Sale Post

Twice a year, the Kwon Sale raises money for charity *and* provides the bulk of my girls' clothes, all in one lovely package. It was this weekend, and as per usual here I am taking pictures of the bargains I am ridiculously proud of.

Rowan's introduction to food has been entertaining so far as she is one of those babies who, when placed on a lap to share food, will put her entire body in your dinner plate given the slightest chance to do so. She is a grab-with-both-hands-and-rub-into-face kind of BLW infant. This is fun - for her.

After much deliberation we decided to get a highchair, and after looking at lots of expensive wooden ones I said perhaps we'd better wait until Kwon. There were two lovely wooden highchairs at the sale. They both got taken within thirty seconds of the sale opening (I was standing looking at the tag on one when someone actually took it out of my hands!! Talk about getting too competitive!). So we have this instead. Well, if I must have plastic at least it is second hand. And small.Of course, lots of great, cheap, pre-loved play clothes...Plus a NEW Motherease Onesize for £2, and a pair of teeeeny green felted booties for £1 that will be heading out to a certain kitten shortly (yes, Squee, that means YOUR kitten). :)

Green Parent Weekend

We spent more time just talking than six months ago, and there were other nappyless babies kicking happily on the floor and chatting away to Rowan. And, basically, it was a proper holiday from "real" life. As before, we didn't want to come home.Only a few really good shots, but somehow that doesn't matter. We have a lot of lovely memories.

Bonfire Night

I know, I'm so behind with the sharing! Anyway, it was wonderful, and there were friends and fire and soup. And baked apples with cinnamon. And a cold garden with mystery lurking in dark corners and a sky full of clouds.

Another weekly assortment

Mostly these are random pictures from this week, but also from other recent weeks - you know, those things that don't get posted until I get around to a major photo upload session. Yeah, yeah, I did it this morning and I KNOW I promised the GP Meet pictures but you'll have to wait for those, I've got a lot to get around to posting!

New books, always an occasion. Ostheimer animals sent from Bristol too (Playful Toys - this lady undercuts Myriad by quite a bit on the smallest figures, I can't find her phone number but when I do I'll post it up!). New Ikea plates, bowls and cutlery with felt food also from Playful Toys; I love that some folks know my children so very well... Ashleigh, you're a star.Em and Connor, trying out an early birthday present (the nursing necklace - love love love those bead finds). I think I'm allowed to announce their joyful news now too - OVER TWO WEEKS fully breastfed, no bottles, no shields, nothing but mama milk and cuddling! Yipeee!Rainbow love. Every time the sun comes out during a shower Jenna shouts, "there must be a rainbow somewhere, help me find a rainbow!" I am so blessed to have these two little people who love the wet and cold; every year I have to learn the joy of jumping in puddles all over again but it seems they are born knowing.Crazy collaborative almost-mandala. Morgan helps with these now, and Jenna is usually so patient with her. The way she makes room in her games for Morgan and the inevitable clash of wanting things done RIGHT and Morgan just wanting to mess about... She is a huge lesson for me.Mmm broccoli. Oh drat, PRETEND broccoli...A cruising baby, just turned seven months (she has been pulling up to stand for a month now, very scary). Also, if I sit her down she is now more likely to get bored and crawl off than to protest discomfort or topple over backwards. She is never still!

Bits and pieces

As you have come to expect from me, complete with too much punctuation due to general enthusiasm. ;)

No, I haven't managed to sort out the pictures from our weekend away yet. It was glorious, bitterly cold, wet, sleepless, full of sharing and joy and naked babies and breastfeeding and common room chaos and giant wooden brick towers.

We also got to visit Ashleigh in Bristol on the way home (so exciting to finally see where you live!) and have some lunch together. And borrow dry socks and shoes.

On the way home I started shaking uncontrollably. I am always too hot and can't travel in cars without the windows down, yet I was still freezing with all the heaters on and windows up. I was swimming with visions and bright lights and I have never ever felt so ill. I had a moment or two of thinking I was actually dying. (Sometimes I think my five year old is dramatic. She has nothing on me in a crisis, in spite of me always having been so careful not to panic her.)

It took nearly two days to stop shaking and to feel like I can be up and about without danger of falling over. I've had minor versions of the dizziness and feeling hot and cold simply from lack of sleep, but I just can't believe all of this was just from three nights of less than two hours total rest... It couldn't be, could it?

By the way, if you're all putting two and two together and coming up with five, I'm not. I tested. I'm really not. But for a moment, feeling sick and panicky and dizzy, I thought I might be. Having another baby once more feels more like a when than an if, but asides from planning a longer wait this time I can only hope and pray that I really don't have to do hyperemesis again in the same unhappy fashion.

I did brave falling down (we can count it a success since Martin wore the smallest pickle without her complaint at lack of milk, and I sat down before falling down at several junctures) to see some Shakespeare yesterday.

A Tempest, performed in child friendly yet non-patronising style by the Krazy Kat Theater Company. The whole set, all of the technical stuff, the very physical style and beautiful unaccompanied singing... Wow. It's such a joy to share something I love so much with my daughters and see it growing in them and filling their imaginations with possibility and colour. All of it was also BSL interpreted, though that sells it short, it was more BSL *integrated* as the cast either signed all of their lines very naturally as they spoke them, or another signed beside them if hands were required for props (or to interpret for Ariel who variously appeared as a spangly bundle of silvery blue playsilks or a series of differently sized and animated puppets). It was amazing in every possible way, and the baby was spellbound. She wouldn't even nurse, the stage was just too interesting to risk a momentary glance back at Mumma.

Back at our nest we are feeling pretty contented. It's good to call somewhere home, especially somewhere where the rug is purple again for the first time in years and the toys are tidied away at the end of each day for the first time, well, ever! This is my current homemaker energy rush (don't be to scared, they never last long enough to be a nuisance). There are so many adventures to be found, places to rediscover even after only a weekend. I feel so alive today, after days of sleeping and shaking and never being warm!

At home I also have a little mite who is definitely now of the cruising kind. Not even seven months old. I'm scared. I say that a lot, even though I love the toddler stage. It seems so soon to bid farewell to even the tiniest bit of her babyhood, and now that I come to write that I feel the first tinge of sadness. There is nothing truly lasting about any of this; excepting only love.

Dashing off another short update

This seems to be the way of things right now doesn't it? I look at the last month or so and everything is so fragmented, all the little routines have fallen apart, I feel like I'm in fog all the time through lack of sleep, and my blogging is either short and ramble-y or just pictures! Life with all of us in the house doesn't fit into my neat little boxes (when has anything ever?) and there is often very little to say about it anyway.

Things are quite good. And quite busy.

We have been board-gaming. We have walked. And shopped (oh how I hate shopping at the moment, still, I dealt with my urgent need for clothes and they are rainbow coloured and that is all to the good). The children have read stories and fed their dollies and chatted so much I think my ears might fall off (now who could they take after?) and played those hysterically funny games where I can only watch and try to remember.

We gave up dithering temporarily and hired a carpet cleaning machine so that I can exchange my concern about the baby crawling on the filthy rug for my concern about the soap formula and potential fumes. We looked for a highchair, decided we don't need one, and almost bought one anyway, before deciding we really don't need one. For now. I'm feeling a bit of a failure at making green choices, perhaps because so many things have seemed to need doing urgently recently and the time and money to think about what our options are is never there.

Not to mention the takeaway, which seems to have re-entered my life with a vengeance.

I sigh, and plan, and hope to do better. Oh don't worry, I'm not being too hard on myself and I'm not spiraling into blame and depression, just re-evaluating. Always re-evaluating.

The baby has pulled her little self up to standing several times a day over the last week. And when we told Jenna that we're going away this weekend, to the Green Parent meet, she was so happy she cried. Sometimes things just are what they are.

Odd portraits

Whenever I try to get a picture of Emma, she is always talking. It is really hard to get a shot of her doing anything without her being in full flow, and even if I warn her I'm about to take a picture, she can't help replying to that! I've never known anyone so hard to get a good picture of - until Leanne. She almost always has her eyes closed in the pictures I have of her.

Nevertheless, she is a wonderful house-guest. She clears up after herself (and us) and does dishes. She doesn't panic when a small child causes mayhem, or bursts into tears, or cracks their head on something, or kicks her when rolling around on the floor. She drinks green smoothie, and we play games and talk into the night. She is very appreciative of my random cooking. Especially bread. Though who can resist fresh-baked Challah for breakfast?


In short, this week has been fun. I love the chaos and friendship, and am grateful for both. Thankyou!

A leaf walk

When I don't get enough sleep, I am not a nice person. When I am not a nice mummy I get very noise intolerant. So the other day when I was left alone with all three girls for the first time in at least a week, I was in danger of turning into a very very shouty person.

When I came in and found that Morgan had clipped the lead on mum's dog, I was about ready to carry out the joking threat to put her in the wheely bin. But somehow, it seemed easier to turn the scream into action, and turn the nuisance of a now bouncing-off-the-walls spaniel into our redemption.

We went for a walk.





And somehow, the air and the cold and the colour restored us to each other.

Pumpkin

Every year we tell Jenna a little story about the pumpkin. How at this time of year the Earth seems to be dying, but really it is just going to sleep, shutting up tight and shedding the old coat, snuggling its life down deep inside the soil. The warm heavy globe of the pumpkin, with its hidden light shining, reminds us every year that the light is still there, is just hiding and waiting for the right time to shine out.
Yesterday we saw family, and baked and cooked until the kitchen smelled heavenly. Sweet potato and pumpkin soup, bread, pumpkin seed brittle, baked potatoes with home-made coleslaw, apple cake... Yum!We also rearranged the season table to make room for some carved pumpkins.And then we had a late night board games session with Em and Connor and Ashleigh and Leanne. Some of us fell asleep during the games, but hey - we would hate to have missed anything by going to bed early!This year I feel like I've made a real transition of this celebration. The light of hearth and home burning brighter than the sun, that sort of feeling. Oh but it's still good to be out in the brisk Autumn winds. Though the torrential downpour this morning did put us off a little... ;)