charging towards February and lighter days....

Its been another busy week - sound familiar? Lauchlan and Mum have been completing some important work on the computer in amongst everything else they are doing. Dad has a tax return to do this week and everyone is busy and tired.

Sophie and Olivia on the see saw

Gran wasn't feeling well so we wanted to say hello.

Lauchlan tries some real food for the 1st time

Bathtime, teething and general craziness - but we are very happy

Oh the fun we have

We have had another crazy week - sleep has settled down to just a bit of a nightmare and we have been slowly getting some more of it - with Lauchlan now in his own room I am even back in my own bed again!

Sophie continues to do very well with potty training, she has also now pretty refused afternoon naps unless we are in the car or unless she is really knackered. She is starting to assert herself a bit more and after throwing a pencil sharpener against the wall tonight got herself put in quiet time. She was asked for an apology, said sorry and then got a hug and we kept on playing. All those years teaching and watching supernanny starting to come in useful.

Here are some photo from the week.....not many I must say ;o)

Lots of Lauchlan this week

Sophie continues to have lots of fun regardless of the weather - this week we wrapped up and made some mud coffes and teas along with some ice chips out in the garden.

She went back to nursery this week and has continued to be an amazing potty champion - we even went to the first gymnastics session this year completely nappy free.

There aren't many photos from this week but most of them seem to be of Lauchlan.

 

Tiring work this garden cookery

Down the park in the snow

Hope everyone has a good week - we are hopefully going to get this wee boy into a better nightime routine sometime really soon.

Potty trained and everyone is smiling.

As of last week we decided that enough was enough of the gentle introductions to the world of potty and the time was right to master the potty before everyone resumed their hectic schedules - so that Sophie could go back to nursery and be like a lot of the others (whose parents were able to potty train earlier due to the lack of another baby.) Sophie has been able to master it in a matter of days - this hase been amazing but does prove that you are better off waiting until they are ready than everyone getting stressed out.

Anyway - not a whole lot to report after the large post from last week - here are some photos with captions to explain whats going on

Lauchlan loves to laugh

He is also digging tummy time these days

Lauchlan's new room is coming along nicely - Sophie reads Peppa

Sophie tries on her new dress - thanks Auntie Melanie

Add caption

Sophie will soon no longer need a regular 

nap but sometimes still needs one.

Merry Christmas and a Happy new Year to you all - A bumper post to end the year!

This was Sophie's second Christmas and she was in no mood to miss out on all the fun - she kicked off the party season in style showing off her dancing and musical statues skills.

Check it out

Sophie rocking musical statues, Olivia and Sam in the background

Sam, Sophie and Olivia

The butler at the party was realy helpful

Sam, Sophie, Olivia and Alexander

Lauchlan was determined not to miss out on the fun

 A very proud Mum taught her everything she knows about partying.

Before Christmas we also got to visit Uncle Paul and Auntie Nicole who had a wee party at theirs to see everyone before they flew over to spend the festive season in Belgium.

Sophie and Mum went to the shops one day with Lauchlan and found there to be tons of Christmas things going on - Santa had even parked his sleigh whilst he popped into Nando's for a quick lunch.

Sophie hopped in to take his seat but couldn't get the reindeers started.

 As part of Sophie and Mum's trip to the shops they also got to meet one of Sophie's favourite cartoon characters - the accident prone, clumsy, fire marshall (called Marshall) from Paw Patrol. Sophie was way more excited than the photo suggests.

 

Sophie loves playing wih her brother and even had him come and try out her bed (soon to be his).

 

All fun and games until....

Someone does a poo....

Lauchlan continues to surprise us with his smiley, calm nature during the day and then sheer noise and tears during the evening. Only joking he has got a lot better and actually we have let him off because he actually got a tooth at the start of the month and we believe he has another one on the way. Besides - with a wee face like this you can't be annoyed at him for making a bit of noise.

Part of Sophie's Christmas experience this year was going to be moving into a new bedroom - this had been discussed a lot in advance and was referred to as "My Princess bedroom". I think Sophie and Mummy had been hatching a plot behind Daddy's back to make sure he was kept busy in the run up to Christmas. 

Not only did the entire room need repainting - a room that Daddy had painted in the summer I may add. But a bed needed built, a new custom built wardrobe needed painted, shelves needed put up and there was the (not so ) small matter of a doll's house that required to be built before Christmas day.

 Needless to say it was all done with time to spare - so Sophie and Daddy headed out to walk around the neighbourhood to spread some Christmas cheer and to check out everyone's Christmas lights. Sophie was actually loaded with the cold and we wanted to perk her up a wee bit and get her some fresh air.

When Daddy got home and Sophie went to bed - Daddy put together the finishing touches to the "Princess bedroom " - I was wrapping the doll's house at 11pm and can you believe that a friend of Katie's actually critiqued (questioned) my wrapping skills!?!?!

So the scene was all set and Santa came down the chimney with all the presents for Lauchlan and Sophie - Sophie had asked Santa for a Police Car (randomly) so she got one of those and a couple of other things before reading the note above Santa's head that said something like:

"Well done Sophie, what a year, Mummy and Daddy are so proud of you for being such a great big sister. Now for your big Christmas surprise, go up to the spare room, you won't believe your eyes!"

"Chase is on the case! (Paw Patrol)"

Sophie got a great present from Gran and Grandad and was keen to showcase her talents

After all the excitement of Christmas day and Boxing Day we headed down to Carradale for a wee visit before returning home for New Year.

Lauchlan charmed the checkouts in Tesco

Sophie ate her lunch at Gran's on her own

Lauchlan slept for a while

Then stopped Gran eating her lovely soup

Sophie tried out her scooter (she did actually get on it)

And then Mummy said - shall we go and give baby Amber a carrot? And Sophie said yes! When we got there though Sophie said "I want to ride her" - and so she did! Thanks to Louise and Leah once again for being so kind.

We then took a long walk home  and went out for a nice dinner together - they even had gluten free fish and chips!

When we got home we had a lot of fun bouncing about on the beds and building dens before bathtime

 

before we left the Holiday house - it was important to visit as many relatives as we could and it is always a pleasure to pop down and see Auntie Margaret - it was Lauchlan's firt visit so the attention was all on him. Sophie and I went outside and watched the fishing boats come in and we were really lucky to see a seal in the sea! Meanwhile Lauchlan was trying to catch Auntie Margaret ;o)

 

Tiring work all this fun - 

 And then we were home and in the run up to New Year we decided that Sophie was also ready for taking on the potty - we have been using it and talking about it for months but the nappies are now off and we are going for it - Sophie is as always being an absolute star about the whole thing.

Sophie's cousin David came over before New Year and loved Sophie's new bedroom - David is walking already!

Daddy loves Hogmany more than Christmas if he is being honest and when everyone was in bed he had a great big party all to himself.

And on New Year's Day he got the chance to party a bit more with Uncle Paul, Auntie Nicole, Gran and Grandad.

Happy New Year everyone - hope you keep tuning into the adventures in 2017!!