Finn's chanting...

Finn chants! It's so funny, he's been doing it since he was about three months old, although it took me a few weeks to work it out. We learned to chant at active birthing classes and used it a lot for relaxation during pregnancy, and during Finn's birth. In the early weeks, Phil would lie Finn on his chest and chant to relax him and it was a good way for them to bond - Chloe also found it a good way to calm him down (Finn, not Phil - we haven't tried it on him!) and would often use it, especially on journeys, to settle him. We suddenly noticed Finn would sing/make long, low rumbly noises before he fell asleep and eventually realised he was chanting to help himself drift off! He does it a lot now, often if he's in the sling, pram or lying on the bed. It's amazing to see him learning already about loving ways to settle and comfort himself. Gorgeous boy!

A hungry boy!

I wonder if babies are supposed to catch on to food this quickly?! Finn devoured some rice cake, pasta with sauce (about 2 whole bits seemed to have disappeared!), a bit of broccoli, some carrot, half a potato wedge, a bit of yellow pepper and some melon today!! He also tried sweet potato but after one lick he made a horrified face and threw both cubes on the floor, which was hilarious!

I'm not sure if he should only be having one 'meal' per day, but he gets really upset if he's not eating and we are so I think that means he's ready for it. He was tired after swimming today too, so maybe he needed the extra energy! Anyway, he seemed to love eating twice today so as long as he's awake at mealtimes I guess we just carry on the way we're going.

What's really a miracle is that he's in bed now! He hasn't actually been in his cot for a month - he used to go in it for about half an hour, then come downstairs and sleep on a bean bag, then go in the cot for another short sleep or come straight in our bed, but he's just been in with us recently as he's been feeding so much and had sore gums. I've just fed him during story time (Olga da Polga!) and he's gone straight into the cot so we'll see how long he feels like staying in there after his busy day!

We all loved swimming today, it was lovely watching how confident Chloe is in the water now. Then we had visits from both sets of in-laws (passed the myriad catalogue along to drop hints about the types of gifts we'd love them to discover, rather than sackfuls of plastic... ;) ) We also got four hours from a motherease nappy today, which is a record! We decided to have a seasons table too today, as we've been envious oogling the beautiful displays on the GP forum. We're going to use our dining room fireplace as it's our most central place and we can use the hearth and the mantlepiece. We're going to do an autumn one even though it's almost winter, as autumn is my favourite season and I'll need some thinking time for winter! Can't wait to collect some bits for it tomorrow!

I've got some gorgeous pictures of Finny chomping away, but I can't work out a way of getting them on here from my mobile. Oh to have my digital camera back! Anyway, it was a lovely day. I love half term :)

A girly day together :)

Chloe and I went to the cinema today - we haven't done anything on our own for ages and it was really really great to spend some time together. Sometimes I feel sad that she's growing up so quickly but today it was lovely realising we could share things together more and more as she grows.

We saw High School Musical 3, which was tacky and trashy but great fun. I think she's far too young for things like that, but I also think it's really important that she feels involved in the things all her friends are obsessed with. Maybe it's a stupid theory, but I think she'll stay on board with our family and our shared activities and values for longer if we don't make things like pop culture taboo.

Gorgeous photo from my dad's birthday brunch :)

My gorgeous babies :) Chloe is the teacher today - her class are being very well behaved now that Finn has been sent out for making too much noise!! She's in a creative mood so I want to make the most of it now before she's 'bored' again.

Baby Led Weaning

It's been six months since our perfect baby boy arrived in our world so we've decided to see what he thinks of real food! He's got a beautiful highchair (thanks, Grandpa!) to sit up to the table and it's lovely that we can all share his experiences with food together - he watches Chloe to see what he's supposed to do!! He chewed on a runner bean last night and rubbed sweet potato mash into his chin and the table. When he holds food in his hands and looks at it, he makes chewing motions with his mouth - it's so sweet!

First day of half term today, although Phil's still at work. We're having a winding down morning in our pjs and then we'll walk to the shops and meet Marina and Callum at the park. I found my bag of cystals at last and I've started working on my second driftwood mobile which will hopefully be for Mike's birthday. I'm still very tired but hopefully we can alternate sleeping in during half term so we'll both feel better!

I've been wanting to post on here for ages but life has got in the way this week! Finn was so poorly last week and I'm still catching up on sleep so haven't had much time for anything else. I've been feeling creative and I've discovered some new things to make as xmas presents. We went to the beach on Sunday and collected bits to make hangings/mobiles and I really love this one, which is in our lounge now. It doesn't look great in the picture but it reminds me of a lovely day. I'm trying to find my bag of crystal chips too, so I can maybe add some to the next mobile. Oh and I want to learn to knit, and sew...there's a theme here and I hope my enthusiasm continues as it's quite exciting!

Chloe's finished for half term today so we have some lovely days together to look forward to. She's going to stay with Grandma for a couple of nights next week and they have some fun things planned! It's the first time she'll have stayed away since Finn was born so it'll be really strange.

Had a long chat with my Executive today and came away feeling very positive and excited about my business again. Really hope I can make this work as I'm really enjoying it and it'd be so perfect to work from home!

Cleared lots of bindweed today, which was very satisfying! And had one set of inlaws over for tea, which was lovely :-) Ratatouille and Wedges. Yummy autumn food, with apple crumble afterwards. Finn is desperate to be eating now, and we're assured his highchair won't be much longer so he can really share our mealtimes! He's getting good at sleeping in the evenings so we might start putting him to bed as he seems to want to go after his bath and snuggly feed. He won't go in his cot (don't blame him, the mattress is rock hard and it isn't very cosy!) but he sleeps well on our bed so we'll see how he gets on.

Chloe was lovely today, despite her tiredness and growth-spurt hunger! She's still getting used to sharing us but she loves being Finn's favourite person - he gives her such wonderful smiles. I'm reading Raising Happy Children, which is really useful and practical too. I think the best thing about reading any book about parenting is that it means the issue is more conscious - I'm more aware of myself parenting and constantly analyse the ways I do things - and that works for me!

I love this - it's not like a diary because my words are out there and they're real. I love knowing that no-one is actually going to read them, but they could!

We built a hedgehog house today! Well it looks more like a little bonfire and will improve when the leaves drop properly, but it was really good to feel we were working towards making our garden more like the place we want it to be. We've done loads of pruning and cutting back too, maybe a bit too much in places, but it looks heaps better already. Finn was sleeping in the sling and then in his bouncy chair for a bit, Chloe was on the swings and helping with the gardening. I think that days where all of us are in the garden are my favourite kind of days :-)

We're just thinking about starting along the route of becoming foster parents. At the moment we think we'd like to start by doing respite care or mother and baby placements. We need to arrange a babysitter so we can go along to a meeting and find out more, before we can actually apply. It seems to be something we both believe in and I think it'd be brilliant to be able to use our strengths - those family moments like today - to benefit all of us and hopefully somebody else. I hope it'll be a positive journey for us.

What to say? I'm not even sure what a blog is so this'll be an interesting experiment...