Beautiful girls

I just had to show off this beautiful picture that Damien took at the Botanical Gardens on Sunday. How gorgeous are these girls? They all then sat with their toes in the water and splashed. Hannah had way-too-much-fun, got drenched and stopped passers-by with her baby giggles.

The other picture explains Leilas new look (?layered?). Don't trust 4 year olds with scissors apparently. Bethany put blue tack up her nose the same day, and last week Hannah decided that she should put my mobile phone in a cup of water she found under a seat at the chapel.
They are still gorgeous girls though.

House of plague

Well, in the past few weeks we have had more health trouble than in the last 12 months!
Gastroenteritis started with Bethany and then went through everyone (except me). Leila was hit particularly hard, she hardly ate for 2 weeks, and dropped below 14kg. She's making up for it now though.
Damien took a week off work, so when I came down with mastitis I thought he'd be able to look after me. Not so, due to gastro. Unlucky!
To top it all off, just in case the photo didn't give it all away, we also had head lice. Oh the joy... In the photo, you can also see the fat lip Leila got from Beth recently.
At the tail end of all this we also had the girl's dance recital at the Theatre Royal. I wish I'd gotten some more photos, but it was a mad day of baby wrestling whilst trying to deal with rehearsals and crowded dressing rooms, with multiple costume changes and over-excited kids. They didn't finish and escape the theatre till nearly 11pm. Took us a week to recover!

A Burton Blog about unauthorised baby snatching

Hi all, This is from an e-mail Libby sent to Miriam. Miriam's adapted it for all to see:

How do you stop a Rhiannon from getting baby Jocelyn out of the cradle (usually while she's asleep)? Our floor is cement, Rhiannon is three, and Jocelyn is a floppy newborn...

No major injuries so far (but a few minor ones. thankfully Jocelyn didn't cry too much).
Once Rhiannon saw that I had seen her, and so she immediately dropped Jocelyn back in and then stepped back to protest her innocence (demonstrating her guilty feeling about her behaviour). When I got to the cradle, Jocelyn was lying cross ways in the cradle with her head wedged up against the bars at a 90 degree angle to her shoulders. Not happy.

1. First tactic... we had a serious talk about grown up jobs. This included Rhiannon insisting very loudly that Jocelyn is her baby, not mine... result? Total failure. Still picking up Jocelyn.
2. Second tactic...We made (thanks for the idea Miriam) a stop sign, complete with a happy face smiley, and a sad faced smiley (actually Libby, I put in a picture of a dragon and an angel and then actually threatened to breathe fire on Leila if she went into the nursury). We talked about stopping to think about if she was doing something that would make Mummy happy or sad. She can explain the process beautifully to visitors and to Daddy. Total failure, still getting Jocelyn out of bed.
3. Third tactic...I put up a mosquito net, to make a really clear line that Rhiannon should not cross. Total Failure. Still picking up Jocelyn.
4. Fourth... (Getting desperate) We bought Rhiannon her own life-sized newborn baby doll. (It is sharing Jocelyn's clothes and nappies) She has been named Ohfae, but we seem to be abbreviating that to Fae. Rhiannon has been feeding her baby while I feed mine. She changes nappies while I change nappies, although I'm insisting that her baby does pretend poos and wees, and doesn't need a new real nappy every change. Fae changes her clothes more regularly than Jocelyn does, but she uses the bath water after Jocelyn. Unfortunately Fae does not distract Rhiannon when she wants to cuddle my baby. It's a good tool to get my baby to myself, but as far as keeping Jocelyn in her own bed? Total failure, Still picking up Jocelyn.
5. *Fifth tactic...Now our room is completely dominated by our Baby Dan playpen/fireguard, a hexagonal, metal, tall playpen, with a gate Rhiannon can't operate. This has been used in the past as a fire guard, playpen and cubby house, but has found its' truest calling as a save-baby-from-siblings device!

We've kept the sign and the mozzie net up. We still find Rhiannon under the mozzie net, reaching through the bars of the playpen rocking Jocelyn. But so far she can't reach in enough to try and get Jocelyn out. 2 days with a safe baby! We'll keep our fingers crossed. Wish us luck!