Boy number two, lover of electrical appliances

A video taken a couple of weeks ago in which Zach demonstrates his love of plugs.

Oliver the Tank Engine

I began writing this post a month ago, time got away from me!

I used to keep a daily journal, then when I became a Mum I wrote a couple of times a week, and now I have fallen off altogether! I am determined to get back on track since I have a hopeless memory (really, I have next to no memories of my childhood) and such lovely things are passing me by and I refuse to forget them and not be grateful for them!

So I have started scribbling the odd funny quote from Oliver, or something I want to remember about Zach and thought that I'd share, since they do totally crack me up :) And there are times and seasons for everything, and that is better than nothing!

Oliver the Tank Engine

Oliver has been obsessed with trains as long as I can remember. Definitely for 6 months, plus some probably. He can link trains to any conversion, and he chugs (moves his arms like pistons as though he is a train) from room to room and outside... anywhere! He doesn't walk, he doesn't run- he chugs. When Ben gets home from work Oliver greets him with,  "Hello Daddy! Let's chug around!" and so they do- around and around the sofas. It is very difficult to get him to stop, the most effective way my Dad found was to yell "red light!" and then "turntable!" and my lovely train/boy obediently stops and turns around.

It is hard work getting him away from his train set at mealtimes ("No! I want to chug away!") but once he is up to the table the train love continues. He suddenly gives a big sigh and says, "let's talk about steam trains!" And off he goes, chatting about funnels and how many wheels James has. We had cheese toasties for lunch today. When his came out of the grill Oliver said, "Ooh! There's STEAM- Woo-ooh!" Then he had a sip of his orange juice, which had just come out of the fridge:"ooh! It's cold! Like Percy! He says, "I want a scarf, I want a scarf!" (A favourite episode..)

He bumped his head the other day, I offered to rub and kiss it better. He bowed his head to me and said, "kiss my funnel"!! Sometimes he chugs in slow motion, really puffing and showing the strain, "ooh, it's rea-lly har-d, up Gor-dons's hi-ll..." and when I tell him he is a good boy he answers, "My not a boy, my a tank engine!" Our new favourite game is to turn on Classic FM and to use it as our chugging soundtrack. Dvorjak symphony number 9 was a big hit this week: "There's a cow on the track!" "The fat controller is going past on his bike!" Any piece will do, slow and beautiful ("It's a nice day for a chug around the Island of Sodor") or fast and frantic ("Hurry, hurry, hurry, sing the coaches")

The boy is hilarious, and every day brings a new train-related adventure.

Sunday photos, July 2013

Sunday, a church day. Always manages to be busier than the rest of the week, but lovely nonetheless. A good day to worship and serve at church, and spend time with my boys!

Summer Sunshine + HOUSE!!

What an AMAZING couple of weeks it has been- sunny, full of friends and family and small days out, all back home in Aberdeen. It was so lovely to be away down south, but when we settle somewhere new to me it always feels like home. I am lucky that I am adaptable like that naturally. But now I am not keen to move on anywhere, which is especially good news since WE ARE BUYING OUR FIRST HOUSE!!! The mortgage lenders are just finishing having everything go through at the moment- only one thing to go- a second valuation- since they didn't like the fact that the first was a standard Scottish one and not one of their chosen surveyors (ooh, picky!) but once that is done in a few days we should be all sealed and dealed! (dealt?! :D)

The house is in a village called Newmachar, which is 5 mins from where we live at the moment. It is lovely, with a good community feel and BUS ROUTES in and out! The best you could hope for and more really! Everything inside has been recently done and to an amazing standard. We actually put an offer on a different house at the beginning of last week, but got ourselves into an epic Scottish-style bidding war that we totally failed at! Then, *miraculously* a new house came on the market literally as we found that our offer on the other house was rejected. We jumped on it-it was just right- we saw it that night and put an offer in the next morning. We found out that our offer was accepted the next day. I can't quite believe that our speedy offer worked, it was only on the market for one afternoon!

To be honest this is an even better house than the first one we liked, and for a snip of the what the other one must have gone for! It is in pristine condition, the garden is more beautiful, it looks better from the outside. Maybe Heavenly Father had this in place for us a long time ago when Oliver got a place at Newmachar playgroup?! I can believe that of him :) Ben can cycle to work on a designated cycle path so I have the car and we will save all that petrol, AND it is the best possible place for keeping my violin pupils!!! Truly amazing.

Happy days, we have been truly blessed this past couple of weeks. We have worked hard to be ready for this but I believe that it is going to pay off very soon :) All fingers and toes are crossed that this last thing with the new home survey will go smoothly.

And now that the sun is out, I have been thinking about The Corrs. They always make me feel summery!

Visiting family/Ben on more work training

I have had such a lovely two weeks staying with my family while Ben has had two weeks of work training. He joined us for the weekends in Ipswich, including my birthday, which was lovely.
I loved spending time with my Mum. It was wonderful to get to know my growing teenage brothers. It was lovely to watch my boys playing trains with my Dad. I had a lovely time catching up with friends. It was great to see my boys play with their cousins who they rarely see. And it was very special to see my Grandparents as many times as possible while we were there.

Photos to follow when I am on the right computer!!

Pants

On Sunday afternoon I began potty training Oliver. He doesn't quite get it yet,  and has ZERO desire to sit in the potty or to give any notice at all... or even tell me when he's done something in his pants. I suppose I have got to laugh. The only reason I decided the time was right was because he keeps fishing around in his nappy and poking it out, or to the side, etc,  so we were having lots of accidents even with the nappy on!! What a game.  I just hung the washing out.  There were eight pairs of pants on the line- the work of two afternoons! The tally stands at 11 accidents, 1 (flukey!) success, plus 1 time where I caught him happily in action and we managed to get the tail end on the potty.

The only way is up!

Mellow Zach

I feel like I have been scraping by for the past couple of months- we have been trying to tackle Zach's cheeky night feedings for three months and his need for daytime milk from me was getting more and more obsessive (11 months old,  8+ times a day and he would scratch my face and neck from start to finish and was also getting a bit to keen to try out new acrobatic positions). On top of that he developed a new trait two months ago... extreme separation anxiety. He really would get very upset when he was held by anyone else, I was NOT allowed to leave the room and whenever we went out to anything in the village he clung to me. He was also at the height of his blood-curdling scream phase! Wo betide Oliver ever needing my attention,  poor good boy!

On one particular witching hour (4/5 o'clock-ish) in my despair I rang my Mum (on hands-freee, I was holding Zach is one arm and cooking the dinner with the other) quizzing her on whether she ever put any of us in childcare a morning a week!!! Her answer was... "It will pass"! And how right she was (as usual...)

Now I can type this because my dear second boy with the cute face has mellowed beyond belief. I decided that milk was a bit part of the problem, so over the past three weeks I have weaned him entirely off my milk. Life is truly blissful. He naps for two long stretches every day, Ben is able to put him to bed, HE HAS STOPPED SCREAMING! He has let other people hold him a couple of times for a couple of minutes each and there was even a smile once! Over the last three or so days he has been able to play a couple of metres away from me which is such a huge step for him! And, *drumroll* the past three nights he has SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT. He is back to being a joy to be around, and no longer drains everything I've got! I have ENERGY to do be a better wife, Mum, look after myself and am focusing on looking after other people. One friend was even concerned at quite how energetic I was- she called me manic!! Brilliant :) To top it all off it is SUNNY, I have a wonderful family, fabulous friends and going to church and living what I know to be true makes me so happy. Ahh, cloud nine!