Christmassy stuff

Ben and I have been getting into the Christmas spirit recently and we did a mince pie taste test against Mr Kiplings, Mrs Peeks, and Mrs Twigger's (mine!) We rated them according to pastry thickness, how deep-filled they were, flavour, stodginess, appearance and size. Ha, I wasn't expecting mine to fare very well against those, but at least you could still tell what they were!! We voted Mrs Peeks as the best and liked the little apple-y kick we could taste. We later discovered that it was alcohol (oops!) so that must have been the kick we liked! So we now prefer Mr Kiplings :)

 

 

(L to R) Mr K's, Mrs P's and Mrs T's :)

This morning Oliver and I went to the Mum and baby Christmas party up at the local community centre. It was great and even Father Christmas was there!! Here is Squeaky Boy partying it up:

Mid- excitable scream. He is STILL in that phase!

Feeling crafty...

A couple of evenings ago I finished making the tiny yellow quilt I began while we were living in Sunbury, London, Summer 2010. It was originally a church project and lots of us were making them for the preemie baby unit but I took so long I missed the deadline and aimed for Oliver's birth... but since it would hardly cover his legs I think now it'll have to be for Baby Two. I hadn't touched it for ever and finally got around to bodging up trhe binding nicely but HOORAY it is done! The front, at least, looks quite lovely.

Now that I've finished one project I am on to the next one. I have been gathering supplies for a few weeks now for a 'quiet book'- a fabric book with things to do and learn on each page that will keep Oliver entertained and quiet during church. I've got LOTS of felt, googly eyes, coloured buttons and some great scraps of fluffy material for animal paws, noses etc. For a while I have been stalking this amazing lady's blog: http://www.quietbook.blogspot.com/ She has some amazing ideas that I will be using and loads of links to other people's pages doing a similar thing, like this lady: http://johnandjackidaley.blogspot.com/2011/08/quiet-book.html and this lady made a Star Wars one which is very cool (I'm not showing it to Ben yet though, cos he would definitely want one!) http://juliegillrie.blogspot.com/2010/09/my-jedi-quiet-book.html and this one is great too: http://lellaboutique.blogspot.com/2011/04/baby-boy-texture-book.html

Ahhh, I'm in heaven with a project on the go.

In other news, I made mince pies for the first time yesterday. I am surprised how well they came out- they taste good!! Oliver helped and had his own spoon while I filled them with mincemeat. But, in keeping with my rubbishy presentation but good taste, they were cunningly disguised as cupcakes because I don't have a baking tray with shallow dips in it (for yorkshire puds or pies etc) so I used pastel-coloured silicone cupcake moulds and they don't look like mince pies at all! Taste great though.

My Beloved Dyson

Here is my dyson. Ben and I bought it at an amazing boot sale near Jaz and Tom's house a couple of years ago for £35. It was in perfect condition and still sucks things up amazingly. Ahhh, I never dreamed I would own a dyson so young. I feel like I've "arrived"!

Unfortunately, Oliver HATES the hoover. He always has done, and despite thinking he'd conquered his fears a couple of weeks ago, it is now back with a vengeance. Today was the worst ever- he always starts crying as he sees me get it out, and he wiggles from side to side nervously. And today, he didn't just cry real, sad boy tears, but he was properly SCREAMING and crying all the way through and didn't stop the entire time I was whizzing around upstairs. I really hope the neighbour wasn't in or he probably thought something VERY terrible was happening to him! I can only ever hoover half the house at once, but my hair falls out so much that I have to hoover at least twice a week, at least downstairs. Aghhh!!! I plan to continue to hoovering, I'm afraid... but for the sake of my ears and sanity I hope he gets over it SOON!

This time last year...

Oliver was small and cute and entered the world at 11.04pm on 7th December after a speedy water birth, weighing 7lb 4oz. Here he is today last year...

Now he is ONE and still small and cute. I have really enjoyed getting to know him this year, it has been great to see his personality emerging and see him learn new things. Here he is on his 1st birthday:

What a year. I don't think I was completely clueless when he was born, but I have definitely got better at balancing life and (most importantly) feeling happier about putting his needs and wants before mine- as well as realising what my limitations are so I know when to give less or ask for help. I am so thankful to have the bigger picture that I didn't have this time last year. Poor me last year- or any new Mummy- all the pain and no sleeping and tricky bits seem to go on forever at the time, but looking back tricky times have been few and far between and interspersed with a LOT of lovely blessings. I am enjoying life as a Mummy and being a friend to this wonderful, happy boy!

Latest goings-on with us...

Hello, just to let it known that we are all still alive and well despite my blogging absence! In recent happenings...

- Ben got a new bike! It was absolutely necessary since he cycles to work and he had really flogged his last one, which had been stuck in the two highest gears for months now, and has really EMBARRASSINGLY squeaky brakes and was really on his way out. His new one is much cleaner, doesn't squeak and presumerably gives him a much smoother (and safer?!) ride. Although it's getting pretty icy up here now so he may have to start driving in at some point, or his limbs might start dropping off!

- Oliver continues to amaze us, and believe it or not, is into EVERYTHING even more than before. I admit, sometimes I am absolutely exhausted in the yucky 6-7pm hour of Ben coming home, dinner making and a waily, sleepy baby who goes off to bed straight after dinner (usually at 7pm). Having said that, he now officially sleeps through the night!! I can pretty much sign him off, since he sleeps through more than he wakes now: amazing. It's been fairly guaranteed for the past two weeks now, so next time I will know that it took us ELEVEN AND A HALF MONTHS to get to this point!!! I think I'm glad I didn't know that upfront when he was born, I might have cried! Now he is so old and mature he is taking on a lot of responsibility around the house. Here he is doing his assigned 'chore' of emptying the tumble drier when the washing is done:

What a good boy!! :)

- Oliver went to the cinema for the first time!! It was a BP event- they hired out the cinema screen to see 'Arthur Christmas'- a very lovely new animated film, and we thought since it was free we'd try Oliver at it. Each person also got £5 to spend on pick and mix or popcorn etc, so we had £15 between us which was quite outrageous!! Oliver surpassed all our expectations and only got wiggly and restless during the last 15 minutes (when I did the only thing left and gave him milky! He usually only has it once a day now- just before bed) But the rest of the whole film he spent sitting on Ben's lap and the two of them munched through the best part of a big bag of popcorn!! It was very funny to watch Oliver eating popcorn continuously without taking his eyes of the screen. Also a bit scary how naturally it came to him!

- A couple of weeks ago we went to an Enchanted Castle- it was an evening National Trust event with the castle open to the public and all lit up, enchanted trails in the gardens, storytelling, a hog roast and fire eaters! We wrapped up warm and had a lovely time wearing our glow sticks and woolly hats.

- This past weekend we had Ben's parents come to stay with us. It was lovely to see them and they particularly enjoyed spending time with Oliver- he was always very silly and giggly with Mum which was nice. They took lots of photos, but I did get this one: (It's 'We're going on a bear hunt'- arguably the best book ever written)

While they were here we enjoyed lots of walks in the chilly but sunny weather and one day we went to Stonehaven- a nearby pretty village by the sea- and Dunnoter Castle- an amazing ruined medieval castle right on top of the sea. We also put our Christmas tree up on Sunday afternoon and now that I've finished all the present buying I am really starting to get in the mood... :)

- In sadder news, our car has been kangarooring the last couple of weeks. We took it in to be looked at back then but they weren't sure what it was and it has been getting worse ever since... we kept worrying it would just conk out at the weekend, but luckily we got Mum and Dad to and from the airport fine. It's in its second garage today... although I have a third booked up later this week just in case!! I hope they can work out what it is and sort it without it costing an arm and a leg. Poor car- it does treat us so well usually!

Baby Two's Photoshoot :)

Typical baby shot- it is definitely in there!

Stretching out the legs

Front on- you can see a couple of eyes

It has an arm!

Exciting, wonderful, happy, lovely news!

Ben is back, hooray!!! He got back yesterday afternoon and all is well :)

In other news, I can confirm that... I am housing an 88 mm small Twiglet in my tummy. Hooray!!!!

I got to see it on the ultrasound yesterday morning, and despite it doing "advanced gymnastics" with its ankles crossed we could see a heartbeat, and few limbs and a couple of eyes too, so hooray it is really in there! Baby Two is due mid-May, although I have to go back for another scan tomorrow morning (hooray, Ben will be there!) so they can measure stuff properly and give me a more accurate due date. I saw two different specialists yesterday because they couldn't get it to budge out of a very tight corner (VERY close to my bladder!)- but to no avail. I am 15 weeks along and after feeling pretty rubbish for the first few weeks I am now feeling wonderful... just starting to put on the podge and really look as though I might be pregnant! Happy, happy news.

Pictures to follow- hopefully he/she will be feeling more photogenic tomorrow!

Ben is off again!!

I am getting used to life without a husband- it is quite lonely!! He was away for training in Windsor all of last week, and a couple of days ago we found out that he could do his first bit of 'offshore' experience for a few days. He is basically on the boat to watch and learn and ask questions, while they do a site survey (I think they drop things off the boat and do tests about the strength of the seabed for prospective wells... perhaps??!) I think they are going quite far North (even further!!) and probably into Norwegian waters.

I dropped him off at the Harbour this morning, complete with Artic jacket, bright orange BP jumpsuit, balaclava and the whole lot! It was quite bizarre, since that isn't usually what he does for his work. When we got there, there was a line a crew members loading up the boat- the Ocean Seeker- with food. I spied UHT milk, orange and apple juice and SPAM!! For some reason spam always makes me laugh.

I'm not quite sure why, but in the end they didn't set sail until this afternoon, at about 4ish, but Ben had kept me updated so Oliver and I could wave him off and run along the Harbour wall as far as I could with the buggy until I got to lots of spikey fences. It was quite exciting and I felt a bit like we were in a film :) I tried to take a couple of photos but it was getting quite dark and they didn't turn out very well. But he is off! I stocked him up with travel sickness tablets, but he's a bit sicky at the best of times... urgh. Fingers crossed all will be well and he won't be away too long.

I found a photo of the boat online:

One of my favourite pieces of music

Just thought someone out there would appreciate what I have been listening to a lot recently. This is one of my favourite pieces of music of all time- Lux Aurumque, by one of my favourite composers of all time- Eric Whitacre, sung by one of my very favourite choirs- Brigham Young University Singers. I'm not usually one for much modern music, but I LOVE Eric Whitacre's music. And the BYU Singers blow me away every time, especially live when we did big choir/orchestra things at university.

By the way, the choir is coming to ENGLAND on tour next April and will be singing in Cambridge, mmmmm. You MUST go!

Highlights and Lowlights in the quest to become a Domestic Goddess...

Ben and I helped to organise a church Halloween party the other week. It went well and we ended up bringing home some of the surplus stuff, including four uncarved pumpkins. They were VERY LARGE so I set myself the goal to try out as many pumpkin recipes I could, until we couldn't eat anymore! We had pumpkin soup on Monday, pumpkin risotto on Tuesday, and I don't usually do a lot of baking, so I was pleased to find a pumpkin and chocolate chip muffin recipe to try out for Wednesday. They looked a bit 'Sainsburys Basics' (I imagined them with the tagline "all shapes and sizes, still yummy")

By the end of the week I was getting a bit more inventive and finally broke free of pumpkin, hooray! I had been wanting to make some kind of steamed pudding for a while, so Ben suggested an amazing plum, prune and orange zest Christmassy one. I was excited! I followed all the instructions and made a special aluminium foil covering with a pleat and a string handle ready for steaming. Here it is...

 Then I steamed it for two hours:

But it came out looking uncooked!!! 

So I thought I'd try to finish it off in the microwave. Sadly it sort of exploded around the plate that was on top if it, and looked like this:

I decided that it had to be cooked after all of that (despite its still gooey and slightly special appearance...) so we ate it.

It tasted pretty good, especially with custard, and none of us were ill so that proves to me it must have been done. As Ben often reminds me, "Presentation is not really your forte!" meaning that things taste good but look pretty bad, but all in all, my steamed pudding was a bit of a domestic failure.

But look at this! I put up this stairgate with my own fair hand. Hurrah, a domestic success!

Crazy boy

Oliver keeps showing us sneaky previews of his crazy character and what's to come in the future!

He opened this program, and got to the "Help" section...

My small receptionist!

Getting every last bit from his catch-all bib...!

Ben= My Own Personal Handy Man!

At the weekend our washing machine suddenly started spewing out a lot of water out of the drawer and the bottom and any other cranny it could find. We mopped it up with towels and tried to get the water to drain out by putting it on a rinse and spin again, but it only spewed out more. Cue Ben, the notoriously logical and manly problem solver, who immediately put on his thinking cap talking about a blockage somewhere in the machine, etc... Last night he got out his tool box (I have a husband with a tool box, cool!) and started pulling bits of the machine apart, until he found the thing that was blocking the machine. Or rather, things:

1. Two eaten up washable breast pads (I was wondering why I can only find two of the 12 that I own. Perhaps they have all died a similar death)
2. One earring (not mine, must belong to the landlord)
3. 1x £1 coin
4. 1x 5p
5. One fairly large ball... Ben then informed me that this was part of the machine, so he'd better put that one back
6. One bit of plastic that said 'Abercrombie and Fitch' on it (again, must belong to the landlord- we are not that cool!)
7. One hairband.

How, HOW, did all those things manage to get stuck in the machine?!! It's a miracle the poor machine was washing anything at all.

Hooray for a wonderful husband!! :)

Pentreaths in "Abbydeen"!

Last week was halfterm so we had my Mum and Dad and three of my brothers come to stay! We had a super time sealwatching, sand dune climbing, Planet Earth series watching, Pizza eating, Halloween party going, Mountain climbing and freezing cold picnicing.

I only brought my camera on a couple of the days, but here are the boys at the beach esplanade in Aberdeen:

One day we met up with a church friend from Ipswich who is a seasoned mountain climber and was staying in Cairngorm National Park (the HUGE National Park in Scotland) He took us on an outrageously rugged and beautiful hike up to a waterfall and by crags and corries and sheep and just the most spectacular scenery ever. The photos don't do any of it justice, but they do prove that we went!

Oliver: on Dada, Ducks and Raspberries

Apparently he looks like me, but with Ben's "serious expressions." Ha! :)

Teaching little children!

Hello!

It would seem that I have ended up in the "family business" after all- teaching. Last month I was asked to be a Primary teacher at church. Primary is the name we give to children's 'Sunday School'. I usually have a group of five children aged 6-8 and I teach them for about 35 minutes each Sunday morning. They come out with the funniest comments. I was trying to explain the word "sober" (as another word for serious, not to do with drinking!) and a clever little girl, Julia, put her hand up and asked, "Err, do you mean sofa??" Another funny moment was when the children were aked what they thought "poor in heart" could mean (to be pure and humble, not literally lacking in money) and there were ideas from "Ooh, I think that means they're dying!" to "That's what you get when you eat too much"! It's a laugh a minute.

Oliver has a sad but new trait... he gets very angry when sees that we have food that is different from his. He squeals and screams until I realise that he just wants a bit of my toast (instead of his cereal), and once I give him a bit he is blissfully happy and gobbles it down.This morning I came up with the cunning plan to make a barrier with the milk carton and a box of cereal so he couldn't see the toast I was eating (he had banana). It worked! :)

Oliver also gets frustrated if we don't feed him quickly enough. If there is as much as a second gap between Ben feeding him a spoonful of yoghurt, him swallowing it and the next spoonful he grunts and flails his arms wildly!! Agh, I can't believe our 10-month old has a temper already!!

Apart from that, he continues to delight and amaze us, although I'm convinced he will NEVER say anything apart from "Dada". We repeat "Mama", "Duck" and "Dog" to him alllll the time, but he just smiles in acknowledgement, and launches back into how much he just lurrrrves Dada! But it is lovely hearing him croon himself to sleep telling the world about his Dada, and then wakes doing just the same thing! What a silly sausage.

BP

I am officially a BP fan. Of course, I'm not the one working there, but from my unique wife-y perspective, the working hours are GREAT. Ben works 8am- 5pm 9 days in every two weeks... because he gets every other Friday off! Very nice. In fact, I've always said that BP feels a bit like 'The Firm' (John Grisham) cos they treat you so well, surely something has to be wrong?!! I love that film.

I digress... It turns out we really do get a discount on petrol! That made us laugh.

Another thing was that on Friday Ben amazingly got us tickets to the last BP Dinner Dance- basically a free, BP party! There were over 300 people there, sat a big round tables, so it was a pretty grand affair. It was outrageously glitzy- in a big hotel, with arty food, and LOTS of cutlery and glasses, and a really amazing, but slightly crazy live band. Shiny lights and everything!

After three scrummy courses and lots of wine (or water for us! - apparently they'd have to charge me for orange juice... even when I reminded the waitress that it was probably cheaper than wine, but no luck...) we boogied on down, and Ben cracked out all his crazy moves. He is GOOD! I always feel completely rubbish dancing next to him, but I feel cool to be with him!

Here we are-

Ben was quite sad to leave around 11pm since the dancing was in full force, but we had left Oliver with a new babysitter, and he's getting into the habit of waking for his first feed before midnight!! What made everything totally wonderful was our babysitter, Christine, was having the best time ever watching the first two Star Wars films, and Oliver had just started to stir as we got back around 11.30pm! Superb. Christine was brilliant and we got on well too! Ahh, it's also a major relief of motherhood when your baby behaves exactly like you told someone they will, and didn't scare her away!

Hurrah, I love BP. Ben has also had his first paycheck now, so that helps! :)

Oh we do like to be beside the seaside!

Oliver and I had a great time while Daddy was at work yesterday. It is HOT up here- the car told me it was 19 degrees celcius (I know it's at least five degrees warmer down South...!) but I wore only a tee-shirt and we went down to our local beach. The tide was out and it just looked gorgeous!!

Oliver really enjoys to "step"- I hold his hands and he does VERY wobbly steps, sometimes two or three on one foot before using the other which is lovely.We "stepped" all he way along the sand until we reached the water, and he enjoyed chasing the waves and feeling the sand between his toes.

I can't believe that we live on top of such a gorgeous beach, and it was even sunny!!

Ha, look at his lovely podgy feet.

Live footage of Oliver's new skill

... Babybrain means that I got the date wrong! Today is definately the twenty-THIRD of September... Ben's birthday!!

Oliver has learnt how to do this the last couple of days :)

Oliver in Aberdeen- photos

Stopping for breakfast enroute!

At our local beach!!