Seven Quick Takes

Looking at the date of my last post, it would seem that I haven’t been blogging much lately. Maybe it’s the cold weather, or the dark afternoons or maybe it’s something else, but we haven’t been doing much to blog about. I thought 7 Quick Takes would be a great way of reassuring you that we are, in fact, still alive and kicking!

1. The children are going through a particularly lovely phase at the moment where they play with each other for ages. They’ll base themselves in a room, ask me to bring some toys (usually play food) and then play together happily for half an hour or more. It is so sweet to see them getting on so well together and co-operating in a game. I hope they will always get on this well.

2. One of the reasons I haven’t been posting many pictures of the Podlings is that Tom is currently going through a bit of naturist phase. He’ll happily wear a jumper, but prefers to be naked from the waist down these days. This makes it rather difficult to get photos you would be happy to post on the Internet!

3. I have to try and get costumes together by December 11th for the children’s playgroup Christmas concert. Lily is an angel and Tom is supposed to be one of the animals in the stable. Given the problems I’m having just getting the boy dressed in everyday clothes, I don’t hold out much chance of getting him in an animal costume. To increase my chances, I tried to get Tom to choose which animal he wants to be. The result...he wants to be a mouse! Whilst I’m sure there were a few mice in the stable in Bethlehem, I’m not sure that’s what the playgroup leader had in mind. I’m hoping to change his mind.

4. Despite my love of all things crafty, I am probably going to rely on eBay to supply my costume needs for the aforementioned concert. I’m rather lacking in energy at the moment. I feel slightly ashamed that I probably won’t be making the costumes myself, but I don’t suppose the children will care either way!

5. We’re hoping to get our Christmas tree this weekend and I’m looking forward to getting the decorations out ready to start decorating on December the first. I adore the Christmas season, but I am always annoyed at the stores and catalogues for trying to get me in the festive mood before the time is right. It just doesn’t seem right to me to have decorations up before December.

6. Lily got in trouble this morning for throwing a plastic pear at her brother. They were playing happily on opposite sides of the playroom when, for no apparent reason, Lily just trotted across the room and hurled said fruit right at Tom’s nose. Now we all know how it feels to be hit on the nose by something and Lily has quite a good arm, so the poor boy was in tears for a few minutes. I don’t think the resulting red nose was due to the crying either. It’s not all sunshine and roses round here!

7. I’m eating lots of satsumas at the moment. I love to see a bowl full of the cheerful orange fruit and something about this time of year makes me want to eat them by the net full. I’ve always associated satsumas with Christmas and I have now passed on the family tradition of putting one in the bottom of the Christmas stocking to my own children. I was gutted last year when satsumas were really hard to get hold of. Thankfully, this year they seem to be in abundance again.

Thanks to Conversion Diary for hosting 7 Quick Takes Friday.

Conversations

During lunch yesterday, I was chatting with the children about what they had done at playgroup that morning. Part of the conversation went something like this:

Me: So, did you play with any boys and girls at playgroup.

Tom: Jack

Me: You played with a little boy called Jack? That's nice.

Tom: He fell over and hurt his head.
.Me: Oh dear, that's sad. Poor Jack.

Tom: It really hurt him. He cried.

He then went on to tell me about a little girl called Amy and the conversation moved on. Tom isn't usually very forthcoming when asked what he's been up to and he's certainly never mentioned any friends by name before. I usually rely on Lily to tell me what they've been doing at playgroup, so I was pleased that Tom was so chatty about it today. When Mark got home, I encouraged Tom to tell him about playgroup.

Me: Tom, tell Daddy what happened to Jack at playgroup today.

Tom: He fell down and broke his head.

Daddy: Did he? Did Jill come tumbling after?

Tom: She did!

The penny dropped! Mark is much quicker than me!

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Baby bunting

I finished making this bunting for Lily's room several weeks ago, but I've only just got around to posting about it! It was very simply made by blanket stitching felt shapes together, stuffing them and sewing a button and felt 'flower' in the middle. I then stitched the shapes onto a length of thin pink rope and hung the whole thing above Lily's cot. I have plans to do something similar for Tom's room using different shapes and brighter colours. Any future Podlings can probably expect to find a line of little white and yellow ducklings adorning the wall above their cots. The possibilities are endless and the bunting is so simple and fun to make. I love working with felt!

A close-up of one of the hearts

The bunting in situ. Keep 'em in a cot as long as possible I say!

Note the rather splendid quilt that my mum made for Lily. I will share a proper picture of it sometime, it really is amazing.

I also made this rose wreath to decorate the wall above Lily's dresser

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As an aside, I tend not to go into too much detail about how I make things on here as there are plenty of websites and blogs out there who are much better at this sort of thing than me. However, if anyone ever wants more information about how I have made something, or would like a recipe I have used, please feel free to leave a comment or email me.

On the mend

Well, it's been a long couple of weeks, but we're finally all on the mend round here. We're all still coughing a bit, but the colds are clearing up and the Podlings are almost back to their usual bonny selves. They were actually able to play in the garden for a little while yesterday. Between rain and illness, they haven't been able to play outside for ages and they clearly loved it. Lily still seems to tire quickly as she is still a bit under the weather, but I was so glad they were able to go out and get some fresh air. Children don't like being cooped up for too long.

We went to toddler group this morning for the first time in a couple of weeks. We all enjoy this morning out together and it was nice to be able to go again. Tom looks so much older than the other children there now. He's the oldest in the group by at least a year as a lot of people seem to send their three and four year olds to nursery these days. Luckily, Tom loves playing with the younger children and seems quite amused by the toddling babies. Lily spends most of the time at toddler group playing with the toy kitchen and play food. I'd love to get her a kitchen of her own for Christmas, but I have absolutely no idea where we'd put it!

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Anyway, with any luck we will all continue to get better and we can get back to some semblance of normality round here. Being the house of disease for a fortnight means I am now totally behind on the housework and laundry and I have a lot of catching up to do. With that in mind, I guess I should stop procrastinating and go and do something productive!

Checking in

We are consuming vast quantities of hot honey and lemon here at the moment because we are poorly, folks, very poorly! We are all suffering from bad colds and coughs and are basically feeling a bit sorry for ourselves. Between seeing to the children and my own cough, I've hardly slept at all over the last three nights and I'm feeling a bit drained, to say the least. Mark worked from home today to help me look after the Podlings, but he is now pretty ill too. We're just off to bed with steaming mugs of honey and lemon with the promise of another sleepless night ahead. Hopefully we'll all start to feel better soon. I'd settle for a good night's sleep!

Tea and fireworks

With Guy Fawkes night looming next week, a lot of people are letting off fireworks this weekend. We got back a little late from shopping this afternoon, so it was around six and very dark when we got home. Tom had been watching the fireworks from his bedroom window while I was getting a quick tea together. He was thrilled when I let him have his tea at his window so he could continue watching the fireworks. An unheard of novelty that will no doubt result in him asking to have his breakfast up there in the morning!

Lily, on the other hand, is still terrified of fireworks. Our normally confident little girl was reduced to a crying, clinging, nervous wreck when the bangs of the fireworks echoed round the sky. She was so upset that I had to sit knitting by her cot until she fell asleep this evening, which at least meant I was able to finish a square of the blanket I am working on. It was obviously quite upsetting to see Lily so distressed by the fireworks, so our plans to take the Podlings to a bonfire display later in the week have been modified to a Father/Son outing. I will stay home with Lily and try and get her to bed early so she won't be upset by the noise. Hopefully she'll enjoy them next year!