Beamsley Beacon revisited

We've been here before.  About a year ago.  The weather was much better today, although not quite as nice as it was when we got in the car to go out.

As well as the weather, Marisca's disposition was much sunnier.  From the road to the top of the beacon is a little more than half a mile, and she wouldn't stop chattering about how much she liked walking, how she could climb on the rocks, and how brilliant the hill was.  Tom had a good trip too, not a single whinge while he was in the back pack.

Looking forward to many more walks like this.

Tom at home

Quite often my posts have more of Marisca in that of Thomas.  Usually I take my camera when we're out and about, and being winter, it can mean that we end up with many more pictures of the girl.  So I decided to get my camera out at home today.

Tom is lots of fun at the moment.  He's really interested in things - putting in and pulling out of others things; things with wheels; things which stack.  He's just had his walking switch flicked this week - although he's faster crawling, for the past few days he's walking everywhere.  I realise I didn't take any pictures of this, so you'll have to trust me on it.

Tom also loves to copy.  He's picking up words from his sister, which is lovely.  In particular he'll roar at any picture of a scary animal - lions, gruffaloes, etc.  Also the rabbit in 'Hide and Seek Pig' (currently his favourite book).  And that roaring is super-cute when accompanied by a scary mask.

And here's one from our visit to friends, with a whole different kitchen to play with.

Finally - I didn't have anywhere to put this picture so it can be tagged on the end here.  Both children are loving their cereal at the moment and, as long as you're ready to refill, breakfast time is quite a peaceful time at the moment.

Hoovering

I was going to call this post 'growing up', until I realised that this is what the whole blog is really about.  So instead I went all literal and called it hoovering.  Because this is about hoovering.  Or dysoning, or whatever Marisca's children will call it once Hoovers have all gone and everyone starts to wonder why we call it hoovering.

Marisca used to hate hoovering.  Not doing it herself - but anyone doing it near her.  She's never been a big fan of loud noises.  But the other day Elspeth was hoovering around Marisca and she asked to have a turn.  She kept at it for a good few minutes.  Along with the washing up and putting her toys away she's starting to become a useful person to have around the house.

It's been a while

Usually when we have a bit of a break on the blog it's because nothing much is going on.  I think this time it's just been a busy and tiring January, but we've definitely got stuff going on.

Thomas now walks.  Maybe 3 weeks ago he took his first steps, 5 of them all in one go, and grinned widely at us.  He's still only managing a few in a row, but now will happily stand around for a while before waddling over to find something new to play with.  It's great!

Marisca now reads.  It's constantly astounding that every few days her speed at reading new words, and more complex words, increases.  She seems to enjoy it too, when she finds a word she can't get (anything over 4 letters now) she happily tells us she'll sound it out, and comes up with a passable pronunciation.  Not too surprising, she's enjoyed books since before she was Tom's age.

And Elspeth and I are having fun too.  No new skills, although my running is improving, but we're getting a bit more sleep as Tom wakes less frequently in the night.  We even managed a night away for a friend's wedding.

Here we are enjoying the swings at Temple Newsam.

A first winter day

Today has felt like the first proper winter day.  Heavy frost on the car, beautiful crisp sunny morning.  We took ourselves southwards for a little walk around Blackmoorfoot reservoir with Stewart.

It's a great little place for a little person to go walking.  The first leg involved lots of little 'houses' amongst the rhododendron bushes and the acquisition of a few walking sticks.  The second leg, across the dam, involved a lot of icy puddles so that we could play at pushing stones across, bashing the ice with our walking sticks to let the air bubbles out, and picking up pieces of ice and dropping them to let them smash.  This leg also involved a couple of horses.  The third leg included a banana "to help me keep walking".  The final leg involved a lot of I Spy.  And we ended at a pub for a lovely Sunday lunch, where Marisca had a posh fish finger sandwich followed by ice cream.  We're so pleased that she had a lovely time and are planning more visits.

Tom, as ever, sat in the backpack quietly streaming from his nose, and had his fill of everyone else's lunch.

Family Christmas

All Christmasses are family Christmasses really, but this one seemed especially so.  We had a relatively quiet Christmas Day with just the four of us and Grandma and Grandpa, with some nice services where Marisca 'helped' out her grandparents who were preaching.  Both children enjoyed unwrapping, enjoyed the lunch (thanks Dad!) and enjoyed spending time with their grandparents.

Marisca showing off her stocking, in her Christmas pajamas (2nd Christmas so far for them, fingers crossed they'll stretch to next year).

Tom 'enjoying' his party hat. I only got a photo because, frankly, he's not great at taking off hats yet.

And Risky & Tom in their Christmas outfits - a dress and a shirt made by Elspeth, both looked fantastic.

Boxing Day saw the other side of the family, visiting Catriona, Ian & Alice in Moulton, along with Gran & Grandad.  We had a nice potter into the village to watch the traditional mummery.  Alice and Marisca had lots of fun together.

And of course Gran and Grandad enjoyed having all three grandchildren in the same room - if never quite in the same viewfinder!

And then finally on the next day we popped into Ollerton to see some more of my family on the way home.  That gave us the chance to get this photo of four generations of Mosedale men, and gave Tom the chance to get to grips with the kitten Zebedee...

Thank you to all of the hosts!

A happy new year

I've had such a lovely new year.  We had the Spencers visiting and getting up to all sorts of mischief, but my very favourite events were with my own little ones.

We had tea out at Murgatroyd's on New Year's Eve and it was just great having Tom tucking in on one side and Marisca trying to make a dent in an enormous pile of fish bites and chips on the other.  And then today we walked at Bolton Abbey, enjoying the 12 days of Christmas. It ended up being really wet and every got a bit cold, but on the way both children had plenty of giggles and Marisca was particularly great at playing in the '12 drummers drumming' spot.

What a lovely little family and what fun 2014 will be.