Sunny Sheffield

I managed to get through the weekend without giving birth in Sheffield!

Amazingly, despite the fact that normally 5 minutes in the car is enough to start me off contracting, I made it all the way up there without any, and didn't start them until half way back!

It was good to tie into a national EO event, and even better to be able to finally put faces to so many names/email addresses that I've come to know over the past two years.

The boys enjoyed themselves too, to my relief, especially as Samuel is definately in one of his "down" phases at the moment and really struggled with the idea of going away. He broke my heart by saying on the Friday night before we went to bed in the Travelodge "I was crying inside at the thought of coming away, but now I don't know what I was worried about as I'm really enjoying this" :0( These little insights into his world are very revealing.

Talking of which, today - again where he is very emotional and stressed - it was interesting that after a major meltdown mid morning he CHOSE to go and put on the Transporters DVD that we got sent before; in other words, a DVD about emotions, dealing with them and with people...

Very telling I think.

Yesterday we had a chance to get a feel for some of the local area for where we stayed (Blyth) by visiting the ruins of Roche Abbey. We had some good discussions about the ruins, about abbeys, construction, sanitation, and then about some of the wildlife we could see/hear (canadian geese and pheasants in particular!).

The boys were also interested in the industrial history of the area, and we talked about the mines, the industrial revolution, and other aspects of the area.

On the way back to the Travelodge on the Saturday night, Samuel asked why the moon was different colours, and we had a wonderful "HE moment" listening to Joshua explain to his brother all about the "seas" and the asteriod craters, and then William joined in too.

As I said to someone today, I can't imagine 3 school kids, of such different ages, having a self-inspired discussion about space like that...

Today has been catching up with emails, sorting some things from the weekend's meeting, and washing (of course!). I received a nice maternity dress courtesy of ebay today - which probably guarantees I'll go into labour!

Which reminds me, I also managed to get some more ISPY books from eBay, which is just as well as we are cracking through the one we took with us over the weekend!