Sleep!

So we're in a bit of a sleep rut at the moment. My evenings now consist of taking Kit to bed, about every 15 minutes! Eventually once he has settled for a bit longer it is generally time for me to go to bed, or often past that stage as all the tasks I previously did in the evenings (like writing blog posts) are taking a lot longer. About 10 minutes after I get into bed, around the time when I am just about falling asleep, there is a rustle next to me and a small child (often accompanied by a large quantity of soft and sometimes hard toys) slides in next to me.

I don't mind my late night visitor. To be honest he is a pretty good hot water bottle, although a real hot water bottle wouldn't push you over so far that you are nearly falling down the gap between the bed and the wall. I do mind the loss of my evenings. From 7pm - 10pm was previously my time, it is the only time I get. I started the next module on my OU course this weekend, I'll definitely need some of that time. My problem is I think he is waking up because he is waiting for me to go to bed, so I see my choice as I put him to bed in my bed (not something I really want to encourage) or I stop letting him get in my bed (but that would involve several sleepless nights keeping taking him back to his bed every 15 mins - and I'm really not even confident that would stop him). I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place, I'm already exhausted, I don't think that I could out-wake my toddler to get him to stay in his bed and asleep anyway! Do they sell toddler sleeping tablets?!

Why I hate paying someone to cut hair!

Since Kit stopped being able to see past his fringe, I've been cutting his hair. I did it in the bath and just randomly grabbed chunks and chopped. I did the fringe in one snip so that is was (generally) the same length. The back was curly so it wasn't so relevant if it was the same length, I just concentrated on getting rid of the crinkly, fuzzy hair, and keeping it short enough that it didn't constantly get tangled. A little while back something dreadful happened. The back of Kit's hair ceased to be curly. His ringlets flattened and all of a sudden I was faced with a mass of unevenly cut hair which I had no idea how to deal with. The last time I cut it, it really did look like I had done it with a bowl stuck over his head. Hairdressing confidence blown I caved in and this weekend Kit had his first trip to the barbers.

Now I have a long-rooted hate of hairdressers (I've obviously never encountered a barber previously to have known if this was extended their way, although I'm not a fan of Sweeney Todd!). Whenever I go to the hairdressers (which isn't very often) I always ask them to keep as much of the length as possible. I always come out with practically a bob! It seems that something is lost in translation. It seems that something also applies to barbers.

I took Kit to the barber and I said 'Keep it fairly long, I just want it tidied up a bit'. This is what happened.

Before

After

Now I'm not distraught. It's hair, it will grow back. He doesn't care (although he is a bit chilly!). My main problem (despite the fact it is so clearly not what I asked for) is that Kit has a double crown. Now he has a pretty much bald patch on the back of his head, and this interesting quiff...

Now the only reason I didn't cut it myself was because I was scared I'd do something that would make it look bad, instead I paid someone else £9 to do that for me (and yes they charged me £9!!). There's a reason that I wanted to keep it quite long! At least I won't have to cut his hair for a while!

Museum of Docklands

Last year we shared our trip to the Museum of Docklands, and Kit's education in becoming a pirate. We headed back there this weekend dragging Kit's Dad, in search of Dragons, there were rumours of Chinese New Year celebrations.

There were New Year stories in the galleries and painting in the basement, but unfortunately there were no actual dragons stalking the museum. I think the painting was probably exciting enough for Kit though!

We also made the most of the soft-play area. This was the first time we had been where Kit was happy and capable to get around the whole thing by himself, so it was lovely to be able to sit back and watch him running around and climbing for a bit. He also really got into the water play (soaking his Dad in the process), and he enjoyed building London and working the docks.

We didn't spend so much time in the galleries this time, and for some reason Kit was too scared hang around in the 'Sailor Town' section where you can pretend to go to the pub etc (something I obviously want to encourage my toddler to do), I'm guessing he didn't like the dark. It did take a little bit of persuasion to get Kit to not want to go and hang himself in the gallows, the previous trip obviously converted him to the joys of piracy!



Horniman Museum

This weekend, despite having made our flat a nicer place to be, we were picking up from our previous programme of spending very little time there. The difference was that we weren't in such a hurry to get out and that we did hurry back when we were finished. We started the weekend at the Horniman Museum. If you live in London or in travelling distance whether you have a kid or not we highly recommend the Horniman. If you like fish, music, cultures, taxidermy or gardens then you'll enjoy it. You can understand why Kit was this excited to go!

Who wouldn't love looking at a real-life (although dead) walrus, stroking a dead fox and hedgehog, drawing dead squirrels and mice, looking at scary masks and carvings, playing the drums (and many other instruments - Kit just likes drums best), watching fishes and frogs and jellyfish swimming about, and running around lots.

What's not to enjoy. :)

Silent Sunday

Extreme Knitting

Being an impatient person I love crafts which you can finish in an evening or two. When we were at the Knitting and Stitching Show a few years back we saw a lady who was doing 'extreme knitting' with giant knitting needle, I loved the idea. My lovely Mum bought me some giant knitting needles last year from this lovely lady. I've been desperate to use them. I've collected up lots of reels of machine knitting wool from charity shops ready (I think my Mum said she recommended at least 12 more like 24 strands - that's a lot of wool!).

I gathered enough wool, but then I had no space to knit! Now I've cleared some space I thought that I would have my first attempt. Being that I hadn't tried it before I wasn't sure how many stitches I would need, or how it would turn out, I picked a bunch of 12 reels and cast on 15 stitches and I knitted.

It worked out that 15 stitches was a good width for a placemat so I kept knitting until I had a good length and then I cast off. Now I have a lovely new placemat for my dining table.

I'm going to do a much larger version with some more strands as a rug for the lounge, I just have to choose the colours. Maybe I should make myself some dinner first though!

There's no place like home.

I'm back.

So I've pretty much done it. I'm on the search for a secondhand dresser for my lounge so I have a horrid little area where there is a pile of things that would be hiding in my dressers drawers, I could also do with organising some of my craft supplies a bit, but apart from that everything is rearranged and de-cluttered. I've even added another room! :)

I thought, to make up for the lack of posts in so far this year I would share with you some of the favourite bit of my newly arranged flat. Despite the de-cluttering it is still fairly cluttered! Small space + hoarder = mess!!

1.2.

3.4.

5.6.

7.8.

9.

1. Hallway from lounge door (I added lots of hooks and a coat hanger, so that bags and coats have a home too).
2. Shoe and welly rack, so the muddy wellies no longer live in the bathroom and I know where Kit's shoes are in the morning! The blue box is now a bench to a table next to in, nestled into an alcove opposite the front door which is now our 'dining room' (also to be used as a sewing table!).
3. New kitchen cupboard on wheels. We have a very small kitchen and cupboard space and worksurface was somewhat lacking. Now we have some more space and it is much nicer to cook in.
4. I put a battery in one of the clocks. The picture in the frame is of my late Nan.
5. Suitcases, one given kindly by a family friend, the other two skipped! These contain my machine knitting wool collection, which I'll explain in a post next week.
6. My lovely thrifted red chair (which did have a pile of random stuff on it) and part of my wool collection!
7. View of my sewing machine and Banksy print in the mirror, there still isn't room to sew in my bedroom but the sewing machines like to be near the material stash!
8. Buttons. And a thrifted dolls house shelf full of charity shop find crafty bits.
9. All my craft magazines and books, and some other magazines.

And this is Kit's favourite new part.

A small peak at his new arts and craft area in the lounge, now that his little table isn't the dining room table anymore he has it all for drawing and painting and generally making a mess.

So there you go, a glimpse into the home of Kit and I are making. There are still lots of things, decoratively, I'd like to do, but furniture arranging-wise we are pretty sorted. I will save the tour of Kit's room for another day as there are a few bits I want to make to finish decorating it first.

Harry Potter and the Lego Christmas Tree

In my delayed posting I haven't had a chance to mention our trip to Kings Cross St Pancras to see the Lego Christmas tree. Amazing as it was I was a bit disappointed that the trees decorations were only lego baubles, I was hoping for some reindeer and Father Christmas'! It was pretty incredible seeing all the pieces of Lego having created something so large, and to top it off there was a lifesize lego man in the Hamleys shop there which we liked.

We went on the last day it was there, which was the New Year bank hol day before the schools went back. Given that term was nearly starting we thought that we'd also pop over to mainline Kings Cross station to try our luck on platform 9 and 3/4s. Thankfully there was a sign up to direct us and everything. Unfortunately the person before us had got through but their trolley was stuck. I still think that is what prevented us getting through to catch the train to Hogwarts!

Happy New Year (a little bit late, sorry).

I've been on a bit longer blog holiday than I had originally intended. I've been distracted trying to reorganise my flat to make it bigger. My attempts to walk through the backs of wardrobes have been unsuccessful (apparently no magical worlds exist in this area) so I'm having to resort to figuring out how to rearrange furniture and de-cluttering to create better use of what little space there is! I'm on a bit of a mission so I'm afraid my online time is suffering until I've finished.
We had a nice Christmas, Kit was ill from Christmas Eve onwards, although he held it together to play on his balance bike along the beach on Christmas morning, he didn't eat much of the Christmas feasts and he was well and truely sick by boxing day. Horrid as it was to have a poorly little boy while he should have been playing it was nice to have lots of cuddles and it did give me a chance to have a rest so hopefully I'm starting this year slightly less worn out than I ended the last. We were spoilt staying at my parents and Kit got lots of presents, so part of the flat makeover has included putting up a shelf in his room!

I think because he wasn't feeling very well at actual Christmas Kit is still celebrating the festivities. If you meet him in the street he'll wish you Merry Christmas, or sing you Jingle Bells. He could have Christmas 'all day long' everyday.