Snug as a bug

Baby sleeping bags are a fantastic invention. They can't be kicked off like blankets and prevent your baby from waking in the night from cold. As they get older, they also prevent your child from climbing out of their cot! I used sleeping bags for both Tom and Lily, both of whom slept in them until they were around three years old. I didn't put either of them in one until they were in a big cot though. Emma, on the other hand, is such a little fidget that I've had to put her in a sleeping bag at night even though she is still in the Moses basket. I'd put her to bed in the 'feet to foot' position and find her later in the night with her head touching the top of the basket and the blankets way down at the bottom. Thanks to her new pink sleeping bag, she now stays warm and cozy all night long, no matter how much she fidgets. Not to mention that she looks absolutely adorable in it!
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Remembering the traitor Fawkes!

Lily bundled up against the cold

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On Saturday evening, we bundled Tom and Lily up in their winter gear and Mark took them out to a local bonfire and fireworks display. At least that was the plan! When they got there, Lily was too frightened by the noise and the Podlings both decided they didn't want to be there. Lily has been frightened by fireworks the last couple of years, but she seemed so excited about going this year. Sadly it wasn't to be. Mark drove about a mile away from the display and the three of them watched the fireworks from the front seat of the car. This modification to the plan was apparently a great success and they really enjoyed it.

Tom in his winter gear. It is really hard to get an in-focus picture of Tom as he is chronically incapable of sitting still long enough for the camera to focus in low light! ..

Meanwhile, poor Cinders got to stay home and cook! Emma is obviously much too young to enjoy the fireworks, so I put her to bed at seven as usual and then prepared soup, crackers, hot dogs and chocolate covered apples to greet the rest of the family when they got home. The Podlings weren't as chilled as they might have been had they watched the display outdoors, but we all still enjoyed the warming food. Tom and Lily went to bed around nine o'clock having had a lovely evening, though not quite the one Mark and I had originally planned for them!

I made chocolate covered apples and dipped them in sugar strands to decorate. Tom doesn't like chocolate, but he was thrilled with his apple on a stick!
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My cozy autumn centrepiece - a scented candle surrounded by pine cones.
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Art by Lily

Daddy. Those large things at the side of his head are hands, not ears.

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Lily has always had excellent pencil control. At ten months old, she knew how to hold a crayon and which end she had to draw with and she now holds a pencil correctly without ever having been taught. I have really enjoyed watching her drawings develop and just recently she has started doing some lovely drawings of her family. Tom was never remotely interested in drawing anything other than squiggles (still isn't), so these childish drawings are quite new to me and I find them delightful. I particularly like her attention to detail. When she draws herself, Emma or me, we get a straight line for hair. Tom and Mark, on the other hand, get wavy lines because they have curly hair. These drawings have developed entirely without intervention and I think they are so cute.

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Tom. Note the curly hair.

Emma. For some reason the baby gets eyebrows!

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A portrait of the artist as a young girl. Apparently she doesn't have any legs!

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A Duck. This one is my favourite, but it was hard to get a photo of it as she drew it in pencil.

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Consequences

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Note to self: Don't get distracted whilst Lily is painting!

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You'd think I'd have learnt by now wouldn't you! Even after a long soak in the bath, she still went to bed with her arms tinged faintly red.

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Carpe Diem

I know that these mild autumn days won't last much longer and soon it will be too cold for the Podlings to spend much time playing outdoors. We are trying to make the most of these final pleasant days and get outside when we can. I took these photos at the end of our walk this afternoon as the sun was starting to set and the light levels dropped. I don't know what it is about these pictures, but I love them. I feel like I have captured a fleeting moment of their childhood on camera. I can't stop looking at the top one for some reason.
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Branching out

It was a beautiful autumn day today, so the Podlings and I went for a walk this afternoon. Next to the local park is a small coppice that Tom and Lily have Christened the tree house and they currently prefer playing in there to the park itself. I usually stand outside their little den with the pram, but today I took a little peek at them while they were playing and found the scene above. Yes, Lily is up a tree! It was only a matter of time before my adventurous little girl started her arboreal adventures. Despite her preference for dresses and all things girly, there's no denying a tomboyish streak in her. I've always said Lily is the sort of girl who will be climbing trees in a tutu, so I guess she's made a start!

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Last minute mini-beasts

Lily the social butterfly!

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Last night, the whole family attended a fancy dress disco held by Lily's playgroup. We had known about this for some while, but Tom and Lily were adamant they weren't going to dress up...until the day before the party! I spent much of yesterday cutting and hot-gluing felt in an attempt to throw together their requested costumes at the last minute. They are fascinated by all kinds of mini-beasts, so it came as no surprise that Tom wanted to be a ladybird. Lily initially wanted to be a slug (!!), but with a little guidance from me she agreed that a butterfly costume might be nicer! Emma didn't get much say in her costume, but I thought it would be sweet to have the girls both dressed as butterflies. The costumes aren't great and were put together very quickly with things I just had lying around, but the Podlings were thrilled with them nonetheless. For some reason all my photos are a bit blurry, (I think the batteries in my camera need changing) but you get the idea!

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The Podlings had a fabulous time at the disco and you couldn't get Tom off the dance floor. Emma had a little snooze when we first got there and then woke up and just took it all in. She wasn't remotely bothered by the loud music and took great pleasure in looking at the disco lights. Lily had spent all day showing me how she was going to dance at the disco, so she had a great time when we finally got there. She tends to get tired in the evening though, so she ended up sitting at the table and chatting to us. We all had a lovely evening and everyone went to bed with no fuss when we got home just after nine.
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Lily wore a dress with an all-over butterfly print (a gift from her Great Aunt), to which I attached the wings from her fairy costume. Her antennae were made from pipe cleaners and pompoms attached to one of her headbands.

Tom's ladybird costume was an old red sweatshirt turned inside out to hide the print. I simply glued some black felt to the back to make it look like a ladybird. He also had antennae made from pipe cleaners, pompoms and a headband, but he refused to put them on for the photo. He wore them all evening at the disco though.
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The littlest butterfly! I hot-glued Emma's antennae to a strip of felt. I wanted something soft and light that wouldn't bother her or make her hot. She seemed to be completely unaware she was wearing them.
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Emma sporting her pink felt butterfly wings. It's quite hard to get a picture of her back now because if you put her on her tummy she makes it her mission to roll onto her back. Here you see her in mid-roll!
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Emma enjoying her first social function!
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