The search is on!

We love babywearing. Having the children so close is a wonderful feeling, and we do love the excitement of all the different carriers and lovely colourways and fabrics too.

Recently, our beloved Joey has become a little small. Its height is perfect at 18" to the tip of the headrest, but it no longer goes quite knee to knee on Moo. So the search is on for its replacement. We think an inbetween size may be best. I've looked at dream carriers- they seem pricey. I've looked at Olives and Applesauce- not sure wether full buckle or half would be best. And then there are Kinderpacks- in my dreams. Recently I have begun drooling over Ocahs too.

We love the colourway of our Joey- this was just after Moo's first birthday- it fitted perfectly.

Our needs: both children are arms out, so something maybe 16 or 17" high would be good. Our Joey is 15" wide so I think Moo would need a 16 or 17". Depending on seat darts that is. Beanie has recently decided on our long walks that Daddy ought to carry him. So a toddler carrier is needed for him too. Maybe an 18".

So the quest is on. I have this beauty on holiday with us at the moment.

A Daisy Chain Wrap Conversion. Perfectly soft, beautifully comfy, just wide enough for Moo to have a bit of growing room... but sadly a little too high for my arms out toddlers. We love the applique though. Beanie calls it Gaston.



We have a Kleinsmekker, a Rose and Rebellion and a Sling-a-licious on the way for short holidays with us too! The search continues!

Catching Up

The last month or so has passed in a bit of a whirlwind. Hubby's mum was diagnosed with Pancreatic cancer at the start of November and passed away on December 10th. Our time has been taken up with visiting first her, then my father-in-law, helping with arrangements and sorting different things. Then with the funeral 3 days before Christmas.

Our best laid plans, well stayed as plans! All gifts were purchased by mid-November, but we ended up in a mad dash to wrap them as different people visited and I think my cards were only posted a day or two before Christmas. So despite being reasonably organised, my goal next year is to be that little bit more organised.

Still, we had a lovely Christmas. My father-in-law stayed with us, and the children received some lovely gifts.

A picture catch up:

Some of Beanie's gifts

Decorating the tree

Tree number two!

Cuddles with Grandad and a beautiful rag Doll

An inspirational Mama

I read about this mama on a forum I use. After losing her three month old son to Meningitis, she is determined to raise greater awareness of the signs and to fundraise in his memory. She is also donating breastmilk. Her strength is inspirational.

http://www.charliecheekychops.blogspot.com/

Doing what we like to do!

We've not been up to much lately.... just a bit of mooching about the place doing bits and bobs. Not a lot of going out as it is a bit cold and slippy. So this is a little snapshot of what we have enjoyed doing this week.

Moo likes playing with a wooden toy which I got many moons ago from Freecycle. Its consists of four stacking hollow cyclinders (if you get what I mean!) which fit one inside the other, on top of which go 4 stacking shapes to create a pyramid. A bit complex for her now but she enjoys the two smallest cylindrical shapes.

She likes to post the smallest one inside the next size up one, but can't figure out why it just won't stay in and keeps falling out of the bottom! She has a good few attempts, each time she plays, before giving up and moving onto something else!

Beanie likes a simple little car track, given to Little Man for a gift when he was a similar age. He likes to sit and watch the car go around and around!

 

And I did a spot of proper cooking on Sunday. We had a lovely Sunday Roast. We've been so busy the last few weeks. I worked a few Sundays and we have visited my parents-in-law a few times too. It feels like ages since I cooked a Roast. I was quite proud of these Yorkshires!

Christingle

Christingle to me is usually celebrated on the 4th Sunday of Advent or maybe Christmas Eve. In our area, however, we had our Christingle on the 1st Sunday of Advent, which was yesterday. It was a lovely start to the Christmas season for us. We trudged through the snow to a VERY cold church and celebrated a lovely children's' service with about 20 other families from our area.

Moo spotted the sweets on hers within seconds and devoured them one by one, quite quickly. It took a little skill to pull them off the cocktail stick, but she soon mastered this. Her eyes then wandered to everyone else's Christingles and anyone within her reach would find themselves a sweet or two short. By contrast Beanie clutched onto his preciously, gripping it tight to his chest. He kept setting it down on the bench to admire it and mutter different things about it, before picking it back up again and clutching it tightly. At the end of the service we all lit our Christingles, Beanie did his usual Happy Birthday/blow out the candle within seconds of it being lit, so after attempt number 3 we gave up. The Church looked lovely lit by the light from our Chritingles, on a cold, snowy November afternoon.

On the way home in the car, the thermometer display thingemy read -6. It felt like it too.

For anyone who doesn't know.... the orange represents the world, the red ribbon around the world represents the blood of Christ, the candle represents Jesus as the light of the world and the sweets (sometimes raisins) represent the fruit of the earth, ie the harvest.

Snowy Fun!

Our Garden Friends

One of the things we really like to do each day is to put food out for the birds. We put out thistle seed, wild bird mix, sunflower seeds, fat balls, bird cake and peanuts too. We also have a rowan tree which has lovely bright red berries on at the moment, a favourite with the robins and blackbirds! There are trees backing onto our garden and also some ivy over the back fence, which provides perfect cover for them from several neighbourhood cats!

Right now in the garden I can see a robin, a pair of blackbirds, a chaffinch, several goldfinches, many sparrows and some starlings. Over the 9 months we have been here 15 different types of birds have visited our garden: robins, starlings, sparrows, blackbirds, blue tits, coal tits, great tits, goldfinches, chaffinches, greenfinches, a great spotted woodpecker, woodpigeons, doves, magpies and a pair of jackdaws! Not bad for our little garden!