Halloween Party!

The girls had their Halloween party today. I put lots of decorations up last night...bought cakes and we were ready! Lucy was a little orange pumpkin and Amelia a scary devil. Amelia only wore her costumeafter she insisted I put a 'face' on it like Lucy's! The monkey. She didnt have it on for long though.. she spilt some water on her top - so it had to come off...then the tights got wet...she spent a lot of the party in a t-shirt and knickers!!

But it was great fun. Natalie bought her witch Scarlett and the witch's cat/mini witch Daisy, Louise bought spider Jack, Fiona bought skeleton Ciaran, Miriam bough her pumpkins Maya and Darcey and a very very pregnant and uncomfortable Liz did very well and bought her little with Annabel!

Lucy spent most of the party asleep and missed it but it mostly involved lots of balloon kicking, cake and biscuit eating chaos but the children seemed to love it and us Mummys had a little conversation too!!

So happy Halloweeeeeeeen!!!

Amelia-ism of the day

We found a pair of socks that were too small for Lucy today, 'I know, lets give them to Bella'. What a clever little girl.

New Babies

Anna had her babies last night! Her section was booked for Wednesday but those babies wouldnt wait! Annabella Olivia and Stanley John (Bella & Stan) are the newest members of the family. Amelia has asked several times why they arnt Topsy and Tim anymore but has seen photos and said 'Ahhhhh'!!
I am just so emotional about it and keep welling up. Lord knows what I will be like when Ben and Dawn have their baby in December !! I cannot wait to meet them!
We bought our pumpkin for the girls Halloween party today and Amelia has spent the majority of the afternoon sitting on it, whilst bottomless. I dont know what her obsession is with feeling stuff on her bare bum! My Nanny Friday and Aunty Jo also visited today and she took off her bottoms to feel my Nanny's scarf on her bare bum too??? That child!
Lucy is back to fighting form again and I think will be having a career in the music industry... she just loves Amelia's keyboard...

Have been making the girls Halloween costumes, they are basically long tutus that makes dresses. Lucy's is an orange pumpkin and Amelia will be a red devil - though she wants to be a pumpkin too and has informed duncan he can wear the red dress...hmmmmm!!

Amelia-ism of the Day

'Are you old' to my aunty!!! cheeky monkey!!

The Cinema!

Today Amelia had her first trip to the cinema. Duncan took her to see Fantastic Mr Fox... of 'Mr Tantic Fox' as he is known in our house. She has been ridiculously excited about it all week. She loves the book ,Duncan has read it to her a few times at bedtime and she had seen film trailers. I kept telling her it would be a big room with a huge telly, that it would be very dark and very loud ... but I think she might have thought she was actually going to meet Mr Tantic himself!!
Duncan said she was a little scared at first as it was so loud but soon got into it and was asking very loud questions - especially about the surround sound noises! Luckily there were only a few other people in the cinema. She loved it and I am so glad they had their little treat together.

I stayed at home with Lucy who has been ill with a high temperature since Friday. Today the temperature had gone down but she was thoroughly miserable for most of the day, poor thing and has only gone back to her normal happy self since dinner. And considering that the clocks went back and they were up an extra hour today - they have both been very good girls!

Amelia-ism of the Day
While we were all in our bed this morning...
'Mummy, Lucy's donea pooh'
'No, I just checked her nappy - she hasn't'
'She has. It smells like garlic'
....it was Duncan's breath!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Another tooth!

Lucy has tooth no.2 and i suspect tooth no.3 is days away. She has not been well today - running a very high temp - hot all over - but mosty happy within herself. She has really perfected 'dancing' (bobbing up and down whilst seated) every time she hears music - so cute! She is also copying a lot of Amelias noises.... this was the 'monsters' at lunch..

Yesterday we went to Anna's for lunch and were joined by Natalie, Scarlett and Daisy. We had a lovely time, Anna has 6 days to go and was horribly uncomfortable but a gracious host, despite Amelia knocking over a vase, two airers of tiny babies clothes and smashing her ceramic loo brush holder!!! (replaced it today - felt awful!) Amelia also had her first real collusion of naughtiness with another child. Her and Scarlett were definately egging eachother on, sneaking up the stairs together, touching things they shouldnt etc. Officially I was cross buit inside I thought it was so cute. When I told them not to go upstairs again, Amelia said 'Come on Scarlett' and off they ran like a deadly duo!!

I love watching her playing with other children. She just loves the interaction and gets so excited. She talks a lot about being a 'big girl' but doesnt actually really get how to play with children yet. However, her and Scarlett have seen a lot of eachother since birth and both are very clever with more than a little bit of cheekiness so I am expecting them to be right little monkeys together!

And we have new settees!!! They have finally arrived and i LOVE them. They are just gorgeous! Amelia loves them too - mostly to run up and down and jump on - she keeps demanding that the new corner one is 'hers' and no one else can sit on it!

First photo is after our settees were taken out and we just used cushions for a settee.The second photo is before we rearranged the toy starage - but you can see how lush they are!!

Amelia-ism of the Day
'Dont have the medicine Lucy - its disgusting. I'll have it instead'
Amelia - who loves Calpol trying to get some of Lucy's. I hope she hasnt totally twigged on to the reverse psyhchology I use to get her to eat stuff!!!!!!!

A tooth, a little tooth!!

So Lucy has finally cut a tooth - it has been lurking beneath the skin for a good month and has finally come through. I actually dont think it has troubled her too much - nothing the teething gel couldnt cope with anyway. You can barely see it - so there wont be photographic evidence for a while - but me can definately feel it!
The tooth is a lovely end to what was a grim weekend for me. Friday night I came down with mastitis. I never really had any problems with Amelia but knew all the mastitis symptoms so when I felt a lot of pain, dizziness, nausea and was going hot to cold, I knew what it was. Typically this started on a Friday night so I couldnt go to the GP first thing and get anti biotics but NHS Direct proved to actually be quite brilliant and I got into a clinic at the hospital and emerged with a prescription within 5 minutes. However I spent the rest of Saturday in bed. I have never felt to wretched - it was awful - I couldnt even hold the squirming Lucy and still had too feed her through the pain (ouch!) but the anti biotics did kick in so quickly - by their bath time I felt ok to sort of sit there while Duncan did all the work! I think he may have kind of enjoyed his day alone with the girls - it just never happens normally.
This morning (monday) I am feeling so much better and we do the monthly shop as normal and get back to the car only to find.....it wont start. Flat battery. Typical. I have had quite a few flat battery moments recently - but only on the drive. Luckily, Duncan was only 30 mins away so I didnt bother the call-out people and we waited in the Tescos Cafe (Amelia was impressed to be allowed a donut!) til he arrived with the jump leads. The car will have its much needed service and possible new battery on Thursday.
Amelia's 'treat' in Tescos was a comic that she chooses. Today was a Fireman Sam comic. With a water pistol. Not the best freebie. Within milliseconds of being home she wanted it filled up and she attacked Duncan in his suit. I have to admit that part was pretty funny - but then Duncan got hold of it and we all got soaked. So I confiscated it for bathtimes only so he sneakily filled it up while he was running the bath and soaked us all again. There will be vengeance!!!

Amelia-ism of the day

'Mummy's got a sore boob'. To the neighbour. Male neighbour.

The Table Tent

Last night I made the girls a table tent. Amelia has been into hiding under covers, making tents and dens, so I saw this idea on another website and had to copy. A few old duvet covers and sheets from my mum provided the perfect materials.

Originally I wanted to do something fancy with windows and applique flowers, but Duncan stepped in and informed me that a proper 'tent' has nothing of the sort - hence the final result. He may like it more than the girls!!

Ameila has been in and out of it all day - and not liking it being rolled back so we can eat - I love that such a simple and quick thing has been such a success and will be played with/in for a long time!
You would not believe how long it took to get the photos above...most looked like this.......

The terror.

Lucy's favourite thing of the day? Trying to drink the bathwater during every second that she was in it. Strange child.

Amelia-ism of the day

me - 'Your halloween party is soon, what do you want to dress up as?'

Amelia - 'A pirate'

me - 'what about a beautiful red fairy called a devil'

Amelia - 'Actually no. A postman'

me - 'not a lovely red cinderalla type devil drss?'

Amelia - 'her dress is blue.'

What can I say to that!?!?!?!?!?

Bedtime Stalling Tactics

Amelia is starting to develop an even stronger aversion to bedtime. She has never been a fan of sleep, but is now starting to realise that she can attempt to talk herslef into staying out of bed a little longer. As I type, Duncan is reading her bedtime story - but I have already heard 'I dont want to go to sleep. Its boring' and an insistance that one of her teddies has to poo on the toilet. Others include deciding she 'needs' lots of kisses and cuddles (which she knows we find hard to resist), asking for one more story and complaining about aliens in her knicker basket (inspired by the book 'Aliens Love Underpants - she's not a complete loon!) eventually she does give in and goes to sleep well but i fear its only a matter of time before it turns into screaming tantrums :(
Lucy however, loves bedtime. One last feed before falling asleep all milk drunk in my arms..and not even the complaining of the terror across the hall wakes her til she is ready!

Last night Duncan was home very late and had been away the night before for a conference - there was no keeping Lucy awake - but I let Amelia, for the first time ever, as a treat, come downstairs and wait for Daddy. She sat with me in her little fleece all-in-one and drank hot milk as we watched Bob the Builder. Duncan got in at 7.45 so it was late for her - but not the latest she has managed to stay awake til and she loved it! she now calls her fleece all-in-one her 'treat'.

We have a new game in the house. Swing Lucy. Lucy goes in her Tigger doorway bouncer while I am going to be in the kitchen for a while cooking, washing up etc. She loves it. Amelia loves bouncing her in it. At first I would tell her to do it gently, but the harder she does it - the more Lucy laughs and the more Amelia laughs. It has now progressed to swinging. Amelia pulls her back as far as she can and swings her into the kitchen - I had to move the bin before she got high enough to kick it! They both find it incredibly amusing..

Amelia-ism of the Day

There have been many since I have last posted. but 'Mummy I need a new door. This ones in my way!' is my favourite - I can just hear her little voice ringing in my head (its in moi waaaaaaaay!)

A bit of This ... A bit of That!

Just a random update ... lots has been going on really.

First is a video of Lucy crawling - she crawled, commandod .. wiggled.. whatever you may call it to get her sister's balloon so I, like any good mother, moved it further away to make her crawl even more and get it!!

We have been growing sweetcorn this year...but (ahem) forgot to harvest it - when we did though - Amelia was most amused. This needs to be turned up loud but she has an interesting idea about where it came from ...

We did some paint stamping today - which Amelia loves - good fun and not too messy considering it has to be done indoors now - but Aunty Catherine arrived and it went downhill with Amelia being mostly painted on her legs, hands and face... cue the mid morning shower!

Lucy looked on most amused - I have relented and finally started putting a little clip in Lucy's long fringe - it was in her eyes - I was worried she would look chav - but it looks cute, today she wore an old apple one of her sisters - got to make her some of her own ones tonight!

I love this photo as her eyes look dark like Amelia's - even with dark eyes they are nothing alike physically, but I am starting to see a lot of behavioural characteristics in Lucy which are so familiar from Meme. Their wide open laugh, the fake cry and the pooh face are all the same! I dont care that they dont look alike but I love that Lucy is picking up things from her sister and copying her - she watches her all the time - little face shining - and Amelia is really good with her, which makes me a proud Mummy.

Finally, we all had a sleep in our bed the other day - I had to sleep in a bed with this - my life is SO hard!

Amelia-ism of the day

'Noight Noight Meme Spider - I love you' To the giant spider in the web in her ball pit in the garden - and I had to physically restrain her from kissing it!!!