Getting creative, fingerprinting, beads, chalkboard art and the lego teamChallis

On Friday 16th Fidget asked to play with the fingerprinting set that we had got her for her birthday

we all sat up at the table and Squidge joined in with making some artwork…

Grandma and Grandad had got Fidget an indoor scooter and a super swing for her birthday, Fidget had a practice…

That evening Naomi came over to babysit so M and I could go out for a meal, we were really spoiled having two nights out in one week! We went to the Green Dragon Mezze restaurant nearby – it was a really lovely evening. Thanks so much Naomi!!

On Saturday (17th) we had been invited over to lunch at Steve and Suzanne's house, it was a lovely lunch and we were really impressed by their new house. After lunch we took a walk to the park. Fidget had a great time on all the playstuff…

we had a walk around the park, the sun had come out so Steve improvised an impressive hat for Theo. Monday Fidget asked to do some threading, so I got out some alphabet beads I had recently got hold of. Fidget said she wanted to make a bracelet and necklace for Daddy, I suggested that we started with a bracelet. When she spotted how many “A”s there were she said she also wanted to make a bracelet for uncle A.

At lunchtime I was at a bit of a loss, so we had quiche and beans, i offered Squidge some of the quiche and beans too. She was not happy with me feeding her the beans and wanted to grab the spoon, but her grab was rather aggressive (no matter how gently I offered the spoon).

Tuesday afternoon was mummies' afternoon at our place, the kids did a bit of dressing up…

and so did Mush…

nice outfit! Some great artworks on the chalkboard too.

M was home in good time, so took Squidges’ 41st week birthday photos which I had forgotten earlier.

Fidget at 41 weeks…

them both now…

Wednesday (21st) was me and Squidge at home, joined by Grandpa who had dropped off Granny at the airport and came to do some work in the garage for M. Squidges’ crawling has really come on already, so I thought I’d get an update video…

Squidges’ feeding has been pretty steady for the last few months. She wakes between 5:30 and 6am and has a feed. Then we have breakfast, after about an hour we go up and she has a feed on the other side then falls asleep on the bed for a morning nap. She has then not been bothered with another feed during the day, so she has drinks of water. Then before bedtime she has 2 feeds and then goes down to sleep for the night.

So ahead of weaning off breastmilk at 12 months I wanted to drop a feed to give her a cup of formula and the obvious one was the after breakfast milk, as this is the most easy to prepare, gives her more practice with a cup and also means she is not falling asleep at the boob, so should make napping easier. So this Wednesday was the first day of this new regime. It went really well, Squidge drank her cup of milk while we read books together which was really nice, then after half an hour I put her down for a nap and she slept for and hour and a half. Then after lunch she had another hour nap!

Thursday was our last Jolly Babies for the summer, naps went well again. In the afternoon me and Squidge went out swimming. We had just got Fidgets’ new car seat, so Squidge got to move up – which she was very pleased about and seems alot more comfortable.

Twinkling stars is finished for the summer so on Friday we had arranged to meet up with the mummies in the sensory garden.

it was a really nice afternoon, the kids had a great time playing in the fountain then running around the garden. We set up the tent for a some shade for the little ones and had a natter.

Earlier while Squidge had her nap, me and Fidget had made a house for her lego people, it was great fun. We started picking out who was who and found a lego Fidget (doctor lego girl), lego Squidge (on nearest swing), lego Mummy (in blue with back to camera – no hat), lego Daddy (in orange). We then found lego twins C (on other swing) and J (on bike), lego aunty M (in pink) and lego uncle A (in blue with the hat). Fidget decided we should all have a BBQ…

J, C and Squidge…

the grown ups (but I wasn’t looking at the camera)

with me looking…

(thank you for indulging me with the “lego person not looking at the camera” joke – it made me laugh… i know… I know)

Saturday (24th July) we went out for a jaunt, we wanted to get a wood burning stove ordered for the back room and to look at sink units for the new ensuite, so we headed east to a couple of places we wanted to look at.

We stopped at a lovely looking pub for lunch, the food was really nice and also the grounds of the pub had a lovely stream running through it so Fidget and Daddy spent alot of time spotting fish, ducks and insects.

Squidge is really good now with her finger food and the lunch was really nice as she could eat it all herself as it was meat and veg, which gave me a chance to eat my lunch with both my hands (or a knife and fork as is more common among polite adults).

The only disappointment (and it was significant) was the desert. I ordered creme brule (sp?) which came with shortbread, except today it came with 3 malted milks! I asked about this and they said they had run out of shortbread. Malted milks!! Not even a custard cream! I should count myself lucky, I saw later diners being brought theirs with only 1 malted milk. I’m glad we got out before they started serving hobnobs as then the riots really would start.