Sam the Schoolboy

We were lucky enough to be offered a space for Sam at the nursery attached to Ethan's school before Christmas to start after the break. He went in for a practise session and was less than impressed with me stopping him playing with Postman Pat to get a picture. He also pretty much refused to leave after the hour when no one else was leaving and he'd just discovered a box of Thomas tracks.

He started afternoons just after the Christmas break and loved it, as you can see he was just a tad excited to be off. He's been having a blast and has finally accepted, on seeing it written down on his name card, that his name is Samuel, not just Sammy. He also shared a class with at least two other Sams, so points for originality, me!

Last week we were offered the chance to move him to mornings as I had asked if it would be possible in September when the rest of Nursery will move up to year one and he'll be staying on another year. I said yes and it was all arranged in a day and we swapped over. 

The first day we went in, and he hung up his coat and bag and grabbed his name from the board. Then he looked around, turned to me and said "Mummy, where is Sammy with the black glasses?" I had a horrible sinking feeling, and sure enough, when I explained that Sammy was in the afternoon class and he was now in the morning class, the lip came out.

I felt terrible, and he followed me to the door and asked to come home again. I convinced him to stay with the promise of Thomas trains from his teacher and a fudge from me on the way home. Fortunately he has settled back in fine and loves it again.

Now to the matter at hand, HOW is he old enough for a school uniform? He looks ridiculously cute in it, but he really loves school, even if he gets tired easier and is a bit of a grump in the afternoons. That's one of the benefits of mornings - he can nap after if necessary, and if he happens to nap at the same time as this lively fella...

Well, then the afternoon silence is absolutely miraculous.

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

Halloween

We were lucky enough to get two chances the dress the kids up this year, for the trunk and treat at church and for trick or treating. So first, for the trunk and treat...

We had last minute vampire who decided he wanted this cape from the 99p shop. Thrifty!

 We also had a last minute gruffalo who refused to wear the ghost costume he'd asked me to make. Still, he had a gruffalo dressing gown and slippers already so all it took was a green felt tip for the poisonous wart at the end of his nose, and we were done. We had a fun time at the trunk and treat, I made a coconut shy with skulls in the place of coconuts in our car boot for the kids to knock down, they got sweets, bosh, done.

Then for trick or treating on our street we managed to get Sam into his ghost costume.

 He's 'woo'-ing. Ethan wore this Harry Potter costume, only with scar and glasses.

 We had a fun time visiting the decorated houses on our street and getting far too many sweets and chocolates, but to be honest the boys enjoyed opening the door the most. Sam spent as much time as possible with the door open, leaning out and shouting "come trickle treating!" across the street.

Henry wore this for both occasions and had no opinion. Unless you count spewing on it, which I don't, considering he is non-discriminatory with his barfing habits.

I did 3 pumpkins,  one of which when I took the 'lid' off the insides were so perfect I saved them for pie.

The pie was delicious and supremely easy, I just googled for a recipe and done. Except for the part where I forgot I had already bought nutmeg and ginger ages ago and bought them again, giving me a cupboard full of it. 

And that was halloween :) Lots of fun, a bit of mess and thankfully no damage done to my hands while carving the pumpkins - a first!

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

September

School has begun again, new term, new start. But what's this?

 I appear to have a full on child of five. How did that happen then? Look at that teeny 3 year old on the left, surely that was only yesterday, when he was heading off to nursery and then coming home with a painting of a yellow digger and asking where the tree was on HIS jumper mummy, eliciting a midweek trip to the uniform shop.

He has a lovely teacher again this year, who I handily know a little from outside of school, and can therefore skip the authority figure awkwardness at parents evening next month. He's enjoying it so far and hasn't yet complained at the conspicuous lack of toys in his classroom - a fairly big change from reception last year. His reading ability is improving which is brilliant, we have far fewer frustrations when he's sounding out (a...n...d............ I stop myself from snapping AND. It's AND.) and he can actually remember the beginning of the story at the end, because it wasn't half an hour ago. I love books and I want him to love books too, so I try and let it be a fun experience.

We've had some fun baking. I found a cake pop baking tray in our farm shop yonks ago and thought we'd finally try it out for a spotty cake.

 Not bad, though I'm not sure quite why that red spot rose quite so much. I slightly over filled the cake pop tray, and this greeted me when I took off the top half:

There was a bit of carving involved! the problem is there's nothing stopping the top rising away with the cake. I might have to bodge some sort of fix for it. We made rainbow fairy cakes too, super easy, and if you line the bowls with a sandwich bag before adding mix and colour you don't have ti wash up a millionty things and you have a makeshift piping bag to squirt the layers in so it doesn't make a huge drippy mess on the tins.

 Also best tip - use paste food colouring. that yellow layer in fact has green liquid colouring in it as a test. I might as well not have bothered.

Last weekend we went to Leeds on the train. The boys were in their element and Sam almost passed out in Leeds train station, to be surrounded by trains and lifts and escalators was just his idea of heaven.

Other news, Henry finally let me take a picture of a full on grin.

Normally he spots the camera and goes into a serious brow furrow, which is frankly hilarious. He's currently 15 weeks, and 18lbs 9oz. He's quite a heft, but I still get to snuggle hands free, and I have a new carrier, thanks to kind birthday donations.

Why yes, I am a geek. What makes you ask ;)

I will really try to be better at blogging, but in the interest of keeping it real, having 3 children is HARD. Especially with one potty training, and the wee one having a cough/cold that keeps him up. This morning I was pouring out milk. I opened the bottle and poured, and nothing. Nada. So I looked at it in puzzlement and shook the not-empty bottle. It took me about 30 seconds before I realised I hadn't taken the foil off. It's a real shame Sam no longer naps.

I do have plans to try out these five recipes from Rachel's blog. I think it'll do WONDERS for my diet, but I'm in a baking mood, and it's unstoppable. Sorry waist.

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

Why I carry Henry in 'That Thing'

This is a stretchy wrap. Specifically it's one of these, though mine was a gift. It is very comfortable, and you can almost not feel it at all, even with a big chunker baby in like mine. It is slightly unusual still to see someone wearing one, though I still don't expect the odd responses I sometimes get. Luckily the nice comments usually outweigh the bad.

Today specifically, while taking Sam to the toilet in town I heard "oh, she's carrying a baby in that... thing..." with a tone bordering on disgust. It made me laugh, as I walked hands free and able to help Sam, and go to the toilet without having to disturb Henry, while said woman struggled to hold her littlie and stop her toddler running off, while also trying to get a bottle ready. And no judgement on that, because who hasn't been there. I wasn't smirking at her, it would have been nice had she returned that courtesy. But back to 'that thing'.

Many people carry babies. When we had Ethan I started with a BabyBjorn, which attracted no comments, but was incredibly uncomfortable. I have heavy babies, and I couldn't carry him for long, and once he got to about 5 months I couldn't carry him at all, and before then I didn't carry him much anyway. That's when you stopped carrying kids, when they were too heavy, as I wasn't interested in a big frame carrier, and what else was there really?

When I had Sam, a friend sold me this sling - a tricotti - which is simple, but this is Sam at 8.5 months and actually the last time I carried him - he seemed happy enough but I decided it couldn't be right to have him all squished up like that anymore - he's actually cross legged in this picture, and not just a photo-shopped on head! So we stopped again. But it was so much more comfortable than the BabyBjorn because the weight was spread out rather than the skinny straps. Very helpful with my big chunkers!

In between Sam and Henry I learnt a lot about slings, particularly the ones you tie yourself. The ones I was looking at were scary expensive, but my lovely friend Harriet pointed me in the right direction and in fact bought me the blue one up there, and has lent me a non-stretchy woven wrap for Sam and when Henry's a bit bigger. I'm currently saving up for my own woven wrap as Harriet will be needing hers back at some point, but they're a bit expensive to just pick one and buy.

In the interest of keeping it real, I've left this photo as is. Please excuse bathroom detritus and toothpaste-y mirror.

There's evidence out there that suggests wrapping is good for avoiding hip dysplasia in little ones too, as a wrap supports all the way to the knees rather than having legs dangling. I also think it must be more comfortable to have a sort of seat of fabric. There's also stuff out there about bonding being easier among baby 'wearers' but I don't think that's something that can really be quantified really. More practised mothers can even breastfeed without taking their baby out.

So, sneery woman in the baby room, why do I carry Henry in 'that thing'? Well, I do it because it means he's close to me, he almost always falls asleep, and my hands are free to deal with my two dirty great cheeky monkeys, one of whom is a flight risk. But most of all, I do it because I want to. And when it comes to my children...

In other news, Henry is 8 weeks, and has been checked over and declared fine, and huge. School holidays are upon us, and we are actually coping quite well. This week Ethan and I made a magic wand for him, which he decorated with so much glitter glue that we had to wait all afternoon and overnight for it to dry. Next week - tie dye! I am apprehensive to be perfectly honest - last time I dyed fabric I was in secondary school, but we'll wear old clothes and go with it. Sam has developed a healthy obsession with ice-cream vans and runs to the window to watch them. He hasn't yet connected the fact that he went to the ice cream van at the park and actually got an ice cream, and that the ice cream van on our street also sells them, so we've not got to the "muuuuuummy can I have an ice cream?!" stage thankfully, as it's been coming every day recently. They are both very excited for our holiday (2 weeks to go!) as are Rich and I. Henry is blissfully unaware of any surroundings as long as he has a light fixture to stare at and boobs on tap, so I think he'll take it in his stride :)

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

While you weren't watching..

Sam has been a complete monkey.

 Cough medicine while I was in the shower. Thankfully it came out pretty easily and he missed both Henry's nearby blankets, and my nearby bag.

Again, while I was in the shower. Talc EVERYWHERE. Again, not too bad, hoovers up easily enough.

Then today, he found the chocolate spread. Thankfully the jar was almost empty so instead of being a horrendous mess it was just funny. Also note the odd shoes. He's a weird little dude.

Also I somehow missed that Ethan is a ginormous boy now, he had sports day this week.

Skipping, backwards running, bat and ball and space hopper. In 6 weeks he starts year one at school. Though that can't be possible as surely only yesterday we were finishing Christmas, and how has he had 5 birthdays? I still remember the very first so clearly.

My niece turns five next month too, but holidays and things mean she had her party yesterday. Look at the awesome cake my sister Amy made!

 She's very talented!

 While I have been watching, the boys have been absolutely gorgeous to Henry. They both completely love him to bits, which is pretty handy. Although Sam does take it a bit far occasionally. He likes to touch. Especially when Henry is sleeping. Usually when I'd like him to remain sleeping. If that's the worst I have to put up with though, I'll take it gladly.

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

Four Weeks On

I can't believe it's been four weeks!

In all honesty there's not a huge amount to be said, we've not done very much! We had two lovely weeks with Rich at home, which was absolutely brilliant. He did the school runs, and the cooking, and basically all the big boys' stuff while I fed and fed and fed the mega-Hen. Then he had to go back to work which was not fun, but his team did buy Henry this brilliant vest, and his team manager arranged for him to have an extra 2 days holiday time as he'd done some work while at home, so not too hideous.

 Bazinga!

We then had my lovely mum up for a week who washed and ironed and cleaned all the things and also did morning school runs and most of the afternoons too, cooked our dinners and entertained small boys. Then she too had to leave and I was ALONE. Unless of course you count (and I do!) 2 weeks of meals from lovely church friends - score - and uncle David (Rich's brother) offering to take Ethan to school in the morning for the rest of the term. They live on the same road as us and still have one son at the same school, so it works out pretty great. I am incredibly grateful to be surrounded by lovely friends and family.

So now I am back to by myself in the daytime, and it's not bad. I am coping ok, though it is harder to protect things from Sam when I've got Henry seemingly permanently attached.

This Thursday I had my lovely friend Harriet come to visit, bringing delicious food, clothes for Henry, and 2 baby wraps. One as a gift for me and one to borrow. Here's mine:

 And oh my goodness, it's so comfortable. Henry likes it all squishy and warm, I have my hands free and my back and shoulders pain free. Harriet also brought William, her 9 month old, who is so cute and lovely, and quite frankly, his eyelashes turn me green with envy. It was lovely as we've not seen each other for far too long considering we live 30 minutes apart!

Henry is doing pretty well, he wakes 2 or 3 times a night and the last few nights, touch wood, he has gone right back to sleep as well.

And at 2am, this is a really welcome sight.

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

Henry George Brown

He's here :) After SO much waiting and what felt like the longest pregnancy in the world, he finally arrived on Saturday 8th June at 14:53, weighing 9lbs 2oz, only one day after his due date. Though he is quite dry and flaky so I think my dates might have been a bit wrong. Plus the fact that he was BIG!

 If you're not into labour tales, feel free to skip this bit and just look at the gorgeous pictures ;)

I started with contractions at about 8:30 in the morning and they were already 5 minutes apart, so after a couple of hours we went to get checked over, though I wasn't getting too hopeful after having had 8 hours of contractions on bank holiday Monday resulting in a big fat nothing! At 11 o'clock I got examined (fun.) but was only 2cms along. There was a bit of a pow wow between the midwives as Ethan and Sam came fairly quickly so they were trying to decide whether to send me home or not, which they did with instructions to have a nice bath and ring back if it continued.

Things seemed to be easing off so I went home and hopped in the bath where things calmed down for a bit, then really picked back up again when I got back out! Rich was downstairs watching the women's tennis and suddenly realised there were similar noises coming from upstairs where I was attempting to get dressed in between lots of heavy breathing and the occasional groan/moo-like sound! We rang back and headed back in at around 1:30 and I asked to get in the pool, so I was examined again, declared 5cms and in we got. Let me tell you, that pool was absolute HEAVEN. It was so comfortable, all warm and floaty. I just hung over the side of it clutching at the gas and air which was hilarious as I lost control of my face and kept giggling my head off. 

Not long after I got in I had some meptid (like pethidine but not as strong) but within about 10 minutes I was ready to push and Henry was born under the water, and the midwives didn't even touch him, I picked him up and brought him out of the water. I even cut his cord in a last minute decision as Rich didn't want to.

The difference in the births was amazing, it just did not compare at all to being on my back strapped to an epidural. Also I won't go into detail, but there was less, er, physical trauma, this way. I can't recommend it enough. You know, as a birth option, not just for funsies. Although that great big tub would be amazing for a bath. As long as you get the super fast taps that they have, because otherwise it would take an age to fill. I digress. 

We wanted to get home right away, but Henry was breathing a little fast and so they wanted to keep us in. I really did not want to stay, when I stayed overnight with Sam I was edgy and stressed, and I didn't want a repeat. Unfortunately we had to, and it was pretty much the same, and it definitely didn't help when a student midwife came in and woke me at 3am (having only moved onto the ward at just after midnight) and wheeled him off to be measured. Only I'm not sure that's exactly what she said as I was still coming around from exhausted sleep and then they were gone. She came back with him within 5 or 10 minutes but it made me very antsy. for the rest of the night. 

Luckily we were given a quick discharge in the morning by a lovely paediatrician and we got out of there. Good job too, as one of the women in the bay was driving me mad, every time her baby woke up she was talking to him at the top of her lungs. He woke up about every hour or so and I was treated to lots of "Oh, come on darling, it's ok, shh" etc at a very loud level, that was fun at 2am.

Next came the meeting of the brothers :)

 They absolutely adore him. He gets hugged and kissed a LOT and when he cries they get very worried. Sam runs over saying "oh Henry, it's ok, please don't cry" which just melts my heart. Ethan asks if he's ok with a very concerned face. These boys slay me!

 Sam took a while to get to calling him Henry rather than baby, but now insists that he is Henry Hugglemonster - a tv cartoon character. We don't mind, we're happy to huggle him! A week on and he's slotting in pretty well, the boy aren't too unsettled by him and he's just delicious :)

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

Ethan is Five!

 To be fair, his birthday was a while ago now, oops. Unfortunately I have been absolutely wrecked since and so have not been in the blogging mood. He had a lovely day, and as it fell on a Thursday Daddy was also working from home. Extra bonus - school finished for half term the day before, so we had a lovely calm day. We started the morning with presents, and he got a main present from us, two small presents and a small one from Sam. He was chuffed to bits as he got the Ben 10 game for the Xbox, some spiderman megablocks figures and 2 more characters for his batcave - the Joker and Harley Quinn.

 He's also insane ;) I didn't realise before how much his face matches his shirt! In the afternoon we went to see his cousins and play, then home again to go out for dinner. Ethan picked Silkwood Farm which is his favourite, due to the fact that they have a large play area which includes a couple of computer games. We all like it though as the food is good and the boys can escape to play once they've had enough sitting still.

 Last Saturday it was party time, and so being 38 weeks and roughly the size of a barge (name that Disney movie) we decided to go with a soft play centre party, and a rather simple cake design! It was held at The Playstation in Ossett, and they were fab. great food, good party bags and lots of fun. Ethan was very lucky to have several friends come and spoil him with presents.

I love his face here, the little mad man. He's growing up so fast and turning into a really lovely little boy (when he wants to be of course!) and very kind. He's much better at sharing and dictated a lovely letter to Daddy for me yesterday.

He's very excited for the baby to come and is convinced he's coming this week. Not that I'd object to that! 

We've had a lovely fairly relaxed half term, Ethan has been having great fun with his new toys, and we had a couple of nice days with a really lovely sunny day on Friday, where we went to the park (though not for long as there's no shade there and the boys got a bit overheated) and popped into the shop on the way home for ice lollies. It speaks volumes about these two that this was the most 'normal' looking photo of them, and I took four! They spent the rest of the afternoon playing in the garden and making puddles when I got the hose out for them. 

Yesterday was another lovely day, where Ethan insisted that they wait for me to get up before going shopping (something usually reserved for just boys while I slowly regain consciousness) as he didn't want me to miss the animals at the farm shop. Sam was in his element, and almost exploded with joy when a horse snuffled his head. We also saw a peacock with his tail out, and fed the horses carrots, at which point I think Sam could have died happy!

As for me, I am 39 weeks and 2 days. Due on Friday. I am tired of being enormous now, though I must say I'm not exactly looking forward to evicting him! Still though, it's almost done, and I absolutely cannot wait to snuggle him :)

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

37 weeks, more nesting, and potty training.

 These are last weeks pictures, so technically 36 weeks, but let's not split hairs. Any pictures taken this week would have been in my mismatched pyjamas, so you're welcome ;) Also no matter how many times I say there's no need to have my head in the picture, there's atleast one chin too many there!

 I added this one too because it makes my legs look longer and a lot less tree-trunky! 

Last week we happened upon a free face painting stall in town, and Ethan chose the superman design. I was a little unimpressed by the woman doing it, she seemed a bit grumpy, but she had already been there for 2 and a half hours, so I gave her the benefit of the doubt, seeing as it was free and all.

 This week the facepainter was in town again and Ethan chose spiderman. She seemed a bit less grumpy this time, which was nice ;) It was extremely helpful too that many of her designs left the mouth clear, as we went off to get lunch after, and it stopped him getting upset at his smudged face.

More nesting has occurred. If this continues post baby (highly doubtful) I'll have to drop the 'Un' from my blog title! This time it was completely illogical too. I've been ironing muslins and burp cloths. Things that are actually DESIGNED to be thrown up on. I spent far too long standing at the ironing board and it made my back hurt, but they looked so nice and neat!

It won't last, they'll end up shoved in the nappy bag (I've got the free Pampers one as a temporary measure as I can't find one that I like and is not ridiculously priced) wrinkled and not even folded, to be grabbed out for feeding and absorbing of baby sick. ah, the fun bits to look forward to!

I also have some plans to shift a few bits in the bedroom today, including a couple of small dumbbells. Those will be rolled as I have previous experience with them a while ago. Rich left them in the storage box in the living room without my knowledge, and I went to move it so the boys had more room to play. It did not move. My shoulder hurt for a LONG time!

Sam is potty training. It was foolish to start now, but he got a bit of a chance to try on holiday and did really well, so we thought we'd continue. The difficulty is that we don't really have time to stay in the house for a week and really crack it, as Ethan has to still go to school and stuff! He's doing ok, and is almost 100%, if he's bare from the waist down. Add pants, and it drops to maybe 75%. Add trousers and it drops drastically. One day.

Almost no one wants to see pictures of potty training in progress (those of you who actively do, this is not the place for you, sorry. Only I'm not sorry.) so I'll show you this one of him:

There's the (clean I assure you) potty, so it's relevant. The fact that he looks like Gollum with his donut is not.

3 Weeks to go til D-Day. Baby boy is now considered full term, and I am getting nervous. I spent 2 hours awake last night between 2:30 and 4:30 after a particularly horrible dream where Sam fell out of the boys' bedroom window (he was caught by a friend luckily, and it was you know, a dream). I then worried about all sorts. The biggest worry is that I won't get to the hospital in time. They get more irrational after that, ending in me being stuck at home in labour while Rich is stuck in traffic trying to get home from work with only Ethan and Sam for company. Ridiculous as I've got a vast network of people to take them at the very least, so worst case scenario I'll be birthing at home alone, but with no little observers at least ;)

In seriousness though I did have a little worry about Rich missing it. Probably because the last thing I read before bed was a comment on facebook by my lovely friend Catherine, who said that her third was 1 hour 45 minutes from first pain to first cuddle. The boys were fairly quick, Ethan was less that 10 hours from first inkling to birth, which I'm told is quick for a first baby. Sam was about 4 and a half hours. If I'm going with that kind of pattern, this one will be a couple of hours. I'm going to put my scientist head on though and say that there isn't enough data to show any kind of pattern or correlation, so it'll be fine. I'm also going to put my fingers in my ears and say "lalalala" just for good measure.

 One final distraction then:

I've not done a video before so I hope it works :)

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