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madelinekelly at 09:46pm on 26/10/2013 under mushroom ketchup, tomato ketchup, tree, trickle
madelinekelly at 09:46pm on 26/10/2013 under mushroom ketchup, tomato ketchup, tree, trickleWe had a golden summer this year. The heatwave, which seemed to oppress so many people on the mainland, just made our windswept island pleasantly warm and, sometimes, wonderfully hot. We spent hours on the beach and had many many picnics. Because we know we'll never have three months off all together again, we tried to do lots of family things: climbing hills, visiting the wildlife park, going to the Royal Agricultural Show, finding new playgrounds.
River carried a big rock to the top of a hill to add to the cairn there.
Granny bought her a bike and she learnt to ride.
She had her first go on a bouncy castle.
...and her first exploration of a "ruined castle" (really it's a burial site but we didn't want to get into all of that with her while she's in the endless "Why?" phase).
She made her own crown (we've skipped the princess role-play and gone straight to being a queen, although she's more likely to be an astronaut or pirate or doctor or animal).
And she's waded through more than one river, sometimes naked, sometimes in wellies that it turned out didn't keep her feet dry at all.
As for Willow, she's grown
...and grown
...and grown
and is proving to be a lovely baby. She smiles a lot, seldom cries.. Her eyes grow wide with wonder as she watches River careen through the house. She is following her centile line beautifully. She waves her arms and legs in excitement when she sees me approaching. She does a lovely broad grin when she's about to poo or vomit. Adorable! She's very vocal, with a whole collection of hoots, grunts, squawks and gentle cooing sounds, which she only makes when other people are talking. It's truly lovely. Her eyes light up when people respond to her with similar noises -- like she thinks she's really communicating.
Onto other things. I've been feeling a little down recently -- being trapped by breastfeeding again, lack of sleep, slight social isolation, not having time to get anything useful done (if you don't count babycare) -- but I realised that part of that was that my memory is now so rubbish that I cannot remember when I've actually managed to achieve anything. So I'm going to keep a weekly tally to help me see that our lives really aren't stagnating. I'm also hoping that the simple act of keeping a list will help to motivate me to do more things.
ACHIEVEMENTS THIS WEEK (me or Matt or both of us)
-- River's old baby/toddler clothes sorted by size and stored in plastic tub for Willow's future use.
-- Greenhouse tent taken down at the allotment, in preparation for winter gales.
-- One batch of millionaire's shortbread made.
-- New (secondhand, shabby) sideboard in position in middle alcove in living-room.
-- 200 ornamental gourds cleaned, dried, and a select few put out on display. The remainder to be given away.
-- Big storecupboard supermarket shop done for the month.
-- More planks down on attic floor.
-- Re-organisation of picture books to make them more accessible for River.
-- Tablecloth washed!
-- Living-room hoovered!
-- Bedroom dusted!
-- Kitchen de-cobwebbed!
-- Gas bill paid, piano cheques in post.
-- Three friends visited us, and I phoned one friend and chatted to another online.
-- Now know 522 Italian words on Duolingo.
Bonus photo of lovely husband and baby
River carried a big rock to the top of a hill to add to the cairn there.
Granny bought her a bike and she learnt to ride.
She had her first go on a bouncy castle.
...and her first exploration of a "ruined castle" (really it's a burial site but we didn't want to get into all of that with her while she's in the endless "Why?" phase).
She made her own crown (we've skipped the princess role-play and gone straight to being a queen, although she's more likely to be an astronaut or pirate or doctor or animal).
And she's waded through more than one river, sometimes naked, sometimes in wellies that it turned out didn't keep her feet dry at all.
As for Willow, she's grown
...and grown
...and grown
and is proving to be a lovely baby. She smiles a lot, seldom cries.. Her eyes grow wide with wonder as she watches River careen through the house. She is following her centile line beautifully. She waves her arms and legs in excitement when she sees me approaching. She does a lovely broad grin when she's about to poo or vomit. Adorable! She's very vocal, with a whole collection of hoots, grunts, squawks and gentle cooing sounds, which she only makes when other people are talking. It's truly lovely. Her eyes light up when people respond to her with similar noises -- like she thinks she's really communicating.
Onto other things. I've been feeling a little down recently -- being trapped by breastfeeding again, lack of sleep, slight social isolation, not having time to get anything useful done (if you don't count babycare) -- but I realised that part of that was that my memory is now so rubbish that I cannot remember when I've actually managed to achieve anything. So I'm going to keep a weekly tally to help me see that our lives really aren't stagnating. I'm also hoping that the simple act of keeping a list will help to motivate me to do more things.
ACHIEVEMENTS THIS WEEK (me or Matt or both of us)
-- River's old baby/toddler clothes sorted by size and stored in plastic tub for Willow's future use.
-- Greenhouse tent taken down at the allotment, in preparation for winter gales.
-- One batch of millionaire's shortbread made.
-- New (secondhand, shabby) sideboard in position in middle alcove in living-room.
-- 200 ornamental gourds cleaned, dried, and a select few put out on display. The remainder to be given away.
-- Big storecupboard supermarket shop done for the month.
-- More planks down on attic floor.
-- Re-organisation of picture books to make them more accessible for River.
-- Tablecloth washed!
-- Living-room hoovered!
-- Bedroom dusted!
-- Kitchen de-cobwebbed!
-- Gas bill paid, piano cheques in post.
-- Three friends visited us, and I phoned one friend and chatted to another online.
-- Now know 522 Italian words on Duolingo.
Bonus photo of lovely husband and baby
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