A Proper Update

So i think my boys must have secret spies who read my blog to them because for the past 2 nights Rudy has slept really well and Toby has been randomly waking up again! The same goes for tonight as well in fact, Rudy has been asleep since just before 7 but Chris is already upstairs cuddling Toby back to sleep after he randomly woke up crying and saying he feels poorly. (He's all about the Daddy cuddles these days- i barely get a look in when Chris is at home.  I try not to take it personally as he's a fickle little thing so whoever is favourite today is likely not to be tomorrow and vice versa!)

Anyway i vowed to myself this entry would be about something other than sleep after reading back my previous entry and finding it to be what some might consider "whingey" ;) So instead i'm going to fill you in on what we've been up to this past week or so.

Last week was bank holiday Monday and we all went for a day out at Reddish Vale Farm. It's a small animal farm where you can learn about animals, stroke them, feed them carrots etc, just the kind of thing we were looking for but didn't know was just around the corner, so that was a nice surprise.  I just wanted us to all get out together for the day (in spite of the naff weather) and do something a bit different to what we normally do and it turned out to be a really fun day.  We bought a bucket of carrots for 50p so we could feed the animals as we went round, Toby was a lot braver than i thought he'd be and was happily feeding cows, goats, pigs, donkeys, alapacas, llamas and sheep!

The only thing he wasn't mad keen on the idea of feeding was the shire horse but to be fair, it was ginormous and even i was a bit nervous when it started trying to stick it's big face into my bucket of carrots to hoover them out!  It was all a bit much for Rudy, who had been tired to begin with anyway, so he fell asleep in the sling pretty quickly and dozed on and off for most of the day despite being rained on at various points and also being bumped into by a few ignorant folk who seemed to think he was a backpack?!

They had an area outside with a shelter over with a load of sit and ride Tractors which Toby obviously was in love with

When the rain got really bad we went into the little "education centre" where they had hay bales to sit on and rabbits to hold!

Then we had lunch in the tea rooms, which were pretty rammed on account of everyone having the same idea (that being: "It's pouring with rain, it's vaguely lunch time- quick, get inside and grab a table!") We lucked out as some people were leaving as we were dithering in the queue, the food wasn't anything to get excited about and quite pricey but we were cold and hungry so it went down well enough.

After lunch, like the responsible adults we are we took Toby on the bouncy castle that they had set up in one of the barns, which he had been pestering to go on before lunch to be fair, but it had been too busy.  Anyway i don't know what he was pestering for as once we'd paid and persuaded him to take his wellies off he basically just stood on the little landing strip at the front, looking a bit apprehensive whilst watching the other kids bounce for about two minutes and then declared he was "all done"  Next up came his first ever pony ride however and that was much more of a success.  There was some debate about which helmet size was best for him and then which pony, he requested the "small" one so we waited for the teeny tiny Precious to return from her previous ride and then up he got and off we went.  I was doing my typical "Helicopter Mum" thing, hovering too close and fretting (inwardly at least) that he might suddenly let go/take his feet out the stirrups/dive off but i needn't have worried of course.  He did let go at one point but only to reach up to re-fasten the chin-strap on his helmet which had come undone, bless him.  He looked pleased as punch trotting along, and very very cute!

After that we had a bit more 'tractor time'

Then we headed home and somewhat predictably Toby crashed out asleep in the car on the way home and more surprisingly didn't wake up when transferred into the house

Whereas Rudy, rested from his power-naps in the connecta, shrieked and grumbled and grizzled the whole way home, so i had to literally run in from the car, take him straight up to bed and feed him to sleep, only for him then to wake up after about 20 minutes!

Still, it was a good day in all, and something we'd definitely do again.

Tuesday and Wednesday weren't particularly busy i don't think (struggling to remember now) although i do know that we took a trip to the park.  I took Rudy's socks off and stood him on the grass and he had a similar reaction to Toby at that age- i.e. "WTF?!" Haha.  He was scrunching his toes up and making a sort of "Errr" noise so the socks went back on and i sat him on a blanket so he could frown at the grass from a safe distance!

Last Thursday was officially Toby's last day in nursery, not that it made much difference as he hasn't actually been for about a month now.  Basically, since we gave them our notice that he was leaving, we have been giving him the option in the morning whether to go or not and he's been picking not.  Thursday was the same but we had a little talk and agreed that we'd bake some cakes in the morning and then take them in to nursery in the afternoon to say goodbye and thankyou, and after reassuring him he didn't have to stay if he didn't want to he agreed to the whole thing.  I made my first ever cupcakes from scratch using a basic recipe i found online(which makes me sound pathetic i realise, but we've always used those 'kits' for cakes before)  They turned out really well anyway (even if i do say so myself!) and Toby had fun decorating them (or more accurately- tipping sprinkles and chocolate balls all over the kitchen counter) although seemed to misunderstand and think that he was allowed to eat each and every one he decorated so wasn't best pleased when we clarified that with him.

When we went in to nursery a couple of the girls didn't even know it was his last day, but the new room lead did and she'd got all his pictures down off the wall etc for me and had them in a carrier bag ready, and another one of the girls gave me his file that he's had since he started there, so we got to bring all that home with us, which was nice.  I'm not sure if he's old enough to really understand the concept of  'leaving' somewhere as in, never going back, but he waved and said goodbye and gave them the cakes and a thank you card and they said what a lovely polite boy he is and how they'll miss him which was sweet.  He kept saying "come on Mummy, let's go now" which i think was him wanting to make sure i wasn't going to try and trick him into staying for a bit (which i had no intention of doing!)  It was a funny feeling thinking he won't be going back when it's been a part of his (and our) lives for about 19 months or so but i know we've made the right decision.

We also had a busy day on Friday as we had playgroup in the morning and then straight from playgroup over to sling meet in the afternoon.  Sling meet was super busy with lots of new Mums and babies though so i didn't get chance to ask for help with my back wrapping which i really need to do as i still can't get my head around how to even get him up there on my back without help.

Then the weekend continued along a similar vein of busy-ness, but in a good way.  Saturday we went to see Emma and Ben which is always good fun.  Toby was in a funny mood, with his toddler PMT, but even he enjoyed the yummy dinner they made for us (more so when he realised he could eat it with tiny cocktail sticks with Danish flags on them which they'd put out for the olives!) and afterwards we walked to Fredericks Ice Cream Parlour and Toby tried to break the world record for how messy one small boy can get with a chocolate ice cream! Haha.

Then Sunday we had a family christening in Bradford and i became a godparent for the first time.  I'm not sure if you're really technically allowed to be a godparent as a non-believer, in fact i'm pretty sure you're not, but my cousin wanted me for her eldest son's godmother, and she first asked me almost ten years ago so i wasn't going to let her down.  I wasn't forced to say anything i didn't believe to be true, and there were a whole load of other godparents too as my cousin was having all three of her children baptised at the same time so it wasn't like the spotlight was all on me.  At one point i did become extremely concerned that the vicar, with his billowing sleeves was being very relaxed about the fact my cousin's 1 year old daughter was waving a candle in his direction, but other than that the service itself wasn't too stressful ;)

This week we haven't done much to be honest, Monday and Tuesday were mainly spent at home, with a brief excursion to the post office/shops yesterday.  We've all been a bit run down and snotty, Rudy especially is particularly gunky and i've got a pesky cough, so we cancelled our plans to meet up with one of my friends yesterday for fear of infecting her and her little girl.  Today we were all a bit brighter though so went to one of the local soft play places for the parent and toddler morning.  We came out with a few scrapes and bruises randomly but it was a good way for them both to burn off  a bit of energy (it was raining again) and a nice enough way to pass a couple of hours.

Today we also got the news we have been waiting for almost two weeks to hear: We are OFFICIALLY moving house! Wahoo! Our application has all gone through now and everything is sorted, so all being well we'll be getting the keys on the 28th or 29th of this month, which actually is really really SOON! And we haven't packed a single thing yet- ARGH!

I know i've been a bit quiet on this whole moving house topic but it's only because i haven't really wanted to start talking about it and getting excited in case it didn't end up working out for some reason but now it's all official i will spill the beans- just not right now as this is already bit of an epic blog entry and anyway Rudy is shuffling on the baby monitor so i may well be summoned very soon!