fish by dan

I want to tell you about Mikey's birthday, but I've not uploaded videos yet. For now, I leave you with a little picture Dan did today. He told me it's a fish and it really is!

baby wants CAKE

A friend just pointed out that, since being pregnant, 95% of my status updates on facebook have been about food. There's nothing wrong with that, right?

2 year developmental check - I think I failed.

There are some days when being a mummy is nothing but fun and joy.

Like when Dan is giggly and playful.

Like when he bakes with me or sits reading cookbooks with me. Could anything be sweeter?!

But, sometimes the days where it's not like that seem to mount up and I forget why I love my job.

It's been a bit like that recently and Dan has been the tricky one! I'm almost used to Dan being the boy in the background while we tackle Mikey's idiosyncrasies - but of late Dan's certainly asserted his right to be noticed. The Terrible Twos or whatever you want to call it. I've never had to deal with these sorts of tantrums with a child who has language - it's such a different experience! Of course simply because Dan and Mikey have different personalities, what works with Mikey often has no impact on Dan. They are so unlike one another! Mikey really can't bear comfort and sympathy whereas Dan will be won round with a cuddle (but will also manage to use it as a way of extending tantrums and wielding his power!).

Dan had his two year developmental check this morning. The wailing began the moment the nursery nurse arrived and stopped as she left. She's taken my word for it that he can talk, walk, play, draw. I felt like I had to explain his behaviour so she wouldn't begin thinking he has some kind of ASD or accuse me of abuse!!!

What I had planned for this morning was for Dan to 'perform' and for her to tell me what a lovely, clever and delightful little boy I have. What I got was another appointment to discuss his behaviour. Although it's humbling and challenging I'm grateful that it happened so I can have some help. She thinks if we can deal with his behaviour in the daytime it may even help his sleep, which would be a great blessing!

What I know is that I do have a lovely, clever, delightful little boy! He is incredible and funny and charming. He also manages to reveal my weaknesses and he does it publicly so there is no pretending I've got it together. I can't be like one of my friends who posted her child's breathtaking 2 year check success as her facebook status (I think I'm glad about that!). I can only hold up my hands and admit I'm muddling through.

How good is it at times like this to have a husband who eases my mind, a mum I can ask questions and friends I can offload on and a God who sticks with me in spite of it all!!! Phew!

baking away the January blues

I'm not feeling in the least bit blue, but if I were, this book would be the answer! It's just got such lovely pictures of gorgeous looking cakes, pies and cookies. I attempted the raspberry cheesecake brownie yesterday and it was completely delicious. Really moist brownie (with caramel pieces because I was distracted while shopping and bought the wrong thing!), amazing, delicate vanilla cheesecake with a layer of raspberry cream. I kept to the recipe except pureed the raspberries because Dave is genuinely phobic about eating actual pieces of fruit.

My lame camera (and trying to take pictures in the evening) doesn't show how lovely it looked and it really was so, so tasty. We have a ton left too. It's the first thing I tried from the book and I'm planning to try some cupcakes later. The book has pretty awful reviews on amazon, so I'm glad at least one recipe has worked out - I think that one alone is worth the £8 I paid!

Having friends round is such  a lovely excuse to try something new, so I also made PW's meatloaf from her book. It was really good - Dave is now slightly obsessed with the sticky sauce that goes on top of it. I've never really had meatloaf before, but we'll be having it lots in the future! Maybe I need to try to perfect some classic English dishes now! Lancashire hotpot here I come!

things I found under the sofa and it's a ...

I had to take a picture. No less than 6 socks. Half eaten toast, a toothbrush, more balls than I could count and an array of toy tools and farm animals. Let that be a lesson to me.

We had our 20 week scan last week and as far as they could see all is well (I can never tell much from the pictures - it is a baby, I promise!). The sonographer said she was 90-95% sure we are having a GIRL! We're really, extremely pleased and I was surprised to feel rather emotional at the news! In 4 and a half months, we'll know for sure!

I have escaped for 5 minutes to recharge my patience and energy. Dan's tantrums have been non-stop today and we keep misunderstanding each other. We met up with a friend and her little girl this morning. Dan's absolute refusal to interact made for a really fun time. Social skills anyone?!

snow days

The impact of the snow continues - Mikey's not been at school at all this week (and there was I getting excited about our first experience of him being in for four days!) and Dave is feeling glum that all his other teacher friends seem to be off work while he has to brave the inches of seriously treacherous ice and walk in! He had 1 and a half snow days - which included getting schooly mates round for lunch on tuesday and eating lots of bacon, sausages, bacon and cheese muffins (I'm making those again!) and potato cakes.

We attempted to embrace the weather and went out for a family play in the garden. We managed 5 minutes before both boys were weeping and banging on the backdoor. I'm soooo un-outdoorsy, it seems to have rubbed off on them! Mikey doesn't like anything unfamiliar really, so I guess it was a bit weird an Dan got sad when his hands got cold after he knocked down my snowman. It was a snow penguin cos I found a weirdly shaped carrot. Dan called him Norman, because he can't quite pronounce snowman yet!

We're on day four and I'm starting to get a little stir-crazy. Our giant pushchair and solid ice on the pavements doesn't make for an easy walk! I admit as an escape I seem to have nipped down to the basement to check facebook about 10 times already today. I'm deeply sad. Hooray for the weekend. Only a couple of hours or so till Dave finishes work!

almost the worst day of the holidays

But thank God for Yorkshire leaf tea. You know about my love for yorkshire tea, don't you? I've been quite enjoying the process of teastrainers and warming teapots. We got more teabags yesterday though - Dave refused to learn how to make a 'new' type of tea. He's only recently mastered teabags and he is an excellent brew-maker in spite of being a non tea drinker. Miraculous!

Not blogged for ages - mainly cos I've been having a lovely time with Dave and the boys while Dave's been off. Back today - except Mikey's taxi just dropped him home - SNOW DAY! Dave's school is still open. Meanies.

We got a video camera for Christmas. Prepare yourselves for many videos which will, I expect, be totally dull to anyone not actually in the immediate family!