1st day of the rest of my life.

What a lovely day. The sun is blazing, the breeze isn't too chilly and Rye and I have had a lot of fun this morning. The girls came round for Circle last night and because of the clocks going forward Rye wasn't going to sleep at 7pm, so I decided he could just stay up, its no biggy and he adored showing off for the ladies. Such a charmer. This did mean a very late night and much to my suprise he slept until quart to ten this morning.

Breakfast was toast with chocolate spread and multigrain hoops (toast and marmalde for me) and then he played with the wretched plastic police car; thankfully he did move onto playing with his brio cars and the suspension bridge and then he wanted to draw. Too nice a day to spend indoors though and while the beach did beckon, the garden was also scolding me silently for neglecting it. So, I got out the millions of softballs and popped them in his tent and left him to giggle, dive and generally cover the garden in plastic balls, while I got on with weeding. Every so often the little tyke would throw a ball at me or leap on me - he did manage to throw a few on my head. Monkey.

Suprising how a bit of weeding can build up an apetite, we had marmite and grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch and Rye also had raisins and dried apricots. Quicky nappy change and upstairs for a breastfeed and a nap for him. I wasn't sure if he would nap but once I prised that gawd awful police car out of his hands, he settled down and peacefully slipped into dreamland. I dont oftne take him upstairs for a nap but now I'm home all the time I think for both our sanities it is best that we both have some quiet time during the day and it will also make the childminding easier - I hope, if I can also instigate an after lunch nap with my minded children.

I confess to being a little nervous about the taking on a couple more toddlers; in the main going out and about with them; Rye can be a handful sometimes and it is a bit scary thinking of having 3. I will have put in place a policy that children under say 5 must wear reins or a wrist strap when out and about with me - if not in a pushchair. I think some of nervousness comes also from not having a car and knowing that wherever we go has to be within walking distance or its public transport. I suppose its all about setting firm boundaries from the start and practising those boundaries with short trips before progressing to longer trips.... still any tips greatly appreciated!

Terries.

Awww, look at his little face, that was from yesterday; after we arrived home from the beach and he was exhausted, bless him, and curled up in my arms, had a little boob time then went to sleep, and woke up at bedtime. Ah well.

Need a bit more practise with the terries, me thinks, oops, they keep falling off him. hehehe.
I did manage the origami fold - YAH, unfortunately, it doesn't fit him. My squares are 60x60cm so I'm assuming I need the 75x75 squares for this fold to fit. Annoying because the extra large size were not on Babykind, it was only when I went to nappy nations website, for a nosey, that I discovered there were even larger squares. Ah well, nevermind.

Mixed bag.

Phew, today has been a very mixed bag. I rather suspect tl'u was missing his new friends and having a "there's nothing to do" moment(s). Although, he did produce the beautiful drawing above. I sat with him for a while and sowed him how to make spirals and off he went. I am pretty sure he's left handed as he uses it predominantly. He is a bit cack handed at holding the crayons but that will come in time. And oops, my first crayoning faux pas, he was scribblilng away so happily that I went in the kitchen and got tea ready.... oh dear, when I checked on him he was scribbling all over Ivan the Engine book and I then realised he'd crayoned all over the laminate flooring. At least it wasn't the walls!

My next parenting faux pas is the allowing of juice (diluted) other than meal times. The childminder and I have agreed that he's to have water at CMs and he only gets juice with his tea, here I do allow juice with all his meals, although I am watering it down so much its pretty much coloured water. He expressed his displeasure frequently today - I stood firm, offering comfort in his distress but not backing down and allowing juice. Ok, I did a compromise with his snack and made him a strawberry milkshake to have with his beetroot toast, other than he's only had water. I rather suspect too, he's missed his new friends; he's settled phenomenly well at CMs, so much so he's reluctant to come home! (Traitor lol).

I am very chuffed that nappy changing is such a breeze. He's only been with CM 2 days, yet because she has a little girl only slightly younger than tl'u, who lays down on the changing mat when CM needs to change her nappy, tl'u has started doing the same. Each nappy change today, I've pulled out the changing mat, asked him to lay down and he has! The problem was he developed a horrendous nappy rash not so long back and changing him was a nightmare because it hurt him so much. I suspect he remembered that horrible incident and so had become nappy changing shy.

Today has been a mixed bag. Big feelings expressed quite a lot, along with not seeming to know what to do with himself, yet really good parts too like the drawing, the nappy changing, eating really well, had a good nap this afternoon.