respect for the fire; and kept telling us; "fire, ohhh, hot." We didn't stay out long though, despite the melting heat today, it was quite cold tonight with that wind, so once we'd run out of things to burn we decanted indoors. The girls have just left and Rye is now in bed fast asleep. So I'm sat here with strawberry and pear cider, which is suprisingly good. I usually drive, so it's not often I have a drink and mmm it is nice.

It's been a busy day, this morning, Rye and I drove up to Medway for the Bossom Buddies reunion; the breastfeeding peer support group we use to go to. It was lovely to see everyone again and we won a toy rabbit in the raffle, which I think we'll send to a friend whose pregnant as Rye has copious soft toys.

Oh, and the HV came on Monday, for all of ten minutes. She basically looked through his red book, asked a few questions, I said about my concerns about his verbal skills; although admittedly in the last few weeks his speech has really taken off. She just told me it would be checked during his 2.5year development check and just to make an appointment, although she did add that as his comprehension is so good, it's unlikely there's anything to worry about. Oh, and she asked me when I stopped breastfeeding, when I told her I was still breastfeeding, she looked suprised and asked an incredibly stupid question; "Is that your choice," duh! Still, she seemed nice enough, I was just suprised she left so quickly, I expected her to chat a bit more.

Constant surprise

Rye is constantly surpising me of late with his learning.
On Friday I made some bread, finishing off the plain flour. Rye managed to get the bag off the worktop (waiting to go out into recycling) and played with it for ages, managing to get every little last grain of flour out of the bag onto the table in the kitchen and later the footstool in the lounge. He then helped himself to the baking powder from the larder. When I asked him to put it back he said "NOOOOOO" very emphatically, so I asked him if he was going to bake and he nodded. Bless.

He's also very comfortable with his room now and Friday he slept in his room for a good couple of hours for his nap. I did feel a bit at a loss though so didn't make as good of the time as I could have.

Saturday morning was beautifully peaceful; Rye's little feet slapping against the laminate as he rushed into my room upon waking and climbed into bed with me, snuggled down under the duvet and began a marthon nursing session combine with delightful snuffling snoozes. I simply adore the mornings with my little boy snuggled beside me, his small, warm hand stroking my skin as he feeds and snoozes. I love how he buries his head into my boob if I try to de-latch him before he's ready. And I love the way he will nudge my nipple with his nose and then grin at me before opening his mouth wide and latching on. I pray there will be many, many more morning nursing sessions to enjoy.

Today as been a invigorating day. Another lazy snoozy nursing morning, followed by a lazy breakfast of american pancakes with chocolate spread (I initially was thinking it was mothering Sunday lol). Phone call from J to suggest a trip down to the harbour to the farmer,fisher and creative market that is on each Sunday ensued in a rushed to finish dying my hair (purple, fed up of the grey) and then get dressed and over to J's to drive down to the harbour.

The market is quaint, small and quite expensive. There were some nice stalls but I must admit I was slightly disappointed; although I managed to buy some lovely sweet potatoes, purple sprouting broccoli, leeks, mushrooms and rubarb. Mmm, rubarb crumble my favourite - oh and a few tangerines.

Today has been a good test of the Mei Tai too. While walking around the market I had Rye on my back; once we reached a quieter spot along the sea wall I allowed him down to run off some energy (while trying to curb my paranoi about the edge of the sea wall - there are barriers but the gap is, of course, at toddler height!). The tide was in so we were unable to go down onto the sands and instead walked the length of the sea wall and back again. Then once again I popped Rye on my back and J helpfully pulled up the back of the mei tai for me. He was up on my back in a jiffy much to the astonishment of a lady perhaps in her 50's. She called over to me as I walked past to say how astonished she was, and what a clever way to carry a child :) Hehehe. I wasn't the only one baby wearing either; although one was a structured back carrier and the other was a crotch dangler with a little baby. Both times it was the dad's doing the carrying too. I nearly stopped the crotch dangler dad but my natural shyness took over and I just walked past. I really don't like those type of slings because a baby's legs and spine are in an awkward position which can hinder development and strength... and as babywearing does become a bit more popular those type of carriers are unfortunately the one's that many parents find in bog standard shops. If I remember rightly, I think it's Boots that is now selling Napack Mei Tais on their online store. Woohooo.

And other news; Christine from Daisychain will be cutting out my Mei Tai next week. I'm so excited. I did ask if she could do wrap style straps but sadly she can't as she's not tested them out and said she wouldn't feel comfortable selling me a mei tai with such a large design change that had not been thoroughly tested. Still, her straps are 5 in wide so that's not too bad and I have heard so many good things about her mei tai's for toddlers - not forgetting my love for the fabric - that I asked her to continue anyway (bless she did recommend other mei tais with wrap style straps). So I should have my mei tai in a week or two - very excited indeed.

Ohh and before I forget; Rye has somewhere along the line learned the makaton sign for "please". As usual, my son had found illicit buscuits in J's house and brought them to me while asking for a buscuit. I allowed him one. Then he asked for another and I said "no". At that point he started saying "pease, pease, pease", I was so chuffed that I allowed him another buscuit and J said to me; "Was he signing please too?" at which point we realised he was. I can only assume he's picked it up from "Something Special" the Ceebbc programme. At one stage I was going to see if I could teach him baby sign language but I was never consistent enough so it never happened. I do try and do some of the signs when we sit and watch "something special"... again I just hadn't realised that he'd picked up any of the signs. Aren't kids amazing!

What's going on 'er then?

Took the little man to bed about half an hour ago and he laid on his bed playing with his trains not really interested in nursing. I turned the light off on the landing and just laid with him and he played for another five minutes, then put his trains to oneside, gave me a kiss and went to sleep. So what's going on'er then, um? Seems my boy has settled into his room, I do hope the not nursing was just a one off though and he's not starting to wean. He only feeds morning and night with the odd daytime nurse or two depending on circumstances and I really do treasure those quiet times with him.
It seems to soon, still my overriding parenting philosophy is to be guided by Rye; would be a bit hypocritical to stop doing that now because he may be going down a path I personally don't feel ready for.
Moving on.
I decided to get Rye's bike out of the shed to see if he could sit on it yet and reach the floor easily - and he can! He can almost pedel too; legs just slightly too short. I would have loved to have got him one of the Likeabikes but even at £54 it was a it beyond my purse immediately after Christmas. The trike is a bargain too, Ipicked it up for £8 something in the Woolworths shutting down sale and he does love it.

All I need now is pick up a helmet for him.

Then, once I'd put washing out to dry, prepared leek and potatoe soup and rice pudding in the slowcooker (I have one with two compartments)
tl'u and I wandered over to my friend's house, might not have been a great idea as she's got a terrifically bad cold. During the walk over I was struck by the cacphony of bird song - spring is most definitely here; despite there been a distinct nip in the air again today.

Rye was rather boisterous and appeared to be trying out the "squish the germs out" method of getting rid of a cold, which entailed him jumping all over Aunty J and generally using her like a trampoline. Poor lass. We didn't stay too long, bless, she looked like she really could do with being in bed. Once in Rye again indicated he'd like a dvd on. He's become a bit more keen on dvds of late and its becoming a bit of a habit to pop in a dvd for him to watch on an eve. I dont' mind too much as it appears to be more of him just sitting down and relaxing after full days of fun and being out of the house. I confess to enjoying being able to sit down and enjoy a cup of coffee without a little boy leaping all over me or using me as a human slide - and it means I can pop on the laptop without him coming over and shutting it on me because he wants my attention.



This is part of my season swap I'm making for my "partner". I love the wool, it's 100% wool which felts once washed. This is it unfelted. I have washed it but my machine only does a 40 wash (just because I can't connect it to the hot water and it just doesn't seem to do anything if I try to put in on a wash hotter than 40) so it's not felted quite as much as I thought it would, I may give it another go tomorrow.

There are also some items to go into the bowl, one of which I've made today, and I'll probably make another once I go to bed. I'll have to make one of those bowls for me too, it is so pretty (**blush** even if I do say so myself) and the wool is gorgeous.
Cor, I love crocheting.

Own bedroom.

With tredipation I decide to take the initiative out of my son's hands and attempt to move him into his own room. Sunday afternoon, he helped me clear his room of boxes (well ok he played in them) and I moved almost all his toys upstairs, including the small shelves I had been using downstairs to store them all on. I hung the wooden mobile dragon friends from Yorkshire sent (he's very taken with it) and put a sheet on the futon mattress and dug out his sleeping bag.

Initial indications looked hopeful, he was very taken with his room and played up there most of the afternoon. He seemed to like the futon mattress and sat and laid on it a lot. So, come quart to six I took the little man upstairs and began his bedtime routine and then I laid down with him on the mattress and fed him.

He fed and fed and fed... and then fidgeted, then fed some more,, fidgeted, fed some more.. I was beginning to wonder if he'd fall asleep, when suddenly I realised he was fast asleep and the snuffling was his gentle snoring. Minutely, I eased myself from the bed, placing a pillow where I'd been for him to snuggle up to and I beat a hasty retreat.

Not a dicky bird. I woke at 7am this morning. 7am! I slept an entire night without once being woken up. I took advantage and enjoyed a lengthy hot bath, while I was drying myself off I heard the little man chattering away. He sounded happy enough, so I let him be while I finished getting dressed.

Around 8am, I popped my head around the door and he was laid on his bed, playing with one of his many wheeled toys and chattering away to himself. He looked up and grinned at me, slid off his bed and wandered over for a hug. Took his sleeping bag off and all he was interested in was playing with his other toys.

I did try him for a nap this afternoon but he wasn't interested. I laid down with him and offered to feed, but he de-latched after 10 seconds and started playing with his toys. I asked him if he wanted to feed and he said "Noooooooooooooooooooo". So, I told him I was going back downstairs and he waved goodbye at me. He came down about 20 minutes later I think.

This evening, he went upstairs to his room with no bother at all. He did want to play rather than lay down, but once the light went off, he happily snuggled up, fed and drifted off to slumber land. Early indications therefore, are very hopeful that the transition to his room will be painless.