Dear Santa.....

It's kind of with a heavy heart that I post this picture of BB's first hand written Santa List.

We've been meaning to get round to doing it for a couple of weeks - all the groundwork had been done regarding thinking about what he would like Santa to bring with Daddy taking him for visits to the toy section in John Lewis. He spoke excitedly and animatedly about how he couldn't decide between the Lego Oil Tanker or the Police Rescue boat. Hard decision to make for a 5 year old! We were so pleased that we'd managed to avoid the console culture for another year. Or so we thought!

Big sis rather frustratingly has come for her last two visits proudly clutching her ds and it has been whipped out at every opportunity and gawped at by BB and LL. interactive play was replaced by one person sitting glued to the screen with an audience of two peeking over their shoulder. It didn't matter who was playing...the scenario remained the same - and it's for that single reason I didn't want BB to be too exposed to them. Why couldn't it have waited until after christmas?

Anyways BB came home from school today and announced that he had to write his Santa list. He was really excited about it and told me he wanted to whisper in my ear what he was going to ask for (which is what he does when he wants to tell you about something he really wants but is a bit shy about...) and my heart sank like a lead balloon when he excitedly whispered 'a DS!' it sank even more when I said to him I wasn't sure if Santa would be able to bring him that and his face fell. I told him it was quite a big thing to ask for- but that doesn't make sense to a five year old as he just explained that it was actually rather small! I told him he could put it on the list, but that he had to realise that we didn't always get all that we asked for. Why oh why didn't we do it as I said a couple of weeks ago? That way it would have been 'posted' and been unable to be altered.
He was so gracious about it though, and said that he understood that he might not get it, but could he put it on anyway? I helped him with the spelling of the words and he did all of the writing without a grumble. I did help with suggestions of what he might put on the list and we did manage to wait until number 5 before the question of the ds came up again.

With such a beautifully scribed letter and a lovely picture which he did whilst I wasn't looking, its the first time he's actually asked for something off of his own back.

How can Santa possibly shatter this little boys Christmas dreams?

Gutted, but let's see what christmas brings?

Welcome Eileen Lilly

The newest member of our family, another little cousin for the boys was born today at 3:18am, weighing in at a healthy 7lbs 5ozs. Congrats bruth and K. She's a gem.

Woohoo - sleep through!

Teeth 4,5 & 6 all make an appearance!

Getting naked for all the wrong reasons!

Lost diamond

Our last night together?

Well today I built CC's cot in his own room. It's been a job needing done for a while but one thing or another has gotten in the way. He'll not beat his brothers record of slumbering in with Mum & Dad for 9 1/2 months now...

In fact the mental preparations have begun for my baby taking the next step into independence as I'm sure that when BFS returns tomorrow from his overnight stint for work he will take great joy in removing him to his own room! It will be with reluctance on my part....

I will put him down for his daytime naps in there tomorrow so it's not too strange come bedtime. I did sit him in his cot this afternoon whilst I put the finishing touches to the rest of his room and he was pretty relaxed.

In addition - tonight I will be giving him a formula bottle when he awakens in the early hours rather than nursing to wean him off of that feed from me...BFS, I'm sure will be pleased to know that he, can also take a turn at traipsing through in the cold to settle our disgruntled boy - that job need no longer be exclusively mine!

Mummy - come and see the colour of my poo dirt!...

BB shouted as he held out his piece of loo roll which had been freshly wiped up his bum! Admittedly it had a bit of blood on it which confuddled him a bit!

I had a gushy mum evening though as I watched my 'big boy' enthusiastically writing his own Christmas cards for the first time. He even refused my offer to write the recipients names inside the cards or on the envelopes. He even threw one from leftfield when he did his sums and informed me that 14 ( no. Of pupils in the school) + 6 (no. Of pupils in the nursery) = 20. Then asked what 20-2 equals. I told him the answer, then enquired 'why minus two?' to which he replied - well you don't write cards to yourself mummy! .....duh obviously! My boy thinks of everything - and forgets nothing as he reminded me today about CC's first birthday present which apparently I purchased in August and have put up into the attic. I can only confirm the latter part of the statement - but have no doubt as to the accuracy of him being correct about the purchase date!

Coco the reluctant clown!

Poor LL, we've discovered, has spent the entire weekend traipsing around in a pair of shoes that wouldn't look out of place in a circus ring!

BFS and I have just had our first night/weekend away together in just over a year - the first since CC's birth. We had headed down to London Town with a group from BFS's work. The weekend was good, but the highlight for our boys was getting a weekend at Gran's with the usual spoiling that comes as standard. We left pretty soon after the school run on Friday and left Gran armed with a pile on instructions to tide her over for the weekend (safe in the knowledge that most would be wittingly or unwittingly ignored at some point!) the biggest blunder had to come when she went to collect LL from nursery. She wrapped him up and asked him for his shoes, to which he dutifully handed over a pair (which, to give him his dues, were the same style as his) 3 sizes bigger than his feet. In fact they were bigger than his big brothers shoes. You'd think gran might have noticed that he went to nursery donned in a pair of snow boots that morning! She put them on and LL informed her that they were too big... now this is an understatement - the shoes were hanging off of his feet! You'd think that you'd maybe look for another pair, or perhaps even ask his teacher if they were the right ones? But No! (and this is where I take offence) instead she presumed that BFS and I would send him off wearing ridiculous shoes that he can barely walk in - and then....to make matters worse doesn't then look for a different pair when they get back to the house for him to wear over the weekend.

Just to compound it, as a treat the boys were taken through to Edinburgh to visit the Winter Wonderland fair which I'm sure under normal circumstances would have been great fun, but poor LL would have had to do more than his fair share of walking in sub zero temperatures in shoes with the air circulation equivalent to a pair of flip flops with them flip flopping as he attempted to keep up with the grown ups!

She could have called....

Rant over!

well almost! A note has to be made of the poor boy from nursery who was left with a pair of shoes which were as much use to him as a chocolate teapot!