How did we end up in March?! + Zach's Sleep Training

I took a trip down south with the boys to see my family!

The laid-back approach to eating lunch...

The 9-hour train journey home...  keeping Oliver busy!!

Reunited! My boys watching the dolphins at Aberdeen harbour

February has been a big baking month for me and Oliver

Ben's Mum came to stay! A lovely break had by all- especially me!

Oliver coaxed Nanny T on to the digger :)

Getting grown up

Ben pointing out lighthouses at Aberdeen beach

An amazing sunny day in Stonehaven

Zach eyes up the icecream

Hoodles playbarn!

Ben and Zachy baby

So all in all a very happy time up here.

Zach's Sleep Training

The past week has been tiiiiring because we finally bit the bullet on Zach's night feeds. He is 9 and a half months old and was in a happy cycle of getting me up four times a night for feeds, every night... so I put my foot down and told him NO MORE MILK IN THE NIGHT. Here is the proof that sleep training works, and it is making us all happier:

Night 1: 
Woke at 10.20pm. We told him 'no more milk, it's sleepy time'... we soothed and left... he cried... after 5 minutes we soothed and left... he cried... 7 minutes... soothed... etc. He fell asleep by himself at 10.55pm. Wahoo! The first time he'd woken and gone back with no milk.
Woke again at 2.35am and we did the same regime... this time he fell asleep after an hour, 3.35am
Woke for good, happily, at 7am.

Night 2:
Woke at 10pm (uh oh) Same regime. This time it only took 13 minutes. Easy peasy.
Woke again at 3.40am... he tested the new regime and was up until 4.50am.
Woke for good at 7.30am.

Night 3:
Woke at 1.50am (wow!) Same thing. Took until 3.35am: zzzzz.
Woke just before 7.30am (HE ONLY WOKE ONCE? Wahoo!)

Night 4:
Woke at 4.35am (!!!!!!!) Same thing. Took until 5.35am, zzz again!
Woke at 7.30am.

Night 5:
Woke at 2.40am (not bad still!) Neaaaarly got himself back to sleep in 15 minutes but then got very cross... ended up practically screaming himself to sleep two hours later (he was calm when we went in though!) That was the saddest night.
Woke at 7am.

Night 6:
Woke at 4.45am(!!!!!) Same thing. Went in four times but it definitely made him worse so decided to leave him to it and fell asleep a lot quicker after that. Maybe 6am?
Woke for good at 8am.

Night 7: 
Woke at 5.40am (woweeeeeee! He was asleep by himself for 10.5 hours!) I went in once and he clearly didn't want me in there and was pushing me away so I left him to it again at 6.15am and he fell asleep happily.
Woke for good at 7.45am.

So! There you go. Some people might think it is unkind, but if you saw how quickly he is soothed once we go in, he really is totally fine. Also, he is happier during the day and I am too, since we are both getting more and more interrupted sleep! More sleep will make him be able to take in more around him, me function better too... wahoo! I can highly recommend, especially since the nights were so interrupted anyway it is not really any worse! Ta-da. Here goes Night 8!

Happy, snowy January- lots of photos!

Cousins being serious (taken while Z and I went down South)

Zach playing with cousin Ava

Brotherly cuddles (NOT a headlock!)

O's new-found interest in paint... one of my many cars!

Two big boys!

Building a house for his sheep, Baa Baa

The view from our front door

Oliver trying to catch some snow in the garden

Oliver spinner Zach around and around in the door bouncer

Oliver sledging to Toddler group in the village :)

Duvet and blanket den

Road outside our house

Hello, here is a mumble jumble of snowy and indoor photos. Ta-da!! :)

Happy January

We are moving quickly through this month!!

Here are my boys in the village, looking for the cows.

More photos to follow, but they keep uploading all funny :(

Nanna in Cornwall

At the weekend my Nanna in Cornwall passed away.

She was nearly 82 and had been battling cancer for quite a long time, so at the end it was a relief. I am happy that I believe she will now be at rest and not in any more pain, and that she will be reunited with her son. My Uncle Richard died before I was born, so that was something she talked about before she went, and something I have been thinking of frequently since her passing.

June 2011, around their Diamond Wedding Anniversary

July 2012, when they met us in the Lake District and met Zach

I am thankful that I last saw her when she looked well. I am looking forward to the funeral next week with the understanding that we will see her again one day, and that she is just out of sight for now.

Here is a beautiful poem that I read this week:

I am standing by the seashore.
A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze
and starts for the blue ocean.
She is an object of beauty and strength,
and I stand and watch
until at last she hangs like a speck of white cloud
just where the sun and sky come down to mingle with each other.

Then someone at my side says, 'There she goes!
Gone where? Gone from my sight - that is all.
She is just as large in mast and hull and spar
as she was when she left my side
and just as able to bear her load of living freight
to the places of destination.
Her diminished size is in me, not in her.

And just at the moment when someone at my side says,
'There she goes! ' ,
there are other eyes watching her coming,
and other voices ready to take up the glad shout :
'Here she comes!'

My Boxing Day Nippy Dip!

This morning I did my Nippy Dip at Aberdeen beach (finally!) Amazingly, the temperature was just about positive (1 or 2 degrees I think) and the sun was shining so that was an encouraging start!

My initial thought when I got to the check-in/registration desks over the road at the leisure centre was, "Uh oh, nearly everyone is in fancy dress and looks cooler than me" and then it was "I'm wearing less clothes than most people"!!! So I will know that for next year...

We were led out from the Beach leisure centre by a bagpiper!

Warm and dry celebrating afterwards, phew!

I raised £458 for Lyme Disease Action, thank you all who donated and supported me!! If you want you can still donate until January here: https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/twiggernippydipper

Christmas!

This year we are spending Christmas up here in Aberdeen, just the four of us. We feel very grown-up, and so far we haven't forgotten anything important like the cranberry sauce, yorkshire puds or cheese and crackers. Phew!

So far the family fun has consisted of:

- a visit to THE best Grotto in the world, at BA Country Stores. It was decked out in a huge, moving winter wonderland and Santa's workshop, with bits of trucks being assembled travelling over our heads and on conveyor belts... oh wow. Then Father Christmas spent so long with us, and reeled Oliver nicely in with a haribo sweet. Brilliant!!

- a cinema trip to see 'Brave' (great!!) which only costed £2.70, AND the boys were very good throughout- followed by a trip to McDonalds!! We both hadn't been for sooo long and we bought Oliver his first Happy Meal...! The chips went down a storm.

- lots of Christmassy baking

- Ben being poorly so we all snuggled in bed to cheer him up

- we made a gingerbread ruin!!! (the 'roof' is made of strawberry laces... we ran out of icing sugar to stick the real roof on!)

- more Christmassy baking- this is Ben and Oliver making mince pies together. So lovely

- before bed on Christmas Eve, the boys acting out all the parts in the Nativity

- leaving out a home-made mince pie for Santa and a carrot for the Reindeer. Oliver didn't think S.C. would need a drink, instead he was adamant for us to leave the mince pie in the cup

- Christmas day lunch!

- My husband looking especially handsome in his new jumper

... and it's only Boxing day!! More excitement when Ben's brother and sister come to visit at the weekend, yippee!