Our last week or so

This was found on outside of the the younger childrens' bedroom window as they were getting dressed yesterday morning. Please ignore the filthy window you can also see a little too well!



It's probably the same as the one in the last post that they found on the sandpit. We were wondering how it had managed to jump so high, as it was on the 1st floor (2nd floor for Americans I think?), but we think it may be a Katydid. It seems as well as jumping, that they also have wings and will fly away from danger. That would make it more possible I would think.

There are a lot of these around too - MOSTLY in the garden.



Hannah was annoyed by a big one yesterday a little too close to the house for comfort, and splashed its web while watering the plants. Later in the day we watched it repair its web. It was wonderful to watch! It first made an absolutely perfect framework, then worked around it, quite fast, a piece at a time, pulling out more strands with its back legs and hooking them onto the framework as it went around. The spacing of all of the new strands was perfect too - just beautiful work!

Here are some blocks Michael cut from a plank of wood and we all sanded down. Then the children stained them a rainbow of colours. They had red, yellow, green and blue stain to work with. I'd like to have us rub them with beeswax or something sometime soon before we start playing with them.



We have been doing a lot of sorting things out with the aim of simplifying. It is an exhausting but joyful thing. We took an outdoor break earlier last week when we weren't getting on with things so easily. A bit of time and space to play catch (mostly Michael and me!), fly a kite (if look closely you can see how high Hannah is flying that kite, and three of the other children in the background running up the hill),



run,



play horses,



climb,



and (a favourite past-time for Peter) eat fruit.



Peter has been enjoying experimenting with various things lately. Wheat scattered over the kitchen, a carton of oat milk poured into Michael cheese sauce that was ready to eat, and smearing Savlon (antiseptic cream) on the piano, wood floor, skin and trousers. Rebekah enjoyed helping him out with that one last night during family home evening! They were sat quietly behind my legs as I sat on the piano stool. I thought they were playing with white paper, not white cream! Their hands and feet were covered with it, and all around them too. There have been some other things too, but I forget what they were now (my post-baby memory still in action)! These are in the last few days. Isn't it fun being 3 and wanting to learn? :o) Here he is having a little less messy 'messy play'- with water in the sink. :o)



I got out a new size of pyjamas for Peter and Samuel on the same day, and they enjoyed a very happy cuddle in them. They both look so comfy now their clothes fit again!





Samuel is getting well into 6-9 month clothes now. He added in a squeal to his happy communications a week or so ago, typically when he is giggling, but also just talking. One evening he was in a lot of discomfort though - trapped wind we think - and that squeal came in very handy in a screaming type of way too!

This little outfit was given to us by a kind member of our ward here. It is 6-9 months and fits him perfectly. He is 3 1/2 months old now. He felt so soft and lovely in it though - so baby-like!



That might sound funny to say, as he is a baby, but most of his clothes are just little clothes, not baby clothes, and he just seemed like a proper baby again for that day. So soft and cuddly, and comfortable for him. :o) I'd love more baby clothes to be like that.




Samuel is getting good at lifting his head to look around. It seems so much more enjoyable than looking up.



He also had a little go in the baby bouncer in the last week, which the children thought was very funny, and he seemed to enjoy too. He had been SO wriggly, and seemed to just want to move, so I thought I'd let him have a bit more freedom to move on his own. I think that walking reflex probably kept his feet going. The children certainly thought it was funny as he kept pivoting around on one leg. Samuel calmed right down too.