Artistic Temperament

Now Baby Muddle has stopped eating every wax crayon in sight, she's starting to turn into a bit of an artist. The above was from last weekend. I drew a smiley face and let her colour it in...which she actually did pretty well, and in different colours too!

However, like every good artist, there is a dark side. When I tried to put the crayons that weren't being used back into their pot all hell broke loose! A proper, full on, body-rigid, vein-in-neck-pulsing, screamy-shouty tantrum. She's going to be an interesting one! 

Yup, Its Official!

There's another wee Muddle on the way! I had my scan last week and I am now 14 weeks pregnant, and firmly in the "blooming" (yeah, right) second trimester.

I have to admit that we were not particularly 'planning' a third baby. However having said that, both Big Muddle and Baby Muddle were surprise additions, so we have pretty bad form when it comes to family "planning", haha.

So far, compared to the girls, this has actually been a pretty easy pregnancy. I've had a little nausea, but nowhere near the total food aversion (bar Coco Pops and Haribo!) that I've had previously. The difficult thing was being in early pregnancy over Christmas. This meant we had to 'fess up to pretty much anyone we were going to see, which made the first scan very, very nerve wracking indeed. You know how sometimes you don't realise how stressed you are until you feel the pressure lift off you? Yep, that's how I felt seeing the flicker in the chest of the wriggly baby on that screen.

We've already had to make some space for the baby. Baby Muddle has moved in with her sister, a change which is going remarkably well in fairness. Its been about three weeks so far, but I think we are all sleeping a lot better, which is great, and she's needing less and less settling through the night as the time passes. I think sharing with her beloved big sister has been the key, she's always been her most favourite person.

I'm really looking forward to being able to blog these next six months, as a nice keepsake of what will, definitely, be my last pregnancy. I hope to not bore you too much!

Silent Sunday

My New Craft Room

We've had a bit of a New Year move around here at Chez Muddle. We have a three bedroom house with the main bedroom (ours) being a loft conversion. Up until this weekend Baby Muddle was up there with us, with Big Muddle in the smallest, but still double-ish size, bedroom. The front bedroom was a craft room/playroom/guest room (sofa bed). What this meant, in practice, was a massive dumping ground which never, ever got around to getting tidied, let alone properly sorted.

We decided that when the time came for Baby Muddle to edge ever so slightly further from us that the girls would share, and spent a while debating which bedroom this would happen in. Eventually we decided that it'd be the larger bedroom, with this doubling as a play space too.

This left the smaller bedroom as craft room with sofa bed. Much better! The big change around was done on New Years Day (what better use of the day when you're thoroughly sleep-deprived?) but obviously the girls' room was sorted first, leaving the craft room until this weekend. Its still not perfect, and I desperately need to find a big focal artwork for the main wall, but at least my craft space is sorted, and I have a clear desk!

Christmas / Birthday Pic Spam!

Christmas!

Big Muddle's Big Birthday

Big Muddle's Birthday Bash

9.51am Four Years Ago...

...my life was changed forever as Big Muddle entered the world and took her first breath.

Today she inspires me with her boundless joy, amuses me with her endless wit and makes me amazed at my own capacity to love another person so much.

Happy birthday, my beautiful firstborn girl.

Christmas Food!

As Abel & Cole delivered all our yummy food before we were even up this morning (!) I'm knee-deep in food prep for the big day!

Tonight we'll be having a big fish pie before Nana Muddle, Big Muddle and I go to the candlelight carol service. I've always done a 'one-pot' dinner for Christmas Eve and used to do lasagne, but last two years I've done fish pie and it always goes well.

Tomorrow breakfast we'll have sausages, grilled tomatoes and eggy bread, made with ciabatta slices and duck eggs (nom!) to keep us going in the long morning slog!

Then the main event is prawn, pomegranate and grapefruit salad (from this year's Christmas Good Food mag) followed by:

• Turkey with lemon & sage butter (buttered today)
• Pigs in blankets
• Sausage, cranberry & lemon stuffing balls (prepared today)
• Brussel sprouts gratin (I don't like sprouts, but eat loads of this!)
• Honey roast carrots & parsnips
• Mulled red cabbage (cooked today)
• Cranberry & bread sauces
• Gravy made with stock from giblets (made in slow cooker today)

I've bought a ready-made roulade for pud, as I'm not a big pudding fan anyway, I'd rather have at the cheese board! As you can see, the menu contains many components that can be prepped beforehand (red cabbage in particular can be made up to a month in advance and frozen) leaving me free to enjoy plenty of the day with the kids!

Nibbles for the evening if/when we get hungry will be mini pies (from the Co-op's very impressive Christmas range) and these Baked Stilton Mushrooms! 

I'd like to wish all of you a very happy Christmas, and a healthy and prosperous 2013!