A Foggy Day

It has been so lovely and sunny recently!! It has actually been HOT- I've been wearing t'shirts outside and sweating! (Yuck, sorry!) Ben has a bit of an obsession with the weather, particularly looking up the temperature, and going outside and seieng how accurate it is. I used to think it was a bit weird, but now we've been married a couple of years we're starting to turn into each other so I find myself checking if I am allowed to feel hot too, uh oh!!

Anyway, since Ben was off on Saturday and for once we timed Oliver's nap so we could make the most of the sunshine and get out and about... it was COLD and FOGGY!!! We couldn't believe it, Ben was particularly sad! But we went out anyway, without our coats (to make a point, you see...) and still had a nice pootle around the grounds of a nearby National Trust property and then stumbled across a castle which we could pop into for free during lunchtime. Cool! Here are Ben and Oliver exploring:

Oliver Update

It has been so wonderfully warm and sunny this week!! We have spent a lot of time in the garden, and Ben has even dug me a vegetable patch!! But apart from the weather this week has been a bit of a sad one for Oliver, with me administering four doses of antibiotics per day by syringe and lathering on lots of cream and eye drops to stop his impetigo spreading. He has also been up for one-two hours four nights out of the last five and it has been  bit of a battle getting him back off to sleep. He is usually so awake after faffing or being comforted/changed etc that he thinks it is time to have a little party in his cot! Last night I actually laughed out loud (very naughty of me to encourage him!) as he suddenly broke out what I have since dubbed as his "Dada victory dance": a very wiggly, excited dance from side-to-side while repeating his favourite word, Dada! Dada!

Anyway, apart from a few night antics and a dodgy looking face, during the day he has been as charming as ever and coming out with fascinating new things practically every day. I can hardly believe how quickly he is picking up new skills. 

He is a bit of a pro at walking these days and is pretty fast. He can also step over things, like the step when going out the backdoor, and he LOVES to "drive" things around- a computer mouse used to be the favourite but now it is anything that has WHEELS. Now his favourite thing, after careering around pushing his scramble bug at high speed- never getting on it!) is to drive his little orange and yellow car along the floor, the table, the sofa, Mummy's leg, the sky box... I need to get him some more vehicles since at the mo he only has one basic car and a plane.

The other day while I was reading to him he cottoned on to the "s" sound (I think it was for snake at the time) and since last week when I ask him what my name is he will tell me that it's "Mum" or "Mumma" and then goes into a bit of a chant. Hooray!! Today he blew my mind further when we were singing 'Head, Shoulders, Kness and Toes.' He has been putting his hands on his head for weeks and weeks, but today he pointed to his nose when we got to the nose bit (actually, he put his finger UP his nose, but I made sure I congratulated him anyway!) and he pointed to MINE when I asked where Mummy's nose was. And then I chanced my luck by asking when my tummy was, and sure enough he pointed to my tummy and made the word he says for baby (it doesn't sound much like "baby", but he always tries to say the same word).

Ahh, I am such a proud Mummy. Here's hoping I will feel even more so when I wake up tomorrow morning and realise I have not been woken up in the night. Please...??! :)

Back from our trip 'down South'

Ben was on training for work in London for the past week so Oliver and I took the opportunity to stay with my family in Ipswich from last Wednesday to the following Friday. Then we all be flew back and met at our home airport on Friday evening, ahhh.

Oliver and I had a lovely time and Mum, Dad and the boys have looked after us wonderfully. Everyone loves Oliver (nothing new there!) and my Mum gave him his second ever haircut... he is really looking like a little BOY and not a baby anymore! While we have been here we have enjoyed running around with Mum and various brothers, helping around the house and catching up with some friends and my Nanna and Granddad, which was just lovely. All our social calls have unfortunately meant that I have eaten more than a respectable amount of chocolate cake and other scrummy things though, and my bump is forever growing!!!!! Uh oh. I am feeling wonderful though, and there are less than eight weeks to go until we meet our newest Twiglet, which I haven't quite got my head around!

The weekend was particularly lovely because Ben came to join us on Friday evening for a couple of days since he didn't have any training at the weekend, and my sister Jaz and her husband and little boy came to stay too. Hooray!!! We very nearly had everyone all together again, but Ed was actually away at a church young-adult thing up in Preston on Saturday and Sunday so that was sad for us!!! Luckily he had a great time, and I had stocked up on plenty of "Ed-time" mid-week. But what a lovely weekend!

We went for a wander by the seafront in Felixstowe and tried skimming stones (as is stereotypical, the boys were all brilliant and Mum, Jaz and I threw most of our stones behind us!) Dad took his Granddad bit very seriously and bought candy floss for Seb and Oliver, and paid for a trip on a little train! I'm sure he never splashed out so much when we were small :) The train ride was funny- we sent Ben and Tom around with the little boys and their Uncle Isaac and at one point the man running the ride had to pull the train along himself! On the second lap around he went in front spraying the tracks with WD40. We loved it! We washed the fun down with chips on the seafront and ice cream sundaes, since it was a balmy 17 degrees. Wonderful!

Cousins exploring

Hero shot

Furrowed brow like Daddy!

Oliver's favourite pasttime

Ben found a game he used to play when he was little!

The train

Uncle Tom and Cousin Sebby

The man spraying the tracks with WD40!

Oliver bonding with Uncle Billy- he's destined for the cello...

New big boy haircut!

A trip to the "pard" with Uncle Ed and Nanna

Seesaw with Nanna

First trip out with reins on!

Tuesday 6th March marked Oliver's walking debut (i.e. no buggy at all). I attached some reins to him and planned to take him around the corner to the park- a four minute walk for me. In the first 100m ish he fell over eight times. Not bad! (No crying, by the way- I lent him a leg and he pulled himself back up) After about 100m I had to pick him up as he kept trying to go the opposite direction, and touch all the cars parked along our crescent. Even with me carrying him three times on the our way there, and letting him do steps in between (again, until he would stubbonly veer off the path nnd go the opposite way) it took us 17 minutes to get there. Slow but steady!

When we got there we waved to Mrs Pylon (the park is right next to the pylon who I tell him is married to the pylon he can see from him bedroom window- we call him Mr Pylon) and had a quick go on the swings as it had turned a bit chilly. He was giggly and enjoyed it, and I thought I'd better not sport with his good mood anymore and carried him back on my shoulders, letting him do the final stretch back home... which he wasn't pleased about!

But all in all he walked a fair way- we made it there at least. Will have to go again soon and work on his stamina :)

Our whirlwind weekend

We have had quite the hedonistic, social-butterfly last few days... not like us really!!

On Thursday evening we had some friends over for dinner and games (Blokus, a family favourite!) Ooh, I like to be experimental when we have people over for dinner, so I made a roast and made yorkshire puddings for the very first time. They tasted like they are supposed to, so it was a success!

Ben was off on Friday again so we took Oliver swimming and met up with a friend there. Ben works opposite so he took us in to see his desk since we'd never actually been in to BP. It was pretty much dead there and no-one was in his office since it was flex Friday. I LOVE the work-life balance :) We also raided the vending machines since he still gets money on his lunch card on non-work days! Mmm, so we stocked up on chocolate bars and cereal bars too.

In the evening Ben and I went to see 'War Horse' at the cinema (with free Tesco clubcard tickets!) while our friends DJ and Kirsty looked after Oliver and put him to bed (well done them!) We'd been wanting to see it for a while and it was good... although not really what we were expecting. A bit like 'Black Beauty' in the war, really, and quite mushy and sentimental which is a shame since neither of us are very into animals. It was still very beautiful and had lots of storylines (you follow the horse through the war and he is owned by different sides, some nasty and some great, and there is a great bit when it ends up in No Man's Land...) Worth seeing but not buying, I think.

On Saturday morning we went to a family fun day at the local science centre, Satrosphere. It was quite small but brilliant and everything was hands-on: a bit like the cool 'Launch Pad' children's bit in The Science Musem in London. Oliver toddled around happily poking buttons and pulling levers and then we got to go inside a gigantic bubble!! It was fun and rather geeky so right up our street.

Our hedonistic, social-butterfly-ness culminated with the 'Granite City Ball' on Saturday evening. It was a formal oily/geological dinner and ball evening, fundraising for the RNLI (lifeboats) and the Geological association :) It all began with a drinks reception and some traditional bag-piping. Dinner was suitably posh and small but very delicious... the starter was a lentil 'soup' served on a slate!! I really wish I'd taken a photo: we were genuinely served a salady thing on SLATE. Yummy though! Main course was chicken stuffed with haggis and some other yummy bits, and then raspberry cheesecakey icecreamy thing for pudding. In case you are wondering how expensive tickets were, BP sponsored a couple of tables, so we didn't pay a thing!! We were on a table with other BP-ers, including Ben's boss' boss' boss and his wife! He was great though and very friendly, making sure I kept ordering more posh soft drinks on his tab he'd got for our table. (It's a bit surreal being a things like this sometimes!) After two courses he got all the men on our table to swap places so we could meet other people and he ended up sitting next to me so by the end of the evening I had had lots of time to put in good words for Ben including a man who will be on his deciding panel and will decide where we will be sent next. I think I got in all the right things: wouldn't mind going foreign (!), not desperate to go down South and happy to stay up here, Ben fancies working in Exploration... :) It made Ben laugh that I got to chat to all these men with 'influence' when he'd hardly spoken to them before.

After dinner was a ceildih (sp??!!) which was LOADS of fun. Ben was highland flinging with other BP-ers when I needed to sit down for a bit, we found out that we have NO idea how to waltz and it was just great. We left 'early' at 11.30pm to get back for the babysitters (DJ and Kirsty again, poor them!!) and found all well there.

Sunday was church in the morning and I am happy to report that Oliver is improving at staying still-ish and in our pew for Sacrament meeting (the first hour of church when we take the sacrament) This is a major breakthrough for us since he is always making mad dashes to the front of the chapel. You just can't seem to hold a good man down. On Sunday afternoon we had dinner with some MORE friends. Wow, we are lucky. It was yummy and great company, and they looked after Oliver by cunningly arranging a laptop playing episodes of 'Peppa Pig' in front of him during dinner. Worked a treat!

What a brilliant, brilliant weekend, we're very fortunate to live up here and to have great friends and so much going on! My life is now complete :)



I didn't get any good photos from the weekend (mainly me making rubbish faces in them), but here are a couple of okay ones:

Me explaining the camera??

Ben is just about in there... it was so fast!

My black tied husband