What To Do Over the Summer Holidays

1. Let your imagination run wild. Play hide and seek with dinosaurs.

2. Smile. Be happy and make the most of the sunshine while it lasts.


3. Sit and contemplate the mysteries of life, love and happiness.

4. Spend some time in the outdoors. In the sun. In your favourite Lightning McQueen jacket.

5. Be brave. Adventurous. Do your best to enjoy it.

Oldest and Littlest

Aren't my boys lovely? For me, these two photos seem to capture Oldest's and Littlest's own personalities perfectly.

Nothing else to add today. My assignment is finished and has been sent off to my tutorial. Phew, that really is a load off my mind.

More of the boys..

I know it's been a bit heavy on the posts involving the boys lately, but you'll have to put up with one more today, especially as I have been doing zero reading lately. I did, however, go to the library today so things are looking up. But first, here are two photos that were taken at a birthday party last weekend.



It's not a great photo, but look at Littlest standing so confidently. He'll be walking soon. I've been saying that for about 4 weeks, but he will. It will be soon. I have mixed feelings about it all. Obviously, it's a good thing for him, it'll be a lot less strain on my back from not lugging him around anymore, but it's also his baby days gone. Oh I will miss the cuddly baby days.



Here's Oldest. I hate to see him like this. He's usually so sure of himself and not shy with strangers, but only with some preparation. He likes to be told things in advance so he knows what to expect. For some reason, that didn't happen this day. The birthday party was sort of sprung on him at the last minute and here's Oldest indulging in a little hiding-behind-Mama's-legs. He's never been what you'd call a Mama's Boy, but he's been turning into one lately. AND he's taken to actually calling me 'Mama' which makes my heart melt just a little bit each time I hear it.

Doing Something Different: Days 4, 5 and 6

Hopefully I'll never get this far behind again! I've been playing catch-up in so many areas of my life. This blog, the laundry and cleaning of the house, uploading photos for family members. Once I've caught up with my blog reading, all will be well. Maybe. Well, I hope so.

Day Three - N has been trying to sort out a dinner with some friends for ages. Let me give you some perspective here. One particular couple that came to the dinner was engaged the last time we met up with them. Now, they're married and have a 7 month old baby. That's how long it's been. We really needed a night out to catch up with friends and eat some good food. We left the boys with N's mother and went to a Thai place in Reading and it was wonderful. Good company, wonderful pad thai!

Day Four - This day was wonderful. We spent the morning doing some much needed gardening for our back yard. It's really coming together out there. I'm going to love it when it's all finished and child-friendly. Then we spent the afternoon at one of Oldest' closest friend's birthday party. Fun was had by all. But I don't count the gardening as something different as N and I started doing the garden up before April, and we always go to birthday parties. So I decided to have a movie night with N. It didn't exactly go as planned.

First, there was no popcorn. Second, N fell asleep and I watched the movie on my own. Be Kind Rewind with Jack Black. It was OK. Movie night did not go exactly how I pictured it in my head, but again, I tried. It'd be nice to make it a regular thing. When the kids go to sleep, we usually watch TV programmes - when I'm not reading, studying or using the computer to update my blog! And we have so many new movies that we haven't seen yet... we need to make more time for this.



Day Five - (finally something I can take a photo of!) We went to another local park, this time California Country Park. There's a large playground here as well as a lake to walk around. We stayed mostly in the playground on the slides with a picnic blanket. We were meant to be meeting up with a large group of people for the weekly NCT coffee afternoon, but it ended up being just us and one other woman and her two children. That was OK. Oldestjust wanted to run around somewhere new and occasionally kick his football around. We got quite a few photos of him being silly but they came out blurry :( When we left, Oldest said 'can we come back here tomorrow, I had lots of fun!' That, folks, is why I'm doing this project.



Oh, what will the rest of the month have in store for us...?

Doing Our Bit..

..for Red Nose Day! Elliot and the rest of the children at his pre-school were asked to dress up last Friday and then the children put on a fashion show for their parents! It was very cute and Elliot was so sweet. He walked in front of everyone and then ran to give me a hug! My sweet, adorable little boy.

N stitched the ribbon and button onto Elliot's cape, and I crafted the mask together. I think the combination of the two worked quite well together!

Day Out With Thomas

Over the weekend, we went to see Thomas the Tank Engine at Didcot Railway Centre. Elliot is mad about trains at the moment. His love for Thomas might even surpass his love for Lightning McQueen.



He amazes me with how much information he's picked up from watching the show and reading the books. He knows about steam and funnels and coupling rods and signals.



I was a little worried that he would be a little overwhelmed by seeing such large engines in person, like he was when we 'met' Lightning McQueen, Mack, Sally and Mater (did I ever tell you about that one?) but he wasn't. He had a silly little smile on his face when he saw Thomas and Duck and Percy and Diesel (see, I know their names too)!



We really had a great day. It was nice to have us all together, the weather was great. Even Joshua had a fantastic time. He's such a lovely little boy and he's no fuss at all when we take him places, even when his sleeping and feeding schedules are all mixed up.



I really hope that we've given Elliot some wonderful memories and that he'll be talking about this for a long time to come...

I Feel Incredibly Lucky

..That they're both so happy and healthy. That's they're sweet boys, if a little mischievious. That they get on so well with each other. That they're so bloody GORGEOUS. That they're mine.

Elliot's haircut

Before...



...And after.





It's a major change. I'm already regretting it. His wild hair always just seemed to accentuate Elliot's fun personality. When N came home he said he was sad that Elliot's curls are gone. My mother-in-law seems heartbroken. It had to be done. Please tell me that those beautiful curls will grow back.

Overheard

Elliot to the family friend/plumber who came over to look at our radiators:

Here is my room! Here is my bed! Here is my teddy! Here is my books and my garage! Here is my wardrobe... here is my curtains! ....

(this carries on for a few minutes, until finally)

Elliot to FF/P:

Here is my toothbrush! And my toothpaste!

At which point, Elliot unscrews the toothpaste lid and shows the poor man his toothpaste and I had to step in and usher Elliot into a different room of the house because, seriously, child? Your toothbrush?

Three years, One Month and Twenty Odd Days, or 'Why can't she take a hint?!'

I've mentioned it ten zillion times already and no one seems to be impressed by it at all, but I've taken photos of both of my sons every day since they were born. I've tried to capture everything, the good days, the bad days. Oldest and then Littlest, sleeping, crying, laughing, playing with their favourite toys, with their friends, eating, learning new things.

I like to look at the photos and remember that for a few weeks, Littlest's favourite toy was a blue spaceman that he'd clutch for dear life and that Oldest would concentrate really hard when he was playing with his wooden train set. I've always believed it was the details, the small over-looked things that when you add them all is what makes a life special.

I've enjoyed my photos-a-day. I have. But it's time I took a hint, really. After days and days of photos like the above, where Oldest covers his face, turns away or hides. When everytime I pull the camera out he yells 'NO PHOTOS MOMMY, NO PHOTOS' So for his sanity, I will stop. Photos every day will continue until Littlest hides or covers his face (may that be years from now), but I will no longer include Oldest in this particular brand of parent-child torture.

It won't feel the same.

First Day at Preschool

Did I mention that Wednesday was Elliot's first afternoon at pre-school? N took a half day especially for it. We knew that Elliot seemed excited to go, but we weren't sure how he'd take the idea of us leaving him there. We all walked there together, waited until the doors were open, I took off Elliot's coat and hat and gloves and then he just ran off... he had this silly little grin on his face the entire time he was there. I had to go up to him in the middle of playing and tell him I was leaving. He gave me a hug and said 'I love you' but I could tell he was so much more interested in this new place than he was in me leaving. Which is a good thing, it's great that there was no difficult transition period. But it didn't stop me from being a little teary-eyed all afternoon. When I got home, I curled up on the sofa with a blanket and put a movie on to try to distract myself from the fact that my little boy is so grown up.

On Elliot's birthday party

We held Elliot's birthday party at our house on Saturday. We did have to limit the number of guests being at our house but we thought we could squeeze one more party in before we had to hire a hall. We always have too much food and too many decorations, and Elliot was absolutely thrilled so all the work and effort we put into it was definately worth it.

There was just one thing that annoyed me that day. And I will admit to crying. One of the mothers of the children we invited called up ONE HOUR before the party to say her son (Elliot's 'best friend') wasn't feeling well and they weren't going to make it. Oh I was annoyed. A mutual friend told me the day before that this boy was not feeling well earlier in the week, so why didn't the mother call me a few days beforehand (even the day before!) and say 'T is not feeling very well, if he still isn't better by Saturday, we won't be able to make it' or even Saturday morning when T has obviously woken up still not well, why not call me then? Why not do both? Why call an hour before the party to cancel? Why?

This is Elliot's best friend.. he had been saying 'T is coming to my birthday party' all week. If I'd known, I'd have prepared Elliot beforehand that T might not be coming. So, yes, I did start crying, thinking about Elliot being disappointed (god, I hate it when my child is disappointed or let down by other people), but then N came home and said not to be upset when other people do not live up to our own high standards. And I did feel a bit better and truthfully, Elliot was fine about T not coming. He danced and laughed and ate and had a great time. Me? I'm still slightly annoyed. Do you think I overreacted? What would you have done?