New Year's Day

Another Christmassy picture I'm afraid. Not only have I not had my photographer's head on today, I've not even realised it until now.

I did make another fruit cake yesterday though, and finished icing it today. I think I put a little too much freshly ground cardamom in because it tastes just of cardamom. Well, mainly. It also has a handful of gin'd sloes in. Only a handful, because I gave up trying to get the stones out after a handful.

Been a sloe day today. Even though Ben went to bed at (finally) 11.30pm, he still woke up at 8am this morning. We went to bed at gone 2am so were hoping for a bit more of a lie-in than that...

Been one of those days today. Thank you, hormones. You've done your job well today. up and down and all over the show.

Ben, on the other hand. Ben. Ben Ben Ben. Ben didn't have a nap again today. He was too excited about Matt and Sue being here and just didn't get round to napping. We had a bit of a time out around 3.30pm, he wasn't interested in sleeping, but we had cuddles away from distractions and eventually he calmed down enough to go and play some more. Dinner was a very late lunch / very early dinner (4ish? 5ish? something like that) and Ben didn't want any to start with. Then he saw his plate loaded up and decided he wanted the green beans. How about that. We've gone from waffles and sausages to green beans, kale, carrots and yorkshire puddings in 2 months. Green beans. So he picked at his food but he ate quite a lot, and a good variety too. It's finally seeming worth it, all this non-pressure we've put on food. He's choosing to eat stuff now, trying new things, not spitting it out, and even saying it's yummy in some cases! The other major wow regarding food was mince pies, christmas pudding and christmas cake. I had to share my cake last night. I offered Ben a piece, assuming he'd spit it back out and I could have my cake and eat it. But no, I had to share it! He likes mum's cake, but he's not so keen on the one I made. Hey ho, such a shame.

Where was I. Oh yeah, time out, dinner, more playing with Matt and Sue. Steve and I have spent more time together today, just us, than for as long a time as we can remember! It's been really good. Then Matt and Sue went home and after a final play on the Wii we put Ben to bed. Halfway through reading The Gruffalo he was fast asleep. That's the FASTEST bedtime I've EVER done I think.

And the time? 7pm.

Oh. My. Goodness.

So now what do we do? What do normal parents do in the evenings? I don't want to drink, watch telly, or go to bed. I'm used to getting housework done and going to bed later. I have hours to kill. What do I do now?!




Best memory of today: Ben and Steve playing at flying places on the Wii. Ben going "weeee, weeee, weeeeeeee" as he twisted the wii remote this way and that way, not having a clue really but having a ball anyway. Steve was chasing him and Ben was doing a great job of evading him.