Things that go bump in the night...

Or should I say toddlers who go bump in the night. I was up and down a couple of times to BB last night. Since he moved into his 'big boy bed' (of which he is very proud I must add) there have been little adventures upstairs after lights out. Footsteps can be heard scuttling back and forth above our heads as we sit downstairs!
I tried the simple 'ignore him and he'll get bored technique' but by 9pm I got the feeling he wasn't getting bored! I went up to find him removing the scatter cushions from our bed. On top of the bed was also a fully emptied container of dental floss - the curly string of which was strewn across the duvet!

Me: What are you doing?

BB: putting cushions on floor mummy!

(obviously!)

Me: Why?

BB: Don't know?

He was duly marched back to bed.

pitter patter pitter patter..........noise of water pump kicking in

(9:15pm)

Back upstairs to witness BB standing by the sink with a removable toothbrush head retrieved from my bedside cabinet under a strong flow of water.

Removal once again to bed - this time with strong lecture.

Lecture appeared to work - pat on back for me!

You'd think the late night would have at least rewarded me with a late morning - but alas no! 6:30am the bedroom door creaks......Hmmmm I'll just lie here with my eyes closed and see if sleeping mummy will prompt him to return to bed. Approx 3 mins later (with BB standing there the whole time) oooh big yawn and mummy appears to awaken. A delighted BB springs onto the side of the bed and informs me that he's 'had a good sleep mummy' - Lucky you I think to myself! I ask him to return to bed and read his books for a bit. He dutifully did so and I got a very loud (almost verbatim) rendition of one of his favourite books projected my way. I creaked out of bed most bleary eyed.

It's not very often I'm up, showered and dressed by 7am I tell you!

Notes to self:

a) look out black out blinds previously purchased for BB's room
b) Fix stair gate to BB's bedroom door (wink)

Today turned out to be a good day however, and that is judged solely on the number of tantrums that BB DIDN'T throw! We visited his friends in the morning (during which visit LL managed to smack his face off of a glass tv cabinet shelf and acquire himself a delightful swelling above his left eyebrow!) then it was round to Grandma's for lunch, I got to disappear to the hairdresser for an hour to get my hair chopped (bliss) then afternoon play with BB whilst LL had a long nap (including playing at hairdressers with Grandmas curlers!) - then off to the wholesaler with Grandma in tow. LL was really funny in the trolley with his big brother - it's the most I've seen them interact (apart from whilst playing in the house) LL thought it was hilarious to pat (well more like slap) his brother in the face! Luckily BB found it just as amusing!

We got home late, but both boys are now tucked up in bed and luckily BB is soooo shattered there has been no pitter patter above my head!

Tomorrow is Gala Day in the local village - a sight which we've never seen before so fingers crossed for good weather as I intend spending the afternoon there with the boys.

Back on track.....

Well I've decided to get my bum into gear and get back on track with the blog thing. I've been using the excuse of needing to catch up as a reason not to blog. Ooh I can't write what mundane things I did today until I remember to note BB busting his lip and moving into his big boy bed, LL starting to cruise etc. But let's face it I will probably never get round to properly noting these occasions (does that have two s's?) so there's no point in forgetting the blog because of this!

So here we are - starting from scratch with Today, and tomorrow will be tomorrow. Every so often when I get the chance I may remember to let you know about the exciting stuff which has happened in between!

Today:

Was started in the company of friends. I invited a friend with her two girls to stop over as her husband too is away at work and one of us would have had to miss a social evening with other friends had one of us had to stop in with the kids. As it was I invited everyone round here and we had an evening full of belly laughs. It's a circle of friends I'm just growing into since our move. All mums, (yup we met at the local mums and toddler group) but we managed to fill an evening discussing things other than our children - which is always nice for a change!

I digress - that was yesterday!



The company was pretty short lived - as Big girl had to be at nursery for 9am! After that BB faced the discovery that the TV was 'broken' (cough) and decided to join Mum and LL outside for some play. I managed to amuse him for some time making HUGE bubbles with a special wand. He kept insisting on holding it himself - then waving it about and 'popping' the soapy mix. Not surprisingly he got bored after a bit. He had his own mini bottle of bubbles but tipped that over too - I got the feeling this wasn't going to be the best of days! It doesn't feel as though the sun has shone much this summer so when it appeared as though the rain would hold off we stomped over to the lawn armed with a picnic blanket and a couple of toys. I got the bright idea whilst sat on the blanket to make some holes in the corners and put in eyelets so that I could use tent pegs to keep it on the ground (clever huh? - see BFS I DO sometimes utilise the trash I buy in Lidl!!!!) but on my return from retrieving my hole and eyelet punch I was faced with BB with his pants and trousers round his ankles and his willy in his hand. He was trying to pee like a grown up, but hasn't yet learnt the art of not peeing straight down. Full clobber change for him!

LL had some fun on his swing, then it was time for milk and nap.

BB loves playing the doting big brother by giving his younger sibling his milk. It is a beautiful sight to behold.



I've taken to letting him do this more frequently as the affection is obvious. It causes an incy little (who am I kidding - a HUGE) tug on my heart strings as I watch him dotingly hold the bottle for his brother.

I then got BB excited about going in to weed Daddy's veggie patch (a right royal feat) by telling him he could don his wellies
'Oooh my thomas ones mummy?'
'yes'
'I get my bucket.......'

and that was him happy as Larry for all of oooh 3 minutes? Ach I exaggerate but once he'd picked all the flowers (wild poppies) that was the end of the enjoyment for him. Until that is I found a teeny tiny caterpillar on my glove (about 6mm long) I got a leaf from the cauliflower in the fridge and found a jar to put them into. I even pierced holes in the lid so that it could breathe. He watched it for about 30 secs then informed me he wanted it out. Not to look at, but to return to it's rightful home in the veggies patch. He happily chirped 'bye' and turned his back after I laid down the leaf! Why bother?

Onto the next distraction

'Special Juice'

The other day BFS and I pulled out a juicer which I've had at the back of the cupboard for 10 years - unused. I even had to put a socket on it! We got BB excited about making his own juice - which consisted of carrots, grapes, apples, strawberries and I think a nectarine!. It was lovely - and a great way of getting his 5 a day into him (not that he needs an excuse to eat fruit.....) This process was repeated today ( along with the tedious scrubbing of the juicer which followed!) Admittedly the juice IS lovely though....



After lunch they played a great game of sticking their tongues out at each other (with additional raspberry blowing by BB! and that was BEFORE getting wiped up BFS!) after which we got BB's pedal bike from the shed and headed to the road. He did great guns on his way down our usual path, but on the return leg he swerved off the road and skidded on some gravel, landed on his side with an impressive graze on his arm. I got him straight back on again and convinced him to cycle back up to LL who was watching in his pram. He wouldn't go any further though, so I swapped his bike for the pedaless one and we went the other was to watch them lay a new bit of road.

After all those adventures, we jumped in the car to take the weeds which were pulled out the other day to the tip and a quick visit to the shops to buy milk. I returned with one sleeping beauty (BB) and another who was shattered but refused to go for a nap! AMAZINGLY Mummy managed to fix the TV just in time for sleeping beauty to awaken (at his grumpiest) so he got some viewing before dinner.



After dinner we made an indian headband for him to wear when he plays in his wigwam, he was sooooo excited about making one - but thinks it should stay on the table and not on his head. During all this time LL has been cruising around - he's taking proper crawling steps on his knees now, until he need to get somewhere at breakneck speed, upon which he drops to his tummy and commando's it in a style the SAS would be proud of. Until bathtime that is when he turns into a kamikaze fiend slip sliding his way around the bath.

Much fun - phew, who said it wasn't hard work being a full time mum?

Up the glen...

Gotta love that big toe....

How can his dad possibly question his parentage? Poor LL!

Rare glimpse of BB

It's not very often nowadays where I can take a close up picture of my biggest boy and cherish every detail of his perfect face, but here I got the opportunity when one worn out little soldier fell asleep lying on the rug in the middle of the day.

A rare treat indeed (the rest whilst he slept that is!)

Stop......Daddy time!!!!

I found myself on a little overnight trip to Manchester to see the Queen of Pop herself Madonna a couple of weeks ago. BFS was left literally holding the fort with 3 kids and a dog (my brother's mutt on vacation!)Even I haven't had the joy of that many extra mouths to look after......

Anyways I digress. The trip was great. I got to hook up with a friend and meet his family for the first time which was fab. I was fed and watered and got some time to browse the shops at my leisure. Feeling a bit guilty about leaving them all I got each child a little gift (even BFS got a treat from his favourite Hotel Chocolat)

Through my own blatant stupidity I missed my flight home!!! (Another story for another day) My heart did stop beating for a split second as I thought about how my loving husband would surely blow his top at me being such a dizzy moo, but I managed to get on another flight the same evening - so at least made it home to see 3 smiling faces at the breakfast table as they received their little pressies from Manchester!!!

Boy racer.....

Phew once again I'm missing the good stuff! Instead of sharing my swollen with pride heart story on our Big Boy's achievement of riding his pedal bicycle a the tender age of 2 (and 10 months) I'll direct you over to his dad's blog about it instead.....

www.bletheringdad.blogspot.com/2009/07/i-want-to-ride-my-bicycle.html

I will however let you see the boy in action!

I Heart Faces - Feet week

LL - just out of the neo natal unit - 3 days old. With Mums feet!

To see many more feet pics - pop over to Iheartfaces.blogspot.com and check out other entries.

Mair Teeth Than a Ferrari Gearbox

LL has 4 now! 2 new ones on the top.

Oh, and he is pulling himself up to standing all on his ownsome too.

Big boys, big beds.....

Both of our boys upgraded their sleeping arrangements today. One with much more gusto than the other (who to be honest was completely oblivious to his changed surroundings - he had his pillow to snuggle into and that's pretty much all he cared about.......(LL))

As for his big brother - well - how much excitement can one 2 year old handle in the space of 5 minutes???

He had left the room before the converted bed had been dressed with a new duvet and pillow (neither of which he'd had before) and upon his return his little face was grinning from ear to ear! He fell upon the bed, then climbed under the blankets, lay with his head on the pillow to test that out, then 'read' his books in bed to make sure that was good too. Boy was he chuffed.

I just hope he doesn't fall out tonight!

Daddy even convinced him that now he's a big boy and he has a special pillow and quilt, that he now doesn't need his comfort blanket as that's for babies. He kindly donated it to his little brother and went and put it in his cot.

It's always steps forward with children. Never ones back.

As one of my heroes Ferris Bueller once said-