Josiah @ 11 Weeks….

He really is turning into a lovely baby!  Not that he wasn’t before, but he’s chunky to cuddle, smiles at the drop of a hat and is just lovely!  I know it sounds silly when people ask ‘are you enjoying him?’ but I truly am!  I love our days together when its just the two of us and we gurgle and coo at each other and I don’t have to feel guilty that Joel might be feeling put out.   Although to be honest, I think Joel thinks he’s lovely too!  If I am cooing over Josiah he will come over to coo as well, and giggle if he gets a smile or a yawn.

He was 11 weeks old yesterday and I took him along to be weighed as he’d dropped a channel on
the percentile chart after 5 weeks of green nappies.   I was told that the sample I’d sent to hospital had come back with no issues which was fine as he’d actually gone back to mustard yellow nappies a couple of days ago!  I guess it’s a mystery as to what happened but everything that was  worrying me has cleared up, his eyes are no longer gunky or squinty, his cradle cap looks 100 times better and his tummy is back to normal.  And to top it all off, he had gained a pound in two weeks and is now 14lbs 7oz!!

 

He is finding his hands now and looks like a mini Mr Burns rubbing his fingers together, just because he can!  He likes pulling his tops up and feeling the fabric.  He’s been putting his hands to his mouth and licking them but the elusive thumb hasn’t made it in yet.  In his baby chair he swipes at the toys on the bar above him and likes making contact.

He is a chatty fellow and when he knows he has your sole attention he loves to coo and make noises and smiles and chuckles if you make them back to him.

He is still feeding well and I am beginning to express a bottle a day to practise with him.  It’s my anniversary on Friday so Steve and I thought we would attempt an evening out and my Mum is babysitting so he has got to take a bottle!  Mind you, knowing him, if I feed before I go, he will have a happy play time, go to sleep and not even miss us but the milk has got to be on standby just in case really.  Plus, it’d be nice to have a glass of wine!!

So far he has taken the bottle with a lot of grumbling.   He clearly accepts that the flavour is right, but the receptacle is wrong!  We will keep persevering though.  

We’ve just come through two very rough days and nights of no sleep as I decided to clear the house of Easter Eggs to start a healthy eating regime this week, so of course I ate them.  But having looked it up, it seems that chocolate can cause breast fed babies gassiness and I would have to agree as he has been so upset with gurgly tummy for two nights and two days and I have been bouncing him around and winding a lot and he could only settle upright, the second he was laid in his basket his face would grimace and you could see he had pains.  I felt awful, as there wasn’t really anything I could do other than offer him gripe water and cuddles.  The damage to my milk was done and we are now out on the other side.  It could also have been the cabbage I ate on Sunday all combined to make the worst sleep possible.  Plus combine that with a Wonder Week leap and growth spurt and it’s a right calamity!!

But the storm is passing and I am looking forward to the magic 12 weeks when all wind issues and gripeyness are meant to be over!!!

Little Amendment

I thought the dining room was looking a little bland and envisaged a striped paper on the chimney breast in duck egg and blue to match the colours in there.

Lo and behold a brand new wallpaper in the perfect colours was half price in Laura Ashley!

I love it! Next step the flooring!!

Blogging Every Day In May

Ive been following the blog of Rosalilium for a little while now.  Mainly as she began extolling the virtues of Birmingham which is my nearest city, and one which is seriously under estimated throughout the UK!!  I cannot for the life of me remember how I came across her blogging, but I will put that down to the baby brain I am currently suffering from.  Sleep deprivation and a heavy cold do not combine to create a top of the morning Kate by any means.

Anyway, she has set this challenge, to blog every day in May #BEDM and although this blog is about following the day to day lives of me and my babies, there is more to me than being a Mum, and I feel that it would be fun to wrack my brain to come with a blog post for each daily theme.

It will help you learn a bit more about me other than the selfie taking, snot wiping, food producing, sleeping when I can person I have become of late!!

I am not technically minded and can’t get the badge to work on my side bar, so here is the picture instead as I can save a jpeg!!

Anyway, blogging daily is a serious challenge when your time is meant to be taken up with 10 week old babies and entertaining toddlers, so lets see how I do with it!!  I have seven days to prepare at any rate!  🙂

10 Weeks Later….. (Plus a day!!)

Josiah turned ten weeks old yesterday, and I can’t believe in two weeks time he’s been here nearly a quarter of a year!  And if I carry on feeding myself I will earn my Bronze boobies!!  (I don’t know where it began, but three months of breast feeding is bronze boobies, six months is silver boobies and one year is gold boobies!!)

Feeding has been going fine.  He is reducing the time it takes, so a feed will only take between 10-15 minutes during the day, sort of every 3-4 hours now, but at night he is sleeping from 9pm after a good feed, and going through to 3am which is a marvellous 6 hours.  Then we sometimes have a bit of a struggle to poop, but once that is sorted he settles back down for another 4 hours so I cannot complain at all.

He is a very smiley boy at the moment.  He loves to see us first thing in the morning and breaks out with a huge grin!  He’s also very happy later in the afternoon.  He seems to have developed his own routine which is wake up about 8am, and I either get him dressed, or on Joel’s nursery days just take him out in his sleepsuit to get Joel there on time.  He then sleeps for about 3-4 hours, has a feed, a short awake time and sleeps some more.   He has a longer awake time in the afternoon, and may go back to sleep at about 4pm for a couple of hours.  He’s normally awake by 6pm and then sits in bed with me watching the ipad until his last feed between 8 and 9 pm before his long night sleep.

His nappies are still not quite right so yesterday I managed to get a new sample and we walked round to the hospital to drop it off for testing.  It was probably one of the freshest samples they’ve ever had as it was there within 15 minutes!!  Ha ha!!

Josiah still likes lying and looking at the world from his baby mat.  He certainly has a preference to tilt his head to the right and he has got a bit of flat head that side.  I try to encourage him to tilt it the other way by sitting that side and putting his toys there and it works for a bit, but whether it will round out again I don’t know.  It’s weird to think their skulls are so soft still!  He also likes his bouncy chair and will sit in that happily for ages.  If he is being held, he likes to be upright to look over your shoulder and walked around.  He is not a baby who likes to sit still in your arms unless asleep.  And even then he seems to prefer being put in his pram.  I really don’t seem to create cuddly children 😦  Ironically, our dog would love nothing more than to be invited to sit on our knee and be cuddled.  Maybe she got all the cuddly genes!!

He is a strong baby and he is learning to swing his legs up and has nearly rolled over a couple of times but not quite made it.   I really can’t remember what ages or stages babies are meant to do these things, but I do know all babies have their own schedules so am not worrying too much!  He is a good smiler and that is enough for me!!

Here we are with Mummy squeezed onto the play mat as well!  Joss really seemed to see himself in the phone and posed beautifully!!

 

 

He’s not in his cot yet, he still sleeps in his basket by me in our room, but he’s not as small in the cot as Joel was at this age!!  He loves lying there and looking at his wall stickers whilst I get dressed in a morning.  I will miss him when he moves into his own room 😦  I love this outfit though, it was a gift from my Aunty and Uncle!  And he’s so cute in it!

 

And here’s me with my two boys.   I know all these selfies are rather self indulgent, but I realised I don’t have many pictures of just me and Joel whereas I took a lot of Joel with his Daddy and others.  So for me to have pictures of us together, I have to take them myself!  Not to be too morbid, but if anything were to happen to me, I want Joel and Joss to have evidence of our happy times.

 

Admittedly, Josiah looks a bit stunned here!  Hee hee!!

 

 

Joel Turned Three :)

Here we all are on Saturday, when we had a little family gathering for Joel’s birthday.  This post has a lot of photos all out of order, so I’ll do my best to remember what happened when!!

 

Joel and Martha had fun using Theo and Isaac’s old dressing up clothes!!

 

This climbing frame was the main present which we and his grandparents all contributed towards.  I bought it from an online company which had great reviews and great prices.  This one was £1200 reduced to £450 in a sale.  I pre-ordered it before Christmas and it was delivered last month.  It’s sat as planks of wood in our garage for a month and took Steve’s Dad 3 days to assemble.  We also had to level the section of garden for it to go on, so it was a big Easter project and we couldn’t have done without the help for it, but we look on it as an investment for the future garden playtime of both boys really!

 

We’re really pleased with it.  There are two parks nearby, one is across a busy road and more suitable for older kids, and alot of teenagers use it to hang out at, and hte other is on my parents estate and is tiny and not worth the walk there, so now he has a park of his own in the garden.

 

Martha enjoyed helping him with his presents.  You wouldn’t think she was a whole year younger than Joel would you?!

 

Then on Joel’s proper birthday we all went to Church as it was Easter Sunday, and went out for a lunch at the local carvery.  Steve’s dad loves the carvery!! Then it was home again for more presents and cake…  We used the bottom cake today and Joel got to blow the candles out again and have Happy Birthday sung which he loved!

 

 

   

He had his presents from us on Sunday as he had to have something to unwrap on the day!  We got him a Megabloks Percy set, a dino game (like hungry hippos which was technically free from Asda at christmas with an offer and we saved it), a Diesel and Diesel 10 train figure for his Brio track and some pyjamas.

What else, oh yes, on the Saturday Steve decided to light the chiminea, so the kids all thought that was brilliant.  Joel had an outfit ready courtesy of his big boy cousins, and I made them do it at the bottom of the garden.  We all still smelt very smoky though!!  It wasn’t so much a fire as a big smoke!!

  

Here’s me and Joss.  He had his injections last Tuesday (I’ve missed a weeks’ update so must rectify that soon) and was very grizzly and clingy for the onset of Steve’s parents visit, but soon felt better and was a wonderfully happy boy in time for the weekend.

 

Whether Joel appreciated the effort which went into his cake or not I’ll never know, but enough people have said they were impressed to please me!!  It took 5 hours, and I really underestimated how tricky fondant icing is!  I don’t know whether I’ll be so ambitious again, but it was fun to create it, and the cake itself stayed tasty inside!

This was Saturday evening after both boys had been bathed to get rid of the smoke smell.  Both were very tired and were asleep for 7.00pm leaving a free evening for Steve and I to watch more of An American Office (as i’ve never seen that series and am really liking it!!)

here are some more of my family on the Saturday.  Aunty Amy with Grandad and Martha trying to share her rabbit with Josiah, and my sister Sarah in a rare smiling photo as she doesn’t like pictures and won’t be on them very often!!  They both enjoyed their happy Josiah cuddles.

 

During the afternoon we had an Easter Egg hunt for the kiddies, and also an ice cream bar.  Well, I had a tub of vanilla, with sauces and sprinkles and cones.  Everyone had one so Joel wanted one, took a lick and gave his to Daddy.  Then he cried as he did want one really, so on having a second ice cream, still didn’t want it so it went to Martha.  He’s a funny three year old!

Here’s Steve and his family who came up to help with the garden project.  They have a new puppy called Oscar who is a bit of a liability when it comes to food, so it does make visits a bit more complicated as our dog doesn’t try and help herself ever, and doors have to be shut, our bin has to be relocated and for a party with a buffet laid out and toddlers eating at dog level, dogs have to be shut away.

 

Here’s me with my sisters and mum.   They are all much better at posing than I am.  Look at my weird bendy legs.  I need a lesson in looking more svelte!!

 

Joel is here enjoying his birthday cake with the vanilla layer.

And some more sheep pictures.  They were a very cute pair!!

All in all, it was a busy weekend but the party itself was very relaxed and just right.  I think too many people would have overwhelmed Joel a bit too much and he knows and loves his cousins so it was perfect.  It was lovely to have both my sisters there as we don’t get together all that often with one from Wales and the other Nottingham and Joel enjoyed having Grandma, Grandad, Granny and Grandpa to spoil him rotten!!

The 8 Week Checks…..

On Tuesday Josiah was 9 weeks old, and went along for his 8 week check.

He had developed the worst case of cradle cap I’d ever seen, it was all down his forehead to his eyebrows and he’d also scratched himself right by his eye which looked terrible so I thought how typical it was.  He also still had a gunky and squinty left eye which despite me putting a drop in 4 times a day, was still not quite right.

Anyway, he saw the Dr first and was pronounced healthy with no problems.  He said to keep oiling his head, to keep using the drops and also that he’d not got enough green poop on the last visit for the hospital to test so I have to try again!  I have a little pot to try to get it in 😦  Then I have to rush it along to the hospital within 2 hours.  Fun times ahead!

Then we went along to the nurse and she got the rotavirus drops out first, and he was very resistant, as he’s not known anything except breast milk and didn’t know how to swallow them without sucking so that took ages to get them down.

And then it was his two injections, one per thigh and he howled!!  Proper loud yells, but the moment it was over I latched him on and he fed and was happy enough by the time we left her room.

Finally it was over to the health visitor for weighing.  They took one look at his head and prescribed me some heavy duty ointment which they advised to leave on for 24 hours before washing off and brushing the scales away.  I put it on him yesterday and he was like a vaseline covered gunky creature, but it has done a great job.  I’m sure that he’s feeling itchy with it all as he keeps rubbing his face on shoulders and arms trying to scratch it and making his face very dry looking.

He’s only put 5oz on in the past fortnight (13lbs 7oz), so that means he’s dropped down to the 75th percentile.  I’m sure that it is to do with his green nappies.  They said not to worry and they only get concerned if he drops another ‘channel’ so I’m to get him weighed in another couple of weeks.  I guess I’m worrying that my milk isn’t enough for him.  I love being able to breast feed him.  I love the cuddles and quiet times, the sleepy bed feeds and the fact it’s our private time.  But obviously if we have to go to bottles for him then we would.  It would be a big change though and I’d have to learn the sterilisation methods and be really organised 😦  Breast is so much easier.

Anyway, this is my little man on getting home, so I think he was feeling ok at this point!!

He didn’t sleep well though and went from his regular 6 hours, feed then another 4 hours sleeping time to every two hours again.   Couple that with Joel getting into bed with us at some point as well and none of us had a good night at all.  Then yesterday Josiah was very clingy, and wanted Mummy cuddles all day which was fine by me.  I love cuddling him!  However, Steve’s parents are visiting for Easter and Joel’s birthday, so would have preferred some happy Joss cuddles too, but it wasn’t happening at all.

Last night though after a raised temperature with a little calpol to help out he slept his 6 hours again and then 5 hours.  So he is back to normal in one regard, but has now developed the same cough that Joel has had, so both are going to the Dr again this afternoon so I can get them checked over before the 4 day weekend.  I do not want to be rushing to hospital over Easter thank you very much!!  Hearing a new(ish) baby cough is such a worry.  I just want Joel to stop coughing, (it’s been back for a week now) as he’s been off and on with it over a month.  I want everyone to be fit and well for Joel’s birthday weekend!  Of course, with worrying about the boys I’ve got run down too, and I’ve been feeling full of cold but I will soldier on and take as much paracetamol as I can to get through till next week.  Then it will be a quiet and relaxing week for us with possibly a birthday treat day out for Joel.  Mum and Dad want to take him out to a zoo or animal farm or something.

I am a creature of habit and like things to run to order!!  Everything gets a bit upside down when the inlaws visit, but they love seeing Joel and he loves seeing them.  And my Father in Law is building the climbing frame for us which is brilliant.  It’s for his birthday and lots of family members have contributed towards it which is lovely.  It’s sort of an investment for his playing future!  There isn’t a decent playpark suitable near enough so I figured he could have one in his garden instead!!

Bye bye Pink Bedroom!

It has been a while since I’ve reported on our house decoration!

And that’s because it’s hard to think about decorating with a new born baby!!  Ha!

But yesterday my lovely Dad came round to help remove the three shades of pink that was our bedroom.

I started to help but that was with Joss being asleep.  He soon woke, and needed a nappy change, a feed, dressing, a bath and hair wash (due to the oil all over him) and then we nipped out to get his hand and foot prints taken in clay.  We’d had Joel’s done at 8 weeks and therefore I felt we had to have Josiah’s done the same!  It’ll look lovely when finished and I think I’ll hang them in the dining room.

Then it was back to it and more stripping.  Then I made us pizza for lunch with salad (leftover really from the previous nightmare Tesco shopping trip of yester post) and my work colleague popped round with some large round cake tins!  A lady at work had seen my facebook plea for something over 9inches and had responded!  Yay!  So I sat and chatted for an hour whilst my Dad carried on without me.   Then he asked what paper I’d got, and the answer was I hadn’t!  So off to B&Q I went to return a towel holder, but that had gone over the 45 day return thing, so I got a credit note.  I bought more lining paper, wallpaper paste, filler and a pot of paint.  I didn’t like any of their wallpapers so went to Laura Ashley instead who were having a sale.

I’d decided on a shimmery but neutral white paper for one wall and the paint colour is Jasmine white so Steve is going to get his white walls, and then I think I fancy a nice blue floral/stripe duvet and curtains.  I think.   I’m still not entirely sure, but blue and white feels clean and relaxing to me at the moment.  Still, anything will go with the white paper and walls so I will head to Dunelm Mill to see what they have in after payday I think.  I didn’t like any of the Laura Ashley sets and they were very expensive indeed.  And by the time I got back, my Dad had removed all the wallpaper.  We’re hoping to put the new paper up tomorrow and then paint at the weekend 🙂

I have also been looking for some new furniture as nothing in our room matches at all.  One wardrobe came from my Grandma’s house, one from my sisters and I have a very cheap Ikea chest of drawers.  We can’t really afford expensive furniture, but we could go a bit more high end from Ikea now!!  I think some white wardrobes, bedside tables and a chest of drawers would do.  And a full length mirror as I don’t have one upstairs so never really know what I look like at the moment!!  I could sort all that for under £1000 so am saving towards that now.

With Joel’s room done, the nursery done and the bathroom done, once our room is sorted we can then think about hall, stairs and landing and a new front door!  Oh, and the garden which my mother in law assures me, Steve’s Dad can sort in three days!  I’m not sure he wants that level of a project whilst they’re here next week, but something has to be done in order for the climbing frame to be assembled in time for Joel’s birthday!  And Steve wouldn’t let me book the professionals to do it, (all of whom said it would be a week’s work for two men plus a mini digger!!) so it’ll be all hands on deck and I really hope that the sun shines all next week!!

Dr Dr

So on Tuesday as my parents were busy I had both boys for the day.   I wanted to get Joel’s feet measured as his size 6’s were feeling a bit on the small side so I decided it was time to tackle town with two on my own!!  Then we had to go to clinic with Josiah and get him checked over by a Dr.

So we went along to toddlers in the morning, had some lunch and Joel was getting a bit bored and floppy so we decided to load the car up and head off.  We parked at Tesco and walked along to Clarks for shoes.  He had indeed grown to a size 7 so we chose a new pair which he wore straight away and we headed to clinic.  There was a huge queue of people so as it was a sunny day we headed to the park for half an hour to let the rush die down a bit.  Joel was the only one in it, and we went on the see-saw, the swings, he had a bounce, a run around and a climb and then we headed to see the birds in the aivary before heading back to the clinic.

As I wasn’t getting Joss weighed the HV just put us down to see the Dr, but we still had quite a wait and it was very hot in the waiting room.  Joel was getting tired and Josiah woke up and wanted a feed.  I was up a corner and trying to be as discreet as possible (I don’t expose myself at all!) but I still got some looks from older ladies, or so I thought.  Maybe I was being paranoid.  Anyway, Josiah then pushed a poop through so we all went to the loo to do a nappy change and on getting back we were called through to the Dr.

I’d saved the nappy for him, and he took a sample to send for testing.  He just said it sometimes happens and not to worry, to keep doing what I’m doing and it may resolve itself, it may not.  It’s just too much bile coming through but if he’s not ill in other means, then it happens.  He also told me to keep oiling Joss’s head for the cradle cap and prescribed us more eye drops for the sticky eye.

We walked back to Tesco, and Joel then complained his foot was hurting with his new shoe.  On closer inspection, yes, on the the tongue there is a hard lump which presses onto the top of his foot, sort of where the stitching is too bulky, so I’ll be taking them back as faulty and hopefully exchanging them.  I don’t want to spend that much money on shoes for him for him to not be able to wear them!!  (I could buy at least two pairs for what his cost!!)

Then this is where I was a bit over ambitious.  We had nothing prepared for dinner so I thought I’d risk going into Tesco to buy a pizza for dinner.   But it was too much, Josiah began to cry, Joel was pickley and I was stressed.  By the time I’d grabbed a pizza and some salad bits and got to the tills I was the exasperated mother looking pink and sweaty with hair falling about me in a wild manner!  Joel asked for his noonie and said he’d dropped it somewhere.  Josiah was getting louder so I said ‘noonie has gone.  We’ll find another at home’ and feeling like a terrible mother stuck Joel on the buggy board and whisked them both back to the car crying!  I was intending to ring Tesco to ask whether anyone had found a scroggy little white comfort blanket later when it turned out he hadn’t dropped it at all, it was under the pram but had been quite willing to leave it and get home.

Both boys then fell asleep in the car on the drive home, Josiah only after a massive cry where I couldn’t do anything being stuck in traffic 😦

After pizza I got Joel into bed and he started to cough.  He’d been fine all afternoon, and whilst at the Dr’s (why can’t illnesses take place when convenient, like in the Dr surgery!) and was up in the night a bit.   He seemed ok for nursery but was very floppy last night on getting home and cried at the dinner table to go to bed early.  He slept from 6pm until 11.30pm, then had cuddles with me and stories until 12.30 and slept till 6am.   He’s currently home from nursery as he had a temperature and a funny tummy, (he really seems to suffer with snot and mucas when he has a cold) and is fast asleep on the sofa.

 

My Mum is coming round this afternoon so I may get chance for a nap then.  I should of course be napping now but know the second I close my eyes Joss will wake so I’m powering through at the moment!  Despite feeling the sleep deprivation today.  And Joss is still doing well with his 5 hours but it’s the Joel being up which is making me tired at the moment.  And I went to bed at 8pm last night!  Yawn!

Oh, and Josiah had two normal coloured nappies yesterday afternoon, but went back to green overnight and they’re green again today.  Very strange.  I will wait to see what the test results say with interest!  We’re seeing the same Dr next week for his 8 week jabs so hopefully we’ll get some more information then if not before 🙂

Flying Time……

I can’t believe how fast the time is passing by.  Josiah is already 8 weeks old!!  He has his jabs next Tuesday and I’m not really looking forward to that one 😦  Poor little man.  We are going to the Dr’s this afternoon as well though as we’ve had green poopy nappies since Friday and for a breast fed baby, that means something is the matter.  I’m not just talking mild yellow/green, I’m talking spinach green and mucasy 😦   Yuk!

He’s absolutely fine in himself, and green nappies have been a bit regular the past few weeks, but mainly one or two overnight with mustard yellow through the day which I put down to him being a bit lazy when feeding in the evening and taking too much air in as it’s a sign of colic.  He has certainly been a bit more unsettled with some burps needing serious attention and we’re working on the latch, but to have five days of nothing but green is a bit bad.  I have raised it previously with the health visitor who said as long as they go back to mustard coloured then not to worry and on speaking to her again yesterday she said to take him to clinic this afternoon to have a Dr check him over and maybe send a sample off.

He has had a bit of a sniffley cold this past week which could be causing it but I want to make sure.  Luckily my Mum has lent us her car again today.  My parents can’t have Joel for his normal Tuesday so I’m taking him along to our church toddler group in a minute and it’s a drive away rather than a walk.  Well, I could walk, but Joel couldn’t.  And it’d take about 45 minutes probably!!

Josiah has also got really bad cradle cap on his head, and over one part of his forehead.  He’s very crusty looking which is such a shame when he’s a good looking baby!  I’m moisturising him with oil a few times a day and brushing his scalp with a soft brush but it’s not seemingly helping so the Dr may need to prescribe something stronger for it.

Joel on the other hand has been a very good boy since the road incident last Thursday.  He is making a concerted effort to be good which is lovely and I’m making sure I praise him for him and tell him I’m very pleased with him.  This morning he dressed himself (his pants are on backwards but I’ve left them until I can amend it when he goes to the loo!!) but his trousers are fine.  He picked his own clothes from the drawer and proudly told me that ‘he was a useful engine!  He even folded his pyjamas up and put them in his bed for tonight!  He’s so mad on Thomas the tank engine at the moment.  He asked Grandma for Hiro, Spencer and Toby so she’s E-baying like mad to get them cheaply for his birthday.  We’ve got him Diesel and Diesel 10 and a Megabloks Percy set.    Not to mention the climbing frame for outside!!  It’s going to be built next week so I’m very excited!

He still comes out with funny little words.  He surprises me and makes me laugh about 10 times a day!  I wish I could remember it all, but it’s impossible.  Pushing the pram with Joel on the buggy board up to church on Sunday we got to a bit of a hill and Joel piped up ‘come on Mum, you can do it’ as I was puffing and panting a bit!  Then he said ‘mum, you are strong’ because on Thomas it’s often said that the engines were strong in character!  He is like a little sponge soaking up all the words at the moment.   He loves ‘reading’ his Thomas stories at nighttime, after I’ve read it to him, he has the book and remembers certain lines and which ones go with with picture and talks me through the story afterwards.  He also likes re-enacting his Thomas films with his trains.  He got Misty Island Rescue recently from Granny and Grandpa, and it opens with Diesel taking flatbeds of Joby wood and losing it over a cliff, so we currently have lots of Joby wood falling about and Thomas saving Diesel (who is actually Percy since he doesn’t yet have Diesel!!).  He is very good at playing and creating scenes and stories.

 

Aiming High

Joel has asked for a Thomas cake for his 3rd birthday.

I have made his first and second birthday cakes, so want to have a go at a Thomas cake this time round.

Here’s the rainbow cake of 2013….

And the giant cupcake of 2012….

 

And I am hoping to be able to create something like this…..

Wish me luck!!!!