Jenerally Speaking,

Spring is coming...

 Life here is Busy with a Capital B at the moment. We're making some headway on the mammoth list of jobs which need completing before the arrival of The Littlest One, but there are still many to do. I'm struggling to fit in schoolwork, housework, curtain-making, toddler-care, baby preparation, jobs for our village Baby and Toddler Group, hypnobirthing practice and all the other things I have to do each week. But this week, we have been enjoying a bit of blue sky above us, and definite signs that SPRING is coming. 

The hellabore is looking more beautiful this year than I ever remember it looking before. That could well be because, for the first time, I've properly cut back last year's leaves and weeded around it this Spring!

 These... ahem... bluey-yellow thingamebobs are brightening the odd patch of flowerbed here and there. 

And at last, our first full-size daffodil has bloomed! I've been eyeing them up eagerly every day for a couple of weeks now, and it FINALLY happened!

We've already got a lovely bunch of (coconuts!) miniature daffs at the back of the garden though.

"Who's that lurking behind them?" I hear you ask. That's Satan. Our little rabbit. So named because although he's supposed to look cheerful, from certain angles his eyebrows make him look a little sinister. And when I say sinister, what I mean is seriously homicidal. He's spectacularly terrifying when viewed from our upstairs windows!

Yes, we certainly have enjoyed a bit of pottering round the garden this week. 

For Little R, this involves some balance bike practice, now he's grown tall enough to really get around by himself...

... and some important mud and bird-feeder related tasks. He was very proud of this "big mess" he'd made. But he did help me sweep the soil up and return it to the flowerbed!

For Mummy, the best moment was this; hanging out our brand new set of colourful fabric nappies. We (ok, Rachel, to be honest), finally did the necessary research and chose the nappies we want to use this time round, having fallen out with the fabric nappies we used when Little R was smaller. It made my heart sing to see these beautiful Wonderoos swaying gently in the breeze, brightening up the garden with their rainbow colours. 

Yup, a proper rainbow of nappies there! The great thing is they are one-size-fits-all, so Little R has selected three colours to use as his night-time nappies until he becomes reliably dry overnight. 

The most exciting parcel was delivered yesterday, too. Our fabric wet wipes. Cheeky Wipes they are called and they are PURE GENIUS. They smell delightful, feel soft and lovely and are 100% reusable for AGES and AGES! I'm only sorry we didn't learn about fabric wet wipes in time to benefit before now! I use disposable wet wipes as seldom as possible because I HATE that they fill up landfill. I might have to do a whole other post sometime about the wonders of fabric STUFF when you have small people. 

But right now Little R is devastated by the fact that 'Wallace and Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death' is over and I've said he can't watch it twice in a row. Mummy duties call!

Thirty

 It doesn't seem like an entire year since this post, when I reflected on twenty-nine things I was grateful for on the day I turned twenty-nine. And yet it is, and I suppose I CAN believe it, because so much has happened in that year.

This year, I had a keen helper to assist me with the challenge of opening my lovely presents. And a bumpling to work around, of course. (Incidentally, the stripy Coco dress I made last year makes a rather lovely maternity dress! And if I stretch it out of shape, I can just make another!)

I was lucky - it was another beautiful day. Bitingly cold this morning, while we were shopping and lunching in Bury, but beautiful this afternoon, which enabled us to enjoy a welly walk around the local wood.

There were rabbit holes to spot...

... moss to stroke (and admire the colours of - I started to fantasise about a crochet ripple blanket in the greens, browns, reds and oranges you see in at this time of year in a woodland area - wouldn't that be scrumptious?) ...

... and as always, there was the tradition of balancing on the circle of logs. 

Adorably, after Mummy Rachel had helped Little R around, he insisted on helping HER around (after we explained that my centre of balance is a wee bit of at the moment, so it wouldn't be a sensible idea for me to clamber over them!)

I've had another really lovely birthday. It being one of those ROUND numbers, I've been thinking back over the past decade and despite some really challenging and upsetting moments, it's definitely been the best of my life thus far. 

A little repair job

I managed to fit some sewing into my life the other evening! What a rare treat! It was a little job I've been meaning to do for, oh, only about two years. Maybe three. See, we have this little doggie doorstop...

And he used to live downstairs, where Putnum bunny also resided. Apparently, nobody had ever informed Putnum that as a herbivore, leather doorstops (and, for that matter, Toblerone bars!) shouldn't really form part of his diet. Because this little dog gradually developed several holes. He also lost all but two of his whiskers. 

To preserve what was left of him, we moved him up to our bedroom (we had a stairgate, to keep Putnum downstairs. He could quite easily climb up the stairs, but was too scared to climb down, so he'd end up stuck upstairs for hours). But I never quite got around to doing anything about the holes until last week. 

I cut some little snippets of fabric from my BEAUTIFUL stash of fat quarters and pinned them in place, carefully folding the edges and corners in. It was quite tricky to fit the flat patches onto such a curved and squishy shape. I eventually worked out it was much easier to stab the pins directly into the dog (sorry dog!) instead of pinning them in-and-out in the usual fashion.

Honey came over to say hello while I was working on him. She did not, however, attempt to ingest him, thank heavens. She's rather more sensible about what she eats. Only marginally, though.

After an evening of careful stitching, he was looking so much chirpier. 

He's got a lot more to wag his tail about, I think!

Weekending

 On Friday, when I arrived back from work, early (supposedly so Rachel could go out on a social outing), I had a bit of a surprise. A lot of a surprise, in fact. The house was all packed up and ready for us to leave immediately for a weekend in Cambridge, in honour of my impending 30th birthday! My wife is VERY good at surprises. 

The weekend was everything a family weekend away should be. Close enough not to involve too much travelling, busy enough to be exciting and lazy enough to be relaxing. Here are just a few of the wonderful moments we shared.

Our very excited boy playing in an unfamiliar bath after his dinner out. He was so thrilled by the events of the day that he didn't go to sleep until we both lay down in bed and snuggled him between us, at 9:30. 

The next day, we spent a whopping eight hours exploring Cambridge. We enjoyed shopping in the unique shops. We rested in the library while Little R had a nap in the Tula. We relaxed in a punt on the river... under a blanket, since it was pretty cold.

 Bus rides, which are so much more fun with a two-year-old. I wanted to capture his feet, comfortably splayed over the edge of the seat. One day, he'll grow out of these little blue and green boots that I love so much. One day, it'll seem laughable that he ever fitted onto his feet. But right now, they fit his chubby, pink little feet just perfectly.

New toys, from a rather marvellous Aladdin's Cave of a Scandanavian shop we found (Tiger). Is it just me that loves Scandanavian packaging? Just plain white with some words on in black. So much more appealing that the garish colours splashed all over British merchandise. Little R also ADORES his plastic watering can in the shape of a lime green rabbit. He keeps introducing himself: "Hello, my name Little R. What your name?" Then he replies on behalf of the rabbit. "I rabbit water can!" You can't argue with it - it's a sensible name!

A Napoleon Bonaparte moment!

A catastrophe with a puddle. We were SO excited to splash in muddy puddles at the Wimpole Estate Farm, since we all had our welly boots ("Mummy welly boots! Mummy splash puddols!"). But the second puddle Little R gambolled cheerfully into betrayed him in the cruellest fashion, making him slip down onto his knees. He wasn't hurt at all, but he was covered in thick mud and quite devastated by the shock. Luckily we hadn't even closed the car boot yet, so we sat him on the edge of the boot to change his trousers. And his socks. Thank heavens he didn't sit backwards onto his duffle coat!

A long walk, with lots of stick action. Little R's current obsession is choosing nicely sized and shaped sticks to carry. He likes to poke things with them. He enjoyed giving myself and Mummy Rachel a stick each. Then swapping them around lots. Simple pleasures!

Intriguing textures.

This was a brilliant idea. And upstairs floor in a barn, filled with little hessian sacks containing hay, and miniature sack barrows. Little R LOVED carrying the bags to and fro, sorting the bags into the appropriate area, for OATS, BARLEY or WHEAT piles. He'd have stayed there all day, I think!

This is where it all started to unravel though. Little R was very excited to sit on this huge tractor, wiggling the steering wheel and pushing the gear lever. But he was devastated beyond compare to have to get off. Tiredness for his late night and long day in Cambridge was swiftly catching up with him and he completely lost the plot. 

We tried to cheer him up with some bees. We tried to tempt him into the barn with the sheep, but he was wailing so loudly that we thought he'd scare them. We tucked him up in the Tula on Rachel's back and he fought, cried and begged to be let out for ten minutes as we frogmarched (where DOES that phrase come from? Frogs don't march... do they?) to the car. I nursed him to sleep, then tried to transfer him peacefully to his carseat. Epic fail. I spent the next 20 minutes trapped in a circular conversation about how it would be illegal and dangerous to cuddle him in a moving car, and how if we stopped to cuddle him, we'd never get home for lunch. Eventually he gave up and hiccuped himself sadly to sleep. Oh dear. Being two is fun, but it's also really hard. 

Despite the tricky end to the weekend, we all thoroughly enjoyed it. A long nap for Little R and I upon our return and we were both bright eyed and bushy tailed. (Actually, that's a fib. HE was bright-eyed and bushy tailed. I was still exhausted and slightly stressed because I had a massive pile of emails to catch up with, but there you go!)

I feel very lucky. I have a gorgeous little man, a generous and sneaky wife and a growing baby in my tummy. Life doesn't get much more marvellous.