Highway to Heaven

This evening, before we said his prayers, Tom told me that God is in Heaven and asked if he could go to Heaven too. I explained that hopefully we will all go to Heaven someday, but Heaven is a long way away. He thought about this for a moment, then opened the door of the toy car he had brought to bed with him. "It's God's car" he told me, "and Jesus is going to drive it to Heaven".
~
"1940 Coupe at Takeoff" by David Perry

Have you seen the muffin man?

So, in case you were wondering, we made chocolate muffins this afternoon and Lily got to lick the spoon. Apparently, this can result in your 23 month old daughter sprouting a chocolate moustache and goatee. All she needs is a beret and she'd look like a beatnik!

Bunny laundering

I took advantage of the good drying weather today and washed the Podlings' cuddly rabbits. The Podlings both take their rabbits to bed with them every night and they travel with us when we stay overnight anywhere, so they were both in need of a wash. I thought they looked really funny hanging by their ears from the line!

We bought the rabbit on the left when I was 12 weeks pregnant with Tom (the first thing I bought for 'the baby') and it is the only cuddly toy he has ever shown any interest in. It was invaluable when he was tiny as we found the bunny really useful if we needed Tom to sleep when he was overstimulated. We'd place the rabbit on his tummy as if it were giving him a cuddle and we'd put one of the ears over his eyes to block out the light (see picture below). He'd fall asleep really quickly like that and we'd move the ear away from his face as soon as he dozed off. It worked so well, we bought a similar rabbit for Lily when she was born. It was even more useful for her as she was very easily overstimulated and really difficult to get off to sleep. The whole 'ear over the eyes' thing earned the rabbits the nickname Blackout Bunnies...I'm hoping they still sell these if/when we have another baby.

Tom, aged 3 months, with his Blackout Bunny

Theology with the under 5s

Tom has obviously started mulling theological questions over in his mind. I've had questions from him recently along the lines of "But we can't see Jesus?". After we said his prayers this evening, Tom pondered for a moment and then asked "But God can't give me a cuddle?". I smiled to myself and then gently explained that "No, God can't give you a cuddle like Mummy and Daddy can give you a cuddle, but God loves you very much." I love that Tom has started asking questions about God, but it's new territory for me as to how to explain things to him in a way that he will understand. I think I'm going to need some guidance here!

~

"Christ and child" by Danny Hahlbohm

Five wonderful years

Five years, three houses and two children later...life gets better and better!

Happy Anniversary to my wonderful husband. I love you!

A little taste of Devon

Breakfast in the garden

Last weekend went down to visit my parents in Devon. We travelled down on Friday afternoon and arrived at my parents house quite late. The weather was lovely for the whole weekend, despite what the forecasters had predicted. In fact, it was so nice on the Saturday that we had breakfast in the garden. After lunch we walked to a nearby field and the Podlings had a lovely time running around and chasing my parents' dog, Molly. We spent a lovely couple of hours in the sunshine. Mum made a daisy chain for Lily, Tom found a puddle to jump in and the children enjoyed their snack of apples and juice lounging against their daddy on the grass. It was a pretty idyllic afternoon. On the way home, we popped into a shop and bought ice creams. Tom had a red ice lolly which, as you can see from the picture, he enjoyed a great deal!

Apple time! Snacks in the sunshine.

Mum making a daisy chain. Lily had wandered off by this point!

No, he hasn't been involved in a terrible accident, that's ice lolly all over his face!

On the Sunday we went to a local farm attraction (see post below), and on the Monday we went to visit my grandad. I haven't seen my grandad since before Christmas, so I really wanted to see him this visit. He lives alone and can get a little lonely, so I knew a visit from the Podlings would cheer him up. He absolutely adores little children and was completely taken with Lily, who was on top form that day. She has completely overcome her shyness of men and was chatting quite happily to her great grandad and even sat on his lap a couple of times. She gave him the most enormous hug when we left, which my mum managed to capture on camera. I was pleased we got to see him and I'm glad we were able to brighten his day.

Lily with my grandad

We travelled home Monday night and planned to put the Podlings straight to bed when we got home. We were halfway back to Staffordshire when I realised my house keys were back in Devon! Mark's parents live just over an hour away from us, but they are the nearest people to us who have a key to our house so we had drag them out of their house in the middle of the night to come and let us in! We were still able to put the children straight to bed, but poor Mum and Dad P had a late night that night. I felt like a bit of a wally for forgetting my keys I can tell you!

Key fiasco notwithstanding, we had a wonderful visit with my mum and dad. The three day weekend really made it feel like a holiday and we had a lot of fun. I can't wait until we see them again.

Down on the farm

On the Sunday of our visit to Devon we took the Podlings to Pennywell Farm. We had a wonderful afternoon there petting the animals, playing on the playground equipment and generally having lots of fun. I had as much fun as the Podlings with the animals and I really wanted to bring one of these little piglets home with me...until I saw what they grew into!

Lily absolutely adores all animals, so she was in her element. Unfortunately, the girl has no fear and I was amazed that she came home with ten fingers on her hands! She took a particular shine to a very large Shire horse called Royal, whose head was bigger than her. My mum kept trying to get her to go and look at the smaller animals, but Lily insisted on hanging out with Royal. "Look, horse!" she informed us, as if we could miss him! I was too worried about keeping Lily from poking Royal to take a photo of them together, which is a great shame.

Mark and Tom in the barn

Tom wasn't that interested in the animals, but he's a very active little boy so he loved all the play equipment they had. There was even a special area for the under-5s and they got to have their first go on a trampoline. This was later declared by Tom to be his favourite part of the day. We got some video footage of them on the trampoline, so if I ever work out how to upload video to blogger I'll post it here.

Lily and my mum feeding the lambs

We had a fantastic time here and the Podlings were talking about it for days afterwards. If you are ever in South Devon and looking for something to do with your little ones, I can heartily recommend a trip to Pennywell farm.

This minature cottage was in the Under-5s play area. I figured it would do as my country residence until something bigger comes along!