I’m back again for another week of Living Arrows (I will post something else one of these days I promise!)

It’s been a quiet week of getting back into our normal routine. The boys went back to nursery without any complaints and I spent the whole of Tuesday cleaning our house from top to bottom, which literally takes all day in a three storey house!

Of course, as I predicted, two days back at nursery has seen Gabe with another cold. I don’t know if his teeth are bothering him too (although second molars at 16 months, surely not?) but he’s been dribbling like crazy for the last few nights. He actually slept all night on Tuesday night, for only the third time in his life but then the nights since then have all been pretty rubbish. I should know better by now than to get excited when he has a good night, it’s almost inevitably followed by even worse sleep than we’re used to. He’ll get there one of these days though and surprise us all.

I usually share happy (or sometimes serious) pictures of the boys but I think sometimes it’s important to share the reality of life with a 16 month old. Read more

Everyone is starting to feel a bit better this week so hopefully we’ll all be well enough to enjoy Christmas. The boys had their last days at nursery before the Christmas break and both came home with so many Christmas crafts I almost needed a suitcase to carry them all!

The weather has been pretty rubbish though, not festive in the slightest. The rain did stop long enough though for Toby to finally get out on the new SmarTrike scooter we’ve been sent to review. Considering he’s never had a scooter before (although maybe has used one at nursery) I was really impressed with how well he did on it. You can see on his face how much he was enjoying it…

Gabe has been feeling better too – his nose is still constantly dripping but apart from that he’s not too bad. He wasn’t too impressed with me going away for a night out with my friend last weekend though – he woke up at 10 pm and didn’t stop crying and go back to sleep until 5 am! Not much sleep for daddy that night either!

He’s turning into a proper little character now though and sometimes seems so close to talking, I’m sure it won’t be long until he gets more words than just ‘hiya’. He can still be very serious sometimes though, and if he’s not happy about something he’ll definitely let you know about it. He’s usually quite happy when he’s in the buggy even though his resting face doesn’t always show it…

Hello, and welcome to this week’s very late installment of ‘who’s ill this week?’

Sunday night Gabe woke up with awful croup. He’s had it before so we didn’t bother with phoning 111, we just gave him a puff of his inhaler that he got when he had bronchiolitis a couple of months ago, then stood outside on the balcony for a bit as the cold air is supposed to help. He spent the next couple of nights sleeping in bed with me while Barry got relegated to the sofa. The croup went quite quickly just leaving him with a cough and cold but our couple of nights of good sleep last week are now a distant memory.

The rest of us have got colds too but I guess that’s pretty standard for this time of year. With everyone feeling a bit sorry for themselves we’ve not done much this week. On Monday while Gabe was having a nap Toby and I made a robot out of old boxes and tinfoil. I’d been promising Toby we would do it for weeks after he saw it on CBeebies and I’d finally run out of excuses not to do it! To be fair I did most of it but it was mostly Toby’s design. I think it came out pretty well if I do say so myself! Excuse the mess in the background – the kitchen still isn’t quite finished!

On Thursday we actually made it out of the house briefly – we had to pick up Gabe’s reflux meds from the chemist and managed to squeeze in a quick trip to the park too. Even Gabe got out of the buggy for a little play too.

I’m not going to say much today, mostly because it’s only a few days since I published our last Living Arrows update! But, hurray – I’m finally back on schedule!

And I don’t want to tempt fate but we are all, for now, well again (except for a few sniffles but I don’t think they ever really go away in our family).

On Saturday we even managed to get out of the house and visit Jodrell Bank. It’s not a massive place (well apart from the ginormous radio telescope – you can see it in our November Me & Mine picture) but there was plenty to keep Toby occupied. There were a few things to play with outside and even though he didn’t understand the science Toby still had fun with them…

And at the indoor exhibits Gabe even got out of the buggy to join in (he couldn’t get out outside because I’d left his shoes in the car!).

Here’s hoping we all manage to stay well now until Christmas at least!

Hi. Did you miss me? The eagle eyed among you may have noticed I’ve not posted since last week. Do you know what though? I’m bored of writing this myself so you must definitely be bored of reading it – we’ve all been ill again; stomach bug and colds this time. Far too many bodily fluids to deal with…

So anyway, here’s some pictures of the boys.

Before the illness struck last week Toby and I made some gingerbread. They were yummy, if a little puffy because I halved the recipe but forgot to halve the baking powder!

And this is Gabe’s big fluffy bum, just because…

I’m not going to write too much this week because, if I’m honest, I’d rather forget last week happened!

Barry was in Germany with work all week. Gabe got a temperature on Tuesday night, managed to survive a day at nursery on Wednesday (he had to, I was working), and then pretty much wouldn’t be put down, even to sleep for the next 48 hours. Thankfully my mum came to help all day on Thursday, and my dad came to the rescue at 7pm after I’d managed to break our bed (I knew there was a reason we moved to live near them!)

Anyway, Barry came home on Friday and then we both had colds and Toby got a temperature too. We all seem to be mostly recovered now but all in all it’s been a pretty rubbish week!

Gabe’s picture this week was taken at about midnight on Wednesday – it’s dark and grainy but sometimes I think it’s important we show the reality of parenthood. He had just stopped wailing and fallen asleep, while I watched Planet Earth on the iPlayer…

And I took Toby’s photo when he was sitting up on the window sill in our kitchen/diner playing with the new star I got this week. It’s supposed to be a Christmas decoration but I like it so I think we might have it there all year round.

Here’s hoping this week is a better one…