Bedtime whispers

Buster is starting to give up his daytime sleep.  I'm not too happy about it.  The time he is asleep is some time to myself.  I knew this day would come soon, but I'm still not ready for it.  Most days he doesn't have his afternoon nap, but every other day I try to enforce it because he does struggle in the late afternoon.  He quite often falls asleep in the car on the way to picking up Henry and Milly from school and preschool.  He can be chatting away in his car seat and then the next thing I know there is a little head slumped forward, and some deep breathing can be heard, and what do you know he's fast asleep.  Sometimes he'll fall asleep watching TV.  All signs that he's probably still not ready to give up his daytime nap.
So we are now in that transition period, where he needs an afternoon nap but doesn't want one.  And when he does have his afternoon nap, he's up until after 9.00pm at night.

We are also contemplating getting him a 'big bed'.  He can climb out of his cot and has no interest in sleeping in it.  His afternoon naps are in our bed, and at night he quite often trys to climb into bed with Henry or Milly.  A couple of times we have put him to bed in his cot and gone to check on him and found him asleep on Henry's bed.  Well maybe it's not so much about him disliking his cot but more about him wanting to be snuggled up to someone in bed.  He does love a snuggle.

But it's his bedtime whispers that we love the most.  Whether he's in his cot or in our arms he loves to finish the night with telling us something.  Most bedtime whispers go like this.

Me:  Nigh nighs Boo.  I love you.

Buster:  I love you too mama.  I love you and Daddy.  I love you and Daddy and Ready (that's Buster's name for Henry) and Milly.

Me:  We all love you too.  Sweet dreams.

Buster:  I love chocolate.  I love two chocolates.  I love books.  I love cake.  I love pink cake.

....and on he goes to list everything he loves....... all in a whisper.

Things Milly says #3

This afternoon Milly and I were baking in the kitchen together.  She likes to help and learn so I was showing her how to fold egg whites into a lemon mixture that was going to be a lemon delicious pudding.  When it came to her turn to do it the conversation went like this.

Me:  That's it Milly, you're doing a good job.
Milly:  Am I doing it right?
Me:  Yep, you're doing great.
Milly:  Do you wish you could do it as good as me?

She is a FIGJAM in the making.  If you don't know what a FIGJAM is, you'll have to Google it.

Keeping warm

Winter is here.  That means jumpers, beanies, scarves, thermals, hot water bottles, flannelette sheets on the bed, and lots of hot chocolates.  When the cold weather hits on a weekend we like to fire up the chiminea, toast some marshmallows and sit around keeping our feet warm.  Our house is surrounded by gum trees, so it's also a good opportunity to burn off all the branches and twigs that fall around the yard.