Nearly New Sale Time Again

It was the twice yearly NCT nearly new sale this weekend and as well as helping out I did a little shopping... And got given a few things that hadn't sold beforehand.

So the boy now has a bag - he loves it! And a scooter which he's not yet mastered but he's having fun trying.

We got some practical things like a new change mat and some maternity clothes and then a big bag of cars, trucks, motorbikes and helicopters.

It's been a big hit!

I was talking to my friend Debs on Thursday about toddler behaviours and she mentioned how her oldest (now nearly 10) used to line up his cars. Lo and behold on Saturday one of the first things Isaac did with his big bag of cars was to line them up.

Even on the table when we went out for Chinese.

Ages and ages and ages ago I made a pair of trousers (loosely based on the 10 minute trousers pattern here but I forgot to do the back at an angle - hence the nappy showing out of the waistband - and these are reversible) which were huge. They're still rolled up twice at the bottom so have plenty of growing room but otherwise they fit him well. He's loving wearing them and I'll make some more when I have a spare hour or so (10 minutes may be accurate for unlined ones when you've had a bit of practice but the cutting alone takes me longer than that).

Sun and stickering

After a very dubious summer we've finally had some nice weather so we've been out in the garden a fair bit. Isaac's been chalking on the walls.

The spiders have been busy making their webs (not sure how well that'll show up....)

The garden has been growing.

There's been some pot filling.

And when we've been inside Finn has been continuing his experiment to train a human to do his bidding... This is the dog drawer that contains his treat bag and other doggy essentials.

And anyone who sits still for too long gets stickered...

Local food

One of our neighbours has some hens and sometimes sells their eggs in the summer but as the days draw in and the hens start producing fewer eggs they make jam. We got jar of plum, nectarine and honey from them and I used it on the left over pastry from my pie and popped a few flaked almonds on it. Lovely.

The apples for the pie are even more local as they come from the garden next door, we have a standing offer from the owner to help ourselves. I'd taken some puff pastry out of the freezer to use for something else that didn't get made so instead of my usual pastry I used that. I couldn't find the rolling pin so was reduced to using the boy's play dough rolling pin!

Foil, tunnel & buttons

The boy creates his own fun now by raiding the kitchen drawers...

There's a monster in the tunnel...

And we had fun playing with lots and lots of buttons...

Horses and big sticks

The weather has been beautiful so we went for a walk and saw some horses (Isaac is a little scared of them so had to be carried past them).

We found a big log which came for most of the walk with us until Daddy lost it.

Took time to smell the flowers.

Ate a few blackberries.

And then found a couple of smaller sticks to replace the log.

Isaac figured if he wasn't looking at them they weren't there...

But at a safe distance he was willing to look.

A sunny morning in the country

Well the news on the park is that it's going to be months and months before we get any play equipment back in it. It's very annoying and frustrating and means instead of going to the park every day we only go to the swings a couple of times a week as it means getting in the car.

On days like today though that can be a blessing. I've driven past a little park in one of the nearby villages several times and there's never anyone playing in it, which seems so sad. So off we went today.

It was a slow start as the boy just wanted to watch the sheep in the field next door.

They were quite keen to watch us too!

But eventually he went to explore and climb.

And boy he likes his swings!

And he's not scared to climb the highest of slides, either up the steps or up the slide itself.

We have a resident big spider on the deck at the moment. The web is so strong it feels like steel. She didn't seem to notice her neighbour.

Catching up

The boy got quite a few gifts of money for his birthday and while most of it has gone into his bank account he's also had a few gifts bought with it. One of them is a tree house. It's a Treeblocks tree house but bought from ebay. It's great as it's quite unformed and open so he can make it lots of things other than a house. The top section isn't attached so can be all sorts of things and often ends up taken off. Mostly he's been playing with the swing and pushing toys through the doorways. It's the perfect size for his Duplo animals and he's got some lovely wooden animals from Granny and Grandpa that fit well (and suit the wood much more).

It was our friend Megan's 3rd birthday last weekend and Isaac had a lovely time dressing up in her 'bling' and feeling the music (literally) through the speakers.

He also had a little play on her new bike.

Life returned to normal this week including some more measuring.

Using the washing powder measuring cups as mittens.

And sticking stickers on mummy.