November 1st Revisited.

I wanted to do this post a day or two ago but since a couple of friends have had scares within their own pregnancies (which now seem to be just fine) I thought it wrong to post for now.

Meet my nephew Nelson.

Here is my son James on the very same day 3 years prior!

Anyone else see how similar these birthday sharing cousins look from their first photos?

I think the biggest difference between the young cousins is that having been born 18 days later (gestationally) and over 1lb in birth weight difference, Nelson looks a little more padded out. Even the proud daddy messaged us to say he thinks that his son looks just like James did as a baby. 

I get a feeling these cousins may go through life looking alot like each other and may even look more alike that James and Liam. They both definitely get the T family genes rather than my own and his mummys own genes.

I'm hoping that the boys grow up to be close and it's already crossed my mind to have a joint birthday for them both next year. Yes, I am getting very ahead of myself. And No, I haven't offered the thought to the other parents as yet.

So James birthday was a quiet affair. We went out for dinner the night before James birthday to a restaurant of James' choice. He opted for a traditional carvery and loved his roast dinner meal.

My boys love thier roast dinners and beneath those gigantic yorkshire puddings were piles of steamed veg. James also loves his gravy! They did very well eating (Liam ate the most) and followed thier meals with an ice cream with strawberry sauce. They did very very well.

On James actual birthday we got up as normal and James was greeted with the scene below.

He had a lot of his presents when grandparents visited. He had lots of Disney Cars items, a big car transporter and lots of cars and building bricks. My grandad sent money so we bougt him the trike and just about everything in the packaging is all Fireman Sam merchandise including the much anticipated deluxe fire station James has been wanting for a very long time for. With the old fire station and the shop, 3 fire engines and a fair few characters (pictured the the left) we pretty much have the whole village. He also got the helicopter rescue hut and something else. I've lost track. We have alot of Fireman Sam in our living room right now.

I only made a handful of cakes this time. James loves Smarties (same as m&m's) so I made some chocolate Smarties cupcakes.

They went down as well as I expected. For the birthday itself, we had a quiet day in playing with toys. We took the boys to the zoo as an early birthday treat in the summer. A trip to the zoo in November just isn't the same. James just loved the oppertunity to play with all his toys.

In the evening we treated the kids to a KFC meal as James loves the chicken fillets and returned home to unveil the birthday cake.

 

All the nboys had a go at blowing out the the candle and we all had a slice of the cake. We took 25 slices into James toddler group the next day.

Matthew was off school sick with vomiting. James and Liam were fine. James began vomitting around teatime (after his day at school - great!) and Liam had some really nasty nappies in the days that followed.

Now on Sunday, I think we are almost back to normal although James had been sick in bed last night, my poor boy. Matthew recovered quickly but was sick alot in a short period of time. He could not return to school until he had been free of illness for 48 hours so he's only been back at school 2 days this week.

James has just been sick like once a day since Wednesday but he is well in himself. In high spirits and eating and drinking fine.

I (touch wood) have avoided all the bugs and germies that have been floating round. It's part of a mothers mentality that we don't have time to be ill.

The rest of the week has been very relaxing. TOO relaxing. We finally got out of the house for a walk yesterday morning and I think the fresh air did all the boys a little good.

We're 6 days into November and thankfully the weather is still mild. We've not yet had to put on our heating. This is good for many reasons, mainly because the cost of energy rockets in our house in winter with at least 2 of us home at any time. The next few days are meant to be as good and remain in double figures oC for a good week or so. I would love a winter like this all the time and I may be wrong but I feel that winter will be less harsh this year than it has been for a couple of years. I am very aware of checking out nature for signs and this year there does not seem so many berries, acorns or nuts about. Living in the country I am more aware than ever of these little things. Nature works in such a way that it prepares for the months ahead and the past 2 years we've had more snow than is expected in little old England. However, this year there is less food for the animals to hoard so I remain hopeful that there is less snow this winter. Watch this space.