Here are some photos from the last week.

Below is Sophie taking a ringside seat to watch the washing going around. She's so different to Em who was still scared stiff of the noisy machines at this age!

Em never looks short until she stands by daddy!

Below are two pics of Sophie sat in her spare car seat & on a toy chair watching tv and eating!

Today the wind swung round to the north and it felt suddenly much more like spring again instead of summer! Oh well! I got out into the veg garden and pulled out last years leftovers and all the weeds. Still some more to go but I feel like Ive broken the back of it (and maybe mine too - no just aching)! I even skipped lunch as I was enjoying myself too much! Gardening is the only thing I do that for LOL! Soph was at her childminders for 4.5 hours so I had to make the most of the last rays of sunshine. Here in the Midlands the rain hasnt arrived yet, but Im sure it will have by dawn.

I picked up Emma after Sophie and she was way below parr, all subdued. I dont know yet whether all the sun has filled the air with pollen and that is why she was complaining that her nose hurt (gave her Piriton in expectation of that) or whether its another cold. But she was just about to go to Club at church and she went upstairs to change out of her uniform and I yelled up after a bit to see if she was ok, to hear cross frustrated noises. Uhoh! I popped my head around the door and was told to go away, but I didnt believe her as she had her summer dress half way over her head and looked stuck! She wasnt pleased to be helped out of the mess, but she had somehow tangled one of the sleeves inside out - I think she had given up taking it off and made a hash of trying to put it back on again, and so tried to get it off again! I left her to it and came downstairs, only to hear shortly afterwards sobbing - she'd been trying to get a T-shirt from the back of the drawer and dropped the whole drawer on her foot! Poor thing! Most of DHs family are sooo clumsy when they're tired and Emma is no exception! Finally dressed she came downstairs and struggled into her baseball boots, crying in frustration at the difficulty of it but refusing help. In the end we agreed that she was too tired to go out. Soph was also in a bad mood and by now my ibuprofen had worn off so my headache was back. Fortunately soon after DH walked in asking "so what time does club end then?" - he hadnt noticed my text telling him not to bother, but fortunately the traffic was running better than last week and he'd had time to pop home first.  

Here they are waiting for their eggs with beans on toast - I wasnt up to cooking anything more elaborate! Unfortuantely Soph wasnt interested in anything except milk and fromage frais!

Incidentally, the cushion in front of Soph is her "special" feeding cushion which she collects and brings to me when she wants a feed. I had to placate her with a little skimmed milk or she would have screamed the house down, the mood she was in! It became her feeding cushion by chance as she noticed I would grab it and put it under her head for most feeds as it was nearby, so she associates the two together. Feeding a Toddler is very different to feeding a baby - much more interaction!

Now for a garden shot:

It looks much better in real life! The purples and oranges are really strong at the moment. Yes, that is the summerhouse, still flat, in the background. One day....! The big black box is called Tony - Emma named him - he is a BIG water butt to be attached to the summerhouse eventually.

Lastly, here is my greenhouse bursting at the seems with veg which will all go out in the garden at the end of the month when the threat of a late frost is finally over. The first lot of lettuce has just gone out to take it's chances, but here are some more lettuce with carrots and beetroot in the two long gutters, plus sweetcorn and sunflowers in the short one which are just germinating, and tomato plants, courgettes, more sweetcorn and leeks. The cucumbers are still indoors looking sorry for themselves - not sure what Im doing wrong!

I cant wait for next Friday to put up this pic, so once again, here I am a few days late!

We've had a beautiful week weather-wise - nothing but sun since 11am Monday! It's given us the chance to bike & walk to school, to get out in the garden, even to eat a meal tonight on the patio (yay, my dream! Easily pleased, me!)! Sophie has just started really babbling - it's like she's stepped up a gear since Wednesday. She has been communicating fine for months, with her "uhoh", "oh no", and various miming (today she was wandering round the garden making loud sniffs every time she saw a flower - lots of sniffing on the lawn for all those daisies LOL)! But now her babbling is really conversational, sort of arranged into sentences. So I guess there'll be no stopping her now! I dont really mind how mine communicate as long as I can understand them, and signing is fine, but there's an edge of excitement as she's moving on to another level! Add to this that she is almost "sleeping through" - ie 5 hours! She's been summoning me upstairs around midnight (usually I am up there an hour earlier, so she disturbs me just as Im drifting off - aargh!) and for at least 3 nights Im sure the next disturbance is after 5am! Brill, I can live with this for a while!

But then there's the other side to life. Dad wrote me this week and mentioned that mum spends large parts of each day asleep on the armchair now, and is usually in bed by 7pm. At least she sleeps well and isnt given to night wandering. I guess that'll come one day, when she no longer differentiates day from night. Then there's my friend MAD (wonderful initials!) who's mum died last week - they buried her today. She's taking it hard, which is sad to watch, but also a little unnerving for me as we have discussed our mums in the past and even discussed their impending deaths, and as we both have difficult relationships with our mums due to depression on their parts, I wonder if this is what is waiting for me? Then I was in the front garden today when our neighbour from no.9 came across to chat. He doesnt chat much but I did get invited in for a cuppa with him and his wife when we first moved here. He told me that her funeral was today. I was shocked - I had no idea she had cancer. And when I parked at Aldis I was surprised to see my next door neighbours in the disabled space - he is also battling cancer, so I guess he cant walk far at the moment. Then I drove through town and the parish church railings were strewn with bunches of flowers plus some football shirts and cuddly toys. There was a triple stabbing there at the weekend of two brothers and their uncle. The youngest brother, just 20, died. Really sad.This town isnt the quietest, and I for one wouldnt want to be up the town late at night, but it's not a really rough place, not somewhere you would expect this to happen. Then I've cruised around Minti, and there's Winnie with her dad nearing the end, and Em having lost her baby. Dare I look further?

But I guess this is the old circle of life. We dont all have a bad time at the same time (unless I suppose, you live in Burma at the moment...), so there is always someone able to lift up  the someone who has fallen down. We were trying to explain the extent to the disaster in Burma to Em a few nights ago, with a view to one of us praying for them during bedtime prayers. We explained that a storm had washed away lots of houses, and everything in them, that people who had not died would be starving and have nothing safe to drink. Emma said that they would have to buy some more food. We pointed out that all their money had probably washed away too. So she commented, unprompted, that we should send some of ours. It's nice to see her logical approach, or is it that we have managed to communicate some of our values? I hope so! Brings a lump to my throat anyway. I dont want her to take for granted the advantages she has, being born in a nice safe Western country, with free education, etc etc.