Blue skies

It's amazing what a sunny day and a bit of sleep can do to help restore energy. Although I think it'd take a few weeks of both for us all to be 100%.

Variations on a theme

Well the children are on the mend but the adults are a little ropey. I think mine is just too little sleep but I feel rotten. We still made it outside again despite some rain.

And then cold and wet it ended up with bath number 1 of the day. Isabel had a shower this morning too and then they both went in the bath before bed.

He's very fond of getting himself into small spaces...

Getting better

Well we made it to dinner time before anyone was sick today and I think that was more because she was gagging on her cucumber than because of being ill. The boy is much better (I could tell as he was asking for Chugginton and wrestling with his sister by 7 am).

When you have ill small children and no adult around to help the wonders that are the Ocado delivery are much appreciated. They have got us out of a hole several times in the last few months (including delivering to us on Christmas even for our unplanned stay at home Christmas). I always have helpers for the unpacking (the dog likes to stick his nose into every bag but has yet to be able to put anything on the top of the unit). Today's helper was Miss Bel. She has a cute hand out signal saying she want something and managed to eat her way through a good proportion of the goodies as they came out of the bags. She's loving it that she can now climb on the Ikea stool and see what's happening up high. I tend to work on the principle that once they can climb on something under their own steam then I let them get on with it - there is the odd fall but surprisingly few.

One of the biggest differences between child 1 and child 2 is the amount of time to sit and read books in peace and quiet. Whenever I've tried to read with Isabel Isaac gets involved or starts doing loud things to distract her. And frankly mostly she's been more interested in eating them than reading them. But just recently she's 'got' books and now demands them. She still mostly likes opening and closing pages at random but she's very definite about which books she wants and how many times she wants to look at them.

Spoke too soon

What's worse than two sick children? One sick and the other climbing the walls cos she wants to go out....

It has been a trying day but with lovely moments. She's spoken to daddy on Skype.

The boy has been here or variants thereof with me in sight if not next to him.

There's been a bit of piano solo.

The problem is they both want me to be 100% involved with them and there are two of them and only one of me. Here's hoping for an early night all round.

Soothe and heal

We've had a poorly household this weekend and whilst the boy recovered pretty quickly it's taken Isabel a little longer so there's been lots and lots of this

But finally we have turned a corner and spent an hour or so this afternoon doing this

I'm hoping I might get to sleep tonight.

Quick Change Trousers

She's in 'up' mode at the moment and if the possibility of water is included then she's a driven girl. She can climb the kitchen stool unaided but she can't reach the tap herself. We're left in no doubt what she wants though!

I finally finished a pair of Quick Change Trousers from Anna Maria Horner's book. They're lovely to make (although I did have to unpick several seams after sewing the wrong bit together but that's what happens when you're sewing with small children 'helping'). I was warned that they were small so sized up to the 18-24 month size and am very glad I did (thanks Em). The fabrics are red linen from ebay and kid's fabric from Ikea.

and this is what happens when you have children around - snipping the seams goes a bit wrong...

She's been busy

Mostly she's been wearing her food...

But she's also been taking err.... my boot for a walk.

Oh no here's baby.

She's also been climbing on the dining table and onto the kitchen stool. Not that she copies her brother or anything...