Snow-Woman!

Daddy and Barney enjoyed the recent snow by building a snow woman, complete with a Walmart nursing bra for feeding her non-existent snow baby. Cool. This fine specimen is currently on display in our front garden.

Happy Birthday to Daddy

Barney lights the candle's for Daddy's 37th birthday cake. Happy Birthday Daddy!!!

Poorly Barney

Poor Barney has had a terrible few months. Since starting school he has had one bug after another, which is to be expected when suddenly thrust into a world of unhygienic, snotty little children. But more than that, he was been very unwell, and hes just about had enough of feeling miserable. He's been missing 1 - 2 days a week from school on average, and I'm sure the teachers wonder if I just can't be bothered to send him in. About 6 weeks ago I took him to see the doctor who prescribed him antibiotics and sent him for an x-ray. The antibiotics cleared everything up for about a week, then it all just came back again. He has a constant cough, cold, blocked sinuses, headaches, occasional vomiting and diarrhea. During the day he is always cold, I mean frozen cold, to such an extent that he needs to wear thermals under his clothes and could really do with gloves and slippers, no matter how much we heat the house. His hands and feet just cant warm up. But then at night time he wakes every night with a burning fever, hot to the touch from head to toe and complaining bitterly that he feels unwell. We have tried every natural remedy we can think of, from steam inhalations, changing his bedding for dust mite proof bedding, getting rid of rugs and anything that traps dust in his room, giving him vitamins and a childrens iron supplement. But nothing makes a blind bit of difference.

So this week I took him back to the doctors. Firstly she told me the results of his x-ray. He has an abnormal rib, a congenital abnormality that he was born with. One of his ribs splits into two and sticks out at a a funny angle. Apparently its completely harmless and he's just unique. She drew him a picture of his special rib which he enjoyed. Yesterday I drew on his chest with blue felt pen to show him exactly what ribs are and how his are different. The doctor was puzzled by his symptoms and admitted that he probably needs to have some blood tests done. But rather than traumatize the poor lad with blood tests yet she wanted to try him on an asthma treatment to see if that would help. She is seeing him again in 2 weeks, and if there's no improvement it will be onto the blood test route. So for 3 days now he has been taking 2 different inhalers, and there has been not a tiny bit of improvement so far. Part of me doesn't want him to have asthma, but part of me wonders if asthma could be a darn site nicer than anything else that he could have. It's a waiting game now to see if theres any improvement. But the poor mite is just so fed up of feeling poorly and we are all feeling very sorry for him.

Just a quick update blog really, as I don't have all that much to say today. We have about 31 days (who's counting?) till our little girl is due to be delivered by C Section. I can't believe it's all happened so fast, although at time's it seems like it will never be over.

Barney is more excited than ever about the arrival of his new baby sister. It used to be that every morning he would run into our bedroom shouting "its your boy!", he'd leap onto the bed, wrap his arms around me and give me big kisses whilst telling me how much he loves me. But this week, every morning, he has run in and flung his arms around my belly, kissing randomly and shouting "I love you Emily! I can't wait to see you!" He prods at my tummy asking "where are her leg? where are her lips? where are her arms?" and has many questions about whether she can hear him, whether she can see what going on in there. He quite often sits and has a wee chat with her, telling her who he is and how life will be for her. It's quite the cutest thing.

We have a birthday in the house this week. On Saturday our Annabelle will be 12 years old. As expected she's very excited, although I have no idea what we've bought her as presents, because I got all organised and wrapped them up weeks ago! I am still trying to get all the christmas presents sorted out before the baby's birth and really must get that sorted this week.

Our family, this week

It's Wednesday evening at 11.20pm and I've climbed into bed to read a book, but somehow ended up with the laptop on my knee. I like Wednesday evenings. It's the night Jimmie (13) and I watch 'The Family' together. It's one of the rare times these days when he comes to sit with me for any length of time. We watch it together and discuss how the family deals with situations, and how we would deal with them. It's really a good time for us both. He always comes and sits and hugs me afterwards, which makes me so happy I could cry. I think watching it helps him to see how parents worry about their kids, and how we only nag and moan because we care. And he sees the teenagers in it behaving the way he does, upsetting their parents, and making up again. It's good for both of us to see, and there's always a good feeling in our house afterwards. I guess its a relief to see that other families face the same issues as we do.

On the subject of teenagers (one in particular) Jimmie came sheepishly up to me this afternoon after school and asked "who is in a better mood? you or Dad?" So right then I knew something was up. He came and sat on the bed with his homework diary and started to explain that he is on report this week for repeated bad behaviour. He had to tell me as there was a note from his form tutor which I have to sign every night. Apparently I will be receiving a letter in the mail from her too, and she has invited me to contact her. So its not good news. He has had Monday detentions three weeks in a row, and a few lunch time detentions, for various things - wearing his uniform too scruffy, talking in class, forgetting homework or books, being late for class. It's one thing after another. His main problem is laziness and a lack of organisation I think. So I sat and had a good talk with him. He obviously thought he was going to be in immense trouble, as he generally agreed with everything I said and agreed to improve his behaviour. I guess he didn't want to push his luck any further. It remains to be seen if we will see a marked improvement. If not I guess a trip to the school will be in order.

We talked about his schoolwork as well. His English homework last night was to describe a room in his house. He chose to talk about the utility room and the reasons that he likes it. He described the smell of bread baking, the smell of the cupboard that holds all the washing powders, the smell of the shoe cupboard, all so imaginatively. It was a really creative piece of writing, but not very long. He told me when he read it to me that it was supposed to be short. So today he came to me and said his English teacher called him to one side to talk to him. She told him that he has a great creative talent for writing, and that she thinks he could take it far, but that he is so lazy and just doesn't put the effort into his work. She feels he is wasting a great talent. So we discussed this and I tried to inspire him to work harder on English. I explained that not everyone can be good at everything. That we all may only find a few things in life that we are truly exceptional at. And when we find such things we should nurture that talent and make the most of it. I told him that he may well only be very good at a couple of subjects, so instead of feeling bad at everything, try to excel in the areas where he can. He seemed to understand and agree. But it remains to be seen whether he can overcome his laziness. He truly is the most lazy person I have ever met. (And I guess my Mum will tell me that he gets that from me!)

Moving on from Jimmie then... Barney has been absent from school one or two days a week since he suffered from a cold about a month ago. He kept waking up at night with excruciating headaches, blocked nose, a croup sounding cough, and a few times even a temperature. So eventually I was forced to take him to the doctors. The doctor thought his sinuses had become infected from the cold, and so gave him some antibiotics to take. He seems a lot better a few days after starting the medication. But while we were at the doctors I pointed out a lump on Barneys chest that I have recently noticed. As his father has Neurofibromatosis (a genetically inherited disease) I thought I should mention it. At first the doctor seemed unconcerned. But then he started feeling up and down Barneys chest wall, and counting. The counting startled me a bit, then eventually he said 'hmm, I think we should get a chest x-ray". So I thought OK, 3 months waiting for an x-ray appointment, but no, the doctor wanted me to get one right away - that afternoon! The 'lump' is hard, like bone, and kind of looks like a broken rib that has healed. I can notice it through his t-shirts, but I know it hasn't been like that since he was born. The doctor asked if I remember a time he could have broken his ribs, but I cant think of anything like that happening. He went on to explain that he couldn't find the right number of ribs on Barneys right chest wall. Two of the ribs seem fused together by bone or something. He said that it could just be a genetic abnormality - that he does actually have two fused ribs - but that an x-ray was needed to make sure it is nothing more sinister. So I took him straight over for his chest x-ray and now we have a 3 week wait for the results.

Annabelle has been mostly a darling the last few weeks. She does her homework without being asked, she generally keeps her room tidy, she is kind to Barney, and she helps me when asked. Hence I don't have much to blog about her. But I don't take it for granted that she's being so great. I know it probably wont last forever, so I appreciate it while I can. Lol. It wont be long until her 12th birthday. She is looking forward to having a little sister to take care of. I think I will barely get to cuddle little Emily once Annabelle gets her hands on her. When I mentioned that she's going to be like a second mother to Emily, Barney piped up with "and I'm going to be like a second Daddy - but I'm not going to change any smelly nappies!"

We are almost 31 weeks pregnant now. I was looking at photos today of babies who were born at 31 weeks gestation and lived to be perfectly healthy children. Our little girl weighs about 4lbs now and is fully grown in length, although she will put on about 1/2lb a week from now until birth. She has moved into the head down position ready for birth and kicks far stronger than any of my other three babies did. Her kicks actually hurt me. It's like being beaten up from the inside. I remember very strong kicks at the end of pregnancy with my others, but they were never so painful. I have started to play a song to her in the womb. I had a song for each of my babies, which they all recognised and calmed down to after birth. You can hear Emily's song by clicking here if you wish to.

Happy 5th Birthday Barney!

Yesterday saw my baby boy turn 5 years old. And boy was he excited about it. (OK, well what little boy doesn't get extremely excited about a birthday?) We all woke up early so that he could open a few presents before school, and then he opened the rest when he got home. Presents included lots of power rangers toys, an ant farm, lush bath bombs, the Bee Movie DVD, stickers, sweets and a puzzle. I had to laugh when he opened a present from me containing a new set of clothes - jeans, t-shirts, new striped casual shirt and a jumper - and exclaimed "Mummy! Why on earth did you think I'd want clothes for my birthday?!?!" Ha ha. Poor kid.

I was feeling really migrainey so Dan dropped the kids off to school while I went back to sleep for a few hours. After school Nanny came to visit and gave Barney the present he'd been wishing for - a Power Rangers Megazord! Which is basically 5 power rangers which can be stuck together and transformed into a huge giant megezord. A bit like transformers. I had the joy of spending an hour last night working out how to stick the darn things together to make the longed for megazord, but I got there in the end. (Let's hope I can remember for next time!) Nanny and Daddy had almost as much fun playing Power Rangers as Barney did.

As an added bonus we have had my sisters dog Leila staying with us for 2 nights, which has delighted all 3 of the kids.

I'm sure Dan will be writing a blog post on his often neglected blog about his trip to England with the kids, sometime in the next few weeks. When he does I'll be sure to mention it here.

Food to make you dribble

(photo of Barney, myself, and my Mum - taken 15th September 2008)

It's been a busy few weeks since the kids went back to school. Little Barney is really enjoying school so far. He looks forward to going in every day, although he couldn't go today as he has caught a cold. (One of the vices of going to school!) He only goes until midday for the first few weeks, but he still comes home exhausted from all the playing. I'm so relieved that he's settling in nicely, and that he's not crying or begging not to go. It makes life so much easier.

Annabelle has settled into high school just as if she'd always been there. She never has many stories to tell when she gets home. She just does her homework and gets on with it.

One of my highlights from last week was a morning I spent playing in our big bed with little Barney. I was having a lazy day, it was the weekend, and as usual Barney crawled into my bed for some 'Mummy Snuggles'. The best part of the day is mummy snuggle time. But on Saturday we spent all morning in bed together, chatting, playing, talking about the baby and school. We were laying on our backs staring at the ceiling when Barney remembered looking at the stars together in the deserts of America. Every day he mentions something from our big trip. So we lay on our backs and stared at the ceiling, pretending it was the night sky. Barney started to name ceiling paint spots after the planets. He's been reading a book lately about space and the planets and is learning the names and sizes of each planet in our solar system. So the light in the middle of the ceiling became the moon, the light switch was Jupiter, and various paint spots became different planets, stars, and comets. But intent on being correct, Barney had to get his space book to make sure the big paint spots were named after big planets, and the little ones after little planets. We had such a lovely time together.

The 3d baby scan, or bonding scan (see post below this one) has really helped the whole family to bond with our little unborn baby girl. But none more than Barney. Before the scan he would say to me 'I don't like babies, they are gross, I'm not going to cuddle it' etc. But since seeing Emily on the baby scan and watching the DVD at home with me a few times he has totally changed his feelings on the matter. He took the baby scan photos to school to show his teacher and the class, telling them 'this is my baby sister Emily Rosie'. I picked him up from school the day after the scan and instead of running to give me a hug, he ran to my tummy, flung his arms around my bump and declared "I'm sure I will love you baby Emily". Now and then he comes up to my bump and has a little chat with it, telling the baby how beautiful he is, and what a good big brother he will be. It almost has me in tears.

Jimmie hasn't been well the last few days, suffering from a fever and headaches, so I kept him off school today, along with Barney. The spent most of the day playing Pirates of the Caribbean together, with no sign of looking ill. But it was lovely to see Jimmie (13) being so patient with his little brother and teaching him everything he knows.

Yesterday poor Jimmie missed out on a trip to my Mum's house for dinner because he wasn't well, and boy what a dinner he missed! There's nothing like your Mum's home cooking, but this food was so divine that Dan and I were dribbling the entire way home just remembering how delicious it had been! Roast leg of lamb, steak & Guinness pie, roast potatoes, asparagus, pak choi, green beans, lamb gravy, mmmmmmmmm (I'm dribbling again) - all followed by a big strawberry pie. I ate enough for three people and Dan wasn't far behind me. Even little Barney managed a big plate of food through his sniffles. We weren't totally cruel though, we took a doggy bag of food home for Jimmie to heat up. He was pleased. We all watched the 3d baby scan projected up onto Mums living room wall like a cinema screen! It was great to see it in such detail. I could watch it over and over again anyway.

I'm sure I have a heap more I could blog about but I can't think at the moment. There's so many times I intend to write a post but I just run out of steam and don't have the energy. The BP tablets I'm on make me sleep far too much, and I'm constantly extremely tired. I thought I did so well at Mums yesterday , then I remembered I'd forgotten to take my medication, so that's why I had energy! Today though I did finally get a few things done. Lots of sheet changing, washing of clothes, ironing etc. But I also finally managed to fix the drawers in my bedroom which were falling apart.

First day at school!

Yesterday was the big day for our little Barney who had his first ever day at school. It was also a big day for Annabelle who started High School. Lucky old Jimmie didn't have to go back until today, hence him not being in the photograph. But here is a lovely picture of wee Barney and Annabelle in their school uniforms, all ready for their first days at school.

Barney had been nervous all night and hadn't slept well. He was excited, but also scared, and had a lot of questions to ask - such as "will the teachers know I'm coming?" Annabelle on the other hand wasn't nervous for a single second, right up until we arrived in the car at the school and she saw everyone going inside. Then she said "oh, now I feel nervous".

At the school Barney was a brave little trouper. I took him into the cloak room to hang up his bag, where a teacher met him and ushered him into the classroom. I gave him a hug and said goodbye and the poor little mite looked so scared that his bottom lip was quivering. He never said a word as he walked into the classroom. I got back to the car and nearly burst into tears for him.

Three long hours past before I could collect him from school. The children all came out in a line and Barney was there waving to me with a huge grin on his face. He had really enjoyed the day and couldn't wait to go back again! I was so relieved! When he got home he went looking for his Dad to tell him all about it. But Daddy and Jimmie were hiding in the kitchen with streamers and party food. When he walked in they threw the streamers over him, shouted 'surprise' and congratulated him for being such a big brave boy. When Annabelle got home from school we all eat the party food and played a few games. Dan is so good at entertaining children! He made a pass the parcel, and got together a box full of objects for us to feel and identify blind folded.

Annabelle got the bus home in the afternoon and said she'd had a good day. She was pleased that two of her school friends from primary school are in her new class, and that she has a really cool teacher for the next 5 years (according to her big brother who has analysed them all over the past 2 years!) Today Jimmie started back at school and I dropped them both off together. I feel so old having two kids in high school already!

The rest of the 'first day at school' photos can be seen by clicking here.

Lots of exciting things....

I think I am currently going through the busiest 6 weeks of my life ever, at the moment! I can't complain as it's all good stuff, but I could sure do with some chill out time.

It's my littlest sister Hannah's wedding on Wednesday and needless to say everyone is running around like headless chickens trying to get it all sorted. Last Saturday was Hannah's hen party, and today is David's stag day (Dan is off at that al day today). Tonight I have my Mum and sisters coming round for a rehearsal of the song we are singing at the wedding, and I suppose to sort out any last little things. My sisters and I are bridesmaids, and our daughters are flower girls. On Monday we are getting ourselves tanned so that we dont look quite so washed out in the wedding photos, then Monday evening is the wedding rehearsal and decorating of hall. Then all day Tuesday is for decorating the church and reception area. And finally Wednesday is the wedding day which will start at the crack of dawn with hair appointments etc.

Once all that is over there is no rest as my solo dance performance is on Friday (Laverys Attic in Belfast - Blood & Glitter - £5 for a ticket or pay at the door!) and I'm rehearsing like a wild thing. Last night was the first time that I felt the dance looked anywhere near ready to be seen by anyone other than Dan! Dear lord, I hope I'm not going to totally humiliate myself. We have a rehearsal on Sunday, and I have to perform it in front of my class on Thursday night (yes the day after the wedding). So you can see how crazy everything is. I've been dancing for about 3 hours a day, on and off, and every muscle in my body is aching.

After all that is done, I'm off to England to see H.I.M in concert with my friend Caroline. I can't wait for that. And the weekend after that my Mum is having the kids for two nights whilst Dan and I go to Dublin to see Apocalptica. Then I guess it will be time for Christmas shopping and the start of a new year!

Here are a few photos of wee Barney helping me to rehearse my dance. (I'm dancing to HIM - Join Me in Death)

Recent events

Well, to start my post here is a photo of my darling daughter Annabelle, who has now taken after her mother and gone goth! Ha ha. No, this was her last night on her way to the brownies Halloween party, with my wig, makeup, nail varnish and clothes on. Doesn't she look gorgeous? Or scary, at least.


And here is a ridiculous photo of me and Dan! Taken using some silly camera effects. I think its interesting to see just how we will both look aged 110.

Hehe, but onto other things... today was Barneys 'preschool assessment' with the health visitor - or more importantly, his injections. I didn't tell him we were going until the last moment as he is such a little worrier. When I did tell him that he would be getting two injections he didn't seem at all worried (the fact that he didn't ask me what an injection is or how the medicine gets through his skin might have helped). He was weighed and measured, and (as expected) was at the top of the centile chart on both accounts. He was a proper little star! When the health visitor asked him what foods he likes he replied "I like broccoli, carrots, courgettes, peas and cauliflower"! What a champion! With absolutely no prompting from me. This is the child you spends 99.9% of his waking time thinking about sweets.

When it came time for the injections (1 in each arm - done at the same time by two nurses) they asked him to look out the window and see if he could spot a big crow. He didn't even wince at the pain. I saw a little look of shock on his face as I held him, and he thought about crying, but he held it together like a real little super hero. After we left he told me "Mummy I think the lady might have pulled a little hair on my arm when she gave me that medicine because it hurt a little bit". Oh bless. His Daddy took him to the sweety shop for some treats for being so brave, and tonight he will get the red plate for his dinner.

Now I am off to a belly dancing evening. On the 30th November I am dancing my first solo belly dance at the gothic belly dance extravaganza at Lavery's in Belfast. I'm absolutely terrified. Not only do I have to come up with a new gothic dancing costume, but I have to choreograph and learn my own dance, and not look like a total twit. It's almost impossible. Gahhhh - why did I agree to this??? Am I totally insane?

Barney is almost 4

I just adore these two photos that Dan took last week while I was in England (blog post to follow about that soon). Barney will be 4 years old next month. He has decided this week that he wants to be educated at home and has sat me down for daily 'lessons'! He asked me to teach him how to write. So we practiced writing his name. He can now write the L perfectly, and sometimes upside down. This week he developed an interest in the hama beads that have been on his shelf for months. He made so many patterns, entirely on his own, that I had to reorder some more beads as he ran out. This week he has spent every day in the garden collecting spiders in one of my tupperware pots. Today he sold me 3 for £50 !! I still owe him £49.95 of that £50 but with the 5p I gave him he went into the corner shop on his own, queued up on his own and bought and paid for a packet of 5p crisps. He was adamant that he could do it without me, and I heard him chatting away to various customers as well as the shop keeper. Telling them how he earned his crisps by selling spiders. He he. Life is lovely with my Barney.

Battle Of The Wills

Barney is an unusual child. Everyone who knows him knows he is extremely exhausting and very hard work. He's a beautiful child, but boy does he ware me out.

At the moment we are having a battle of the wills. There are certain issues with Barneys behaviour that I am trying to resolve, or develop or balance out. But at the moment it feels like banging my head against a brick wall. For instance, trying to teach him that he can not hit or kick his brothers and sisters if they wont do what he asks, or that he is not allowed to slam doors when he is having a tantrum, or that he has to sit at the table with the family at dinner time, all seem impossible to overcome. His older brother and sister were never this difficult. But he is a different child. He talks incessantly. Every waking moment he talks, non stop. I have tried to tell him that its time for some quiet time now before Mummy goes insane. But then he constantly asks why he cant talk, or can he talk yet, "but I want to talk", "but Mummy", and on and on it goes, a battle of the wills.

Jimmie and Annabelle always had a natural understanding that their parents were in charge. If I bought them some sweets and said "these are for after dinner tonight" they would have been delighted and looked forward to them. If I do the same thing with Barney he would immediately have a tantrum and be completely unable to cope with the fact that he had to wait. A whole day would be spent telling him "no, you can't have them till after dinner". It makes life miserable. If I had told Annabelle or Jimmie at that age that they had to put their toys away, or take a bath, or put their shoes on to go to the shops, they would have done it, as asked. Barney constantly questions and challenges everything. He will say "no", and argue for hours. He never ever gives in.

Right now he is downstairs at the table on his own. I told him he had to try his mushy peas as they were his only vegetable with today's meal. He simply would not taste them. It ended up as a screaming match with him saying he'd rather go to bed than try them. I have left him at the table and told him not to come up until they are all gone (literally two spoonfuls), yet he has found about 8 excuses to come up already, even though he knows he will be in big trouble. His siblings would have sat there, albeit miserably, until they were gone. They never would have dreamed of questioning my authority on the matter.

This child is trying me to very ends of my patience. There are days I just want to pack a bag and never come back. But I love him to bits. He is adorable, affectionate, smart, and completely unique. I can't put into words what he is like, but there is something different about him, something challenging. I just don't know how to help him. There is something in his understanding that makes treating him like a normal 3 year old nearly impossible. I wish I had the words to explain it.

My boy

Dan took some photos of wee Barney playing on the trampoline. He has had a hair cut and looks so grown up. I just love looking at these pics. There were a lot more than this, and they all show the many sides of Barneys personality. He's just so adorable, I could eat him.

My Mummy

When I was in Dubai little Barney missed me so much that he drew me a picture. This is a picture of me, his Mummy. Complete with glasses and long black hair (actually I thought it was hair but I'm informed it is actually my legs!) Its just such a cute picture. One that I will treasure forever. Thanks Barney :)

A family evening

Daddy is flavour of the month with Barney at the moment. Since I started working almost full time in the shop, and Dan has been at home with the kids, my popularity has plummeted with our youngest who groans in despair if its my day to stay at home instead of Daddy. Daddy is, apparently, more fun and plays games. I lay in bed on Friday morning (my day off - Dan's day to work) with Barney and asked him some questions on the matter. What is Daddy better at? He's better at playing, laughing, having fun, jumping on the trampoline and doing fun stuff. So what is Mummy better at? He struggled to answer this and then proudly came up with "you are better at sleeping". Well, I had to laugh at that. So I set about making my day off work as fun as possible, in an attempt to win back some credibility. The problem is, you see, that I'm working maybe 5 or 6 days a week. Then when I get a day off there is always some huge chore to do - like gutting and cleaning one of the kids rooms. So I never seem to be fun. So on Friday morning I spent an hour playing in a duvet tent on my bed, with Barney. The tent was his cafe, and he cooked me all sorts of culinary delights including raspberry sandwiches, tuna salad, fish fingers and chips, and a magic cherry pie that changes flavours with every bite. Barney seemed to enjoy this, but later in the day when we were telling Daddy what fun we'd had he said "that wasn't playing Mummy that was just doing stuff on the bed". Sigh.

I did a few necessary chores and then we went out to play on the trampoline, but I jumped too high and sent him flying through the air, landing on his right hand and causing immense agony to my three year old. I thought I made up for it by doing a 20 minute intense workout on the trampoline with him - chasing him in circles around it, jumping, copying his moves (I must have lost half a stone). Then, in desperation I took him to tesco cafe for lunch. This was a good move I think and certainly boosted my popularity, although apparently Daddy prefers to take him for breakfast, which is nicer. Hmmm.

Barney had been asking to have a BBQ in the garden for ages, so in Tescos I said he could help me buy the meat to cook, and then we would surprise Daddy with a BBQ when he got home from work. He was certainly excited about this and we had a lovely family evening in the garden. It was a warm day, but since I've just got back from Dubai I had to eat my BBQ under a sleeping bag for warmth! Here are some photos.

Mummy and Daddy relaxing and enjoying the fact that their eldest child is now old enough to cook food on a BBQ unaided. Wow, finally we can chill a bit.

Here's young Jimmie doing his thing, preparing food for all us hungry carnivores.

(Yeah, I know, its not raw or vegan)

Dan set the camera to take a shot of all of us.

Barnisms cont - The Uvula

9.30am this morning, Barney bounds into my bedroom and climbs into the bed beside me. He opens his mouth wide and says

"Mummy, can you see my Uvula?"

Ha ha. What a sentence for a three year old, eh? Then he made me open my mouth and explained where my uvula is and that the two holes either side it is where my food goes down to my tummy. Is this boy going to be a doctor or what?

Whats that coming over the hill? Is it a monster?

Barney - in costume. He looks just like his father sometimes.

All about Saturday

I spent most of Saturday cleaning, playing with Barney and un-cooking. Jimmie and Annabelle decided they were having a lazy day, and seen as they never really do, I decided to leave them to it. Jimmie didn't get dressed until 5.30pm, and that was only when I told him that Daddy was taking them to see Charlotte's Web at the cinema. I guess he wasn't too keen to go in his PJ's. Since Annabelle and Jimmie were keeping to themselves, and Dan was at work, it meant that I was Barney's only companion. And it was one of those days when he wanted a constant friend. So I spent most of the day with him. I answered a million deep questions, mostly about him becoming a Daddy one day - ie, when would it happen, how would it happen, who would be the mummy?, would he have to move out of our house, why couldn't he grow a baby in his tummy?, where was the baby now then if it hadn't been born yet?, and lots more besides. His brain is just soaking up everything that we tell him. He is craving information and understanding. I just love them at that age, when the whole world is just full of excitement, possibilities and adventures.

In the afternoon Barney and I made a little house under the kitchen table. We covered the table with duvets and blankets which draped down as our walls. Then we put a rug in to sit on, and some cushions, and Barney brought in some plastic food items from his kitchen. The pair of us spent an hour in there. At one point he was a dog with puppies (teddies) and I was a nice lady. Then I was a friendly giant (I think this came from my inability to sit upright inside the house). He cooked me dinner and proved that giants don't need to eat teddies to survive. At the end of the hour I was crippled from constant slouching and crawling, but I had a happy 3 year old who was content to watch TV whilst I did a bit of un-cooking.

So what did I make? Well, I'm still experimenting at the moment. The oat and buckwheat granola that I prepared a few days ago was finally dehydrated and we had a bowl this morning for breakfast. Steve really liked it. I thought it was a bit plain and I will add more fruit and more honey next time. When I looked at the packet of shop bought granola the second highest ingredient was sugar, which probably explains why mine tasted more plain.

















For last nights dinner Dan and I tried out the Onion crackers with some avocado and raw parsnip & lemon dip. It was ok. Dan seemed more enthused with it than I was. I found the pumpkin seeds made the onion crackers too strong, and so I made some more with sunflower seeds instead. The raw parsnip dip (parsnips from our garden) was ok, but it was too lemony, in my opinion. However, Dan woofed the whole thing down and said he loved it. Who has taken my real husband and what have they done with him?

This is the second, milder batch of onion bread that was ready this morning. We haven't tried it yet.












Something Dan is not so fussed on trying are these stuffed mushrooms. They smell lovely, but they're not his sort of thing. They are mushrooms stuffed with an olive and pine nut tapenade. I got the recipe from this website.

Today Dan has gone to Curry's to purchase a new dishwasher. We really can't afford one and will have to dip into our emergency savings. But I am literally spending hours every day washing up. I do so much in the kitchen and the time a dishwasher saves is invaluable, in my opinion. Our fridge and freezer are also dying and so he is going to look at them while he is there.

Jimmie will be off school all week for half term (already!) Here are some photos of the boys playing together this week. They are both such little characters, and completely lovable.


Jimmie made them both fishing rods from bamboo sticks and string, and they spent a fun hour in the front garden fishing in the grass for imaginary fish!









They looked so adorable swinging in the hammock together that I just had to grab the camera. They look so happy.

Barnisms

Barney is fascinated by the workings of the human body at the moment, as I have mentioned before. This week he was drawing a portrait of me on his doodle-pad. He called out to me...


"Mummy, I've almost finished drawing my picture of you. I've just got to draw the bladder and then you can see it".

Our latest pics from Jan 07

I had a lot of photos to upload today and there were so many that I could put on the blog! Here are the best of the bunch...

Firstly, here is the photos of the fig and almond raw vegan tolls which I made. They were so simple. Basically whizz up a bunch of almonds and dried figs, add a tiny bit of water if needed and then roll them into some dessicated co-conut and chill in the fridge. They took seconds to make, the kids loved them, and they were so healthy I could let them eat as many as they wanted. Voila!

Last week I finally finished sorting through all the letters I have received from E in the last 2 years. They were kept in a paper bag, but it got ripped, and then Barney kindly opened every letter and separated them from their envelopes. There were 78 letters in total, 4 polaroid photos, loads of gift cards, a little angel and E's gold cross pendant which he gave me. He has had it since he was a child. Dan bought me a nice box to keep them all organised in, and I've numbered the back of them in case Barney ever gets hold of them again. So now they are in date order. It was amazing looking through them to see how much I had read and completely forgotten about. I received another letter from E this morning saying "there were only 78 letters? I thought I'd written nearer 2000!" He he.

Here is a photo of Annabelle making another one of her papier mache cats. This was taken yesterday.

As well as this one of Barney who was so proud of his playdoh tractor creation that he asked me to take a photo. This was simple to create as well. Take one 3 year old, 6 tubs of play-dough, one tractor trailer and a thomas the tank engine carriage. Bind all the ingredients together (not the 3 year old - he does the binding) and then you have a simple but effective master piece, worthy of a photo.

Before the Christmas holidays Annabelle did this little project as part of her home education. She has been reading a lot of history books lately so she decided to create this fold open history project. She basically created fold open flaps containing information about her favourite stories from history. The one in the photo is about The Battle of Hastings, and you can see king Harold made from pipe cleaners, tissue paper and a fluffy pink pom pom, at the side of the story. The other pages are about Hieroglyphics, The Two Margaret's, Anansi the Spider, and Leizu & the silkworm.

This afternoon Barney played with Jimmy's old collection of animals and dinosaurs, which he loves. I had wanted to sit and do something crafty with him, possibly a bit of painting or something. So we decided to make a little jungle scene for his animals to play in. I cut out a big box and stuck tissue paper for sky and grass onto it. Then Annabelle, Barney and myself set about turning it into a jungle. Barney stuck a few flowers on, a few fish in the pond, and made his own huge fluffy cloud before losing interest and asking us "is it ready yet? is it ready yet?" every 30 seconds. We may add bits and pieces to the finished scene at times. But it looks pretty good, dont you think?