Had another visit from the Patch of Puddles which was lovely. Though sadly Fran was not feeling very well and spent most of the time sitting, lying quietly which was a shame. But the rest of them all had a good time. This is a great house for having visitors, plenty of space inside and out for the kids to run about and play, plenty of space in side and out for the adults to sit and chat, drink tea, eat etc. 
Day was lovley and hot and sunny, autumn will soon be on it’s way, so need to make the best of these.
I was out getting supplies when they arrived, apparently there was an odd little time on first arrival as Stringbean and the puddlers settled in with each other -SB not wanting to join in and play with them, which happened before, resolved by bringing out some new bits of Brio type train track . Not sure wat that is about exactly but by the time I arrived they were off and playing., flitted in and out of the house, playing upstairs, on the climbing frame, riding scooter, bikes etc. Didn’t really notice exactly what they were doing but they all seemed to be happy most of the time. Evidence of playing with old Cindy dolls on the landing, snippets of the typical ‘Do you want to be the baby, I’ll be mummy’ type conversations, and lost of running around, clambering about, whilst adults chatted and gossiped.
Had nice lunch, cooked the kids some pasta – mostly becuase we know they will all eat it, and it’s quick,. Served it to them on a table down the end of the garden well out of earshot 
Then did a pitta bread, hoummus, olives, salad, corn-on-cob type thing for the adults, plus the kids to eat bits of as they saw fit Sat muncing on this under the gazebo on the lawn whilst children swirled around us back and forth.
It’s great watching them all playing together, SB and Maddy in particular seem to get on well (nearest in ages of course). BB and Josie did the sitting, squirming (BB) and crawling (Josie) baby thing happily all day. We do feel that SB maybe misses out on playing with other kids a bit. In Leeds she had a circle of he friends from Helen’s ante-natal group that often met up most weeks,and tots club (with many of the same) etc.. We’ve not really managed to make any suitable contacts yet in the village, we did attend a few group things in the village, but moslty it was younger kids attending (not that SB seemed to mind), presumably the older ones were at nursey, playgroup etc. and of course lots will be going to school very soon. She doesn’t seem obviosluly bothered by this, but maybe she is too young to think about it. But she does love children visiting her,and when we go to the playground, she always likes it when ther are other cildren around who she can play with. And as a dad (since I’ve done most of it of course), it does seem a bit harder to link into the mum’s network sort of thing that groows aup aroubnd the variosu baby/toddler activities.We’ll see how things go I guess.
Anyway, we all decided to try and make the effort to get togther a bit more often. Will hopefully make the Peterborough Puddlers meeting on Friday
I would include some piccies , but of course H has gobbled up our flickr upload allowance for this month. So it will have to wait until tomorrow. She has only got a slighty twitchy mouse finger….
helen edit: it was a lovely day – sorry if i seemed vague at times, but getting too old for 24 hour shifts. SB had bee really excited by puddlers coming, but also very clingy when I got home – she really hates my 24 hour shifts, and wants to do everything with me the next day, which is lovely but I’m usually knackered.
Before the puddlers arrived, we talked about what she had done yesterday, read some of my history of england for children ebay purchase books [lovely!] – for once we read modern history, so first and second world wars, and related them directly to family members, which she grasped. Also discussed a bit why wars might happen. there was a cartoon piccie towards end of margaret thatcher and all SB could think about was what a fat head she had got – i think a bit of a lack of appreciation of artistic licence!
we did some more patterning with the connect 4, but the real business was trying on the rollerskates I got from the friends shop for ?1. these are the bees knees as far as she is concerned, and she skated all over the playroom, the corridors and outside. Only one egg on her forehead, and otherwise getting the knack – did have to put my foot down about wearing them on the climbing frame – particularly when the puddlers were here ‘but maddy said I could go down the slide fast’…..hmm!!!!
Chris has covered the puddlers – which was lovely, thanks for visiting. Need to contact Karen O in Northants too. [if you're reading....] We are hoping to catch 2 red boots next week when in somerset/devon camping [venue TBA!], and hopefully firming up a few open house visitors, so that’s good.
When puddlers left, a long cuddle, as SB very sad to see them go – so after a shaky start… next time must sort out icebreaker activity. May go to Merry’s next so she doesn’t have to do the trek. if Chris not working and avail to drive that would be fine – i just worry about driving long distances if been up hald the night. From october though, hopefully, it will be less likely to happen due to rota changes. Poor Merry had some maniac driver behind her on way here though.
Anyway, long cuddle and then SB did me lots of flowers with her spirograph, carefully writing hers and my names beside them as we love each other. She is just adorable. Since I had crashing migraine [combination of approaching storm, no sleep and stress] I was slightly out of it, but hopefully managed to get across how lovely it was. The I did crash and chris has done whole bedtime thing – i didn’t even feed BB [though I did lots in the day]
Massive storm – so migraine eased off, but still very muggy. really lovely and long phone call from a uni mate of mine, who we are also meeting up with next week. She is SB and BB’s godmother.
