7 March , 201615 March , 2016 - Sarah 4 Comments

Living Arrows 10/52 (2016)

Here we are with another week of Living Arrows – and we’re into March already, this year is just flying by!

This week has been pretty miserable for the most part. Gabe has been choked with a cold – it’s been awful not being able to help him. It’s been so bad he even had snot coming out of his eyes, which has now turned into conjunctivitis. Poor little bear. The last few nights haven’t been too bad but most nights last week I ended up sleeping on the sofa with him because the only way he could breath was if he was upright on my shoulder. Aside from his eyes the cold does seem to be improving a little bit so I’m hoping he’s on the mend.

Despite feeling rubbish we have had a few smiles out of Gabe this week. He seems to enjoy being in his high chair (and weaning is still moving along quite well) which means he can stay there for a little while after lunch while I get Toby ready for nursery. I love the concentration on his face in this picture – this toy was Toby’s (and still is if you ask him) and it’s great because it sticks to the high chair so I don’t have to pick it up off the floor every two minutes!

So far Toby has succumbed to the lurgy beyond a snotty nose so here’s hoping it stays that way! I took this photo of him when I was getting him to pose for last week’s What Toby Wore post but I couldn’t resist using it for this week’s Living Arrows too because he just looks too flipping cute!

29 February , 2016 - Sarah 4 Comments

Living Arrows 9/52 (2016)

Week 9 of the Living Arrows and we’re already at the end of February! And I just want to say a hello and thank you to our new Living Arrows host; my friend Donna over at What the Redhead Said.

We had some lovely weather this weekend so on Saturday we put Gabe in the buggy then walked to the supermarket and came back via the little park at the top of our road. Toby used to quite like the swing when he was really little but then went off them and wouldn’t go on them at all for ages. They seem to have come back into favour again recently and this weekend, for the first time ever he was actually asked to go higher!

He certainly looks like he was having fun anyway…

Gabe’s photo this week was just taken one day while I was getting dressed in the bedroom. His sitting up is still a work in progress so I had built him a nest of pillows to sit in and he was having a cuddle with his fab fox that my brother and sister-in-law bought him for Christmas. It’s almost as big as he is!

22 February , 201621 February , 2016 - Sarah 5 Comments

Living Arrows 8/52 (2016)

Apart from our trip to Dundee on Wednesday we’ve had a fairly quiet week here, recovering from our coughs and colds and trying to keep out of the still miserable weather.

This week’s Living Arrows photos were just taken in the house, and I’m still struggling to get any decent light, even during the day!

Gabe is developing so quickly…but it does mean he needs to be entertained all the time now. His sitting up still isn’t brilliant so he seems to enjoy playing in this Mamas & Papas seat that I got second hand off a local Facebook selling page. Saying that he only manages about 10 or 15 minutes at a push before he gets fed up of it. I did get some pictures of him smiling but I quite like the quizzical expression on his face in this one…

And as for Toby this week. Well he quite likes having his picture taken at the moment, especially if I’ve got the camera out to take photos of Gabe. He also seems to constantly have his tongue out at the moment, although I have no idea why! So anyway, that’s why we ended up with this picture…

15 February , 201614 February , 2016 - Sarah 3 Comments

Living Arrows 7/52 (2016)

It’s been a pretty awful week here with teething, colds, tonsillitis, croup, two visits to the out of hours GP and not an awful lot of sleep. However, we did manage a lovely morning out in the sun on Wednesday and it seems everyone is starting to feel better on the coughs and colds front so here’s hoping next week is a bit more settled!

Toby’s Living Arrows photo this week was taken when we were out on Wednesday. He loves pretending to be a tiger at the moment hence the pouncing hands in this shot…

Gabe’s photo was taken yesterday morning. He is six months old in a few days and so we decided we should probably start thinking about weaning. Unlike with Toby though I’m not in any huge rush so this was the first time Gabe has been in the high chair. Toby very kindly shared some of his cereal with him but he only really seemed interested in throwing it on the floor! He seemed to quite like being in the high chair anyway so my whole weaning plan is just to keep putting him in it when we’re eating, put a bit of whatever we’re eating (or Toby is eating) in front of him and leave him to it. I’m sure he’ll get the hang of it eventually…

8 February , 20167 February , 2016 - Sarah 5 Comments

Living Arrows 6/52 (2016)

It’s been a bit of a mixed week here, we had a lovely morning at the park on Wednesday when I took this week’s picture of Toby but then Gabe has been teething and on Thursday night he wouldn’t settle at all, I even resorted to taking him out in the car at 11 pm which I never done before in my two and a half years of being a mum. I ended up on the sofa with him waking every hour through the night…and we still haven’t got a tooth to show for it!

Sometimes Toby can be quite shy and unsure of new places and new people but then other times he is quite happy just to go off exploring on his own. I took this picture at the park as he marched off up the hill on his own with not a care as to where I was! I hope he keeps his adventurous spirit as he gets older, it would be such a shame for him to lose it.

And as for Gabe, well despite his teething we’ve still had some smiles out of him this week. He’s really close to being able to sit up by himself but until he gets there he seems to enjoy sitting on the sofa surrounded by a mountain of cushions.

I’m hoping this tooth makes an appearance this week (I can feel a sharp corner right under the gum) and things settle down again for a bit. Although if Gabe is anything like his brother he’ll be teething pretty much constantly from now on!

1 February , 2016 - Sarah 2 Comments

Living Arrows 5/52 (2016)

It’s been another quiet week here – this horrible weather doesn’t really encourage us to get out and about much.

I often feel guilty that I don’t do enough with Toby when we’re at home. It’s hard to go out in the mornings because I like Gabe to have at least one nap at home in bed and it tends to be the morning one. Toby is quite good at playing independently but we do seem to watch an awful lot of CBeebies at the moment too. Anyway, I saw this activity on someone’s blog last week (and I’m really sorry but I can’t remember where I saw it – if it was you then please do let me know so I can link to your post) and I thought we would give it a try.

I think the sticks were supposed to be spaghetti but we didn’t have any so I used some wooden kebab sticks instead. Threading the Cheerios on to the sticks helps develop fine motor skills but to be honest Toby’s are really good already. He didn’t actually find this too difficult but it held his attention for a long time (in toddler terms anyway) and I think he only dropped about three Cheerios the whole time.

When the first two sticks were full he asked for another stick and more cereal, although he did finally get bored half way through that one. I think I was most impressed that he didn’t just eat all the cereal!

And so to Gabe. He has learnt a new trick this week – his blowing raspberries had me in hysterics yesterday. He’s so serious about it!

25 January , 2016 - Sarah 1 Comment

Living Arrows 4/52 (2016)

Another week gone already and it’s been just a normal stay at home, go to nursery, run a few errands kind of a week. This week’s Living Arrows pictures were taken at home at the weekend while we were all just chilling out. Toby was having a snack in his tent and Gabe was just having a wriggle on the floor (he’s sooo close to rolling back to front but he’s still not quite there yet).

I’m still enjoying playing with our new camera lenses – these ones were taken with the 50mm; it’s my new favourite!

I love both of their big grins in these photos!

18 January , 201617 January , 2016 - Sarah 8 Comments

Living Arrows 3/52 (2016)

I’m actually going to manage to get my Living Arrows post out on time this week!

Yesterday we had had a bit of snow overnight so Toby was super excited to go out and play in it. I think we might have had a tiny bit of snow last year but not enough to play in, and he probably wouldn’t have remembered anyway! There wasn’t much in the garden but Toby had fun running around and throwing snowballs.

And as for Gabe, he got a chance to try out his super snuggly pram suit this weekend. It’s supposed to be 6-12 months but as I seem to have produced another baby with a ridiculously long body he’ll be lucky if it fits for the whole winter!

13 January , 201629 January , 2016 - Sarah Leave a comment

Living Arrows 2/52 (2016)

I’m sure a lot of people are having the same trouble, but this dismal weather we’ve been having has meant we haven’t got out much, and so haven’t taken any outdoor photos, and the light inside is awful too making any kind of photography difficult.

So having said that I’m quite pleased with how this week’s Living Arrows pictures have turned out.

This one of Toby is actually just an iPhone picture. I am genuinely scared of balloons, not when they are just harmlessly hanging around but when people are touching them, particularly when little kids are squeezing and biting them. I hate it! I don’t want Toby to feel my fear, or be deprived though so he occasionally gets a balloon to play with. I had been blowing this one up and then letting it go so it blew itself around the room. I’d been doing it for ages though and needed a break so Toby was trying to blow the balloon up himself. It’s certainly a skill he hadn’t mastered yet though – he mostly just ended up covered in drool!

This one of Gabe I managed to grab one morning when he was having a bit of tummy time and there was actually a half decent amount of light. He’s so inquisitive now, I just love his little face!
And lastly how could I not include this one of both my boys? When Toby saw me taking pictures of Gabe he went and laid down next to him – I didn’t even have to ask! I love how they’re looking at each other. Gabe is so interested in everything his big brother does now, and Toby seems to be realising that maybe Gabe isn’t that boring after all.

4 January , 201610 March , 2016 - Sarah 6 Comments

Living Arrows 1/52 (2016)

So here we are, entering into the third year of Living Arrows. I mentioned in my last Living Arrows post of 2015 that I didn’t know if I was going to carry on this year. As you can probably tell from the very existence of this post I am going to continue but I’m going to try and return to the spirit of this project as it was first begun. The name Living Arrows comes from the poem ‘On Children’ by Kahil Gibran

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them,
but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children
as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with His might
that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer’s hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies,
so He loves also the bow that is stable.

As Hayley over at Shutterflies who hosts Living Arrows mentioned this week, it is a project about ‘celebrating motherhood and childhood and capturing those moments you want to preserve forever.’ And so for 2016 I am going to aim to use these posts to showcase my favourite pictures of Toby and Gabe from the week but not, as I have been doing, to also use it as a generally diary post. I’ll probably still do that but as a separate post under a different name.

So here we are…week 1 of 52 in 2016

(I should include here in the interests of full disclosure that I didn’t take this picture of Toby, it was my sister-in-law – thanks Becca!)

And this happened today so how could I not include it?

Toby Goes Bananas

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Living Arrows