So, the good

- Jasmine has lost yet more weight. Down to 3.75kg from 4.2kg 6 weeks ago (and a start weight of 5.2kg!)

- Making blackcurrant cake

- Homemade play dough

- Practicing writing

- Various crafts – stamping/sticking/card making/practicing cutting/colouring

- Getting some chores ticked off the list – kitchen cleaned top to bottom, car valeted, duvet washed at the laundrette (by Rich!), laundry done, craft area plans in motion, fruit and veg box and grocery shopping delivered and sorted

- A fun Ugly Bugs session at the fellowship hall with Alfie – creepy crawly stories and hat making – whilst H and Nanny had a girls’ morning at the shops, then meeting up for lunch

There is always good to be found

Today a fantastic day at Wyre Forest with fellow Green Parents Izzi and Toby, Sarah, Alice and Saule, and Kate and Tilly. The under 5s forest session was fantastic. They all enjoyed it. It particularly appealed to nature loving Alfie who was in his element. He loved the den building, the scavenger hunt and mobile making, the forest crown making, the leaf potion making (he named his potion Holly and wished for a baby boy when he threw it over his shoulder!) The company and friends was the highlight for H, who is a very social little thing. She had a ball on the play area with Alice and the other children. It was great to spend time with such amazing people

Yesterday was a fab day out at Dudley Zoo’s under 5s party day. It was great to see so many of my home ed friends and the lovely Sal and Evie The zoo was packed but everyone had a fantastic day. There were lots of activities in the castle courtyard too – bouncy castle, giant inflatable slide, TV show characters, balloon modelling etc. Thanks to Sal for climbing the castle tower twice with Alfie and for accompanying all the kid son the crooked cottage

Pub with the gorgeous Bex in the evening. So nice to chill out and chat with your bestie

Aquanatal this morning whilst Mom and the kids played in the garden. Anomaly scan this afternoon whilst Mom and Dad looked after small people. It was mainly fantastic. Baby is looking good. The gender remains a secret though as s/he just would not let us see!!!!!

Today we went to home ed pre-school meet-up at Leamore Park. The children had a great time playing with their friends and riding their bikes around the skate park. It was great to chat with Jane, Harriet and Toni whilst the kids had fun. Back home, lots of spring sorting. We are buying a load of cloth nappies off a friend of Harriet’s so sorted all the threadbare and holey ones of ours (that have been through 2 children already!) out for the textile bank. We sorted and tidied both children’s bookcases, put away 6(!) loads of clean washing, did lots of playing and counting. I got some plastic counting bears from a charity shop before Xmas, unsure if they’d be much use, but Alfie loves them. He likes doing the little sums on the cards that come with them. He had been struggling to understand subtraction, but by actually taking the bears and making them walk away from their “friends” he is really grasping the concept now and can do simple sums. I never, ever “teach” or coerce. He just gets them out every now and then and asks me for assistance. I’m sure if I ever tried to teach him he’d just dig his heels in, which is just one of many reasons why school is such a bad idea. Autonomous learning rocks, and my bright and curious little monkeys show everyone why

Other updates? Well, H is down to 2 breastfeeds a day. I don’t know whether she’ll self wean during this pregnancy. Her bedtime feed is patchy, largely because she eats vast quantities of dinner before bed, but she generally feeds for 45-60 minutes each morning when she comes into our bed. If she does then she does, but I am more than happy to tandem feed. After a period of sleeping through, she’s up again a few times a night and is a very early riser. I’ve ordered a special clock to hopefully help her see when it’s time to get up. How can you say it’s not morning yet when it’s light out and she has no way of telling the time?? Alfie has been sleeping through for a long while now and finally dropped his middle of the night milk a few weeks back. They do things at their own pace and are happy and well adjusted for it (tantrums aside lol!)

Yesterday we had a lovely day in the sun at Tamworth Castle pleasure grounds with Nanny and Grandad. It was great for the children to have Grandad there who can lift them up, play on all the adventure playground with them and generally be their hero The play area there is fantastic, and we got there at 9.30am to ensure they had a good chance to play before it got crowded. They played for a solid hour before we retreated to the patio cafe for ice lollies Afterwards, we walked on the beautiful terraces (I wish I’d taken pictures – the floral displays were breathtaking), fed the ducks and had a good run round the grounds. There was a giant inflatable slide inflated by this time so both children had a go Afterwards, a picnic in the sun A lovely day

A rare treat yesterday evening too. A curry at Mother India with my fantastic husband – a very rare moment alone Evenings are my worst time – really, really pukey and exhausted – but I had an hour’s nap and beautified myself and ended up having a fab evening The food was amazing and the company great Thanks, Mom and Dad

Oh, and H slept through for the FIRST TIME EVER from 6.25pm-5.25am. At 2 years 5 months – earlier than Alfie who was well over 3.5 years, although I fully expect it to be just a one off at the moment. Noteworthy still though No controlled crying or coercion, just being allowed to set the pace herself

Today we had to face Kingstanding to pay cheques in and get feet meaured. H was adamant she wouldn’t have her feet measured but with Alfie holding her hand she did He had to walk with her holding hands to test out all the shoes too lol! They both had some sandals for the summer, and H needed new shoes – 7E. We went to Rhyme Time at the library, which they both enjoyed, particularly Alfie. It was stories and singing, with musical instruments. The only problem was, although it’s 0-5 years most of the children there were babes in arms or tiny tiny toddlers who were really much too young to appreciate it and it was pretty chaotic. The content was more appropriate for 3-4 year olds really. I think people take babies, then when they won’t sit still at 14 months onwards they go to the toddler groups in big halls and never come back. Ashame really. Alfie is keen to go back though so I’m sure we will. I used to go most weeks when he was small then stopped when he was about 19 months as he wouldn’t sit still so I went to toddler groups in big halls….

Back home, a challenging day to say the least. On the positive side though – their new 6ft slide is built and they love it, 2 more loads of washing done and a further 2 loads of clean stuff sorted, Alfie’s bed changed into his new monster duvet set which he loves (and was kissing lol!), a pretty healthy dinner of veggie burgers, cauli cheese, new potatoes, salad and baguette with fruit. An early night methinks as pizza making at Pizza Express tomorrow

The major downside is that H keeps refusing to walk on the ramble to the bird hide. She just kept sitting down and screaming! It’s very embarrassing when children much younger than her are walking without problems. I found myself getting more and more angry with her, especially when I’d explained to her the reasons why I can’t carry her at the moment. Games, songs etc keep her going for a very short time, but then she’s crouching on the floor screaming again. I suspect it’s similar issues to Alfie at that age as she walks miles if it’s “disguised” (ie lots of interesting things and no straight stretches she can see) With hindsight, I can see that my current exhaustion and horrible cold probably made me more angry and low about it all than was warranted, mainly inside my own head not directly at her, although I did get rather too grumpy with her, fuelled by Alfie having a tantrum too :-/ I’m going to see if a back carry with the mei tei makes things any easier in the short term.

Back home, things picked up considerably. We decided to make Easter cards, and then did some play dough.

A fruit juice ice lolly break!

It was nice to get out to the pub for a drink with the lovely Bex in the evening.

Today we picked up Nanny and went to Aldridge. The children were gutted that the playground had been vandalised and was shut for repairs We went for coffee and cake and a mooch in the charity shop to compensate. Mom bought them some fab books to keep at her house for only 20p each

Back at Nanny’s we had some lunch, made sticker scenes and read all the new books. Holly wanted to go to the playground whereas Alfie didn’t so he stayed with Nanny whilst we walked down to the park and had some girl time Alfie enjoyed some time chatting, reading and building Mega Blok monsters uninterrupted

Now Rich is out at a meeting and I’m off for a cup of tea and a catch up

Then off to Kim’s for lunch. It was great to catch up and see how much Bronwyn has grown. The kids really enjoyed themselves too.

Back home to make some birthday cards, unload the Waitrose online shopping order and make falafels for dinner

Last night I had a yummy curry with Tracey, Maxine and Mel. Lovely company and great food, but sometimes you feel a world apart from people. I find myself retreating more to real life and online home edders and attachment parenters, to where I belong. Thank goodness for the internet leading me to real life and virtual support and friendship from people who share my beliefs, views and aspirations. It is good to have lots of different friends though, and I value the differences and love the people – cheers girls

Today we went to see Sal and Evie, bringing donuts We were meant to go to Think Tank but Evie has the chicken pox. It was good to see them both though. Real friends are a precious and wonderful thing H spent the entire day dressed as Upsy Daisy – at Sal’s, in the Co-op……….What else can I say? Just lots of cleaning, reading book after book, unpacking organic vegetable boxes, painting, scissoring, the usual “events” (spilt wee from the potty, kicked over cold peppermint tea, a few fights…) Wonderful, precious times

Afterwards we met Tracey and Sam for some lunch in the Bishop Vesey. It was lovely to see them both. Straight home then to rush round madly sorting dishwasher, washing etc and the Waitrose online shopping order that arrived. Alfie wanted to do more crafts so we made some cards that are needed over the next month. Barring two disasters with tiny silver balls (I’ll be finding them for months!) we ended up with two lovely sparkly, jewel adorned cards I was amazed that (with no prompting whatsoever) H decided to stick 2 googly eyes on the eyes on the card. She loves crafts and has a lot of patience to sit and stick for ages -  longer than Alfie, who tends to wander off after a bit.

Alfie spent some time practising his scissor skills with some old newspaper destined for the recycling bin.

Whilst H helped with dinner. This is her buttering Daddy’s roll