Busy doing nice things...

Sorry for the gap in updating- I am having a block on what we've been up to the last couple of weeks, but it's felt pretty busy!

We have had a lot of baths:

... and a few walks...

... and Oliver learnt how to get INtomy clever toy drawers (they're not so clever anymore!!)

He has become obsessed with writing and drawing and he's pretty good at it:

... and this weekend we took him to a playbarn centre and Ben took him on this wobbly slide, and then the death slide!! Oliver didn't seem too bothered, so it was a success :)

In other news, Oliver and I have been out and about swimming with friends, to baby groups and setting up my own baby group (a Music one, at last! The first class is this Monday coming and I am EXCITED!) Ben got a good first review from BP and things are going well there.

We are achieving our Resolution of oging on more dates and we've had a couple already- we saw Sherlock Holmes at the cinema and we had an "in" date- I made a dodgy orange chicken dinner in the slow cooker and we ate it by candlelight and then watched Amelie. Apart from my dodgy food it was wonderful and we are more in love than ever. We have a couple more in the works so that's nice to look forward to.

I am getting quite the bump and I am now 24 weeks pregnant, so cooking nicely. Baby Two kicks a LOT which is nice, and all seems well! I am really enjoying being very crafty at the mo (as in, I am in the middle of lots of craft projects) and I'm having a wonderful time with my fuzzy felt and fur remnants making little animals for my baby book.

The only bad thing at the mo is that Oliver has discovered his screaming voice again. For absolutely no reason- he's bored/hungry/happy/just making noises to go along with his life etc- he will let out REALLY loud, REALLY high-pitched screams, and he does it a LOT. It's hard to be patient when he keeps damaging our eardrums for life! I keep repeating "it's only a phase, it's only a phase" to myself, but it's anybody's guess if we should ignore it or come down hard on it. Suggests welcome!

Well I can't think of anything else that's going on at the mo. As usual, life in the Twigger home is plodding along nicely...

Oliver's Drawers!

I have been fed up with Oliver dismantling the kitchen drawers for months now, and finally yesterday I had the answer: give up on using them as kitchen drawers at all, and surrender to his wishes! So I've cleared out just the bottom two drawers so far and made them more baby-friendly. The top drawer is filled with colourful blocks for him to pile up/arrange, and I've lined the bottom drawer with paper and put in some crayons and colourful pens since that is his absolute favourite thing to do at the mo.

If I can find somewhere else for our cutlery I may do something interesting with the other drawers (since we all know he'll still be more interested in the stapler and batteries in the higher drawer rather than his own drawers...)

Here they are:

Baby Two photos

Last week we had Baby Two's second and final scan. I was 21 weeks along but he/she measured about 22 weeks. The scan made Baby Two seem much more real, and I couldn't get over how cute he/she looked, genuinely!! Just look how snuggly it is in there:

Ben likes the picture above because you can see its lenses behind its eyelids. I think it's a bit strange!

Messy Play: Fun with Flour

Yesterday we did our first bit to fulfil one of my New Year's Resolutions, which was to do more hands-on, messy things with Oliver. I will document them on here so a) I can prove I am fulfilling my goals, b) people with babies can get ideas and c) you can offer ideas of what to do next!

So our first adventure was with flour. We got our new 'Messy Mat' out, along with lots of pots, a sieve and some utensils (masher, fork, ladle, medicine spoon, cookie cutters) and it kept him happily entertained for a good 30 minutes! His favourite was raking the flour with a fork, and tipping it out of the pots onto his legs.

I suppose perhaps flour isn't the bravest thing to try- we'll get messier next time I promise!

Major Breakthrough!

... Oliver has just gone off to bed WITHOUT his last milky feed. I have been feeding him for a couple of days shy of 13 months now and despite a very painful first few weeks have absolutely loved it!! He has been weaning himself off gradually quite happily but today was the first time I've pulled one- milky before bed. So far we have both lived to tell the tale!! He whimpered for ten minutes or so and now he is fast asleep. Ahhh, a bit of time off being a Mummy milk cow... until May :)

Photographic Proof that Christmas happened!!

I only have a handful of Christmas photos (everyone has better cameras than us so I let them take them!) so here they are:

Father Christmas came!! Ben and Oliver's stockings

Ben and a couple of pressies

Oliver with Great Granddad on Christmas Day

Dad offers Ed £1.50 if he lets him put day old custard in their face!

Note he is wearing Oliver's bib!

Urgh!! :)

Oliver now points at EVERYTHING!

I LOVE Goals :)

Happy Christmas and Happy New Year!! We have been away down South for the best past of two weeks and yesterday morning we made it back home! It was lovely to be away but I always love coming home too- back to normality which is different but also wonderful.

While I am waiting for some Christmassy photos from my family I will divulge my goals for 2012. Ahhh, I LOVE goals, and I set as many as possible and love sticking to them. Ben always groans at my enthusiasm for goals and my eagerness that he set lots too, but he is very good to me, and we wrote a couple together :)

Personal:
- Finish Oliver's Quiet book
- Join something musical and do at least one concert
- Learn 12 hymns on the piano from the children's songbook (one a month)
- Have another baby and be sane :)

Physical:
- Lose baby weight plus an extra 3lb by Christmas 2012
- Begin colouring hair and make a concerted effort with doing something with it!

Spiritual:
- Read every Ensign cover to cover (The 'Ensign' is our church magazine)
- Do Sunday school weekly readings before each Sunday lesson

Familial:
- Do something messy/arty with Oliver at least twice a week
- Initiate more kisses! (Ben likes them and I forget to give them!!)
- Go out on a date with Ben twice a month- get a babysitter and organise one each per month
- Sort out Oliver's nap schedule... it's rubbish AGAIN!

I think they are all doable!! Here goes... :)