Thursday 31 March 2011

Fun games?

Joseph was really excited yesterday when I told him he and Ben were going to play at Lottie's house for an hour whilst I went to work.

 'Yeah, we going to play bumpety, bumpety bottoms'

This apparently is where they sit on the stairs and bump down the steps bumping their little behinds - it's great fun!!!?

Day trip into 'Ye olde England'



On Saturday, thanks to the Grandparents and doting, doting aunts who babysat. Nathan and I were able to take the Bowen's out for the day. 

I collected them at Bradford Interchange and we traversed town to Foster Square. They politely listened as I pointed out some of the many Victorian architectural delights to be found in Bradford City Centre - it really is filled with them you just have to look up!
We met Nathan in Keighley and then travelled to Malham via the whindy, narrow country roads. It was nice to see things fresh through the eyes of a non-Brit or even non-yorkshiremen. Spring was showing off with the sun, scenery and lambs. They loved Malham and ventured to the top calling all the youths who past us 'show offs' as we had to take a more leisurely pace. At the top of the cove we enjoyed the view and the unique shape of the limestone floor.



Satisfied with pastries we proceeded to Haworth. They and Nathan went on the Worth valley railway and I took the car. Nathan laughed as he'd forgotten that on the steam train the views aren't great until you get out of Keighley. They loved Haworth refering it to the 'Ye Olde England'. It really is nice - the cobbled street on a steep hill, the little gift shops.

 We stopped for hot chocolate in the 'Bronte Tearooms' ( suckers for the name) and listened to the warnings from the old cafe owner. 'You're not parked at the top of the hill are you?' 'He clamps you for nothing you know.' She proudly showed us; her array of photos with David Essex and other stars; the trophy she won for poetry and the slightly disappointing photo of her with Charles and Diana where the Princesses head had been cropped off. It was a lovely day. Nice to talk to them about the people they've worked with in Selby and how they feel the ward has grown to be happier. Nice to hear them talk of home and their family. Just nice to be with them.  I refer to them as our 'Christmas presents' as they've just been such a blessing to our ward and we'll miss them lots.

Monday 21 March 2011

Weekend Roundup

7am - Helping themselves to breakfast - muller corners under the table.

 We went to see the lambs at North Milford Grange Farm

 Spring is here - finally!

 My little lambs x

 While we were there I actually got to see 3 lambs being born ( with some assistance from the farmer). He had to swing them from side to side to get them breathing. It was quite a special moment really. I always thought I'd be quite squimish about things like that but I got caught up in the magic of birth.

 Flat out!

 Great health and safety? Great table manners? Great mess? Great big soggy nappy!!

 Ring a Ring a

 My boys looking smart and ready for church

Sunday afternoon nap -cosey!

Friday 18 March 2011

Nuture

Today I felt like a nuturer. It's not like it was an unusual day in which I did things any different to what I normally do but nuture was on my mind and it was nice to be more aware. 

Ben and Joseph stayed in bed with me for extra cuddles.

On the bus into Selby, Ben was restless in the pushchair and was soothed by me playing with his hair.

On the way home, Ben cried until I got him out of the pushchair and held him close until he fell asleep. I just looked at him and felt my heart just brimmed. Moments like that are gold. I looked up and caught the eye of Audrey an elderly neighbour who gave me a quiet knowing smile.

At home, Joseph went to retrieve Gloria who he'd placed in the pushchair basket......only to discover the hole and no Gloria.

His heart was broken, Gloria his 4cm plastic hippo was lost, not on an adventure  as we tried to convince him. The 4cm identical hippo we found in the pan was not Gloria , that was Moto-Moto and would not compensate. He cried  hard and fast, his eyes were red and tears ran down him face and then as I was going to scoop him up in my arms, the arms of a more experienced nuturer got there first and hugged him better.

I'm grateful to have been a well nutured child and adult and I want to do the same for my children.

I love my mum - lots.


Some of my fave 'mum' photos -









Monday 14 March 2011

Living with a wannabe Banksy


I come down the stairs and see the green felt tip without it's lid on the floor and Joseph hiding between the sofas.

'Not again...surely not again' I inwardly mutter as I quickly glance over at our cream sofas which have been the victim of' graffiti on previous occasions causing me much annoyance it has to be said.

'Joseph, have you been drawing? Have you drawn on the sofa? Have you?'

'No Mummy just draw on the table' pointing at the Victorian pine trunk we have in the corner of our room housing storing toys. 

'Oh Joseph' I say a little pathetically. (You know the tone slightly whiny and high pitched)

'Mummy, I'm sorry..I just really love you Mummy, I just love you' 

He comes out of hiding, runs up and throws his arms around me.

I forgive him quickly. Baby wipes help as they get the mark off in a jif.

Til the next time (just please don't let it be on my sofas!)


A Christmas time photo showing Ben flat out asleep on our cream sofas - see they look extremely vulnerable don't they - any mark just shows up badly!

New camera arrived!

After buying a new charger for our old, old digital camera and discovering it must be the lithium battery that's died instead, we opted for buying a new compact digital. It arrived thursday and I went into snapping mode - the photo kind not the moody kind (though on occasion I can be known to do this kind rather well!)

 Here's a photographic summary of the past few days -






Joseph had fun turning these glasses into tiger glasses - I e-mailed this photo to Uncle Richard and told him they were the new style of NHS glasses which Joseph had chosen himself - waiting tp hear his response!


The finished result - 'ROAR'. Joseph made a great tiger/lion (he still gets them mixed up) 
 The glasses lasted a day!



Ben getting in on the funny glasses act too!

 

One of my favourite photo themes - Ben eating! For Ben eating is a multi-sensory experience, the touch is as important as the taste, he likes to get some up his nose to enhance the smell aspect as well.


One of the joys of having two boys close in age is they both love playing cars. Hopefully, we'll have many more years to come of scenes like this.



To  be honest, Ben prefers the real thing...oh I feel a song coming on - '[nothing] better than the real thing..... yeeeeah' Nathan's been listening to alot of U2 recently.



So close to being a great photo of all 4 of us - it as yet does not exist. Joseph is just coming out of a phase of refusing to look at the camera and Ben who has been a little poser may just be slipping into it!   OK, I have to confess there was one photo where we are all looking but I look awful and I get priority right??? Maybe we'll try again next week.

Saturday 5 March 2011

Great morning calls

There are a number of nice ways to be woken up -

the obvious bird song through the window,

with breakfast brought to you in bed,

 or warm sunlight beaming down on your face.

My current favourite is hearing Joseph and Ben giggling away with

each other - it really is a great way to be woken up.

Thursday 3 March 2011

The wishes of the heart - a camera, a car, a drink.

I feel like I've lost a limb as our camera has gone caput (spelling??) Hopefully a new one will be arriving in the post soon. Today would have been a good day to catch the boys in classic moments.

I'll set the scene - The Wishing Well, home to free indoor play in Selby. We arrived after lunch expecting it to be quiet, it was not! Half of the children from school were there with their mums. The group included Clem who apparently Joseph had a moment of conflict with at school, initited by Joseph and end by Clem with a hit on the head with a wooden spoon! All in all Joseph has had a much better week and is adapting to the whole social etiquette of playing with others. Back to the Wishing Well - so it was busy! Joseph was straight into the soft play area and down the slide and back up and down the slide again - happy. 

For Ben his interest was instantly grabbed by the Little Tyke's car - have a mentioned before that he loves, I mean loves them? He was in his element sat in his car cruising round the outskirts of the room, pointing his finger and saying/shouting 'No' to any suspect carjacker. After half an hour I decided, that as a good mum it was about time I made him share..... instant shrieks of anguish, arched back, flailing of arms followed suit. Followed by rolling around on the floor in floods of tears, totally unconsolable. Lots of eyes on the scene, though I tried to and in fact was not bothered by it - my boy knows what he wants and that's no bad thing. The photo I wish I could have got was him running around after the car, pointing his finger, calling forlornly 'car, car,' the poor driver looking slightly worried about being pursued. In the end he did get it back and peace in the room was restored (well kind of!) and Ben was smiley again. You see how could he know the true pleasure of the car without having experienced not being able to have it - a lesson in there needs to be opposition in all things!!

 
The photo I would have got of Joseph would have been him hiding under the table where a party group had been, drinking the dreggs from an apple juice carton  - what a scamp! I'd caught him drinking dreggs from cups off the tables and told him not too and so he went and hid under a table - so proud!


(Another instance of Joseph hiding under the table - this time at Grandma Hillary's 80th party)