When I'm grown up... A peek at the world of adults from Sophie's viewpoint

The other day we had some biscuits and I let each of the children have one. Sophie asked for another, and I told her no. This caused her to become distraught with frustration and anger (not an unusual occurrence round here at the moment, unfortunately). She was so cross that I would deny her a second biscuit.   She finally choked out "when I'm a grown up, I'm going to go to the shop and buy all the chocolate biscuits and eat them all myself and not share with you".  There was a pause, and then she added, " but mummy, you will take me so I know how to get to the shop, won't you?"

The highest compliment Jaiden can bestow

Yesterday JJ and I popped to tesco to pick up a couple of things. (We came out with five bags full, but that's another story!).
On the way out we spotted a man in a high visability jacket standing in line at customer service. JJ was very excited "look mummy, bin lorry man! Bin lorry man!" (garbage truck guy, for our American readers). When we got outside he looked all around and said "oh no! Bin lorry gone. Bad man took non lorry, Bin lorry man sad".  He cannot comprehend the idea that someone in a fluorescent jacket could be anything but a bin man.

Case in point. As we got in the car, we spotted a guy who works for the store, also in a bright tabard, pushing trolleys to go away. JJ shouted with abundant glee " 'nother bin lorry man  mummy, 'nother one!".
Absolutely no persuading otherwise, that guy was clearly a bin man, moonlighting as a trolley pusher, or maybe just being helpful in a spare moment. He was a bin man, no doubt about it, and most importantly, as far a JJ was concerned, it was the best thing ever!

Happy happy

Auntie cuddles today!
Hannah and her baby are here for a few days. Staying at my mum's, but they all came over today. I got lots of cuddles, first time since Christmas! And was far too busy to take photos! Aunit
Soph took some on nana's camera though, so if I can get a hold of any of those, I'll share.

I'm blogging over at my other blog, as I try to get a hold of my eating and weight, so I'm hoping to be there most days, though it will be mostly food diary type stuff.

Missing you

We're in the process of packing up our world and moving a bit further out of London, to join a church there.
I will be back soon with more.
We have a fantastic testimony of God's faithfulness in finding our new house and many other things along the way...

Sophia's Peppa Pig Birthday Cake

Before piped features

With features (excuse the shadow, it's funny light in my kitchen)

With candles

Soph blowing out candles will come later, cos Menard took those

melts my heart to see this

Soph

"Sophie, do you want crumpets for lunch?"
Sophie looks at crumpets...
"those aren't trumpets, they're drums"

heard just now...
"I'm dressing up to look like Jesus"

Beach fun

My babies

Soph Feeds Goats!

We went with a friend and her daughter to a local 'garden centre' which also has an animal area. 

('garden centre' cos it seemed to sell anything and everything)

The girls had a fantastic time feeding goats 

(food available for 20p a handful from a little machine)

And JJ missed all most of the fun by being fast asleep. 

Chicken photographed especially for Bren

Wednesday midweek mayhem

Why hello there, have you all enjoyed your vacation?
You weren't on vacation? And I wasn't on vacation. So why the long blogging break? Yes, you there in the back? Any ideas? Nope. Ok, let's just move along now then.

Life is plodding along here. We had 3 babies born within my circle of friends last week, so I've been busy assembling rotas to feed them, thanks to my "Meals for New Mums (and dads)" scheme I decided to set up to bless them with food, knowing how blessed we were when folk brought food over when we had tiny small babies. Ok, so mine were never that small, but I grow 'em big apparently.

Jaiden has more and more words everyday. And his cheeky personality is just shining through. We'd had a couple of nights where he was awake for aged in the night, so last night Menard got him up abut 9 and changed his nappy, and both Soph and JJ slept through til half 6 this morning, so that was a success, I'd say.

We need to get dressed in a bit and head out to meet a friend this morning, and this afternoon I've got small group which a friend has set up for mums with littles. The 3 pregnant ladies were all a part of that group, and still are, except now they're mums with littles too!

Happy Birthday...

... to ME!

Eurovision party tonight. Yay!

Words JJ has said so far today

Mummeeee
Bah (Bath)
Bye
Dir-dir (dirty)
Hat & Head (patting the top of my head|)
Ooshed (finished)
Shoo (tissue)
NO!
More!
Meeeee
Nana

And that's just the ones I remember. He has soooo many words now.

Horsie horsie don't you stop

Riding nappy packet horses!

Jaiden - things I'd like to remember, but don't have time to make into a post of their own

Today's accessory of choice is one welly boot (Soph's old ladybird ones, so two sizes too big). Every so often it will fall off, and much is the gnashing of teeth before it's properly restored onto his foot.

JJ's started having a name for himself.  Especially if looking at a photo of himself, he gets very excited, pointing to the picture and then to his belly. He says "Ja-da" (Ja pronounced as in German for yes), or "Ja ja" - the variations of what we call him - Jaiden or JJ.

He's obsessed with Sophia's fluffy bear. Fluffy is the bear of the moment for Sophia, and consequently for JJ too. Fluffy has a nappy and soph often declares that he needs his nappy changed because he's done a poo-poo. Today I left JJ while I was in the bathroom, and I thought I heard him saying "poopoo". When I came back into the room he triumphantly waved bear's nappy above his head shouting "POOPOO!".

Cake Pops

A lovely lady called Hazel (who happens to be the mum of Danielle, who has the honourary title of auntie to my kids) has a new venture in cake, and we all know how much I like cake.

I haven't actually tried any of her cake pops yet (hint hint), but my children have, and judging from their enthusiasm, it was good!

Go check out her facebook page and like it, and then come back and see my kids enjoying her work!

Here are some pics of them enjoying the amazing cake pops she sent them for Easter...

 Soph excited about a parcel with her name on it!

 "Look mummy, it's Peppa Pig"

 It went in his mouth all at once! (It was a hot air balloon)

"Yum!"

In appreciation

My lovely friend Julia set up a group on facebook for people in our local area to share and request 'family' items. Soph and JJ are modelling the lovely welly boots that we got today from two of the women in the group. Thanks ladies!

He's Alive!

(now I may be giving you a spoiler here, given that today is Good Friday, but just wanted to share that it turns out ok!)

Recipe book

Quick post written one handed as JJ's sleeping on the other!

I bought myself a recipe book yesterday and today I've been writing in recipes from random scraps of paper, most of which I found yesterday when I gave my 'baking stuff etc' cupboards a good tidy up and clear out.

I found one recipe, which originally Bekki found somewhere, written on four different bits of paper,meaning I'd rung one or other of the family to get it on four separate occasions!

Do you have a popular family recipe you'd share with me? Either in the comments or on your blog, with a link in the comments. Pretty please? And I'll share the banana cake recipe one day soon when I have two hands to type with!

(It amuses me every time that blogger's spell check fails to recognise the word 'blog')

Cooking

When I was little my dad was diagnosed with coeliac disease, this means (very basically!) that his body can't tolerate gluten, and he needs a gluten-free diet. Twenty plus years ago, the availability of gluten-free products was very limited, and those that there were didn't always taste good. That meant that it was better for my parents to get gluten-free flour, and make things from scratch.

I don't really remember what it was like before my dad was diagnosed, but I'm pretty certain my mum did a fair amount of cooking from scratch anyway, but after, they cooked pretty much everything from scratch, and I grew up thinking that was normal.

I am sooooooo thankful that that's the case. I was just looking on facebook and one blog or other was asking people their essential freezer meals, and then attempting to re-create them from scratch. I had a think about that, and realised I don't really even think of buying any freezer meals*, cos I just think that fresh/home cooked would be better.

I'm not saying I don't buy junk. sure, everyone does. But I've never bought a cake mix in my life - it just wouldn't even occur to me to do so!

I think what I'm trying to say is thank you mummy and daddy for the way you raised me, teaching me to cook from scratch. Cos it seems that's a skill a lot of other people are attempting to learn later on in life!

* In the spirit of full disclosure, I do sometimes by ready meals off the reduced shelf for Menard to take to work for lunch. But I wouldn't dream of eating them myself! I'd much rather have homecooked lasagne than the stuff you buy as a ready meal.