Pop pop poppop pop pop bang

Bubble wrap + two kids = 90 minutes of fun.

The dog took himself off upstairs to find a bed and put his paws over his ears - gun dog he aint. It was very loud. Small children jumping up and down on bubble wrap goes bang, crack, snap.

I highly recommend it. They were cackling with laughter and having a great time. And once the stomping, running and jumping were done Isaac lay down and started working his way through the sheet with his fingers.

A mattress has given hours of entertainment too - jumpoline for winter weather.

Upside down

She's very very pleased with herself that she can do a headstand. So pleased that she does it many many times a day.

Child labour

What happens when toddlers dress themselves? Well a summer hat in January and her brother's wooly cardi mostly. She was a vision of loveliness as we hit the town.

The favourite toy of the moment is the Dyson. I have to put the timer on so they can have fair shares - occasionally the carpet gets cleaned too.

It's reached that time of year when I start to browse Rightmove and wonder about how to rearrange the house. My Gran used to want to move every spring and I think it's been passed down to me. The upside is that when I'd got the kids to bed the other night I did a bit of rearranging and turned the table round so we can get into the corner by the window. My plan is to move the chest of drawers upstairs but Isaac has decided it's great for climbing on and jumping off and won't let me move it - this is the problem when things only get half finished because the furniture that needs moving to make room is in the same room as a sleeping child.

The change of space has had a lovely impact on the play of the children and changed the dynamic of the room. I'm sure there'll be a few more tweaks but I'm glad I did it.

Isaac greeted the postman as a pirate this morning and then became a knight. When Matthew phoned the conversation was mostly, 'Arrrrgh' from this end. (Note knee protector as shield and wooden cross as sword - the boy is inventive.)

Isaac decided he wanted to do the washing up tonight. He was doing a great job until some things fell off the dish rack and the noise scared him. I'm all for cultivating this sort of play though!

New batteries

After a day of tidying and building helicopters and generally just hanging out today needed a bit more excitement - for a start the helicopter is in bits again (does he not understand how long it took me to build the thing!).

So of course the thing to do on a wet and miserable Tuesday was to fix the bubble machine. Most of the sand has been washed out of the bottom and new batteries were added and then off they went. 40 minutes of jumping and giggling and running and playing with bubbles. Result!

The other favourite toy of the day is the bin... it's a net that's been used to catch everything and everyone (dog included).

Quiet

We're all full of cold and trying to do that in between thing as Matthew's been home for a while and is off again on another trip. In an ideal world his time between trips would be for rest and relaxation but that's not how it works and so we're all exhausted before he flies again. Another month of this and he'll be home again for a good few months though so it could be worse.

Isabel is mostly Miss Independent but she still likes a snuggle.

Brownie heaven

I made a big batch of Nigella's brownies on Friday. I had two helpers who managed not to get in each others way or to make the process harder for me. The only problem we had was that there was just one bowl and one spoon for licking afterwards. We managed though.

It's been perishing cold for the last few days but my children still insist on going outside. Even they agree to put some clothes on... eventually.

All a glow

Isabel likes babies. Give her a selection of dolls and she'll always choose the one that looks like a baby by preference but otherwise anything will do including wooden bricks. She talks to them. She cuddles them. She sticks them up her top to have some milk. She slings them (with help) and walks up and down going 'shhhhhh, shhhhhh' in a way that I don't think I've ever done with her. She feeds the yogurt and takes nappies off (with a dialogue about poo and clean nappies to go with it). And she's ever so slightly possessive should anyone else want to have a cuddle (to the point where everyone thought she was in pain this afternoon when another child took her baby off her).

She does other stuff too (jumping mostly) but babies is where it's at.

We've been having lots of fun with glow sticks. Isaac loves them - he loved the one with a hook on the end best as it could then be a crane and all sorts of other things even after the glow had faded but any will do. We've had some lovely fun baths by the light of glow sticks and a candle and there have been various experiments along the way.

We have a set of 5 stacking cups that have been bath toys for as long as I can remember. They're different colours and have holes in and so were great for putting a glow stick in and seeing the light come out of them. Isaac noticed that some of the cups were less opaque than others and started sorting them from light to dark. It was the perfect science experiment all done from his own curiosity and not because I'd decided to do something "educational". Tonight he started using connectors to build shapes, we were a bit lacking in options as to how they could be connected but he improvised and held bits if needed. He decided he was going to 'do blood' and had a blue stick and red stick - all very good and feeling like he's a genius, go Isaac! Oh yes and yellow. You have yellow blood right? Ah well it's about the process isn't it....

Isabel did 'draw-ring' on my head with one end of one of the sticks and lots of waving them around just in case you wondered.

Duck