School Holidays

The children go back to school on Monday, and although I love having them home(especially the no early mornings part), this time it can't come soon enough as I'm dangerously behind on my coursework. I'm not entirely sure I'm going to be able to catch up. I think I'll be doing these last few weeks on a wing and a prayer, and trying to blag my way through the exam in June.

We've had an easter egg hunt last weekend, but as the weather has been a bit hit and miss we haven't got out as much as I would've liked.




The boys have been to Portsmouth to stay with Grandma and Grandad, and Ryan has now gone to stay with his Mum for a few days. We picked Taylor up yesterday, and went to a history museum in Basingstoke while we were down there. It was great. They had dressing up clothes, so Isobel picked out some Victorian clothes and wandered around the mock Victorian streets looking the part.



Isobel pretending to be a mannequin;


They had an old fashioned 1930's sweet shop where you had to pay with old pennies(given out at reception). Taylor then pulled this face in every photo as he chose Acid Drops!


I realised yesterday that I didn't have any photos of me with the baby yet...he's only a month old for goodness sake. I'm behind the camera too much, clearly.



Christian still sleeps too much, bless him. All that growing must be hard work. He wakes up every three hours for a feed, all night and all day, but between that he rarely opens his eyes. The crochet blanket in this photo was made by my Nan when I was pregnant with Isobel, and it's one of my favourite things. When I'm feeling ill, or low, I love to snuggle under it as it feels like she's here looking after me. I can feel the hours she spent making it, and her thoughts and excitement about meeting Isobel five years ago are inside the blanket. It's the closest Christian will ever get to her, sadly.


I bought him this mirror toy yesterday with some vouchers given to him as a gift and he loved it, and actually stayed awake for about 10 minutes looking at himself this morning, so we'll get that out more often. All that vanity looking at himself must have been tiring though, as he's now snoozing, again, next to me.

Ready to plant

I finally got out in the garden today. I'm really late to be digging over and adding manure, hopefully not too late, but at least it's done. I've decided to scale back what I'm growing this year as I don't want to take on too much work. I'm sticking with onions, lettuce, rocket, tomatoes, potatoes and strawberries. That's it. I have two varieties of potato and onion ready to go out, so I may try and plant them tomorrow. Here is what it looks like now. I wish I'd taken a before shot, the whole thing was overgrown with Couch Grass.


My rockery and herb garden are still looking a little worse for wear though. Looks a little pathetic, doesn't it?

Proud

This was part of a thread on a forum, but I thought it would make a nice positive blog post too. So, I am proud of my children because...

I'm proud of Ryan for not always bowing to peer pressure, and standing up for what he believes in. It often gets him bullied, or picked on by his friends, but he still refuses to always follow the crowd. He is often stroppy, and messy, and a whiner, but he also doesn't get into much trouble, and keeps himself to himself, and does just enough school work to see him through. What more can you ask from a fifteen year old, really?


I'm proud of Taylor for being such a sensitive, unique, quirky little soul. He really is one in a million, walking his own path through life. He is one of those people that will always be happy, and always be successful, no matter what he chooses to do with his life. His artwork is brilliant, and I love the fact he enjoys it so much just like I do.



I'm proud of Isobel for doing so well at school, she's achieved the targets for the whole year even though she only started two months ago. She's also taken to being a big sister, and no longer being the baby, really well, and loves her baby brother. She is astoundingly beautiful, and doesn't even realise it.





I'm proud of Kit, my snuggly baby son, for making his way safely into the world. It will always amaze me how they are created from such tiny cells, and end up being so full of life and beauty. We've been very blessed to have had four healthy, strong children.