Who is who?

Who are these babies? What do you think?
Very alike (surprisingly so), but not the same person!

Well the answer is - Samuel on the left (within the first hour of his entry into the world), and Daniel on the right (a couple of days old). Well done Rachel. :o)

I was surprised because I think of Daniel as looking much like Rachel and Michael. A couple of people have said that he looks like Samuel but I couldn't see it (other than the normal sibling likeness among my children). I love how alike these photos are. :o)

1 month old today!

Daniel is 1 month old today, and he still doesn't have a middle name decided on, so we also still haven't told very many people yet of his arrival! I figured I should share more than just one picture of him though. Once his name is certain, there are some lovely baby announcements full of pictures waiting to be sent!
He is SO lovely right now, I would love everyone to meet him now before he grows and changes any more. Maybe a few more photos and a bit about him so far will suffice though?! (These are all photos from his first week or so as the few I've taken since are still on the camera.)

We have been mostly unwell and also really exhausted for the last 3 weeks, especially the first two of those weeks, so survival has been the game we've been playing! Daniel has also had his face and then head covered in spots for the last couple of weeks. Not infectious, just lots of acne-type spots! There are still loads there, but they are not always so bright red anymore, and are definately starting to go a little now. Despite that, he is a most gorgeous little fellow. Really handsome / beautiful - take your pick.

He has longer awake and fully alert times than he did at first, and I really love it when he is calmly and intently looking at someone or something. He really seems to be getting familiar with different members of the family, and when he just wants Mummy, he often calms straight away when he gets me which is very lovely. So many times he looks just like a little Michael to me. I love that! I've never seen Michael so clearly in any of them. We got out Michael's baby pictures to compare as he couldn't see it, and he thought so too. Other than that he looks a lot like Rachel in quite a few ways, and seems to have a Hogan nose (from my Dad's family!)

Samuel getting used to him early on:

Not many days later, quite enjoying holding his baby brother. He wants to hold or cuddle him, and it lasts just seconds sometimes and he is suddenly done - perfectly satisfied and he just lets go!

He loves warm baths, loves to feed, even doesn't mind being changed much anymore, especially when he has a loving friend to hold his hand and talk or sing to him - sometimes he's even extremely calm while being changed because of this.

He has grown loads, and in the last week has been wearing 3-6 month clothes. He's quite long (we measured him as 59cm long I think the day after he was born) He's getting so much bigger now too, I think about 11 1/2 pounds now, and so much more sturdy. He's very strong and steady with how he holds himself. He has such big hands and fingers, and long feet too. Not really disproportionate to his body, just big for a newborn baby I suppose!

He knows when it is bedtime, and is very irritable unless I can just take him to bed (as that requires peace and it's right in the middle of the other children going to bed that can be quite a challenge, but that's all he wants and all he will settle for). His hair was just a standard approximately 1cm all over until a few days ago when it just started growing. It seems so much longer each day now, but all round the back and sides, with the longest strands stretching out over the still barely present hair on top, like a very tiny old man! :o)

These next photos were from when Daniel met my Mum and Dad, and they him, when he was four days old.

Taking Daniel out for the first time a couple of days later.

You can only just see Daniel. He's pretty well wrapped up as it was very cold!

Well I hope you enjoyed meeting Daniel a little bit more. As we only have until he is 6 weeks old to register his birth, I'll hopefully be able to let you know before long what his full name will be too!

Meet Daniel

Born on Wednesday 29th December 2010, 5.50am at home here in Brighton.
He entered the world just as his big brother Samuel woke up (usual time, but probably helped along a little by Mummy's vocal chords from the previous few minutes!)
Delivered by Ceri - the midwife joined us 10 minutes later, followed not long after by all of his siblings who couldn't wait to meet him.

He weighed 9lb 7oz at birth. Middle name (we're nearly sure) and more photos coming soon.

Michael and I are hoping for a bit more sleep soon, and happier (less tired children) all round. We're enjoying having little Daniel here with us though. :o)

BOO!!

Well we've been hiding for ages it seems. Not deliberately, just extremely busy. There's no real available time to put things on here normally anyway, but less than normal. As I said to Michael's Mum recently, I haven't been able to justify spending the bit of time needed to add to this recently, but at the same time, I've realised again how unsettling it is not to be doing it. Much like when I don't manage to write in my journal for ages (I suppose it's a little bit of a family journal for us, but also the best kind of communication we are able to have with family and friends. I have 5 people I am trying to write e-mails or regular letters to, and have been trying to for a couple of months at least, but there's never a moment to do it it would seem. So I figure that doing something here will probably help me feel better, share at least some fairly recent photos with all of you, and I'll be communicating with somebody again (if anyone looks that is!) and recording something too, even if it isn't in my journal. :o)

Another problem I've had for most of Samuel's short life now, is our camera not working. It won't stay charged even for one photo most of the time, and despite needing to invest some time to investigate why exactly that is (is it the battery charger, batteries or camera failing?), and it being important to me to have some good photos of him and everybody else in the family as they grow, the right time never presents itself. Luckily Michael and I each have a mobile phone now, with camera, albeit not very good ones, so that is where all pictures are being taken right now and have been for at least a couple of months. So the pictures are pretty grainy, but they're all we have. I hope you enjoy them anyway.

Here's a few from our "Not Back to School Picnic" just over two months ago (you could call it a celebration of "home" education), including one of Samuel the first time I put him in a swing. He was delighted, and giggled so much, but I never can catch that in a photo. I hope I'll manage to remember it without. :o)







More of Samuel in a swing, this time after going to a home-ed sports group. There's a park nearby, and as we rarely make it to playgrounds here with none properly nearby, and with Peter sitting through games of football, basketball and tennis but being too young to join in with everyone else, we make a stop at the park afterwards so he gets to play too. Rachel and Hannah, are of course playing at being a horse and jockey in the one of all four girls at that park. Somehow Peter never made it into a picture, but that's probably becasue he doesn't stay still long enough to get one of him (it's not always for want of trying!)






Swings again!! Peter was trapped twice in this park though, so you can see him too! Sarah was working out what trees were growing within the playground here, and doing a tally of how many of each kind there were. While she was busy studying the trees, Rebekah, Peter and Samuel had a lovely time playing in a park again! In fact, after such a long break from going to any playgrounds, and then quite a few in not such a long time, Peter is most days now telling me which park he wants to go to. He has the funniest 3-year old ways of describing them to me though, and I invariably can't quite work it out! We notice such different things at each place, me being 30 years older than him, that our descriptions don't usually match up too well, and it really does take some investigative work to understand!







Here's a dressed up little Samuel. Rachel was holding Samuel while Michael and I were both unable to, and when we looked again, she had him all dressed up, and he was totally happy with it too. :o) That was about a month ago. Yet again, he has grown through the next size of clothes, and those don't fit him anymore. At nearly 6 months old now, he's wearing 9-12 month clothes. He's a big, heavy baby, but so beautiful with it. :o)



Here's a cuddle with Rebekah. Rebekah is still going through a highly panicky/fearful stage and being with Samuel is one of the things that calms her just beautifully. She loves him dearly. One other great thing is a homeopathic remedy, and sometimes having her feet rubbed with massage oil helps too. I did a homeopathy course one morning a week for three weeks in October, which has started me off with being able to use homeopathic remedies at home without seeing a homeopath. There is a homeopath that has a clinic at our local Children's Centre every other week at the moment, so we are able to see her for some things, but first aid / acute things we're able to do at home with great success. It's been a real blessing for us.



To finish, a few fun sleeping pictures of Samuel. He is such a fun boy. He loves to feed, and play - always reaching out for things, and of course EVERYTHING goes in his mouth. He likes to sit or stand up with help, and most of all be carried, but wherever he is he rarely keeps still. Peter loves him a lot and loves to come and find him in our bed each morning, and spend sometime there with him wherever possible before the day really starts. Samuel hasn't been very happy the last few days - extra clingy and needy, crying more and not being settled at all at night (if Mummy's not there it's time to scream and scream until she is!) I think it's probably the teething going up a level, so hopefully will calm back down again soon. Here are those sleepy pictures:

Two months ago (at 3 1/2 months old)...



One month ago (at 4 1/2 months old) - playing sleeping lions... :o)




There is so much for quite a while now that hasn't even been made mention of on here. Things like our holiday, a special visit to the temple, a craft stall we ran in the summer, or anything else that we've been up to really!

We've also been having an extended clear out and move around. Five out of eight of us now sleep in a different place in the house! We've been weaving, tangling up our fingers, reading, going places, studying (that's Michael), doing church things, and generally living life. We also had a sweet new cousin/niece join our family, as my brother and his wife recently had a little girl called Elodie join their family. When I manage to, I'll add bits here and there, so keep looking. :o)

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.