What Have We Been Up To...

I have not posted on here in a while, and I should be more regularly as I am also using this as a log for myself to look back upon Osrid Olov's progresses in life. Things, however, have been so busy!

This little guy is walking now; REALLY walking, and it's getting so hard to keep up with him. Just now he is running around the living room and kitchen in front of us-it is fascinating watching him run around.

He has a wonky leg, which I am a bit worried about-he walks sideways often and lifts the leg out to the side. This is the leg that got lodged up in me during late pregnancy and broke 2 of my ribs (1 of which is dislocated still). I want to take him to a chiropractor but, aside from the fact that we have no money; there are none anywhere near us or any of the out of town bus stops for that matter. Poor little 'Sriddle.

We have been trying play with him in his playroom for some time every day now that it is all made up-he goes nuts and wants to run and stomp everywhere. He is finally using his toy lawnmower toy in it's intended purpouse (standing up and pushing it around). Soooo cute. He brings me little books to read but is not very interested in books right now so I only get through a few pages of the stories at a time and he is wanting to do something else already. I am not worried about this though, I am sure his attention span will grow with time.

I try to take him outside as much as I can but we don't even have proper shoes for him yet so it is hard as he is getting very heavy (20 lbs of kid now). He will get some soon though, I think ;) I just hope he does OK with walking when we go outside as he has been going through a phase now of getting very upset a lot of the time that I am not holding him on my hip (and no-one else will do, only Mummy...sometimes taking a bathroom break can get rough, but I am never gone for more than a minute-nor do I want to be).

And that's the news...I love my little 'Sriddle Kiddle.

My Little Guy is 1!

I cannot believe it-officially a toddler.
We had a lovely day yesterday. Osrid Olov opened presents-he got so much stuff! A new outfit, new cloth nappies, a DJ station toy (he is REALLY into making music) with like 80 gazillion sound effects, a cuddly colourful spider with a mirror on the belly, new slippers, and a swim spider (octopus) that he picked out at a shoppe window from Mum & Dad, Grandparents on Dad's side gave him a wooden Xylophone (more music stuff, cool!) and toy cars, uncle Matthew got him a stacking animal toy set, Grandad on my side sent some $ (which no doubt he will blow at the casino when we are asleep), and great grandparents on my side seem to have sent a bit of that too-and we also got some nice cards from everyone. Thanks everybody!

It was raining, as it always seems to in North Cornwall (seriously. EVERY. DAY.), so instead of going to the Newquay aquarium like we had planned we decided to just bundle O.O. up and take him for a walk downtown. It is the first time we have been down there because it is a little bit of a walk away, but it is quite nice. Lots of ships on the quay. The people are very friendly here, which is nice. We all got quite winded at the end of the walk but fortunately some nice people at a seafood restaurant (ironic) called a cab for us.

We did a hand and foot print of Osrid's with carob powder and water-I forgot to buy paint but it is just as well, less of a carbon footprint this way I suppose. Totally nontoxic and Ozzie liked making a mess with it.

I can't help being a bit emotional...it is hard for a mother watching her babe grow. I sort of wish he could stay small forever, he is so sweet and cute and special. <3 Aww, my little boy! Just don't grow up too fast...

Step, step, step!

Our sweet little boy has taken his first step on Monday! Just one, and then stood for a moment before tumbling on his bum-so cute-and did this once more that day, then another on Tuesday. How cool! We are so excited for him. We have also got him his first pairs of big boy training pants since he is getting so good at tinkling at his potty. We've had some accidents but we're all learning, and I am sure we will get the hang of it soon. They're washable, so who cares :) I'm so proud of my sweet guy. Growing up so fast!

Hello, Padstow ~ Goodbye, Looe

We have a new home!

We've relocated to Padstow, Cornwall. A sudden move, yes-but the Cornish Council decided to house us and we weren't exactly going to say no!
We have a gorgeous 2 story, 2br/2ba house with a teeny tiny backyard that has 2 sheds (one of which is reserved to be a fort...yes, a fort.
We have converted the downstairs living room into our bedroom because we like the open-ness, and we are going to create an "imagination room" which will one day be Osrid Olov's room when he decides he is ready for his own bedroom. This will be the YES room-we plan to have nothing in there that's dangerous to play near (I.E. television wires) but only toys and games and everything that CAN be done and played with and imagined. We just have to get this place carpeted...I can't believe they didn't do that for us. D'oh. Oh well, though...it is quite lovely here (minus a few chavs). We're very close to the Tesco's too. We've gone 100% vegan, and for the first time in over 4 years I am starting to feel better...I feel full of life! I've been walking every day and cooking my own food...mostly raw, as well-I'm indexing my recipes, which you can find here. Tonight we had raw creamy corn chowder & cookies. Yummy. Osrid is doing great, he is standing up all on his own now; and...my little boy is having his first birthday in two weeks! He is nearing the end of infancy...onward to toddlerhood. Oh my!

A Spot Of Tea & A Foot Detox?

We spent a lovely evening over at the Althouse-Heale's. We drank lots of ginger & lime tea and visited with Steph, Tom, Anne, and Finnley when he could poke his head out-and I got my feet detoxed. Ooooh, what a treat that is! Osrid loves being in my lap when I have it done, too-he gets very happy and cuddly and playful. I think he must be sensitive to the vibrations from the footbath coming through my body and he must enjoy them. It has been far too long since I had that done-I wish I could do it every day.

Tom and O.O. really had a blast playing together-Tom brought out his drumsticks and they made some fun beats together. Osrid Olov also got to have a 'swordfight' with everyone there (as well as make me a bit nervous of being bashed in the eye, ;P) I think everyone had a lot of fun seeing O.O., but especially Tom (some paternal instincts coming out, perhaps? :)) who was so kind as to let him play with his toys and even let him keep a little red car that he likes ever so much.

I also had some great conversations! For instance, talking to the lovely Anne about one of my all time favourite subjects, SPIDERS. Also, learning that Tom, Max (his & Finn's brother, who was not present) and Finn grew up vaccine-free. If you know me, you know how strongly against vaccines I am. As they seem to be some of the healthiest people I know, this makes me very happy. It also absolutely tickled me when we were discussing various aspects of parenting ---I'm not exactly sure how this came up, but Anne and Tom were asking Paul & I about various things about what it is like ect and somehow I came onto the subject of disciplining and how we don't even use time-outs beca-"what are time outs?" "yeah, what are time-outs?" Neither of them had ever heard of them! When I explained (using such things as being sent to ones room and put on a naughty step I.E. supernanny shows), they agreed they sounded horrible and can't see why people would do that to their children (it only makes them lash out more, anyway). It makes me happy to talk about gentle parenting practices even to people who arent' parents yet-it gives me hope yet for others to come. :)

I can't believe all this junk was in my body!!!!!!! Yuck!

Bink And Plue, Mum!

The most adorable things have been chiming out of this sweet little boys' mouth...he is now saying "Mum" "Mommy" "Mama" ect. to me/when he wants me as much as he is saying "Dad" "Daddy" "Dadda" to/about his old man. Also, he repeated "Bink and Plue"----the names of our spiders, Pink and Blue!
Cuuuuuuuuuuuuuuute!

Oh, books!

Sweet little O.O....
yesterday Paul was going through some things in the room and he plonked a few of O.O.'s hardback storybooks down on the bed. The excitement! He was in my lap and I was playing with him and half-arsedly reading something on my laptop-but immediately he wanted to grab for all of them. I shut down the laptop to read with him but he could not figure out which one he wanted first and ended up drumming on half of them before he decided. I truly think he may be bound to be a drummer, mm hmm!

We ended up reading some counting/picture book with a 3-D caterpillar in it, a Thomas the Tank Engine book with a button that made puffing noises-which O.O. pushed at every opportunity-and about half of The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle, which Osrid was more interested at looking at the cover of.

...and everything has been going quite well with him in general, I would say. He's such a happy, playful, chattery little guy, and we are the two luckiest parents in the world (of course we would think so, but come on! Just look at the little fella :)).