Stepping off the path

Today our neighbours Katya and Vikka and their Mum came round in the morning. Girls all had a great time playing, including quite a lot of furniture moving in C and M's bedroom, and a lot of untidiness, but mostly good-natured playing, which meant that I could have a nice chat with Heather.

In the afternoon we decided we would brave going for a walk. There was a cold east wind, and C didn't want to go out in case we met any dogs (fortunately we didn't) but we walked up onto the moor and had a good squelch in the mud and paddle in the streams. I was surprised to find quite a lot of bilberries still ripe on the bushes, not quite as sweet as in the middle of summer, but worth picking nonetheless.

When we got back we sat down on the sofa with some warm drinks, or at least M and I did; C declared she was hot and wanted some ice, so she munched her way through a small tray of ice cubes. M has developed a real interest in Katie Morag, so I read her a couple of those stories, and started a new Olga da Polga book for C when M fell asleep. When I got tired, C read to me for quite a while, then I asked her to tell me about our walk so I could write it down. It wasn't a pure dictation from her, I did assist quite a bit, but we ended up with a pretty comprehensive account of our little walk out. We brought back some brown bracken to have a go at drawing, but that will have to wait till tomorrow.

I'm aware I'm not blogging much at the moment, and when I do, I try to sound upbeat, but I'm still feeling pretty knackered and sick. One day I'll remember how much I hate being pregnant for long enough to stop myself being here again. I got to hold a newborn baby yesterday, and that helped a bit, but although I can look at the two children I've got and know that they were worth it, it's hard to know that just now about someone I haven't met yet. Sorry, I'm probably rambling incoherently. I'll stop now.

A Good Day Visiting friends

Today we went to visit our friends Chris and Vicki in Sheffield. I was at uni with Vicki, so we've known them a long time and it's always good to see them. Vicki is expecting her first baby in February, and seems to be sailing through her pregnancy so far, which is great.

They have a really interesting collection of board games and after warming up with some noughts and crosses, C spent quite a long time playing a couple of games from a collection of medieval games from Past Times. I was quite impressed at how well she concentrated and got the idea of the strategy, albeit with lots of encouragement from the sidelines.

After a yummy lunch we went to the park over the road to feed the ducks, and Chris announced a treasure hunt to see who could make the biggest collection of different leaves and other tree things. We managed quite an impressive collection, with 14 different trees represented, and when we got back Chris got out his grandfather's old microscope and we looked at a skeleton holly leaf, and the surpirisingly textured surfaces of other leaves and conkers. And we spent a while looking at those funny round parasite things you sometimes get on the underside of oak leaves.

If Caroline can face the thought of a Lilypie counter telling her she still has 227 days of being pregnant to go, then I guess I can face 188 days!

We had a good play in the garden yesterday afternoon. I wanted to find Autumn leaves and other Autumny stuff, and there wasn't very much but the children burned off some energy in the Autumn sunshine. Our trampoline's broken at the moment, and I hadn't realised how useful it had been for burning off energy on indoors days.

I did want to go for a walk or to the park yesterday but C's fear of dogs is proving quite a problem with going anywhere. She's never really had a bad experience of dogs, so I think it has more to do with fear of the unknown, but her fear is preventing her getting to know the unknown and is really quite crippling.

We finished Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and made a start on Olga da Polga, which Jonathan has fond memories of, but I have never read.

Yesterday afternoon C played with her computer for a bit. She needs some new software and I would be grateful for suggestions. She has enjoyed the Reader Rabbit preschool and Reading ones, she has Rainbow Rock which goes with Singapore maths but is a bit hard for her at the moment, she has some Magic School Bus CDs about animals, and we have some Zoombinis, but again that's a bit hard for her. She has a Learning Ladder disc but never really hit it off with that. Any suggestions?

I've been really valuing the time M goes out to Montessori and to Mum and Dad's. When she's at home she's very disruptive, and she and C squabble a lot, which I'm trying to crack down on. I think she may be just short of sleep, because on Sunday she had no daytime sleep then slept from 9pm till 6.30, (with a short break around 4am) and was grumpy all day, then she had a nap from 4.30 till 6 and was much sweeter after it, and still went to bed again at 8. So the difficult question is how to get her to sleep more?

C had another bad dream last night. I'm trying to teach her a bit about just how bad dreams have to be to make it really worth waking me up, but I don't want to frighten her. Last week she had a dream that she was a hedgehog but all her prickles were floppy and useless. Last night she had a dream that M nearly fell in the sea, but she didn't because C encouraged her to come away from the edge. It wouldn't be so bad if M wasn't waking up so much at night too, but I really could do without it.

C went to drama this morning. They have started practising for the Christmas play, and as Jonathan was collecting her, he heard the teacher saying 'a very special well done' to Catie for her effort this morning. I had a feeling drama would be right up her street, and I'm really glad she's enjoying it so much.

This afternoon was the second part of Vikka's fourth birthday party. Thursday was a tea party just for a few neighbours, and this afternoon was a party just for little people, no big sisters allowed. M had a lovely time. Unfortunately she was just starting to get the hang of most of the games just as they finished, so we'll have to do some practice in the next three weeks so she knows what's going on when her own party comes around.

We had a lazy day at home yesterday. In fact I fell asleep on the sofa for a bit in the afternoon, and didn't wake to anything worse than the floor strewn with small bits of cut up white scrap paper. When I woke up I felt up to reading to C for a bit, and ended up reading the second half of Fantastic Mr Fox, which I had begun on Monday evening, and then, being in a bit of a Roald Dahl mood, I started Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and ended up reading the first twelve chapters (M having followed my example and fallen asleep, on my lap, somewhere before the end of Fantastic Mr Fox)

Today C and I went to Conisbrough Castle, where we met Kirsty and co, and quite a lot of other families. C was very excited about going to a real castle and I was afraid it wasn't going to live up to her expectations, but we were shown round by a medieval re-enactor in costume, and he really got our imaginations working to try and feel what it would have been like. We had a look round the visitor centre and bought some activities to do at home. I have been trying to follow and nurture C's interest in medieval times and castles, but have found it quite hard to work out what's going to be just the right level for her. We have borrowed some books from the library, but they were mostly quite dry and had much of the same information in each. I'm hoping that what we've bought today will keep us going with it for a while.

We came back and collected M from my Mum and Dad's, and went on to our neighbour Vikka's fourth birthday tea party. There were just six children there, all neighbours, and she's having another party on Saturday, but we all had a lovely time.

Busy being pregnant

The midwife came to see me yesterday for all the routine stuff, and the children were very good at keeping themselves out of mischief while she was here. Then just after she had gone our friend Neil turned up to use us as Bed and Breakfast while working in the Northwest, and got subjected to all the stored up energy the girls hadn't used in the previous hour!

Today I had to go to Leeds after work to see an endocrinologist about my pituitary thing and being pregnant. Just as well I'm feeling a lot better this week - I don't think I could have managed a day's work and a trip to Leeds last week. I think I'm done with appointments for a while now, but later on the local obstetric consultant wants to see me, I need to have a series of eye tests, go to Leeds again, as well as seeing the midwife. And I've told them all I'm not having a complicated pregnancy, and they don't need to bother, but they're not having any of it...

Question for Sarah (or anyone else)

It's M's third birthday in a few weeks, and we would like to get her a marble run, so I was wondering if anyone could make a recommendation. I know Formative Fun do several, but it's hard to get a very good idea from a little picture on a website. I was trying to look on MailOrderExpress as well, but I can't get the site to load. What do people think are important features in a marble run for a three year old?

I'm starting to feel a bit better the last couple of days, but still quite tired and grumpy, so Jonathan tells me. This morning C got herself dressed, then got M dressed, before I'd even got out of bed, which is quite unheard of. Until recently we've had big battles over dressing with both of them, so I was really proud of her.

C has done a lot of reading this weekend, and has had friends round both Saturday and Sunday. Consequently the house is a bit of a mess, so I'd better go and do something about that before I completely run out of energy.

Monday was St Francis' Day, and when I made my list of books and resources, I discovered we have several books about him, so we're having a bit of a St Francis week, with a bit of FIAR Clown of God thrown in for good measure. My head feels inspired enough about it to make a lapbook or something, but the rest of me is having trouble reading a book, let alone doing something creative. Oh, well.

We all went to the hospital this afternoon for my dating scan. I thought I was somewhere between nine and twelve weeks, and the good news is I'm 11 1/2 weeks. And the other good news is there's only one baby in there! I've had extremely early scans with the other two, and they just looked like jelly beans, but this one was definitely a baby, and it gave a really good kick and a wave while we were watching.

I'm very glad to have an early scan. Until I see that baby on the screen, there's always a nagging doubt in my mind that I might be making it all up, and I have this fear that the sonographer will turn round to me and say 'What are you doing here, you're not pregnant!'

Back from Holiday

Been away for a couple of weeks, so I'll try and give you a quck update on what we've been doing.

The first week we stayed in our friend Neil's flat in St Albans. He got married on the Saturday, went on honeymoon and came back to his wife's house, so the flat was vacant, and we used it as a base for visiting London.

Sunday we visited St Albans Vineyard church, which was having its first meeting in an exciting new building. It was quite a change from regular church for us, (village Anglicans) and we really enjoyed it. In the afternoon we drove into London and walked and played in Battersea park.

Monday we went to the Natural History Museum, where C was interested and M was stroppy. M fell asleep as we left, so we called into the V&A to have a quick look there, then wandered along Knightsbridge till M woke up (couldn't contemplate the underground with sleeping child in buggy)

Tuesday we set off for the London Aquarium and called into the British Library on the way past, just to look at the fantastic new building. The Aquarium was quite good but not as good as the one north of Edinburgh that we went to in February.

On Wednesday I was having a grotty day so Jonathan took the girls for a long walk and I went to bed.

Thursday we braved London again. We walked across the disappointingly non-wobbly Millennium Bridge to Tate Modern, where M was stroppy and C not much better, then we thought we'd go and have a look around St Paul's, but discovered it cost £7 each to get in, so we gave up on that and walked to the Museum of London, as C wanted to see the remaining bit of the Roman Wall. M of L was excellent (I remember really enjoying it as a child) and M fell asleep, so C could concentrate a bit better.

Friday Neil was back from honeymoon so we went out for lunch with him and his wife Karen, then we played in a park, bought some new shoes for M and went to evensong in St Albans Cathedral, which was beautiful. Fortuitously, M fell asleep again, and C enjoyed the music, but played on the floor with the conkers we found in the park.

On Saturday we drove down to Portsmouth for the second half of our holiday at Jonathan's parents' house. They were house-sitting for us, so again we had the place to ourselves. I was reminded how much I like not having to use the M25 on a regular basis. We had a nice scenic drive down through Hampshire. Well, it was nice once the rain stopped.

On Sunday we went for a walk in the Queen Elizabeth Country Park near Portsmouth, and found a playground there.

On Monday we went to Winchester to see an old friend and her almost two-year-old, who is a real cutie. We spent the afternoon in a lovely playground (Winchester has just spent lots of money on renovating playgrounds).

On Tuesday we made it up to London for the MP meetup, and spent all day in a fantastic playground. It was great to meet up with friends old and new, and the children had a great time. We hardly saw C all day, and once M had found her feet, she had a wonderful time too.

That used up most of my energy quota for the week, however. On Wednesday we stayed in and it rained all day. Jonathan took the children shopping to give me some quiet. On Thursday we managed a bit of a walk by the harbour at Emsworth, and on Friday we did a long walk round Farlington Marshes. In the evening Jonathan's parents came home, so we made use of the free babysitting and went out to dinner with one of Jonathan's oldest friends.

On Saturday we spent the day in with Jonathan's parents, and drove home in the evening. It was good to get away and do some things as a family, and I've really enjoyed having Jonathan on hand so I could get some rest during the day, but we were all really glad to get home.

M's highlights of the holiday were definitely all the public transport we went on. Not sure what C liked best - she'd probably say watching lots of Veggietales videos. Playground count was five, which was probably a good point for them both.