New fencing

Not sure I can call this refreshing. Cold, more like. My parents and Steve have kept working all day today and the garden is now almost fully fenced in - a refreshing change, given the last 6 weeks!

Ben is 3 years, 14 weeks and 5 days old;
Charley is 10 weeks old today.

Baby went to bed snotty last night, woke in the wee small hours with a scream (I've not heard him scream before). Boy went to bed as a bee, and woke up with a croupy cough - I don't think the two are related. I woke up bunged up, headachey and with a sore throat. What joy.

Had a bit of a panic last night when Steve started taking floorboards up at 11.30pm and poking around with his multimeter. Then the whole front of the boiler got taken off!! Thankfully we still have hot water and central heating, just the switch to select between off/on/timer is broken so it's (thankfully) become stuck on timer. This we can deal with!

Mum, Dad and Steve have continued working super-hard. Ben's ceiling is done, and all bar one of the fence panels are up now. They've been outdoors most of the day in minus temperatures, slogging away.

It's frustrating being Her Indoors. Ben has been a bee ALL day (ie not dressed for outdoors and not willing to change either) and Charley has been spitting up milk quite a bit thanks to his cold so I've not been able to go out. I am stuck inside with the boys and trying not to be resentful. We did make playdough together though, and Ben spent a happy half hour playing with it and another half hour cleaning the worktop!! I also dumped a pukey baby on Grandad for a bit before tea so I could change my clothes after a particularly impressive spit-up, and managed to put a tubful of Charley's clothes away at last while I had chance. Little at a time. I'll get there.

Mum and Dad have gone home now. Not really seen a great deal of them to be honest as they've always been occupied, but the house has come on in leaps and bounds again as it always does with a mini work party. Mum says she's enjoyed herself (she got to use the wrecking bar today!) and Dad says the same - it's heartening to see progress as opposed to working and working and working and not seeing any visible improvement. Going to miss them, wish things could hurry up and we could get all our stuff sorted and out of storage from their house and then start putting a little more pressure on them to move a little (ok a lot) closer!

Funny combination of feelings today. Tired. Out of routine. Fed up of being stuck inside while everyone else gets to smack stakes into the ground and get some fresh air. Grateful. Bored. Very grateful.

Ah well. Maybe I'll wrap Charley up after Ben has gone to sleep and pretend I'm out painting pottery and eating puddings....

I'm glad it's been Friday but I'm astonished at how quickly this week has flown by!


Edit.... no photography hence the fence picture remains. Managed to learn a bokeh trick last month without too much trouble, but splash shots need a little bit more thought and setting up!!