Concentration

Something clicked for Charley today. It's taken a week, but today he cracked the walking thing and has been cockily toddling the length of the kitchen, alternately beaming from ear to ear and grinning cheekily! Absolute joy to see how pleased he is with himself. He's been practising every chance he gets, and as a result his brain was wired this evening and he's only just at 11pm fallen asleep.

Ben got this piggy bank for his birthday and has been begging to paint it, so today while Steve was cooking dinner we got it out. (It had already been out once, and suffered at the hands of Charley - I got an urgent text while I was at the supermarket to buy superglue...) Absolutely amazed at Ben's concentration, he sat at the table and painted this pig, all by himself! He even gave it eyes! I don't think I've ever seen him concentrate this hard before! Well, not recently, anyway! AND what's more, he didn't just cover it in blue paint. I'm so impressed. I guess maybe paint is his thing, as opposed to pens or crayons.

I baked the layers for my birthday cake today, the recipe I used for Ben's cake is most definitely a keeper!! It's kind of a birthday treat to myself, to bake and decorate my own cake the way I want it rather than for Steve or either of the boys. Want to get the icing mixed tonight so I can assemble it and start covering it before it dries out. After finishing catching up with Strictly...

Oh and something else. My cold developed into a nasty cough today (as they tend to do) so I thought I'd give a cough linctus recipe a go that I'd seen on pinterest a few weeks ago. 1/4tsp cayenne pepper, 1/4tsp ginger (incredibly I have no ground ginger in the house so I put some candied ginger through a garlic press instead), 1tbsp apple cider vinegar, 2tbsp water, 1tbsp honey. Mix it up in a little jar, shake well before each use; take 1 tbsp as needed.

But blimey. I was not expecting how gorgeous a shot of that was going to be!! Hot and spicy and fruity and sweet. GAWjus! Will have to update on how effective (or not) it is another day but to be honest I don't care if it IS psychosomatic, it's gorgeous!