Orange day

Beetroot brownies

I've come to the conclusion that it is better to build train track than it is to play at trains for an hour. Pushing a train around the track gets boring very quickly.... although not apparently if you're 3.

I finally made beetroot brownies today. I've been wanting to make these for ages and ages but rarely have beetroot in our veg box. I like beetroot and usually my favourite thing to do with it is juice it but hey chocolate always goes down well in my book. They're very light and very moist (I think slightly undercooked) but good with icecream - they're more of a dessert than a cake in my opinion. I'm not sure they'll overtake Nigella's brownies as my brownie of choice but they're well worth trying.

Have tutu will travel

The tutu got discarded after the last play but he reached for it today and demanded help in putting it on (there's lots of demanding goes on in a 3 year old's life but he can very polite too so I figure he'll learn the niceties as and when he's ready and use it a reminder to model the behaviours I want him to copy). After sitting in Isabel's highchair for a while he was bursting with energy so I suggested we go to the park and he wanted to keep the tutu on - fine by me.

Isabel was awake and a bit restless so I figured it was time to let her play in the swings. She loved it and Isaac loved pushing her. You really can't beat swings for fun.

The tutu has a big drawback - how do you pee in it? So at that point it came off.

He rode his bike very very fast up the big hill and then of course very very fast down the big hill... On the third time he didn't quite stop before the railings and so there were a few tears but he came to no harm.

Even on my back she wants to be into everything.

Today is Jewish New Year when we have apples dipped in honey for sweetness in the new year. What better use for our one apple.

A walk in the woods

The forecast for this week was rain, rain and more rain and whilst we've had the odd black cloud looming it's actually been lovely weather. Today late as ever for the group activity we might have gone to we piled in the car and went to the woods instead.

As we walked down the main path the boy yelled a halt and made me go back to look at a very tiny snail. He then demanded he took a picture of it.

I took on the rest of the picture taking duties though as he was too busy collecting leaves and dandelions and just generally having fun.

Usually if I'm walking for any length of time Isabel will drop off to sleep, which was the plan for today. She had other ideas though and spent as much time as she could trying to lean out of the sling and grab things.

To the point where she nearly made it all the way out.

Isaac commented on the trees in the river so we talked a bit about reflections and how the water was like a mirror.

He went digging for moles again. He said the mole would either run away or would stay and say hello and then he'd be able to cuddle the mole. Bless him he's a friendly soul. There were lots and lots of mole hills and so we talked about whether there were lots of moles or just one busy one. One busy one he decided.

It's annoying when she's grabbing for everything but she's ever so cute.

And then we found a bit of the river that we could see the bottom of which meant one thing, paddling.

I decided it was safer to have her on my back at that point as I needed to be able to help Isaac in the water.

Lots and lots and lots of this...

Meant a very wet (but happy) boy - and yes he is wearing a pajama top as it was all I could find, such is life.

So one sleeping girl on my back and one trouserless boy carried in my arms we headed back to the car.

back to normal

The summer holidays have now ended and the schools are all back now so we're getting back into our term time routines.

There's usually a train set on the go although mostly there's a dog or something on the line, yesterday it was Isabel and the dog although he moved when I got the camera.

Today was time to reclaim the park.

There was a little snoozing.

A little swinging.

A little thinking (I want to sit here and think!).

A conversation with a ladybird - well several actually as the boy does like ladybirds.

The key to the door.

Duplo today instead of train track.

And telling the time - the boy is constantly asking 'what time is it now?' and we bought some craft scissors today that have extra blades so they became clock hands.

Party time

The end of August and the beginning of September are parcel time in our house as Isaac relives his birthday and then just as things are winding down it's time for his friend's birthday and so it all starts again. It's always lovely to spend a warm afternoon in a lovely garden with friends though so I'll put up with the random 'parcels' that I'll be given over the next weeks.

18 lbs

I weighed her this week and she's now the same weight that Isaac was when he was at 8 1/2 months old... 8.22 kg or just over 18 lbs.

In the voluntary work that I do I support mums who breastfeed and I've heard women's fears about not producing enough milk because they don't leak or they can't express and someone (often a midwife or health visitor) has told them that means they're not producing enough milk and they need to top up with formula. I very occasionally leak at night if I'm not wearing a bra and I find it very hard to express milk and yet I'm obviously producing enough milk not only for Isabel for for my 3 year old too.