Our Tribe

Our Tribe

Friday 23 November 2012

The hills are alive

I am enjoying the vibe so much more now that we are all recovered on our colds and ear aches and coughs. It is such a joy to watch Bean and Pumpkin play together again. Today's game largely revolved around the train sets and each being assigned a different area, the yard, the quarry, the repair shed.

Bean also drew a plan of a boat that he was going to make. He drew all the things he was going to need and what it would look like when he had finished. He then set about making it by gathering all the things he needed from his list and started making it. It needed some improving along the way and he has only had time to paint half of it but I really enjoyed watching him go through the process.

The afternoon was a trip to town (still no phone) and an extra gymnastics class which tired us all out but makes the whole evening rhythm later so bean was over tired by bath time but we had bought glow sticks and the boys were looking forward to a glow in the dark bath...which was much fun and exciting.

Plum has completely lost any rhythm she had going on and didn't eat or breast feed or sleep all day she finally gave in on the way home from gymnastics and fell asleep in the car and then in the song for an hour. She did eat dinner and has had one milk feed. She is now on her way to bed. Pumpkin is enjoying a viewing of cars for our Friday evening family film.

Thursday 22 November 2012

Have a nice day

We are back on form today :) Bean got up after only a slightly disturbed night (up twice) and after trying a breakfast unsuccessfully ploughed headlong into the day with track building for racing cars and train track lines too. Pumpkin joined him and they played together for nearly two hours with pumpkin taking a few breaks to go and repeat some of the puzzles he has been working on recently. Plum woke at 8.45 giving us plenty of time to get our things together and go out too. A little cautious, we went to a crafty group just in case bean lost his powers and needed to rest. But....he made an angel and a food craft and some scratchy art and cutting and sticking and he played in the soft play. Pumpkin did the food craft (obviously) and then played with the toys and in the soft play. Plum enjoyed taking it all in from the comfort of the sling and then had a wander around, again straying quite a distance even to the point where she couldn't see me, although I did note that she could see her brother and frequently turned to look at him.

The boys played for another couple of hours when we got home whilst plum and I did some chores and she had a feed and a nap in the process. Lunch was interesting as I hadn't done a food order this week and the cupboards are running low especially as we haven't made it to the shops either.

After lunch friends came to play. We had talked this through earlier today but Bean insisted that he felt okay and they had a lovely few hours with their friends enjoying a larger scale role play game involving rescuing a queen and fighting a king, there were lots of dressing up items involved plus all their bedding and bean bags and the emptying of the upstairs toy box. There was also some clay models and play dough, colouring, trains, racing cars, building bricks, Lego and a repeat of a game they made up the last time they visited called 'cuckoo.'

Needless to say this busy day wore Bean out and Pumpkin too (hurray!) Normal service seems to have resumed although I don't think we'll venture too far tomorrow just in case full energy reserves have not been replenished. Plus, much to my liking, there was very little iplayer and computer games today.

Wednesday 21 November 2012

Why why why?

No phone = no photos :(
Ear infection = stay at home :/
Confined Pumpkin = not good :0

We are at home again. Bean is fighting his ear infection by sleeping a lot on and off. Yesterday saw him go to bed at 5pm and he woke this morning at 8am. He then tried to eat some breakfast but ended up drinking a lot of milk instead, built himself a train track and then took himself back to bed at 9.30am. After two and a half hours rest/ sleep he came downstairs. Unfortunately he was upset because he had banged his poorly ear on the side of the bed. He recovered with some tlc and a change of clothes and...

Pumpkin had been busy making fruit juice ice pops and butterfly cakes to cheer Bean up and make him feel better. The butterfly cakes were ready just as Bean joined us so we ate cake and drank some more. It was lovely to spend an hour with Pumpkin just us.

Plum didn't wake until 10.45 today. She refused a morning milk feed and ate pancakes for breakfast and happily played around our feet as we made cakes. She has spent the rest of the day eating! Milk feeds and toast and baked beans and oranges. The playing happily has steadily been replaced by needing lots of cuddles but refusing to go back to sleep. She has been tired now for nearly two hours and has just gone to sleep.

The large amount of watching has continued today but Bean has spent all of his time downstairs lying on the sofa. We're sure that the ear ache is due to his cold virus and not an infection so we are trying to let it take its natural course.

Last night I was part of an upsetting conversation with some other mums (who I didn't know) and how they are trying to get their respective children to sleep through the night. A combination of Not feeding them, smacking them and shouting at them before closing the bedroom door on them. How upsetting to be that stressed about sleep. Lack of sleep really does push people to do the strangest things. And as if to remind me how rubbish sleep deprivation is I was up three times with Bean in the night, once with Pumpkin and up feeding Plum at 7am, although I still didn't resort to threats, punishment or withdrawal, it was tiresome and tiring. 




Tuesday 20 November 2012

O sit down

Still no phone, still no photos.

We made it out again this morning. I have taken to going to places in the morning (as Bean seems a little happier and more energetic in the mornings) but finding places that he can hide in a quiet corner and rest if needs be whilst pumpkin and plum play. This morning we joined friends at a new toddler group in town, so it's quiet...just the way I like it!

Bean found some puzzles to do and pumpkin tried out every toy and activity they had put out. Plum happily crawled around and around and wandered much further from me than I remember the boys doing at that age but that might just be my memory.

Post lunch has seen the tv on again and I have taken the opportunity to tidy the crafting area and other dumping grounds. Plum has gone to sleep for a while and I am sitting with the boys whilst they watch some more.

Bean continues to struggle with his ear but seems to be fighting it, he is very washed out though :(

Dance to the rhythm

Monday 19th November

We attempted to go to gymnastics today but as Bean spent the whole of Little Verse lying down on a chair in the corner he quite clearly was not going to make an energetic hour of gymnastics, so we came home. Pumpkin and Plum had a lovely time singing rhymes together and doing row row row the boat. Pumpkin spent a long time carefully colouring his picture and Plum had a long cuddle with SGS.

Lunch was pre made by daddy before he went to work this morning (thank you daddy) and then the boys spent the afternoon watching iplayer. There has been more watching recently but Bean really has no energy for anything else so it seems the easiest choice for him. Pumpkin just sits with him and it's hard to entice him away. Plum happily crawls around and plays with whatever she comes across.

Bean took himself off to bed at 7pm with no stories or pre bed cuddles :( poor poorly boy but this gave Pumpkin half an hour of solo stories and cuddles before he went to bed. Plum only slept for half an hour in the middle of today, although she didn't get up until 10am, but this ment that she too was asleep by 7.30 and left daddy and I with a solo evening! ...making Christmas presents!

Monday 19 November 2012

At the end of the day

Saturday 17th November

We took advantage of grandma and pops being here today and whilst they played with the children we cleaned and organised the house a little. It was nice to get back to a little organised, although it took us all day and is still not complete! I feel we may chase our tail with this for many years to come. There is always some pile of stuff that needs washing, compiling, returning, putting away, cleaning, fixing, altering, filing, making, selling, moving on. In this house these things all come second to caring for and being with our children. Consequently we live in a hovel...well, it's not that bad but four of us are in the house day in and day out and it makes for a lot of tidying up which doesn't always get done. Fortunately daddy does more than his fair share so we just about manage to stay afloat and not disappear under piles of laundry and paintings left to dry or dirty dishes.

Bean and pumpkin have made birthday cards with grandma and Bean has fallen asleep on grandma's lap complaining of an ear ache.

Promises promises

Sunday 18th November

Church day and mummy and daddy both running Sunday school. I did the rainbow as God's reminder not to flood the whole earth again and we painted a large rainbow onto backing paper. It was colours mixed together and looked very effective. Pumpkin then choose to colour his own rainbow.

Bean was adamant that he wanted to go to church this morning even though he is clearly still suffering with ear ache but we took him with us and anticipated an early exit but he struggled on through and even mustered some energy for the birthday event this afternoon. He had planned and made a piƱata and pass the parcel and requested musical statues as well.

Grandma made a lovely lunch for us all and an amazing chocolate cake and friends gave us a Skype call mid afternoon which was great too. Pumpkin got very upset that he didn't win musical statues but he just can't stay still! We gave him a prize for best dancer.

We ended the day with bean requesting to go to bed at 6pm, shortly followed by Pumpkin.

Friday 16 November 2012

Surprise surprise

I got up at 9.45 this morning, not to be mistaken for sleeping until 9.45 but grandad did phone before I got up and Bean answered and took a message, I was very impressed. I cooked myself bacon and eggs for breakfast and the boys had some too. Plum woke up at 10.30.

Bean and Pumpkin had entertained themselves with their own version of angry birds using bricks and toy plastic animals, building their own structures and placing the animals on it. The also built vehicles with the Lego and took photos of their creations for many different angles.

We went into town to do a few jobs and managed to find a few bargains as we went round, new colouring pens and some craft bits and pieces and new shoes for Bean. I have been aware that Pumpkin's shoes are too small and I have been asking him if he would like his feet measured every time we go into town but he has declined. Today Bean said he wanted his measured and I thought this might encourage his brother so I agreed. As it worked out Bean's feet have grown 2 sizes and so have Pumpkin's. New shoes all round but there was a sale on so all well and good. It was slightly funny when the sales assistant asked what we were looking for and I replayed 'anything he wants' and he said, 'you'll be needing school shoes though?' I smiled :) no thanks. Although having said this the last pair of shoes that Bean choose happened to be school style shoes. This time he went for trainers.

We had a very late lunch but I had put potatoes in the oven to bake as I knew we would need warming up. This was followed by a quick tidy up and off to gymnastics class for Bean. We are making up a few missed session and have to join a regular after school group to do it. It was awful. Crowded. Busy. Noisy. Bean had no idea what was going on in the warm up when they all started running around (playing stuck in the mud) and he had a very worried stressful face on him. Then some of the other children told him he shouldn't be here and they split into smaller groups and he was left aimlessly wandering around trying to work out where he should be. When he finished and we were reunited I asked him what he thought of the different class and he said he loved it, bouncing with big beaming smile! So glad I hadn't voiced my opinion first. He was so proud of himself for not being shy and telling them his name and he said they played a running around game that he didn't know so he just ran around anyway! He also told me about the children who said he shouldn't be there and how he had responded by explaining why he was there.

Home for a late dinner with daddy and into pyjamas so that we can watch a film all cosy on the sofa (Pumpkin's idea) Secretly hoping all the smalls are asleep by 9 so me and daddy can watch a film together and  eat chocolate.

Happy birthday me :)

Wednesday 14 November 2012

Home again, home again

I had some unexpected time with just the boys this morning. First Pumpkin disappeared so that he could indulge in his recent love of puzzles. Bean wanted to know how to write blue tit, millipede, beetle grub and heron. Did you know that it is impossible to separate reading, writing. And speech development, that one greatly impacts and draws on the other? It is so pleasing to have the freedoms to let them develop naturally together but even more astonishing than that I had an ingenious idea (doesn't happen that often) So, here it is: we have had to remove the magnetic letters from the fridge since Plum is now on the move and they have been sat in a tub for w few days now. Today I put them in an old metal biscuit tin and we picked out the sounds and letters we needed to make the words and put the onto the lid. Bean now has his own tin of words and letters to play with. Genius (well, I thought so and it works for us.)

This was followed by Bean wanting to write the words out so I left him to it and went to find Pumpkin who let me help him with his puzzles. We did one of them three times.

I woke Plum at 12noon so that we could go to the farm shop. She had slept since 9pm last night with one milk feed at 8.30am when she promptly went back to sleep. The lady in the farm shop is kindly fitting in with the drill now and knows that the boys always have something to pay for and tells them how much and gives them their change and their receipt. I really appreciate it when other adults engage with the smalls in this way, it is too rare a thing.

Lunch was followed by Bean drawing a picture and requesting to send to it to some relatives who we rarely see. We posted it on the way to the playground. The boys both rode their bikes but it proved to be too much for Bean who spent the whole time yelling at his brother and using him like a punch bag. It had been Pumpkin's request to go out and I was glad of it on such a lovely day and having been at home for so many days in a row but I had to call an end to it even though Pumpkin insisted it was okay, it wasn't.

Rest is seriously under rated these days. The smalls are far more in tune with when they need to slow down or maybe it's just that they listen instead of dosing up on meds and carrying on. Bean is still suffering with his cold and the journeying out wore him out entirely. Plum continues to suffer with her cold too and it probably explains her need to sleep so much (not that I'm complaining, 2 nights in a row with 8 hours sleep for me. That's only 2 out of three since she arrived and doesn't include the sleepless pregnancy nights!) I'm still in the position of trying to balance this out with Pumpkin's need to excercise and go for a ride.

Needless to say the remainder of the smalls day consisted of Plum sleeping in the sling whilst I did chores and dinner and the boys watching iplayer. Post dinner was board games and bath before both boys headed to bed about 8 and Plum cuddling all evening before going to sleep about 9.30.

Monday 12 November 2012

The Prince and the Pea

So, it transpires that I need some fresh air!

Another day at home and relatively calm, playing games and watching iplayer and pretend cooking with freshly made play dough  and den building and torch light investigations and searching the kitchen for items that are smaller than a pea that you can eat (Bean's idea after announcing that he knew what the smallest thing you can eat is (a pea) and me setting him the challenging to see if he could find anything smaller, so far there are 21 items stuck to a piece of paper and we still have 2 cupboards to go)

Pumpkin is showing signs of getting better and needing some exercise or maybe just to leave the house. He got himself dressed about 5pm and put his Wellies on to go into the garden. This was after he spent an hour running around in circles in the living room. It was cold and wet and dark so he settled for a game of hide and seek, unfortunately Plum is not that good at hiding, always crawling away or making a noise.

Plum has slept on and off all day and fed on and off all day and not been further from my side than 10cm! She really is suffering the most it of all the smalls :( She spent the night shoved right up next to me too, poor mite.

Sunday 11 November 2012

On the seventh day, He rested.

Bean was the first awake this morning, up at 7am. This was followed by daddy at 9am! Daddy went downstairs to find bean resting on the sofa and Pumpkin asleep on the sofa. Mummy and Plum had had a restless night and daddy woke me with a cup of tea at 9.30am. Pumpkin woke about 9.30 and plum woke at 9.45. Still all full of cold.

Daddy hurriedly got himself together and went to church solo whilst the rest of us stayed at home for more resting. Bean built a den and played in it for an hour, I helped Pumkpin to build one too and put it next to Bean's in their bedroom. This was followed by a long lay down and some tv.

We had a very late lunch and plum had a brief sleep, her cold is really preventing a good sleep atm. The boys had accumulated enough energy to go out this afternoon and we went to t@4. We were out for 2 hours, needless to say it wiped them both out and after eating dinner both went to straight to bed.

Plum had another brief sleep and is having a cuddle with daddy as I type, in the hope that this will be a bigger, all night type of sleep...not hopeful!

How low?

Saturday 10th November

A new low has occurred...all three smalls have a rotten cold and there is very little activity going on just lots of rest. We did take them out this morning for tea and cake. Bean ate very little of his cake and Pumpkin ate many cakes (not one to lose his appetite)

I took Plum with me to a friends birthday afternoon but didn't stay long and came home to find boys resting on the sofa, Pumpkin asleep.

We had a late dinner and a family evening in front of the tv. Plum went to sleep at 8.30, bean at 9.30 and pumpkin at 10.30 all with oils under their pillows.

Ps. Still no photos as my returned phone is not working so is back at the phone doctors

Friday 9 November 2012

Miss Polly had a dolly

So, it becomes apparent today why this week we have not ventured far (other than the change in seasons) ...plum had a very tossing and turning night (to the point where she fell out of the bed) and woke very unhappily at 10am after 14 hours asleep, Bean is full of cold and Pumpkin has a sore throat...I am fit and well PTL.

This has meant another day at home. Plum has slept mostly after waking for an hour at a time and eating and nursing. The boys have spent a long time playing with apps and I have read a lot of stories with Pumpkin. Bean found one of the body books from the library and asked to do one of the activities so we have drawn our organs today and put them in the right place on his body.

All three smalls have been in pyjamas all day.

Home is where the heart is

Thursday 8th November

Plum slept the longest she has yet without waking for a feed and no tossing and turning as she has been doing lately due to her cold. A good night sleep all round, worth mentioning because with three smalls in the house and one insomniac it's a rare thing.

Another at home date, well, we did venture to town to collect my phone (so there might be photos tomorrow) and a visit to the library.

Bean found some books on the body and choose some story books too. Pumpkin played on the computer. Plum emptied the shelves!

I spent some time with Bean this morning making a guitar which he then gave t o Pumpkin and then spent some time playing guess who? With Pumkin.

Wednesday 7 November 2012

I want to play the game with you

who would have thought it? We're getting quite into the groove of staying at home. We did venture out the front door today though. Plum woke earlier than usual which was unexpected as she didn't go to bed until after 10 last night but it meant that we were all up and busy by 9... Although the boys had been up much earlier than this as is usual.

Most notably today the brothers have been getting on really well. You know you have those days when you hear your own voice when your children speak? And it's usually something that makes you cringe? (I would give some examples but I don't want to give myself away entirely!) well, today was sort of the same except opposite. After years of mediating and providing frameworks for discussion and modelling thought processes, today, today, for no reason I can see that is special, we had a whole day of...
'can I go first?' 'yes, you can' 'thank you'
'I don't want to watch that' 'ok. How about we watch ...' 'that's a great idea, let's do that'
'if I go first on the way there, then you can go first on the way back. Do you promise not to push past me?' 'I promise' (and he didn't! )
'would you like me to help you, mummy?'
'I'll get the spoons' 'I'll get the bowls'

You get the idea. And I'm not even exaggerating. It really is nice to have such a lovely day, listening to your children get along and cooperate.

Monday 5 November 2012

It's a Mystery

Okay, so sometimes blogging on a Monday can be more of the same old same old and as I don't have to put any effort into preparing for Mondays I wonder if there is any new learning going on?

I was asked today by someone very dear to me what we were doing at home with the boys? I'm never quite sure what answer people are expecting especially when they know us so well and know what we're up to most of the time but I took the idea, as I do most times I'm asked this sort of question, that they mean either, when do you sit down and teach your children? Or, What do you sit down and teach your children. And so I take the mandatory deep breath (deep breath for me) and began by explaining that 'we don't follow the traditional school route and therefore don't use a specific teaching programme or curriculum and don't timetable our day in the way that a school does.' Pause....to judge response...All seems well, person in question seems to have computed information without any technical hitches...I continue. 'We spend our days out and about or at home and learn from the world around us, the children have a large say in what we do and what they want to do which at the moment includes a lot of bike riding, playground visits, meeting friends and family, exploring places of interest, crafting, crafting, crafting and watching iplayer.' pause again... 'Oh' is the quiet response 'I don't know much about how it works.' Which is a very gracious response and one which I did not feel requested a response with more information about our lives at this point (as I said, it was someone that I do know well and see frequently so we can pick it up at a later date if they come back to me after processing this information)

So back to the original question, what have we learnt today? Clearly I don't know. Too much for me to observe, too much to write down, and too much that I haven't even noticed that my children are busy processing in their brains as they sleep. Maybe that's a cop-out but that is the way it is and as I haven't sat down with an educational game or worksheet for them to do I have little paper evidence of their development from one stage to the next but I do know that they are busy learning, all the time.

Sunday 4 November 2012

In Christ Alone

Church day bought around daddy leading the service today and me sitting with three smalls on my own. They were all great. Pumpkin sat with a slightly older boy and ate and drank and played with the toy quad bike he had bought with him, bean flicked through the song book and played with the toy quad bike and truck he had bought with him and Plum sat and emptied my bag. After the boys went upstairs for their classes, Plum had a feed and fell asleep for the message, as is becoming the routine- in fact it is the only thing in her life that I can say is routine, her Sunday morning church snooze.

The afternoon saw us all huddle together and watching tele and Bean announcing that, 'this is nice, all of us together' which made my heart sing. It was nice and just as Sundays should be :) daddy also took a sleep with Plum. They have had a lovely father and daughter afternoon to the point that I realised she hadn't had any milk for several hours and even though she hadn't asked for any I thought i'd offer and she guzzled away. It was definitely a daddy day.

Feast and famine

Monday 29th October

A slight change in routine today as it's half term so our baby rhyme session was not on. It also meant that gymnastics was a little earlier. We cycled, as is becoming our habit, and we stopped off in town on the way. We also played, but only briefly, in the park afterwards too and went to one shop on the return home.

Bean finds it hard to find a good point to eat on Mondays. He might have a little something before gymnastics but then gets carried away with play park fun afterwards and usually doesn't eat the bulk of his lunch until he gets home. It's the only day he goes so long without food and I'm not sure how he does it as most days he seems to eat constantly all morning.


Where are you?

Saturday 27th October

Our adventures today took us on a family walk, well, the boys rode their bikes. Daddy wore Plum in the sling and daddy and I actually got to have an uninterrupted conversation...a proper adult one :) I'm thinking this might be the way forward if me and daddy are to find any spare time to talk to each other.

The rain came on and off but dispite this we walked for over an hour. Most notably we found a lost dog. We managed to read the numbers from the collar and daddy used his belt as a lead. The phone numbers were not answering but we had just passed a gentlemen who was searching for the dog and new he had headed in the other direction. I took Plum and the boys back to the car and daddy tried to find the owner. Unfortunately the dog escaped again.

Update: the owners have since let us know that the dog had run home and is safe and sound.

Each Peach Pear Plum

Tuesday 30th October

A trip to see favourite auntie #1 and cousin B today. Bean and Pumpkin played all day with cousin B, a boys heaven of Lego, train set, hide and seek, skateboarding, remote control cars and mario cart. Consequently I didn't see them very much!

Plum and I spent the day with FA#1 mostly talking with Plum mostly crawling about and emptying bags. She has also taken up waving and clapping as a general entertainment and performs to whoever will look her way along with her general smiley pose for every passer by. After an hours sleep in the car on the journey there she didn't sleep again for the next 7 hours until we got in the car again to come home. She then woke up when we arrived home and spent the evening with us.

Into the mix

Wednesday 31st October

An at home day. These are becoming more frequent Audi am enjoying watching Bean manage his own day and taking up the new vibe of being home more. A lot of the projects that he has started and left half done in various places around the house are being resurrected. Today he varnished/glazed his clay jug he I made at Amberley Museum and has put it aside to dry until tomorrow when he will paint it (that's the plan, anyway)

We had a friend come and play for the day and the weather cleared in the afternoon and we all cycled, scattered and buggied our way round the corner to the park for a stretch of the legs. The three smalls all played together well and Plum and I sat and watched. The dynamics between the boys often changes when another is added into the mix or if we are out with a group but today the added member fitted in effortlessly and the relationship between siblings was not strained or stressed in any way.

Our visitor, age 4 and female, did an excellent job of tidying the kitchen area and also the doll's house. This is not something that happens regularly with the boys and they are both things that are left as the boys leave them. It was a welcome treat to have them tidied.

Saturday 3 November 2012

If at first

Thursday 1st November

We had planned to go and meet friends today but it was raining so hard and the destination was not suitable for a buggy and Plum really doesn't like the sling in the rain (who can blame her?) so we cancelled at the last minute. We ran a few errands and went to the farm shop to buy fruit and vegetables.

Half term and the change in seasons have bought about a new vibe in the house. Craft has taken itself up a notch (yes, even more craft) but also digging out old craft and revamping it or picking up craft from the day before and working on it some more. Bean especially is starting to give himself little projects. He's currently working on a robot made from cardboard boxes which he glued together one day and has painted one side today and plans on painting the other side tomorrow when it's dry. The big idea is to fill it with sweets and presents and play pinate with it for my birthday. I love the idea although I'm not sure where he got it from.

The Bug Hotel

Friday 2nd November

The reason I keep a blog is to help me remember ...I am writing this 24 hours after the event and without the aid of photos and I am struggling to remember. We met daddy in the afternoon at the library so that I could go to the phone shop to have them take a look at my phone that has developed a life of its own. Unfortunately the 'guru' (technical guy) isn't in on Fridays so we will have to go back tomorrow.

We spent a very happy hour in the garden putting all our prebuilt bits into the casing for the bug hotel and collecting up bark and twigs and leaves that we have gathered to put in it too. Bean found a plastic lid and filled it with water for the bugs to drink and thankfully a bug came to drink out of it! Bean and Pumkpin also collected bugs to bring to the hotel, they found several different spiders, worms of various sizes, snails and wood lice.

Fireworks

Thankfully when I say 'fireworks' I mean the real ones that come about at this time of year and not any sort of explosive happenings between family members! ...which, of course, is always possible.

Our days seem very lazy at the moment and we just about made it out of the door to arrive at a friends birthday party (one of those organised adventures at the local leisure centre) we had a quite a rough night which after discussing tiredness and babies being awake in the night and how we respond to them, at length on fb yesterday and with some disagreement, it seemed to be our gentle reminder of just how tiring it can be. Plum woke at 2.30, fed, and then lay awake kicking about until 4am when she had another feed and went back to sleep until 6.30 for another feed and then back to sleep. Simultaneously the boys woke up every half an hour between 4am and 7.30 before they finally got out of bed. I responded to plum, daddy responded to the boys, consequently a very tired family this morning.

My afternoon consisted largely of taking a nap with Plum, who unsurprisingly slept for a record 2 1/2 hours and daddy completed the bug hotel with the boys by putting on some roof felting, adding some bamboo for ladybirds and covering the front with netting so all the contents doesn't fall out. The bug hotel has been about 9 months in the making but is finally finished and we are all very proud of it.

I also popped into town to try and get my phone fixed but it has to be sent off! This could possibly mean a lack of photos until it returns but the point worth noting is that I went on my own. Yes, no smalls. That's the first time in a minimum of 10 months that I have been shopping on my own and apart from feeling like I had forgotten something I quite enjoyed it.