My babies are growing up so fast!

It has been an emotional week already.

On Sunday I put Harris into his own room to sleep for the first time. He looked so tiny in his big cot. I know it is a ridiculously long time to still be in our room (especially as Murray was in his own room before 6 months), but it just seems like he is still such a teeny babba and that it is all going past too quickly. I just can't believe that tomorrow he is 9 months!

Today Murray had his last half day at the nursery he has been attending since he was 9 months! He has enjoyed it so much and it has benefited him enormously. He finished today because we go on holiday this weekend for a week and a half and then he only has 2.5 weeks until he starts Preschool in the village! I can't believe he starts Preschool. Such a big boy!

We've been having cracking weather for the past couple of weeks. Really hot (too hot for getting babies to sleep and causing them to have heat rash) which has been lovely so we've been doing as much outdoor things as poss.

Picnic time for Murray, while Harris gnaws on Murray's sunglasses!

Paddling Pool Fun!

I'm a sea-monster, Daddy!

 Murray on his new balance bike.

Peekaboo Giggles with Harris

 Octonaut Murray at the Sea Life Centre Loch Lomond Shores

Murray's 3rd Birthday

My baby #1 turned 3 on Monday!!!!! H.O.W!!!!! I just can't believe I have a 3 year old.

Pirate Murray! Oooh arrrrrr!

I threw him a proper birthday party this year and it had an Octonauts theme as he really loves the Octonauts.

Feeding time at the party!

I love this pic - Murray is feeding the octonauts on his plates his lunch! Too cute!

I was rather pleased with my efforts:

• Yummy gluten'dairy free cake with an Octonauts personalised topper. I made the cake and bought the topper.

• Yummy g/d free fairy cakes with mini Octonauts toppers.
• Pin the tail on Kwazii instead of the donkey. Quite chuffed with my drawing too.

• Peso paper plates puppets. The kids really enjoyed doing them so I'm really glad I did the prep work.

Octonauts hats and Peso paper plate puppet in background!

• Octonauts hats instead of party hats.
• We also did pass the parcel which the kids loved and they played really well. Putting a choc in each layer of rapping paper worked a treat in keeping them excited.
• I borrowed loads of toys from toddlers and the kids had a great time.

Murray was so excited to have a birthday party and I felt so proud of him playing so nicely and handing out his party bags and saying: ' thank you for coming!' He also helped with the clear up!

He was sad for it to end, but was happy to get to take some balloons home.

We had the party on Sunday, but his actual birthday was Monday so my folks and my sis and baby Benjamin joined us for the day to have a wee visit to Auchingarrich animal park. Mum and dad were paying for our ticket to the park for the year, so I though it would be nice or them to see what they were buying. They loved it and thought it was a great present.

Murray came into the living room on the morning of his birthday and his jaw dropped as he saw his 'new bike'! He loves his balance bike and already enjoys paddling along on it.

In other news:

Harris is now 8.5 months, weighs 17lbs 2oz and is doing well with solids. We had a shaky blip where he was refusing to eat, but basically the poor lamb had the most awful month of May - sore throat, chicken pox and then to top it all off M, H and I got a tummy bug which (because of H not feeding at all) resulted in me getting mastitis! Ouch! I was so over the Month of May! Anyway, once he felt better he got stuck in and actually a bit too stuck in and I had to get him back to twice a day and just moved up to 3 meals today. he's really got the hang of drinking from a cup and so will take milk from a cup too which takes the pressure off me a bit. I think we're on the cusp of needing to feed from me less, but at the mo, it is a busy time as he still wants a milk feed post meals! Meal times are crazy! Harris is at such a lovely age at mo'. Is happy to sit and reach out for his toys, or explore his leap frog table. I am def enjoying the 'calm before the storm of movement'!

I know it's Murray's party, mummy, but I'm starving, so I'll gnaw on this plastic sandwich until you get a minute!

Can you fix it Harris?

Nee Naw!

According to Murray, Harris can go on his old bike as he has his new one!

In contrast to May, June has absolutely flown in with lots of fun summery trips to adventure parks, friends' birthdays and M, H and I joined my sis, baby B and my folks at The Highland Show which was awesome - exhausting, but great fun. Murray nearly died over how big some of the tractors were! Of course the best part of the month has been organising Murray's birthday. Finally, this Saturday we are going to the Sea Life centre at Loch Lomond and are going to see 'The Octonauts' there! I think Murray is going to explode when he sees a life sized Kwazii walking about!

It has been a big year for us all and I feel like Murray's party ad trip to the Octonauts has/will be a big celebration for us all. This time last year, I was really struggling in pregnancy and it was hard for Murray to have Mummy so exhausted and in pain and now Harris is safely here, and Murray and Harris have really bonded. I love my little family even on the hardest days when I want to tear my heart out! LOL! I really have 2 of the most gorgeous boys and I am so v, v blessed.

Chicken Pox Take 2!

2 weeks to the day of Murray's first spot, Harris' first spot popped up on his chest! Poor wee love had at least 13 on his scalp; more than 20 in his groin/and boy's bits; too many on his face (including eyebrows and lids), neck and ears and several on his chest, back and armpits and a random one on his foot! He was so good really, but v v pale on Thursday and Friday. He barely smiled and just looked at me with great big eyes. I was really glad I phoned the doc and asked if he could have some piriton (yes, but max, 3 times/24 hours) as it really took away the itch and reduced the amount of on his back break dancing he was doing! LOL!

It has been a long week though - the 2nd week of in house activities in 3 weeks and this time with a perfectly healthy toddler! I'm v glad Al had a holiday Monday today and that the weather has cheered up a bit today and yesterday so we could take the boys to the park so Murray could play and Harris could sit in buggy well away from everyone, but at least getting a change of scene and some fresh air.

Here are some recent pics.

The boys playing together!

Pancake sous chef Murray mixing the pancake batter

Sous chef, 'margarine-ing' the pan

The finished product with honey and fruit pot - yummy!

Look at that super cute, eager beaver! Gorgeous!

Tractor fun at the park.

King of the Castle!

Murray at the Park!

Chicken Pox!

Poor Murray has had a good dose of the Chicken pox. Poor wee soul, he was covered. Had never thought about it before, but some of the places they can get spots is rather mean! Just so I have a record, things that really helped were: Tepid baths with bicarb of soda; children's piriton (really good); calpol; tee tree antispetic cream for the yukky ones and special cooling gel stuff specifically for the pox called vira gel. Also keeping him as cool as poss so vest and shorts and pants rather than nappies as much as poss, plus just a sheet at bed. He was a wee star.

A Quarantine Activity: Make A Rocket!

Here are some pics taken recently:

Shopping for a new Hoover. Harris was besotted with his big bro and kept lookng up at him and laughing. Murray was being really sweet and was super happy to have Harris there and kept giving him kisses on his head. Heart swelling moments!

Daddy and Harris

 

Grandma and Grandad came to visit and we went to Auchingarrich:

We played in the sand.

Petted the baby chicks

And Mummy, Harris and I had fun on the slides.

Bedtime stories with the boys.

6 Months and 35!

Harris is 6 months today!!!!! I can't believe it!

He is so sweet and clever and on Monday sat unaided for the first time, but today it was for proper little spells and was actually able to play with his toys at the same time!!!! Clever wee fella.

Harris started solids a week ago. His first week included tastes of baby rice, carrot, butternut squash and this week he's tried apple and parsnip so far. It's tricky getting a time when he's hungry but not too hungry, but this mornings apple went down well. So this week we are now on twice a day and are going for 9amish and 5pmish.

He has got really good at feeding as he often feeds for only 5 mins and is definitley full I think as he has slept through to 5am and today was 5.45am (even better was Murray sleeping until 6.50!!!!! and even crazier, 7.40am yesterday. Poor lad is knackered as that is now 7 days in a tow with no nap at all. He nearly fell asleep in the car on the way home at 4.30pm today, but I managed to keep him awake. This is really important now as we have all sorts of antics at bed time if he naps after 3pm. Fingers crossed the later pattern continues, but we'll see.....) I think this faster feeding happened at the same time as oral thrush which added to my difficulties as I couldn't get him to feed for hardly any time! I'm just soooo glad he is not arching his back and squealing post feed any more as it means he is no longer in pain and it is all healed up. All new territory for me now and it is quite interesting to note all the new things. Harris is obviously teething too and likes to squeeze me between his gums with a fair force - OUUUCCHHH! He is not allowed to get away with that! I was asked the other day if I'll continue to feed when Harris gets a tooth (assuming he gets his first tooth before 1 year old unlike Murray). I answered that we'd cross that bridge when we/if we come to it!

Potty Training

We're still plugging on with PT. It is hard work with a v stubborn toddler. Boy do they ever know they have the upper hand. He can seriously fight me about going to the loo, but when he sits down, he usually does a decent sized wee (still no poops). So frustrating! The worst thing is I know he needs the loo as his behaviour ramps up!!! Think we may have to go back to the reward chart.

Behaviour Triggers

What situations trigger your toddlers 'behaviours'? Hand washing, getting jackets on to go out (even if he wants to go out) and now the toilet trigger what I call slippery fish (flops on the floor and makes it virtually impossible to be picked up) in Murray. It is exhausting. I try so hard to be patient and ignore the nonsense and catch the good, but woah!!!!! Again, I'm thinking I might have to start some sort of a chart. I'll do some reading and thinking I think. My worst times of the day are trying to get Murray dressed to get out while Harris is at level 3 crying because he's tired and in the car seat and not in his cot so he thinks he'snot getting to go to sleep. I'm desperately trying to keep my cool and Murray decides it is an excellent time to do Benny Hill shennanigans, running off all over the place! They are so fabulous, but wow, the terrible 2s deserve their reputation! It is sooo lovely when they just do as they are asked and everyone can have a happy day. I guess the aim is to get to that as often as possible!

35th Birthday!

On a completely different note, I turned 35 on Saturday! Can't believe that either! I had a lovely day: Mum looked after Murray in the afternoon and Al and I headed to Perth with Harris and I hit the sjhops with birthday money while Al pushed H around in the buggy so I could actually make some good buys. Got loads of long sleeves, vests and Ts from Primark and then treated myself to a new hoodie, T and jeans from Fat Face. So lovely to have new clothes. Al and I then got to go out for dinner together. Lovely!

Oral Thrush! Ouch!

I'm getting worse and worse at blogging!

Practically a month has gone by since my last post. That said in the past 3 and half weeks Harris has been waking every night and as such I've been going to bed progressively earlier and just did not feel like blogging. After 2 weeks of hideous feeding and waking, he finally got diagnosed with oral thrush down the throat. He's been on the medicine a week and as of yesterday it didn't look like anything had improved. The doc took a swab on Fri so we will see if it has cleared or not. Today has been better and I think most of his discomfort from teething pain and I think perhaps he has got better at feeding and doesn't need as long to feed. This is all new territory for me now so I really just don't know. He is so distractable now though! Discretion is no longer an option! I really, really hope things can settle down for a while as I am exhausted.

Potty News!

Good news is Murray is dry during the day for wees. He's still not great at asking, but is completely dry and with a reminder goes on the loo quite the thing. I still have him in pull ups as he still hasn't mastered poos in the loo. We've moved from complete denial of doing a poo to him telling me he's done a poo after the event. Hopefully we'll move to him being able to let me know before hand, soon, but it'll happen when he's ready.

Easter

Easter was a bit weird - I was just plain exhausted. We were meant to have Al's folks over, but due to the crazy snow falling everywhere, his folks were snowed in, so they are coming on the 19th April instead. As such we went to my folks on Easter Sunday. My mum came with me to Mass and boy was I glad as it was crazy busy and the only seats were on the Altar and I could see Murray eyeing up the bell that is rung at Holy Communion! I must say he was v v good, but I was sweating and using al my teacher eye ball techniques! LOL!

Exercise

Exercise had been going really well, but the past 2 weeks have taken a hit especially this week as my immune system finally gave up and I've ran out of gas and had to sleep and knock back paracetamol to ease the sinus pain (ouch). Swimming has got back up to 130 lengths though, so I'm pretty chuffed. Hopefully if we finally get some good weather I can get out on the bike????

Solids

I had planned to start Harris on solids this weekend, but the doc said to hold off util we get the throat sorted.  I spent the weekend steaming parsnips, carrots and butternut squash to go into ice cube trays in prep, so we're ready to go soon. I think we'll get Harris in his own room soon too, but I'd like to get him a bit more settled and also start him on solids first - only a few more weeks perhaps. I'm looking fwd to having our room back for sure! That said, I'm not looking fwd to trying to creep quietly past Murray's room if Harris is up, so I don't disturb him and then spend they next few hours trying to get Murray back to sleep!

Fingers crossed for a better week - Last week I'd had enough! An afternoon nap today has helped things a bit and Al taking both boys out for the first time since Harris was born (he's looked after them both in the house while I've been at the gym, but never taken them both out) has given me some space to breathe and recharge a little.

5 months for Harris and Potty training for Murray and a quiet Coffee for Al and Me.

5 Months

Harris is 5 months today! The time seems to just fly in with a second baby! I got him weighed on Monday past and he was 15lbs 2oz. I think we'll definitely be looking out for readiness to wean him onto his initial solids although as we are currently potty training Murray I am happy to wait a little longer to keep another activity out of the mix.

Potty Training

Potty training is going OK with Murray. He was not terribly bothered about disturbing his busy work of play to sit on the potty, so, on the advice of the book I am using as advice, I've taken to using a bit of bribery - choccy buttons and collecting stickers for prizes seems to be helping enormously and yesterday he spent all day in pants except for 3 hours while we were out. He's doing really well with wees, but not so sure about pooping in the potty. It's early days though and he'll get there.

Bugs

Both the boys have been poorly this week with some yukky bug - poor Murray has had temperatures and v v tired - so much so he has slept in until 8.30am 3 times - this is a lie in of 3 hours or so and he's needed a nap! Tired boy. Harris has been saved temps, but was so choked up last night he could hardly breathe, so I was up with him from 2 - 3am trying to de stuff him - poor wee soul. The virus has brought out a wee rash too. I so hate it when they are sick.

Quiet Coffee

Today we headed up to Tiso for lunch and after Murray had eaten we put him into the soft play area where you can leave them with staff. So funny as we leave him at nursery every week, but I felt quite nervous. Anyway he LOOOVED it - just wanted to pop back and check we were still in the cafe once. I must say it was fab to be able to have a coffee in peace. At the end we watched him run all around the soft play like such a big boy! He is so growing up - he even put his jacket on all by himself yesterday. Feel quite emotional about them both getting so big!