Show Time

Wow, been a while since I've done an entry but Christmas and illness has taken over this house. Leo has been ill for about 20 days now and only today has he started to perk up a little bit. He has been sleeping in with us for the last few nights and he does sleep better and has even slept in until gone 8am on some mornings.

We were told he had a virus, high temp, bad cough etc and after seeking medical advice we were told to see an out of hours doctor, which Rob did, and then they gave us some antibiotics for him. They perked him up for a couple of days but that was it, then he was bad again. He really has tried to act well but has spent most of his time flopped on the sofa in front of the television. (As you can see from pictures in the previous entry).

He has had a serious lack of appetite and has hardly eaten for a couple of weeks. He generally looks quite grey/pale and is looking a bit skinny but I did weigh him and he hasn't lost much, if anything. Maybe muscle wastage or something from not doing much, I'm not sure.

Lots of things have been going on as its a seasonal end of term. The boys art wall has been very full this term and I can't wait to see what they do next year. Leo really is starting to enjoy making different pictures and we often sit and talk about them all. My favourite has to be a painting of Santa that Ellis did recently.

The photos came back from school and Leo's preschool and I scanned them on so I could post them here. I don't think I would ever be 100% happy with them. I would love one day to see a professional and get tons taken and to then take my time picking some. I know it would cost a lot but worth it I think.

I've been trying to do as much Christmas shopping as I can but with Leo being ill, it has been hard to fit it all in. Thankfully his preschool has allowed him to go in so I've managed to go with just Oscar to do a few things. I kept forgetting I had his Jolly Babies class in the afternoon though so ended up rushing around everywhere.

We saw the Coca Cola lorry from the Christmas advert on one of our shopping trips and I was allowed to take pictures.

Ellis' school has done a lot of Christmassy things, one of them being the Christmas Fair which is organised by the committee to raise money for extra stuff. I decided now would be a good time to use the boys costumes.

We had a lovely time. My Mum came with me to give me a hand, thank goodness she did as it was heaving and you couldn't use a buggy! We managed to lose Leo for a few seconds in the main hall and he was found crying by a teacher. Bless him, he just wanders off.

The highlight of the afternoon was visiting Santa. Leo and Ellis loved it but I did regret not taking them to the usual Santa was see at a local garden centre. I will definitely try and get there next year.

On the day of the fair (9th December), I caught my littlest monkey doing this...

I'm not sure how long he has been doing that but that is the first time that I caught him red handed. So cute, but it means more trouble ahead.

Putting the video together of Oscar standing up, I found some other videos which I'm not sure if I've posted yet or not.  So here they are.

Ellis refusing his nap.

Oscar plays quite happily in his cot for a long time, just like Ellis used to.  It's great as we don't have to get up at 6:30am every day.

The only video footage I have of Leo.

To soothe himself to sleep, Oscar rocks his head to and fro and I think it started from having a rocking crib as a baby.

Oscar turned 9 months old on the 10th December and I totally forgot to do his pictures, how annoyed am I!  I got one of him and a nice one of the 3 of them together. 

Oscar at 9 months.

Leo at 9 months.

Ellis at 9 months.

The boys.

I also did a video diary entry for the 9 month entry to make it a bit easier.  I just don't have the time these days!

When Ellis was at preschool he had a key worker who moved to a new preschool to work and Leo has since started there and has the same key worker.  She has been working towards some qualifications and we had helped her out with the simplest of things, like pictures that Ellis had drawn.  Her family threw her a surprise party to reward her for all her hard work and we were invited.  We arrived nice and early and waited until she arrived.  We had a really nice time and the boys had tons of fun.  Oscar didn't like the party poppers, wouldn't take his milk, so wouldn't sleep, so we had to leave quite early which was a shame.

An order from eBay arrived for Leo.  I bought him a wet suit so that when we go swimming, he won't get too cold.  He tried it on and looked like a surf dude!  He didn't like it to start with.

Oscar tried on something new too. He wore pyjamas for the first time and looked very cute.

Ellis had a Christmas School Play on 12th December and both Rob and I were able to attend, thanks to Sophie for looking after our babies at home.  We couldn't arrive too early so missed out on any good seats so pretty much we didn't see anything for the whole show and Ellis didn't even know we were there until the end!

We managed to get a few pictures at the end.  Ellis was a camel.

At home, Oscar was showing off his new trick.

Oscar is growing up so quickly.  I often forget to pick up the camera to record his growth but here are some pictures and videos of him.

Christmas time means Christmas dos and Rob has been on a few, staying away for all of them too.  My Christmas do with my Mummy friends was at a local pub for a meal.  Sarah very kindly picked everyone up as she didn't want to drink.  Thank you x.  

Naomi got the seat in the boot.

There were a few things that didn't go quite right, one of them being that the didn't make my starter, the duck main meal was titchy, they wouldn't give us our free bottle of wine as we didn't print the online voucher, they over charged us, would have put us on a rectangle table even though we had booked a round one and then tried to serve a deep filled apple pie with no actual apple in it!  

It was great seeing everyone though as we don't often get together any more.  I had bought them all a fancy bath cake and Charlotte bought us all some earrings which was really sweet.

At the end of the meal I text Sophie to see if she was going into town and if by any chance she would mind picking me up on her way through.  She did and so I went.  I was a little nervous to start with as I haven't been out in town for a very, very long time.  Luckily there were a lot of company dos going on so I didn't feel old or over dressed.

I had a wicked time.  We had a few drinks in 2 different bars then went to a club and danced to the early hours before getting chips and a taxi home.  I got back at 3:40am! (Not sure this video works).

I was really tired the following day but Rob did the early shift and I had to get up to be with my poorly babies.

The day went on and we showed Ellis a video message from Santa that we had created.  He loved it!  He smiled, waved, watched it 10 times, told Santa that he loved him.  It was very sweet.  I think you can see it here. (Not sure links will still work).

We did one for Leo too, here, but didn't show it to him in the end.

All of the dancing practice that Ellis has done over the last few months, was finally used in his show.  We dressed him in his outfit which I thought looked pretty cool.

Leo also dressed up, putting a cat mask on and crawling around.  He looked so cute!

The show was okay.  Ellis did really well but overall it wasn't as good as I thought it was going to be.  I was very proud of my boy, especially as he was stood next to a boy who kept hitting him and at one point pushed a little girl off to the side of the stage.  Not a nice moment and Rob did have words with the boys Mum.  Ended on a bit of sour note really but if Ellis had been doing that to someone else I would have taken him off!

The dressing up continued the next day when we had a visit from Lucy and Ashlee.  It was the first day of school holidays so it was nice to have some visitors.

Oscar's eyes got really bad so I went to see the out of hours doctor to get some drops for him.  They worked really quickly, thankfully.

Ellis is totally shattered and playing up a lot at the moment.  I'm not really sure what the matter is and I have given it lots of thought but maybe I should just relax about it all and just realise that there will be tons of these phases to work through.

Looking after sick children is very hard.  It's extra demanding and draining.  They don't sleep well and need lots of care and attention.  It was really starting to take its toll on me and I was totally shattered and behind with everything!  My Mum came over to help me out which was great, but a shame she couldn't stay for a couple of days ;o)

Oscar chipped his tooth!  All three of my boys now have chipped teeth!  Ellis did his on the sink, Leo fell over in the bath and Oscar did his by grinding his teeth together!  Really not nice.

The last few days before Christmas Eve were spent chilling as Leo and Oscar were both ill.  We played games and messed around and that's about it.  I spent my evening wrapping presents, writing cards, and trying hard to get organised in between tending to the boys every half hour or so.  Tough going but I got through it.

 

Rob was away for 2 nights too so I was on my own trying to do everything.  It's been hard this year.  I'm not sure if that's because I have 3 babies or because I was unorganised, or because the boys have been ill.  Maybe a mixture of it all.  I didn't realise how much time Ellis' extra activities and school stuff was going to take up.  Need to plan more and work harder I think.  I will just have to give up a few more things.  Spend less time looking at rubbish on the WWW for one.  Cease blogging???