Tagged!

I got tagged…for my family readers who don’t read other blogs that means I have to join in with whatever it is..in this case “proud to be me”….  I think I am supposed to put a badge in my post but I’m a very unprofessional blogger so I can’t figure out how to do it……

So anyway I have to say 5 reasons that I am proud of myself…..

Number 1 has to be Caitlin, Noah and Austin!!  I’m very proud that I had all 3 of them at home, even if I did have to fight for that in Noah’s case!!!

Number 2 is kind of the same…Caitlin, Noah and Austin…but proud of how well-behaved they are, I can take them anywhere and I usually get complemented on them…with Caitlin I just thought it was good luck, with Noah I thought I might have something to do with it, but now Austin is super chilled and content I figure I (well we) must have something to do with it!!  They aren’t screamy tantrum’y type kids (obviously they do have occasional moments!) and are generally happy and healthy.

Number 3 is a weird one….  When I was 17 I used to work on a lifeboat and during a triathlon we were on duty and I was in charge and “driving” the boat when we spotted and rescued someone with severe hypothermia!!  I was in the paper and everything !!!

Number 4……ok starting to struggle now!!!  I am proud that we were (and will be again in a few weeks fingers crossed!!) mortgage free.  Isn’t that important to a lot of people but we have overpaid were we can and been really careful with our money for the past 9 years and so have been able to make ourselves debt free (until we buy our mansion lol)

Number 5….I am proud (possibly bordering on boastful??) that I am a faster driver than Richard… I always beat him at drag racing (in the same car)!!!  He says it’s because I have no mechanical sympathy…I say I’m just a faster driver!!!!!!!!!!

Now I have to tag 5 people….hmmmm now thats hard!  I read a few other blogs but I’m not really a hardcore blogger so although I read some I don’t really comment etc so can’t really tag them…  So I’ll just tag the ones I read regularly and also comment on!

Laura at http://synchronizationofus.com/

Mancais (not sure if her real name is a secret so best not blab!!!) http://mancais.wordpress.com/

not sure if I am supposed to tell them I have tagged them??  (can you tell I am a novice at all of this!!!)  Linda didn’t tell me so maybe its a test to see if they read???????  I have no idea…anyway you are tagged…….

Rolley polley!!! (how do you spell that???)

Today Austin finally rolled over!!!!!  It’s about 4 days earlier than Noah did and only a few weeks after Caitlin….  By now Caitlin was sitting unaided and Noah sat in about 2 weeks time, but Austin is showing no signs of this at all, but I remember Noah doing it all of a sudden so we shall see….  So far Caitlin and Noah have done everything around the same time and now Austin is trying to follow suit!

Our internet gets disconnected on Friday ready to swap over to the new house so from then I’ll be on a blogging holiday!!!!!!!  We get connected in the new house on Tuesday along with everything else!!  John Lewis will be delivering our washer and drier, the dishwasher also gets delivered and the planning appeal site visit is that day!  Just need to persuade the fridgefreezer and fireplace to come that day too!!

Punkin pines….

…(as Noah calls them!!!!)  Today we went pumpkin picking….  While we waited for everyone else to arrive we did some raspberry picking….

 

and then we went to do some sweetcorn picking but to be honest after searching for about 15 minutes I came to the conclusion I had no idea what a ready to pick sweetcorn looked like so we quit and went over to the pumpkins!  Noah and Caitlin had a good look around at the pumpkins but I’d told them they couldn’t pick one until everyone else arrived…

When the others arrived we got going….

As you can see there weren’t many pumpkins left but the kids had a great time picking their pumpkin (and many more!!!!)

Now we just need to admire them for a week or so and then we can get carving!!!!!  After some lunch we headed off to ikea, which everyone said I was mad to do alone with the 3 of them!!  But I am so glad I did!  We have a set of shelves and where we are putting them in the new house we really need another shelf to make it look good.  Unfortunately when I got there I discovered the shelves had been discontinued a few weeks back and they had sold out!  I decided to look in the bargain corner incase they had the display model and there in the corner was 2 sets of shelves, all boxed and nothing wrong with them apart from the fact they were the last 2…both half price!  So I grabbed one and then persuaded to passing men to put it on the roof rack for me….success!!!!!!

Tonight we are staying over at the new house again so we should get some more sorting done in between the x-factor!!!

Getting there!!

The living room is almost decorated!!!  The floor, ceiling and 3 out of 4 walls are done.  Once the plaster is dry the 4th wall can be papered, fireplace fitted and curtains hung!  This morning we moved one sofa in and it has made a huge difference!!!!!!

It’s looking likely that the heating will be active in the next 2 weeks and as soon as that happens we can move in!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I can’t wait!!!!!!!!!!  I’ll certainly be happy when the cleaning is all done, it is no fun cleaning all the dust off everything.  Caitlin did help though, she cleaned in her room for over an hour yesterday…odd child loves cleaning!!!!!

Tolo snake review…..

About a week ago we got an animal from the tolo safari set to test and report back on…..  When it arrived it looked good, nice and sturdy and to be honest I hadn’t really concentrated on which child was supposed to be testing it.  So I gave it to Austin as I thought that was who it was aimed at…..

Austin seemed to like it, he put it in his mouth and had a good chew, it’s the perfect size to be chewed and nice and smooth.  You can twist it around and it clicks, sometimes toys that click when you move them are really quiet and that makes me think it is a bit of a waste of time but this one had a nice loud click!

While Austin was playing with it I read the box and discovered it was aimed at children aged 1-5…  Personally I think it is a baby toy, there is no way I would buy it for anyone over about 18 months, possibly even over 12 months….  But as I have a 2.5 year old and a 4-year-old I tested it on both of them too!!  They were both pretty uninterested in it….  I’m not sure if it’s because I gave it to Austin first but they both either looked at it and clicked it a few times then just abandoned it or they just gave it back to Austin!  It is part of a set so perhaps if you got the whole set an older child would find it interesting but I think an older child would prefer a toy with more detail (smaller bits lol).

It is £6 to buy and the vehicle is £35.  You can find more information at their website…

http://www.john-crane.co.uk/index.php

I did notice when I flicked through the website that on the info for the snake it says it is a safe teething toy!  I completely agree, it makes a great teething toy, Austin loves chewing it.  I think it’s a great toy, but in my opinion the age guide isn’t good…I’d say more 6 – 18 months.  Also when I looked through their website I noticed we have one of their cars, it was bought for Caitlin when she was about 1 and we still have it and it’s still wearing really well.  The snake looks like it is made of similar material and in a similar way so I would guess it is a really hard wearing toy.

20 weeks….

Austin is 20 weeks!!!!!!!  I don’t know where the time has gone….  He is still seriously smiley and still sleeps a lot, which given the house situation is a bonus!!!  He is trying to roll but hasn’t managed it yet, although neither had Caitlin or Noah by 20 weeks..I have late rollers !!  Even once she had rolled Caitlin rarely did!

I had him weighed and he is now a very healthy 18lbs 1oz!!!!  Noah reached this at about 23 weeks so fairly similar, whereas Caitlin didn’t get to 18lbs until she was 2 years old………….

Austin is giving proper laughs now, and finds Caitlin and Noah jumping around in front of him highly amusing!  Somehow he is still in his moses’s basket but as that is moving on to its new home at the weekend he’ll be progressing to the travel cot this week.  I had thought this week he didn’t look anything like Noah any more…but on checking back to photo’s he does………

 

 

 

Austin is the one dressed as a giant teddy bear!!!!!!!!  It’s cold up here!!!!

School’s and chaos!!

I’ve not really got much to blog about….we are right in the middle of moving house…both houses look chaotic…both look very full!  There’s only so much I can get done during the day as Austin and Noah need entertaining and feeding – feeding takes up a lot of time!!!!!  I don’t feel like we are making much progress either with the moving or the renovating, everything keeps getting in the way!  I’m slightly panicked that we won’t make it by the deadline…although the deadline hasn’t been set yet it will be far too soon for my liking……

We’ve also been out looking at school’s for Caitlin…it is such hard work!  We have no idea what we are doing and the 2 we have looked at so far are completely different but both have good points…  I feel an impossible decision coming on!  Shame Caitlin and Noah have such different personalities…might be easier if they were similar…..

We’ve also managed to go out to the park even if Noah managed to take his coat off between the house and the car and so had to wear Caitlins…not a good look!!

Aunty Lalex got maeeeeeed!!!!!!

It’s a long time since Caitlin made Aunty Lalex’s announcement!!!!!!!! (http://2kidsand5minis.wordpress.com/2007/11/05/caitlin-has-a-small-announcement-to-make-regarding-aunty-lalex/)

But finally the day arrived and Caitlin got to be bridesmaid!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

At breakfast she was almost popping with excitement….she was getting to be a princess for a day!!!!!!  She absolutely LOVED being bridesmaid.  She got to go in the wedding car and had a fantastic time!  She did get a bit confused on the way back and asked the other bridesmaid if she was married, I’m not sure who she thought she had married….

The wedding reception was at a lovely manor house in the middle of nowhere.

All three of them had a great time, although Austin did sleep for the majority of it.

Austin also got to meet his Grandma the night before the wedding….

There was tonnes of champagne and the weather just about held out and a good day was had by all.

On the Sunday we had a family day and in the evening and Brian and his family played guitar and sang which Noah and Caitlin danced along to, and Austin snuggled up with Nan!!

We’re back!!

We got up to so much while we were away I’m not even sure where to start!!  And we are now so hectic I haven’t even got time to think!!!

We need to pack up and move into the new house, but we still have no kitchen (that is a long way off) and need to decorate the living room.  And even though upstairs in the new house is looking very full, it doesn’t look like we have lost anything from here, well except in Austin’s room which is bare!  My to do list is so long I can’t figure out which jobs are most important………

So back to our holidays!!!  The first weekend we spent with Nan and it was carnival weekend in her village.  Caitlin was completely in love with all of the carnival queens and princesses and decided she wants to be a carnival princess.  Shame we don’t have carnivals in the big cities!!!!!  She waved at every single one of them!!!!!!!

Noah was very impressed (and so were we !!) that there were mini’s in the parade!!!!!!!!

After the parade we went to the fair and Nan bought them some light up wands which they loved, and so did Austin who looked after them during the rides!!!!!

They went on a roundabout type ride and some swings.

On the Sunday we went to a train museum nearby which was good, and we got a ride on a very bumpy old train!

And in the evening we went to a fireworks display to end the carnival and we had some more fair ground rides.  The fireworks seemed really quiet and so Austin hardly noticed them!!  On the Monday we had a quiet day after a very hectic weekend and we just went to the park…

On the Tuesday we went into London to meet up with the other bridesmaid so that Caitlin would know her a bit ready for the wedding.  She was really nice and Caitlin got on with her straight away.  She also has a little baby a week younger than Austin and we met up with my niece who is 7 weeks older than Austin so it was a baby filled lunch!!!  Caitlin and Noah loved it and it was lovely to see R again.

On Wednesday Grandad came over to see us.  As he has moved abroad we haven’t seen him for ages and so when we said Grandad was coming Noah automatically assumed we meant Grandad as in my Dad!!!!  When Richards Dad arrived Noah was confused and then decided he was Grandad with hair!!!!!!!!!!!  I think that name will stick!!!!!!!!!!

On Thursday we went into Southend for a wander, played on the arcades and ate chips on the sea wall!!  Then on Friday it was time to head off for the wedding, which surely deserves its own post……!!!!!!!!!

Goodbye…..and the top conclusion!!

We are off on our holidays tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  So I have quit on the top project!!!  Austin fell out of the race on day 35, Noah fell out today on day 42…Caitlin is still going strong with 9 tops left but as I want to choose her clothes to take with us I am quitting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We’ll see you with tonnes to report back on in a week and a bit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!