CharlieBeth's "My Life As Mumma Walker"

I had predicted 4 teeth by Christmas, and I was right. The 4th tooth cut over night, and seemed blissfully painless for him, no sore bum, no screaming, just a few extra cuddles in mummy & daddy's bed over night - I can cope with that and so can George. What I didn't predict was that he would be pulling himself upright and standing up! All be it while holding on the the furniture (or in this case a large box of mega blocks), he's 8 months old and fabulous! He seems to be largely bypassing crawling, he gives it a go but he's not really that bothered if he can get to what or who he wants some other way. He's also managing to get from his tummy to sitting up, which he couldn't do a couple of weeks ages when the health visitor came to see him. All this happened TODAY! Soooo grown up already, and his first Christmas just hours away too. My boys are all getting an early gift tomorrow too - naughty on our part I know but there is method in the madness! Jack

Oh, and its supposed to be the end of the world today too, but I don't believe that ;) Asked the kids what they wanted to do today and all they desire is to stay in their onesies, play games, and watch telly. Easily sorted! And allows me time to get laundry done and other such dull stuff ready for Christmas. Even I am still in my onesie at almost 1pm. Only poor hubby got dressed... He's still working till Xmas Eve :(

So sad that we couldn't use cameras during the show. I really wanted to record it. But we couldn't so here's the photos instead! Jack was a King (or Wise Man as they were when I was a kid) and he was fab. Not many speaking roles for the reception class, no words for the kings, but they did have to dress up and walk round in front of a large crowd of folk - twice yesterday and once more today - and our Jack isn't great at dressing up, or walking calmly, or doing anything under instruction in front of an audience! He was  brilliant! Walked nicely with the other kings and the camels, gave his gift to the baby, and sang along the best he could. I'm a very very proud mummy. Nice promotion for him too after last years total refusal to be a donkey!

I've done so well this year. I've dodged my SAD for a good while when you compare against the years when I started to slide as early as Sept & Oct. I'm tired though which isn't helping. The kids are ill (Tom has chicken pox, and we've got thread worm. The joys of school & nursery) which means we aren't getting much sleep. The waking nightmares started last week, where I see flashes of awful things happening to the kids/hubby/all of us. It's horrific and leaves me cold & trembling. Last night - well this morning after a very rough night - hubby took a very wakey baby downstairs so I could get an hour or twos sleep. Instead I tossed and turned for half an hour, then had a nightmare that my family fell apart and was destroyed. If you know me at all you'll know my family is my whole world so dreams like that shake me up badly. More than an hour later I'm still unsettled. I think I need a few more hours in the sunlight for the next few days

Today is Tom's 2nd settling in day at nursery (or playgroup as he likes to call it), and its the first time I've just left him there. I stayed for an hour and then went saying I was taking George for his morning nap and would be back in a bit. All true BTW. He let me go without a fuss so that was good. I got a call from the staff just before lunch to say he was asking for me and having a bit of a wobble... But even as we were talking on the phone he got distracted with the thought of playing outside and was suddenly fine again! Yay! He had his lunch there and seems to have had a fab time. He was very pleased to see me when I went to fetch him and didn't want to leave. I'm taking that to be a good sign! He's out cold now, snoring his head off while we wait to pick Jack up from school.

Well the hand print cards turned out really well! I'm really pleased with them. Over the weekend we were busy again making brownie cakes! Which we are still eating. And these fab snowman faces (paper plates n felt n stuff) which I've put up on the wall. The salt dough decs are on the tree and we're looking very festive!

Just when you think you've done Christmas shopping for the kids... Hubby rocked up with a 3DS for son1 last night, so to balance up I've "had" to make a mad dash to Asda at an unreasonable hour to pick up a LeapPad 2 for Son2 (before they sell out, only just made it too), and also have to find something extra for son3!

This is the first decorated hand print! Gonna make cards for the family with these. Well... The kids did the hand prints and I'll be turning them into stuff, hee hee. It's not as mean as it sounds, at 7m, 2yrs and 4yrs they haven't got the steady hand needed. I'll make it up to them by letting them go crazy with glitter and sticky stuff at the weekend ;) This one is Tom's print.

Jack has his school trip to see Treasure Island at the theater today and he loved it. He even came away with some pirate treasure (a choc coin). Meanwhile, I took Tom (and Georgie) to the nursery that Tom will be starting in the New Year for one of his settling-in sessions. It went really well. He's already made friends with a lovely little boy (the kind of kid I would choose for him if I could) and seems perfectly happy there. I also took T & G shopping and out for lunch. They behaved perfectly, G had his first ever sandwich, and strangers were going gooey over T cuddling G and says "I love you soooo much Georgie!" And when we went to collect J the school photos were (finally) ready! Chuffed to bits! Hopefully, with pizza for tea, the good feelings will continue to the boys bedtime and beyond!

I think we can say that George loves chocolate biscotti :) Can't believe he's almost 8m old already. I've only got one month of mat leave left (and a few days), its gone by so fast. I've hardly had time to post anything on here since he was born and feel a little bad about that. But I only haven't posted because I've been so busy having fun with him and his big brothers. I DO have tons of photos though so the memories are still recorded. An early New Years Resolution: remember to blog!

Been so busy I haven't had time to blog! Here's some of what we've been doing :)