Enjoying spring

I actually love winter, I really don't mind rain or the cold. I'm quite partial to getting wrapped up to go out and Autumn is probably my favourite season as I can get wrapped up and have the beautiful colours of the trees. Having said this with Nemo and Pebble I definately have a new appreciation for the start of spring.

I can send Nemo and Pebble to play out in the garden more and don't have to stuff a plethora of coats, hats, scarfs, waterproofs into the bottom on the pram. 

I realise most of my blogs have been crochet based so I thought I would catch you up on some of what we've been up to over the last few weeks.

We haven't been to our favourite woods in a few months now due to an outbreak of Alabama rot (which is dangerous to dogs) across the country. There were a couple of suspected cases from our woods but nothing for some time now so we eventually decided to go back. This was just in time to see the bluebells in the woods. 

Pebble really appreciates the natural beauty of the woods!

Now Pebble is attempting to walk a little and is playing out in the garden we realised she needed some shoes. Now I am always a bit stingy when it comes to shoes. I keep an eye out for second hand Clark ones which cost a fraction of the price and already have Nemo's next size and Pebbles next 3 sizes in shoes. However Pebble feet were too tiny for the shoes I had already acquired we went to the shoe shop and saw these....

How ridiculously adorable right? 

So now armed with shoes I can get rid of both children to the garden :) 

Here they are both playing on the trampoline (this rarely stays without incident for very long!) 

Most weeks we get the bus to Bristol. We go and meet Hubby for lunch and go to the museum. 

For Easter me and Nemo made the usual chocolate crunch cupcakes. 

Licking the spoon afterwards it definately a highlight for Nemo. He loves 'helping' in the kitchen. Whenever I cook I get Nemo trying to help, Pebble crawling on the floor crying to be picked up and Poppy walking around ready to pounce on any morsel of food that might be dropped. After we made the cupcakes Pebble went for a sleep and I popped upstairs to put some clothes away. This was pretty stupid though only away for a short amount of time I returned to discover Nemo had emptied a large tub of salt and a whole box of cornflakes onto the kitchen floor. 

I explained to Nemo that he shouldn't have done this and got him to help tidy up which he did happily. Afterwards I told Nemo that although I wasn't happy he made the mess I was happy that he helped tidy it up at which Nemo asked "sticker chocolate?" Which is his treat when he has done something good and has collected 5 stickers (it entitles him to a chocolate coin from Christmas which we are still getting through!) 

This was the vacuum cleaner afterwards. I thought mixed in with the bath bomb debris (leftover under our bed from another little incident) it looked quite pretty! 

We had a lovely Easter weekend with hubby being home. We enjoyed the lovely weather with a walk in Ashton court on the Friday. 

Nemo must have walked a good hour or so but needed a little carry for the last bit! 

We had some paninis afterwards in the lovely sunshine :) 

The kids did some Easter craft 

Easter Sunday saw me bring out another once a year recipe! It's hot cross buns with marmalade cooked in vanilla custard! (To be fair it tastes nicer then it looks!) 

Here's a picture of Pebble looking cute- just because!

Lining up all the cars on the mat is a daily job for Nemo! 

There have of course been plenty of walks in our town. We are keeping our local charity shop in business! 

We have also been to soft play. 

This would have been a lovely picture if Pebble was cooperating!

And just before I leave you- Darth Vadar is still very much 'in' with Nemo. This morning I found Nemo had done this- because even Darth Vadar has a soft side! 

If you're hungry you'll eat a fruit!

Nemo and Pebble are permenantly going through various phases. One of Nemo's current 'things' is to say "I'm hungry" every two minutes throughout the day. I believe this came about from a film he is currently obsessed with; the old school Disney 101 Dalmatians film. Nemo requests this film every day. On it there is a puppy called Rolly who frequently states "I'm hungry Mother". The obsession with the film and the obsession with saying "I'm hungry" seemed to come hand in hand. 

Usually if Nemo requests food between meals I will offer him a selection of fruit or vegetable, if he doesn't want it I find myself saying "if you are hungry you would eat a fruit" or "you can't be that hungry if you don't want to eat ......" This is one of the many things I find myself saying from my own childhood. It's funny how you are saying something seemingly randomly and realise that you are just becoming your parents! 

Anyway me and hubby have been trying to find new ways of entertaining Nemo. He's desperate to go to nursery I think but his free place doesn't start until September. We go out every day but now that doesn't seem to be enough. In the late afternoon he will end up saying "go to soft play/ toddler group now?" Nemo seems to have endless energy and seems bored by his toys.

We decided to put into storage some toys which are unused and for younger children and to get Nemo and Pebble a play kitchen. Funnily enough on the same afternoon we decided to get a play kitchen one turned up on a local selling site. It's a nice posh one but being second hand (and a bit stingy with money!) we didn't pay a posh price for it! 

So then we needed some play food, naturally I decided to crochet it :) so off to Pinterest I went and found free patterns for all this food:

Cupcake

http://helloyellowyarn.com/2015/01/15/crocheted-cupcake-free-pattern/

Bacon

http://www.garnstudio.com/pattern.php?id=6182&cid=17

Pancake 

(Ever since my Mum made pancakes with Nemo whenever Nemo goes to the kitchen with my he says "make pancakes?")

http://amigurumifood.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/pancakes-amigurumi-free-pattern.html?crlt.pid=camp.jrXb7Y0VB4px&m=1

Egg

http://craftbits.com/project/egg-wrist-cuffs/

Apple

http://www.planetjune.com/blog/free-crochet-patterns/amigurumi-apples/

Lemon

http://amigurumifood.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/lemon-cute-amigurumi-free-pattern.html?m=1

Strawberry (excuse the blog name!) 

http://moistcrochetedvagina.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/strawberry.html?m=1

Pizza

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/pizza-2

Watermelon

http://kaylmnop.blogspot.co.uk/2008/08/watermelon-slice.html?m=1

Pear

http://www.garnstudio.com/pattern.php?id=5889&cid=19

Chicken drumstick

http://www.hookyarnandneedles.com/oldstuff/node/153

Bread 

Cheese 

Now I'm particularly proud of my bread and cheese as I couldn't find a free pattern but saw a couple of examples and worked out a pattern for myself! I'll write out the patterns in another blog. 

Here are all my crochet goods in crochet baskets! 

I'm always pleased to make use of leftover wool - I didn't need to spend any money to make the food! 

I'm currently making some grapes and hubby wants me to make a banana so I don't think I'm finished quite yet! 

Easter crafting

Easter ended up being a good excuse for making another attic24 wreath. I enjoyed doing the daffodils. (Her blog on it is here 
http://attic24.typepad.com/weblog/2013/03/easter-wreath-ta-dah.html ) 

So that's my Easter/ spring wreath. And this is the summer one I made for my parents and my Christmas one for comparison... 

I guess the differences are huge subtle but I tried I use more springy (!?!) colours :) 

My other Easter craft was an Easter branch hanging thing! I've been crocheting some Easter eggs ( free pattern here:
http://www.petalstopicots.com/2012/03/crocheted-easter-eggs-pattern/)

2 cute bunnies

I adapted a free pattern for an egg cosy by adding and bottom to it and stuffing it :)
( http://www.lionbrand.com/patterns/90230AD.html?iP=1&p=2&ss= ) 

4 little chicks for me, hubby and the kids, I added our first initials on their tummies! 
(Thanks again attic24 for the free pattern 
http://attic24.typepad.com/weblog/mini-chicklet.html ) 

These two hanging birds 

( http://attic24.typepad.com/weblog/birdie-decoration.html )

I got some willow from lidl for £2.50 and some eggs and wooden decorations and put it all together to make this

The weather appears to have miraculously turned sunny after what feels like 3 months of rain. I was so excited to hang my washing outside and it put me in the mood to finish my wreath and branch thing, I love an excuse to add more colour and personality to the house. 

I have some Easter baking and crafts for the kids to do this week as we will see how that goes! I figure proper parents do those type of things right? :) 

P.S having lost this blog once and having rewritten it I forgot to say that the idea for the branch thing from my mum! Sorry for the plagiarism!

Potty training fails..

Little Nemo is now just over 2 and a half. He's been aware about going to the toilet for some time but has said that he wants to use his nappy. Anyway I decided after worrying that Nemo may go to high school with nappies on and talking with some friends to just try and encourage Nemo to use the potty this weekend by taking off his nappy and putting on pants. 

I went off to h+m to try and find some star war pants to find that they didn't have any in his size. Instead went home with pants with police cars and fire engines and some dinosaur pants. 

These are his amazing pants 

So we started on Friday

Nemo was very happy to remove his nappy in favour of the new exciting pants. 

He enthusiastically decorated his potty with stickers.

He was able to answer that wees and poos go in the potty or toilet not the pants.

He also knew that a wee or poo in the toilet or potty would be rewarded with a sticker and chocolate!

(He will do anything around the house for a sticker on his chart!)

After I his pants were on he chose to sit on the toilet and read some books.... Looking promising

Then he got off the look after 10 minutes or so and shortly after wet himself... 

Oh dear! 

I had nagging feeling that the weekend is going to consist of Nemo wetting himself several times and day and giving up at the end having achieved no progress!

I was right....

It was actually quite the achievement that Nemo didn't do a wee or poo on the potty given how much time he spent on there. After more accidents than I can remember and after 48 hours without a poo we decided to call it a day! 

Nemo is clearly not ready and I'm going to clock this up to a parenting learning experience!

Anyway in other news Pebble is gaining lots of confidence standing independently and always looks super impressed with herself when she does it! 

Nemo is becoming quite the talker and keeps telling me "don't worry Mummy!" 

Our aquarium yearly pass ran out so this year we got an @Bristol one (interactive science museum). The kids particularly enjoy this section where they have made it into a builders yard with rubber bricks, wheelbarrows, high vis jackets helmets and even scaffolding! 

We've already been twice in a week -partly due to my insistence that we get value for money (we went to the aquarium a ridiculous amount of times last year!)

Anyway baby crying-bye!

The force has descended on our household

Sorry it's been a little while. The children do a really good job at keeping my busy. 

For a while now Nemo has been getting into Star Wars. It started with a cheep tescos t shirt which had cartoon Storm Troopers and Darth Vader on. (You can see it here.) 

One day me and Hubby were watching the old Star Wars films on our ipad and Nemo comes over and looks- and goes "Darth Vader!" Nemo loves the space ships and loved imitating the Darth Vader noise. So since that point he likes me to show YouTube clips of Darth Vader. (I've found a clip of him talking to Luke with no violence in!) 

Realising that Darth Vader is a baddy I've tried showing him yoda hoping he might prefer him but no definately a Vader boy! With the new star war films there is a plethora of star war children's clothing of which Nemo loves (especially his star war pyjamas!)

(Here is Nemo with a storm trooper t-shirt and his rocket leggings!)

So the other day I was walking past build-a-bear and saw this Star Wars teddy bears including a storm trooper, Star Wars, and Chewbacca. Me and hubby out of complete softness decided to get Nemo a Darth Vader teddy. 

We initially thought we might get it for his birthday but it not being until the summer me and Hubby couldn't wait! I remember as a child going to a toy shop with my little brother and my Dad and my Dad out of the blue buying us a toy each. I got a teddy rabbit which went in a hammock. It was so unexpected and I know I really treasured it! As a parent giving my child a treat every now and then is probably at least just as exciting for me as it is for my child! 

I have to say the designers of this teddy did an impressively good job at somehow making Darth Vader look cute. It even has a button on his hand which makes the classic Darth Vader noise! 

Nemo loves his Vader teddy. He hasn't let it out of his sight since getting it. What I hadn't anticipated is the interesting phrases I heard us saying whilst were walking around. For example:

-Me: "Do you want to hold Darth Vader or put him in the pram?"

-Nemo: "Oh no! Darth Vader fell over" 

-Hubby: "Be nice to Darth Vader please" and also "Be nice to Darth Vader otherwise he will use the force" 

-Me: "Why don't you take Darth Vader a walk in the pram?" 

-Nemo: "Darth Vader is riding on Poppy!" 

-Nemo: "Darth Vader tired!"

-Nemo: "Darth Vader loves the tea!"

Getting the teddy seems to have been good timing in helping cheer Nemo up as we suddenly realised today that he had developed had a massive rash across the entirety of his back, torso and a bit on his arms and legs. We took him to the pharmasist who thought It may be an alergic reaction. As a result we have now discovered the joys of piriton. This was Nemo a little while after the pririton...

He went on to have a lovely nap in his bed. Thankfully the piriton seems to be helping and fingers crossed I'm hoping there will be no need to take him to the out of hours! (Why oh why is it that you usually end up having to take your children to the doctors on an evening on a weekend!?!)

Thankfully we are at an age where we can get something for Nemo without having to worry about getting something for Pebble too but I know these times will be short lived! Pebble for now seems pretty content with constant cuddles and nursing! 

Anyway I've been up to quite a lot recently so will probably write another blog about all that! 

Here is a adorable photo of Nemo and Pebble (and very in theme Nemo is of course wearing a Star Wars t-shirt!) 

10 reasons you shouldn't do your food shopping with two small children

Sorry for the lack of blogging, I did a chunk of my blog on the holiday but lost it and then couldn't be bothered to write it again! Then Pebble's dedication was over the weekend so have been pretty busy. 

I will get round to writing blogs on the holiday and dedication when I have the energy! 

Anyway today I decided to do the food shopping on my own with the children. I usually do this with Hubby in the evenings but sometimes I brave it on my own forgetting the reality of shopping with Pebble and Nemo. So here I am reminding myself of why I shouldn't...

1.) I never have a £1 coin so I ended up walking to the checkouts, waiting in the que just to get a token from the checkout person, before heading out and starting again. (At least I have a new shiney Lidl token!)

2.) Pebble hates sitting in trolley seats and she's gotten to the point where she doesn't even like going in the sling. No, not my Pebble she wants to be actively held by me, the entire way round, and screams blue murder if I put her down- even for a second. 

Nemo on the other hand is a dream helping me select items however insists of putting (/throwing) these in the trolley much to the detriment of the more delicate items underneath! But the other shoppers think this adorable and I get lots of smiles. 

So I'm feeling good- I have this whole shopping thing in hand......

3.) Having finished the shopping I discovered the end of the cucumber Nemo selected was rotted. I couldn't leave the children at the checkout so had to run with them both to swap it. 

 4.) By my return the check out person had served the person in front and had got out of her booth to put my leftover items from the trolley on the belt. I then had to quickly grab some bags (of course I always forget to bring my reusables) and opt for just shove the items straight into the shopping trolley rather then try and bag them. I love Lidl but they are speedy and you don't want to be the person holding up the que. 

Feeling less like I have this shopping thing in hand...

5.) After paying, in order to pack my items I gave Nemo and Pebble a packet of newly brought raisins but of course half of Pebble's ended up on the floor- First clean up job on my hands and knees. Having shoved the items into the trolley with little thought the kitchen spray had been squashed and leaked green liquid onto the floor- Second clean up job on my hands and knees. 

6.) so getting the children and food into the car was fine. Nemo said "goodbye Lidl" which is so cute- cue more adoring smiles from a lady outside. I get to unpacking the shopping at home. Pebble is hysterical to be put down and dramatically screams and crawls outside following me as I go in and out of the car. Nemo wants milk- I give him milk (the last of it because I thought we had another bottle - we don't). Nemo spills milk then also cries hysterically because I have no more milk to give him. 

I am also trying to dodge our broken gate (thank you storm Imogen for that) with added nails which stick out. 

 7.) Now I'm trying to put the shopping away and the freezer is proving a challenge. Over the weekend we needed to feed 11 people pizza. Hubby kindly went and bought some pizza however did not realise that some of the pizza boxes had 2 in so we ended up with 6 left over to squeeze into our freezer. So anyhow I'm there trying to shove everything in which I eventually manage due to my epic skills at Tetris. 

8.) I turn around and see smoke coming from the shopping....what??? I move the bags to realise that I have accidentally knocked a hob on which is burning the shopping bags! 

Luckily I have not lost too much in the way of food mainly just some cheese but the mess left is more significant, there is burnt plastic and cheese all over the kitchen hob... 

9.) Whilst I am trying to tidy this epic melted plastic mess Pebble is screaming, I find that she has managed to get her arm stuck in a drawer. Very upset she now needs nursing and tired out put her to bed. Nemo wants to watch fireman Sam, needs another drink and is requesting a banana. I have still not put the shopping away....

I am so not on top of this whole shopping thing... 

10.) I have finished hurrah! Nemo is watching fireman Sam, Pebble is asleep. I have put the shopping away... A complete victory except I cannot get the smell of burnt plastic out of the air and after a weeks food shop I have no milk for a cup of tea..... 

Nemo enjoying the new crochet blanket whilst he watches fireman Sam!