Merry go round moments – week 39.

Family fun: top shot.

 

Memories are made of this.

Ten months old and our little man has a new skill…drinking with a straw out of a bottle! It seems that watching your big sister doing something – especially something involving food and drink – can be quite a strong motivator!  It is so sweet and so funny, watching him sucking so hard that his cheeks draw totally inwards and his eyes go wide with the surprise at getting a mouthful of water as his reward for all his efforts.

 

Laugh out loud.

Trying to get a photo with my lovely friend, Sophia, and our two sons, whilst they wriggled and squirmed in an effort to get down and go exploring.   My little man really did not want to be messing about having photos taken, as is clear from the photo!  These boys have grown up alongside each other for their first year, and we have spent many a happy Saturday afternoon sitting drinking tea, eating cake and watching them play.

 

Quick quote.

“A journey is best measured in friends, not in miles.”

Tim Cahill.

Music makes me happy.

‘January, February, March and April, 

MAY, JUNE, July and August.  

September, Octoooober, December, Acember, 

these are the months of the year.’

Not quite sure why the rest of the song is sung super-sweetly, and May and June get the full throttle, shouty voice.  Nor why ‘Octooober’ is sung with the ‘o’ sound to rhyme with ‘who’ instead of ‘woe’. And quite honestly, the muddle with November and December at the end is just adorable.  It’s one of those little linguistic blips that you want to help them correct, but at the same time want to hang on to forever, as a little touch of stardust from their childhood.

 

Good times.

Our girly is such a joy right now.  She is drawing pictures all the time, and ‘writing’ us letters, which are essentially just a sheet of horizontal wiggly lines.  The other day she drew me a rainbow which actually looked like a rainbow!  It melts my heart thinking what a grown up, gorgeous little girl she is becoming.  She is climbing into her car seat herself, getting dressed herself, pouring her own milk.  I cannot believe how fast the years have gone.  How is my baby nearly three?

 

Merry go round moments – week 38.

Family fun: top shot.

Family fun in the park. They loved sitting in the swing basket together, whilst daddy pushed.

Memories are made of this.

A week where teething and the desire to practice standing at all times have made sleeping a touch tricky for the little man.  It has not been the best of fun for anyone, waking up four, even five times a night sometimes.  These things pass, of course, but it has most definitely been a somewhat grumpy week in our household.

 

Laugh out loud.

‘When we go to the Falklands it is going to be very windy, and very cold, and there will be penguins.  And maybe we will have a cat, won’t we mummy?  And my cat will be called Ginger.  Okay?  Good!’

So, there we have it, the toddler boss has spoken!  We haven’t actually told her that we are hoping to get a cat, as we are planning to settle in first and then see how things are going, before making the commitment to get a pet.  However, she has either sensed our weakness or is just making sure her requirements are noted!

I am also left wondering whether Ginger will still be the name if we end up with a black cat…time will tell.

 

Quick quote.

“It will never rain roses: when we want to have more roses, we must

plant more roses.”

George Eliot.

Music makes me happy.

Radiohead – Fake Plastic Trees.  In no way a happy song (no surprise there as it is Radiohead!), and yet hearing this tune on the radio brought a wave of teen nostalgia and sing-along happiness.  I am incredibly content in my mid-thirties skin, and don’t hanker in any way for my youth, but musical memories are a powerful thing aren’t they?

 

Good times.

Another week with some really lovely opportunities to see friends and catch up.  It is beginning to feel real that we are leaving soon, especially as friends are starting to fill up our days and nights with ‘one last meal/coffee/playdate for the kids’.  It is so lovely, and keeps us focused on the good bits, instead of the continuing grind of sorting out the myriad administrative and logistical tasks involved in such a big move.

An impromptu sunday lunch round at Sally and Joe’s house, watching whilst our little miss and their son played, was just the perfect end to the week.  They are a year apart in age, but they go to the same nursery school and they play so nicely together.  They had a great time toddling round the garden, playing with their umbrella’s (a random highly prized item for each of them today, for some reason!).

 

Merry go round moments – week 37.

Family fun: top shot.

We have very little furniture here right now. But we did leave a paddling pool, some plastic balls, and some foam mats…this little man is in boy heaven! He sits in there, bashing balls together, gnawing on them, thumping his arms on the sides of the pool, rolling around in the balls. Endless fun.

Memories are made of this.
Our girly is getting so brave, as she climbs up the steps to the top of the ladder then throws herself with gusto so that she can really pick up some speed. A few times this week she has really landed with a bump on the ground, but she picks herself up, gives it a vigorous rub, and then sets off for the ladder again. And all the while her little brother looks on, from the little bucket swings nearby, clearly taking it all in and trying to figure out when it will be his turn! Not yet my boy, not yet!

 

Laugh out loud.
The schools are on holiday this week, so we have had a lovely lazy week at home. Not late rises, but slow starts. We were all piled in our bed, the kids playing together between us, whilst we drank our cups of tea on either side of them. Then daddy grabbed the girly for a big hug, which she tolerated for a minute or so and then said, in her primmest matron voice, “that’s quite enough of that!”. I laughed until there were tears rolling down my face. Little miss Mary Poppins, at her very best!

 

Quick quote.

A bit of a note to myself, I suppose, whilst we travel through a big backwards step on the toilet training with our girly.  She was there.  She’d done brilliantly.  It felt like we were (literally) home and dry.  And then this.  But then in fairness to her, there has been a lot going on in her little life recently.  A lot of change and upheaval.  I guess something had to give.  We will get there again.  But some days the frustration is very real.

“Constant frustration with other people signals a control issue or a loss of humanity.  Have patience with others, for you needn’t change them and they, like all of us, have difficult times.”

Brendon Burchard

 

Music makes me happy.
The Hippopotamus Song – Flanders and Swann. The girly loves singing this one, trying to reach all the highest and lowest notes, in her most dramatic, arm waving way.  It has been a real favourite this week.  It’s a joy to watch her.

 

Good times.

Plenty of playdates this week for the kids, which has been lovely.  Sitting watching my kids playing with their friends, whilst drinking coffee, eating homemade cake or vegetarian momos and chatting with the other mums.  Perfect.  I am really hugely going to miss the friends I’ve made here.