Empty nest syndrome?

Lewis is at work, Caitlin and Esaias are at school, Nathan is at the childminder's where he is going once a week for a few hours. My house is empty and still. It's very strange and I'm not sure it sits well with me! However, it is a good time for me to stop and reflect. I have begun to adapt Jamie's drama free policy in preparation for our fostering classes. It is really helping. I have realised that I don't have to get emotionally involved in everyone's dramas, it is far more important to maintain my own mental well being for the sake of my family and for those children who may be sharing our home if everything goes well with our classes...here's hoping!

This and That

Max chilling out, now we have moved from Wootton he is slimming down again, I am sure someone was feeding him there. I am taking him for his annual vaccinations on Friday so we will weigh him and see how much he has actually lost.
Esaias pulling faces for the camera, he's such a joker he really takes after his Daddy in his ability to have me in stitches.

Caitlin doing what Caitlin loves the most - drawing. She is really creative, I am so impressed with her!

This wednesday we are going for our first fostering classes and to say I am nervous is an understatement! Lewis and I were discussing yesterday how it is strange that we have to go through this to take care of someone else's children but you don't have to be checked in anyway before you bring a new person into this world. In my social workers years I worked with some amazing teenage parents so I don't mean just them, but I was reading about a 17 year old and 43 year old who were about to have twins. Both are unemployed and have no intention of ever working. She already has a son from a previous relationship who lives with her parents and he has 5 children from various different women. Perhaps they are good parents, but you have to wonder what kind of role model they make for their children.

Anyhow, I am now wondering about what kind of parents we are and it is quite unnerving. Sometimes I am cross with the children, especially Caitlin who is acting up a lot at the moment (understandable given current circumstances, but still infuriating at times) and I think to myself maybe I am not cut out to be a foster parent. But then again I read cases like the Baby P case and think well actually I am not that bad a parent! I guess we just have to go for it and see what happens!

Nathan and I are chilling this morning as he is poorly and has been up most of last night, Caitlin was also up in the night last night and so I am shattered! I'm looking forward to going to Lewis's mum's this afternoon to have dinner. I am cooking, but nothing fancy so it should be pretty chilled.

Happy St George's Day

I am a little late with this, but things have been chaos as usual here! On thursday it was St George's Day and the children were asked to wear red and white clothing for school. I was really pleased about this as it seems us English people have been prevented from celebrating our day for too long by those who wish to promote a PC and multicultural society. I realised that I was afraid to hang my St George's cross flag up incase I was accused of beign racist...crazy I know! It seems that the tide is at last turning and that we are beginning to take back our pride and dignity and celebrate everything that is great about our beautiful country...Huzzah!

Alkborough Flats Fun Day

Esaias and I with our little nest.
Caitlin getting stuck into an owl pellet, to try and find out what owls eat. She was the only one to find a shrew skull and she was so proud of herself!

Daddy and Nathan on the treasure trail through the woods.

Caitlin and Esaias with their leaves on the treasure hunt.

Caitlin, Esaias and Nathan try and find their way through Julians Bower Maze, one of a very few turf mazes left in the UK.

Yesterday we went on a fun day. Within 10 minutes of getting their the kids decided they were bored and cold and wanted to go home (and we were sorely tempted) However, we stuck at it and we are all so glad we did. First we went on a treasure trail around Alkborough, then we went hunting for mini-beasts. After a quick bite to eat, Caitlin and Esaias dissected some owl pellets, then we tried to a build a bird's nest...we found out that the birds are much smarter than us! To the end the day we went in search of some real nests in the trees using our "third eye" (large mirrors held just under our eyes so we could see up into the trees). It was absolutely exhausting, but so much fun and we all learnt something new.

Eureka!

When Esaias grows up he says he wants to be a policeman just like his dad...and a fire fighter, and a footballer, and a builder...well it's always good to keep your options open!
Nathan and Dylan playing the water tray at Eureka.

We were fascinatedby the facts on this wall, the highest pole vault jump was higher than the tallest giraffe...that's amazing!

Caitlin surfing!

So the big day came! I have been so excited to go to the Eureka museum for children. It is one of my most favourite places in the world. It was little busy today because of the school holidays, but we had a lot of fun. It is interesting to watch how the children are developing. When we first went Caitlin took little interest in anything as she was about 2, but we just let her run around touching and exploring. We went again when Nathan was five months old, and again Caitlin and Esaias just mostly enjoyed the freedom of the place, and Nathan enjoyed the sound garden, which is a really pretty area for under fives. This time Esaias and Caitlin are much more interested in learning a little bit. We looked at what we can do with our bodies, how far we can reach, how big our stride is and stuff. It was really, really good. We will definitely be going again, but perhaps on a teacher training day when it's not a day off for all children everywhere!

Ode to my dog

The last few days have been, well let's say trying! Not because of anything in particular (although our 3 hour trip to A+E didn't help, see below for more about that!) but just because I felt moody and irritable and cross. And this is when having kind children back fires on me, because instead of avoiding their grumpy mother they constantly try to cheer me up, ask me if I'm ok, try to help me with everything (I know they are very sweet but they have some personal space issues, or I do anyway!) So in the end after me throwing a bit of a paddy (this is the bit where Lewis laughs and says "A bit??!!") Lewis took the boys to his mum's while Caitlin stayed with my mum. Alone in the house with my grumpy self I felt a little better and snuggled up to watch some TV on the BBC iPlayer. However, after watching 5 minutes of some RSPCA documentary, I felt like I needed to go and bond with my dog. I brushed him, and then took him for a walk in the fog. I realised then how much I love my dog. Most people see me telling Dash to go to his bed, simply because he likes to nose people until they fuss him and that can get pretty annoying. But he is in fact a great dog. He doesn't whine to go out for a walk all the time, he seems to sense when I am in the mood to walk him and when he will just have to be content with a few laps of the garden (I never said I was a perfect dog owner). He sits halfway up the stairs standing guard, and never barks unless there is someone coming near to the house, which is very reassuring especially when I am on my own at night. He is quite happy to have a warm bed and a regular supply of food, and requires little more than that. He also barks when people come near me when we are out walking and while that can get annoying if it is someone I want to speak to, it can be quite useful when I don't feel like talking to anyone. Most of all, Dash is 100% loyal to me, he may obey Lewis every now and then, but he is definitely my dog and my protector and that's just a bit special.

So the A+E thing...Esaias got something in his foot while we were at the beach on thursday. We bathed him and tried to remove it with tweezers to no avail. On friday I rang the Dr - they were closed as it was Good Friday. So I called NHS Direct, they were only taking urgent calls. So I went to Boots and asked to see a pharmacist, they recommended a magnesium sulphate paste, but advised me to only leave it on until Sunday. They said if it still wasn't out by then I would need to take Esaias to A+E. So there was nothing doing on Sunday, so I trundled off to Grimsby Hospital on Sunday evening. We arrived about 7:45pm, and were directed by the nurse to the children's waiting area. There were three children waiting in there including Esaias. One boy who was only 6, had blood running down the side of his head, and was still bleeding at 10pm. The other child was a little girl of 5 who had fallen out of bed. She didn't move her arm once the whole time they were in there, and anyone could see it was really making her uncomfortable. Ofcourse I stuck my oar in and complained mostly on behalf of the two other children in there and a Dr came to see the pretty much straight off. However by 11:15pm we were still waiting, so I told the doctor that he either needed to look at Esaias or I was going to take him home to bed. I was given the option of subjecting Esaias to a very painful injection and waiting an hour for the DR to remove the splinter ot taking some anasthetic cream and doing it myself at home. So home we came. This morning we put the cream on and managed to remove the foreign object, which in facte ended up to be a 20mm thorn! Bless Esaias he must have been in so much pain. I know that I am lucky we have the NHS and we could have come away with a HUGE medical bill for all of that, BUT I would really have expected children to be a priority at that time of night, and they will be getting a piece of my mind!

Date night!

Last night Lewis and I had a date night for the first time in a long time! We don't get out together much which makes me sad. However we managed it last night as Jess came and babysat, and we went to see "17 again" at the cinema (yes with Zac Efron in...he's very nice, but obviously not as handsome as Lewis!). It was a lot of fun and we really enjoyed ourselves. When we came home Jess said that Nathan had been a bit unsettled which he has been since the clocks changed, but imagine our surprise when we went up to his room and found Nathan's bed empty! After looking around the bedroom this is what we found!

Edie

We had a visit from the Gilbert family tonight, complete with new addition, Edie. Lewis is a real baby person and enjoyed lots of snuggling time with Edie, whereas I was most happy when I had Dylan sat up on the worktop making toast. Funny how we're all different isn't it? It was lovely to see Martin and Jamie to, and we enjoyed watching a movie together! I think Jamie and Lewis enjoyed the story, and while I can't speak for Martin, I enjoyed how bad the film was to the point it was almost comical. It was definitely nice to socialise with grown up people!
We also went to the beach today, which was lovely. The children were absolutely shattered, but we are going to have a lazy day tomorrow which will be nice.

A rare picture

Take a long look, because this is an unusual event! A picture of our lovely little family with all of us on it! Normally I am hiding from the camera, or holding it so I'm not usually on our pictures, and if I am it is because Lewis is taking the picture because he is the only one daft enough to want a picture of may face. However, Primary have asked that we provide a picture of our whole family to go on the wall next to our children's drawings of their Eternal Family, so we have obliged. This was taken at Tattershall Castle today.

Ponderings of a parent..

Ok, so I have three children and I'm just about getting the hang of parenting (until the next curve ball my kids throw at me!), but there are some things that confuse me still.
When you read these parenting articles (as you do when you have your first baby) it says that you shoud establish a bedtime routine, bath, bottle, book, bed is the general advice. However, I then read that scientists have said that bathing your child daily is bad for them and in particular can aggrevate children with eczema (which Caitlin and Nathan have). So I have always pondered what you are supposed to do as part of their routine on the other nights? Lewis recently suggested that taking them into the bathroom to use the toilet, was their face, brush tooth etc is still effective.
But I have another pondering about the whole bedtime routine. So normally you give your child a drink of milk before they go to bed. But at what age to you stop this because when it gets to toilet training, it makes life really difficult. You then have to retrain your child to go without a drink from about 6pm so that they don't wet the bed. Hmmm...

More garden pics

I have told Lewis that I don't want to move ever again, and so here is our garden bench with apple trees either side where we sit and grow old together. One day I hope we will be sat watching our grandchildren play in our garden. The thought of growing old with Lewis makes me happy. Even though we have tough times we also share so much fun together, that I know life will never be dull while we are together.

Pictures in the garden

Our summer house. Lewis has made some window boxes for it, so we will be buying some pansies or something to go in them. Isn't he clever?
Inside the summer house. Yesterday we cleaned it all out and put some carpet remnants down so it is all nice and cosey.

My magnolia tree is doing very well in it's new home!

More of my very clever husband's handiwork. I am so impressed that he made this in a few hours, he looked really happy playing with all of his gadgets, bless!

Grace, April, Esaias and Nathan eating jelly in the sunshine.

Today is a most beautiful sunny day and so the boys are outside making the most of it with April and Grace. They stayed last night so that John can make some more headway with their baby's bedroom. Helen has only three more weeks to go and I am soooo excited for them.

Little baby plants!

Ok, so you need to look really carefully, but in the midst of the bluriness you can see two little plants, which I think are my radish seeds coming through.
Esaias and Nathan playing with the basketball that Esaias got for his birthday.


Caitlin and Nathan on the trampoline.

Top left is Esaias's tomato plants, bottom left is Esaias's sunflowers. Bottom middle is Caitlin's tomato plant I think. Bottom right is Nathan's tomato plants and top right is Nathan's sunflower. To be fair, Caitlin planted hers two days after the boys, but I'm just pleased they are coming through!

Cheeky Nathan!

Fun in the sun in April!

It's so hot today that we got the paddling pool out. It doesn't seem that long ago since I was posting pictures of the snow on here...crazy British weather!