The new sailing season

Today was the first day of the new sailing season and the weather obliged by being glorious. The sun shone, it was warm, and there was little enough wind for Nathaniel to sail, but enough to make it worth while. Dorothea was very interested by her first proper visit to the club (she slept through a clearing morning) and enjoyed getting involved. She greatly enjoyed rigging and waved her arms and legs madly trying to get hold of ropes and sails and had the same intent concentrating face that Nathaniel pulls. I assume that she has taken it all in and will be able to rig an RS200 perfectly now! Nathaniel was pleased to be back and enjoyed all his favourite activities such as rigging the boat, and pushing it down the slipway and discovered that he had grown since October and could now lift more things and climb higher. He was, as ever, very pleased to see the YRISC matchbox car selection! Ian and Nathaniel sailed in the first race and Nathaniel discovered that the river was rather cooler than it had been in the autumn and that trailing his fingers overboard led to cold fingers. We had a tasty lunch and then I comandeered a GP while the others were eating and had a wonderful pootle down the river while everyone else was eating. It was perfect - the sun on my back, and enough wind to allow me to close reach all the way down to Naburn properly hiked out with the water bubbling merrily beneath me. I almost didn't come back!

Pox on you

Sorry we've been a bit quiet. We've been busy. This was the first night, before he got properly spotty. Then we weren't allowed to take photos. But it was impressive!

15 weeks

This is Dorothea's main position: one hand on top of head. It makes her look wise - like she is thinking very deep thoughts!

14 weeks

Delicious?

This is what happens when you let Nathaniel chose the baking activity: You don't want to know what colour it all comes out the other end!

Waiting for spring

This is what we hear at least 10 times a day: "Excuse me Mummy/Daddy, I thought that we could go camping in spring". But we can't go until he has learnt to stay in his sleeping bag all night. So he has been practising. Endlessly.

13 weeks

This week, Dorothea has been mainly talking. I wonder if she has already realised that it might be heard to get a word in edgeways in this household?!

An Ian and Nathaniel adventure

To the station and the Railway Museum: Then for some food: And then to see the "very giant wheel" all lit up:

12 weeks

This week saw Dorothea roll over. We made her do it three times to prove that it wasn't a fluke, but I expect that that will be that now. Nathaniel rolled over in the same way at the same age and then I never saw him do it again until he could walk. Once he had proved he could do it he moved on! Dorothea has not shown any inclination to repeat her trick. She is very much enjoying everyone's company, particularly that of Ian and Nathaniel (I'm not bitter!!). They get the biggest smiles and the longest gurgles.

Snow (3)

How many videos of Nathaniel sliding down slopes can you cope with? And snow is not just for sledging on:

11 weeks

(The ones where she was smiling also feature large amounts of unatractive dribble!)

Snow (2)

Take three little boys, two little sisters, three mums and a dad home on a snow-day. Put them all in the snow. You get a snowman and.... ....an amazing igloo! They thought I was joking when I suggested it, and by the end, most people had retired indoors to have lunch, but Bruce and I persevered, and in the bright warm sun completed a whole room complete with ceiling! The photo doesn't really do it any kind of justice:

Snow

The snow has arrived!

Funny Frustration

As previously mentioned, Thea has been enjoying finding out about hands and starting to grab things. However, this doesn't always lead to an easy life.

Today at supper she was waving her hands carefully around and making sad noises. When we watched, we realised why. She had seen something in front of her - her hand - and was trying to grab it. Unfortunately, as she tried to grab it, it moved!

Definitely frustrating!

Fun with mirrors

Thank you toy bus!

We're still here!

Things have been rather busy recently, so sorry for the lack of posts. I'm going to try and get up to date, so I'll be posting some things in the past. Keep a look out for them. But be warned, they might be rather word-light!

10 weeks

Dorothea is being very smiley and initiates grinning sessions with pretty much anyone! She is starting to grab things and when lying on the play mat, slowly, with great concentration, raises her hand to the hanging toy and carefully wraps her fingers around it. She'll persevere with this for ages. She's learnt the value of the p word (practise) already!

Scooting with friends

Getting to Steiner has got a bit more complicated now that there are two of them. We can't cycle yet, and it's a pretty long walk. So we have taken to driving to South Bank and then scooty biking over the bridge. Some of our friends have followed suit (they don't like the cold cycle!), and now we have a caravan of scooty bikes heading home at the end of the session.



The boys are so funny - they scoot 200 yards and then stop for a chat:
"Why is your bike pink, Robin?"
"It's not pink, Hanyul, it's purple"
"It is pink, Dylan - I like it"
"I like it too"

The Park

Nathaniel and I have been enjoying going to the Very Young Friends of West Bank Park again. This week we made houses for felt animals and then built a den big enough for us all stil in and listen to a story and have a snack.



Then we went scootering around the park and had fun learning how to zoom down the hill and use the break to stop.



And what was Dorothea doing?

Normality

Christmas was great, but it is nice to get back to normal life (though saying that, I haven't done a day on my own with both kids yet!).

Nothing of particular interest has happened, which is exactly the way it should be. There have been scooter rides and seeing friends and doing drawings. And everyone has grown a bit:

Strange behaviour

The Windmill

Nathaniel has been a great fan of windmills ever since we introduced him to Camberwick Green and Windy Miller. So he was very excited when the Holgate Windmill got it's long-awaited sails up and a trip had to be taken in the pouring rain to see them.

He's even more excited to find that he can see them from his bedroom window. They look pretty impressive against a leaden sky.

Firsts

There are lots of things that were a big deal when Nathaniel was little that are a hundred times more complicated with Dorothea. Baths are one. But we needed a bedtime routine, and there is only so much washing you can do with a bit of wet cotton wool, so we embarked on the first bath.

Fortunately, Nathaniel was incredibly keen on this idea and was excited all day. He was absolutely certain that this activity should involve him! Dorothea wasn't desperately impressed by the whole proceedings, but neither was she unimpressed. I'd go with puzzled.

I can understand why!


Nathaniel is currently sulking because I said that we couldn't have another first bath. I'm am waiting to introduce him to the idea that we'll be able to have a second bath, and a third, and a fourth....

Preparations

We discovered a useful thing last week - we'll be able to use our favourite new toy earlier than we thought!



We bought the trailer knowing that it was going to be a while before Thea would be able to go in it. Even with the baby sling, she'd need to be at least 3 months before she could cope with the bumps. But on reading the info that came with the sling, we discovered that actually they recommend that you can use it from a month if you just walk with it. So now we have a double buggy!

We celebrated by using it to go for a foraging trip to the woods. Nathaniel was very keen to go and got quite grumpy that it took us so long to get Dorothea installed and appropriately wrapped up!



But everyone was jolly by the time we got to the sunny woods. Nathaniel and I took to the holly bushes with secateurs.



Then a friendly gentleman who was out to watch birds told us about a big bush covered in berries, so we headed there via pine cones and ivy.



Lots of fun was had!



When we got home, we released the tree from its netting and got to work installing it and decorating.





Most of the house is now covered in holly and ivy. Nathaniel spent some time in the garden collecting ivy (more secateurs always leads to a fun game!) and twigs, and Ian and I have done artistic things!





It's a shame it can't stay decorated all year.

Spot the difference

Actually they don't look that alike in these photos, but rest assured, there is a striking resemblance!

Christmas Songs

Today was Nathaniel's Nursery christmas carol concert. All the parents are invited to hear them sing the Christmas "carols" that they have been singing. Carols include such favourites as Santa Claus is Coming to Town and I'm a little Snowman.

The children are all encouraged to come in costume, but when I asked Nathaniel about what he would like to wear, he was very insistant that he didn't want to dress up as anything and just wanted to be a little boy.

However, I made appropriate arrangements just in case (two options!), and it's just as well, as half an hour before I set out to nursery, one of the staff rang to ask if I was bringing a costume as Nathaniel was upset that he didn't have one!

So I turned up with my options, and unsurprisingly Nathaniel decided again that he didn't want to dress up! I persuaded him that although he didn't want to be a christmas tree, he might like to be a Nathaniel with baubles, and so he was the only kid wearing half a costume!

It was well worth attending. I wasn't sure whether he would join in the songs with such a giant audience, but in fact he was one of a very few kids who sang with gusto all the way through. He knew all the words, even to the verses of some of the more obscure songs, and sang so loudly (though tunefully), that I could hear him clearly along with the nursery staff.

I figured that you'd all like to see his Christmas tree costume (which he became interested in once we got home), but once he had dressed up in it, he suddenly became all shy and just wanted to sit down. So here is the moodiest of all christmas trees:

It looked more impressive with the green t-shirt and the baubles pinned in more elegant places.

Ian was more jolly!

Four Weeks

Dorothea is four weeks old today, and I'm afraid that nothing partcularly interesting has happened. Also, entertaining a three year old has ensured that we haven't been sitting around with nothing better to do then take cute photos!

Unexpectedly, Dorothea's interest in sleep has remained an obsession far beyond the two weeks that it took Nathaniel to get over it, and so most of the time she looks like this:

Most of our friends have never seen her eyes!

In some ways this has been incredibly convenient as Nathaniel has had a tonsilitis-like virus resulting in a roaring temperature and some extremely sleepless nights. What's more fun than looking after an ill toddler? Lokking after asn ill toddler and a new born!

I'm sure there's more fun ahead.....