Well its official baby number four on the way!

I can tell you all now that baby 4 is expected to join our family around September 10th 2013. We are very happy and feel very blessed to be given another child, we had our first scan and all is well they moved my due date forward a bit but i don't mind but i will be pushing to wait for induction till 2wks from my original date as i just have big babies anyway so expect my baby to measure ahead anyway. I get consultant care again thus time due to NJ's abohdn and EJ's size at birth but that just means a gtt test and maybe an extra scan.

Indoor Playtime

This last month I have been struggling with my health and that has resulted in the Little ones picking up several bugs themselves so we have had to be creative about keeping occupied to keep the tv veiwing levels down.

A Favorite game for my boys is building a hut/fort using the sofa cushions and blankets and duvets, they absolutely Love to just curl up inside a hut and have Mummy reading them stories. I cant say I blame them its  very fun and I used to spend many many hours in huts and forts created by myself and my sisters using a variety of Blankets /sheets and our Bunk beds ( I  think the bunks started to beat out the table and chairs for supporting walls when we got too big to all fit comfortably under the dining table with room for special toys or friends )

Another winner for the last month or more has been a big packing box we had laying around from the move up here in Novemeber. That box was a bus/ship/plane and all manner of other vehicles after they had tipped all the toys out of it, it got pushed and pulled soo much it eventually gave way in the corners and ripped beyond repair. Now I might have to unpack some more things for them to get another box lol.

As I hinted at earlier then my boys love having books and stories read to them and we have worked our way through a large portion of our book collection some of the favorites being read a few times of course in the last few weeks, I have a Long Long list of  my favorite childhood books saved on Amazon to buy for the boys in years to come, the stories I remember my Dad sitting and  reading to me on the beanbag in the corner of the living room with us all trying to pile in his lap.

We have been trying to study Space as well as do Handwriting, Phonics and Math with Nate and EJ has been watching along joining in with things, We are planned to be building space rockets tomorrow out of spare cardboard I have been putting aside for a few weeks from stuff that has come into the house in boxed up form.

Of course the Trainset has been well used in the last few weeks by all the boys even little AJ whos not so little anymore has been making himself heard in picking out his favourite train and pieces and annoying his brothers plenty with swiping sections of much needed track to wonder off with.
I thought with 200+ pieces of track and trains and trees that we had enough not to cause fights between the boys but I was obviously wrong and we seem to need more somehow. I do need a new storage solution for the trainset it overtook and eventually broke my large lidded bucket and currently is being stored in a Banana Box in the corner of the living room but all the other toys are getting piled there too so I need a better containment device for it.
Suggestions anyone...?

Winter has arrived

Winter has arrived properly in the UK we have had snow at last he attached picture is looking out my upstairs window on Monday morning between snow showers. All on the trees and roofs is now gone but there is a fair bit left on the ground the temp peaked at half a degree today its quite cold so the sunshine didn't have much impact on the snow. Lots happening meaning I've not been out much recently as AJ was ill last week with a nasty virus then i drove MIL to the airport on Friday and took C to the church social at Costa on Saturday but not been out since other than to play in the snow with the boys

new year new resolutions

2013 is here, Ive started a new diet/lifestyle called Primal which is cool its a challenge but its working so far for me and im getting on with it ok for the past 10 days. lots happening so i'll blog properly tomorrow when Mike isnt waiting for me upstairs

Lipstick and Sawdust (reblog)

Stumbled upon this fantastic blog on Pintrest going to take some time when the kiddos arent around to have a look see but looks great already from what ive seen

Lipstick and Sawdust

Frosty no snowman

Well its frosty cold winter but still no sign of snow not a single flake :-( and this does not make me happy the temperature was -1 all day yesterday but no snow and we aren't even predicted to get any in the next front that comes through oh well winter will arrive someday with snow

Christmas is coming

Christmas is coming soon its nearly here the lights and decorations are going up all around me.

I'm SOOOOOOOOOOOOO excited,

I'm always excited when it comes to Christmas, for a number of reasons and this Christmas will be special because though not AJ's first Christmas then it will be the first one he will be opening his own gifts as he was only a few weeks old last year, and this year hes walking/climbing etc... and that makes it special as our whole family can share in the gift giving and receiving traditions.

And my second reason for being extra excited this year is because I have a new house to decorate and for a change we dont have enough decorations for it.

I have been inspired for my fireplace mantle by the photo below

This is the fireplace of a friend and she shared her decoration with me and I gotta say I LOVE IT !!!

and going to have to share my Inspiration with Mike because he gets the Christmas bug as as bad if not worse that I do and normally takes the lead in decorating.

We wont be decorating yet though as much as my fingers are itching to get started because Mike and I promised each other that we would celebrate AJ's first birthday before decorating the house so it doesnt confuse the older boys and also so its special for AJ and we can decorate for his birthday and make it special for him.

New chapter

Its like a new chapter in my life right now. We each are settling in to our new house and routine starts in earnest this week with Mike fully back to work and me at home with alkaline the boys. I'll be shifting my main family blog to a different place and using this one more for me and life topics. The reason behind this is that we feel God is leading us towards home-education and I want a blog where i can post about that separate from my Topics here. I will get the link for that sorted soon

New house new phone

Well we have moved house now and I've gotten a new phone too so i finally upgraded to a proper smart phone allowing me to update on the move

Carlys Voice

The link above is a blog that I follow, I got the update today and felt that I needed to reblog her post to help spread Autism awareness and the story of Carly and her life with Autism,

Please read and spare a thought for all those who's lives are touched by Autism and help spread awareness so that we can understand more how to help and stop prejudice

Life on the school run

My baby has started school !! : ( 

So sad that he's grown up so quickly

Here in the UK our children start school in Reception the September following their 4th birthday which for NJ was this year, We can keep them off till the following year and start them in Year 1 but 99% of children who aren't home-educated head off to school at 4yrs+ some who have just had their birthday in the final days of the August that year. Nathaniel was well ready for school and down to space and other things we decided home-education wasn't a great fit for us at the moment.

Typically in English weather the first day of school was a raincoat day we got wet on the way to school and on the way home, My second son EJ has started Nursery at NJ's old nursery for 2 days a week which we are paying for ( ouch ) and 2 other mornings a week we are @ the local Children's centre which is next door to the Nursery and still on school grounds for a Stay and Play group for both EJ and AJ and toddler cooking lessons for EJ which he loved the first week , So that leaves me with only one day where I can drop off NJ and not be either hanging around the school or back for a lunchtime pickup of EJ but instead get to stay home till I have to go get NJ at 3.05 which leaves little time for housework.

We thankfully got some more decent weather after the first week of school and the first week of full time school ( first week was half days ) then we managed without getting wet on the school run. AJ has decided he hates the pushchair now though which isn't great news since he has to spend about 100 min in it a day with the school run trips, Im also walking 10-12 miles a week doing the school run which is good caus its boosted my activity levels and with AJ's distaste for the puschair and EJ's little legs getting sore Ive been carrying AJ in the wrap for the afternoon trips which gives me a bit more of a workout.

We got some good family time last weekend not the one we have just had but the previous one, we took the boys to Chessington World of Adventures using our free residents passes and had a good day out with the boys.

Paralympics buzz

I didn't thing the Paralympics would be the massive hit that it has been I've been surprised at the media and social reaction in this country. the Athletics have been branded as " Superhumans " and with the incredible things that they have done in the last week then I cant say that the label doesnt fit caus it most certainly does.

Ive purposely put the Games on TV for the boys to see that there are people out there that are different that still do awesome things and they have been really enjoying it and shouting just as loud for the paralympians as the olympians a month ago.
I want them to grow up seeing the variety and differences in life without prejudice and accept people for who they are regardless of how many limbs they have or what their limbs look like.

The NZ Para team have an incredible haul of 13 medals so far 4 gold, 5 silver and 4 bronze with more medal  hopes to come. I think we need to get the swimmers in the pool with the able swimmers to give them some tips because most of our medals have come from the pool.

Thats all for now we are preparing this morning for Nathaniels school teacher for the year to visit in preparation for his start on Monday

Olympics Build Up

Today we had the Olympic torch relay go past near our house so it was an early start for all of us to get up and out the door in time to get a place in the crowd. 

I found a fairly good place but sadly the boys couldn't see and I wasnt able to pursuade the crowd to let me and the kids to the front so we could see and because I had AJ in the woven wrap I couldnt lift either of the other 2 to see so really thankful I got such a good clear picture of the Flame

You can see in the background on the left the crowd that lined the route all the way into Kingston ( well as far as the eye could see up the hill ) it was 8-10 people thick in places on the sidewalk

We forgot to take Nate's "torch" he made at nursery with us and the Flag but I think the boys enjoyed the trip out and the breakfast treats since we didn't have time for breakfast because I forgot to reset my Alarm.

This weekend the Men's and Woman's Cycle races are happening in Kingston so going downtown is near impossible with the road closures etc.... so we will probably be at the Chessington Fun Day at The Kings Centre which is round the road from us, they have planned a fun day with bouncy castles  a bbq, entertainment for the kids and will be having a little concert plus showing the race on the big screens in their hall. 

Otherwise the build up to the Olympics has kinda missed us lol we didnt get tickets to anything partly because you cant take Children very easily onto the Sites where events will be held plus they were super expensive lol so we will watch the events we want to on the BBC like the rest of everyone and I hope to catch the main NZ medal hopes in my watching.

Perils of 7month old with teeth

Well its been awhile since my last post now and we are continuing with BLW for Alister

we have introduced a spoon both pre-loading it and handing it to him ( watch out for flicking of the spoon ) and just loading it up and allowing him to open his mouth and move onto the spoon if he wants to eat, being careful all the time to watch for him loosing interest in the food so we stop.

Though mostly he's eating by feeding himself finger foods

 We are expanding his diet slowly

this past week he has had

Yogurt ( about 2 1/2 table spoonfuls each time)

Toast 

Toast dipped in low salt chicken soup

Honey dew and Water Melon

Strawberries

Apple

Pineapple

Cucumber

Melon

Pasta with Spag Bol sauce

Pasta with Pesto

Cheese ( mild and red leister )

Chicken

Ham

Tomatos ( halved and seeded )

Red and Yellow Bell Pepper strips

Banana 

Lettuce ( wasnt very happy with this )

Pork ribs ( the meat minus the sauce )

Roasted Duck

Fish Fingers minus the crumbs

Homemade Chips

Normally for a meal I'll offer 2-3 different foods onto his tray and let him pick and choose what he wants to eat and how and just rescue the bits that fall down beside him because they slip out of his hand.

Hes had a few goes with a beaker of water at playgroup but otherwise has water out of a bottle during the day

And he still wakes in the night to be fed, last night he slept 8.30-1.30 then woke again at 4.30ish and up for the day at 7.30ish. But that is a huge improvement over the 11, 1.30, 2.30, 3.30, 4.30, 6.30 he was doing.

We will get there one day

Weaning... the Baby Led Way

I don't proclaim to be an expert in Baby Led Weaning

( lets just say BLW instead aye )

But now AJ is nearly 7 months old we have been slowly introducing him to real foods without mushing things up the same way we did with EJ.

In fact Ive not even read the whole BLW book I should probably get it out of the Library and read it lol

Anyway This is about my experience using the BLW method ( loosely speaking ) with EJ and AJ

Typically first food in this house for all 3 boys has been Apple,

With Nate I did puree it but not for the younger boys they just got sticks of apple big enough to hold and have a bit sticking out to chew on.

It can be a scary thing to give whole food to a young child but BLW works on the priciple that if their bodies are ready to accept food ( ie.. their digestive system being mature ) then they will have the motor skills both with their hands and their mouths to be able to eat food without the need for it to be provided in puree form.

It makes sense in my head probably because we had a terrible time with Nate moving from smooth loose puree's to thicker and lumpier foods and hes still not great with thick textured foods or things lumpy in a sauce like chunky soups... so if there was a way to skip that problem I was all up for it with EJ, Also we had to spoon feed Nate for ages as he wouldnt feed himself it was a misson when I was pregnant with EJ to get Nate to eat with a fork and spoon on his own loading them himself so I was thrilled when I saw videos of BLW babies at 8-10 months spoon feeding themselves !

With EJ we started out with grab sized cooked vege and raw fruit and he coped really well at 9 months old he tucked into a full roast Christmas dinner and ate much more of it unaided than his older brother did. 

it doesnt take long for BLW children to get to grips with moving food around inside their mouth forwards and backwards and learning how not to put too much in,

the Gagging reflex is natural and normal and supposed to prevent choking its often confused with a child choking and consquently parents freak out because of it but ive learnt that if they dont learn to gag and cough up the lumps then choking is a much more real possiblity if they get into something they arent supposed to be putting in their mouths. having a good gag reflex is a life skill it could save your childs life!

With EJ we had far less real scares over him and foods than with Nate where we were dropping off food on the back part of his tounge off a spoon.

I dont know many adults who enjoy being spoon fed so I think its normal for children to feel the same way and being able to feed themselves is a great way to grow independance in a way that you want them to be independant of you, ( who really wants to spoon feed a 5 yr old or 15,25+ yr olds )

So starting as I mean to carry on makes good sense.

Right now AJ's list of tried foods is.

Apple slices and sticks

Raw Carrot sticks ( didnt like this one much )

Pear chunks

Banana

Bread sticks

Pizza crusts ( why should he miss out on pizza night? )

Chicken breast sliced diagonally into thick fingers

Baked Potato sticks ( aka fries )

Grapes

Clemetine segments

Tomatoes ( quartered and seeded )

Pasta ( Spirali, Penne and Fusilli in ragu sauce )

Brocolli ( cooked in easy grab florrets )

Yoghurt

Pork Sausage

The favorite from those is probably Pear and the Chicken both he ate really well then probably Pasta after that. the Brocolli was fun and he definately ate some as we witness from the nappies this morning lol.

So its food fun and games in the Odendaal household at the moment 

more to come later...