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…

This last week has been fairly uneventful, we’re still trying to get the painting finished in the kitchen so we haven’t been getting out at the weekends really. We did manage a walk into town on Sunday with Gabe in the buggy and Toby on his SmartTrike – he loves it but kept wanting me to go ‘really speedy fast’ and it nearly killed me!

Barry is away in Germany with work for the whole of this week so it’s just me and the boys and I’m in survival mode. I’ve made the most of them being at nursery today by having my hair cut and… having a nap! I haven’t actually done that since we moved here and they’ve been going to nursery but we didn’t have a brilliant night last night and I figured I could use all the sleep I could get.

This weeks photos were taken in the house this week, although autumn afternoon light indoors is awful for taking pictures! The boys are getting much better at, not exactly playing together, but at least co-existing in the same space without killing each other! Gabe has discovered the rocking horse this week – we got it for Toby’s second Christmas and it’s had plenty of use over the last two years. Gabe has been loving it – he really got the hang of rocking and was going for it so hard he was actually moving across the room!

Toby is almost impossible to take a posed photo of these days – the best photos I get of him are when he doesn’t know I’m taking them. This one came out alright though I think…

Hopefully we’ll actually get out this weekend and I’ll have some more interesting pictures for next week’s post.