Emma bakes a cake

Emma thinks baking is crazy fun!

..
Okay, to be fair Emma didn't exactly bake the cake, but this morning was the first time she was present during the cake making process. Until now, I have done all my baking during her naps, but with Tom at school and Lily at playgroup, I decided it was high time for her first Mummy/Daughter baking experience. I have very fond memories of baking with my own mother and hope my children will have similar memories of our times together. I also believe it's never too early to start having your children alongside you as you work. They learn an incredible amount just by watching you.
..
As you can see from the photo, Emma rather enjoyed her first baking experience and was completely unfazed by my very noisy, 30 year old food mixer. Tom appreciated our efforts and devoured two slices of cake this evening. School seems to make him hungry!
..

Emma admires her first cake (Shame she can't eat any of it!)

Contrary to appearances, I promise you this Somerset apple cake is not burnt. It just turned out darker this time, probably because I used dark brown sugar instead of the light brown sugar I used last week. I freely substitute ingredients if I don't have the correct ones to hand!
..

Sisters

..

Welcoming Autumn

I love Autumn! I enjoy each season in its turn, but Autumn is my favourite by a country mile. As soon as the temperature drops and I can smell Autumn in the air, I start wanting to nest in the worst way. It drives me straight into the kitchen to bake comfort foods and I suddenly want to put cinnamon in everything!

..

It was the first official day of Autumn on Tuesday, so yesterday the Podlings and I welcomed my favourite season with an Autumn tea. I baked a Somerset apple cake and a tray of flapjacks, cut sandwiches into leaf shapes and served them alongside sliced apples and freshly picked blackberries (Lily and I picked them on our way home from playgroup). I decorated the table with pine cones and Cox's apples (by far the tastiest apple in my opinion) and put some of my Autumn decorations in a jug for a centrepiece.

..

My Somerset apple cake was made with wholemeal flour and contains apples and cinnamon, two flavours I strongly associate with the season. Tom loves it and had two slices for tea and shared Mark's piece at suppertime!

..

Lily decided that since there was a cake, we really ought to sing 'Happy Birthday'. At her request, I put a candle in the cake and we sang 'Happy Birthday' to Autumn! Tom and Lily love it when I do little teas like this for them and they really enjoyed this one. I rather enjoyed helping them out with the baked goods too! I'm rather partial to Somerset apple cake and would never say no to a piece of homemade flapjack!
..

Two months old

Emma at two months of age

..

Emma is two months old today and now weighs 9lbs 6oz. She continues to sleep well at night, but she isn't too keen on the new school routine. I normally have to put her down for a nap less than an hour after feeding her at 6.30am. As far as she's concerned, that's a night feed thank you very much! She's not a morning person, rather like her mum!

..

She does a good line in baby talk and burbles away quite happily when she's content. She often talks with her mouth full though as she has now found her hands and likes to try to stuff her fist in her mouth.

..

Why do you keep sticking that camera in my face Mummy?
..

She continues to be the main object of Tom and Lily's affection and bears their attentions with great fortitude. She is amazingly tolerant of them considering the frequent kissing, cuddling and general manhandling she receives from them.

She's a happy little soul and smiles readily, especially when waking from a nap. I look forward to seeing how her personality will develop as she gets older, though I wish I could stop her from growing up quite so fast.

..

A very British barbecue

..

Emma joins the library

..

In this family of bibliophiles, you are never too young for your own library card. Emma joined the library this afternoon at the tender age of 8 weeks old. She looks pretty pleased about it too!

..

Unfinished business

I am the queen of unfinished projects. Mark will testify to the number of sewing and knitting projects I have lurking in cupboards that need to be completed. I started making this pram blanket when I was expecting Lily. We didn't know what we were having, but I had such a strong feeling the baby was a girl that I went ahead and embroidered the rather girly design anyway. Somehow, despite her being two weeks late, Lily arrived before I finished the blanket and she never used it. I was going through my sewing cupboard the other day and I found it folded in a bag. I'm actually quite proud of the work I did on this blanket and when I saw it again I decided to use it for Emma, regardless of the incomplete embroidery and raw edges. Who knows, I may never get another chance to use it. When I put it in the pram, I fold over the raw edges so you can't see them and the incomplete embroidery is hidden under the pram cover anyway. All you can see is one of the completed embroideries at the top of the blanket. I would like to finish the blanket before Emma outgrows the pram, but at least I'm now using it anyway. It is just too pretty to keep unused in a cupboard.
..

The bird is actually three-dimensional as I stuffed it from the back of the blanket. Roses and daisies are my favourite flowers, which is one of the reasons I love this design. I adore bullion knot roses. I'd put them on everything if I could!

Keeping Lily entertained!

I love the look of concentration on her face as she adds spots onto a giraffe. She has exceptional pencil control and I love watching her draw.

..
Our trip to the zoo last Sunday has provided us with a good jumping off point for activities this week. This afternoon, Lily and I did some drawing with our animal stencil set and then we got out the felt shapes and made zoo pictures. Quite by coincidence, this week's topic at her playgroup was also the zoo, so we obviously timed our visit well. Tom has been off school sick today (poor boy has a terrible cough and cold and a high temperature), but if he is well enough to go back tomorrow I might bake some animal biscuits with Lily to top off the zoo-themed week.
..

Making zoo pictures with fuzzy felt

..

Sling shot

I love our Baby Bjorn sling. Emma rarely falls asleep in her pram and several people on the school run have commented on how alert she is whenever they see her in it. This isn't a problem when she is fully awake as she will happily lie there and take it all in, but it can lead to a very fussy little girl if she is in her pram and is tired. The sling, on the other hand, acts rather like a tranquilizer. She is happily dozing within minutes of strapping her into it and generally remains so until you take her out again. This was extremely useful on our trip to the zoo on Sunday. Emma was quite content for the entire afternoon and it also freed up the pram to cart all the picnic food around!

On a side note, Lily was just the same in the pram, although she didn't always sleep in the sling either. I can't believe I have had two babies who don't sleep in prams when everyone says how unusual it is!
..

Aping around

I saw this statue and something inside made me say "Hey, Guys, go and sit on the Gorilla and Mummy will take your photograph!". It had to be done...I just couldn't help it! At least I wasn't the only one. Children were actually queueing to sit on this thing so their mums could take pictures!

..

Tom and Uncle Greg

..

A trip to the zoo

I love Giraffes!

..
We took the Podlings on a visit to Twycross zoo yesterday. We made quite a family outing of it as Mark's parents, his brother Greg and Greg's girlfriend Kelly joined us. We packed up a generous picnic, using up all the leftover meat from our barbecue on Saturday night and enjoyed a pleasant afternoon together. It was rather colder than we expected, with Summer giving way to a very Autumnal nip in the air. However, we were grateful it was dry and donned cardigans against the chill. We all had a lovely time watching the animals and watching the Podlings watching the animals. I took a lot of photographs (naturally), but I will spare you the majority of the animal pictures I took and just share a few of my favourite pictures of the Podlings from the day.
..

Lily looking at llamas (alliteration anyone?!)
..
Emma slept happily in her sling for almost the entire visit

..

We were extremely lucky to see the newborn baby elephant who was born just last week
..

Tom watching the chimps at play. Of all the animals in the zoo, Tom's favourites were the handful of goldfish in a pond in the monkey house. We had to keep taking him back to look at them again and again. I guess our next family outing had better be to an aquarium!

..

Watching the Meercats

..

Tufty

..
As Emma grows, her mop of hair is becoming increasingly wild and crazy. She now has a little tuft of hair on the top of her head that refuses to lie flat, no matter how much you try to smooth it down. I've taken to calling her Tufty!

..

Tom Podling's Schooldays

Tom in his uniform on his first day of school. He looks so very grown up! He loves his uniform and tries very hard not to get it dirty.

..

Tom has now completed his first week as a schoolboy and he seems to be settling in well. I've have had a good chat with him every evening about his day and he has told me each night that he has had a fun day. He did make me laugh after his first day when he announced that he liked school, but that he wouldn't go again until he was five! He was so tired after his first day that as soon as we walked through the front door he went straight up the stairs and got into bed!

..

I have been making packed lunches for him as I know he wouldn't eat school dinners. I asked him on his first day if he had enjoyed his lunch. "Yes." he replied, "I ate it all up. I didn't want to but the teachers told me to." Poor boy! He has a funny way of eating his sandwiches, involving opening them up, lining up the squares of bread and eating the filling. I suspect he is being told to eat the bread as well now. It doesn't seem to be upsetting him though, so I'm not going to make an issue out of it.

..

The only thing he really seems not to have enjoyed about school is music. Tom has a strong dislike of loud noises, and whilst he spends much of his day singing his own little songs, he doesn't like other people singing. It sounds like he got quite upset during the music lesson and was allowed to go back to the classroom and play in the quiet while the rest of the class carried on.

..

If you know Tom, I think you'll agree that it's fair to say that he isn't quite like other children. He definitely marches to the beat of his own drum. This had given me some concerns about how he would fare in a school environment. I'm so pleased to see that, so far at least, he is doing well and actually seems to be enjoying school. I am so proud of him for coping so well with such a big change. I can't believe I am the mother of a schoolboy now!

.

Lily on her first day back at playgroup on Tuesday. As you can see, she's still fond of her dummies! She's holding five in this photo.

..

She really missed Tom on his first day and wanted to go and pick him up after lunch. When we went to collect him, she insisted on carrying his snack all the way up to school and gave it to him as soon as he came out. On his second day, they greeted each other with a huge hug, saying how much they had missed each other. So very sweet!

Tom went straight up to bed as soon as he got home on Tuesday. He asked Lily to join him and they both got under the covers for a chat.
..

Baby dolls

..
I find this photo so funny. I was amusing Lily by putting her Baby Annabel doll on the changing mat next to Emma when I suddenly decided to take a picture for future size comparison. It wasn't until I saw the photo later that I noticed Emma was in exactly the same pose as her plastic companion. Hilarious!
.

Big Podling beam

..
Emma has the most adorable beaming smile. She has been smiling like this for weeks, but I've only just managed to catch it on camera. Isn't she cute!
.

..

My school stars

..
I wanted to mark the start of the new school year in a fun way, so I planned a little 'starting school' tea party for the Podlings this afternoon. I made it a star themed party as Tom and Lily are my little stars and I wanted them to know that as they head off to school and playschool respectively. On the menu we had gold star biscuits (aka star-shaped Shewsbury biscuits), cupcakes, star-shaped sandwiches, spicy star crisps, chocolate stars and strawberries. I made the biscuits and cupcakes last night after all the Podlings were in bed, so most of the work was already done. Mark and his parents kept the Podlings entertained this afternoon while I got everything else ready and I was able to surprise Tom and Lily with this special tea. Their little faces were a picture when they walked in and saw everything. I had a lot of fun putting this tea together, though I'm not sure I could handle Lily's bedtime request of having a party every day!

Chocolate and vanilla cupcakes decorated with chocolate star sprinkles.

For the decorations I cut star shapes from coloured foam and tied them to the lights above the table. The tablecloth is a cheap fleece throw from Tesco.

Favours for the Podlings. Glitter pencils tied with ribbon and an apple.

I think Tom liked it!

.

Getting ready

..
A new school year begins next week, and with it comes big changes for a certain little boy. Next Tuesday will be Tom's first day at school and we've been gradually preparing him for it over the last few weeks. Tom takes a long time to get used to the idea of change and at the end of last term he was adamant that he didn't want to go to school. He would continually change the subject if we tried to talk about it and was obviously worried. Over the summer holidays we have read him storybooks about starting school, talked to him about it and generally got him used to the idea. He now talks quite happily about going to school and no longer seems so worried about it. Part of his coping strategy has been the reemergence in the last couple of days of his imaginary friends Morley and Malley, who show up every now and then. Apparently they will be starting school with him.

Tom was very excited this morning when his new school backpack and lunch bag arrived in the post. He loves red and he loves stars, so I knew he'd love them as soon as I saw them (I got them from The Great Little Trading Company if you're interested). He immediately started pretending he was at school, even taking a break from his pretend learning to have pretend lunch from his new lunch bag. This is such a contrast to his attitude six weeks ago. From being quite obviously anxious about going to school, he now seems almost excited about it. I can't tell you what a relief this is to me!

We are pretty much set for the new term now. We have most of his uniform, but we will be joining the back to school crowd this weekend to buy some shoes (not looking forward to that!). I also have a special treat planned for the Podlings for Sunday afternoon. Preparing to send my firstborn to school is an extremely strange experience and I have such mixed emotions about it. It is quite exciting in some ways though, as I have caught the buzz I used to feel on going back to school myself. I only hope Tom enjoys school as much as I used to.
..

Water Babies

Tom showing us his wrinkly fingers after a long soak in the bath

..
I have been half expecting the 'where do babies come from?' question since Emma's rather rapid arrival meant that Tom and Lily were unavoidably present at the birth. Although they have talked about the birth itself, thankfully neither of them has raised the question of how Emma got there in the first place. I realised yesterday that the reason for this is that Tom has his own idea of where babies come from. During my pregnancy, I had told the Podlings that the baby in Mummy's tummy was floating in lots of nice warm water. This obviously made more of an impression on Tom than I realised. Last night, he asked me if I had any water in my tummy. I explained to him that, no, Mummy only has water in her tummy when the baby is growing in there. His immediate response to this piece of information was "Can you drink some more of the special baby water so another baby will grow?". It's nice to know that the arrival of a new sibling has left him hungry for more, but I'm not sure I'm quite as ready as Tom to have another baby just yet!
..

Magic painting

.
If you've been reading my blog for any length of time, you'll know that I do a lot of art and craft activities with the Podlings. If you've had children, you can imagine just how much I want all that mess with a new baby in the house. I can't even keep on top of the normal housework at the moment, so the thought of cleaning up paint, glitter and glue does not appeal. The problem is, Tom and Lily are used to doing these things with me and fail to see why the arrival of Emma should constitute a problem. I've had to think of activities they can do that satisfy their creative drive, yet create next to no mess. Magic painting is one of my favourite activities to pull out at the moment. Tom and Lily think they are painting and all I have to do when they have finished is wipe away a bit of water. Everyone wins.
.