March 2012 - Newsy updates and photos

A "catch-up" post of little bits and pieces, taken from Facebook, just because I have been so lax at keeping this blog up to date and I know I will want to look back here and not see huge gaps!

March 1st

"Headache. Needed, ohhhh, 8 more hours sleep after waking this morning. Must pull self together!... Never mind, my day is looking up already! There's not much cuter or more uplifting than a 2-year-old singing, "Don' wowwy.... 'bout a thiiiing.... co' ev'ry lil thing.... gonna be alwiiiight!" and bobbing his head as he pushes his toy cars about!"

"Love it when my crockpot slaves all day long to prepare me a roast dinner! Smells great and I feel like I didn't lift a finger!"

March 2nd

"Back from a good midwife appointment! Everything is looking great, and my little one is very happy lying transverse these past few weeks. Hope he changes his mind in the next month or so!"

"Feeling irrationally distraught that there is no chocolate in the house. Coco pops do not count. Even good old hot chocolate powder isn't doing the trick tonight!"

March 3rd

"Just spent the last 10 minutes trying to comfort Arthur, who is only half-awake but in floods of tears over the fact that it wasn't a good harvest because the rain made dust fly up into his eyes, and now they're still stinging! He is SO sad about his harvest, whatever that was! I hope he just poked his eye waking up from a weird dream or something, and not that he'll have a nice case of conjunctivitis in the morning! :S"

March 9th

"Breech, transverse, breech, transverse, breech, transverse (or can be translated as heartburn, ligament pain, heartburn, ligament pain) - such an indecisive baby! ;)  Come on little manny, give head-down a whirl! It's not as bad as you think!"

March 12th

"Favourite nuggets from my boys today: (Nathan) "It's peace and quiet without Daddy here, isn't it Mummy?" lol! Also the term "false llama" instead of "false alarm", hehehe! Kind of makes up for the moment where I suggested using Samuel's nursery rhyme finger puppets to entertain him a bit earlier, and came in from clearing up lunch to find Humpty Dumpty with a brick wedged up his, erm, "hole", and rhyme being sung: "Humpty Dumpty needed a poo, Humpty Dumpty went to the loo..." followed by mucho exaggerated straining noises and the brick popping out. I don't know what happened next because their hysterical laughter prevented the sort of breathing necessary for speech or song, but Samuel was laughing along with them so I guess they did do as I suggested after all! :) "

March 13th

"In two months, Arthur will be the eldest of 6 children at the tender age of 7. I know that some feel kind of sorry for him and think he has it hard because of his position in the birth order and the number of siblings. I LOVED hearing from him (randomly!) this morning while he was watching Samuel toddle about and amuse the boys: "I love having Samuel and seeing him grow and change... but I think it's time I had some experience with a newborn baby again. It's been a while.... I can't WAIT until he's born! He'll be rolling and starting to get about in 2 or 3 months, and that will be fun, but I love when they're so sweet and tiny as well!" They all seem to love having a bunch of brothers close in age, and always ask when we'll have another one within WEEKS of a new baby being born. :) Love my boys!"

March 14th

"Have hit the 30s!!! Three-quarters of the way there, 10 weeks to go! I'm juuuust beginning to realise that I'm going to have a baby in NO time at all! Good thing we are so disorganised, because it means we have everything except a box of clothes (which was actually put away in the loft - gasp!!) still lying around the house from last time - nothing to get ready, yay!"

"We haven't quite got to fitting 5 boys in their room yet (disorganised, remember?!)! Samuel is still IN my bed - he has never slept in a cot. He is going to go straight to the "floor bunk" that Benjamin sleeps on, and since they have an extra long bunk bed and are tiny peeps who don't really move about much in their sleep, we are going to try top-and-tailing Nathan and Benjamin in Nathan's bottom bunk. That will have minimal upheaval for everyone, and no extra beds or furniture in their room! Not sure when it do it though, but I suppose it had better be fairly soon! :S"

March 15th

"Wow, the fog just cleared to reveal a BEAUTIFUL spring day! :) I put Samuel down for his nap, and when I came out of the bedroom I could hear lots of whispering and shuffling about, which made me nervous! Went downstairs to discover an immaculately tidy living room and four beaming boys sitting on the sofa!! They cleaned up as quietly as possible to do something nice for me! They had put every single item (toys, rubbish, books, grown-up paperwork, EVERYTHING - it was an absolute disaster zone when I went upstairs beforehand) in the place it is supposed to go, and were planning to sweep the floor except I apparently came down too soon. Arthur said happily, "The fog lifted, and it's like we were being so good that even the weather was smiling on us!" Taking our science lesson to the park this afternoon as a reward - such a beautiful day for it too! :) "

"Utterly utterly utterly wiped out after an afternoon at the park with my little people. Just the loading and unloading of small personages in the van is enough to do my back in lately! BUT, lovely sunshine, beautiful daffodils, little boys running and rolling down hills and giggling together, sweet pictures of "nature" drawn by the older boys (so lovely to watch them sprawled out on the grass drawing the pretty surroundings), and a much more outgoing mother than me approached to say she had noticed I have 5 children, and that she has just had her 5th, and do we by any chance homeschool?!! She and her sister homeschool their many-children-between-them, and both live within 10 minutes from our house! Numbers exchanged for future park outings! :) Bonus!!

I'm only writing the peachy stuff! ;) They did not behave well going back to the van and I hurt my back catching Nathan, and ended up being grumpy and yelling :( A wave of hormones convinced me it was the worst afternoon ever for about 30 minutes. Benjamin sat in the time-out chair screaming for 20 mins straight this morning because he wouldn't say sorry for saying, "Stupid Mummy! I not listnin!" But yes, it has been a very good day :) Now to figure out dinner and survive the crazy hour(s) between now and bedtime!"

March 17th

"Cooling on a rack as I type!!! They look and smell faaaabulous!! :)"

Streusel-Topped Blueberry Muffins | Our Best Bites

www.ourbestbites.com

Neil is not a fan of blueberries, but when he tried these, he said they were soooo nice I had to make them again sometime! They really were fantastic! :)

 

March 19th

 

The weather was so nice and spring-like, but the breeze was colder than we expected! Lovely day for a picnic and feeding the ducks at the park with my little boys! :)

 

"Going to need a bigger picnic blanket..."

 

 

"Samuel watching his brothers run."

 

 

"My sweet little walking boy! 15 months old this coming Wednesday (already!)."

 

"Feeding the ducks - well, that happened right before this photo as I couldn't take photos and supervise the duck-feeding! Yes, I was nervous about them near the edge!"



"Some really pretty water birds - what kind is this colourful one? The boys were so excited to see it!"



"Loving the ducks! :) "



March 20th

"My baby is climbing up to my HEAD HEIGHT in the time it takes me to do anything at all that takes me more than 5 seconds out of the room!!!! Head height!!! I find him like a koala, lovingly attached to the side of the school bookshelf or something."

"He and Matthew have been my main climbers! Samuel responds better to Neil's stern voice than mine, although I try to make it as stern as I can and he gets taken down very seriously as soon as he's spotted - he knows he's not allowed! But he repeats repeats repeats. It is kind of wearing me out when I'm already knackered, but oh well. I am hoping if I persevere he'll stop doing it, as that's what happened with a couple of my others when they climbed things. Not with Matthew though, so I'm not sure this time! :S I do have helpers this time compared with when it was Matthew though! :) If I'm making lunch or going to the loo, they'll call out to say he's on the table (he fetches toys or nappy wipe boxes to stand on so he can get up there!), and Arthur is getting good at spotting his "step stools" and removing them before he gets his foot up. Arthur can also safely lift him off the low school table, which is a huge help on occasion!"

March 21st

"School went soooo well this morning!!!! :) LOVE (rare!) days like these! Arthur has just scored 99% (he got one word wrong) on his Year 6 reading test, and is now starting Year 7 reading material!! (This is 6th Grade equivalent, and he's currently in Year 2 / 1st Grade) Matthew is finally reading short sentences, and learned to check his maths work with a calculator today (much to his delight). Samuel napped well, little boys played sweetly, the sun is shining... ahhhhh! I'll enjoy it while it lasts! :) "

March 22nd

"Have made wholemeal cinnamon rolls for breakfast!!!  :) (not being healthy, just ran out of white bread flour!)"

"Hyped-up children shrieking and running all over the house. Unwisely used my energy up decluttering for an hour (though the school area looks much better now!) and am flopping over the kitchen table for a bit! So tired - my eyes are just stinging! Night 5 of various pregnancy-related causes to another round of insomnia until after 2am last night. Must get more sleeeeep! Dinner is nearly ready though, and my knight in shining armour will be home within 30 minutes - hooray!!!"

"Advice needed: Samuel is my first thumb-sucker so I haven't come across any related problems before! He sucks his right thumb only, and really needs it to self-soothe. Lately his little bottom teeth have blistered his thumb knuckle, and it isn't healing. He's teething/drooling a lot right now. His thumb has several broken blisters that are really red and swollen today, and he is still trying to suck it to soothe himself but it's disturbing his sleep a bit as he usually sucks his thumb whenever he stirs at night. I can't think of what to do for the broken skin! Anyone been there/done that?"

March 23rd

"Eating cereal from a mug with a fork and kicking myself that I didn't put the dishwasher on before going to bed. Unfortunately I didn't have the foresight to get a spoon or bowl before running the dishwasher, and wasn't about to wait the 1hr 13mins left in the cycle!"

"Hollow tree awesomeness at the park - Samuel's life is currently chock-full of fun new experiences! :) "



March 25th

"Kneading dough in the kitchen while ALL SIX of the boys watch the Grand Prix with great excitement. Definitely feeling the need for a daughter at this moment in time! No apologies for the gender stereotyping - it's just TRUE! ;)"

"I have permission from the breadwinner to PURCHASE CURRICULUM!!!!!!! Doing so RIGHT NOW!!!! Sooooo exciting!!!! I'm buying Right Start Mathematics Level C for Arthur to move up to soon! He is about 3/4 of the way through Level B now, so it's time to buy the next one. I love getting maths stuff because of all the manipulatives in the package!! :) Also All About Spelling - I have heard so much great stuff about it, and decided we would go with that a while back. I think we can tweak it for UK spellings easily enough, like I have done with the Rocket Phonics reading curriculum. Arthur is almost finished with the phonics curriculum and I think I will replace it with spelling, and get a feel for whether it would work for Matthew yet, or whether the phonics aspect of that spelling curriculum would clash with the phonics one he's already doing for reading. Also Morrell's Handwriting, Book 2 (joined-up handwriting). They haven't done cursive writing yet and Arthur is ready to, so I need the next book of worksheets! :) I LOVE school shopping, it's so much fun!

I love Right Start and hope to keep it going right the way through, but it's pretty parent-intensive and each child needs a individual lesson. Next year Nathan will start, so I will have 3 different levels to prepare and teach, and then Benjamin starts the following year! I'm keeping an open mind for a curriculum that might be less parent-intensive and allow me to teach multiple levels at one session maybe... So I am interested in other options that people are using!"

"Woohoooo, just finished my ultra fun evening of school shopping!! :) Maths Level C, extra calculator and maths games book, handwriting book 2, and the deluxe All About Spelling kit plus levels 1 and 2 (and extra bee stickers) so that Matthew and Nathan can start their spelling lessons without me having to go back to buy more AAS stuff for a couple of years at least - otherwise the shipping to the UK is ridiculous! I can't wait for it all to arrive!!!! :D"

March 26th

"Where to go with my boysies on this gorgeous afternoon? Also the next 4 afternoons straight, since they're all going to be fabulous!"

"Aaaaargh, so gorgeous outside, school finished by lunchtime, and it's 3pm and we're STILL home!! Hope we can still make it outside today. Fed up of poo now, and nobody's even poorly! I was wiping someone's bottom upstairs and Samuel took his nappy off in the living room and did a TEETHING poo on the floor, then stood in it, walked it about, picked some up and ATE it!!!! Ewwwwwww. The clean-up and bath took me ages! When I got downstairs with him, Benjamin had done a poo and needed a nappy change. Poo has used up the entire time since lunch!!!"

"Never mind! :) Socks and shoes on, ready to go out - 3.37pm! Dinner will just have to be a bit late, because the sunshine is way too lovely to miss!"

"Totally worth the afternoon of poo and the late outing, especially according to Samuel, who was (once again) thrilled with new experiences outdoors - this time waving a big stick, climbing all over logs with brothers, and practising walking up and down hills without falling over. The weather was gorgeous - soooo nice to be outside on a day like today! :) "

In response to a comment on this photo about Samuel's blondeness (!):

"Love that baby! It has been fun to have a true blondie! Neil's sister is blonde, and his brother is strawberry blonde. My dad was blonde until adulthood and his dad was really "platinum" blonde - his hair is absolutely SNOW white now! :) Neil and I both have red hair in our families so I'm hoping for a red-head at some point too! :) We also have the full range of eye colours! Arthur's are brown (like my mum's - mine are mixed and Neil's are blue), Matthew's are green, Nathan's are dark blue, Benjamin's are mixed like mine but mainly grey, and Samuel's are blue blue blue! :)"

March 27th

"I know it's not everyone's thing, but there is just nothing like starting the day breastfeeding my 2- and 1-year-olds together, snuggled on the sofa, and looking down to see them holding hands - their clasped hands resting on the "shelf" of my tummy with their baby brother inside. Absolute "happiness is..." moment! :) They don't usually hold hands - more often there's some sort of invisible possession line, and a little hand that crosses it might get slooowwwly poked back over the line by an offended finger! ;)"

"The day is soooooooo beautiful! No idea what to do with my poor littles. I hurt my back yesterday taking them to the park, and it is getting worse this afternoon so I can't take them out anywhere today Oh for a garden!!!! Thankfully they're happily building Lego and playing tents and so on, but it doesn't seem right when it's so gorgeous outside...

The garden is ridden with biting spiders! We did actually buy some heavy duty spray a while ago, but ended up deciding not to use it as we didn't feel comfortable with all the chemicals, and we just haven't got anywhere since then with the whole issue! Not really sure what to do (if anything) about the garden now... We were "moving house" a few months ago, but we always stop the process when I get to my 3rd trimester as we find it better to just have a baby first and move after - trouble is we've done that 3 times in a row now, lol! DEFINITELY moving after this baby is born though, so that would solve the problem I suppose. They all dug up the front border for me this afternoon, in the end, and had a lot of mucky fun!"

March 29th

"32 weeks pregnant (only 8 weeks to goooo!!!!) and off to see the consultant this afternoon with my lovely doula. It's the "permission for a homebirth" appointment, but I have a lovely consultant so he will likely just say, "So, do you still want to have the baby at home?" and I'll say, "Yes." and he'll say, "Okay then!" ;)  Unless this little manny is persisting in his choice of transverse or breech position... I will find out later!

The choice is mine to make, but because I am a "grand-multip" (having birthed 5 babies), there are "increased risks" (which are not really backed up by research but doctors stick to them anyway) so they like to see me and go over said "risks" at a 3rd trimester appointment. They do strongly recommend that I give birth in hospital, and they did so last time as well, but I don't need to have permission and have weighed up the risks for myself and chosen homebirth every time (except babies 1 and 3). I do consider it carefully though, and will go into hospital if I need to!"

"Consultant appointment went okay - my baby is head down now, yaaaay! He also feels "average" size, which is a relief (last baby 9lbs 9oz and I'm LITTLE!). Lots of scary stuff told to me about postpartum haemmorhage though, which was unsettling. I have to meet with the head of midwifery in the next couple of weeks to discuss having a homebirth, AND see the consultant again in 4 weeks to tell him what I want to do. I want a homebirth, and a natural 3rd stage. He is fine with the homebirth but not so much with the natural 3rd stage. Brilliant doula is doing research on stats and figures and so on, for the appts. Tired now."

March 30th

"Oh how I love my children! I love my 7-year-old's loving care for his brothers, and my 5-year-old's face shining with soft pride when he learns something new that his big brother already knows. I love my 4-year-old's cute little phrases and the twinkle in his eyes when he is thinking of something mischievous. I love my 2-year-old's squidgy tummy and the combination of sweet independent ways and still being my baby. I love my 1-year-old's laugh when I eat his tummy, and the intensity in his eyes when he is trying to tell me something important in a language I can't understand. I love my unborn baby stomping on my bladder (yes, he's breech again today), and letting me know he's doing okay in there. I love my husband for working so hard to enable me to stay at home and spend all my days, hours and minutes with these precious little people that God has blessed us with. I am not sure what I have done to be this richly rewarded in life. I am pretty sure it's NOTHING, but God is gracious, and I love Him. And those are my main thoughts for today :) "

March 31st

"Productive day in the boys' bedroom! They now have L-shaped, staggered height, quad bunks due to a bit of repositioning, and an Ikea Trofast storage unit won at eBay has made the room somehow more spacious than it has ever been before?!?! Almost ready for Samuel to move in with the boys. He is so excited to be in there with them and always cries when I take him out to put him to bed! Tired out now, but very happy with the work done today! :)"

 

 

Daffodil muffins and more Pinterest inspiration!

At Pinterest recently I saw a lovely idea - little chocolate cupcake "pots" with fondant green shoots poking through the "soil"! I didn't want to use fondant, but I pondered the idea for a while, and last week when the boys were marvelling at the daffodils coming out everywhere, I thought of what to do for our activity.

Yesterday we had time to make some daffodils out of yellow card shapes which I stapled to green drinking straws (bendy ones worked GREAT as daffodils have that sort of bendy neck). Then the boys twisted orange tissue paper around the tips of their index fingers to make a sort of cone shape, and then glued those rather delicate cones onto the staples in the centre of the petal cut-outs. That part was a bit fiddly for the 5-and-under crowd. We put them in a glass jar to dry until the afternoon:



After lunch was cleared away, we set up to bake a dozen chocolate-chip banana muffins! Here are the boys all lined up on the bench ready to make muffins! Samuel wasn't supposed to be up on the bench with them, but he moved like lightning and was so pleased to be there that I let him for a while :) This picture really makes me think, "Woooooaaaah, I have a lot of little boys!!!" because suddenly instead of 3 little boys, a toddler and a baby (like when I last checked!), I seem to have 5 little boys (at times) or 4 little boys and a toddler. Gulp! They're growing up so fast!



The muffins, out of the oven, cooled, and "iced" with Nutella! Mmmm....



Then all we had to do was press the daffodil straws into the muffins! Happy Spring!! :)



While I am here I will quickly post a couple of pictures of an activity inspired by various lacing pipe-cleaners activities at Pinterest. We have pipe-cleaners already, and I chose some fairly big-sized beads at an online crafty shop, which were bright coloured AND shaped like sea creatures (bonus, lol!)!! They have 4mm holes so were perfect for using with pipe-cleaners. Today I put them together as a fine motor skill activity for the little boys, and because they were new, EVERYONE wanted to try them out. They all loved it, even Arthur! Benjamin was already working on one of his workbox activities, which happened to be posting coloured wooden beads onto sticks that were stuck into balls of playdough, and he LOVES that, so he wasn't interested in trying the new beads. I think he might be a little young for the pipe-cleaners anyway.





I am lurking on eBay pretty much all the time these days. There are some great Montessori-style bargains to be had if you wait long enough. I don't bid much above the starting price for anything, so sometimes I am waiting months to purchase something I want, but it's worth it! LOVE me a bargain! ;) I have all of Benjamin's 3rd birthday presents sorted already (some wrapped already!!!) and his birthday is in July! I will post pics of my finds as I get chance, and as they turn up and start being added into our school days. Must go and make lunch now!

Homeschool update! :)

We are currently in Week 6 of our new academic year! This week is less focused on academics as we are working pretty hard on consistent discipline - things are not as they should be, and haven't been for EVER, and now I am getting some great mentoring from my dear friend Shannon and things are starting to improve at last! It does take FULL focus though, so I am trying to let go of the huge clutchy throat thingy that happens when I ease off on school work for a moment! ;) I just want to get school rolling well and KEEP it rolling. The keep part is my weakness, and so far we are doing better than we have before. I am not crazy about easing off this week but correcting the boys' behaviour, training them up in God's ways, and discipling MYSELF to manage my household with more peace and efficiency is a higher priority. I am making sure that, if nothing else, we get Bible done every morning. That's the most important part of school, so if that is done, all is well! :) We are doing workbox activities and things as well to keep them busy.

I have been wanting to update as we go along with school, but I haven't had chance. Just grabbing the quick opportunity now to start a post and upload some photos, even if I have to finish it later. I should be making lunch, but I figured the camera might as well be dumping photos onto the computer while I do it, and if I start the uploading process I can make the lunch while it happens! ;)

School is going well with the big boys who are doing the academic stuff, except that Matthew is less than thrilled with pretty much ALL schoolwork, and I'm starting to wonder about what to do with him from this point onwards. That's probably for another post, because I wanted to update mainly about the littler boys with photos. Matthew DID enjoy working on our solar system project though! :) We are doing Astronomy (Apologia Creation Science) for the year and Arthur is ecstatic about both history and science so far. Matthew could take it or leave it, but he is enjoying some of the projects. I didn't really like any of the suggested activities for the first chapter of the textbook, so I searched the web and found a solar system craft project that I thought they would enjoy much more (also I wanted a FLAT display project rather than a 3D one, which would be fun to do but we'd need to find space somewhere to display it, and we are already working on a 3D diorama for history that will use up some space to display).

Here's the link to the original idea I found online and pinned.

Here's our work! We used aluminium foil like the idea I found, to cover cardboard circles, but instead of using Sharpies (my kids HATE the smell), we used acrylic paints. I think it has less of a lovely shiny effect, but it still worked nicely! The planets are rounded up to the nearest centimetre, relative size in comparison to each other - I found a website somewhere or other and calculated the sizes if we made a model. They are not accurate relative distances apart, of course, because that would mean we need like a FIELD to display them on, lol! But the size thing made it fun. The sun is just a wall of yellow and orange tissue paper because it would have been humongous compared with the planets, so I just made it a "wall" section on the edge of the line of planets. The boys painted the planets based on the photos from the Hubble Space Telescope that we found online, and photos in our huge astronomy encyclopedia. Arthur has already learned a bunch of stuff about moons and other asteroid belts and so on, and kept wanting me to include them, but I thought it would be better to stick to the basic solar system for now! ;)

Our favourite planet to make was Saturn, because I cut an extra piece of cardboard for the rings, which we covered with foil and then thickly coated it in white glue, and totally covered that with multicoloured glitter. It sparkled sooooo beautifully when it was dry! The photos don't show it well enough. Anyway, when it was all dry, we mounted the planets on the black paper with double-sided foam tape, I added labels for the planet names and their categories, and the boys added a load of shiny star stickers. We had so much fun making this, and it looks great on the wall!

The photo is really not that great because it's so distant, but it's a BIG display (Jupiter is 22cm in diameter) so in order to fit it all in the picture I had to take it from further away. The second photo is to give a better view of Saturn's rings, but I'm not sure if the picture will click big enough to show it too well. Never mind!





The little ones are enjoying their school activities. Nathan and Benjamin watch a DVD (educational for the most part) while I do maths, handwriting and reading with the bigger boys in the kitchen, and that keeps them busy and quiet for a while when they otherwise wouldn't be. Samuel is always napping at this time. After that they get to do workbox activities. Some days we run out of time, but not often. We do them in the afternoons more often now, because the morning is just FULL of academic stuff with the older two.

Here are Benjamin and Nathan enjoying the chicks and eggs colour-matching activity that I posted about recently:





They love them, and Matthew can't seem to stay away from them either. He is WAY more drawn to pre-school activities than school ones - it's so interesting to teach him these last 6 weeks. I am learning a lot about his developmental stage and his learning methods, and I need to review some things... I will try to post about that another time though.

Samuel is awake and active if we're doing workboxes in the afternoon, and gets HIGHLY excited seeing the boxes come down off the shelf and the boys take off with their first activities. He has started to cry if he's left out with no activity to do! He's 14 months old so I hadn't presumed to start him on any sort of workbox type activities until he was 18 months old at least. But he is starting to want a turn with the other boys' stuff when they've finished, and it's hard to keep him off their things, so I am beginning to put some things together for him! Exciting! :) My little manny is getting so big so fast!

He likes the twist and sort pegs, which I didn't think he would be at ALL ready to do yet, but there we go! He can twist and lift off the circles from the 3-pronged peg, as that's the easiest one, and he can put them all back on again. He gets frustrated and skwawky about the other ones, but he does try so hard! He's twisting circles off the 3-pronged peg in the first photo below, and putting it back on in the second one. He also likes the little wooden puzzle in the photos below, the square one with 9 pegs (okay, a couple missing which need gluing back on, but hey ho!). He can fit the pieces on and take them off, but obviously the actual challenge of the puzzle is way beyond him for now. He loves the fine motor skill practise of the pieces on the pegs though, and gravitates to this one often.




I saw ideas through Pinterest mainly, that led to me making a REALLY simple and cheap activity for Samuel. I actually thought Benjamin would go for it, though it would be easy, as a fine motor skill activity. But when I made it this week, Samuel was SO very excited to see it that I gave it to him first.

It's a 4-pint plastic milk bottle with a hole cut in the side of it (washed thoroughly first, naturally!) and the lid off. I bought some bright coloured rainbow pom poms for £3 online, just because they are attractive to play with. They're 25mm pom poms, but I realised that I could have bought 38mm ones as they squash down quite small (they're soft and fluffy and gorgeous!). Anyway, the idea is that they post the pom poms through the top of the milk bottle and retrieve them through the hole in the side. Samuel got the hang of it straight away, which surprised me for some reason. Not that it's rocket science or anything, but I keep thinking he's a little baby who sits around mouthing toys still, lol! I guess he's growing and changing faster than I'm keeping up with! He is loving the toddler activities, and you can really see his accuracy at some of them improving day by day.

Here are some photos of him doing the pom poms/milk bottle activity this morning after his nap. He concentrates hard on the process, and the milk bottle is lightweight so tips over fairly easily. He just says, "Uh-ohhh..." and picks it back up again! :) He is one for completing the whole job before retrieving the pom poms, which is interesting for me to observe! Benjamin likes to put a couple in and then get them out, but Samuel was having none of that. He likes them ALL in first, and he claps to applaud himself after successfully posting EVERY SINGLE ONE in, hehe! Sweetie pie! :) After they're all in, he peers sweetly in the hole in the top, and then picks it up to get them out of the side:








Then he loses interest and prefers to try to get his hands on my camera :)





Benjamin likes the pom poms and milk bottle too, and gets very focused on putting them in, but at 2 years and nearly 8 months old, he doesn't do this activity for very long. He prefers chucking them about after a bit! ;) He does love the activity (no photos of this one though) that I put out for him where he has an empty ice-cube tray and some pom poms, and a pair of jumbo tweezers to transfer them with, and is getting good at manipulating those now. Here he is this morning, joining in with Samuel at the end (the delapidated cardboard box thingy behind them is the remains of last weeks "house" made out of two BIG boxes that arrived containing a bigger car seat for Samuel! HOURS of fun with that since last week, seriously!):





Must make that lunch! Here are two more of Samuel that I took this morning, just because he is as cute as a button and I love him soooooooooo! :) Sweet little beep!

February 2012 - newsy updates and photos

Little snippets from February (taken from Facebook in part), posted in May 2013 and backdated to the correct month in question, to allow me to have something to look back on here - I have not kept up with the blog well lately!

February 1st:

"The boys are being sheep and sheepdogs! Sweetest part is Benjamin (2.5) spontaneously joining in by being a tiny lamb - his bleating is soooooo cute!!! ♥ They've all lit up at the idea and are currently trying to round up the "lost lamb" to reunite him with his mummy :) Love my boys!"

I posted this photo as part of an actual blog entry (gasp!) in February or March 2012, but I'll post it again here, because these monthly "snippets" updates are going to be my main record of life to look back on here. :)

"Lookie look at what I made for the boys last night out of an old tray!!! I got this idea from Pinterest - I painted it with acrylic paints and matched up cars for them to practise colour-matching. They LOVE it - Benjamin spent 45 minutes playing with it this morning and can name and match all his colours well! One of the zillion reasons why I adore Pinterest (and it was SO much fun to make! Cost? Nothing!!)!"



February 2nd:

"Thrilled to be 24 weeks pregnant (yay for viability!!) but less thrilled to STILL have morning sickness. Much more manageable than it used to be, but I've never had it longer than 20 weeks before (which was long for me anyway!). Only 16 weeks to go if it hangs on till the bitter end! ;)"

"Samuel's first (and last, I promise) bunches! Usually when I do this with their hair, it's pretty much time for the first haircut. Or at least, Neil makes me do it the day after he sees the photo... :) "



"A little snippet of our day. :) Yay for the postman bringing a package HEAVILY covered in bubble wrap! They kept this up for ages!"

Make a video - it's fun, easy and free!
www.onetruemedia.com

February 3rd:

"Benjamin did great with his 2-piece puzzles this week. Today he is insisting on sitting at the kitchen table to do a 50-piece puzzle, lol! He's VERY indignant if I try to help or suggest a simpler puzzle!... Well he's certainly determined! He worked on it for ages, and managed to put together an 8-piece block in one corner, bless him! He took a long time over it so he was happy to stop after that :) "

February 4th:
 

"Neil's late birthday present was finally ready for him to open today! So proud of our work, and wanted to share it! :) Pinterest-inspired - I saw handprint pictures of fish, and thought how lovely it would be to have all 5 boys' handprints in one picture, and frame it to hang properly! Top row (l to r) are Nathan, Benjamin and Samuel's handprints, and the bottom row are Arthur and Matthew's. Ribbons, buttons, googly eyes and sparkly stars finished it off, and Neil LOVES it! :) I bought a frame at eBay - not an expensive present, but a special one! :)"

 

 

February 5th:

 

"So happy that the snow came on a weekend! :) The boys have been out building snowmen, and now they are at the park with Neil while I prepare school for the week. Nathan has developed an intolerance to snow-wear of any sort since last winter - his tantrums were ridiculously off-the-scale about dressing appropriately today! :S Hope he's not giving Neil a hard time at the park! Last time we had snow, I was waiting to go into labour, so the snow is bringing back lovely memories for me this year! ♥"

"Still up at 2am! :S Benjamin woke from a bad dream about "garey bi-ders in my bed dat came from down-dairs an' crawwwd up into my bed an' now they gone but one or two dill here buzzing around tum-where..." After which he said, "You should be in bed at-leep, I think!" I actually LOVE his night-wakings! And now my teeny person is kicking and thumping away in there, which I also LOVE, so although I'll regret it tomorrow, I am pretty happy to be awake right now! ♥" 

February 6th:

"Oh Lord preserve me today! Benjamin had recurrent nightmares and Samuel was awake between 3 and 5am, and then he woke up for the day at 6.20am. I got to sleep AFTER 5am for the first time and now feel.... interesting! :S Did discover by chance that my quiet little baby is actually an extremely vigorous and active little baby, in the wee hours of the night! Hmmm!..."


"Cup of tea - marvellous invention! ;) I know it won't last for long, but oh well. Kitchen chores done and we're ready for school. Need put Samuel down for his nap. Debating with myself whether a double routine follow-up with the physio at the hospital this afternoon is something to cancel or try to attend? Snow is mostly clear, but taking all 5 boys is so difficult even in nice temperatures, and I am likely to have a rotten headache by 3pm..."

"Yes I know I am the crazy middle-of-the-night woman or something (!!) again, but MY BABY HAS HICCUPS!!! For the first time! :) So I'm sitting up with my tummy blipping gently with a huge smile fixed to my face, instead of getting the sleep I soooooooo need! I love being pregnant so much! ♥"

February 7th:

"Samuel walks!! He is 13 months old - the latest of my walkers to date. He has been taking up to 3 steps for a couple of weeks, and suddenly started walking all over the room today!! Clever boy!"

Make a video - it's fun, easy and free!
www.onetruemedia.com

February 8th:

"Have marzipanned one of the Christmas cakes!!! Only a couple of months late, hey?! ;)"

"Nathan (in very serious tones, having just viewed the trailers on a children's DVD): "One thing I hope we never have in this house is one of those Barbie DVDs.... I do hope we have that one about fire engines though!" hahaha! They have no anti-girly gender persuasions (they have baby dolls and clothes and Nathan loves pink), but they REALLY don't like sparkly girly-aimed merchandise and entertainment! It amuses me to see! Mind you, even if we had a girl I am pretty sure he would still get his wish - I loathe Barbie (I remember having one as a child and cutting all its hair off and colouring it with felt tip pens, and my mum threw it away!)!"

"Good school day today! :) Matthew is ready to start reading sentences, and Arthur had maths and reading tests today - he scored 100% on his maths, and passed his Year 5 (!!) reading test. Tomorrow he starts reading material for 10-11 year olds! SO proud of them both! :) And yes, we do have ROTTEN school days, like Monday when I think I may have actually despised homeschooling for a few hours! ;) Glad for a good day!"

"I don't know how other parents tolerate messy play!! :S Even "dry" sensory play drives me crazy - now there are red lentils all over the kitchen floor!!! Obviously they can be swept up, but why is it like nails on a blackboard so much?! Never mind the blue finger paint that I managed to spill over the HOB an hour earlier! :S"

"Still awake! AGAIN! Sooooo cold tonight. And why can't I stop thinking about crafting something?!?! A skewed version of nesting?! I have virtual baskets FULL of craft materials and novelty buttons and textiles and collage bits and it's all so thrilling, lol!!! VIRTUAL though. Just window shopping, sadly! Come on sleep!"

February 9th:

"My boys are all watching out of the window for my doula, who is not coming to visit for another hour! ;) We all love her sooooooo!"

February 11th:

"Inexcusably excited about going for a trip to POUNDLAND in a minute, lol!!! Can't wait to see if I can snag any bargains for montessori-ish DIY projects! :)"

February 12th:

"Pretty big milestone in our house this morning - Matthew stayed dry overnight for the first time!!!!! He's 5 and a half so it has been a while coming (Arthur was 3) but he wasn't ready to potty train until 4 and a half in any case. Yay Matthew! :)"

February 13th:

"Little Benjamin (2 years, 7 months old) just came over to me with a pencil in his hand, saying, "Dis dange-wus for Samuel MOUF!!! I better put it up high!" and put it up on a shelf he can just about reach, but which Samuel can't! ♥ Now he's back with the TV remote control, saying, "I foun' the MOTE! Where shy put it?" Such a funny, busy little boy!.... He's on a roll tonight! At dinner he saw the stack of tins for recycling and said, "WOAH Mummy! Dose tins should be goin' in der reshyclin' lowwy, cos they EMMTY!!" Very serious declarations, left, right, and centre - that was the first of at least a dozen observations in the kitchen, all beginning with, "WOAH Mummy!" lol!"

February 14th:

"Tired, hormonal and needing a maaaajor refocus already this morning! Trying to do so to this beautiful song whilst at least 3 children scream and fight over the melody is NOT working! Am taking 5 minutes - 3m42s for the video to play with headphones on, and the remaining 1m18s to pray! Although I can still hear someone yelling "MUMMY!!!!!" even with headphones on... :S"




"Have already had to restart my 5 mins twice!!!! Aaaaaargh!!! FIVE MINUTES, children! Just FIVE minutes!"

"Aaaaaand focus! :) Five minutes makes such a difference, focusing on God. I did have to pray with my fingers in my ears, lol! But ahhhh I feel much more centred and calm. I shall now embark upon a round of nappy changes, get the boys dressed, clean up breakfast, laundry, dishwasher, and the kitchen floor, and then hopefully get that done in time for Samuel's nap in - oh dear - 15 minutes, hahaha! Oh well! ;) Might have to skip some of that as school is happening after he goes down for his nap... I can do it after school but the problem is that the kitchen table IS school at the moment, for the big boys, so I need to clean it up first! :S Clearly I should not still be chatting away on Facebook when I've got all this stuff to get done!!!! ;)"

February 15th:

"Matthew is going to the theatre to see The Gruffalo with my grandparents today! He's so excited! We've never had even an afternoon without Matthew around, so we'll miss him!! Hope he has a lovely time :) He has "come of age" for a big boy treat that my grandparents sweetly give to their great-grandchildren. They take one of them who is somewhere around age 5 to the theatre by themselves for a children's play, and ride the top deck of a double decker bus and get an ice-cream and such like! Arthur's was a couple of years ago, and now it's Matthew's turn! Once they've had their turns, they'll get to go in pairs sometimes - but my grandparents are both 86 and although they managed just fine (and said he was a delight! :) ), I'm not sure they can keep the tradition up for however many years I have a 5-year-old?!! Such a sweet idea - I am thinking we'll carry it on all the same :)"

"Matthew had a lovely time at the theatre this afternoon! He said he really enjoyed it - there was more singing than he expected, and he didn't find any of it scary, etc. He had fun! :)  After he'd been gone an hour or so, Nathan said very solomnly, "Matthew's out. So now there's only me, you, Benji, Samuel, and Arthur...." He sighed and shook his head, "Not many of us left..." lol! ;)

February 16th:

"I LOVE this picture that Ella sent me!! In response to it, for OUR family - Pic 1) IF ONLY!!! My kids are up at 6am if not before! Pic 2) lol! Er, not quite! Pic 3) This one makes me laugh so much! I do have a brain, and am thus perfectly able to teach my children (thanks also to awesome curricula!) Pic 4) Juuuust beginning fun science projects! Pic 5) Yeah baby! We get to go out and have fun when everyone else is in school! ;) Holidays in the off-peak season, no crowds, empty playgrounds, cheap tickets at the zoo. We don't do this as often as all that, though. Pic 6) It's true. I collect books, curriculum items, and books. Also books. And long for more bookshelf space. It must be a characteristic of the homeschooling mother!! ;)"

 

"Samuel napping, boys playing. Just attempted to stop the boys playing, telling them it's time to start maths, THEN realised they are playing shops with real money, and Arthur is teaching the littler boys how to count their coins, how to recognise what things cost (he's written labels), and how to make change for a pound! Realised there's no need to stress about maths this morning and to let them play instead! ;) Going to clean in the kitchen until they're bored and then move straight onto science!"

February 17th:


"Freaked out a bit earlier on when Benjamin shouted, "Oh no! I got poo on my finger!!" When I got to him, he said, "I got it from my ear!" I explained it was ear-wax, and 5 minutes later he said, "I got some eee-watsch from my nose!... Oh, iss justa bogey." lol! Mind you, half an hour ago he was spot on when he shouted, "I got poo on my finger, and dis time from my nappy!" Ew."

February 21st:

My 36th birthday!

"Trying to think what to do with the boys this morning. Having a bit of a DIY birthday, as Neil has gone to work, I have no presents as yet, and two cards in the post as my grand total for the day. :S I made myself a Christmas cake for my birthday cake though, and covered it in PINK stuff and tiny flowers, yaaaay! :) Also my doula is coming round this afternoon. To do school or not to do school though... I've prepared it but not sure if I feel like tackling maths and handwriting battles today. Would really like to feel spoiled but trying to stay cheerful about not being so, otherwise it will make for a grumpy birthday! ;)"
"Had a good day! :) Did a craft session with the boys and now have 4 sweetly wonky and overly-gluey birthday cake collages on my wall to smile at every time I see them. My doula came bearing gifts and made me a cup of tea, my birthday cake is pink and flowery (love that!), and now I get to watch a movie with my sweet hubby over a take-away with my sweet hubby, who came home from work with flowers and chocolate! :) Didn't find time for pancakes on the only time I can remember Pancake Day coinciding with my birthday, but oh well! DID find time to cut my sweet little 14-month-old's hair for the first time (sniffle) - he still looks like a lil baby so that's okay!"

February 22nd:

"Benjamin let me cut his hair for the first time EVER!!! He has always had to be asleep before now, lol! Two down, three to go..."

In response to a question about how I manage to cut toddlers' hair when they are asleep:

"If they are tired enough to sleep, they are really zonked for the first 20 mins, so I get straight to it, lol! Usually he falls asleep on his front on the sofa or something, and is asleep enough to lift him off onto a towel on the rug in the same position. I work on the back/side (around his ear and to the middle of the nape of his neck) and then physically turn his head to face the other way (still zonked, lol!) and do the other side. There's a risk he might wake at that point, but so far he never has. I have to turn his head back and forth a couple of times to be sure things are even enough, and then I roll him onto his back and try doing the fringe at the front. If it's a baby trim then I need to get the front straight (which is pretty much impossible when they're lying down - tried and tested unfortunately!), but if I'm lifting and cutting to layer it then it's easier. Still not always even at the front when he wakes, but I try and get the odd snip in while he's waking up to fix it. Sometimes his hair isn't perfect, but at least it's CUT for another month or two! ;)"

February 23rd:

"My washing machine isn't spinning. :( Thank goodness I'm on top of the laundry at the moment! Repair man (who is practically a member of the family now, lol!) is coming tomorrow.... Not having the easiest of mornings :S"

"Afternoon going better - the weather is soooo lovely! Washing machine is miraculously spinning again! I have come down with a cold that hurts my sinuses and ears like crazy since this morning, so maybe that explains why the morning was feeling so overwhelming?! Nothing like adding illness to the mix! ;) Feel better just knowing what it is!"

February 25th:

"So if my 14-month-old eats some wild rabbit poos at the park, should I expect any particularly unpleasant consequences?!... Poo is the best source of immune system "workout" around, more so than viruses even! Endotoxins, specifically (looooads in poo). Matthew is similar (though he doesn't have a penchant for rabbit droppings), and as a baby had a real thing for licking the cracks in floorboards wherever we went! He has a much stronger immune system than the others and gets illnesses much more mildly in general, so I'm interested in the theory! Hopefully this might mean that Samuel turns out pretty healthy too! :)"

February 26th:

"Possibly over-did it with Davina McCall's prenatal workout DVD this afternoon - now awake with a really sore pelvis and a very kicky baby! ;) And apparently I have arrived in my third trimester! How in the wide world did that happen?!?! Can't wait to meet my little manny! ♥"

"It's time for another big carseat purchase! Taking a deep breath and pulling in the bank account! :S Thank goodness Neil gets a bonus in March - those things are so expensive! Nathan will be moving into a new age 4+ seat, and his old seat is going to finish its days with Benjamin (who is using Matthew's birth-to-4 seat which is now around its expiry). Samuel is rather late for a move from his infant carseat into a brand spanking new birth-to-4 seat, and then the infant seat will be ready for Sausage in May! :) Can't believe we're already at the "getting things in order" stage before another precious new baby!! :-O It's going so fast!"

"We use Concord Ultimax car seats for our 0-4 year olds. We absolutely couldn't find anything better, or more comfortable, after experimenting a bit when Arthur was tiny. When they're 4-ish they move into a Maxi Cosi Rodi - the older two have an 'XR', but Nathan will have the newer 'Air Protect' model. Those are brilliant seats, and we chose them because there weren't any car seats scoring higher for safety at the time. We love our choices, so I thought I would share in case it helps anyone!"

February 27th:

"Found my eldest and my youngest in a sweet quiet moment together. Arthur is a wonderful biggest brother, and I love how they LOVE these moments together, any pair of them together. ♥"  



"Put a farming DVD on for Nathan and Benjamin a couple of weeks ago, and went to make the lunch. It went soooo quiet that I checked on them, and saw this! :) Not sure why they grouped themselves on the crafts chest like this, but I loved the spontaneous "bunch of brothers" pose! ;) Even little Samuel had stopped playing with the curtain. I think it was a combine harvester and a tractor that got them! ;) "



"Just before bedtime this evening - funny little boys! They put themselves "to bed" on the living room floor, insisting on camping out there (Arthur put Samuel in the middle). They were laughing at Daddy in this picture :) Four of them seem to have their hands in their mouths! Two are teething, and the other two are nail-biters, so are often caught hand-in-mouth anyway! ;) "



February 29th:

I set the camera to take this photo (Neil was at work) and bribed the children with chocolate, haha! This was my 28-week belly picture for my pregnancy blog, since I was 28 weeks exactly. The boys were all around so I thought I would include them, and it turned out great! I love this photo of me with all 5 of my little boys around me, and the 6th snug inside me! :)