Ten on Tuesday

1. I'm still not sure whether this is a blog, or a very public diary that no-one knows about. This says that introverts need space to reflect and process their thoughts each day, and suggests writing a blog as way to achieve this. Well, I'm definitely an introvert, and I certainly need space to reflect, but I'm still a bit apprehensive about shouting my thoughts to a roomful of strangers. Or even people I know. Or maybe especially people I know.

2. I've just spent a week at my Mum & Dad's with Westboy and Westbaby, while our kitchen floor was ripped out, damp-proofed and replaced. Westboy missed Daddy so much. One night he woke and could only be resettled by a facetime call. They ended up both falling asleep face-to-face across a wi-fi connection. Very cute & really quite bizarre.

3. At my parents', Westbaby slept in my old cot, and Westboy slept in my old bed. Surreal.

4. I went to a couple of toddler groups while I was away. I've never met so many nannies! It was a bit of a culture shock.

5. This week Westbaby slept for 4 hours in the night. That's no big achievement for most nearly-10-month olds, but both of my boys have been appalling at sleeping. Westboy woke every hour or two until around his second birthday, and Westbaby seems to be heading down a similar route.... I don't talk to many people about how my boys sleep anymore. It mostly just attracts unsolicited advice, of the "have you tried..." variety. I've either tried it, have a good reason why I'm not going to try it, or simply lack the energy to try it. And anyway, it's a bit boring hearing about someone else's sleep, or lack of sleep, isn't it?!

6. I need to teach my boys to catch spiders. As.Soon.As.Possible. Tom won't, so I had to catch an enormous one that was guarding the stairs. [shudder]

7. I love this. I'm trying to work out which one to start with...
 
8. At church, we try to cover to the same theme in crèche as the main preach, in some form or other. I'm leading on Sunday, and it's on 'Beasts' in Revelation. Yikes! How do you tackle that one with a bunch of 0-3 year olds?!

9. Westboy has started calling me "muddy". He has difficulty with some speech sounds and has been referred for speech therapy. He had been calling me "baddy", so this is a heart-melting improvement :-)

10. We made this amazing stuff. Westboy played with it for ages. It's 1 scoop of baby oil mixed with 5 scoops of plain flour (the scoop I used was 1/4 US cup, because I didn't have much oil, but that made plenty for some good playing). It makes a silky smooth crumble mix, that holds together like moon sand, so you can sculpt and build sandcastles, cakes, ramps, ...and whatever else your imagination chooses. We mixed it in an ice cream tub, and played with it on a tray, using measuring spoons, silicone cupcake cases, and a car. It smells nice and moisturises your hands too (I hate how playdough smells and dries my skin out!). To keep Westbaby occupied, I sprinkled some flour on the floor, and we drew in it and enjoyed exploring the texture of it. Then they both took it in turns to help me clean up (ha ha ha!)

 

[Yeah, our floor is covered with black plastic. It's just until other bits of floor are dry enough to lay laminate. It's a pain, but worked well for drawing flour pictures!]