We are off to my inlaws for the weekend, so I thought I would post my photos tonight!

This is Soph in the garden playing with Emma's electronic alphabet book - it makes great noises so she loves it even though it keeps telling her to "try again!" in a very American voice.

Emma loves eating cucumbers, and as this needed using up, I let her eat it instead of an apple after school last week!

Here she is still eating the cucumber but posing for a pic to be sent to grandparents showing her plastered grazed knee from school. Two plasters - a record!

I think Soph was watching "In the Night Garden" which she adores & I loathe! As she's smiling it must either have been Upsy Daisy, Igglepiggle or Makka Pakka on screen!!! I'm starting to tie her hair back to stop myself grabbing the scissors (hate long fringes but hairdressing SIL will kill me!) and partly to get her used to hair bands in her hair. Some days she pulls them straight out, others they stay in most of the day. With Em I bribed her with sweets for the first week I put hairbands in , but she was 25 months, which is much easier to bribe than 19 months!

Soph is fairly tolerant still of being picked up by Emma, as long as she's not tired or in the middle of being naughty!

Em was behind the sofa using the torch to look for something lost. Now the torch is lost too!

I asked Emma to smile...!

Well, the knee is slightly better, it bends a little! But thanks to DHs accident prone Saturday (broke 1 mug, 1 milk bottle and 1 dinner plate = he was tired!) I now have a painful foot below my painful knee, as I managed to stand on a tiny shard of glass he missed from the shattered milk bottle. At least the girls didnt stand on it - we're now on a strictly "slippers in the kitchen" rule until Im convinced there are no more to find (trod on another yesterday but without drawing blood). Em had to bring me some cotton wool from her art stash as I didnt want to drip all over the house getting some myself!

As the half term weather is so naff I asked Em if she wanted to go swimming today. Instead she chose Soft Play at the Leisure Centre, and she took Soph right to the top too (3 levels)! I had to join them in the end, which isnt easy when it requires a) contortion and b) crawling on your hands and knee...!

While I was cooking dinner, I noticed my old enemy the Squirrel on the bird table, and asked Em to scare it off. I then found the two girls in their slippers on the wet grass.... so I supplied Em with wellies (couldnt lay my hands on Sophs but her slippers have plastic soles, so I thought she'd be ok) and asked Em to keep them both out of the dirt. We have a gate half way down the garden so I can keep little ones in sight all the time - once they're inthe veggie garden they're out of sight from the house. A few minutes later I realised Em had opened the gate and carried Soph past the greenhouse.  Grrr! I was in the middle of something so I decided to go and see them in a few minutes. Before I did, Em came running up the garden shouting "Sophie's stuck!". I had the oven door open and a hot tray in my hands at the time, so I yelled at her to go back to Sophie and I would be as fast as I could (figured Soph wouldnt pannic if she had company). Half way down the garden myself, I hear Emma saying "Where's Sophie?" which was VERY worrying. She had wriggled her way through the fence and in Emma's absence was walking down the public footpath in the nature reserve we back onto! I crawled though the fence after her and she headed off quickly away from me, but fortunately not fast enough! Her slippers were plastered in mud! Upon quizzing big sister, it appears that the reason she did not stop Sophie from wandering off is because she knows SHE must not go through the fence, and so was unwilling to follow her! I am trying to impress on her that it is NOT acceptable to let your little sister go out, even if she WANTS to, and that if Sophie sneaks out, she is allowed to go out and drag her back!

I get bored with my usual titles, so here I am being a bit more obscure!

Em woke at 6am this morning (she has been rising around 6 for at least a week now - never been affected by early mornings before AND she has blackout blinds) but she went back to bed until Sophie had given up feeding and wanted to play at 6.20, when I went and asked her if she wanted to crawl in with the rest of us for a change. I know she loves it, but she doesnt often get a chance these days. I dont like early mornings - 7am has always been normal with both of mine. Roll on the dark mornings of Autumn!

Both girls had fun during singing at church this morning, dancing around at the front, which is allowed/tolerated/enjoyed depending on who you talk to. At one point Em sat down on the edge of the stage and Soph decided to sit next to her. Then Soph decided to roll onto her back with her legs in the air. So Em copied her! Somehow it looks much cuter on a 19 month old. Em is all legs!

It rained ALL day - we've had about an inch now (25mm). So in the afternoon, with Soph having skipped her nap, we went off too the local leisure centre to use their pool. Soph got tired and cold quickly, but stopped being grumpy while we were in the water. Em had a great time. Dont know what her eczema'ry skin will think to it. Oh well. She's hoping to go most days during this half term week. We'll see! The only thing that went wrong was me - getting out of the baby-pool up the shallow steps I stumbled and as I fell my knee scaped along the step so I got a very bruised knee with a long cut on it. My knees are over-sensitive and tend to over-react to knocks, so I sat in the pool in agony for about a minute while Soph crawled off towards another baby who had a ball. The thought in my head was as follows "well, the baby has her mummy with her, so if anything happens to Sophie, she'll rescue her, as I cant move right now!" Thankfully she was fine! My knee just doesnt want to bend right now, and I have one of Em's plasters on it. She gets through a LOT of plasters due to having more speed than skill in the school playground!

Well, DH is feeling neglected, so I'd better go see to him now! Ow, hop, hop, hop!

I was just looking at Izzy's video of Katie & Jojo and the only toy in the world, and I thought of this list. I heard this years ago, and like all the best jokes, it's funny because of the large element of truth in it. Today I found this on a BBC page, but I first heard it on a Care for the Family video.

1. If I like it, it's mine
2. If it's in my hand, it's mine
3. If I can take it from you, it's mine
4. If I had it a minute ago, it's mine
5. If it looks just like mine, it's mine
6. If I saw it first, it's mine
7. If you are playing with something and you put it down, it automatically becomes mine
8. If I'm doing something or building something, all the pieces are mine
9.If it is broken, it is yours (no, the pieces are still mine)

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.

Today was Spring Bank Holiday, so a day away from our usual routine. Emma had been praying for a sunny day, so it wasnt very promising when we opened the curtains at 7am to see heavy rain! Still, "rain before seven, dry by eleven" as they say, and it was! The reason it mattered was coz the Fair was in town, and it opened at the Park at 11, and we'd told Em we wouldnt go if it was raining (there was a cloudburst 2 years ago and everyone squelched out of there just before we were going to arrive, so she knows we mean it!)!

We got there about 11.30 and it was wet under foot but the sun was getting hot - didnt know what to wear so of course we were all over-dressed! Emma, mostly with daddy, went on 5 rides, including the helter-skelter, bumpercars & waltzer. She fell getting out of the latter two, and so her poor trousers are a bit stained, and we had to go to the medical tent to get her a plaster the second time, as she was so dizzy getting off the waltzer!

She managed to catch a rubber duck on a hook and got a "prize" of a bat & ball. We were looking for something she & Soph could do together (as Soph had resolutely refused to nap at the usual time on the walk to the park, and was far too interested in the Fair to sleep once there) and in the end I decided she was too likely to get upset on a ride, or try to get off while it was moving, so we got them to go on the trampolines in a quiet spell. Emma does trampolining at gymnastics, but Sophie had NO idea, and just walked about, falling over constantly at the change of surfaces. But she had great fun!

We bought baked spuds from one of the caterers, and a bag of hot donuts! Sophie was only interested in a packet of crisps I'd bought. We sat in the park play area on the way out and ate our donuts, and Sophie fell briefly asleep. She woke after 20 minutes when she coughed herself sick, so that was that!

Once at home, Emma & DH settled themselves in front of the Snooker World Championship (with DH struggling valiantly to explain the rules to Emma!) while I cooked dinner and Soph emptied the bookshelf. Al loves his snooker, so it was really nice to see Emma taking an interest - maybe a sport she can compete with him in one day (he had a small table at home when he was a teenager & used to play with his dad - it's the one sport he really enjoys)!

It was a tiring (and expensive!) day, but I feel childhood memories are made of events like this, and we are fortunate to be able to push the boat out and enjoy a day like this occasionally. She'd better remember it LOL!

Here's a pic of them taken on Ems camera, as they started their first ride:

I tried getting a photo of this, but so far I've failed.... A few days ago I let Soph go nappy-free in the garden. I also got Em's old potty out and tried to show Soph what it was for. I thought, well, she's 18 months now, she may start to make the connections soon. So it has laid about the floor for a few days now. Today I manouvered it so it was in front of the TV and by her xylophone, and sure enough, Soph sat on it fully clothed, to use it as a convenient seat for play (she sits on her toys usually!). She is well padded by her cloth nappies, but this wasnt enough, as she almost immediately stood up and grabbed a nappy off the clean pile and placed it on the potty before sitting back down again. A bit of playing later and she was up again adding more clean nappies to the pile! Obviously not quite comfy enough for the delicate young lady's behind!

The two extremes of Sophie:

With and without that twinkle!

Today was local election day, ad as Em's school is  Polling Station they always close it to the kids (and do a teacher training day) so they dont have to worry about security. So today there was no rush to get out of bed, we all had a lie-in... naaah, Em woke up without her alarm clock at exactly the usual time, and so did Sophie! Only DH struggled to get up, and he had to go to work! Although my cold is on the mend at last (tho Im still sitting here coughing - I am sooo fed up with it!) I am completely listless. Yesterday I could have cheerfully fallen asleep by lunchtime - however Soph napped early so that was when she woke up. Today my energy crash came later - I got all the way to 2pm. 18 month olds are unsympathetic to mummys crashed out on the sofa - think I was left alone for all of 5 seconds. Emma was all of 3.5 when she started to let me nap I recall, so I shouldnt complain too much.

So, what to do with a 5 year old when the weather is naff and mummy is tired out? We went out for our daily "lets get Soph to sleep" drive at 10.30 which prooved a little early. She was still wide awake when we got to Em's favourite playground (favourite coz it has some great equipment PLUS it is right next to the main train line thru town, so freight & passenger trains pass every couple of minutes). After a half hour play, where I was on chasing duty as they'd just mown the grass (didnt fancy that in the car!) we drove out to the nearest Roman Road and Soph was promptly asleep. Em was thirsty so as we were near to my favourite farm shop we got some juice and some nibbles from them. On the way back I tried steering Em towards a nice restful afternoon in front of a video, but she decided she wanted to feed the ducks! So I popped into the Spar shop for a cheap loaf of bread and we went to the local picnic site and threw 10 slices at the ducks we found there, while I had a peek at the site clearance going on the other side of the canal. I never realised just how much of the town was inside the engineering works in town. Now they're selling it off one piece at a time, they've fitted a couple of shopping centres on it, plus loads of houses, and here goes another one! One of the next pieces will have the town FE college built on it, so maybe Em & Sophie will go there one day.

The ducks were being pretty aggressive to each other, so I guess they're about to pair up and lay eggs. Having filled them up, we headed for home and wouldnt you know it, Soph woke up the moment the engine was switched off! So we had lunch and then Em watched Peter Pan on video. "Why is the Red Man Red?" Em kept asking her perplexed Daddy later!

Em and Sophie then proceeded to play with playdough, until Soph started throwing it around and Emma ran off with the lot! Makes you love school, doesnt it! By the end of the afternoon, toys were spread liberally around the lounge, making even me despair of ever tidying it all up! I can now see the carpet again, but until I get some energy back it will have to stay messy!

Here's Sophie making unusual use of the empty butter dish!