A visit to the nature centre this morning to meet Caroline, Lauren and Tom. It got horribly busy towards the end (have I said how much I hate school holidays lol!) but we’d already been round many of the animals and had our picnic and a play on the playground so were happy to leave, especially as the girls were really tired. It was lovely to see good friends Alfie gets on so much better with Lauren than with the boys we met up with yesterday. I don’t know if it’s because she’s a girl or they just click, but he chats away to her and just seems happy in her company. They are great mates – hopefully their younger siblings will be too, but for now Tom and Holly tend to fight constantly There was an awful accident outside as we left – cars cut open by firefighters, ambulances, road shut. Horrid.

Back home we had an afternoon in the garden. We cleaned out the bug ridden dregs of last year’s sand, washed it all out then refilled with the sand Mom and Dad bought, and later water (with the sand saved in a clean bucket!).

Alfie took these…..

H did a poo in the bath tonight (“by mistake” in her words) so bedtime took a while longer than expected as the bath had to be drained, cleaned and run again……………..

Anyway, my house is currently awash with *stuff* from the loft, including a Xmas tree I have no recollection of ever seeing before lol! Our loft is being insulated on Tuesday. I am hoping this will prevent the house from remaining sub-arctic as it is currently. Center Parcs (room temp 21) showed me how much nicer it is to live in warmth lol! Here (room temp 7) I am constantly shivering and feeling sick with cold! If I have to get up to Alfie I lie awake for ages feeling sick and cold afterwards, and I get so mad with H when she shifts my covers off me during the night whilst feeding or rolling over!

Oh yes, forgot to post these yesterday During the holiday we moved H out of her bag into a normal duvet. This was long overdue as she’d started moaning about her bag and we changed Alfie over at just 21 months. Here are some pix of her trying out her new duvet with big brother’s help

Last night she apparently came into us at 1.30am and I must have fed her as my nightie was unbuttoned but I have no memory of it lol! It was only when she woke me for a feed at 5am and I realised I had a dead arm from her lying on it that I knew she was there. In her bag it used to be a slow slug-like shuffle, now she’s in in seconds lol! She co-slept fulltime until 18 months so I’m used to her company. Alfie stopped at 25 months, but H is 26 months and shows no sign of finishing co-sleeping or night feeds. Mind you, Alfie still has night milk at nearly 4 lol!

After a quiet day doing chores, laundry, play dough, DVDs, and making a roast dinner (chicken style veggie roast, homemade Yorkshires, roasted baby King Edwards in the skins, courgette and baby carrots – yum!), we went to the nature centre today with Nanny and Grandad whilst Rich emptied the loft. It was a gorgeous day and the children had a great time. I totally failed to take photos, but the day involved running round the soft play in the cafe, animals galore (A so loves making Nanny face the giant tarantulas lol!) and lots of fresh air and walking. Plus fabulous company of course (and a free lunch – thanks Mom and Dad ) Back home for cleaning, cooking, playing with the wooden kitchen, helping Daddy crush lots of cardboard boxes from the loft for recycling and general Sunday mayhem

Happy times.

Yesterday we went to Hatton with Nanny and had a lovely day.

We also made a delicious sizzling sausage casserole with the remnants of our organic vegetables when we got home.

I had a lovely time in the pub with Bex yesterday evening too. It’s always good to catch up with your best friend

Poor Holly was up barking with croup in the night, and Alfie was also unsettled so we are all zombies (yet again lol!) Poor snotty Holly is feeding a lot at the moment and really tired after the disturbed nights – but still manages to sing “ring a ring o roses” constantly and read us the Bear Hunt book over and over again

Today we headed to the nature centre with Nanny.

Holly particularly loved the meerkats and spent ages watching them. Alfie enjoyed scaring Nanny with the giant taranrulas in the invertebrates house We had some lunch in the cafe and the children had a good run around on the soft play as well as the outside playground there. They both walked miles again too. I carried Holly a few times, but not even enough to warrant use of the hip seat I’d brought with us. No wonder she was asleep by 6.10pm tonight!

Grandad came round this afternoon to do a further bath modification (aided by Alfie whilst Holly watched Peppa Pig with Nanny and I cleaned the fridge out lol!) and spend some time with the children. They really enjoyed doing play dough, and Alfie and Grandad also made a giant spider from his Halloween craft kit! Poor Grandad was a bit upset by Alfie crying and restraining him from going, but he soon calmed down, mollified by the thought of seeing them on Sunday for the Halloween trail at Biddulph Grange and the promise of a sleepover soon

Back home, we had some lunch then embarked on the mammoth task of cleaning out the food cupboard. Apart from Holly having a couple of accidents whilst emptying the food out (strawberry milkshake powder and caster sugar – joy!), we had a successful end result. Clean, tidy food cupboard rather than a big mess covered in spilt flour The kids did some craft – which Alfie did not want to stop to eat his dinner – the time for bed. I am very pleased that Holly knows all her colours, but it’s a bit disconcerting when you’re trying to get her to sleep and she’s holding each strand of Upsy Daisy’s hair and saying “Got yellow, got pink, got yellow, got pink like Holla” etc etc

Holly had a nap today. I think the tiredness from missing a couple had caught up on her. It’s funny too that I was saying yesterday about her 3pm breastfeed being less certain, and today she had one at 2pm and one at 4pm instead lol!

This afternoon Mom and Dad came round. Dad mowed the lawn for us – what a star! The children love spending time with their grandparents so I was able to get the windows cleaned (as I’d washed all the voiles) and do a few more jobs.