About Nathan

It's 10am and the boys are up, obviously, and I usually have a rule of not getting out the laptop at all during the day. BUT, I am just never getting a thing done online, especially at my blogs, when I leave it till the evening. I'm SO tired out lately and don't get through the day particularly well. I'm officially on "baby watch", being full-term in my pregnancy at last! ;) I'm 37 weeks now - less than 20 days till my due date!

So, I got out some jungle animal toys (I got some buckets of 60-90 "counters" in various themes recently - I'm making activity boxes for the boys for after the baby comes) and they're pretty absorbed with that at the moment. I really just wanted to catch up on a few things here, even if I don't get as much done as I need to - anything is better than nothing!

It was Matthew's birthday on Sunday - he's three! It feels odd not to have a 2-year-old any more, but as my mum reminded me, it's only 7 months before I have one again (how crazy is that?!?!)! Now I have a 4-year-old, a 3-year-old and a 1-year-old! :) Matthew had a lovely birthday, and we went to Bird World in Surrey. The journey was not too long and it went fine. Matthew and Nathan went to sleep in the car on the way there even! I have a million photos which I had planned to have posted here alreayd, but I am just. so. tired. in the evenings now that I'm getting only a few edited per evening and then I just have to go to bed because my eyes aren't focusing properly! So far I've edited 44 photos (told you there were lots!) and I'm part-way through the Bird World photos - still have to do the birthday cake stuff from when we arrived home yet! I'll post them asap with more detail about his big day, and maybe somehow manage to pick out fewer photos than I've edited for this blog! 60 photos would probably be a bit too many for one entry, haha! ;)

The boys are NOT playing with jungle animals any longer, and they're not being too well behaved actually. Nathan is napping, but I'm suspicious that I heard bumping around upstairs just now, so I might just have to stop for now. I just really wanted to write a bit about Nathan, because at his age he is changing so fast and I don't want to let it all pass by without recording any of it! So let's see how much I can get typed about him before I have to go!

Nathan is now 17 months old! Benjamin is due in the week before he turns 18 months, so I think they will probably be exactly 18 months apart.

Nathan is so behind on his toothypegs compared with my other boys! He has four at the top in the middle, and the two middle bottom ones - these have been the same for MONTHS! At the end of May he cut the first corner of his top left (or right as you look at him) molar, which is still the only part of it sticking through. I was so surprised because he hasn't had ANY bother from cutting his first molar! I just happened to see it there when I was brushing his teeth, and I knew it was about to cut through because of the white pressure point on his gum a couple of days before, but he didn't complain in the least. He hasn't got any other molars imminent at the moment, so he just has the 7 teeth (well, 6 and a tiny bit!) at the moment. I keep thinking surely he's about to get like TEN at once and catch up, haha! But he doesn't. I adore his sweet little semi-toothy grin! It's been like that for so long and I can't imagine him with more teeth in his smile now!

Something that I totally didn't expect (and am not too happy about!) with Nathan is that he has self-weaned! A couple of months ago, at 15 months, he had a bad cold which kept him congested for 2 whole weeks, too much so to breastfeed. He tried sometimes and found it upsetting that he couldn't, but then the rest of the time he would just shake his head and pull my top back down when I offered to nurse him. After his cold was gone, he got back into nursing again, just for his day naps (twice a day) and bedtime. I night-weaned him a few months ago in preparation for him moving into the boys' bedroom, hoping he'd sleep through the night better and thus disturb the boys less. It wasn't hard to night-wean him, as he only really got cross and wanted to nurse once in the night at about 4 or 5am. Very different to Arthur as a baby! Not too different from Matthew, but I was offering the breast to Matthew more frequently at that age. He breastfed before 2 naps, at bedtime, and first thing upon waking in the morning - even still at 19 months when my waters broke with Nathan! And if he got hurt in the day time. Nathan hasn't been nursing for getting hurt or for comfort in the day time, which is a first really. I'm not really sure why not. I think just because he hasn't been interested to. He hasn't nursed outside of bed in many many months, maybe even before he turned one? I can't remember. But that is very different to my other babies anyway.

So, he breastfed for a few weeks after his cold, and then now and then he started to latch and immediately pull off again and turn away. I haven't had any noticeable milk supply at all for months, because it always dries up by 20 weeks of pregnancy for me. I get colostrum soon afterwards, and definitely can express that now, but he's been used to that before now. So I'm not sure what's caused him to refuse to nurse. My personal goal with breastfeeding for each of my children is two years minimum, and so far that has been well surpassed! So it was very strange to me to see signs of Nathan choosing to wean before then! It's not what I wanted at all, but I would never force him to continue. I did persevere OFFERING the breast at all the usual times for a good 2 or 3 weeks. He eventually stopped even doing the quick latch thing, and just would shake his head if I asked him if he wanted any "milky". If I lifted my top to nurse him, he would pull it down straight away. I noticed he was happy to snuggle up to me and get sleepy before his naps, lying down on the bed, so we did that for a while, and then he stopped wanting to do that too.

I haven't TOTALLY called him "weaned" because I know that after Benjamin is born, when I have a ton of milk again, he MAY see Benjamin breastfeeding and want to try again, in which case I will absolutely let him! If he does do that, he might want to nurse properly again for a long time, or he might just give it a try for a short while and then stop for good. I don't know. Right now I would say he has self-weaned for sure, and I no longer offer him the breast :( I'm a bit sad about it because I love extended breastfeeding and it's the last thing I expected! I ended up needing to wean Arthur shortly after his FOURTH birthday because it was starting to drive me nutty (!), and he spent much of the next 4 or 5 months asking to nurse and missing it. He was always (by far!) my most attached baby when it came to breastfeeding. Matthew is still breastfeeding at bedtime, at age 3! :) He occasionally asks in the day time if he's very tired or hurt badly, but I usually tell him no because it's day time and remind him that milky is for bedtime. On rare occasions I give him a very quick breastfeed in the day for a bad hurt or something like that. He's still very attached to his bedtime nursing sessions and almost always nurses to sleep, which I'm happy with for now. I think it won't be long before it starts to feel a bit.... there's not a word for it really - like it started to with Arthur (which I didn't expect, since I was enjoying breastfeeding so much!), and I'll WANT to wean him. So, I'm still breastfeeding someone, as I have done without a break since Arthur was born 4.5 years ago, but surprisingly it's not my youngest! ;) Sometimes it's a bit sore lately (pregnancy-wise) but I have had a MUCH less sore time of it this pregnancy. The worst was Matthew's pregnancy - it was so sore to breastfeed a lot of that time, but Arthur did nurse eleventy times a day and at night too.

Anyway that's the main news about Nathan really. He self-weaned at 16 months old. I can hardly believe it in many ways! But I know that lots of toddlers self-wean earlier, especially when their mothers are pregnant again. Oh well. I wish he was still nursing! But never mind!

Nathan is STILL working on running! He practises so hard every day, back and forth across the diagonal of the living room, like the other boys do (especially Matthew!). He prefers to practise running and stuff inside the house than outside, but he LOVES to be outdoors. He can now "race-walk" really well, hehe! Two days ago he did a little sort of bounce to the race-walk and Neil and I were convinced he'd just managed his first little run, but he hasn't repeated it since. He gets so excited when his brothers run back and forth, or outside, and joins in squealing excitedly, as fast as he can.

He has very few words still, but has just started to say "gone" and "open" really clearly. He has a TON of baby words that sound ever so real-word-like, and tries so hard to communicate with us using those words, which I find so sweet! Matthew had probably just as few words at this age, so I'm not concerned about it at all. I never have been one to be concerned over speech in any case. Arthur was later than average with words, but far ahead of where Nathan is now. He was behind his peers, and finally started stringing 2 or 3 words into short sentences at 22 months. By 2 months later he had suddenly overtaken his peers and had a huge vocabulary with long sentences, so he was obviously okay! ;) Matthew didn't start stringing words together till he turned 2, and caught up with things a few months later. He was much bigger on motor skills than Arthur was, and Nathan is the same way, so I'm not expecting Nathan to talk in even short sentences till he turns two, which is a while away yet. I don't know how many words he's got, but it's not many. I'll see if I can list them off the top of my head, though I'm sure I'll miss a few!

* Gone (goh!)
* Open (oh-bah)
* Daddy (deh-dah)
* Arthur (ah-tha)
* Hair (haaa)
* Nose (doh)
* Bye-bye (bah-bah) (he also says "bah-bah deh-dah" (bye-bye Daddy))
* Car (cah)
* Here you are (ee-wah) - for handing me something - this is heard very frequently throughout the day!
* Curtain (coh-cuh) - I'm pretty sure he said this for the first time (many times!) yesterday, pointing to the curtain every time.
* Again (geh!) - usually repeated over and over with great enthusiasm! ;)
* Uh-oh (oo-oo, or oo-oh) for when something falls over or down from the table when he's eating, etc.

I think there are more, but the boys are being "difficult", ugh, so I have to go. Oh, but Nathey also says "moo" for a cow, SUCH a cute high-pitched "meeeeew!" for a cat (he calls the cats outside by standing at the window in the living room and saying it over and over and over. If he gets up there and starts to mew excitedly then he's often telling us he sees a cat. If I ask him if there's a cat there, he'll turn to me and say, "Yyyyeah!!" excitedly. He's VERY big on saying yes, allll day long, but he has never said the word no yet. He shakes his head for no. He roars for a lion if he sees one in a book or a toy one, is starting to make a hissy noise for a snake, does a sort of shorter roar thing for a dog's barking, and another type of roar for a pig, lol! All my little ones have roared for a pig, because they can't seem to do the inhaley snort that I do, and do it exhaling instead, which basically sounds like a roar! ;) He quacks (wack-wack!) for a duck very eagerly

He gives kisses and cuddles like none of my babies have so far, it's sooooo adorable! He wants to kiss his brothers all the time, and is very spontaneous. His kisses have stopped being the baby open-mouthed ones a while ago, and he now approaches people with his top teeth over his bottom lip, which is his version of the puckered lips thing, hehe! He pops his mouth open with a "fffuh" sound to actually give a kiss. If he hurts one of his brothers (he's sometimes hitting when he's frustrated with one of them) we ask him to "say sorry" which he can't do because he can't say it yet, but he always immediately goes and gives them a kiss instead. We are working on "gentle" with him too, and he's really starting to respond to that recently, which will hopefully be helpful when Benjamin is here! I am not sure how he'll fare with a new baby brother now. I have always found that still nursing the new big brother is a MAJOR factor in how well they accept the new baby, but Nathan is my first child who won't have that helpful factor. Another major factor for them is whether I have a homebirth or not, and I'm not sure if I can, given that I have just tested GBS positive (Group B Strep).

He's my most independent baby by far, playing very happily and entertaining himself for long stretches of time with toys and books. He adores vehicles of any sort and pushes them around the floor endlessly. He pushes trains on the wooden train track now too, and says "oo-oh" (uh-oh) for when they fall off the track! He loves loves loves looking through books and will amuse himself for a long long time just looking through book after book, even if he's holding some of them upside down! ;) He is very into soft cuddly toys, more so than my others have been. He loves to squeeeeeeze them to his cheek or neck with both arms and a blissful smile on his face :) He's SUCH an incredible sweetie pie. He loves to dance, especially when one or both of his brothers are doing so, in fact he loves to join in anything they are trying to do (sometimes this is a huge source of frustration for them!). He claps readily at anything he feels proud of doing! He loves to help tidy and put dirty laundry or even dirty nappies over the kitchen gate. He loves the wooden geometric stacking toy and will stack and re-stack for a long time, happily. He adores the ride-on toys in the garden, but prefers pushing them rather than sitting on them, with the exception of Matthew's main birthday present - the Little Tikes Cosy Coupe car that you sit inside and push along with your feet. He loves sitting in it, but isn't interested in moving along. He sits in there for up to 10 minutes at a time, just looking relaxed and comfortable, hehe!

He eats really well and isn't as picky as his brothers (yet!). He puts away large quantities of food, even compared with his brothers, but maybe that's just his age and stage of growth. He loves spaghetti bolognese and macaroni cheese. He isn't crazy about mashed potato, which for some reason NONE of my children like. He'll eat it though, which is more than can be said for the other two! He LOVES cheese and yoghurt. He has a sweet tooth and likes cake especially. Arthur is the same way, and Matthew is very different and has never liked cake! Nathey doesn't seem to like any fruit though.... He's quite hard to get fruit into, though he loves raisins, and he'll eat fruit yoghurts and stuff. A few months ago I started giving him those organic fruit puree pots from the baby weaning section in the supermarket, just to see if he would eat them to get some fruit, because he really likes spoon-feeding himself pots of yoghurt or fromage frais, so I was hoping it would work! It DID work for a long time, and he had a good range of fruits that way every day. But lately he won't eat them. He has been totally independently self-feeding since before he was one, thanks to Baby-Led Weaning, and very quickly picked up spoon-feeding himself too. He eats his dinner with a toddler fork and spoon very well, and gets on with meals happily, whereas we seem to still be constantly nagging the older two to eat with their spoon still!

He loves his Monkey and his blankie, and needs both for his naps. He likes to bring them down with him after naps and in the morning, and picks themm up and carries them about a lot. He'll cosy down with them on the sofa, or pick them up and bring them to me purposely to let me know that he's ready for a nap in the day time. He's so different in this kind of way to my others! He still naps twice a day, and there was a time a few months back when he seemed to be refusing his morning nap for a couple of weeks straight. I assumed he was transitioning to one nap a day, and during that time he napped just once right after lunch, but then he had that cold and went back to two naps, and has seemed to totally NEED them both each day. He is usually up for the day by 6.30am (sometimes by 6am) and is tired and ready for sleep by 9am! His naps lengths vary but he usually takes 1.5 hours maybe, in the morning. And then he's tired again by 2.30pm and naps for a couple of hours. Again, NOTHING like my other babies! I love his natural thing for naps! :) He's super grumpy and whiney and cries for AGES after getting up if he wakes too early in his naptime.

He is starting to have more tantrums over things, like if he wants a toy the older boys are playing with and I say he can't. He is fairly easy to distract and divert, but still has these tantrums if he feels very strongly about something! ;) He is NOT hard work and continues to be a very "easy baby". He's such a lovely little boy and a complete delight. He has a smile on his face all the time, one which makes his little cheeks all "appley" and round, and his eyes shine and shine. He's happy and enthusiastic about life all the time. He does this thing with his eyebrows when happy or enthusiastic, where they go up SO HIGH on his forehead, hehe! They are up in that position so much of the time lately, he's just so happy about life! He's such a little precious.

I have no idea what he weighs, or what he has weighed for a LONG time, since I haven't had him weighed since he was X months old (can't even remember, but maybe somewhere like 6 months old?!?!). He's slimming down in his legs especially at the moment, and suddenly looking taller lately, more like a little boy in some ways. He was never chunky like Arthur, but never as slender as Matthew either. He doesn't look like he weighs all that much, but seems healthy and scrummy and toddlerish to me when I look at him. I measured all the boys against the wall yesterday (Nathan's first time!) but I haven't taken a tape measure to the line yet to find out exactly how tall he is. They are stairsteps almost exactly, with about 5-6 inches between each of their heights! So sweet! :)

Okay, that is all for now. Nathan is up from his nap, Tesco has been with my grocery order and I've unpacked it and put it away, disciplined various boys endless times, and now I must go and make their lunch. I'm glad to have got the Nathan stuff written down at last! I absolutely adore that boy-bean-boo. :)

Change of sleeping arrangements!

I'm soooooo behind here! It's late and I am not feeling well at the moment, which seems an even stranger time to start trying to catch up! But it's giving me a chance to do a few small things online here and there, which I wasn't keeping up with before.

Today and yesterday I have had tummy cramps and diarrhoea all day, urgh! The night before it started, I woke up ALL night long (half-hourly) with nausea and tummy ache, and then the next day was Friday and Neil went to work as usual. I still had a bit of nausea and my tummy hurt a bit, but I ate all the same. Which was apparently not the thing to do! I was sooo nauseous that afternoon and had to keep running to the loo as well, and that was so difficult with the little ones. Matthew emptied cereal all over the kitchen floor on one of my toilet runs, and I just so didn't like leaving them all unattended like that all the time. I felt horrible too and had to just lie on the sofa. Since it didn't stop that evening and then I was awake half-hourly with tummy pains again last night (nausea gone though, phew!), Neil worked from home today. I'm so so so thankful that he is able to do that in a pinch - his boss is very good about it. It's hard for him though, trying to work with three little boys in the same room (our house is too smaaaall!) causing all sorts of trouble. They are really difficult to handle at the moment - I sound like a broken record, I know! Nathan isn't so difficult, but the older two go out of their way to be, which is so very difficult right now. Anyway, as it turned out, Neil's work computer system had problems after the first couple of hours and so he was able to just give up on it and take the rest of the day away from work altogether. I had to pretty much stay in bed today. The symptoms I'm having have actually got worse today and I have felt pretty crummy and weak, and can't seem to even have a drink of water without it giving me cramps and the associated evacuation! I am trying to snack on appropriate things anyway. People are saying it sounds like my body is getting ready for labour (I'm 35 weeks now), but I'm not so sure. I haven't been anywhere to catch a bug, but Arthur complained of feeling "queasy" a few times yesterday and had one occasion of loose stools. He's been otherwise fine, but that was odd for him. He's 100% fine today. Also, I have never had that kind of "preparation" before labour with my other pregnancies, so I'm wary of that theory for me. Anyway, who knows. I just want to feel better now!

I realised that I never did post about the change of sleeping arrangements for the boys! Or maybe I did, but never posted photos? I can't remember.

A few weeks ago, we finally moved Nathan's cot into the boys' room, where they now have a bunk bed. Matthew had been sleeping in his toddler bed still, and Neil was using a bunk. They still wake at times during the night and it's so much easier to have one of us sleep there so that they don't just wake everybody else up before we're even awake to know that there's a problem! So we moved Nathan into the room in his cot. We originally hoped to move him into the toddler bed and Matthew into the bottom bunk, but when it came to it, Nathan just doesn't seem ready to be out of his cot yet, and it's HIS little bed! Also, Matthew is still very attached to his toddler bed and we didn't want to cause any problems there!

So, we moved the toddler bed to the main bedroom next to where I sleep, just where Nathan's cot had been. We gave Matthew the option of sleeping in his little bed near Mummy (and thus missing out on "the boys' room"!) or sleeping in the bottom bunk. On the first night he slept in the bottom bunk, very excited about it! On the second night I was just climbing in with him for his snuggle/prayers/breastfeed (yes, he is still breastfeeding at almost 3!), when suddenly he sat up and said in SUCH a sad voice, "But... this is not my bed!" and his little chin wobbled and his eyes filled up! My heart nearly turned to a puddle of goop with how much I LOVED him at that second, and I asked him if he wanted to sleep in his little bed in the other bedroom tonight. He said yes and looked so relieved! He hopped right out of bed and ran to his little bed, and just beamed and smiled in there for ages! So, he slept next to me that night. That was nice, because I didn't feel so alone in the bedroom - the first night without Nathan in there was really surprisingly lonely and sad for me! I missed him sooooo much! I was glad for Matthew to choose to sleep in there the next night, though I didn't get much sleep at all because he flings himself about in his sleep quite a bit (so like his daddy, hehe!) and his arm kept whacking the cupboard door that his bed was up against, which woke me constantly (but didn't disturb him in the least!).

Since that night, Matthew has not slept in his toddler bed. It's still there, and we plan to leave it there a while, just so he knows it's an option for him. But it's going well! He has chosen to nurse in there before going to his bunk to sleep some nights, but not for the last week or two.

Nathan has adjusted very smoothly to the new bedroom, and really hasn't seemed bothered at all by the change-about. He can still be kind of wakeful through the night, but nearly always resettles himself. Arthur can tend to wake once or twice some nights (not many) and when he does, he calls for Neil to resettle him, or climbs down the ladder (in the dark!! Which makes me so nervous!!) to get to him. So Neil is staying in there for a bit longer. We have yet to decide if he's going to move back in with me (which, let's face it, is where he should be! This must all sound so ridiculous to the normal married couple, haha!) at all for when Benjamin comes - oh, that is his name by the way! Benjamin Isaac will be our new baby boy's name! :) I don't think I have said that here yet, though most of you will know from my pregnancy diary. If you know me at Facebook, PLEASE don't mention it there! We never reveal our baby names till they're born, anywhere except my blogs online, and a ton of real-life friends keep up with me there!

Anyway, basically we will have to weigh up the best place for Neil to get the best sleep, which so far has NEVER been in the room with me and the new baby. So, I think it's likely that he'll stay in with the boys (he's on a mattress on the floor, which fills the floor actually, since the room is so tiny!) for the early weeks with Benjamin. If they are wakeful with Benjamin's night wakings, then he's right there to settle them until they get used to it, and he should probably get way more sleep there too. I know I will be up and down like a yo-yo changing nappies, breastfeeding, burping the boy, and changing endless leaked/puked-on sleepsuits and sheets! ;) I can't wait!!! And I promise I am not being sarcastic. I just so can't wait for those sweet early weeks again, exhausting though they are.

So, here are some photos of the change-of-sleeping-arrangements thing! Here's a "before" picture of the boys' room, when it was just the new bunks (aren't they nice?! I got matching bedding and curtains for all three beds recently, and the boys LOVE them! They were soooooo cheap on eBay!) and Matthew's little toddler bed that he has slept in since he was born (as a cotbed back then, of course!):



Here's the "after" picture, just after the cot went in:



And here are a few photos taken once they had all finally fallen asleep on the first night in there together. They went to sleep pretty quickly considering the excitement! Nathan was last to fall asleep, but he takes a good while settling himself to sleep every night as a norm, and he's very independent with it and doesn't fuss or anything.





After I took the photos, I stood and watched them sleeping for a while, and just felt so inexplicably sad! I'm sure I was being heavily influenced by hormones, but it was just a real "moving on" thing for both Nathan and Matthew, and ohhhh I cried and sobbed like a baby, standing there watching them! After a while it got so that I felt pretty sure if I didn't pull myself together I might just continue all evening and end up with a sinus headache and those pretty broken veins under my eyes, so I went downstairs and did some "normal" stuff, and felt a bit better so long as I wasn't thinking about it. I felt sad and lonely in the same way when I went to bed though. It got easier after a few days! :) I now have the opportunity to sleep better than I have since.... well, maybe even since before ARTHUR was born!!! They've all slept through the night for the first time JUST before I give birth to another baby, and I have done all the night wakings with them. Oh but I think there was a time when I was pregnant with Matthew where I slept in the then "spare room" for a while to get a better night's sleep, while Neil and Arthur co-slept. But otherwise, no full nights for me so far! Ironically, I haven't slept well since Nathan moved out, because either I am too tuned in to his sounds in the night still and wake when he stirs anyway, even if he's in the other room and Neil settles him, or else I just have to pee and pee and pee and pee and pee (ad infinitum) all night long due to being hugely pregnant! ;) So, never mind! Good thing I really don't mind it, now that I am so used to it! I am tired though.

So yay, finally caught up with the bedroom stuff that I meant to post ages back.

Matthew's 3rd birthday is coming up! Only 9 days away, I can't believe it. I love that it was 3 years ago exactly when his due date was approaching and I was huge and pregnant and excited to meet him, and I'm in almost the same position now, 3 years later! And how blessed am I to have had another baby in between as well?!?! God is so good to me.

I have been unusually organised, for once, regarding birthdays this summer! I bought all the family birthday cards way ahead, and am now glad to have them in the drawer ready to send out. Thea (my brother's little girl) turned 2 a couple of weeks ago, which is soooo surreal! Those two years have gone so fast! Tonight I wrote Emily's birthday card from all of us, for her 1st birthday, and her sister Ella shares Matthew's birthday on the 14th, but is a year older than Matthew. He was born on her first birthday - cousins! :) I have bought and wrapped almost all of Matthew's presents a few weeks ago - I'm NEVER this organised! We are getting him some smaller presents and one bigger one - the bigger one is one of those Cosy Coupe ride-in cars for the garden. He could have done with one of those a couple of years ago even, but the garden hasn't been suitable for them really, and we're only now starting to make proper use of it. He LOVES those cars at other people's houses, and I figured why not, since we have more little people to grow into it once he has outgrown it! Also, everyone else here has a winter birthday (till Benjamin evens it out!) so garden toys never work for anyone's birthday but Matthew's. I have yet to buy the Cosy Coupe car, mainly because I don't have anywhere to store it to keep it out of sight once it's here! I know where I'm getting it from though, and that it's in stock, so that's okay.

We're giving him two Little Red Train books - he LOVES the one he's got and I know he'll be thrilled with a couple more! Also a jigsaw puzzle, a cut-and-play ice-cream set from The Early Learning Centre (he always wants to play "serving ice-cream" lately, with plastic balls balanced on little cups, so I know he'll love it!), a set of 3 toy emergency vehicles (he is obsessed with these), and a DVD of Postman Pat: Special Delivery Service. He will be highly excited about the DVD, because he looooves Postman Pat, and the new Special Delivery Service series is his favourite right now, alongside Chuggington. Those are his smaller gifts from us. My mum has sent two books and two jigsaw puzzles through Amazon and I've wrapped those too. I love wrapping presents!! :)

It has taken us a while to figure out what to DO on his birthday. We have our own little family tradition of a day out somewhere, usually of the birthday boy's choosing, but we default to the farm for everyone's 2nd birthday, just because it's straightforward and they don't usually know how to choose at that age. They love the play farm! Arthur chose going to France to visit Nana and Grandy for his 4th birthday! I can't believe I haven't actually blogged about that properly yet :(

Anyway, we considered "Days out with Thomas" (Thomas the Tank Engine) but the nearest one was in Essex and we didn't want to travel far. Same thing ruled out the seaside. We considered the farm again, but wanted to do something Matthew would specifically be excited about. We were thinking of going to a miniature railway (he loves trains!) but we don't have a very local one, and we weren't sure if he would decide he didn't like the trains or the steam close up, and end up not enjoying it on his birthday! So, we are going to a place where we there's a small farm area (small animals to stroke - he thinks these kind of animals are "so fweet!!"), and a huge aviary (Arthur loves birds), and an aquarium. Also a big picnic area and a little ride-on train to take you from one place to another. We'll take a picnic and hope the weather is okay! I think all the boys will really enjoy that. It doesn't feel like it will be TOO overwhelming for me as I reach full-term either, because it's fairly local, and we can go at our own pace and do plenty of sitting down as needed. We're not telling the boys till the actual day, I think, just in case something or other happens with me pregnancy-wise and we can't do it on his birthday.

Now I need to ask Matthew what he wants for dinner on his birthday (birthday boys always choose their favourite meal for dinner and I make it for them!), and make his birthday cake. I am making a dump truck birthday cake for him. I wrote myself 3 pages of instructions (with diagrams!) a few weeks ago, to save me time and effort nearer the time. He loves any sort of vehicle, and when I asked him what kind of birthday cake he wanted, he said a police car. But then he changed it to a caterpillar (!), and then a tractor (he had one of those last birthday), and then a train, and so on. He didn't seem to have a clear preference, and Arthur kept on influencing him with his OWN preferences! ;) So I just stopped asking him, and I decided to make him a dump truck. He wants chocolate cake, though he actually isn't a fan of cake at all - I think he will be most likely to eat chocolate cake over other varieties though. He is soooo keen on Smarties (NOT the sour U.S. kind - the chocolate M&M-ish British kind!) and I am going to have the tipper bit of the dump truck filled with Smarties. I hope it turns out okay! I will be sure to post photos :)

We need to figure a way to take videos, because now that I have the new camera, we really don't have any way to take videos right now. The old camera has video capabilities, but it's not working too well, and for a week or two it has disappeared into thin air! Our old camcorder is OLD, and we lost the battery charger a long time ago (hence using the camera to take videos after that!). I don't want to miss the chance to take videos on Matthew's birthday though! I'll have to try to find the old camera.

Okay that's it for now. I have successfully eaten a small bowl of Cheerios, and two loo-run-free hours have passed - weyhey!! :) So I'm going to bed, and hopefully I'll be much better tomorrow. It's the weekend at least - thank you Lord that I didn't get poorly on Monday or Tuesday!

I have so much more to update about, and so many more photos, but I will get to that soon, hopefully! If anything happens in terms of a baby arriving or something (!!) I will be blogging about it as much as I can at my pregnancy blog while it's happening (see last entry for link), and maybe at Facebook if I'm able. Otherwise, I'll be back soon!