Snowwoman

Matthew and the boy have been busy again - well I suspect it was more Matthew...

Skating and a snowman

But first a lovely parcel! I ordered some organic flannel so that I can make some baby clothes with soft snuggly linings (as inspired by Kat) and despite all the snow and no post for a week this parcel made its way to me. It's the softest snuggliest flannel I've ever felt and I can't wait to get started on some sewing.

The boy announced he wanted to go skating and brought some boxes for me to help put his skates on. Who am I to argue?

And with Matthew home there was a snowman built on Monday. He's now covered in a new dusting of snow and may acquire a friend later today.

He has very fetching lavender eyebrows.

The dog has his own way of having fun in the snow....

Frog 2

The fatter cousin.

Both now have eyes you'll be pleased to hear ;~)

Frog Cake

OK so it's a frog and a cake but frog cake sounds like kinda fun...

Things I've made today are a beanbag frog. I've had these in mind for months and just not managed to get around to doing them. As it turns out trying to do them with a 2 year old helper leads to many mistakes and only one being made so far with 2 in the bin... Simple things like putting 2 right sides together seemed to be beyond me when trying to do it with the boy involved.

At least I like the finished article (well I say finished but it's got no eyes at the mo). And the boy has decided it's great fun to fling it around and things.

I'm getting very very bored of the weather at the moment. There's enough snow around for there to be no post or deliveries since Tuesday. I could probably get the car out but I don't really have any need to and I can't be bothered to spend 40 minutes clearing all the snow off etc and then hoping there's still plenty of room to get the car back into a space when I get back so we've been mostly in the house for 3 days now. What's a girl to do? Well make cake of course...

I tried a tea cake in the breadmaker as I figured it'd be easy. It wasn't hard but actually it's no different to cooking it in a tin except that it's timed. I didn't have all the ingredients (when do I ever) so improvised a bit and it's ended up with dried cranberries, nectarine and mango in there as well as earl grey tea and the usual ingredients so it's very sweet and fragrant.

I'm not sure this is my son...

Snow is very pretty and all that but really who wants to go out in it? Well my son apparently... lots!

He's been out 5 times today for 15-20 minutes at a time before he gets too cold. Thankfully you can see the garden from the dining room window so I get to watch and nod and smile whilst still in the warm. (I did go out for about 3 minutes but retreated as it was too cold for me!)

It's great to see him taking such pleasure in something so simple. And I take joy from seeing it. My loathing of snow comes from too many times as a child having to walk up fields in blizzards to get home as we lived in a farmhouse in the countryside. Now I have a healthy respect for snow and avoid it as much as possible.

The boy thinks it's just a great big ice lolly!

Snow

The bump is getting big an uncomfortable. I can't believe there's still 3 months to go.

I'm very conscious that I've only got a limited amount of time left with just the boy and am trying to cherish our time together.

It's not so easy to cherish when you're dealing with a very wide awake boy at 6am though who wants to get up and go and look at the snow...

He didn't actually get out to play in it until 7.15 and then boy and bear both went a little wild for a few minutes before coming back in to warm up.

Getting back to life

Now that all the celebrations are over we're getting back into the swing of normal life. Matthew is away again and we're trying our best to keep entertained in the cold weather.

Preparing for life to come the boy's been practicing tandem babywearing.

He's been dressing up warm to go out in the cold.

The bear has been on hand in everything we do - sometimes he's more in the way than others...

Never one to miss climbing something if it's possible...

You have to try all the colours after all.

I've been making bags and some bits and bobs. Isaac's decided this one should be his and filled it full of cars before setting off to 'pop to the shop'.