Sam is two!

I can't believe it, two already. Feels like only yesterday I was panting my way to the hospital in the car, preparing to have him. Little did I know he'd arrive about 20 minutes after we got there!

 Now it's all about the nee-naws, and choo-choos. Speaking of which -

 We had a lovely afternoon on the Kirklees Light Railway, which is near us. They have several steam engines and two playgrounds, and the boys love it, Sam especially.

 Though Ethan is quite impressed too :) Sam's cake request was Peppa Pig, and I thought great! simple! I can make that! Peppa Pig is a very simple cartoon, so I thought super easy. Unfortunately I had a very unwell week (don't worry, all fine) and just could not face making a cake, so Sam got to choose one off the shelf.

I also had a slight fail when I went to put on the candles - there weren't any. Sparklers did the job just fine! Happy Birthday to my lovely cheeky monkey. He's unfortunately settled into the terrible twos like a pro, but hopefully it'll pass. He's still a scrumptious little pest though ;)

Update: This blog has now moved to www.undomesticaited.wordpress.com - Hope to see you over there!

Morning Sickness

It's not fun.

I was extremely lucky with Ethan and Sam and didn't get sick at all. I have not been lucky this time. Well, I have escaped actually throwing up, so I guess I've been quite lucky, but oh my goodness, I feel so awful. I am managing to eat, but it's not enjoyable! at a guess I think I'm about 7 weeks, but I've got a scan on November the first to find out. I finally managed to track down all my sisters and tell them, which was nice, lots of excited squeals! We've also told both of our parents, but not Ethan and Sam yet. I can't wait to tell Ethan, I think he'll be very happy, especially as he's been asking recently when I'm going to have a baby!

You know what doesn't go well together? Morning sickness and a cough. Every time I cough I start to heave :( I cannot wait for this part to pass, not long I hope! Just a quick entry, I had to get it down somewhere!

Update: This blog has now moved to www.undomesticaited.wordpress.com - Hope to see you over there!

Sam's Loki Costume - in process.

So Halloween is approaching, less than two weeks to go. Eek! need to get a wriggle on with the costumes!

Luckily, they are proving to (so far) follow the simple ideas in my head. As they're just for the kids I've simplified a bit. In fact with Ethan I've completely cheated, the base of his Thor costume is shop bought, as I was having issues with finding tops in the right pattern and it was only £12.50. I'm planning on modifying it as it's not as detailed as I'd like. Anyway, onto progress pics!
 

I found this picture via Pinterest for a good front on view of Loki's armour and helmet. I decided to simplify it not only for ease, but also because when you're making it for a 2 year old, the pieces get slightly weeny, and sort of pointless.

So here is Sam's jacket so far -

 I intend to add the shoulder and forearm guard bits. The yellow is just craft foam, lightweight and bendy, practically indestructible even for my Sam. Each side piece is 2 pieces of foam, the curved main bits and the thinner top piece. to make the sort of wing-ish design I just cut into the foam but not right to the other side, so it's still all joined on the curved edge, and slightly overlapped them. I tried glueing them in place with PVA as I was told that'd work on craft foam. Not so if there is any sort of pull or resistance. Superglue however was brilliant, even if I did lose a couple of fingerprints in the process. The circles I just stuck on, again, superglue. The jacket was a simple black zip through sweater from Asda, £3 I think. Though they don't tend to sell black clothes for 2 year olds, so I bought it in age 3-4 and took it in, super easy, especially if you're not too fussy about the finished sleeves.There were literally no small boys clothes in a dark enough green, so black had to do. The foam isn't glued on yet, I'm going to spray it gold first. I'm not sure about how to attach the necklace type bit, probably glue on one side and velcro on the other so I can still get to the zip to put him in it.

And now, the helmet -

Paper mache. I've done 3 basic helmet shapes and it took the best part of 2 days, with layers and drying glue and what not. Why have I done 3 you ask? well. One for Sam, one for Ethan. The third was the first attempt of Sam's, but I made it too small, and it scratched his face putting it on. Whoops :S For the right size I measured their heads at the largest point, then added a couple of inches (I forgot to add the inches in the first attempt) then inflate a balloon, with the balloons widest point measuring the same. With Sam's second attempt it was actually a little bit too big, and he looked like a bobble head! Sigh. So this time I just cut a slit all the way up the back and overlapped the sides until it looked ok.

A tip to cut down on the time you spend paper mache-ing - draw the shape of the helmet on the balloon, and just make sure you overlap the lines a small amount. You can't see in the picture, but the back stops about halfway down the balloon. It leaves a bigger gap to get the thing on his head, and also stops it being too tall for his head too. This means that if you cover the whole balloon you're then cutting off an awful lot of waste, which you've just spent yonks glueing onto the balloon and waiting for it to dry. Can you tell I also did this on the first one?

The horns are plant wire I found in B&Q for a couple of pounds. I'll be adding craft foam to them to make them much fatter and more 3d. Then I'm going to try adding a few craft foam details to the helmet before spraying it gold. I've already sewn a rectangle of green satiny material for his cape, and he'll just wear dark trousers and wellies.

For a costume process post, this is a bit wordy! Will update with more progress when it happens!

P.S. Spellcheck says 'gluing' is the correct spelling. It just looks wrong though, so I've left the e in. Sorry if it makes you twitch ;)

Update: This blog has now moved to www.undomesticaited.wordpress.com - Hope to see you over there!

Unexpectedly expecting :D

So yeah, this happened...

It's a bit of a shock really! Not a total shock, as we were attempting it, but the medical appointments I've been having recently are related. Both Ethan and Sam had a little help getting here with some medication. I won't go into details, but my body wasn't behaving as normal, all easily fixed and done.

This time, we were waiting for me to start the medication again, and waiting and waiting as it has to be taken at a specific time o' the month. I'd made a second appointment to see the consultant (memo to me, cancel that on Monday) to see whether we needed to do any more tests or anything. I've been taking a random test every couple of weeks, and today, This showed up!

Shocked is not really the word! after the first test I screeched to Rich to come into the bathroom and check it for me, and he said yes, there were definitely two little blue lines, but that we should do another one and not get too excited until after that. He's a sensible man. He also suggesting getting the more expensive one that tells you how far along you are, which is what you see up there. I got showered and dressed with a goofy grin and jittery shakes while madly texting my lovely friend Harriet who is very recently post-natal herself and was possibly still in bed (sorry Hat!). I felt completely spaced out, and we went to run errands. ERRANDS I tell you. Eventually we got to Sainsbury's and bought the test, then went to lunch. Rich convinced me not to do it til we got home in case it was negative and I had to sit through lunch upset - again, sensible man - so once more we waited.

Eventually we made it home and I congratulated myself for not rushing us home, and promptly ran to the bathroom ;) And the rest, as they say, is history. I've no idea how far along I am, the test says 3+ weeks, but it counts differently to normal pregnancy counting, apparently it means at least 5 weeks pregnant. Who knows though, so on Monday I've got to get an appointment with the midwife and see what she says.

I'm SO excited! I love being pregnant, I am blessed in that I don't suffer with morning sickness very badly at all (fingers crossed!) and really enjoy the whole experience. I mean, I probably whinge as much as anyone else about being uncomfortable at the end, and other complaints that my mind has conveniently forgotten right now, but on the whole, I love it :)

P.S. I've found that Blogger will let me post this in the past, woohoo! So, hopefully, it'll appear in sequence, on the 6th of October, even though I won't be publishing it until I've been scanned and reassured. Sneaky!

Update: This blog has now moved to www.undomesticaited.wordpress.com - Hope to see you over there!

Robots and Spaceships and Aliens oh my!

It's been a while! So, what have I been up to. I made another baby quilt, this one for my lovely friend Harriet's teeny weeny new boy, the very gorgeous William.

Isn't he scrummy? Also how gorgeous is this picture. You can completely see the total adoration, and it still doesn't quite capture it. That house is bursting with love.

Here's the blanket - I'm very pleased with this one, the fabric was such a good find, boys are difficult to shop for!

 The two materials came as a set too, perfect for a matching front and back piece. There was also a third pattern, like the front with the squares, but the pattern was much larger and so would have been great for a big blanket, but not a baby one. I'm very fussy about fabric. Even though the blankets are (so far) all for babies, I don't like picking a fabric that's too babyish, as my way, the babies don't out grow the patterns too quickly! My boys each have one, Ethan's was made by his auntie Sheri, and has dinosaur patterns, and Sam's was made by my mum and has animals and palm trees and stuff.

Last weekend we took Ethan for a treat day - I read an article recently about how sometimes we can get so caught up on telling off our kids, that they don't hear as many I love yous, and recommended treat days where the child gets to make the decisions and you get to just have a good time with them. I'm making it sound hippyish, but that's basically the gist, and really, it's about quality time together, with the focus on one child (the article recommended taking the child out without siblings if possible). It's supposed to also help 'reset' the child's behaviour and your responses to it, sort of a clean slate.

 So Ethan chose Sundown Adventureland, a children's theme park about an hour away. We've been before with school so he was very excited to go, and asked if Daddy and Sam could come too, and off we went.

 First came the Santa ride. It's open all year round and Rich was very excited, as he is a massive Christmas lover. The boys were excited too, and we went on it twice. There are actually two Santa rides there, but the second one only opens at the beginning of November. The boys were not impressed.

 Santa's sleigh crossing the moon! The whole park is (dated) animatronics, so it all moves.

 Santa's map. I'm not sure he's getting the best time with this route.

 

 On the tractor ride, and apparently not impressed with my photography skills.

 Getting onto the Robin Hood ride. There aren't any pictures of the ride in progress as I was too gobsmacked by the animatronics. At one point you're practically flashed by Maid Marion!

Attempting to release King Arthur's sword. There were lots of other rides and play areas, but I'm terrible in that I always forget to take pictures and end up with random insights to the day :)

So here's the skinny - I'd definitely recommend it, it was perfect for the kids, the rides were not in the slightest scary or fast, and it's not too expensive. £11 for adults and kids, and under 2's are free. There are 2 indoor play areas with food available, again, fairly cheap, and really good. Best of all, once you're in, the only things you pay for are food (although you can bring your own) and the gift shop, assuming you want to stop there. That too is reasonable.

All in all it was a brilliant day, we had loads of fun, there was no tellings off from us, and his behaviour was brilliant, with no whining, which recently had become pretty epic. A win I think!

Next time - an update Sam's Loki jacket for Halloween, it's going well so far!

Update: This blog has now moved to www.undomesticaited.wordpress.com - Hope to see you over there!