Catch up

As it's a new year, let's catch up on the other things we omitted to blog about in 2017...

Quite some time ago now I bought a shed, so we had somewhere to put all the stuff that was in the garage.
Miriam helped me choose one - but she was also quite taken by this play house! Maybe some time.

Bed is a dangerous business and needs protective gear! 

Choo choo!

 

Admiring the view from their (then new) bedroom

Naomi made a stained glass window for her bedroom

Three years ago I was taking Naomi to nursery on my way to work, and she picked up this twig for me. It's still on my desk!

Naomi photobombing a picture I was taking of Lydia

...that's better!

Now Pancake Saturday alternates with Waffle Saturday!

Yum!

Lydia is getting good at drawing - she drew her family in creche at church

Here we are

Lydia also isn't totally decided on which way up she prefers to sleep.

World's biggest strawberry! We didn't grow this one.

The girls also now like to make tents in their bunk bed.

Getting ready for the garage conversion, we temporarily rehomed some furniture in a friend's shed. Here comes the benefit of Kevin's enormous size. that's a full height warddrobe, drawers, blanket box and a parcel trolley in there, with no hassle at all. Well, I thought that was pretty good.

Our little paddling pool is no longer big enough for so many children, so we got an upgrade near the end of the summer. No doubt it'll see a bit more use in 2018.

I gather that is a campfire.

I just like the expression Esther has here 

Button jar full - treat town!

No comment :)

Starting to make use of the play room. Of course, screens already make an appearance.

Treat town! Well done Lydia.

Jay went away for the weekend shortly after Miriam's birthday. Here we are trying out one of Miriam's birthday presents. Lots of fun!

Of course the cups also double up for magic tricks. Miriam invented this one herself!

While Jay was away we had a traumatic hour where we went to the school playground with bikes and all managed to injure ourselves (except me) - snack time was instigated to bring an end to the CRYING from all parties involved.

Guess who's moved to the big table!

Hurray!

Some nice dolly play

:-)

Naomi made a microphone so she could interview Miriam. The interview was extensive and detailed. Forensic even.

More high quality drawing.

Some cool looking clouds from my office.

Treat town - McDonalds ice cream!

This picture was in my "not yet blogged" directory but I'm sure I've posted it before. Anyway, it's Miriam from just before her 4th birthday looking very beautiful.

Developmental leap frog

In the last couple of weeks the children have been trying to out-do each other on the developing front, here is my summary of all that has been going on...

Miriam grew some teeth (they are bigger than this now as the photo was taken only a day or so after they first made an appearance).  They are being well used for eating food, which is to be approved of, and chewing people which is less desirable.

Then Naomi grew another tooth, she is now the proud owner of one of her back molars, I haven't included a photo as it is hard to get a clear photo of something so far inside the mouth!

Miriam learned to roll!  Hooray! Better late than never (although, in her defence it is hard to learn to roll when your Mummy never puts you on the floor out of a realistic fear that you will be trampled on by a loving yet over enthusiastic big sister)

Here you can see she has rolled over for a snooze (as an aside, sleep still has quite some improvement to be made but Miriam is now more regularly sleeping for 5 or 6 hours at a time which is much nicer than the 2 to 3 we were subjected to for the first 5ish months of her life!)

One of the big changes in the house is that Naomi has decided she is a big girl now and doesn't wear nappies any more!  We are only a few days into this so might decide it isn't working out but she seems to slowly be getting the hang of what she needs to do.  The big problem seems to be that you need to stop playing/reading/eating/running/climbing in order to sit on the potty!

For obvious reasons I won't include a photo of Naomi on the potty but here you can see her sticker chart, she loves this! Every time she successfully uses the potty she is rewarded with a sticker and when she gets to the end of a row she gets to have a chocolate biscuit!

Today, Miriam didn't want to be outdone (again) and so spent a good chunk of time sitting unaided (with me behind her as she still likes to nosedive every so often!)

I think that's it for now (although it's enough to be getting on with!!) but here are some lovely pictures that I would love to share with you...

This is the sight we are greeted by most mornings, what a lovely way to wake up

Naomi, being two, likes things to be a particular way and the things she want things to be aren't always that obvious.  One day last week she point blank refused to leave the house unless I let her take with us this decorated paper plate (I kid you not!).

And finally, I got this photo of Miriam yesterday morning, how beautiful?

A Cautionary Tale About Co-sleeping

After a hideous night with the children a few nights ago while Sandy was away, I share with you my cautionary tale about co-sleeping which should be sung (approximately) to the tune of "there were ten in the bed".  But before I do, here is a photo that was taken at bath-time just before the night in question

There were three in their beds and the biggest one said,

"all sleep there, all sleep there."

So they all slept a while but the little one said,

"I want milk, I want milk"

So Mummy rolled over and gave some milk but the little one said,

"I'll stay here, I'll stay here"

There were two in the bed but the bigger one said,

"I want in, I want in"

So Mummy let the bigger one in, but she wriggled and she jiggled so the little one said,

"I want milk, I want milk"

So mummy rolled over and gave some milk and the bigger one said,

"HELLO" at the top of her voice

So the little one said,

"Wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah"

So the bigger one said,

"Not here, not here"

So the mummy one took her back to her bed so there were two in the bed and the little one said,

"I want milk, I want milk"

There were two in the bed when the bigger one said,

"I want back, I want back"

So the Mummy one got her and tucked her in and begged her to close her eyes for there were three in the bed when the little one said,

"I want milk, I want milk"

So we all rolled over and some milk was drunk.

There were three in the bed when we fell asleep just in time for the alarm to say

"Beep beep beep, beep beep beep"

There was no-one in the bed when the Mummy said,

"Give me coffee, give me coffee"