21 April , 201620 April , 2016 - Sarah 5 Comments

A first picnic

It would seem spring has finally sprung up here in Scotland, or at least it has for a few days, no doubt it won’t be long before the rain is back! But yesterday the sun was shining, and it was actually warm so seeing as it was Wednesday and we didn’t have to rush through lunch to get Toby out to nursery on time I decided we would eat in the garden.

I think this was probably only the second time Toby has ever had a picnic in our garden, and it was definitely the first time Gabe had. I got Gabe’s Snug seat out, and put the parasol up for a bit of shade (it really was quite hot in the sun) and we had our lunch off our fab Munchkin apple plates.

As it happened Toby was much more interested in chasing bubbles and playing on the slide than eating his lunch but he did manage some apple and his ‘present cheese’. Toby didn’t eat cheese for ages, then one day we realised he would eat grated cheese, and then when I gave Gabe a stick of cheese one day Toby decided he wanted one too, and he’s eaten pretty much any cheese since. And for the last few weeks he’s really been loving his Babybel – he loves unwrapping his present!

I think Gabe enjoyed it though, once he’d got used to the novelty of being outside.

He really wasn’t convinced to begin with…

I just hope we get some more sunny days now so we can get out in the garden even more.

18 April , 201617 April , 2016 - Sarah 10 Comments

Living Arrows 16/52 (2016)

There have been some improvements this week; after Gabe’s sixth tooth cut through last weekend his cold has finally started to clear up too and we have a much happier boy on our hands. There’s still some work to do in the sleep department but we’re definitely heading in the right direction. Gabe’s main problem now is that he really wants to crawl but he can’t quite get all his arms and legs moving in the right order yet!

Toby has been his usual lovely self with just a couple of minor toddler dramas this week – mostly about not being allowed to play on my phone or having to put his shoes on for nursery. A major topic of conversation this week has been about who in our family has a willy. We have established that Toby, Gabe and Daddy all have willies but Toby is still not entirely convinced that mummy does not despite regularly following my to the toilet!

Toby is just generally pretty hilarious these days. His language is still developing so quickly and he comes out with the funniest things. He’s just such a cheeky chap…

And just yesterday I overheard something that almost made me cry, and it made me realise what a lovely caring big brother Toby is becoming. Both boys had just finished their tea and I was popping back and forth to the kitchen tidying up. Gabe gave a bit of a cry and I heard Toby say ‘It’s OK Gabe, I’m here’ – just too adorable for words!

15 April , 201615 April , 2016 - Sarah 6 Comments

Siblings // Toby and Gabe in April

I sound a bit like a stuck record with these posts but not much has changed with Toby and Gabe’s relationship in the last month.

Gabe still absolutely adores his big brother and is always looking to see what he’s up to. Toby still likes making Gabe laugh and smile, but still spends a lot of time saying ‘no Gabe, that’s mine’. We’re working on the sharing though and Toby will do it but only on his own terms. We were sitting playing with his Duplo the other day and Gabe was trying to grab all the bricks. I got one and asked Toby if Gabe could play with it. We got the usual ‘no, that’s mine’, but then 30 seconds later he picked a different brick and gave it to Gabe with a ‘Gabe have this one’.

Toby has also recently started saying ‘I love you’ (I love you mummy melts my heart every time) and if you ask him who he loves he’ll tell you ‘mummy, daddy and Gabe’ – it’s too cute!

Toby has also taken it upon himself to become Gabe’s official spokesperson. He likes to tell me that Gabe is tired, but this is mostly because he wants me to take him upstairs for a nap because that’s quite often the time I let him play the CBeebies app on my Kindle. Or when I’m getting Gabe something to eat Toby will inform me ‘Gabe doesn’t want it’ or ‘Gabe doesn’t like it’ but there doesn’t seem to be any ulterior motive for that one!

I’ve not really managed to get any good photos of Toby and Gabe together this month. Gabe has been ill for weeks now and unfortunately not really in the mood for photos most of the time. I took this one on my iPhone the other day and it’s a bit blurry but Toby wanted to play Ring O’Roses with Gabe and he seemed to think it was pretty good fun too!

And although Toby doesn’t look too convinced about me interrupting his breakfast look how excited Gabe is to be sat near his brother.

I thought I would try and grab a few more pictures this morning but it didn’t quite go to plan! Gabe is very ‘grabby’ at the moment and was getting a bit overenthusiastic in his cuddling….

14 April , 201614 April , 2016 - Sarah 6 Comments

My Wild Ones // Exploring the woods

There is a small wood very close to our house. It used to be fairly impenetrable with narrow, muddy footpaths but recently a lot of the trees and undergrowth have been cleared, three colour-coded trails have been put in and there are also lots of sculptures and information to look at (although unfortunately some of it has already been vandalised).

Barry had taken both boys for walks in the woods at different times but I hadn’t been since the work had been done and we hadn’t all been together so on Saturday as the sun was out we put the boys in the buggy and headed off. Gabe was due a nap so the hope was he would sleep and Toby could get out and have a run around. I’m not going to say much more about it and let the photographs speak for themselves…

It’s not far from home, and you can still see houses all around (and the massive Amazon depot across the road) but it really doesn’t matter – Toby had so much fun, and Gabe got his nap under the SnoozeShade…

11 April , 201610 April , 2016 - Sarah 7 Comments

Living Arrows 15/52 (2016)

In all honesty we’ve had a rotten week and I think probably the less said about it the better. We’ve all been ill (apart from Toby miraculously), Gabe has been miserable all week and none of us has got very much sleep.

On Saturday though the sun shone and we managed to get out of the house for a little walk through the woods just round the corner. Toby had a lovely time running through the trees and jumping in muddy puddles. I just love this action shot…

And Gabe had a nice nap and woke up just as we got home. As you can see his face is probably about 50% snot at the moment. He did manage half a smile at least…

7 April , 20167 April , 2016 - Sarah 2 Comments

My Wild Ones // First bath together

Our boys only get a bath twice a week and usually I bath Gabe and he’s in and out in five minutes then Barry baths Toby and he gets to have a play while I put Gabe in bed. Yesterday however, the boys were overdue their bath by a couple of days for various reasons including Gabe being ill (again!), Barry getting stuck in traffic on the way home from work for three and a half hours on Tuesday and just a bit of laziness on my part.

Barry and I have both been ill as well with some sort of flu virus thing so yesterday he came home from work at lunch time because I was really struggling with both boys on my own. We decided to make bedtime for ourselves and give Toby and Gabe a bath in the afternoon and thought that maybe it would be a good time to try their first bath together.

Now, Toby has refused to sit down in the bath almost 10 months now. We had a couple of months where he screamed his way through every bath and then he settled down and started to enjoy it again but still refuses to sit down. Up until now Gabe has been bathed lying back on a bath support… so there was always a chance this wasn’t going to go well!

We put the aquapod in the bath (it’s like a bathmat with a built in seat that we used for Toby), and then when I put Gabe in… he cried. And cried. And cried.

We got Toby in in the hope that he could distract his little brother and he did a little bit by showing him some of the bath toys. But Toby still wouldn’t sit down and Gabe still wasn’t happy. Even our old faithful the bubble machine didn’t help.

In the end I gave Gabe a quick wash and got him out and then left Toby with his dad to get his hair washed and have a play. Not the most successful first bath together with our boys but hopefully it won’t be like that forever! Maybe I need to try and get Gabe used to sitting first and when he’s happy with that then get Toby in too. And you never know, maybe Toby will even copy his brother and sit down in the bath again.

4 April , 2016 - Sarah 6 Comments

Living Arrows 14/52 (2016)

We’ve actually had a couple of days of nice weather this week (although as I write this it’s raining again) and on Wednesday we managed to get out in the garden to take March’s Me & Mine photos. When we were done with the family pictures Toby had a good run around. He’s just discovered shadows so was having a lot of fun chasing his round the garden!

In the second half of this week Gabe has been ill again – another cold, another temperature, gunky eyes again. I feel so sorry for him, but for us too because there have been quite a lot of sleepless nights lately. Anyway, I did take this photo last weekend of Gabe enjoying some homemade pancake for the first time. I know this is a very similar picture to last week’s Living Arrows but when he’s in his high chair enjoying some food Gabe is often at his happiest, and easiest to photograph as he can’t go anywhere!

31 March , 201630 March , 2016 - Sarah 10 Comments

My Wild Ones // Baking with mummy

Toby loves baking but we don’t do it all that often because we’d always be eating cake if we did! We weren’t doing anything special for Easter this weekend though so I decided to make some rice crispy cakes with him. We didn’t have a recipe – I just used some chocolate (a mixture of dark and milk), a bit of butter, a squeeze of golden syrup and some raisins and dried cranberries, mix the lot together and fill some paper cases. Easy peasy!

We watch I Can Cook on CBeebies quite often so Toby knows he has to start by washing his hands…

Then he helped break up the chocolate…

Practised using the knife to cut up the butter…

And after it was melted he mixed in the rice crispies and dried fruit…

Then it was into the paper cases (I did help quite a bit with this part)…

And finally it was time to wash up…

I didn’t actually take any pictures of the finished product which was a bit silly. We drizzled some white chocolate on top once they were set too. Trust me though, they were delicious!

Toby really enjoyed himself; he loves wearing his robot apron that he got for Christmas off his Nana, and standing up on one of the dining chairs to help in the kitchen, although at the rate he’s growing he won’t need to be standing on a chair for long!

31 March , 201621 December , 2017 - Sarah 16 Comments

Me & Mine // A Family Portrait (March 2016)

Another month has gone and as we head into April, with spring on the way I really hope we are putting the coughs and colds of winter behind us.

Unfortunately March has just been one illness after another in our house. Gabe has had it worse than any of us with croup then another cold that lasted over two weeks and brought infected eye with it, then I think he was well for less than a week before Toby brought another cold home from nursery and now we all have that one too. Added to that three new teeth and March has not been the best of months for the youngest of the Toby Goes Bananas clan.

Other than being ill we haven’t really been up to much this month. Barry’s mum came to visit the weekend of Mother’s Day and we had a nice lunch out and we’ve had a few trips to the park and soft play but we didn’t even do anything for Easter. I don’t really understand how Easter has turned into such a big deal but Barry was working on the Friday and Monday anyway so we just had a small egg each, and I’m still rationing Toby’s Easter chocolate!

Anyway, this month’s Me & Mine photo was just taken in the garden when Barry got home from work last night. We had some sunshine at least and Toby had fun on his slide and running around the garden for a bit. And I think we’re even all looking at the camera!

28 March , 201627 March , 2016 - Sarah 10 Comments

Living Arrows 13/52 (2016)

Toby loves nothing more than to make himself a nest out of the sofa cushions and get comfy to watch some TV, or to hide underneath them in his ‘house’. It’s quite sweet – but also quite annoying for anyone else who would like to sit on the sofa at the same time as he insists on using all the cushions!

He looks like he might be contemplating something deep and meaningful here but he was actually just engrossed in the Octonauts!

Gabe has finally recovered from his cold (although as I type this I think there’s another one brewing). He’s getting on great with weaning and is now having three ‘meals’ a day. He seems to be enjoying his daily breakfast challenge of ‘pick up the Cheerios’ at least!

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