Tennis

Finn goes to tennis class on a Thursday. It has moved indoors now due to the cold weather but is out on the tennis courts when the weather is good. I took my old digital camera today and took this photo of them all as they stood in line for the register at the beginning. The camera then decided to stop working so I plan to take a few more with my Nikon camera in two weeks time after half term. The instructor has said that she would like some photos for the website so I'm hoping I'll get some good ones next time - that actually involve rackets and balls as it is a tennis class after all (although for Finn it is just a social event!). I have also included a few that I took on my mobile - but the quality is not very good so I will add more soon.

Ways to amuse ourselves without a car...

Our car has annoyingly been out-of-action for two days now so we have had to find ways to amuse ourselves at home or within walking distance. Yesterday we went swimming as luckily we have a leisure centre 5 minutes walk from our house. Both boys had a great time and Jacob slept through the night for the first time in months - think I will do that more often! It is hard work taking two under 4s swimming but I am trying to make the effort and make the most of it before number three comes along and we will have to wait until the weekend then and go swimming with hubby.

Today we walked to the local shop for a few supplies and this afternoon I put Jacob down for a nap and Finn and I made jam tarts. He absolutely loves baking and helping me in the kitchen. I love cooking and baking too, although I'm not so keen on the cleaning up afterwards when Finn helps out! I made myself a nice strong cappuccino though with hazelnut syrup and cinnamon sprinkled on top as a change to the usual chocolate. Finn had a babyccino and we sat down with our drinks and a jam tart each before I tackled the tidying up!

We are lucky that we live in a nice rural town so it has a village feel to it yet we can walk to the High Street and find all the amenities we need really: banks, small supermarket, library, post office, card shop, deli, children's shoe shop, bakery, tea shop, weekly market and we walk to the doctor's surgery which is a 10 minute walk not far from the reservoir which is good for walks in the summer. However, there are some drawbacks. All our family and some of our friends all live in the main county town which is twenty miles away, so I often wish I could live nearer to them; and the bus service here is appalling. To get to a village just ten minutes away (which is where we need to go tomorrow for tumble tots) involves catching a bus that only runs every two hours! So hopefully hubby will be sorting the car tonight - fingers crossed.

What we do on a Wednesday...

My smallest boy has now started Tumble Tots. I go in with him to his class compared to his older brother who is in the 3 years -school age class and goes in on his own. Jacob is only 16-months but wants to do everything his big brother does - from climbing to role-playing with cars and even drawing (which Finn at the age of 3 and a half has only just got into!).

Jacob is still a little nervous about climbing the apparatus at the moment though and the instructor commented last week how he is not as confident as his older brother. This has surprised me as at home he climbs the stairs in seconds and drags chairs over to the sofa so that he can climb up onto it and then climb onto the window sill, and generally shows no fear at all. Physically he is a lot more advanced than Finn was at that age. I can only assume that the lack of confidence at tumble tots is the environment which is intimidating him a bit at the moment. It is a big group with over fifteen toddlers and mums and there is a lot of equipment to look at - it must be quite daunting for a 16-month old. He seems to enjoy it anyway, and I'm sure his confidence will grow in time.

So this is what we do on a wednesday. As they are in different classes we have an hour to kill in-between and so I normally treat them to a trip to McDonalds for lunch. It is a once-a-week treat as I don't normally let them eat fast food. In fact, I don't think Finn stepped foot in a McDonalds until he was three. I used to be a bit obsessed about not feeding him anything that wasn't organic or that had refined sugar or salt in it. I think you become more relaxed once you have your second child though and you learn not to worry about things quite so much. Everything in moderation I say. Anyway, Finn certainly knows what MDs is now though and recognises the big yellow 'M'! I think he looks forward to this day all week as he loves Tumble Tots and McDonalds! We are vegetarians, although we do eat fish so the boys normally have fish finger happy meals, or recently Finn has taken to asking for a Filet-O-Fish (as that is what mummy normally has!) so he will have that, Jacob will have a small pot of Plum Baby food and they will share a happy meal. Luckily there is not a real fight for the toy - yet!

Home Education - the starting post

Yesterday I finally felt like I was making some progress with starting to home educate my oldest. He is nearly 3 and a half so I don't want to rush him into school work, but he so wants to learn. Yesterday I drew a few letters in dot-to-dot form on a scrap piece of paper and asked tot if he would like to try drawing over the dots to form letters. He was very enthusiastic about it and loved the idea that he was forming letters all on his own! I had to keep showing him how to hold the felt tip properly but he really surprised me as we had tried this about 6 months ago and he was totally not interested. However, this time by the time we had finished he had written 1-10 and A-E in upper and lower-case. This morning I asked if he wanted to do some school work and he said, "Yes! I want to do school work right now!". He is so eager to learn new things and will just pick up books and look through them on his own if I am busy in the kitchen. We read books to him every day and he just loves them. It has made me realise that I think home education would be really beneficial to him and perhaps not as difficult for me as I thought. I am definitely swaying more for the home education yet I am still not ruling school out until the third one is here.

My new nephew

I don't see this blog as a daily journal where I should note down all that happens or concerns me. I have always thought of it more as a record of notable things that are happening in my life. I have failed to keep this updated though. On 26th November I became a proud Aunty to my brother's son and I haven't even put a post on my blog about him up until now! It is so difficult to find the time - that is the problem. Right now my boys are having bath time with Daddy. By the time they are both tucked up in bed (usually no earlier than 8.30pm by the time I have got the oldest one off) I am in no mood for thinking and just veg out (and recently fall asleep!) in front of the TV for the evening.

Anyway, I have met my new nephew twice now and he is lovely. I think he looks a lot like my brother did as a baby. I know they are going to find it hard as parents but I think once they have got to grips with it they will be great, and I look forward to many memorable family times that we can all share in the future.

Happy New Year - looking forward to 2010

Happy new year. I am very much looking forward to 2010 and what it may bring. It is likely that the most important and exciting thing that is going to happen to us this year is that we will be expanding our family! A new baby due in July! I am very happy about it as I wanted another baby. I have been a bit apprehensive about telling others though, worrying that their reactions may not be as enthusiastic. My dad made some comment about contraception although I think he was only joking really and I worried how my sister-in-law would be who has just one child through IVF, and my other friends who had been finding it hard to conceive there second while I'm onto my third already. But really I guess it is no one elses business except ours. We are the parents, the ones who will feed and nurture this baby, we are the ones who have let ourselves in for many more sleepless nights and headaches with three under 4s! But as difficult as it is sometimes being a mother is easily the best thing that has ever happened to me and I can't imagine my life without them.

Another thing to look forward to in 2010: we have just booked out summer holiday to Cornwall. We are going four weeks before my due date so I feel a bit nervous about that. But we decided that one last family holiday as the four of us would be good for the boys, even if that does mean I will be spending most of the time sitting on the beach like a beached whale - sounds quite relaxing actually, if only that was an option! Anyway, despite the cottage being in the middle of nowhere it is actually only about twenty minutes from a perfectly good hospital - will make sure it is programmed into the sat nav!

New Year's Resolutions : normally for me it used to be to give up smoking (did that five years ago now) and not drink as much - which I obviously don't do much of now that I'm pregnant. I think resolutions are for if you are unhappy about something in your life and you want to change it, and really I am quite happy with my life so I am finding it hard to come up with some resolutions. Maybe mine should be to watch what I spend more and not buy unnecessary extras at the spermarket. With number three on its way and only having the one income we need to be careful. There was a time when a trip to the supermarket meant a new toy for tot, but the fact that our lounge now looks like a toy shop has made me more firm about saying no, and they will have a gingerbread man instead.

Tonsillitus :(

My poor tot has tonsillitus. It began with a high temperature of over 39 degrees and often reaching 40 at night. He has been sleeping in our bed and it is like old times when he would sleep with us every night until his little brother arrived. I resisted taking him to the GP as they always tell you it's viral and it stresses me out always having to wait at least half an hour to be seen. It got to Friday afternoon and he the temperature wasn't going dwn even with 10ml of Calpol every 4 hours so I rang the surgery. I spoke to my GP and she surprised me by saying that it probably ISN'T a virus with a temperature over 39 - more likely to be bacterial. So then I was kicking myself for not having taken him down there before the appiontments had finished. So saturday morning we took him to the out-of-hours place and they confirmed my suspisions of tonsillitus. There had been no other symptoms except the high temperature and lethargy but we noticed that every time he tried to eat anything such as toast or bread he was gagging and I asked him if it hurt when he swallowed to which he said yes. Anyway, we got the penicillin so I was pleased that we got it treated quickly this time - unlike when baby had pneumonia and it took them nearly 2 weeks to figure it out and give the anti-biotics. They are so reluctant to give out anti-biotics these days and just blame it on viruses all the time, it really frustrates me. The only problem we have not is trying to get the stuff down toddler. We had a screaming incident this morning where I ended up pinning him to the floor and he ended up with half of it on his face. For some reason he will take it when his daddy administers it to him. This is what he is like with a lot of things. Like learning for example. When I try and teach him the alphabet or counting he will sometimes be interested but more often than not will not want to know and will walk away fromme to go and play with his toys. Yet when daddy tries with him he always seems more responsive. It doesn't bother me that much, it is just that as I am planning to homeschool I don't know how it is going to work if he will not listen to me. Anyway, I guess I just keep persevering and concentrate on getting my tot back to full health for now.