Sharing the Harvest

We had some friends round for dinner and they brought us some wonderful 

fruits (and vegies) of their labour!

Yum!

Just Something I Love

Some pretty flowers, a surprise from the boys when they went shopping with Daddy. 

A couple of cross stitches by my Mum. 

One of the clocks we received as a wedding present. 

Some op-shopped canisters. 

A teapot given to Matt by his late Grandma.

 

I love this wall in my kitchen.

The Fellowship of Women - Part 1

Quite a few weeks ago I was so blessed to have been given a Blessingway by a wonderful group of women I've known in the online world for a few years now. I had the pleasure of meeting them all in real life and realising that we all get on in real life just as well as we do in cyberspace!!!

We spent the day out at a local dam, eating cheese, dips and crackers. Those of us not pregnant (ie everyone but me) shared some wine and local seafood. Most of us were child-free for the day which made it even more special!

A Blessingway is a celebration of womanhood, a time to reflect on the amazing gift that women have - the ability to create new life.  We meditated, we sung a little, we shared, we cried and we joined ourselves with red yarn.

Please excuse the quality of the pic. I took it at night with my phone.

This was the most special part of the ceremony for me. With one long length of yarn passed between us we each wrapped it a couple of times around one of our wrists, each of the women present sharing their hopes for this babe and it's safe arrival. We then cut the yarn linking us and tied it to our wrists, to stay there until each woman hears of the baby's safe arrival.

I love looking down at my wrist and thinking of these beautiful women. I love thinking of all the strong women that have been there before me and the many, many women that will come after me. This business of pregnancy, birth and motherhood is so timeless, so precious, so sacred. I wouldn't be a man for all the money in the world!!!

Celebrating in Style!

Celebrating your birthday in style when you're four means

Going on a steam train ride with family

 Spotting all sorts of exciting things out the window

 Experiencing the wonder of going through a tunnel

Getting to ring the old bell

The excitment of presents wrapped in brown paper

Receiving exactly what you were wishing for, even when it's as simple as a much longed-for book.

Choosing your birthday cake (and Mummy being able to somewhat replicate it)

Waking up on your birthday morning to more pressies!

 Helping to decorate patty cakes to take to Kindy to share.

I can't believe that 4 years ago he was just a babe in my arms. 

What a reminder to cherish every moment!

It Found Me!

As a Thank You for looking after their two dogs for a month while they were tripping around India my parents gave us two lovely chairs for the verandah. They are ever so comfy and a new favourite spot to have a quiet (or not so quiet) read in the afternoons. The only problem is that there are only two and the boys often claim them before I get a chance!

I've been scouring second hand, collectable and op shops for a suitable table to go with these chairs for a few weeks now (read this post) and finally the right piece found it's way home! We were driving through town, not planning to stop and it grabbed my eye in the window of a second hand shop! I quickly found a car park and got the boys out and into the shop to find it had a 'Sold' sticker on it. I was so disappointed, so bought myself a new marble rolling pin for my collection! :)

We continued wandering through the shop and as we were leaving I said to Elliot how disappointed I was that the little table was sold. We talked about the sticker and the word SOLD and he looked at it and said "No Mummy, it starts with a 'H'!" so I had another look and lo and behold it said "Hold"!!!!! I just glanced at it on the way past and misread it! So back to the lady we went and Elliot gave her our phone number so if the people changed their mind she could give us a ring. Later that afternoon she called and said they had changed their mind! Yay for us!

 A lovely place to while away the afternoon!

I'm so grateful for my little man and his fantastic pre-reading skills!

Feeling the Bloggy Love

Over the past week or so I've gotten a few new followers! Yay!

Thankyou for stopping by and showing your interest but I have a request. Firstly though, an admission - I'm not the most technically-minded person on the planet and I'm having trouble finding the blogs of some of my followers. I click on their name and see their profile, but sometimes a blog isn't listed.

If you're a follower and I haven't visited your space, I'd really love to! Please leave a link in the comments section of this post and I'll pop on over.

If you are more technically minded than me, please tell me if this is my doing and how I can fix it.

Thanks again for reading,
much love,
Vic xx

Doing Our Bit

Along with donating cash here, the boys and I helped get some goods together to send across our town's swollen river. One suburb and a few smaller communities further out of town are still cut off with no shops or supplies.

Another friend did all the organising, we just rocked up and helped load things onto utes. I think it was a good experience for Elliot to help him understand that there are lots of people that are much worse off than us, very close to home. He's only 3, so obviously has no idea of the devestation that has happened. He now though knows what a flood is, understands that they can be very dangerous and to stay away from water over roads or water that isn't normally there. He's also started playing 'floods' with his toys, one car rescuing another from flood water or cars and trains not being able to cross bridges or roads because there is water over them. For me, he's seen enough and has enough understanding. I don't want to traumatise him by going into all the details, but he's learning from this real-life experience.

Loading up the ute to be driven down to SES boat at the river. I'm on the right with Archie in the Ergo. Seriously don't know how I'd get stuff done without my Ergo!

Cheeky boys in the ute.

He is also starting to understand about food and what a precious commodity it is, although we've always been very open about where our food comes from. He sees the cows that give us milk. He knows that when we eat chicken it was once a chicken. He knows that vegies grow in the ground and what most plants look like.
When we went to the shops a couple of days ago to get some fruit and veg, the shelves were bare. He wanted zucchini, but there weren't any, he wanted to get beans and broccoli and capsicum and all the things we usually eat. I explained that we can't just have what we feel like at the moment, we have to make do with what we've got. He seems to be ok with it so far but who knows how long we'll have to ration for?

We have one more meal's worth of fresh veg and then it'll be onto freezer and pantry meals. As a real vegie boy, I'm anticipating more questions from him! But if not eating fresh vegies for a while is as bad as it gets for us we've been extremely lucky.

Bel at Spiral Garden is donating 50% of all orders to the Red Cross Flood Appeal. Also Pip at Meet Me At Mike's has an extensive list of other ways people can help.

Flood Relief Appeal

As I already posted about, our town was hit by the Queensland floods on Saturday. The waters have receded slightly but are going to peak again over the coming days. We are cut off from all supplies as the flooding intensifies south and there is talk of petrol rationing.

However inconvenient the flooding has been in our town, we have seen nothing like the devestation seen in other regional areas, Toowoomba in particular. Lives have been lost, people are still missing, homes are destroyed, businesses and livelihoods wiped out. Brisbane, our state's capital city and our home town is now in the path of flood water. It is very likely to be bad and we have a number of friends that have homes that may be affected.

I urge you all to help if you can, to give what you can spare. Every bit helps. The Queensland Government has set up an appeal and you can donate here.

Sending everyone affected by these horrible times much love and strength. xx

The Summer of Water

This summer will be remembered as the summer of water.

For our little family, for positive reasons, our tanks are overflowing and have been for months, the boys have been able to play with water unchecked by a Mum who is a self-confessed water miser.

The overflow from our tanks. We've got our very own water feature!

As I type this the rain has been beating down steadily for yet another day and there doesn't seem to be any end in sight. The boys have been loving playing in the rain and puddles and having deep, deep baths every night. It is raining so much at the moment that it doesn't matter how much water we use, we can't keep up! It is completely out of character for me to be so reckless with water use, but being on tank water only and seeing all our precious water spill out of the tank overflow and down into the bush has made me relax a little. I still think about it every time I turn on the tap, but then I have a little converstation in my head about how it's raining outside and the tanks are full, so it's ok to press the full flush button for just a wee! :)

How much fun is riding bikes in the rain?

For many thousands around our state though, this summer will not be remembered with fond memories. Many towns are battling with rising flood waters, with homes inundated, with businesses destroyed. This summer will be remembered with tears and heartache. We are pretty safe from flooding here, but the town we live near is very prone to flooding and the bridge into it was closed as a precaution just after Christmas.

Please keep all those affected by the floods in your thoughts and prayers. There has been so much heartache already and the rain continues to fall.

Special Time

A month or so ago I had a disastrous morning a the beach with the boys, just horrid. I don't know why I thought it would be a good idea to take a 3 year old and a rambunctious 19 month old to the beach by myself! Elliot just wanted to be in the water with me and Archie kept taking off up the beach and running away! Argh! After an hour or so I'd had enough so packed us all up and came home. Poor El was so upset, he just wanted to stay and dig in the sand and play in the water but I just couldn't do it any longer. You know those mothering moments when you've just had enough? It was one of those moments.

I promised Elliot on the drive home that one day just the two of us would go back to the beach and we'd make a day of it. Well, today was that day!

He was so excited! It was such a lovely day. We swam in the ocean, chased waves, we dug holes and let the waves fill them up, used our shoes as cars and made roads and hills and attempted a tunnel. We had Fish and Chips for lunch then a big play in the park. The poor wee man was so exhausted he fell asleep in the car on the way home, still in his swimmers!

Elliot and I haven't had too much 'just us' time since Archie was born and it was lovely to connect with him and just have fun! I'm so thankful that Matt is still on holidays!

Playing with our Food

I have been so blessed with my boys that I haven't had to struggle to find healthy food that they will eat. Sure, Archie picks and chooses his vegies (he's going through a zucchini phase at the moment) and he's always been a big lover of meat and carbs. Elliot on the other hand, lives for vegies and cries if he can't actually see them on his plate (funny wee man that he is) but on the whole, I have two healthy, strong, growing boys who love good food.

This doesn't mean though, that we can't have fun with our food!

Over a year ago our town hosted a Children's Day in the Park where all the local Kindys and Pre-schools, Child care centres, ABA, and basically anything child related set up a stall and had activities for the kids. Despite the snakes and lizards, fire engines and police cars, painting and playdough Elliot's favourite stand was the Government's Health Department that were giving away 'apple slinkies'. Now, I had no idea what an apple slinky was, but thought it sounded fun so over we went. Well, was it ever fun! A fancy machine that cored and sliced the apple into a spiral! (They were giving away the apples, not the machines! LOL!) After he devoured the first one, he asked me for another, but being the altruistic girl I am I said that one was enough and we had to make sure there were enough for everyone else. Turns out they were donated lots of boxes of apples and they didn't have many takers! Well, after a friend who works for QLD Health told us that I had to limit Elliot to 4!!!

So after all that waffling, here is the point of this post, a while back, I found an apple slinky machine! Yippee! Both the boys love having apple slinkies and it actually has proved to be a useful appliance for grown ups too because it can peel the apple, I use it when making apple crumble or stewed apples. It makes the job so much quicker! All I do is run it through the maching, which cores, peels and spirals the apple, then I just cut it into quarters. Done and done!

My wonderful boy loves the 'green spaghetti'!

Who wouldn't love this?

Food has never been so fun!

Sleep, Where For Art Thou?

Over the three and a half years I've been on this parenting journey I think I've used just about every method of getting a baby or toddler to sleep there is. I have sung, rocked, danced, pushed the pram, bounced on a fit ball, driven, breastfed, patted bottoms, and even in one moment of desperation, control cried (all that ended up happening was both of us crying, and I swore I'd never do it again). All of this has taught me one thing. Babies (and toddlers and children) will sleep when they are ready to. All we can do is help them along the ride.

Elliot, now three and a half, has always been a good sleeper - once he's asleep! He is a deep and sound sleeper but not good at actually going to sleep. When he was a little over two he just said to me one day when we were having the sleep battle "But I just need people with me". What can you say to that? He has always needed and still does need someone (me, Daddy, Nanna, Pop) to be with him until he is asleep. Fortunately for me (cause I get him into bed and Matt does Archie) he seems to have found a solution, he goes to sleep in Mummy's and Daddy's bed on the condition that he's in there by himself. Later when we're ready to go to bed Matt will take him back into his room. If he wakes through the night, he simply brings himself back in with us and more often than not, neither Matt nor I realise he's there til the morning (or when we're up with Archie)!

 Elliot (7 weeks) being nursed to sleep by Pop

Elliot (14 months) waking up with Nanna after a sleepover.

 

And on to Archie. For every bit that Elliot is a deep sleeper, Archie is a light sleeper. He has the same issues as El with needing people, so someone has always needed to put him to sleep but then he's awake. And then back to sleep, then awake, then back to sleep, rinse, repeat. For the first, hmmm, probably ten months of his life he fed every 1-2 hours around the clock, day and night. To say it was exhausting is an understatement because while sometimes he'd feed back to sleep, more often than not at night, he was awake. Sometimes cranky, sometimes just awake and wanting to play. It was through all of this that we seriously started co-sleeping because we were just too tired to do anything else and anyway, nothing else worked!!! But eventually (and I mean, in the last couple of months) he's just gotten into a little sleeping routine that works for all of us. Matt takes him to bed in the evening and they rock in the chair and sing songs. When he wakes the first time through the night he comes in with us. Some nights he has a feed back to sleep, some nights he has a feed and isn't asleep but puts himself back to sleep and some nights he's not interested in a feed and just fusses around giving us pats and kisses and then puts himself to sleep, usually on top of the covers with his feet in our faces. He is generally only up once or twice a night now which I'm just over the moon about considering where we've been on his sleep journey!

Archie (4 weeks) have a nap with Nanna *

 Archie (5 weeks) sleeping in the sling which was a sleep lifesaver for both boys. *

I'm really pleased that both boys have found their own sleeping patterns because, as tiring as it has been, I can sit back and know that we listened to them and what they needed at the time. We respected them as little people and didn't impose unrealistic expectations which would have set us and them up for failure (aside from that one horrid moment of controlled crying, which failed dismally). We were willing to give them the time they needed.

* When going through all the baby photos for sleep pics, I realised that we don't have many of Archie. At first I put this down to being the second child, poor hard done by wee man he is, but then when I was talking to Matt about it he said "It's because he didn't sleep!"

Slightly Taken Aback

Over the past few days this blog has gotten a few more followers and a lot more new readers leaving comments. I absolutely have to say a massive and heartfelt thank you to those of you that have left comments and decided to join up and follow.

I'm feeling a little overwhelmed and taken aback that people are interested in our little lives and this journey we are on. I love being able to share it with you all and offer a little glimpse into our wonderful, mundane, not-always-exciting lives. We're not off tramping all over the globe (although have pangs of jealousy when others do, my brother is getting ready for 3 weeks in India!), we're not out chaining ourselves to trees or picketing MP's offices (although I've always wanted to have a good demonstrate. I'd love a boob-in or feed-in even more!!!).

We are however, changing our lives and making changes that affect our world from the 'inside' out and I believe that is equally, if not more important than all the protesting and letter writing and grandstanding. If we each live whatever changes we can, surely the collective of all these changes will make a difference? I am daily reminded of Ghandi's quote "Be the change you want to see in the world". Sometimes these changes are small, easy and seemingly insignificant. Other times they are much larger and increasingly difficult. Each has their place and each are important.

So thanks again for the bottom of my heart for sharing this journey with us!

Vic xx

5 Things I'm Grateful For Today

A verandah that is spatious enough for us to cook, eat, play, create, laugh and share on.

A skylight over my lovely kitchen that brightens my day.

An enormous sandpit that the boys adore and have already shared with visiting friends.

A scrummy dinner cooked for us last night by a wonderful friend.

Waking up to this stunning view every morning and realising that this is not a holiday!

I'm In Love.

Utterly and absolutely in love with our new house and land! We have been here for just over a week and it is already feeling so much like home. It is so quiet and peaceful. At the moment I'm sitting on the verandah with a cuppa listening to the birds. Life doesn't get much better than this!

Elliot, who doesn't always take change well, has been having the time of his life. His favourite thing is showing visitors around and giving them the guided tour. He runs through the house "This is the bathroom ... this is Archie's room ...(and my favourite) this is a toilet for Mummy and Daddy when they're busting in the night time". Ah, three year olds! Elliot's room looks down the front towards the dam next door and out the back to the neighbouring horse paddock, so he can see the horses from his bed which he loves.

Archie, who has never been a good sleeper, has only been waking once or twice for a quick feed and then straight back to sleep.  His talking has also exploded in the past week or so and one of his favourite words at the moment is "duck" which he says (in that 17 month old way) over and over and over again at full volume on the verandah, calling our new duck that lives on the dam next door. His other favourite new word is "Pop" which he also repeated endlessly while following Pop around the house wanting cuddles.

Both boys are spending so much time outside, digging in the enormous sandpit, exploring in the jungle/forest/secret garden, running up the hill, rolling and tumbling back down again. I can only assume that they both love the house and are feeling very comfortable and happy here.

Matt and I have been unpacking and organising but thanks to the help of my wonderful parents we're pretty much done. They worked like Trojans and I'm sure were very much relieved to get home and away from boxes and heavy lifting! Now I'm just spending time enjoying the house and yard and fitting in organising around that. All the important stuff is done (ie the kitchen ;) ) everything else is just figuring out where to store things. I just got new curtains for all the bedrooms on Monday when a homewares shop had 20% off everything so I'm spending the next few days hanging curtains and installing a couple of rods that were missing.

The planning work in the garden has begun. We now have 2.5 acres! Yay for space! Yay for room for the boys to run and yell and yahoo and not wake the neighbours up at 6am! Yay for room to grow more of our own food! Yay for Matt mowing the 2.5 acres of grass that is here at the moment! Ha! Actually the ride on is a lot of fun to drive, the boys are loving going for rides too! There are three very young fruit trees already here a mango, an avocado and a citrus of unknown variety. We've got ideas for an orchard, veg garden, chook house and compost placement but just need the time, money and hard work to get it all done! But now we're here, we're not planning on going anywhere soon so we've got time. Well, Matt has until my birthday in October to get me chickens, but apart from that deadline, we've got all the time in the world!

A friend came around last week to check out the new place and as we were sitting in the sandpit with the kids she said "I bet you feel like you can just exhale". And it is so true. I can feel that all of us have 'exhaled'. We're home.

A Day of Journeys Ending Part 2

Almost exactly two years ago yesterday, my then 14 month old baby was going into hospital for surgery to have grommets inserted. Yesterday, he passed his final hearing test with flying colours after both the grommets came out a couple of months ago!!!

It has been a long road, but we are so glad he had the surgery even though I was so apprehensive about putting such a little man under a general anaesthetic. In the months before the surgery Elliot suffered from 'recurrent' ear infections (it was pretty much just one big, long ear infection) and severe glue ear in both ears. He was constantly on antibiotics until the GP decided that they were doing nothing and there was no point in continuing with them. That was a great day because I hated giving him medicine that I knew was doing nothing. His hearing test came back that he had a severe hearing loss in both ears and the fact that he had even a couple of words was amazing. The GP referred us to an ENT (an Ear, Nose and Throat Surgeon) and then we were on the waiting list. It was meant to be a 2 month wait but fortunately the next week the receptionist rang saying they had a cancellation and an appointment was available the next week!

After an anxious wait at the ENT's, she finally saw us and within about two minutes of being in the consultation room she told me that he would need grommets in both ears. She said normally they like to wait and observe with children this young, but his case was severe (when I told her the infections had been going on for at least 6 months she was a bit shocked!) enough to put grommets in straight away. She had an opening for surgery in a couple of weeks and he was booked in!

The day of surgery rolled around and as Matt had just started his new job he was unable to take the day off work. As Elliot had to fast before surgery, my Mum came with us. I was only a couple of months pregnant with Archie and Mum was concerned about how I would go not being able to eat for that long! I'm so glad she came with us because it was such a long day and it didn't turn out to be as smooth sailing as everyone had told us it would.

The fasting was really hard. Elliot was (and still is) a big eater. He loves food and not being able to eat for such a long time was difficult. They put us in a room that was not designed for children (they were renovating the kids' ward) and there was not even a cot for him, just a regular hospital bed. We didn't take many toys or books because we were told there would be a toy room but we couldn't access that either. He ended up getting massive cabin fever, but luckily he went to sleep in the sling once the doctors had done their consultations. Thank goodness for the sling!

When we were called for surgery he was still asleep and the anaesthetist said that was fine, she could put him under while he was asleep in the sling and then I could take him out and put him on the table. She tried to get the needle in one hand, but he woke up screaming and she couldn't get it in. She then tried on the other hand, but that didn't work either. By this time he was bordering on hysterical and she just kept trying alternating between hands. She ended up giving up with the IV and decided to put him on the table and put the mask on. Because he was so worked up it took four of us to hold him down while she put the mask on. Eventually he went to sleep and I walked back up to the room to wait for him to come back. I walked back the whole way shaking, in tears and covered in my little mans blood. It was horrible. I was so thankful that Mum was with me because I'm sure the nurses thought I was a bit crazy.

As I wasn't allowed to be in recovery when he woke up, a nurse came into the room, and then the surgeon followed. Surgery had gone well but he had an infection in both ears at the time of the operation (big surprise!) and as a result he'd have to have antibiotic drops. The ENT explained that this would cause him to be in more pain that normal after surgery. After a little while longer another nurse told us that he was on his way up from recovery. I could hear him crying from down the hallway so went out to get him, but legally they had to carry him until we got to the room so I walked along beside, rubbing his arm and trying to talk to him. He took what seemed like an age to calm down, but after some painkillers he did, but it felt like an eternity. After another hour or so we left the hospital and came home.

Due to the infection he had to have drops in every few hours and they were very painful because the grommets allowed the drops to go right into his ear drum. I couldn't do it myself because as soon as he saw the bottle he'd run away and start to cry and I couldn't hold him down and do the drops as well! Luckily we had some wonderful friends living across the road so I would take him over to their house and their lovely 3 year old daughter would distract him by singing songs while I put the drops in. The husband/Dad of said wonderful family was a 4th year med student at the time, so he was very patient with me ringing and coming over, asking him to look, answering my questions, was this amount of goo coming out normal? How will we get the drops through the goo and into his ear? When will the infection heal? Poor Rob even did some 'back deck doctoring' and got an empty syringe and sucked out some of the goo so the drops could get through! Completely disgusting but it did the job!

After a week or so the infection cleared and then we had the fun of life with grommets. He was not allowed to get any water in his ears so hair washing involved ear plugs, swimming involved ear plugs and a bathing cap, showers were a thing of the past and impromptu baths with friends involved the joy of me or other parents yelling "NO SPLASHING!" which makes baths with friends decidedly less fun!

Since the operation he has had one ear infection (about a month after the operation) and no other problems. His speech took off like a shot and it was amazing to see him be able to hear properly. We lived near a small airport and light planes going overhead was quite normal, especially on weekends, and one day not long after the post-op infection healed a plane went over and he looked up shocked. He'd never heard it before!!!

So we are all hoping that this is the end of Elliot's ear dramas. Fingers crossed that it is all over!!!

Time For Some Honesty

This blog is about our journey as a family trying to live simply and mindfully and you can read a bit more about why we are on this journey here. One thing I've not really written about is my own personal journey of moving away from my family and friends. So now, I will, in the interests of keeping this blog honest and not "Oh my gosh, we have the perfect life, look at us!!"

It has been hard. Really hard. We moved here when Elliot had just turned two and Archie was 2 months. We moved from a street in which some of my best friends literally lived within shouting distance (and we often did shout out to each other). We moved from my very supportive parents who we saw a couple of times a week. Elliot did not adjust to moving well, and we've had some really hard days with him. Archie is most definitely not an easy baby. He doesn't sleep, he feeds a lot, he is just very demanding of my time. Which is fine, I'm his Mum, that's what I'm here for. But it is very tiring and draining. Apart from when we visit my parents, or when they come up I have no 'extra' help with the children. I can't leave them with someone and go to the hairdresser, or get a coffee by myself. I feel guilty if I do this on the weekend because I feel like we should be having family time together.

It is getting easier. I still have days that are incredibly difficult, but I think about how far we've come. I think about how I've grown in the past year. I have more confidence in myself and my ability to do this incredible job that is mothering, whether I have family and friends surrounding me or not. I know that if I can get through the past year I will be all the more strong when other difficulties come my way. I've learnt that friendships change and grow.

I've made some wonderful friends here, some of whom I clicked with immediately. You know when you just meet people and you get each other? I am actually having morning tea with some of these ladies tomorrow morning, a very rare outing with friends by myself since Archie was born, in fact I can probably count on one hand the number of times I've left the house without him and done something fun!

So at the moment, that is where I am on this journey. I am learning and growing everyday. Sometimes there is a backwards step, but there are always forward steps too. I'm so thankful that I'm on this road, learning and growing. I'm so thankful that I have wonderful, understanding family and friends.

Thanks Shel, love you and miss you xxx

A Simple Reminder

In a Wordless Wednesday post a couple of weeks ago I posted a picture of the house that will hopefully be ours in a month or so once it settles. Conditions of the settlement are the usual building and pest and finance and also an extra condition of the settlement of our property in Brisbane. Everything had been going swimmingly until a chance conversation with a lovely friend and old neighbour yesterday put everything in a spin.

As a result I spent all yesterday afternoon on the phone with the real estate agent and property manager, and most of the day today on the phone, again with the property manager, but also the agency principal, our solicitors, the Department of Fair Trading and the REIQ, the professional body for real estate agents here in Queensland. In between all these emotional, difficult and tiring phone calls was one lovely phone call to a dear friend who listened to my moaning and groaning with not a word of complaint! Thanks Helen! Thanks also to my wonderful Mum who listened and dealt with my tears in the way only a Mother can!

Today I was also spoilt by both the boys, each in their own special way.

Archie again had a night of optional sleep, so Matt and I were both up until after 1, then I was up again at 2ish, 5 and actually had a sleep in until 7! As a result he was soooo tired today he slept from 12 to 2:30 with a quick feed back to sleep in the middle. What a treat!

Elliot is a boy who likes to be with people he loves all the time so phone calls can be hard. I've gotten very good at being able to carry on two conversations at once, although I'm sure the person I'm on the phone with doesn't always appreciate it! He must have sensed today that the phone calls were different. Between calls I'd play a quick game of snap, or do a quick puzzle with him but for the most part he was on his own. During one phone call I looked over to see what he was up to and saw this:

He had lined up and ordered his Thomas the Tank Engine number cards in the correct order all by himself! We did it together for the first time yesterday, and I knew he'd enjoy it because it combines his loves of numbers and lining things up!

In this one simple act I saw his pride in completing this activity of his own choosing, I was so thankful for his patience during my phone calls and I was immediately reminded that in this crazy world it is the little things that matter, being at home with the people I love.