Sam's Birthday Week

 My boy is 3. THREE. Insanity. You may recognise this cake. He had the same last year. We didn't have cake candles then either, but it was sparklers then, not tealights. Bad mummy!

 That face though. So happy to have blown out candles that they could have been anything with a flame.

 He is still all about the nee naws and choo choos. ONLY MORE. Especially the trains. We got him this Thomas 'take n play' set, and mum (who came up the night before and stayed for the birthday) got him a couple of trains to go with it. Ethan chose some chuggington trains, and he was good to go. For literally days. And that's only so far.

 Today was family dinner at the Brown's house, and therefore 'proper' birthday cake was required, which was good, because atleast half of the Peppa Pig cake went in the bin. Quite frankly, it was disgusting, and tasted faintly of plastic.

 Thomas cake was requested, and I made my idiot-proof and delicious Milk Chocolate Cake. It always works and is moist and delicious, without going soggy. Proof: I made this one at 8pm after a hugely busy day and an iffy night with Henry. I put the ingredients in in a different order, because I was tired and couldn't remember what I did last time. I baked it at a different temperature by accident. I had not quite enough cocoa and added a bit of hot chocolate powder to make it up. 

It was perfect. I'm going to rename it the magic cake, because I literally cannot mess it up. substitutions, whatever. It's unstoppable in it's quest for chocolatey satisfaction.

 

 I slightly messed up my proportions with the decorations which is not unusual for me - Ethan had a race track cake 2 years ago and I managed to make the track only wide enough for one car - but I think I am getting better! And yes, that's a tiny Tardis. I had a little blue left, and what else :) Ethan thought it was great, and Sam liked it enough that as soon as he'd blown out the candles (proper ones this time, thanks to Grandma) He grabbed it off and ate it. He didn't even have any of the cake itself, just that and a tree! I also - typically - couldn't find any of his Thomas toys, so it had to be a James Cake instead.

He then had a few more presents, another Thomas that lights up and moves, and a wooden train whistle (which may disappear now and then) from Grandma and Grandad, a colouring and sticker book, and a CD and book of nursery rhymes which we've already had on and he's danced to, from Aunty Joanne and Uncle David, and this from Aunty Stella and Uncle Carl...

 I've just noticed Henry's demon eyes in the background!

It's a bull shaped space hopper! The advantage being it has four feet, rather than a round bottom, nice and stable. He's been bouncing around on it for about half an hour (about as long as you can do anything when you're newly three and have eaten a large chuck of icing) before being forced to dismount and get ready for bed.

We had a visit from the Dummy Fairy too this week. It went well... until bedtime. He didn't want his new glowy nightlight, he didn't want the fairy to take his dummies to make new ones for little babies, apparently the babies don't want his dummies. There were a few wakings that night. However he only asked once or twice the next night, and not since, so hurrah!

Three years. He still loves ears for comfort, especially now he has Henry's. He still has trouble keeping his covers on, not only himself, but his entire bed. He still curls his little body up and sometimes sticks his bum in the air in that classic sleeping baby pose. And yet he's also so grown up. He sings. He loves numbers and counting, and is starting nursery school after Christmas. NURSERY SCHOOL you guys.

 It's flown by since he was a little dot, the littlest of my three, none of whom were particularly small. He came speeding into the world with his little crop of dark hair and hasn't stopped since. We spent a few hours in hospital (a 3am birth will do that) and then phoned around to let everyone know at about 6:30 before beating a hasty retreat from the postnatal ward. We took him back to Grandma and Grandad's house to meet his big brother who adored him.

He still does, most of the time. They are wonderful playmates and well matched verbal sparring partners, though thankfully mostly the former. There's the same gap between them as between Sam and Henry, and Sam has that same adoration for Henry, it's lovely to see, the circle of brotherhood continuing. 

Happy birthday mad boy. We love your crazy dancing and mad debating skills, even if they do usually just come down to simply insisting you are right until we give up. Don't change too much my darling.

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!

Bank Holiday, and an update on me

Bank holiday Monday was a hit! We used a surprise treat as an incentive for good behaviour for Ethan as he's been a bit of a snot recently, and it worked! The surprise was a trip to the Royal Armouries in Leeds for Superhero Day. He loved it, and got to meet lots of characters. He also got to shoot a crossbow, a real one this time, and thought that was the best.

With Boba Fett

A star wars Trooper

A Jedi

Ironman!

They also had a craft activity, a musical instrument area, an artist from the Judge Dredd comic book doing a talk and helping kids draw heroes, and a talk about superhero weapons. The downside of the day was that they didn't put any kind of timetable on the website, so we assumed that the characters (including Ethan's favourite, Batman) would be in and out most of the day. We went fairly early to avoid crowds, and as a result missed Batman, as he wasn't coming until 3:30 for a demonstration of how he uses ninja skills. We also missed the talk about superhero weapons, because we spent half an hour wandering around the third floor trying to find the 'Observation room' which turned out to be a tiny room tucked away in a corner, that wasn't very well signposted. We arrived just as they were packing up and rushing off to the next thing, which was a real shame (for me!) as I saw the weapons on the trolley as they pushed it out, and they included the Portal gun :( Never mind.

Ethan and Rich spent the afternoon clearing the garden and washing the car in the sunshine. It was lovely to watch Ethan muck in and help Daddy. Sam attempted to help too, with mixed results.

Rich also managed to cut through the power cord with the hedge trimmers...twice. I managed to fix it both times, the benefits of having a dad who taught me handy stuff! 

We had good weather on Tuesday too, and Ethan was very excited to wear shorts to school :)

Look at those milky legs! inherited from his mother, unfortunately. He did however also inherit his father's ability to go brown at the slightest hint of sun, whereas I either burn, or in the case of my legs, just somehow magically stay whiter than paper.

Today is a bit grey and damp, but he insisted on shorts again. Even though he also insisted on taking his coat because it might rain.

I've been very productive this morning, demolished 2 side tables and an old tv stand and took them to the dump, hooray for a bit more space! I can now put the crib next to my side of the bed which is you know, helpful. Isn't the dump cathartic? You get to chuck stuff into massive skips and hear crashes and things breaking and all sorts, and clear your house at the same time!

Less than a month to go til due date, a month yesterday to be precise. I literally cannot wait. I might have overdone it a little at the dump, as I am very very tired right now, and it's only lunchtime :S

I had a fun pregnancy dream the other night too. I went into labour at home and ran out of time. My sister Becky delivered it (super likely, seeing as she's only in New Zealand!) and though it was totally painless, the baby had an extra head. It was slightly miniature, but a head it was. Only when I looked again it was a weird hand thing on it's shoulder. Then when I looked again it was gone, but the baby's hand (in the regular place) was all webbed. My mum appeared and said "Oh don't worry, it's too much cortizone" and wiped his hand with a wipe til the fingers were fine. Then I woke up. Like I said, fun, and not at all creepy :S

Update: I was even more productive this afternoon. I hoovered upstairs, moved the crib, and emptied it of clothes. Then I emptied out and tidied the airing cupboard. The airing cupboard for goodness sake! Then I had two bags of clothes and towels and linens that were spare (we had LOADS in there, it was like a flippin' TARDIS) to take to the clothing donation bin thingy. I also found in there a bag of handed down clothes for Ethan that we got aaaaages ago but were massive, and now he has plenty of shorts for summer! I am now thoroughly pooped, and Sam is going to have french toast for tea (Ethan is at a friends house) then we'll start the pick up run (Ethan, and Rich from the train station) showers for the boys as it'll be late for a bath, bed for them, and a collapse on the couch for me!

I didn't do nesting with the boys. It's hit me this time though. It's oddly unsettling! Still, it can only be a good thing when I actively feel the need to tidy! 

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

Harry Potter Studio Tour

We had an AMAZING time at the Studio Tour, absolutely brilliant. I went with Rich, Jess and Jonny, though I think it was a little wasted on the men!

Harry's Cupboard - This is actually right at the start, at the side of where you queue to go in. Speaking of the queue, it looked very long, but went through quickly. You go through to a sort of holding area (lol) while you wait for the group before you to move on from the cinema, but even here there are screens with pictures and a guide giving light commentary and the very few rules. Then you go into the cinema. Another little bit by a tour guide, ours was quite funny. He told us all to take the seat belts from the left of our seats and strap in. dutifully, everyone went to do it, then looked confused when they couldn't find it. He had a good chuckle! 

The short film was the only bit that I thought was a bit naff. There were nice behind the scenes clips and things, but there was a fair bit of waffling from Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint. I was eager to get on!

 Doors to the Great Hall. If it's your birthday when you go, you get to be the ones to push the doors! Then it's into the great hall, which has amazing details that you never even see in the films, paintings on the walls and carvings. It seemed much narrower than on screen, but it was amazing, and filled with costumes and all sorts. We learnt that the floating candles weren't all added digitally, they started with them all hanging from wires that were digitally removed. The candles were fake-ish - they were filled with oil that they burnt rather than an actual candle. They removed many of them though when they burned through the wires and fell on people! They still used some, but digitally added the rest.

 Neville's cardigan! They also had Harry's first robes, but I had to have a limit on photos!

 The detail on all the props and scenery was incredible, this lectern had amazing details right down to the floor.

 Ron's bed. All the bedside tables had individual touches.

 The mirror of Erised

 Gryffindor common room. All the sets had information about them nearby. One of the paintings in the Gryffindor common room is of a young professor McGonagall. You'd never know from the movies, but everything has a little back story.

 The giant clock.This was swinging, and it is HUGE. And a teeny bit ominous.

 The stairs to Dumbledore's office. This one was just the statue, but there was one built that functioned, with a 12 foot hole under it that the moving stairs came up out of.

 The door to the Chamber of Secrets. The snakes on it actually moved, when in front of it you can see the tracks. Next to it is a door from a Gringott's vault, the parts of which also moved. The craftsmanship on them was so intricate, it was so cool.

 The Black Family Tree. It's huge, it wrapped around the top of the room.

 The Marauder's Map. This was in a case absolutely rammed with props, books, Weasley Wizard Wheezes, copies of The Daily Prophet and all sorts. Including Harry's photo album from Hagrid.

 Tom Riddle Snr's grave.

 The Potter house.

 Dobby. Jess noticed that though his sack/clothes were covered in blood, there's no tear from the knife. Also I've just realised that surely by this film he should be wearing his odd assortment of clothes?

 Absolutely amazing concept art. There were walls and walls of it and it was all brilliant. When I'm a gazillionaire I'm going back to buy some.

 Giant Hogwarts at the end. Absolutely huge, and the lights change to reflect the differing lights of day and night, and little lights come on inside the windows and on little lanterns.

The time turner I chose in the gift shop. Ah, the gift shop. The snag in the brilliant afternoon. It was ridiculous. Very expensive, though that was sort of expected, no queueing system for the tills, things in multiple spots in the shop with no real order to it at all, skinny aisles, and basically no system at all. And a very grumpy woman who pushed in the queue because she was too stupid to look and see where she was supposed to go.

There was a refreshment place about halfway round selling a small selection of sandwiches and crisps and things, and there was also a butterbeer counter. It was disgusting. some kind of fruity fizzy drink with a sort of ice cream on top, only it just tasted like very cold cream. Jess liked it, I think Jonny thought it was ok, Rich refused to try it. I gave mine to Jess. But it was only £2.95, so I didn't begrudge trying it. Much. 

The tour was great, but I think I missed some bits. It's not laid out in a set way to walk around, which is good because you don't get stuck in a line the whole way, but I think it was quite easy to miss bits. I wouldn't take kids, we saw a few bored ones. I also wouldn't take anyone not particularly mad about Harry Potter, the husbands got bored and wandered off LONG before we did. 

But my sister Amy didn't get to come with us, so I'll get another chance to go. Yay!

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

WAAAH!!

So, I emailed a link to the boys halloween costumes on here to Jen of Epbot and Cakewrecks. I totally didn't expect a reply at all, as she's super cool and gets a ton of emails.

EXCEPT SHE DID! I am geeking out! And she said they were brilliant and she thinks they're her favourite Thor and Loki this year :) Love it!

That's all, except to say if you don't already check out her sites, you should! :D

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

Ethan, God of Thunder and Sam, God of Mischief!

Ta-da! I'm really please with how these turned out. I think I probably could have done better if I'd not left it so late to do, I was working on them right up until the morning of Halloween.

On to the making! Ethan's costume was quite a bit simpler than Sam's, because I already had the suit from Asda, leaving only the helmet and mjolnir (the hammer to you and me), which were very easy. The helmet started the same as Sam's, paper mache and a balloon.

 Then I used this photo (found via good old google, I think it's from the movie release posters) for reference to cut out the wings from craft foam - amazing stuff - and used my glue gun to add detail like so:

 Not too shabby! A tad wobbly, but alright for a kids costume. Then I glued wire to the back to help shape them. I could have used heat, if you heat fab foam a little you can re-form it and it'll stay in the new shape. I forgot that until after the hot glue though. You can see the wire in the next picture.

 

 You can also see Mjolinr, which was really simple. I had the cardboard tube and a small cardboard box. Hole in the box, stick in the tube. Bang, done. I also put a layer of foam on the box because it was a little bashed. Then I sprayed, which was fun til I got some on the patio slabs and could smell it all day long.

A little more glue, and the helmet was done, really really easy. The handle of the hammer I just added some dark brown foam strips for the straps and handle. Ethan later asked me to take it off as he didn't like the feel, but he kept it on for photos!

I also sewed a new cape for him as the one that came with the costume was pretty rubbish and thin, and had been hemmed so the shiny side was down. Simple enough job, buy a rectangle of shiny red fabric, hem the edges, sew on a bit of velcro at the top to attach. The suit already had velcro for the original cape so I didn't even have to bother with that.

On to Sam. His costume wasn't so much harder, but it had more details. This post shows how far I'd got with the helmet and jacket.

 Here's the jacket after a coat of gold spray paint (which I now hate) for the armour. I didn't end up putting more armour on the arms for 2 reasons - first, I ran out of time, and second, Sam had enough issues with the front piece! I used fabric glue from B&Q to glue it on, but I wasn't happy it was held on enough so added some superglue, and later used the glue gun a bit to patch it up. I had some leftover green satin fabric from making bow ties, so I cut that to size, hemmed it, put velcro on it and the jacket, and voila, another cape.

Helmet. It actually turned out easier than I thought, once I decided to make it this way. I used long thin triangles of foam for the horns to make them slightly pyramid-y as that's what they look like in most of the pictures I found, and glue gunned them in place. I looked at lots of other homemade ones, but didn't use their horn instructions as they just didn't look right. They are the place I discovered craft foam though which is absolutely brilliant.

 Then came the painting. Oh my goodness, how much do I hate the gold spray paint I used. I'm sure it was just a faulty can or other brands are better but grrrrr. The first can I used did the pieces on the jacket fine, and part of the helmet before it ran out (it was a small can). So I went and picked up another one. I don't know what I did wrong but somehow that one separated! I got some gold bits but a lot of silver bits. Either way, it looked a mess. The shop I'd gone to for the paint was in Leeds and this was the day before Halloween and I didn't have time (or the inclination!) to spend another £5 plus petrol going to get more. I looked through some shops here, no joy for spray, but in B&Q (again, awesome) I found some gold emulsion. Now, I don't know who the heck would paint their walls metallic gold, but I grabbed a tester pot and went with it. It was ok. It was drippy and took an absolute AGE to dry, but it covered the patchy awfulness.

 Ta-da again! Here also is Sam's staff of Loki, and of this I am quite proud. I tried to find pictures online but it's a pain, as he has 2 or 3 different ones in the film. I eventually found This brilliant blog post where a guy has finished his own (MUCH more professional!) staff. It gave me a great point of reference for shapes and general ideas.

I started off with a long cardboard tube again, it had previously been a sword for a knight costume for Ethan. Sam had a blue glitter and water filled bouncy ball which I thought would do well for the stone. I wanted to stick a torch inside the tube to light it up, but couldn't find one thin enough. Then I noticed on that blog that there was a sort of metal junction-y bit under the stone, and I had a torch small and thin enough for that. So...

There it is! the blade-like parts are all sprayed foam, the 2 sections under the ball are the torch. All glue gunned into place. It wasn't the neatest glue job, but again, time. I made a small cut away it the top of the tube so I could turn the torch on and off as the switch was annoyingly on the bottom end, then covered it with a flap of foam.

All in all, I'm pretty pleased with the results. I thought I might have bitten off more than I could chew with this, but it was all surprisingly simple once I'd got all the plans in my head. Sam didn't want to wear his helmet much, and it rained on us while 'trickle treating' as Ethan calls it, but we had a pretty good time anyway, and they got plenty of treats!

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

First Day at School, and a not quite so sucessful second morning.

Yesterday was Ethan's first day at school, and he was very excited! He's got a new classroom (his nursery class was at the same school) and teacher, and some of his friends are there. I asked him what he wants be be when he's a grown up. His answer this year? Batman. I suppose it's attainable, batman is after all a regular guy under all the gadgets, no superpowers!

 He's not particularly impressed that he has to sit and his table and do a pencil skills worksheet before he can play though. He gets to have lunch at school though, which he's very excited about.

He also gets to do PE. Yesterday we took his PE bag in to school and he was quite upset that he doesn't get to bring it home everyday. He came home absolutely exhausted and fell asleep in the car on the way to do the shopping, which will hopefully not be a regular occurrence! He also got a treat in the afternoon for going to school so well, a Batman jumper he's been after for a while, nicely tied in with his goals!

Today has been a different story. He was not excited, he was grumpy. My guess is he was still tired as he woke up in the night too and they are both early risers. His lunch was not right, even though he chose crackers cheese and mini sausages instead of a sandwich last night. He didn't want his coat, but then cried because his ears were cold. He wanted to be carried to school. He most definitely did NOT want to sit and do his worksheet (tracing circles today) because that would take him up til register time and he wanted to play. Because it's Thursday, Rich was working from home and so came on the school run with us, so then he was upset because Daddy had to go (not Mummy you'll notice. what am I chopped liver?!) When we left he was sitting on one of the teachers lap crying. It'll be a long day all round I fear.

Also we decided to take Sam in his reins rather than the pushchair. This was a Mistake - note the capitalisation! He normally stays in the pushchair just outside the door, but of course came in and then wanted to play. When we left, he started to scream. He screamed all the way home (sounds worse than it is, it's a 3 minute walk) and then threw himself on the floor and screamed for 30 minutes. It took cuddles from Daddy (again, he wouldn't have me - chopped liver) and his dummy to calm him down, but only when he decided.

I think today might be a 2 nap day. possibly 3 if you count Ethan, as I doubt he'll make it to bedtime. Le sigh. Oh well, perhaps they'll surprise me and it'll be fine. Perhaps I'll be blessed with massive reserves of patience today (please please!). Maybe it'll be fine. Maybe I should go and make dinner now (9:45) so that it's one less thing to worry about later. Yes, I think that's the one that will come true.

In other news, yesterday I noticed in Asda that The Hunger Games is out on DVD. In a special edition double disc with mockingjay necklace. I already have a mockingjay pin on my bag, so I don't need it do I. Le sigh nouveau.

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