Caravans

This morning we all went to look at a caravan with a view to it being Tom's bedroom. The one we saw this morning looked perfect but the ebay auction doesn't finish until tonight. In the mean time we saw another one on ebay with a buy it now price below the current price of the one we saw this morning. Tom and Colin have gone off to have a look at it and decide if it's suitable.

UPDATE:
The one Tom and Colin went to see wasn't as good as the one we saw this morning so we decided to wait and take our chance with the one we all saw this morning. I was all set to place the bid and Colin decided we should change the amount so with 30 seconds to go I re-entered the bid, bid with 9 seconds to go and won it! Tom, of course is, thrilled

Can't believe how long it's been....

It's been ages since I posted.

A couple of weekends ago I managed to get some pictures of the boys - I didn't manage to get a christmassy one of all three boys together but this one's not bad.


I tried something a bit different and quite like this one too.
I like this one as Tom has a pretty decent smile and has his eyes open!

I love this one of Harry - he looks so serious

I put together a Christmas card for family:

Christmas Pics

I decided to take some Christmas pictures of Ben on Friday and these are some of my favourites.

He was really co-operative and did exactly as I asked.

My set-up is a bit 'Heath Robinson" I was using the on-board flash with a tissue as a diffuser! My back drop is a white sheet hung on garden canes attached to the dining chairs with elastic bands and string - Ben is sitting on the dining table which I covered in long-pile fur fabric.

I plan to take some more of all three boys together at the weekend - watch this space.

Dry Trousers!

Well there had to be a post about wee someone along the line!

Ben has been dry in the day for about three weeks now - he has one small accident when he pooped on the older boys bedroom carpet when he had diarrhoea but other than that he's done so well. I'm not sure when I'll tackle night time potty training as he sleeps very heavily. Some days he wakes with a dry nappy but most mornings he's soggy.

Visit to Beth's and a visit to the zoo

Last weekend Tom and Beth finally organised to get together. Colin and Tom met Beth and Ruth at Toddington Services on the M1 and Tom went back with them to go to a Halloween party with Beth and her family.

On the sunday the rest of us went to Whipsnade Zoo and had a fun, if rather damp and chilly, day out. Ben loved seeing zebras again but also got very excited by the hippos and giraffes. I didn't take photos as the weather was so poor - fog or drizzle pretty much all day.

When we left the zoo we drove down to South Mimms services on the M25 to meet Tom, Beth and Ruth. We stopped for dinner on the way home but the whole journey took around 3 hours!

Tom had a fantastic weekend and was very sad to say goodbye to Beth again.

How long since I posted?

I guess our lives have been dull the last month as I haven't posted since early october!

A few things have happened really.

4 accident free days

Ben has been clean and dry for 4 days in a row - I think he's got this cracked!

In the last few days we've been into Southam to do some shopping and banking, been to assembly at school, been to toddlers and been to church (including breakfast we were out 3 hours). He asked to wee during the service which was good. We've yet to see what happens if he asks to wee and it's not immediately convenient. He seems to have got over his anger at having a nappy on for bed and now when he's tired he asks for one so he can go to bed.

I promise to try and make my next post about something other than wee!

An accident free day

Well, potty accident free anyway!

Ben fell on the stairs yesterday and has a small bruise on his left cheekbone, today he fell on the new laminate in the hall and has another small bruise about 1/2" below the original bruise!

On a more positive note he stayed clean and dry with no accidents and a poop in the potty instead of on the floor like the last couple of days, LOL.

Photos, toddlers and dry underwear!

Today was school photos day at Harry's school. I took Ben along to have his photo taken, then went and had a cuppa at Sam's and then we went to toddlers - we took the potty along and apart from a small amount of wee in his pants Ben stayed dry the whole time and used the potty at Sam's and then at toddlers! He really seems to be getting the hang of this no nappies lark!

Masterclass

Tom has been selected to take part in a year 10 maths masterclass. He didn't want to go in the beginning but having discussed it with him he can see the benefits and will be going weekly on a wednesday after school. He'll be starting AS level maths. He's also taking part in an after-school project to build and race an eco-friendly car. They were hoping to have a race this weekend coming but the teacher didn't get their entry in on time so they'll have to find another event to go to.

Charlie

Ben has his friend Charlie here to play this afternoon. Charlie is three and went to pre-school this morning. At the moment they're having fun playing in the sandpit and on the slide in the garden.

Poop!

My blog seems to be turning into a toilet diary, LOL.

The last couple of days Ben has been keen to have his nappy off and wear 'big boy pants'. Yesterday he stayed dry from 2pm until bedtime and today he was dry from 7.30 until 10am (when he went down for a nap) with two wees in the potty and then when he woke up we took off his nappy and he poo'd in the potty! To begin with he looked a bit shocked that there was poo in the potty but as soon as I told him he was a clever boy he looked really excited!

More Pee

In the last couple of days Ben has got really enthusiastic about the potty. He loves to be naked from the waist down. On sunday he weed on the floor too many times to count but today he had his nappy off for 4-5 hours (apart from 20 minutes to go to school and pick Harry up) the floor stayed dry and he peed in the potty twice. One time while I was cooking dinner he went totally independently and came running in to the kitchen excitedly saying "wee wee chair". I wasn't planning to potty train yet but I'm taking the lead from him and he seems keen - we'll give it a go and see how he gets on.

Pee!

Tonight Ben asked to have his nappy off, sat on the potty and did a wee! He was so pleased with himself he kept going back and trying to do some more, LOL

Coloured Rice!

One of the mums on my online mums group posted about her children playing with coloured rice and how much they enjoyed it. I decided to try it with Ben today and he loved it. I made red yellow and blue and I talked about the colours before we mixed them all together. The result - Ben calls the whole concept "blue".

I gave him the rice on a baking tray with a selection of toys and as you can see he had a really good time with it.

Another fun day out

We had another fun day out today as we decided to go and watch the cycle racing at Warwick. There was a variety of races and stalls including an area to try out unicycling, hulahooping, diabolo etc. Tom took along his uinicycle and had a go - making it look easy! There were some serious races aswell as the fun things and just before we left there was a nasty crash when one chap appeared to clip the barrier and as we left he appeared to be unconcious on the ground and was about to depart in an ambulance.

A fun day out to Woburn Safari Park

Yesterday we took all the boys to Woburn Safari Park and we had a fabulous day. The weather was good the boys behaviour was fantastic and it was just a lovely fun family day. We arrived around 10.30 and went straight through the safari drive where we saw lots of different animals including zebra (Ben's favourites), elephants, lions, tigers, giraffes, monkeys, bears, wolves and many many more. After the safari drive we went and had our picnic then saw the on-foot exhibits including wallabies, ostriches, monkeys, penguins, sea lions, a huge snake, lemurs, lorikeets and ducks. The boys all played in an adventure playground, Colin, Tom and Harry had a go on the pedal boats and then we went to see the birds of prey.

A birthday

Today is my Grandad's 98th birthday! It's been a while since we've seen him and his wife Kate so I must arrange to visit them again soon.

A dry day for a change

Yesterday was the first dry day we've had in what feels like months and as Ben and I had no other plans we decided to go to the park. Ben spent almost the whole time on the slide, carefully climbing up and sliding down then shouting "bore bore" (more more) everytime. He walked up to the park, then on to school to collect Harry and then home again - he was quite worn out by the time we got home!

Hopefully the weather will be OK at the weekend as we hope to have our postponed trip to the safari park on Saturday.

Colin went and collected the guinea pigs' new hutch last night and they are now happily settled in their new pad. It took them a while to get used to the ladder down into the run but they seem to have got the hang of it now.

Church Dedication

This has almost nothing to do with being a mum but I wanted to share!

My church has been closed for most of the last year due to some major building work going on. The church fell far short of requirements in a lot of ways - disabled access was nigh-on impossible, the heating was inefficient and very expensive to run, there were no toilets or even running water. A small sympathetic extension was built and toilets with baby changing facilities (i guess that kind of brings the subject round to children!) installed. Under floor heating has been put in, the bottom of the bell tower will soon have a kitchen installed and two areas at the back of the church have glass screening to create areas for meetings/sunday school/creche etc. The hope is that the church will now be suitable to be used much more widely by the village community. This evening was the official re-opening and rededication service which was very special. I took part in the service by reading a prayer and leading Bishop John to the kitchen area of the church to ask for his blessing on it.

An accident

Tom and Ben were playing chase this morning, Ben went to grab Tom who ducked out of the way and Ben fell flat on his face. He started crying and saying "nose" so I picked him up to give him a cuddle. When he didn't stop crying quite quickly I pulled him away from me to have a look at him and we were both covered in blood! It was coming out of his mouth and it looks like he's torn his frenulum. It stopped bleeding quite quickly but it looks like he also has a bruise coming out on the bridge of his nose. He's having a nap now and hopefully he'll be OK when he wakes up.

ETA: He was absolutely fine when he woke up and 24 hours on there is no sign of the injury. Little ones heal so fast!

Aaaaarrgghh - Teenage boys!!!

Tomorrow Tom and Harry both go back to school. Yesterday I asked them both to ensure they knew where their uniform was to save the last minute scramble tomorrow morning. Tonight I planned to iron all the uniform and went to get Tom's as only Harry had brought his down. Tom had got out a shirt he should have thrown away ages ago as it's far too small. It turns out that the two shirts he has that fit were both still dirty from the end of last term seven weeks ago! So now at 9.45pm the night before school starts I'm having to do laundry that should have been done seven weeks ago!

Change of plans

Yesterday we went to our friends' for dinner and to pick Tom up after his weekend with Matt. Later in the evening I developed a nasty stomach bug so we've changed our plans for today and are all staying home and will re-schedule our trip to Woburn Safari Park for another day when hopefully the weather will be better, or at least dry, too.

It's probably a good thing that we didn't go as Tom slept in until 10am after barely sleeping at Matt's and Ben decided to take a four and a half hour nap!

Mum to two boys today

Yesterday my friend Debby and her son Matt came over and took Tom back to their house for the weekend. We're going over tomorrow for dinner with them and to pick him up again. Harry is enjoying the peace! Today we're going to be trying to sort out our garden and get it back under control a bit as it's been neglected for the last few weeks and looks like it!

ETA: Colin spent most of the day sorting the garden and I spent most of the day sitting or sleeping on the sofa as I was feeling dizzy and weak :(

A walk in the woods

Tonight we went for a walk in a local nature reserve to do a maintenance visit on our geocache. Harry and Ben enjoyed the walk, Ben especially as he loves trees! Tom was very subdued as he's missing Beth still. He cheered up a lot a bit later when he spoke to her on the phone and discovered she and her family are coming up to Warwick Castle for a day during half-term in a couple of months and we'll meet them there. Her dad is also planning to book at Sherwood Castle Holiday Forest for next summer (where they met last week) and as we plan to go again next year we may be able to arrange to be there together again which would really cheer Tom up.

A trip to the garden centre

All of my boys love to go to 'Blooms' the local garden centre with a pets section. Tom loves to see the rabbits as he'd really like one or two but decided not to come with us today as he was waiting for Beth to sign in to MSN. Harry loves to see the chameleon and today there were seven of them so he was over the moon. Ben likes the fish and reptiles, today he was entranced by a small turtle that was swimming and enjoyed playing in the water features on display.

Post-holiday blues

All the boys are feeling a bit out of sorts today. Ben is generally grumpy, possibly teething, Harry is a bit lost and not sure what to do with himself and Tom is hanging out on MSN waiting for Beth to get back from a shopping trip with her mum. There is a possibility of Beth, Adam and their mum coming up to the area in October half-term so Tom is feeling a little bit happier right now. Ben is in bed potentially having a second nap, even if he doesn't go to sleep he's getting some rest and quiet time which he obviously needed as he was screaming and having a tantrum over the smallest things.

A week in Sherwood Forest

We've just come home from a week with my parents in Sherwood Forrest. Ben's anxiety levels were sky-high the whole week and he was very needy and quite hard work a lot of the time. I think he enjoyed it in his own way though. We swam lots and Ben loved walking through the place to 'animal corner' to feed the 'giggies' There were sheep, a guinea pig, several rabbits and three wild boar which he loved. Each day we would save our food scraps and take them down to feed the animals. Anything the rabbits and guinea pig could have went to them and everything else went to the boar. Ben thought it was hilarious when the boar fought over the food and squealed at each other.

Tom and Harry made friends with a couple of other kids there who were in the next door cabin to us. Tom had his first holiday romance and is already missing Beth who is apparently also missing him. They've chatted on MSN already! The boys spent almost the entire week with Beth and her brother Adam and another girl they met on site called Gemma. They were either swimming, playing at the adventure playground, building a huge den in the woods, hanging out in the play barn (often in the little kids ball pit) or playing Uno etc.

Some pictures from the week:
'Cooking'


Walking to Animal Corner with Grandma


Feeding the sheep


Feeding the wild boar


The Den

My first foray into blogging, on being a mum.

I decided that as I don't keep 'baby' books for any of my three kids I should start keeping track of their lives a bit better and as an internet junkie it seems simplest (and most likely to happen) if I do it electronically!

Right now my boys are 14, 10 and 1. More accurately Tom is 14 years and almost 7 months, Harry is 10 years and almost 8 months and Ben is 19 months old. I should have started this when they were younger, it's something I always meant to do but never got around to - baaaad mummy!

Being a mum is all I ever wanted - all my friends at school knew that I had no grand career plans, all I wanted out of life was to settle down and provide a stable loving home for a couple of children. I have been amazingly lucky to have a loving husband and three wonderful, healthy boys who are the centre of my world.

I, like many mums I'm sure, often feel I could be doing better for my children - I should spend more time with them, do more exciting stuff with them, but I guess we do plenty and they seem to love the life they have.

Tom goes to scouts and tae kwon do, Harry goes to a church kids' club, cubs and tae kwon do and Ben and I go to toddler group once a week and try and swim once a week too. We also get together with friends who have small children. A lot of the time we hang out at home making dens, reading books, 'cooking', drawing, painting, that kind of thing.

We try to fit in doing things as a whole family too, sometimes we go geocaching, though not as often as we did. We like walking and cycling as a family too.