Two months old!

Benjamin turned 2 months old yesterday! Please excuse the extreme number of fairly samey photos, but in my defense I am completely besotted with my tiny boo and can't decide on any to leave out of this post! :) He's such a precious, smiley little man, and I love all his different expressions. He is getting so big!

















I took a photo of Arthur's writing yesterday (his first proper example that I've photographed since he started recently) and Benjamin was right there in the photo so I've included it here too! :) Arthur wanted to write all our names and I spelled them out to him and he wrote the letters. Occasionally I had to write a letter to show him how to write it first, but otherwise he did great - and he held his pencil really well. He has had the correct hold for a good 6 months but never seemed so natural with it till this week. Anyway, on with the photos! :)





Benjamin is so big and strong for his age! The doctor commented that his head control was excellent for sitting up supported. I don't support his head sitting upright on my lap, for example, because he just holds it up fine himself and looks around. He can turn his head about to see things, and it's a little wobbly but he doesn't keep dropping it forwards or backwards or anything like that any more. He is a back sleeper (my first since Arthur!) and thus doesn't get much time on his tummy compared with my last two babies, to practise using his neck muscles, but he's doing fine I think. Most days I remember to do tummy time with him at least once, but it's never for very long. He gets tired quickly and makes slightly frantic noises! He can lift his head right up and look ahead of him even, but only for snatches of a second or two. He can lift his chin and try to turn his head to the side quite well.

When the doctor was checking him (thanks ever so much for the sweet and reassuring comments on my last post about the appointment, by the way!), she put him on his tummy and he looked like he was shoving himself about with his arms and legs all at once, trying to propel himself in some way. She said, "Early crawler, maybe?!" :) I am guessing he'll crawl between 6 and 8 months old, since everyone else has here! Arthur was the latest at 8.5 months. The other two were 6 months old. I feel like Benjamin will be more like the younger two, but we'll have to see!

He loves to "talk"! It's his favourite activity. He will coo and talk earnestly complete with ever such serious and intent expressions, for as long as you can sit there and talk back with him before you get a sore muscle somewhere or other in your face from smiling for too long or holding your head in a funny position or something like that! He doesn't get tired from talking easily. He gets hiccups when he tries something new with his vocal sounds. He is on the BRINK of laughing, and every time he does that precious little "pre-laugh" - the one with the chin lifting suddenly and a "heh!" sound from the big wide open smiley mouth - he gets hiccups immediately and that distracts him. It was the same with all my other boys. I can't WAIT to hear his precious little laugh. I love his voice, it's so soft and slightly husky. A bit like Matthew's was as a baby (his is still slightly lower and huskier than Arthur or Nathan's), but not quite as much so.

I've tried the things that made each of my other babies laugh (they all laughed for the first time at me doing different things each time) but he's not that amused by any of those things! So I will have to find something that's unique to Benjamin's sense of humour! ;) So far, he does his pre-laugh for me doing percussion sounds with my mouth and throat (!) and also gurgling at the back of my throat when we coo back and forth to each other. I am incredibly besotted. I can't even describe it! He's sooooooooo precious.

Benjaminny, is his most-used nickname at the moment. Matthew started it right after he was born, except that he pronounces his name "Benjamim" anyway, so it's Benjamimmy. He calls him "that funny Benjamimmy" for some reason! For example, "Mummy, can I see that funny Benjamimmy again?" when I have just picked him up from where Matthew was looking at him. Matthew loves to spend time sitting with Benjamin, and talk to him. He is the only one who will sit still long enough and focus on Benjamin's face consistently enough to attract Benjamin's attention to get him talking and cooing and smiling. So Benjamin loves Matthew! He loves all of the boys, except he isn't crazily thrilled about Nathan just yet! Nathan LOVES Benjamin. Adores him, I think. He is nothing but gentle with him, and constantly wants to see him or interact with him. He gives Benjamin his own lovey blanket and Monkey, and tries to cover him up if he has fallen asleep in the bouncy chair. He also will bounce the chair if Benjamin is crying, with SUCH a concerned furrowed brow, and strokes his head. He constantly kisses him, mostly on his head, but anywhere he can reach really. He calls him "Beh!" (though, he calls Matthew "Meh!" right now, so it's just a first letter thing!).

Arthur still loves Benjamin so much. He is a good boy with him, very responsible. If I am bouncing the chair with my feet while I gather things to tidy up quickly before I make lunch, and Benjamin is crying, then instead of having to delay making lunch or just have Benjamin cry and cry while I do it, Arthur appears by my side, saying, "I'll take over bouncing Benjamin, Mummy, while you make lunch." He sits just where I was on the sofa, and plants his feet squarely on the two "legs" of the bouncy chair, and starts rocking. He keeps this up for a long time, and once or twice has been sooooo proud of his efforts when Benjamin went from crying to fast asleep on one of his watches! :) He still asks to hold Benjamin all the time, and nuzzles his face with his nose, making little "aww" sounds as he does so! He's very sweet with him and says he really loves him. He looks forward to when Benjamin is bigger and can talk or walk or play games with the boys. He's big brother to three at the tender age of four, but it has not been bad for him at all (contrary to what some may think!). Instead he is delighted with new siblings and is very mushy with them, wanting to spend time holding them, talking to them, and cuddling with them every day. He loves to help with nappy changes, baths, teaching new skills, and settling and soothing. Loves it. He is pretty eager for God to bless us again with more babies. He makes me so proud! :)

But this is supposed to be about Benjamin! Oops! :)

So, Benjaminny. I reverse this sometimes to call him "mini-Benji". Benjaminny is a nickname we all call him (except Neil, I think?), and a close second is Benji.

Well, I could write endlessly about my sweet little lovely baby boy, but he's stirring right now and has been sleeping all evening, so I think it's time for me to go and nurse him, before going to bed myself. I will update again soon - I took a lot of photos of the other boys too yesterday, and will post those soon!

Benjamin's 8 week check-up (and associated drama!)

I took Benjamin for his 6-8 week baby check with the GP yesterday. He weighs 13lbs 13oz (6.26kg) and measures 24 inches (61cm) which puts him in the 95th percentile for both height and weight!!! Wowsers! He's my biggest boy so far, for sure! The doctor thinks he'll end up the tallest of the four - how funny that seems to me now, with him being the littlest! His head circumference was 48cm I think - I need to double check what she wrote. Anyway, whatever it was puts him between the 50th and 75th percentile. She said it wasn't too accurate and not to worry that it didn't match his other percentiles - she wasn't concerned about his growth in any way.

I checked the other boys' red books for their weights, and they are all different. Arthur weighed this much at 12 weeks old (Benjamin is 8 weeks), and Nathan was 11 weeks. He was born 5 weeks early though, so I wonder if his weight was pretty much comparable to Benjamin's, if you allow for his early arrival? Anyway. Little Matthew didn't weigh this much until he was eighteen weeks - four months old!!! He's always been such a little peanut, and that thing you do where you measure their height at their 2nd birthday and double it, gave him an adult height of 5ft 7in! Arthur's came to 5ft 9in, and I have yet to do Nathan's, as he's not yet two. I can't wait to, though! My mum did it for my brother and I, and it was accurate to our heights now. It's a recognised method of prediction but I don't know how it works really!

The actual appointment with the doctor was horrible! I mean, Benjamin checked out wonderfully and all that, but the morning was no fun. I really struggle with time-keeping, and have a hard time not arriving late for things. I always have had trouble with this, but it is so much harder with little ones! I ran late for his check which was scheduled a couple of weeks ago, and called them to say I was going to be late. They asked me to reschedule it instead, so that's why he went yesterday. So Neil took the day off work as holiday time, and watched the boys so that I didn't have to haul them all there. Right now (this is actually NOT good, and I don't like to admit it, but there it is) I don't feel like I can take all my children out on my own. The older two just DO NOT obey me and behave out and about. Matthew in particular, runs away laughing all the time - into the road and through car parks and all that scary stuff, and I can't fathom how to stop him. He always gets disciplined. It's always discipline he does NOT like one bit. He always gets the explanation of why he must obey Mummy (and Daddy, since he gives Neil the same trouble) when we are out, and all the safety stuff about the road and cars, etc. I have lately tried being much more graphic about WHY he should not run into the road or the car park. It seemed to give him pause, but he still does it again any time he gets the chance. Urgh. He is FAST, and I struggle to catch him up sometimes, especially with a baby or toddler on my hip, or on the loose if I leave them to run after him. To the point where I frankly do not even take them out at ALL any more. I'm too afraid for their safety with Matthew's antics. Arthur doesn't run away from me any more but he's still very difficult out. I need to fix it because we can't stay home all the time!!! I don't want to, and they NEED to get out and away from where we live some of the time! But I don't know how to sort out Matthew's behaviour, so outings are still on hold. If I have an appointment, or a boy does, then Neil will stay home to watch the others. He feels the same way about it as me, and prefers to stay home (we have nobody else we can ask to watch them) rather than put anyone at risk with Matthew's behaviour. I know this is WRONG and we shouldn't have to even have somebody else watch them, and we should be taking Matthew's behaviour in hand and FIXING IT RIGHT NOW!!! But as pathetic as it sounds, we really really do not have a clue what to do to fix it. We are disciplining him for it and we don't understand why it's not having any apparent effect. Urrrgh.

Anyway. So, Neil watched the boys. I took Benjamin to his appointment. I was extra organised so that I would not be late, after running late for the previous one. I was so proud of myself! We arrived 15 minutes before the appointment time! BUT. The car park was full and so were the neighbouring streets, and I drove round and round and round getting more and more anxious waiting for a space to open up. I was so annoyed with myself that I hadn't brought Neil's mobile phone with me, because I could have called the surgery to let them know that I couldn't park if I had it with me! It was so frustrating! I was RIGHT THERE, but couldn't pull over or leave my baby in the car to run in and tell the receptionist I was unable to park!

So finally a space opened up, and it took me a bit to park because our vehicle is gigantic in order to hold all the little ones (!) and the space was tiny. I carried Benjamin in my arms and we were at the reception desk 5 minutes after my appointment time. When I checked in, the receptionist said the doctor (my favourite lovely GP) had marked us "Did Not Attend" and that I would have to reschedule. I was so frustrated and upset! We WERE there, but there weren't any parking spaces! Urgh. Also I felt upset that Neil had taken a day of his holiday time to watch the boys and it seemed like it was a wasted day off, and he'd need another day to watch them if I rescheduled again. Also, the appointment was already a late one because of the previous rescheduling. They've been bugging me to get him in for his check asap because he "MUST" have his first round of immunisations this week, and he can't get those till after his check. I'm not especially picky about immunisations to schedule (currently the older three are "behind" on their immunisations to varying degrees - I get letters from the surgery about it ALL the time but I ignore them. I'll take them when I am ready to), but I do so dislike being pestered and pushed about it. I explained the whole situation but the receptionist was unmoved and (I know she was just doing her job) not very nice in her tone. Which upset me and annoyed me. So when I was getting absolutely nowhere and people in the waiting area were starting to look at us, I just got exasperated and said, "Oh look, FINE. He'll miss his check and he won't have his jabs. Fine." and walked out. I got about 5 steps out of the building with my heart racing and my eyes filling up and my hands shaking (I have always been DREADFUL with confrontation. I am seriously just not physically equipped to handle such things, it seems!), before I thought, no no, this won't do. I will have to go back in and sort this out. He does HAVE to be seen, and I can't just leave it at this.

So, I turned on my heel and went back in. I walked up to the reception desk and told the receptionist that it was not my fault that I was a few minutes late, and that Benjamin HAD to be seen. I could not arrange to come back again within the time frame that they like babies to have their checks at this age. I told her I wasn't trying to be difficult. She said that she wasn't trying to be difficult either, but that when a doctor marks a patient as "Did Not Attend", they can't do much about it. Her tone wasn't nice. She told me I had "stormed out" (which I guess I had). I don't think I have ever seen or heard this particular receptionist use a nice friendly tone with any patient, now I think about it. I don't like her. But I know she was just doing her job, and she hadn't SAID anything out of line, just the tone.

She said she would put a call through to the doctor and ask her about it. I waited, pacing about a bit in a flustered manner because Benjamin was starting to fuss, and I was feeling extreeemely uncomfortable because I was getting the distinct impression that I was going to cry, no matter what the outcome was - it was just looming behind my eyeballs and not much was going to prevent it from spilling over. And I know I have mentioned over the years (several times!) how very awful and difficult I find it to cry in front of ANYONE, let alone an entire waiting room full of people who have nothing better to do but watch my situation unfold! I have trouble crying in front of my HUSBAND, or my parents! This was a panicky moment for me, I can tell you!

Well, the receptionist told me that the doctor would see us, but that we might have to wait a while. I nodded, being unable to use my throat to form words, and went to sit down. I sat next to the water cooler, as far away from the wider waiting area as possible, put my unhappy baby to the breast (not caring a jot whether anyone minded, or how much of anything was on view to the waiting room) and to my HORROR, began to audibly sob and cry, and inevitably, sniff, and all that fun attractive stuff. I wiped my face with my hands because I didn't have a tissue, and the more I wiped, the more I cried, and the more I cried, the more I wiped. I tried not to sob audibly, but ohhhh it was one of those flood-gatey situations where that is just not gonna happen, no matter how much I tried to stem it! Eventually I blew my nose on one of Benjamin's muslin cloths in my bag (how nice!) because honestly it would have been much worse if I hadn't, and a really sweet elderly man came over with his walker and pretended to want a drink at the water cooler. He asked me little trivial things about the water cups and which tap was cooler, and smiled so cheerfully and encouragingly at me the whole time, bless his heart! He eventually helped himself to a CENTIMETRE of water in a tiny cup and shuffled off to drink it, returning shortly afterwards to talk about it being refreshing even on a cold morning, to thank me profusely for my "help", and put the cup in the bin :) That warmed my heart, because I could tell he was trying to help me in his own way. Sweet man!

Benjamin nursed on one side, and then I burped him and starting to walk him about. I was less tearful at this point, and the receptionists had both seen by now that I was all in a state about the whole thing. They didn't say anything though, but I know they saw me. After about 30 or 40 minutes, my doctor called us in, and normally she greets me at the doorway but she wasn't even visible at the open door as I walked towards it. She was inside, stony faced, with her hand extended to the empty chair to encourage me to sit in it. I felt like I was at the headmistress's office and it did NOT feel nice! I happen to LOVE my doctor. We always chat and laugh and she's so friendly. In my heart I consider her a friend and look forward to seeing her. I have a paper-thin skin (MUST get a thicker one, as I am sure to need it the more children I have!) so this upset me hugely, and I sat in the chair and wept and sobbed and attempted to say that I was sorry for being late, but nothing I said was very easy to understand! She sounded kind of cross, and told me that it was becoming a bit of a habit, and I needed to make appointments on time or else let them know I would be late. Oh, the whole morning was just so so humiliating! I know I had it coming, it's my own fault for not making it on time in general (though I am not always late, just to point out!), but it just felt so upsetting that I had done my best that morning and arrived EARLY, and their inadequate teeny tiny car park had caused me to be late because I couldn't get a place to park! And for that I was subjected to allllll the disapproval and tones and lectures and unhappiness.

I know this will sound ridiculous, but by this point, inside myself I felt like a little girl - LITTLE, maybe 5 or 6. I felt utterly miserable, and sobbed openly like a little girl would, pushing at my wet cheeks with my hands and choking out things like, "It's not my fault today, it's noooot!... I couldn't park (sob), and I didn't have a (sob) phone, and I'm a horrible time-keeper but I did so well today (sob) and got here early, and (sob) I'm so sorry!" How EMBARRASSING!!!!! Urrrrrrrrgggghhh. The memory makes me shudder!

So the doctor softened up a lot, and put her hand on my knee and talked in a gentle tone and said she understood. She was very nice after that, and gently reminded me that if I ever AM going to run late, to please phone ahead to let them know. Benjamin was fussing again in my arms, and I nodded at her, but I tell you, I was GONE by this point. Gone. If I do cry, and get to crying properly, then I will likely cry for HOURS and not be able to stop it. Which is one of the reasons I don't like to do it! Especially in front of people! No matter if the situation resolves, allll the pain that caused the crying in the first place is just as raw and jangly as it was before the resolution. So, the miserable feelings and associated crying continue. I also felt really strangely detached and depressed, like I had no interest in Benjamin even. Even if I tried to snap out of it and focus on him. I didn't like that feeling. I guess I had just got to feeling so miserable that I was in a real pit about everything.

The doctor said in a cheerful, "back to normal" voice, "Right, let's get on with Benjamin's check, shall we?!" and stood up. I sat and cried and sobbed some more. She handed me a paper towel, and took Benjamin from me to the examination bed. I remember (now that I think about it), that when I've taken my babies to these checks before, I undress them at this point and then they are weighed and measured. They are put on their front and have their back checked, and attempts at motor skills noted, and then their testes get squidged (gently!) to check that they're there, and reflexes are checked. Then I dress them again, and chat with the doctor about the baby's milestones and so on, and they get their head circumference checked. This time I just weirdly felt unable to get up out of the chair or to stop crying, and felt no interest at all in being involved in Benjamin's check. I feel sad about that now :( It's a big event for me usually, and I look forward to it and enjoy it. I WAS looking forward to it, and I feel sad that it's not what I had hoped because of how unhappy I felt. The doctor asked me if I felt okay now (cheerfully and encouragingly, you know), and I nodded, tears dripping off my chin and sobs still making my chest quivery. I didn't feel okay at ALL, but what are you meant to say in answer to that question?! I got up and hovered a little way from the bed, and still cried, so the doctor undressed Benjamin herself and asked me to fetch some wipes from my bag (which I did), and wiped him up herself as he had done a little poo. She said cheerfully, "It's been a while since I've done this!" I knew she was trying to cheer me up, or make me STOP with the crying, but I felt unable to stop and just continued despite the cheerfulness, which gave me a really awkward feeling!

Finally she beckoned me over and so I stood next to her. She weighed Benjamin, and measured him. I watched but continued to cry (urgh! She must have been so sick of me by then!) and then he was VERY cross about life, hehe! So she looked at him and then looked at me, and said, "Why don't you pick him up and give him a little cuddle to calm him down, and then I'll come and check the rest of him." and she went over to her desk, I think to give me a bit of space. That was a really clever thing for her to say because it helped me start to feel less bawly! I nodded and picked Benjamin up, without clothes or a nappy on, and held him close to me. At first I cried, but after a bit I felt like I was warming up from being all numb and cold or something, and started to regain "feeling" again, an interest in my little one and an ability to think outside of how I was feeling. I talked to Benjamin and shushed him and rocked him, and started to feel a bit better. The doctor came back over at this point and talked to me cheerfully about how well he was doing and how big he was. I didn't want to meet her eye (that 6-year-old girl inside me again) but nodded to the things she was saying. She asked me if I was feeling better again, and I was still messy and sobby, but less of the actual crying, and I nodded with more feeling that time.

Then just as we made eye contact, I felt this strange warmth spreading across my tummy! My eyes must have said it all, because the doctor looked at my expression and said, "Oh no!", and we both looked at Benjamin! I pulled him away from my front, and sure enough, that boy had emptied the most ENORMOUS bladderful of wee-wee all over my front! I was soaked (dark red top, people, dark red - talk about a bad colour for hiding wet marks!) from above breast level to almost my crotch! And from side to side. That boy can PEE! ;) BUT, it was the perfect ice-breaker. We laughed about it, and I scrubbed at my front in vain with a terry towel that I had brought with me in my bag, and remarked that I would not be able to go shopping afterwards now! I felt a lot better after that :) As we left, I told her again (this time looking her in the eye!) that I was sorry, and she said, "It's not your fault. It's okay." which was reassuring to hear. When I got out of her room, I knew that God was telling me I needed to apologise to the receptionist.

The way he showed me was bringing a little part of Voddie Baucham's sermon on Child Training, to my mind. If you've heard it, then it was the bit where he says he doesn't know what taught his boy more - the evening where he backed down calmly when a young guy got all in his face and made a racist remark, or the next day when he had to go back to a lady at the airport car rental place (I think!) and apologise (with his son next to him) for being short with her. I LOVE that in his sermon he happened to state how he had apologised, exactly. It serves as a framework for me, and God brought it to my mind incredibly clearly as I stood there in the waiting/reception area. I knew I needed to go to her and say, "I'm sorry I was stroppy with you. You didn't deserve that. It's not your fault that I was late and the doctor marked me DNA. Please accept my apologies." in a GENTLE and loving tone of voice. Even if she HAD been rude or out of line with me (which she wasn't, as such). That would still be what God would have me do, and I wanted to do it for HIM, because I love him. And thinking like that was softening my heart for the receptionist and helping me love her too.

So, I went over to the desk, and saw only the other receptionist. I asked if the other lady was still here, and she just asked if she could help me instead. So I told her that I had been stroppy with the receptionist and I wanted to say I was sorry. I asked her if she could please pass that on to the other receptionist, and she said, "I most certainly will." I don't think she expected that. On Thursday I have an appointment with the same doctor for Arthur, about his feet. They are getting worse and I want a second opinion. *sigh* More on that after the appointment. I am determined to turn up like FORTY MINUTES EARLY just to be on the safe side, haha! I'm serious! Also, if that receptionist is there, I want to be sure to remind her of Monday (not that she'll likely forget me between Monday and Thursday!) and apologise like I wanted to. I love that Arthur will have the opportunity to watch me do that, and will likely question me about it, and I will have the chance to teach him something important about life, and about what God's heart is like. I will be praying about it in the days running up to it.

So, LONG story there, sorry! I went back to the car with Benjamin and once safely inside, commenced with the crying and sobbing again, for some crazy reason! I prayed for a while before driving off though, and I knew I needed to go somewhere else before going home. I didn't feel ready to go home with my face all puffy and red, and field questions from Neil and the boys. I felt so UNSTABLE, emotionally! Like anything would set me off crying for ages again, and I didn't want that. So, I drove for a while. Benjamin went to sleep in his car seat. He was such a good boy all morning really! I prayed while I drove, and wondered about a walk somewhere, but I ended up driving right through the park and out the other side, and kept on going. I put the A/C on full-blast, directed at my face, haha! ;) It worked really well too! I finally pulled into a big retail park and decided to buy the pyjamas, socks and underwear that Arthur needs. He has been outgrowing his current ones for a while now, and Matthew has started to fit them already! The poor boy needs some bigger clothes! He's the first child so he needs clothes bought (second hand usually, but still acquired for him) every time he outgrows the previous ones. All the other boys have hand-me-downs and never have need for anything! :) Matthew did need several pairs of new jeans recently though. By the age of 3, it seems that just two little boys can wear out jeans at the knee! I had hoped for all four boys to go through the same jeans, but nooo. I doubt Matthew's new jeans will reach Benjamin, though. Nathan will likely test them to their limits and beyond! ;) Anyway. So I went shopping in Next.

Ahhhh, how soothing it was! I put Benjamin asleep into the only carrier I had in the car with me (Baby Bjorn - how that hurts my shoulders now! I can't wait till he's grown into my lovely new Ergo (we don't have the newborn insert, and in any case, he would never tolerate the heat of being wrapped up like a burrito inside a sling in hot weather!), and off I went. I think I shopped, leisurely and slowly, for about an hour. Benjamin slept the whole time. His sweet little arms dangled like pendulums at his sides outside the carrier as I walked along! :) He was soooooo asleep.

I bought Arthur some lovely pyjamas, underwear and socks - Arthur and Matthew are the same sock size at the moment which makes life a bit easier when it comes to getting ready to go out (which I regularly DO, despite saying I never take them out earlier in this entry! Neil takes the three older boys out once or twice each day that he's home, on errands or just to run and play at the park. Tonight he took them to the park before bedtime as a treat, after he came home from work. They had a lovely time, and I had their pyjamas and toothbrushes ready as they walked into the house!).

Walking back to the car, I felt so much better inside. All soothed and back to myself again. I could think about the morning's events and not instantly well up, and the time at the doctor's seemed like a bad dream more than an event I was still experiencing, so that was a big improvement! Benjamin woke as I put him in his car seat, but we went home straight away instead of me nursing him, because I didn't want to be out too long with Neil watching the boys and needing to take Arthur to the hairdressers that afternoon, and he had only breastfed about 2 hours before, so there was still time before he got really hungry.

Once home, Neil did want to know what had happened, and he was all defensive and annoyed and protective on my behalf (*swoon*!!!) but I didn't want to talk about it till we had chance to chat on our own that evening. I felt fine about it by then, so that was good!

The whole thing still does bother me, and I find myself dwelling on it. I have no idea why I make such a big deal and get so upset over little things!!! It's frustrating! Especially as I get so OTT with the crying when it occasionally does happen, and then feel painfully "bruised" (emotionally) about the whole thing for a long time to come. I really REALLY need to get a thicker skin, I know that. I just don't know how! I feel really daft about the whole thing. *sigh* Oh well!

Oh, happy happy!! - The storage unit arrived and I put it together at the weekend! It's in place in the living room!!! Neil helped me take apart the old shelves and clean up behind them, and Arthur and Matthew excitedly helped me box up videos and things from the shelves before that. They were excited about the new furniture for school! They were in AWE the next morning when they came downstairs to see it all put together in its place. They liked the key (!) and it's stored HIGH on a hook in the middle of the wall so they can't get to it! I have already caught Arthur standing on a teetering pile of toys trying to flip it off with a wooden railway track piece! He still can't reach it (and knows that next time he'll be disciplined for trying), so that's okay! Inside are tubs - 12 plastic tubs each on their own little cubby hole shelf. I have organised everything into the tubs and made labels out of card for the fronts of the tubs. I unlock the doors and sliiiide them open every evening just to smile at the rows of labelled tubs and pull them out and look happily over the contents, and push them back in again, over and over. I'm silly like that! I'm sure the novelty will wear off soon, but I'll indulge myself till then! ;)

I purchased the Right Start Mathematics curriculum (Level A) and the photocopied cardstock resources for Levels A and B. Now I'm just debating over whether to get the Math Mammoth Grade 1 curriculum in downloadable form or printed form.... The download is convenient but I'll have to use a ton of printer ink (EXPENSIVE) to print out all the hundreds of pages, surely? If I have the printed version then photocopying them will be less expensive (I presume, especially since Neil thinks he will be given permission to copy them at work if he asks, and if he provides his own paper) - but potentially inconvenient to do if Neil can't do it at work.

Today I got a quote for having our battered 3-seater sofa taken away and disposed of. I'm hoping they'll get back in touch with me tomorrow about how soon they can do it. We'll certainly miss the 3-seater! It has been my DEAR friend for many years, but has definitely reached the end of its road, and we can't house it in any case if we're going to have space to homeschool in this tiny house. Neil and I bought the sofas when we got engaged. I had the 3-seater in my bedroom at home, and Neil kept the armchair and 2-seater at the house he shared with a guy from our church. When we got married, we lived with my parents for 3 months, having no home of our own yet, and then moved into a one-bedroom maisonette. We put our sofas right there in our very own living room, and I promptly spend two straight years lying on it due to being suddenly housebound with M.E. Ohhh how I loved that sofa, and yet disliked even the look of it at the same time, because of what it represented at that time. It was a weird, bittersweet, intimate connection with a piece of furniture! ;)

Then we moved to our current home, God healed me (yes, he did!!! Overnight folks - Over. Night. God is awesome!), and that sofa saw many happier times with Neil and I laughing and laughing watching comedies together on it, cuddling and talking together. I laboured on that sofa. My waters broke on it (plastic-covered!) with Arthur. I gave birth to Matthew leaning against it. All four of my children have laid their sweet little bodies on it, and several of them have jumped and laughed and played and napped and snuggled with me on it. Poorly boys have recovered on it. Many of my little "photoshoots" of my little ones have taken place on it. It is big and luxurious and lovely to stretch out on. Oh, how I will miss it! But, I shall also pull myself together and remember that it's a piece of furniture! Or try to, anyway. In its place will go a wooden table and four wooden chairs, bought from a school supplier, the perfect height for 4-7 year olds (but rather low for me, hehe!). That's where we'll have our school lessons. There will be various display items on the wall (it will be pushed right up against the wall where the sofa was, and against the new storage unit on the side) above the table, and I am also thinking of getting a flat-to-the-wall bookshelf that holds books facing frontwards. It takes up little space in the room, therefore, and holds the books in a way that's appealing to the little ones, so they can see what they've got and access them easily. Right now their books are in a box on the floor of the living room, so it would be better for them to be on the wall. That's not for school books though - those are in a tub! :)

Well, I have waffled on for long enough and it's getting very late again.

Oh but I wanted to say about today! I remembered about watching for a baby's sleep cues (from Secrets of the Baby Whisperer) and putting them down RIGHT AWAY when those happen. I was so exhausted when I woke this morning - I think I had four very broken hours of sleep and I just did not know how I would get through the day and deal NICELY with the boys' behaviour and so on. So, I prayed for grace and patience, and gentleness and self-control, and that God would uphold me and enable me and equip me and so on! I have noticed recently that when I pray like this at the start of the day, God DOES enable me and the day goes well - sometimes miraculously well after very little sleep and feeling otherwise irritable. On days when I DON'T pray with this same kind of situation, the day does NOT go well. So, I prayed first. Then I hopped in the shower. That helped a bit too. Then I brought Benjamin downstairs - Neil had already left for work by now and the boys were playing in the living room. I watched that baby boy like a hawk, and around 8.30am, he was minding his own business in the bouncy chair and suddenly did a big yawn. I snatched him up out of that chair right away and sprinted up the stairs with him to the bedroom, haha! Okay, SLIGHT exaggeration, but I did take him upstairs immediately. I reassembled the Amby Hammock, and put a new sheet on the mattress, and popped him in. He has grown a lot since I last saw him in there at 3 weeks old!! I bounced/rocked it for a couple of minutes and he closed his eyes. When I stopped, they popped open again, so I bounced/rocked again. He closed his eyes. I kept up the rocking for a minute or two more and then stopped. He slept!! He stayed asleep for 30 minutes and then woke crying. I went up and put him on the bed and breastfed him, and he went right off to sleep on the breast, and stayed there for NINETY more minutes!!!! Yay! Even more wonderfully, his nap coincided with Nathan's morning nap - that boy is nearly 20 months old and STILL takes two naps every day! He can do with one, but he's really tired like that and I will encourage him to take 2 naps as long as he's willing to! He's in a tiny minority, from what I have read, and my others were doing no such thing at his age! Arthur was a nightmare napper from day one, and only took two 30 minute naps from about Benjamin's age, urrrgh! And those were random and a big battle. So this is NICE, with Nathan!

So, Benjamin slept two hours in total, and the boys and I got so much laundry done and folded (five loads folded!!!!) in that time! When Benjamin got up he was so happy and chatty! He stayed calm and happy for an hour or more, and at that point it was lunch time for the boys. I noticed he was acting more tired but I couldn't act on it because I was up to my armpits in cream cheese (please try not to picture this literally) and bread-with-no-crusts, and so on. I finally put him in the Amby again after another breastfeed and nappy change, about 2 hours after he woke from his previous nap. I rocked the Amby, he closed his eyes. I stopped, he opened them. I bounced it, he closed his eyes. And slept!! I then put Nathan down for his afternoon nap. Benjamin woke after 30 minutes again and cried, and I put him on the bed and breastfed him like before. He zonked right out for 90 minutes again!!! I got dinner cooked and spent some time with the boys! Yayness! I soooo hope this is how it will work, and that he'll settle into a great nap routine quickly. It would be so wonderful for school. We would do school during the morning nap, I think. Benjamin was happy as anything after his afternoon nap, and he had a cat nap after he got really cranky in the bouncy chair while I was serving dinner for the boys. I had to leave him screaming in there for a little bit while I served it and got them all sitting at the table, and when I went in the other room to pick him up, he had gone to sleep in the bouncy chair! He slept about an hour, woke at 6.30ish (while the boys were at the park with Neil) and then while I put the older boys to bed, Neil walked with him in the living room to rock him to sleep, and then decided to put him in the Amby much sooner than he'd normally put him down (and much earlier too - it was only 8pm! He's usually awake till 9pm or later), and he stayed asleep! He has slept all evening too. When he wakes I think I will put him in my bed for the rest of the night, but I sooooooooo hope this isn't just a "good day" - I hope it's going to become a norm for him very quickly. I think if I have a baby and a toddler who nap well, then life will feel very easy all of a sudden, even with everything else! :)

Okay, definitely going now! Back soon - must get some more photos up! Thanks so much for the comments on my last post - Julie I will try to answer some of your questions (well, sort of questions - the points you mentioned) in a post soon!

Maths curriculum! And other improvements :)

I'm back! So soon! ;) Thanks so much for the comments on my last post! It was lovely to read them. I will have to look into those junior Magnetix things - thanks for the tip, girls!

Not much to say tonight. It's getting late so I should be getting to bed. But I am determined to get back into updating much more frequently here!

Benjamin was asleep by 8.20pm tonight! That is a big improvement. Neil is walking back and forth with the baby in his arms for AN HOUR before he is suitably asleep for putting down (and not waking) at the moment. He is literally not going to sleep by any other method, except sometimes on the breast. He is also not sleeping well at all during the day right now. He goes to sleep many times but can't seem to stay asleep. This is the trouble we've had since he was about 3 weeks old, and it's difficult to deal with, with 3 other little ones to attend to! I had all these plans, to have him napping well from early on, and to use the Amby Hammock which is reputed to have a near-miraculous effect on babies. In our very limited experience it does not! Well, I gave up on it after about 2 weeks (if that!) because I was spending way too much time (HOURS in total, out of the day) away from the other boys, trying to rock/bounce Nathan to sleep or resettle him after he woke. He can fall asleep WELL, but very very rarely is he able to STAY asleep.

Lately I've opted for the easiest way to manage and still be there for the other boys - he is downstairs with us all the time, and naps in the bouncy chair. When he's tired and cranky, he goes in the chair and I bounce it with my feet and thus have hands free for tending to little ones (my legs can seriously do some impressive angles with my feet staying attached to the bouncy chair to rock it while I'm sitting on the floor changing a nappy, haha!). At first this was a bit like that thing where you pat your head and rub your tummy at the same time, but I'm getting used to it now! ;) It reminds me of the early weeks with Matthew. He was my baby who cried the most early on, out of all of them. He cried 3 hours every evening, and good chunks of the day too. I couldn't seem to do anything to stop him crying, so in the end I eased off on the stressful strenuous efforts, and just bounced him in the bouncy chair with my feet with him SCREAMING his head off for what seemed like ages at a time, while I built Duplo with Arthur to give him some quality time! It was hard, but I'm less stressed about it this time. Benjamin is actually way more easy-going than Matthew was at this age, so it's not nearly so bad, but I still don't like that he sits in the chair and cries. I bounce him, and he DOES go to sleep and stop crying, but he can't stay asleep. Somebody's noise wakes him (they're all three VERY noisy and it's like pulling a donkey through mud to get them to quiet down!), or else I stop bouncing the chair and he wakes (pretty much instantly, although sometimes I get 30 seconds!). Once or twice a day he does stay asleep if I bounce him for a LONG time (at least 40 mins) after he has gone to sleep, and then he will sleep for maybe 30 minutes at the most and wake again.

I REALLY want him to have a peaceful quiet place to go to for his naps, like upstairs with the door shut, like the others have done. But I can't get him to sleep and stay asleep for ANYTHING and any efforts I make towards this take huge amounts of my time and attention away from the children, which won't do. So, he's downstairs and not sleeping well for now. I am waiting till he's 4 months old and then I will get a bit more serious about sorting out his sleep. With Nathan I started a "pick up, put down" (times infinity) thing when he got to about 6 months old, and that worked, but it DID take me away from the boys downstairs for a long time eacy day. It was worth it though. I want to start that earlier with Benjamin, but I think he's too little yet? I'm annoyed that I can't find my Secrets of the Baby Whisperer book that I used with Matthew and Nathan! Tsk! I have tried The No-Cry Sleep Solution book before without ANY success whatsoever, so I'm not motivated to go that route really. I'm not willing to leave my baby to cry until he falls asleep, but I will definitely take crying in the mix as I stay with him to teach him to fall asleep on his own and resettle himself. I used to be SO anti-any-sort-of-crying when it was my first baby, seriously. Some of you will know that already! ;) But oh how it changes when there are a bunch more little ones and sanity to preserve! I need things to work for the family as a whole.

Benjamin DOES sleep pretty well at night. He wakes lots for milk, like they have all done, but what I mean is, once the effort has been made to get him to sleep in the evening, he stays asleep all evening (well, from the 9.30 bedtime he has chosen to set up!) and then wakes maybe somewhere between 12 and 1am, and then again a couple more times before waking for the day somewhere after 7am. It's lots of wakings and I'm tired, but it's not so bad. I stay as asleep as I can. We co-sleep and I just breastfeed him lying tummy-to-tummy in the dark, without much disruption to either his sleep or mine. He goes back to sleep easily every single time at night - often I don't know about it because once he's on the breast I doze back off and wake up to his next waking without having realised he'd finished the last feed! I don't change his nappy at night. If I'm awake enough to sit him up and burp him at night, he stays unconscious sitting up on my lap with his sweet little chin in my hand as I rub his back. I LOVE this! I sit bleary and exhausted in a pitch black room in the wee small hours, wondering what time it is and whether I will feel any better than this before the day begins, and how on EARTH I will make it through the day with the boys, and yet overflow with joy and thankfulness for the moment that I'm living through. I mean, how much more precious does life get?! The intimate moments during the stillness and quietness of the night with my tiny sweet little baby love - they are just priceless and will slip between my fingers WAY too quickly. I cherish the night wakings with my babies. After Arthur, that is! ;) He "conditioned" me to appreciate the night wakings, haha! Anyway, so wonderful. I would do it all again (and again, and again, and again, and again, and - you get the picture!) in a heartbeat.

So, he stays asleep even if I sit him up and burp him. On occasion I have put him down awake and he has taken himself to sleep, but although that's nice and encouraging and all, I know it doesn't mean a lot right now! I am going with the flow, and that's okay, although the flow is a bit tricky at the moment and I'm tired. I wish I could help him (and us!) during the day with his sleep, but we'll hang in there with what we're doing for now. It needs to be sorted out for homeschooling - I'm not sure how to do that with a baby who is doing this!

Talking of which! I finally chose a maths curriculum! Yay! Thanks so much to Michelle and Sara for your comments after my post asking about a maths curriculum. I have heard a lot about Right Start, Singapore Math, and Math-U-See. Also Saxon and Abeka. I have been lurking on forums for a year-ish, and also researching each curriculum like crazy recently - planning homeschool has taken up pretty much all of my evenings for the last two or three weeks, and I still have so much more to fine tune and figure out and plan! I'm LOVING it, seriously. I'm so excited. I love the planning stage! Of course, I don't know a thing about anything beyond the planning stage, as I've never done it before, but anyway - I heartily endorse The Planning Stage! It's great fun! ;)

I went back and forth a million times but eventually settled on Right Start Mathematics. I am buying Level A. I'm annoyed that it's credit card only to purchase, as we've done away with the evils (!) of credit cards after our shamefully huge debt on them. We put the whole lot into a loan with easier payments, and closed down the credit cards. I thought I would not be able to buy that curriculum (it's not cheap either, annoyingly!) but then Neil told me that one credit card did not get closed, because for some reason we have CREDIT on the card, as in, money owed to us. He paid too much into it by mistake and we have almost exactly the amount that it will cost to purchase the Right Start curriculum and get it shipped from the US! Yay! So tomorrow (tomorrow!!!) I am going to purchase that online and get it on it's way to us. I decided to also go for the other curriculum that I was considering, as a supplemental curriculum - it's Math Mammoth. I have read some really good stuff about it. I think it will complement Right Start, and I really like the sample lessons I've seen. Also, if they turn out to be too much to use together, then I will still keep both in case others of my children turn out to do better with one of them than the other. I like that Math Mammoth is REALLY inexpensive. Even more so when you order the curriculum as a download, which I will be doing. It's instantly with you that way as well! :) I am getting the complete Grade 1 curriculum in the light blue books range, for Arthur. So yay, maths curriculum checked off my list! :)

I bought the storage unit that will hold EVERYTHING to do with school, including activities for the littler ones to do during school time, and all arts and crafts materials, and children's DVDs, etc. It's lockable. Ahhh. I feel my neck muscles relaxing at the very thought of that shiny barrel lock on the sliding door. *sigh*

I have a million other smaller details planned, but I am not 100% finished with them and also I want to just wait till it's all put together before showing/telling you guys. I hope it all goes well! I need to spend at least a week or two TRAINING my children to obey me, and also to sit and play quietly for small blocks of time, so that school runs more smoothly. I have started this already, and I tell you, we live in a teeny tiny house with one room that we live in downstairs all day (see last post for photos!) but I am just now realising the GIFT that this is right now. I have to train my children in obedience, and also in respect for me. They are pretty slack on both those things. Being in one room together all the time, I am now discovering, is the absolute perfect setting for such training. I can be on top of them all the time. I don't have to "man" various zones at once and have little people causing havoc in parts of the house I can't be in (although let's not dwell on the fact that Arthur squirted the entire can of Neil's shaving foam/gel into the bathroom sink when he went up to use the toilet the other day, nor the time when he stuck my panty liners all over the outside of the bath a couple of days before that whilst on a similar mission). It makes the task soooo much easier, and I'm actually very grateful to God for blessing us with the home we're in right now for this purpose. This task is HIGH on God's priority list for our children. Higher than school, for sure.

Anyway, I am juuust beginning to see fruit! Woohoo! Something I have not seen much of over the years of trying to get my act together to discipline the kids effectively. Every single time they disobey me, over the teensiest little thing, I am on them about it, and I discipline them. I don't ask them to do something more than once. They are quite defiant, and so there's a lot of ground to cover, but I see a few little bits of fruit. The two older boys are now starting to do something I ask them to do when I ask them to do it, for the most part. They are starting to improve on STOPPING doing something that I ask them not to do as well, though this is a harder thing for them to learn! Matthew has this thing where he pokes and presses on Nathan's feet (he has done this for ages, usually many many many times each day, I can't even count them probably). Nathan has become immune to his pokings and doesn't seem to notice, but I don't like it. It seems somewhat unkind and aggressive in nature, and I have explained it eleventy billion times to Matthew that it doesn't show kindness to his brother when he pokes his feet like that. I always required him to say sorry and told him to stop doing it. Now I have told him he will be disciplined for it every single time he does it. And I have stuck to it for maybe the last 10 days straight, something like that. And he's only doing it a handful of times over a whole day now. He still gets disciplined for each of those times, and I'm hoping he'll stop altogether! I love to see the encouraging results of consistency - it fires me up and motivates me to crack down on the (many!) other areas that need work in those boys!

Today I started working with Matthew and Arthur on training them to play utterly quietly for a short time. I got the idea from Kimberly's blog, "Raising Olives". I have been reading Kimberly's blog since shortly after she started it, and I LOVE it. She has 9 children aged 12 and under, and her family is so precious! She homeschools and her blog is full of great ideas and wise advice, and I am just drinking it all up right now. Anyway, I need the little ones to be able to play quietly (like her littles do) during school, so I'm starting to (try to!) train them now. Arthur too, because it would be helpful for them all to do that if I ask it of them. So today I used the rule that Kimberly stated - "No noise with your mouth" and let them get stuck into playing with their Lincoln Logs. I had to correct them a good few times throughout, but they did GREAT. I kept it short (10 minutes) and we'll work up a bit each time. The only times they made noise with their mouths was to whisper, but they didn't even do much of that. Nathan was napping and Benjamin had gone to sleep in the bouncy chair that I was rocking, and it was suddenly SO PEACEFUL in the house for those 10 minutes. I had hoped to list the things I needed to do today and sort it out in my head while they played, but actually I needed to be right there every moment, checking them and correcting them if they made any noise with their mouths.

Next thing is, keeping them in one spot to play while they are quiet. I am waiting on delivery of a set of Active World Trays right now. They are almost a metre across and we'll use them for endless craft, science and construction/imaginative activities. I bought a book with 50 different ideas for using them, and there are some wonderful activities in there which combine science and art, or even more subjects than just those two. I also plan to use them for our version of "blanket time". We'll have activities in the trays (which are easily big enough for a child to sit in and play) and Nathan and Matthew will each play in an Active World Tray on the living room floor while Arthur has his maths and reading lessons at the table (which we haven't got yet! Next thing to get, after the floor is sorted!). My hope is to train them to sit quietly and play in those zones without leaving the confines of their trays. Then they'll be happily occupied (I have a TON of educational fun activities for each of them which will be for school time ONLY), and quiet, and also NOT interfere with each other's activities (an issue right now with the boys which makes them very frustrated and noisy with each other!), while Arthur has school time. Also I like that they'll be right there with us to have school stuff "washing over" them. I intend to include Matthew in some of Arthur's school things, but not reading or maths yet. It's only a year now before he will be the age of starting school if he was not homeschooled (amazingly!), so he'll be doing everything that Arthur is doing in no time, I'm sure!

Anyway so the quiet time thing went well today. I am hoping to have a couple of sessions each day with the boys. The other bit of fruit that I really like is that the boys now say, "Yes Mummy" with little prompting if I ask them to do something, or ask them if they have understood clearly that they are not to do X, Y or Z (when I am correcting them on something). I started requiring them to answer me, "Yes Mummy", a month or so ago, rather than just "yeah", or some non-verbal sound, or a nod of the head. I also require "Sorry Mummy" instead of just "sorry" when we have talked about why they were disciplined and get to the part where they apologise for something.

I have a lot more I could write tonight, but I've just realised how late it's getting and I hear stirrings from Benjamin. Back soon though! Photos next time, too. I have endless photos, having not posted for such a long time!

Living room changes, and lots of photos!

Busy, busy! I have been longing to update here several nights running now. I just have the feel for wanting to ramble about the day and that kind of thing, which I haven't felt like doing for a long while. I wish I had time to write!!

So, randomness, to make me feel like I've offloaded some stuff! ;)

This made me laugh! I was sitting on the sofa and Arthur appeared by my side with my doppler, telling me he was my midwife and his assistant was Matthew, hehe! He proceeded to pretend to use the doppler on my tummy, and Matthew's job was to prepare a wipe to get the pretend gel off! ;) The funniest thing to me about the photos is that there's a baby in the background of one of them that I just HAD, and there he is talking about a baby in my tummy and asking me if it's kicking much and how I'm feeling with my pregnancy, hehehe!









Just a sweet little photo of Nathan and Matthew :)



A couple of months ago when I was collecting stuff for the boys to keep busy doing for after Benjamin's arrival, I wanted some different construction type toys. They LOVE construction toys, but they have Duplo and Stickle Bricks and wooden blocks, etc. I looked for the next thing "up", age-wise, since they've had these since Arthur was 15 months old! But all I found was basically Lego, and then a bunch of stuff that's more mechanical and age 7+. I wanted something a little bit different from what they've had so far. I kept hearing about Lincoln Logs on the blogs of my US bloggy friends, and googled to find out what those were. We have nothing like that here! Arthur loves the Little House on the Prairie books and a toy where you can build log houses and farms and so on REALLY appealed to me for the boys! So, obviously you can't get it here at all. I ended up buying a set at US eBay and paying for international shipping (yikes! not cheap!) and they LOVE it. I saw a ridiculous deal on a much bigger set (again on the US eBay) and even with shipping it was a great deal, so I bought that too, probably to give as a birthday present for Arthur, or maybe a Christmas present for both Arthur and Matthew. It's hidden in the bedroom cupboard for now! :) Here are a couple of recent photos of the boys with their Lincoln Logs set:





Yesterday was a GORGEOUS day - the last day of August (how in the wide world is it SEPTEMBER already?!?!), and such perfect weather. It was also Bank Holiday Monday, so Neil took the 3 boys out for a long walk at the park, and Benjamin and I napped (bliss!). Benjamin woke not long after the boys went out, so we got up and I felt determined to tackle something of the hideous mess that is our home. I took a couple of photos of the living room while I was at it, because I'm about to change it quite a bit for homeschooling (sooooooooo excited now!) and I wanted some "before" photos. I figured I may as well post them here for you guys to see where we live all day long, haha! And these were taken AFTER I tidied up, believe it or not! It's the clutter that is the problem. But at least I got the floor much better. It was evenly covered with rubbish and clothes and toys and books when the boys left to go to the park, with very little carpet showing through! Urgh!

Our house has two rooms downstairs. The tiny porch is where we hang our coats and stuff our shoes (and put the boys in time-out) and it opens up onto the living room. The living room is 15ft by 12ft and has the stairs across the back wall, which you can see in the second photo (those are HORRIBLY cluttered, which isn't exactly safe, but I have a major plan for all of that stuff! Yay!) The living room opens into the kitchen at the back, which is, well, a kitchen. We have a table there which doesn't really fit us all round it, and it's a squeeze to fit it in the kitchen with people sitting round. That's the downstairs. The boys and I spend our days (every day) in the living room, all day. We eat in the kitchen, obviously. We have two bedrooms upstairs (12x9 and 12x7) and a tiny bathroom sandwiched in between them. We SERIOUSLY need to move to a bigger house! With four little boys (three of them rather energetic!), it's getting a bit crazy to still be living here really. BUT, we honestly are getting by fine here, and the boys are too. They have their frustrations, but never about the lack of space - though I'm sure they'll be much relieved to have more if we can ever sell, and afford a bigger home! I know that space is a much bigger hyped-up thing that it needs to be, though. Families of many more children than we have used to manage just fine in homes with just one or two rooms a long time ago. So long as the boys get outside, there really isn't too much problem with the tiny house. They are rarely short of space to PLAY, laugh, chat, read, pretend-and-imagine, or lounge about. Their days are full of busy-ness and laughter (as well as the usual frustrations and squabbles). The only thing they seem to lack is indoor running space, and sometimes they run the long diagonal of the room back and forth a million times till they're out of breath, squealing and screeching and making each other laugh! I think if we had more indoor space I would probably not be crazy about them running indoors anyway. I would send them out in the garden to burn off that kind of energy!

In a few weeks time (hopefully by October), I will be adding homeschooling to the activities that take place in our one room, but I want to have a proper place for that to take place. Much of our learning (which already goes on) takes place all over the house in the run of daily life, and out and about too. But we'll "do school" in a defined school area, and I currently have the fun and happy task of planning and setting that up! This is my forte, planning and arranging! It's once it's all set up and we've been trucking away for a few weeks that my weak point comes. I will be praying at the start of each day for God to help me get past that hurdle, because I really want to do well for Arthur - for all of the boys, in educating them at home. I am excited, less nervous now than I used to be now that I'm sorting it all out in my head. We are going to be getting rid of the big 3-seater sofa because it's damaged and old and peed-on (and unwashable, lol!) and so on. And taking up too much space where we need more. I am going to get a lockable (important!) storage unit to hold all our homeschooling items, as well as house the TV and DVD player on top of it (the current bookshelf that holds those things now will go in the loft for now). I am also getting a table and set of chairs that is appropriate height for kids Arthur's age and a little bit bigger, so that he's studying at a comfortable height. I am getting all the above from a school supplier :) The table will come in very handy even when our older boys have outgrown it and use a higher table for their schooling, because we'll have two littler boys who will still use that for some time to come (and hopefully more children after them!). We are also planning to finally pull up the carpet and replace it with laminate flooring, because we have used a steam cleaner on it DOZENS of times (many evenings in a row too!) and STILL there's a big area which stinks of rancid urine. I kid you not. It just won't come out, no matter how much it is cleaned! Urrrgh! I figure it must have soaked into the underlay originally, or something. We even had a professional company come and clean the carpet recently (what a waste of money that was!) and it still smelt awful after that too - and they used a perfumed shampoo!

So, time for the old carpet to go. It's toooo yucky, and we often keep that stinky area covered with a towel just because I can't bear the kids to have to walk and play on it. Yuck. I can't wait to get the laminate floor down! We need to get a quote from a fitter and then buy the stuff (we already chose what we want at B&Q). When the room is all done I will be sure to post photos! :)

ANYWAY! I digress! So here are the photos of the living room that I took yesterday. The boys had their road carpet thingy out that day, and I left it there for them to play with when they got home. Also, there's my sweet baby boy on his soft mat on top of it! :)





Here is a photo of my next job to tackle - the laundry bomb that went off somewhere between the living room and the kitchen, urgh! It multiplied over the weekend until you couldn't really tell what was clean (living room) and what was dirty (kitchen doorway - WHY we put dirty laundry there to be washed, I don't know! It's not a convenient place! But there's nowhere else really). This is nothing to do with a before shot for my records. I just wanted to show you the laundry crisis, haha!



Benjamin is not impressed with me taking photos of the room instead of picking him up and snuggling him (which I promise I WAS doing right before setting him down to take photos!):



He was MUCH happier once I put him in his bouncy chair with the "buzzer" on, to watch me do the folding. It helped that he found his hand that day and spent a good while chomping on it! He also found his foot for the first time that day and stared at it for ages before trying to lean riiiight down and eat it! ;)





Halfway through the task! :) I actually don't mind folding laundry, it's the putting it in drawers that's the problem! ;) I love seeing piles representing all my family - see the FOUR little boy piles there with Mummy and Daddy piles behind them, and some intruder named "Linen" to the right.



Before I had finished (hence no "after" photo for the laundry crisis!) the boys returned hot and happy from the park, and instantly set to busy play with the cars. Suddenly the room was "full of boys" again like it usually is! :)





Shortly after that, Benjamin got sleepy, and I rocked the bouncy chair a bit (the usual method at the moment) while the others played around him.

Going...



Going...



Gone! :)



Boys crowding at the kitchen gate for a chocolate chip cookie from Daddy (a highly exciting treat!):



Sweet little Nathey showing me what he got - "Guh-kee!"



Another random one of Nathan from Saturday (his eyes are still so blue! Maybe they'll stay that way? Matthew's had turned grey by now):



Here is something I see MANY times each day at the moment, which is somewhat exasperating after a while! Nathan plays eagerly with all the toys, and especially likes vehicles (like his brothers!). He loves the ones that clip together (like tractor and trailer, or articulated lorries) but gets ever so frustrated with them unclipping and then he can't seem to figure out clipping them back together again yet. So he brings them to me, all frustrated and upset. I put them together, and he toddles off happily, only to return mere SECONDS later with this very same expression!



It's a good thing there's also a great deal of sweetness to the day as well! :)













The last photo is actually (FINALLY!) my assignment for the end of Chapter One of my "Photographing Children" book, at last! I haven't posted it at my photography blog yet, but I will get round to that soon!

And now it's soooo late. I have to go to bed. But I hope I'll be back soon! :)

So little time!...

Some photos and (mostly Benjamin-related) newsy stuff here at my pregnancy blog tonight. I wish I had time to update here but so far I'm not getting enough to do so! Will definitely be back asap, but for now there is some updatey stuff over there with a few photos. If you're pining for me, that is - haha! ;)

I need to start homeschooling my little boy pretty soon, who would be starting REAL SCHOOL (aaaaahhh!) in a week's time if he wasn't going to be home-schooled! I can't believe he's that old. I hope I can do this! Maths curriculum anyone who has been there, done that?? I have everything else in place, but still researching a curriculum or something similar for foundation Maths. I'd like to follow something vaguely structured with him. I keep hearing about Saxon Math - anyone got experience with this and 5-year-olds? Any good? Anything better you know of? Comments welcome and much appreciated! :)

Back soon!

I have FOUR little boys!!

I am so blessed!!!! Thank you Lord!! :)