6 months plus

I would do a blog post today about our absolutely gorgeous bank holiday weekend away in Wales but fortunately (for us that is) I have a sister who takes far nicer photos than I ever could. We did have the nicest time and Mabes LOVED the time with her cousins who she absolutely adores, as do we. We are very lucky, something I say a lot but don't think can be underestimated. We really can't get enough time together and miss them the minute we are apart again! 

So instead I will do my monthly post for Wilf / Mabes. 

Last month has been a busy one for our boy. He has started sitting up on his own. Admittedly it is not long before he sees something and launches himself forward or forgets he is sat up / gets giddy and topples (as below, G Kisby got his arm there just in time) 

He can bang two bricks or toys together and is sooo pleased with the noise it makes. Now fully interested in his treasure basket I love watching the amazement on his face as he finds new textures and sounds. You can't read him a book however - all he wants to do is eat it and if you try and get it out of his reach he just gets stroppy. I am putting this down to more of a thinker than a reader (do not replace thinker with troffer).

Last week he also started to eat real food. No surprises that he has taken to it like a fat boy to a burger. I have never seen a baby on his first attempt with a bread stick demolish it in about 30 seconds. I remember with Mabel wondering when she was going to eat more than about 2 spoon fulls. I asked G Kisby when I should stop him eating the other day as he gobbled a pear.

We are kind of doing a combination of baby led weaning and normal. Which is pretty similar to our approach with Mabel, though with perhaps more emphasis on self feeding and being a little more ambitious on finger foods (hence less purees). It is much easier not to have to make separate portions of pureed food, instead giving him mostly what Mabel eats from the beginning. Though when out in public I think we will stick to feeding him an Ella's Kitchen on a spoon! As much as anything I think he loves the sensory experience of playing with his food and  the social side of sitting around the table. And I love that he is now properly with us over mealtimes too (rather than in his bouncer, we haven't been leaving him in the other room or anything). 

He hates getting dressed, always has done and it doesn't get easier. No idea why.. And he continues to enjoy nothing more than watching his sister.

Which is good since Mabel likes to be watched. This week I have been told to, "er laugh Mummy" and "you say I gorgeous". Not sure what is worse, the demand or the fact that I agree to it. 

Oh and he loves swimming - literally grins through the whole lesson, especially any singing.

Talking of swimming G Kisby had a poo in the pool incident with Mabel a few weeks ago. She came running in when they got home and shouted,
"I did a massive poo in the pool"
I swung round in horror to look at G Kisby who indeed confirmed that this was true.

Apparently she had been jumping in off the edge and did a bum drop onto the side which resulted in a squelch of poo landing on the poolside. G Kisby asked her to stand up and his worst fears were realised as the water dripping from her swimmers was indeed brown. 

Even retelling this story I can feel the panic I would have had should this have happened to me. Would I have just scarpered? Possibly. Would I have ensured that Mabel was scarred for life? Almost definitely. 

What did G Kisby do? Calmly walk round to tell the attendant before leaving swiftly to the showers. Though I think even he was slightly flustered by the job of having to remove the by now sodden poo and swimmers and clean her up. 

Notably at the weekend when asked if I fancied taking her for a swim I chose to look after Wilf instead. I am traumatised and I wasn't even there...

And on a final note talking of our 2.4 year old. Whilst feeding Wilf in our bed tonight I was happily listening to G Kisby reading her stories and both generally wittering on whilst getting ready for bed in the other room. 

As always, Mabel tries to negotiate more stories than have been agreed. As always, G Kisby is far firmer than I would be. However tonight he got more than he bargained for as she completely took the p** out of him. Literally to the word, mimicking him,
"I will take this off you, you are being silly now Daddy" (grabbing the towel)
"Come on now"

Chuckled to myself as he tried, and failed, to retain his normal composure and resolve.

The glorious Lakes

So we are very lucky to have good friends that own a house in the Lake District, which we visited last week for a short break.

The weather was indeed very kind so we spent loads of time outdoors, which is great since I feel we have been stuck in too much so far this year and I want our children to love playing outside.
On the first day there we went to Booths (hmm, nice supermarket) to stock up on local food and nice wine / ales (for the boys). We ate some fab meals - aubergines stuffed with lamb, steak night and seabass on a prawn risotto. We also drank. Lots. In fact more than I remember for a very long time.

What was lovely (and novel) was that come 7pm, rather than the usual feelings of tiredness mixed with trying to be sociable (our friends have a 10 month old so share these feelings) we were all really perky. 

Wilf did get up one night but he was so cute we  let him off

In fact on the third night at 10pm we embarked on a game of Monopoly (what the hell?) G Kisby loves Monopoly and has been asking to play it for months. So this was the night. We decided to play by the real rules (so no major cash win for landing on 'Free Parking' or other such anomolies) which made it a bit more interesting (worth doing I think). Basically 2 hours later G Kisby owned about one property, £20 and was sat in jail trying to avoid another trip around the board. I felt bad for him. I had lost interest (I wasn't winning - such a bad personality flaw of mine) and our friend Paul was demonstrating just why both in the game, as with life, he owns lots of property. Having run out of alcohol (again what the hell? Normally we buy two bottles and it is too much) he opened a bottle of champagne to celebrate about his 5th hotel purchase (bet he regretted that in the morning). Being the only one due to breastfeed early next morning, therefore having drunk the least, I finally persuaded the others to come to bed at about 1am.

Paul was then sick numerous times in the night, claiming he must have 'caught Mabel's sickness virus'. Very funny. It was really good to actually feel like we had a social life again. Not that we haven't been out at all since having children but inevitably you do have to fight tiredness and often I would swap conversation for sleep in an instant, which kind of makes it hard to enjoy the former without secretly counting how many minutes of sleep you are losing with every word that is uttered.  

Other highlights were visiting Tarn Hows, a man made lake (AMAZING views, pram friendly walking and lots of lovely picnic spots. Would highly recommend) and Mabel finally seeming to get over her dog phobia (friends own quite a lively and large dog which previously she has feared).

All in all a great trip captured by Ceri who took most of the photos...