Hanging Lanterns

Well we weren't going to waste all that solar charge just because of the rain!! Ben did a great job of helping Grandma hang the lanterns up.

In fact Ben's been helping and playing with Grandma a lot today, for which I am truly thankful as I slept very badly last night and have been pretty tired as a result. BUT, thanks to a lovely chat with Steve before going to bed at least I have not been permanently grumpy today! (Apart from, that is, when Ben woke me up mid-morning after I'd taken myself off back to bed. He started off quite sweetly, stroking my cheek, but it progressed to jumping all over me at which point I got quite cross. I need to have words with him on appropriate waking-mummy-up methods. Namely, DON'T. Unless you have somebody bringing me a cup of tea.)

While I was getting dressed he had a brilliant conversation with Grandma though. I love listening in on his conversations. I had to be filled in on some points later on, but from my point of view it was crackers!

"Granma I saw COW yes'day!"
"Did you? What colour was it?"
"Black, and white! ..... And pink!"
"Pink?!"
"Yes on bottom. On bottom it was pink!"
"And the rest was black and white."
"Yes! Look, snake on my welly boot! Ooh look, ladybird."
"What colour are ladybirds? Have you seen one?"
"Yes, they are red!"
"With purple spots?"
"Yes!!"

It was the agreement to the purple spots that completely flummoxed mum. Turns out he'd seen a picture of a cow. And a picture of a ladybird! But there are no snakes on his wellyboots. Just dinosaurs. (I've just been looking back thru last year's pictures and he's wearing the same wellyboots still! They finally fit him now...)


We finally got round to making a cake this morning. It was a packet of carrot cake mix, just add water and vegetable oil and stick in the oven kind of thing, but Ben enjoyed helping to stir the mix and helping to pour it into the tin, and helping to scrape out the last little bits of batter. Then as soon as it was in the oven we headed out in the car to the supermarket for some bits and pieces (taking the car meant 20 minutes of not walking! I was very glad about that), and back just in time to get the cake out of the oven. By which point I was at collapse point and needed food. We had bacon, brie and cranberry ciabattas again today. That's three times this week!

After lunch we had our cup of tea and piece of cake out in the (blessedly cool) garden, finishing just in time before the rain started again. And it hasn't really stopped all afternoon. It's been lovely listening to it, feeling the freshness in the air.

Ben's not had an afternoon nap but I did! He spent a long time on Grandma's knee upstairs, watching some software install, hoping that it might do something interesting at the end :) It didn't really, but it did bring up a picture of him as a baby. He has had cereal for tea, and a piece of cake. We have ham and mash and vegetables and gravy, which he wasn't interested in - he reverts to cereal when he's tired. I managed to get his pyjamas on quickly before he had his cake, and he spent a happy 20 minutes charging round noisily while we had our pudding of cake and cream and strawberries. I love it when he's like that. It means I know where he is and what he's doing, AND it means he's not clinging on to ME!!

And because he's not had an afternoon nap, he's gone to bed fairly early and without incident. Cuddling my special dog, and my arm, which I managed to extricate successfully. Feel a bit odd about that. The cuddling thing. He has nursed almost all night the past couple of nights (maybe it was the heat), but tonight didn't nurse for very long, and chose instead to fall asleep just cuddling a toy and my arm. I could do without him stopping nursing right now - he's persisted so far through the pregnancy, through periods when I could have happily stopped because of pain or discomfort. I'm not keen on the idea of having to "start" nursing all over again with the pain of a newborn latch.... I'd much rather he kept going!! Maybe things will settle down once we're home again.

Maybe. Nothing in life is exactly "normal" at the moment!

Anyway. I will be going to bed as soon as I've finished my blip and had my insulin!