Yesterday Alex had the highest temperature he has ever had, and the poor little boy spent most of yesterday evening really upset and not really calming down when we cuddled him. We did eventually get him to sleep, but his sleep was intermittent at best so he has spent much of today in bed because he fell asleep on the floor while playing this morning, and he has generally been happier in his bed than elsewhere. He is off his food and we have had a bit of a battle to keep his fluids topped up. It seems that he has this rather nasty fluey bug that is going round as his nose is very gooey. If it is anything like Tim and I have it is no wonder Alex has been so upset as this bug leaves you with very achy joints and head. I hope that he gets over it soon as I so hate seeing him like this.
Earlier in the week we played with some of his birthday toys including his new train track…he hasn’t yet fully grasped the idea of it! He thinks that the tracks are designed to hit against things to make a loud noise and finds it the greatest of fun to dismantle the track as fast as I can make it. He also loves chasing the tractor he was given across the floor when I push down on the little man to let it go, and to chase and grab ‘James the red Engine’ and pick it up and listen to the wheels go round (it is a wind up by pulling backwards train). All good fun.
Work has been horrible, partly because I feel so rotten and partly because I am so busy. I have 6 medical students who I am teaching lab work to and it takes hours! I will be glad when this week is over and I have less involvement in the process. At least I have been able to get some light relief in the evenings in the form of crafting. I made this layout to celebrate Alex’s budding creative side! This layout is entitled ‘Drawing’ and follows a sketch from Pencil lines and uses some of Alex’s own artwork in the circles and the two panels next to the photo. The journaling reads ‘Alex loves to sit on my lap and draw even if he doesn’t always hold the pen the right way up. His other favourite trick are hitting the desk with the pen and screwing up the paper he has been drawing on’.
I have also spent time this week making thank you cards on Alex’s behalf using photos of him on his birthday, some of his drawing and a rounded thank you stamp. I hope that people like them.
I have also made my three ATCs for the ‘distressed vintage swap’ on the CM&PC forum, which I enjoyed doing…not sure how ‘distressed’ they are though! I hope to catch up with some more scrapbooking later on this week when I have caught up with the letters and cards I need to write and send. More soon,Love,
Caro
x
The birthday boy with his first ever balloon.
Alex with Auntie Jenny
Alex (with a lot of help from me!) opened his cards and presents before lunch while being closely watched by everyone, especially his cousins who wanted to play with Alex’s new toys! Alex enjoyed his cards as much as his presents and it was hard to persuade him to let go of the first card to open the next one.
The three boys enjoyed bouncing round the sitting room on the cushions and clambering through the coloured tunnel…Alex thought this was wonderful and went through it with huge amounts of giggles and smiles, so I think that we will have to get him one for home.
Tom with Grandpa, trying to balance on the cushions
Sam crawling through the tunnel
Alex takes his turn...
...while Uncle Ben decides to wear it instead!
We all sang Happy Birthday with the traditional candle lit on the Birthday cake. Alex grinned like mad and kept trying to grab the cake with his fingers.
I did give him a bit of chocolate cake, but by that stage he wasn’t very hungry and just made a HUGE amount of mess with it. 
After lunch we relaxed in the sitting room
while the boys played with different toys, including all three of them having a go on the piano.
Alex played with some of his new toys while Tom and Sam played with their aquadraw mat and the rest of us watched the Grand National…no-ones horse won! 
Sadly Alex slipped and bumped his head and scratched himself on the face on the way down, so although he recovered fairly quickly from the fall he is currently sporting war wounds as shown in the final photos of the day.
Granny and Grandpa Pete with their three grandchildren.
As a result I took today off to try and recover and to spend some time with Alex having barely seen him yesterday. Alex and I have had a great day with him crawling round the kitchen and dining room and generally getting into trouble while I cooked his birthday cake and the food for his party this weekend. I can’t believe that he is going to be one already…the time has gone so fast. Thinking about how much he has developed and grown is amazing…he has now learnt to drink by himself from a beaker, and is very good at it, although he also likes to spray himself and us with the water too!
This afternoon we went out to the park and had a great time on the swings, slide and climbing frame…the tube is still a firm favourite which had me running round from one end to the other to make sure he didn’t try and go down the steps or slide by himself. Alex has also had his first ever shower (with his Dad) which he seemed to enjoy judging by the giggles and smiles.
I have managed to do a little crafting over this week and have finally managed to finish the Alphabet swap. W is for wine, X is for X-ray, Y is for Yo-Yo and Z is for Zoo have completed the set. They all use a mixture of images from the web and peeloffs and stickers to create the effect, with the majority of them having a raised element using foam sticky pads.
I have also made Alex’s birthday card…his nickname is ‘little monster’ for many reasons, especially the wonderful growls that he makes and so I wanted to make him a card to reflect that, and thought that the Monsters Inc character was appropriate. I layered the image on some Nana’s kids card and then printed out the message and added the balloon embellishments.
Today Alex spent time drawing whilst sat on my lap (with me trying to prevent him from drawing on my desk!). He loves having a go when he is in the right mood, although his first experiment with stickers wasn’t quite as successful…they stuck to him and me, and it took a lot to get them to stick to the paper. All good fun. His artwork will be turned into a Birthday card for his Granny which I will show when I have the chance to do it.
This afternoon saw us heading out to the park where we met several friends, which was lovely. Alex wasn’t so keen on the swings today, but loved going down the slide and into the metal tube as this grin shows.
I have managed to do a little crafting as well which is nice. This scrapbook page is entitled ‘Bounce’ and is based on the fact that one of Alex’s favourite games is bouncing and then watching us bounce as well. This photo was taken last August when he was still quite little and the images and phrases of Tigger are from Sandylion paper. The orange springs are hand drawn onto the Bazzil cardstock. The journaling reads ‘Alex resembles Tigger in the fact that ever since he could support his head he has liked to bounce; in our arms, on our laps etc, which is why he loved his door bouncer’.
Finally I have made three Egyptian ATCs for the organised swap on the CM&PC forum. These all used stamps from the Tanda range, and a brayered butterscotch Adirondack ink background. The freeze was stamped in Adirondack Ginger and the central images in each case were stamped with StazOn black. I have never stamped onto metal before so was pleased with the royal vulture stamp. The gold cartouche was made by stamping into three layers of ‘metal magic’, and was a new technique to me, but one I am very pleased with. The final ATC does have a stamped verticle cartouche on it, but it hasn't come out in this picture sadly. I hope everyone else has had a nice weekend. More soon,