It's nearly Winter!

Last night our clocks went back.  Today it was dark by 5.30 and it that will gradually get earlier and earlier.  It's definitely been colder the last couple of days and tonight we may get our first frost.

Yesterday I posted about dresses for weddings.  (Thanks for all the lovely comments.)  Today I'm in my comfy attire of jogging bottoms and a warm top.  Catching up on TV.  

We had a busy evening yesterday babysitting Nathan.  Every time we see him lately he is talking more and more.  He was lovely with us last night.  He didn't make any fuss when his Mummies went out.  We had fun in the bath.  He let me give him both his inhalers with no problems.  (He's had a cough the last couple of weeks.)  We cleaned his teeth and then we settled down to read some stories.  I'd read him a couple and was going to read some more but he told me "No Nanny.  I go sleep now."  

And he did fairly quickly.  But then just as I tried to creep out of the bedroom he sat up looking wide awake.  My heart sank as I envisiged it taking a long time to get him back to sleep but actually he went off again quite quickly.  I managed to escape and he was still asleep when his Mummies came home.  Job done!  (Of course he woke up soon after - he seems to have a 6th sense of when they get home lol)

The darkness outside makes it easier to justify snuggling up on the sofa with my laptop and the TV and when you have this

 

who cares if it's dark outside?

Birthday cake from my DIL.  I don't know what the bakery call it but I think it should be Death by Chocolate!

We survived!

Aren't these two cute and adorable?  Well of course I'm biased but having had them together on Saturday I didn't find them quite as cute as when they're on their own lol.

Both my sons and their wives had been invited to the same wedding in London so we were tasked with looking after Noah and Rory.  Both their other grandparents are too far away and there really wasn't anyone else who could step in.  Consequently hubby was informed that under no circumstances could he make alternative plans for the day - he was coming with me.

I'm thankful that he did - hats off to anyone who has twins to cope with (and as for triplets or quads....)  Makes me wonder how I coped with 3 under the age of 4 when mine were little but my Mum was around and I had friends who helped out too.

We looked after them at Rory's home - lots more toys and equipment there for them and the bonus of no stairs to worry about.  

And I had a plan - we would probably arrive during Rory's nap time so we could get Noah settled without having to cope with Rory too.  Fail #1 - Rory had just woken up from an early nap when we got there at 1pm so we were plunged straight in.  Noah had also already napped so the afternoon stretched out ahead of us.

I planned to let them play for a while.  Then we would take them for a long walk in the park.  Fail #2,  we got them all ready to go out (a major task in itself) and hadn't gone very far when the rain started.  And didn't stop.  We did walk a bit but Noah's buggy didn't really have a waterproof cover so we were forced back to the flat.

They actually played reasonably well together - well side by side - considering they don't see that much of each other.  Rory was a bit bewildered by Noah constantly throwing everything around and Noah seemed bemused at Rory getting up and walking away.  It was also the first time that we've ever really babysat Noah and he did get upset at times which was understandable.  Difficult for Rory to understand why I couldn't physically pick both of them up together though. 

Anyway we got to dinner time.  We'd taken our highchair over to make feeding them easier though we did have to keep them as far apart as possible in the limited space to stop Rory pinching Noah's food.  Both of them are good eaters BUT - Rory scoops up handfuls of food and eats quickly, Noah picks up food a piece at a time and savours it, therefore taking ages!  It was a bit tricky making Rory wait for his yogurt dessert but I didn't want Noah to leave his dinner if he saw Rory with yogurt.  We got there eventually.

Bedtime for Rory was a doddle - he understands that when his bedtime routine is done he will be put in his cot and left to go to sleep.  He doesn't like the last bit - he'll cry.  But only for a few minutes and then he sleeps.  He didn't let me down.  He was in his cot and asleep by 7.15 and we didn't hear another peep from him.

Noah was the opposite.  He got upset while I was seeing to Rory and Grandpa had managed to calm him and snuggle him and he'd gone to sleep.  I tried to transfer him to a buggy but of course he woke and then he was not happy.  I changed him and got him into nightwear and tried to settle him again but it took ages and I ended up just sitting on the rocking chair with him.  Eventually he gave in and got into a good sleep so I was able to lay him down on the sofa.  He was still asleep when the parents came home at 11 pm.

They managed to get him back here and into bed without too much upset and they'd all had a good time at the wedding so I was glad we were able to make that possible for them.  And of course I do love Grandsitting, just one at a time please!

On Sunday we hosted all of them, including Nathan and his Mummies for brunch come lunch.  I do like to try and do that when Noah and his parents are down from Nottingham but of course it is a bit hectic although at one point all the little boys were asleep.

Rory had the comfort of the travel cot:

Although he won't fit in that for much longer!  And Nathan fell asleep on Mummy.

I didn't get a pic of Noah asleep in his buggy -  I went in to take one and found him awake.

The little ones took their parents home early in the afternoon but we had Nathan here a bit longer as his Mummy went to see one of her friends and new baby nearby.  It's hard work looking after them and having them all here together but they are growing up so fast and I'm just so grateful to be able to spend time with them and watch them all developing.

I'm thankful that this week is half-term though and I haven't got to look after Rory.  A few days rest and catching up at home are very much needed!

Lazing on a Sunday afternoon!

Well I am definitely having a lazy day today.  I started to write the title thinking well it's almost afternoon only to notice it already was!

We were babysitting Nathan last night.  He was quite good for us considering he is being very clingy to his Mummies at the moment, especially my daughter.  I think he is picking up on the vibes re moving house.  It's a stressful time for them.  Added to that my daughter cannot pick him up and carry him as much at the moment because of her ankle injury so that isn't helping.

However he didn't cry too much when they left (for an anniversary party) and he let us bath him.  Then Grandpa read him some stories and then Nanny lay with him while he went to sleep.  That took quite a LONG time.  He doesn't put himself to sleep very quickly but we got there eventually.

He slept for several hours but then stirred and realised Mummy wasn't there.  He was happy to accept Nanny as a substitute but he slept very lightly after that and everytime I tried to ease myself away his hand would reach out or he'd lift his head and cry so I just gave in and stayed put until his Mummies came home.

Sooo it was a late night for us (early morning actually) so today is going to be very lazy.  Need to recharge the batteries ready for Rory tomorrow.  He is almost walking.  He can stand up from the floor now without holding on to anything so it won't be long before those first steps.  You might think I'll have my work cut out keeping up with him then but actually he can crawl REALLY FAST! Keeping up with him is already a challenge.

This was him standing up while we were away last weekend.  He was very pleased with himself before he fell over.

It's much cooler here today which is nice and it rained overnight so that saved me worrying about watering the garden.  I'm trying to keep the garden watered to keep it looking good, especially the new plants and window boxes but when overnight rain does the job for me I'm not complaining.

I've been trying to plan out the week ahead, particularly meals.  We're back to a Hello Fresh delivery this week so that takes care of a 3 dinners but I still have to think about today and one other meal during the week.  I've also got a supermarket shop being delivered tomorrow so I need to tweak that order a bit but I'm feeling very organised!  It probably won't last but it feels good right now.

Now I'm off to catch up on some TV!

Getting back on track

Well it's the end of September and I'm slipping.  I'm not living up to my potential - that was the prompt for 5 minute Friday this week but I was just too tired to compose a post.  Even for 5 minutes.  I've signed up for the October challenge of writing for 5 minutes every day.  Five minutes doesn't sound a lot but some days it's hard to find them.

Actually it's not that hard but finding the motivation is.

Friday was busy - I had a hair appointment first thing which meant an early start and from there I went on to visit Rory and his Mummy.  The evening was spent catching up on some TV and I did do some blogging just not the 5 minutes Friday.

Yesterday was a lazy day until the afternoon when we went to babysit Nathan so his Mummies could have a night out.  We had a lovely time bathing and putting Nathan to bed - well when I say bed we got him to sleep in his buggy.  He is not good at going to sleep on his own and is usually in bed with Mummy.  That may change now because on Saturday morning Becca woke up to find Nathan standing next to the bed, telling her Bye Bye.  (His favourite phrase at the moment.)  Somehow, despite being in a "Grow Bag"  (think sleeping bag with shoulder straps) and a bed rail, he'd managed to get out of the bed. 

Anyway he slept well in his buggy for us but stirred and got a bit upset just before they got home but I had managed to get him back to sleep.

I love it when he's snuggly!

Anyway tomorrow is the start of a new month so I'll be polishing off my bullet journal, planning ahead and trying to find five minutes everyday for a post.  I hope you'll join me.

Babysitting fun!

Yesterday I babysat Nathan for the first time. (The Mummies were off to test drive a car.)

When I arrived just after nine o'clock he was just finishing his breakfast feed so he was full and happy when his Mummies left at around 10 am.  He stayed that way for a while - sitting in his bouncy chair watching Nanny tidy up the kitchen and listening to a child friendly channel on the radio.  Some very interesting modern versions of nursery rhymes!

When he started to get fed up with that I took him upstairs to change his nappy and get him dressed.  He was happy while doing that - I found a few ticklish spots.  I put him in his big cot while I washed my hands.  He doesn't sleep in there yet but it's a safe place to leave him and he was entertained by his musical mobile for a bit.

Once he'd listened to that he began to get a bit grumpy so I decided it was time to put him in his buggy and go for a walk to get him off to sleep.  I put him down in the buggy, slipped a dummy in his mouth and by the time I'd popped to the loo he was asleep!  No moaning or fighting it, just asleep.

It was about 11 by this time so I did another couple of chores not knowing how long he might stay asleep.  Well he stirred at about 11.30 and as I didn't think that was a long enough nap I took him straight out for a walk.  We only went around the block (it's a big block) but was asleep again in no time and was still asleep when his Mummies got back just after 1 pm!

I moaned to them about their pathways. On their street the pavement (sidewalk) is quite narrow so it's hard to push the buggy along and it's bumpy so the baby gets jolted a lot so much so that I almost contemplated walking in the road but I thought if they came back at the wrong time and saw me I'd get told off for doing that.  Their response to the state of the pavement was: "oh we often walk in the road"!  To be fair their road is a dead end and doesn't get much traffic. I'll know what to do next time!

My daughter was not impressed at how easily I had got him to sleep - he doesn't sleep that well for her usually.  Apparently he also slept during the afternoon but, as might have been expected, he didn't have the best of nights!

Routine?  What's that?