A kick in the head

Sometimes being with two is delightful. Often it's challenging. Mostly it's tiring. Isabel is going through a stage at the moment where she's in constant motion. Feeding is like being in the scrum. Sleeping involves much wriggling, squiggling and the odd head butt. Her limbs have a life of their own and my ribs are often kicked, pushed and poked. In the middle of the night if she's not in contact with me a little hand will reach out and grab my hair or if I'm lucky pat my head just to check I'm still there. It's not unusual for there to be a kick in the head. All in all I'm not getting much sleep. In the day she will only sleep if she's on me and is mostly a bag of wriggles even then. I got lamped in the head by a doll just before this picture was taken - a good argument if ever there was for Waldorf dolls instead of plastic.

The boy has realised that I am a captive audience once she's asleep. When I just had one child being able to sit and read with a sleeping child on me was bliss (well until I needed a wee) but with two I end up snatching the odd paragraph whilst playing... or being played with.

New shhhhhoos

Well we survived a weekend of camping (I say a weekend but we slept at home on Saturday night as otherwise I would have lost the plot completely). Whilst I didn't get a great deal of sleep on Friday night I did have lovely bird song to wake up to and blue skies.

The children liked camping and being able to explore a big campsite with lots of other families.

The highlight of the weekend for Isaac though was being a leopard.

Isabel got some new dolls.

And did a little catwalk practice.

There wasn't much space for a tired mama on Sunday night.

And perfect timing that there was a lovely shoe stall just as Isabel needs oooshe.

Say Mackerel

The boy has been watching too many episodes of Octonauts and so after doing lots of 'say cheese' he said 'say mackerel' hence my funny expression.

It's very tempting to edit myself out of the day's photos (or at the very least to heavily edit them) but I am trying to be in the recored of my children's lives as well as keeping a record.

The peony, true to form, is about to fully flower just as we go away. We'll only be away for a couple of days though so it should be in full bloom when we get back.

Isabel has quite a lot of words (well distinct sounds or signs rather than full English) and one her favourites is hat. Shame she'll never keep one on when she's in the sun though.

Tents excitement

Isabel's favourite things at the moment, the big brush, books and her baby.

We are currently in possession of some tents and things that might be related to camping. I am still unsure how this happened or whether I can be persuaded to use them. It may depend on the weather....

One thing I'm glad of though is that the dog will not be camping - it's safe to say he doesn't understand.

The kids were excited though - and by kids I mean Matthew.

Miss Bel is loving her new independence and wanted to walk to the park this afternoon - she wasn't bothered if I was going with her or not. She spent the evening riding her bike up and down the street.

When my back's turned

This is what she did.

I was alerted by her turning the coffee machine on - she'd pushed both the right buttons & left the middle 'steam' one off.

Lots of daisies

Lazy parenting tip number 107 - let them draw on you (with washable pens). It means you can sit there and you know exactly where they are and what they're drawing on. (Kneeling on the carpet afterwards to change a nappy may result in a blue patch on the carpet though.)

On sunny days this is a common event in our house. If you don't keep an eye on them Isabel is off climbing along next door's wall and Finny has taken himself off to smell the cats up the street though.

After lots and lots of dry days we've had some rain this weekend. The garden is grateful but the grass now needs cutting. The daisies in the park have really gone to town. Isaac spent a lot of time running around in a big patch of daisies before plopping himself down and grabbing handfuls and then running around again.

Isabel likes playing with the camera - we don't need shape sorters in our house as she puts the camera back in its case and gets it out again and does it over and over.

She's still snotty but much improved on last week.

The boy spent a lot of time staring in the bin.

"Mummy, mummy come and see the dead pigeon."

Then he cycled off to the climbing tree and was up it before we could make our way there.

Nearly there

We are spending lots and lots of time outdoors at the moment whether in our garden or in the gardens of friends. We've also been to various parks and played on the play equipment (yep I was on a zip slide again) and climbed trees (not me).

Even an evening potter to go and vote turns into a family outing.

Pine cones were inspected and attempts made to pick the seeds out.

Sticks were found (and brought home) but there weren't enough to build a house.

Small person got in on the pine cone action.

And then helped bring the washing in.

And the peony is so nearly there!