* We had our first viewer today to see our house! He made an offer!!!!! I'm soooo surprised, because I had a very firm mindset of expecting NOTHING from the first, ohhh, DOZEN viewers, lol! And thus not having any stress over people viewing and not showing interest. The house is so cluttered and messy and curtain hems hanging down where the boys have picked at them, crayon on the walls, laundry piles everywhere, etc, etc. I just tidied and cleaned this morning best I could, saying over and over to myself (out loud where necessary!), "I don't mind what they think, they take it as they find it." It helped me stay sane this time (I went a little bit stressy-nuts last time we had a viewing booked, to the point that I cancelled it and got all tearful!). Anyway, yay! We have two more viewings booked tomorrow, plus the partner of this guy who came to see it today. The offer is for £10,000 less than the value price, and we really want/need to get as close to the actual value as possible, but we can just about go with his offer if nobody counters it over the weekend. Aaaaaaaahhh, we're really moving house!!!!! I have just realised how little I have believed that would actually happen! ;) Suddenly I'm nostalgic and wistful and wishing we didn't have to leave the place where Matthew was born and sooooo much has happened. *sniffle*
* I rest my case on my last post where I ranted about playgroups and germs! I had a midwife appt on Wednesday (28 weeks!!!) which I MUST write about in my pregnancy diary, but anyway - it was at the Sure Start centre where they have a playgroup. I had to take the boys this time and Arthur and Matthew played in the big hall while I took Nathan in with me to an adjoining room to see the midwife. It's a GREAT layout and I love it! There are so many fun toys for the boys to explore and play with. There's a "stay and play" programme that runs in the mornings and afternoons 3 days a week, and mine was a lunchtime appointment so we happened to miss the playgroup that ran in the morning. They played with all the toys but there were no other kids, except some big kids who were playing pool with it being Easter holidays. The centre manager stepped out of her office to sit and play cars with my boys the whole time I was with the midwife - so lovely of her! Anyway, so today Arthur has had a sore throat since he got up this morning and is sneezing his little head off. He has woken a couple of times this evening, streaming with cold :( I can't believe we'd go to a playgroup setting with NO CHILDREN and still catch something from the toys!! Tsk! Sick kids were clearly present that morning, even though they'd left by the time we got there. It's the first virus we've had since before Christmas! Thank goodness it's just a cold though and hopefully we'll all just throw it off fast! But, I rest my case. ;)
* Arthur had his first outing to the theatre!! My grandparents were sweet enough to book tickets to a local children's theatre that they used to take ME and my brother to when we were little! I used to go there a lot as a child because it is a FABULOUS place. I had a birthday party there once, and also went to some of the children's workshops in the holidays. It's so nostalgic for me, seeing Arthur go there now! Granny and Grandoug took him on the "big bus" (he has been scared of double decker buses for years, just because he doesn't like the noise close up and the size of them), but he was excited to go on the top deck this time :) He had a great time. The play was aimed at 4-7 year olds so he's at the young end, and my grandparents didn't know if some of it was beyond him, but he kept up with it fine and enjoyed it. He said he was scared of the wolf and the giant though, bless! He had chocolate ice-cream during the interval but he couldn't finish it all. It was REALLY STRANGE with just Matthew and Nathan here! Matthew missed Arthur and was a bit serious. He asked a few times where Arthur was and when he was coming home, and if it would be his turn to go out for a treat next :) He spent a little while at first being a bit mean to Nathan for some reason, poking him and stuff. He went in his chair in the kitchen for that, and then when he came out he seemed to decide to play with Nathan properly, and engaged him eagerly. He does play with Nathan a lot normally, but I think he felt a bit lost without his MAIN playmate! ;) Nathan already plays-with, even at 15 months. He doesn't play alongside or independently only, like I heard 15-month-olds do - perhaps it's because he has his brothers around all the time? Arthur did that only playing alongside other toddlers or just playing independently, but I don't think Matthew did as much. Nathan totally plays WITH his brothers, interacting, trying to talk to them (total babble, he really has no words as such, other than Arthur and Dah (daddy)), and communicating desperately with his eyes (and very expressive eyebrows, so funny!). He will do stuff they ask him to do, if he understands it, and he tries so hard! He loves to play with them! So, he lapped up Matthew's advances, and they sat and played duplo and bricks and stacking things for AGES. Matthew seemed so delighted - he kept calling out to me, "Look Mummy! We playing NICE-Y! We playing TOGEZZER!" Sweetie pies! :)
Nathan went for a nap part-way through Arthur's outing, and then I had the wonderful opportunity to have some good 1-on-1 time with my sweet second-born! But he rejected me!!!! We got a pile of lovely stories to cuddle up and read together, but he wanted to sit and read them over by himself and if I asked him if I could read them to him, he said, "Um, no. No shanks." I felt sad about it, because I wanted to spend the time with him and he was busy doing his thing! Oh well. He did let me give him lots of cuddles just the two of us, when he wasn't "reading" his stories, so that's something! He was sooooooo beamingly joyful to see Arthur as he came through the door when he got home! He kept yelling, "It's Arsur, yaaaaaay! It's Arsur!!!" over and over again, and barely gave Arthur enough room to get in the front door for crowding to get near him! Granny had bought a programme at the theatre and Matthew sat "reading" it really seriously for ages after Arthur was home. If I tried to ask him something or get his attention for something, he just told me, "I busy reading Arsur's book right now." and look back to it!
Sooo that was different. It was less chaotic with Arthur gone for a couple of hours in the afternoon. Less noise and clamour. Only two small children to cater for! The weirdness of only ONE when the other was napping - that's so strange to me now, which is odd because of how it still seems so recent that I only had two, and Matthew was a baby so frequently napping! It was so much quieter. But - I didn't like it. Matthew didn't like it either. I was glad when Arthur came home. It certainly was easier and less hectic, and we enjoyed the different-ness, but I wouldn't like him to be gone on a regular basis like that! I love having them all around all the time :)
Arthur has been reading a 3-word "story" for 3 days running now, in his reading lessons! He was so excited about the first one, because I told him before we started that he would be reading a STORY that day. He could barely wait through the exercises and word reading, and I had to cover things up so he wouldn't skip ahead too much. Finally we were on the page before the story, that is, the story was on the other side of the page we were reading. We had an exercise to do that was just sounding out letters - or sounds, as they're called in the book. It's an easy exercise, and the story was next. He really surprised me! He saw the large print of the three words of the story THROUGH THE PAGE we were reading, and said, "Oooh, that must be my story!!!" I started to say that we'd get to that next and draw his attention back to the sounds, when he put his finger to the paper and said, "It says, "Ssseee, meee, eeaat! - See me eat!" The thing that boggled me is that it was through the page, so the words were back to front, obviously. I didn't even know if he could read the words yet without assistance, let alone grainily through the other side of the paper and back to front!!!! I had absolutely nothing to say, and eventually stammered about finishing the sounds, and when we turned the page I asked him to go through the steps of reading the story he'd already read, haha! He giggled at that, like he'd done something mischievous. I can't believe how fast he's progressing, and I'm so encouraged by his enthusiasm! I really like making note of things here because I haven't really got a place to note them as he's learning, and there's a lot that I want to make note of which I hadn't anticipated. I'm actually not trying to boast in him, honestly! I just want to make note of where I'm particularly surprised by something he does or encouraged (or if there's a difficulty anywhere). Maybe I should start a paper journal for those things? Hmmm.
Okay this is NOT the fly-by I promised, haha! No real surprise there, then! It's so late, but I'm happy that it's the weekend! Neil worked late tonight and getting the boys dinner and ready for bed was easier than last time, which was easier than the time before. They were all in bed asleep or working on it by 7.30pm, so I felt good for that! Matthew was asleep by 6.50pm! He actually needs that kind of bedtime every single day. He really needs his 12 hours of solid sleep. Arthur is less so inclined (takes maybe 10 even if he's tired and needs more, and tends to stir or wake in the night), and Nathan is starting to sleep better too. He settles himself for naps and bedtime, since I've been basically leaving the poor chap to fuss and cry till he goes to sleep! :S I hate doing that, but he hasn't really been hysterical about it. If he does that then I go in and resettle and leave again. He is usually fussing and crying, lying down and trying to sleep, fussing and crying again, etc. If he's irate and miserable and never trying to sleep, I rescue him :) His night wakings are much improved this week, though it always (always!) gets worse after I post that kind of sentence, so I won't hold my breath! Also he's likely to get a cold from his brother so that could be thrown off a bit soon. But the last two nights I have woken more than Nathan, which is a first! I'm now woken more by my FOURTH son than my third, haha! If he rolls into a different position (the one in my tum, this is) in the night, it often triggers a SEARING ligament pain on that side and I wake sort of writhing with it till it subsides. And I'm waking to pee twice a night now too. It's frustrating to wake, tired, and see my sleeping baby there NOT waking me up - but I'm up anyway! Tsk! ;) I've discovered that Nathan DOES stir a lot but is rarely/never fully waking up! One or two times in the night if I'm awake when he stirs, I pat his bottom a few times if it's a "I'm about to wake up!" stirring, and he settles back into a deeper sleep without ever really coming out of it, so that's good. That technique was what started him sleeping better in the first place, I think. That and the daytime/bedtime self-settling. So that's good!
I'm sure there was something else.... Loads else, probably. My parents came over from France for a DAY yesterday! Daddy had a meeting at his studio that he HAD to attend, and Mummy came with him to see her grandchildren! They got the overnight ferry here, she spent the morning with us, had lunch with Daddy, and then the afternoon with Thea and my brother before going home to France on the night ferry again! I think they are coming back (another meeting) the week after next, so hopefully we'll see them again. The boys LOVE Nana and Grandy and it's always wonderful wonderful WONDERFUL to see them! I love my parents, and really miss them now they live abroad. We don't see them very often - sort of when I have a baby and once or twice in between! ;)
Okay, that's it for tonight! I have photos, but once again they're not at my fingertips to post since I just meant to type a quick post! I'll get to them soon!
1 comment:
:) I just watched the videos you posted in the last entry. Nathan's so sweet!
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