Sneeze sneeze sneeze, that is all

(Hayfever teamed with dusting and cleaning equals sneezing Debs)
(Also, this is a rather blurry strange picture, but I haven't loaded up any of my flower pictures so thought I'd go for something weird from the archives instead)

Mama said that there'll be days like this

there'll be days like this my Mama says.It's alright it hasn't really been a bad day, just as I was browsing my photos that image and the lines from the song came together in my mind, and I had to use them. J was absolutely fine when this was taken, by the way, he was just tired and I managed to capture a grimace rather than a smile.
I am feeling torn at the moment as to whether the posts this week have been worth posting. On one hand it share with you some cute pictures, and I have posted every day for the last few days. On the other hand I'm not sure I've actually said anything much in my posts. But as Rachel reminded me the other day, it's my blog and I can post whatever I want. It doesn't mean anyone has to read it!

And although I haven't written anything much I managed to please Steve by mentioning sheep, and I've had comments from the lovely Blair, and 'I', the girl I shared a house with last year. As well as several other lovely people like Kathleen, Angela, and Helibear. There we go, hopefully this post leaves you with enough links to have fun trawling through my archives, and possibly discovering a new blogger to add to your personal favourites :-)

Meanwhile, this weekend I plan to catch up on sleep, tidying and planning\filing stuff for work.

Who ever said you had to put money in for children to enjoy those rides you find outside supermarkets?

Thought I'd better write something in the post, otherwise it'd be another one of those 'the title is longer that the post' posts. This was a Bob the builder van, and Little One loved it. In fact I recall I had trouble persuading him to get out when I decided it was time to go home.

I feel the need, the need for speed

Either I need to take the photo quicker, or he needs to slow down. Something tells me getting Little One to slow down is not gonna happen...

Favourite things

When we went to the farm a couple of weeks ago Little One's favourite thing wasn't the goats, although I think they probably came a close second. Also exciting were the 'birds' (chickens and pigeons that just happened to be around) and the sheep 'baaaaaaa'. However, the thing that sent him into spasms of joy and excitement was watching the water sprinkers in an empty (of animals) fenced of area. He just could not stay away from them, and every few minutes we had to come back to admire and marvel at those sprinklers.

I'm so dizzy my head is spinning

I'm not actually dizzy, it's just that I took this photo while holding J and spinning round in a circle. It was a few weeks ago and he had been having a bit of a grumpy/upset moment (because his Mummy had just left for work, as I recall) and I was experimenting with ways to cheer him up. He absolutely loved spinning round, unfortunately my ability to spin without being really dizzy ran out before his love of it! Although he was more cheerful afterwards, so it served its purpose.

Were London Basil still alive, he might have gone to visit his cousin Exeter Basil

When I went to get HP from Exeter before Easter I had the pleasure of meeting Basil's cousin Basil. Unfortunately Exeter Basil had not been able to afford the train fare in order to make it to London Basil's funeral, but he passed on his regards to his family when he met them (that's me btw).

News just in: It appears that Exeter Basil has disappeared. At this moment it remains unclear whether he too has passed away, or merely passed on to pastures new. We will of course pass on any news of him as soon as we hear it. In the meantime, we shall return to our normal broadcasting schedule.

Learning your ABCs

A couple of months ago Little One's Mum got some flashcards to begin to use with him. He's not yet two so they weren't meant to be a big deal, just another way of presenting words and pictures to him in a fun way. He'd also recently discovered books in a big way and loves to sit up on the sofa next to you listening to stories and opening the flaps.

He's at the stage where everything he sees is exciting and needs to be commented on. If you take him out he spots 'dars' 'fans' 'scooops' (cars, vans, Scoop - meaning a lorry or something similar, as seen in Bob the Builder!) He says "sky" and looks up whenever he hears the sound of a plane or helicopter - which makes you realise just how many planes do go over his house!

And he just loves his flashcards. He knows loads of them now, as soon as you hold up the key or the man or the volcano or... he gets all excited and shouts out the word. One of his favourite games is to drop them in a pile on the floor\sofa\window sill and pick out his favouites, "cano (volcano), whoosh (with hand actions too!)" or "geeys (keys)" or best of all "ducK" with a big emphasis on the 'ck' sound at the end.

Here's to new batteries

This photo was taken a few months ago, when the batteries in the 'cookie jar' were still alive. Oh, how that song sticks in your brain. I think I can recite most of the words and songs that Little One's toys produce. And yet I did miss the cookie jar song once the batteries ran out. I would find myself humming it or singing it to myself, sometimes at totally inappropriate moments.

This week when I went to Little One's house on Tuesday I discovered to my delight that the cookie jar has new batteries. Once again I can sing along to the tune, not just on my own. Life makes sense again (or something).

I'm going to post this post now, since I seem to have got so bad at posting lately, and if I actually write a post it seems sensible to put it up on the blog. However, it is gone 11pm and what I have written may not actually be as amusing or make as much sense in the morning as it does to me now. And for that I apologise. Perhaps I'll make changes in the morning when I feel more awake. Now, to bed.

Hair

I don't know why, but I just like this picture. I took it in the mirror a couple of weeks ago when I was experimenting whether my hair was long enough to go neatly into plaits. It wasn't quite, as you can see by the wispy bits hanging down, but worth a try. Since then I have plaited my hair a couple of times, and then last Friday I had it cut short again, so it definitely won't go into plaits now.

Fun in the Sun

HP is back off to university today. Bekki is coming down from Cambridge on the train and then the two of them will drive down to Exeter together. I have brought J home with me to help HP get the last few bits of packing done. I'm off to the station to pick up Bekki now, and hopefully J will go to sleep in the car, because he's got a bit grumpy.
Oh, this is my friend Sarah who came to the farm with J and B and me the week before last. We had a lovely day in the sunshine enjoying the farm and park. Today is very sunny too. Gotta go...

Scrabble

We've just finished a game of scrabble. I was playing against my Mum and Dad, and both my Mum and I started the game with seven letter words. And we managed to get the words fairly spread out. My Mum won, but I managed to go out first :-)

Feet

There's something about small children's feet that I love. These are some of my favourite pictures relating to feet I've captured recently. This post is dedicated to J who is at the 'just beginning to like this walking thing' stage. The question is, can you guess to whom each feet belong? (There's something wrong about that last sentence, but I can't work out how to make it sound right!)

It's my life - the update

Ok, so some things have changed in my life, and I've never quite got round to blogging about them. No, before you ask, I haven't got married or pregnant!
Last October when I started looking after the little one it was on a Tuesday and a Wednesday, but once his Mum went on maternity leave I changed to only having him on a Tuesday, and started looking after the two sons of another family from church on a Wednesday. That means I've got about 2 months worth of photos and stories that I haven't ever got round to blogging about, because I never seemed to have time to write an introduction to explain who they are.

Little one's nickname was easy to make up once I decided I didn't want to refer to him by his name, but it wasn't so easy to come up with identities for these two boys. Maybe I've just run out of good ideas for nicknames. Anyway, rather than wait any longer to introduce them to you, I'll just use an initial letter for each, and if I come up with nicknames in the future I'll make sure I make it clear which is which.
B is five years old, and during school terms I look after him before and after school. J is 1 and I have him all day. This holiday I agreed to look after both boys all day for two days each week. I had them last Wednesday and Thursday, and I've got them tomorrow and Thursday this week as well. I think HP might come somewhere on an outing with us this week. I've thought about going up to central London to a musuem, but I think I might be feeling a bit tired to want to take them on the tube, even with HP to help me. We shall see...

Anyway, here are J and B. I love this picture I took of J, it just captures him brilliantly. The one of B was from last Wednesday when we made Easter nests in the afternoon while J napped.

So many posts, so little brainpower

I have several posts that I want to write, but somehow making the jump from brain to computer screen seems to be a task that doesn't happen unless I'm in the room making the connection between the two. And life has been so busy (and then today it's been sneezy) that those posts just haven't made it yet.
So instead tonight I will leave you with a goose, one of many that mobbed us when we went to feed the ducks at Forty Hall last week. Ok, so 'mobbed' may be too strong a word, but they did get pretty close, and were a bit scary.

It's a girl

Baby girl born at 3.25am today weighing 9lb 2oz.

Fun on the Farm

'A farm in London?' I hear you cry. 'Yes, indeed' I reply.
And then I stop with the funny talking thing, otherwise it will get my poor tired brain confused.

But anyway, there is a farm in Leyton, which is pretty much just up the road from where I live. (Well, a long road, especially if it's the middle of the day and there's lots of traffic, but still, by no means a long way away).

Last week I took the little one to Brooks Farm and he absolutely loved it. It's only a little farm, but offers enough animals to charm a 20 month old for ages, not to mention the playground which we spent an hour and a half in. If you live anywhere near me I would thoroughly recommend a visit, and if not, then you will just have to enjoy pictures of the little one :-)

Not yet a big brother

Little one's Mum was due to be induced yesterday. For a number of reasons that didn't happen, and they sent her home again last night. She went back to hospital this morning, and they have done some stuff, but with little results as yet. I think she and little one's Dad are getting tired and feeling apprehensive about what's to come, so it would be great if you could pray for them that things can get going properly soon.

Update: I just got a text from little one's Dad saying 'things have slowed down, please pray that the baby comes tonight'. So there you have it, straight from the horses mouth. (or 'uh-sees' mouth if you're the little one)

Fun Fun Fun

A couple of weeks I took the little one to Kids Corner again. He absolutely loves it there and so do I, so when his Mum suggested it I jumped at the idea. I'd been talking about it to HP the day before and she thought it sounded great fun, so I invited her to come along with us. We had a fantastic time, and I managed to capture some highlights with my camera phone (and obviously I got HP to take the one of me and the little one!). Don't you just love the look on HP's face?! In case you can't tell from the pictures, the top of the slide starts off pretty much vertical, so you just have to sort of launch yourself off the edge and hope for the best!

In other news, little one's Mum who is now at full term with her pregnancy is going to be induced tomorrow (unless the baby makes an appearance before then). Little one will soon be a big brother. I'm sure the whole family would appreciate your thoughts and prayers :-)