Blists Hill, Logic, Cards, Cooking, visitors, writing, Triominos and Scrabble.

As promised we took the boys to the Victorian Village at Blists Hill Ironbridge. We had a great day and they learn even more about Victorian life. Sam insisted on going, despite still being unwell.

At the post office, learning about morse code and looking at how things have changed as the service developed.

The Blacksmiths ( we loved everything he made here) . Watched the horse being harnessed to the Dray. Visiting the Photographers, dressing up and having our photo taken.

Admiring all the signs, trying new things at the sweet shop, a long chat with the man at the woodworking shed, seeing the foundry and outside the bakers.

A long chat at the bank, changing our money into Victorian coins, trying to write with a nibbled pen and ink. The banker kindly showed us his collection of even older coins and talked about Greek mythology.

Talking to the dressmaker, visiting the bakery and marvelling at the smells and lead lined dough trough...'were they mad' says Owen . The boys were pleased to see they use a plastic lined dough tray for today's bread..we bought a few things from the bakery to take home.

They were less impressed with the dentists chair and set up but loved looking in all the shops.

Back home we played a new game of MiQube and some Black Jack before putting two very tired boys to bed.

Too very tired boys, as expected after a full on day yesterday. Sam's linctus from the docs has made him constipated, which is upsetting him very much.

We play some different logic/strategy games with MiQube.

We play a number of games of pontoon/black jack...Owen feels frustrated with life today and after a while decides to read quietly in another room.

Sam and I make bread, he is very precise about the measuring.

The finished bake...

Owen finishes his book and decides to help me make some soup.

Plenty of soup for the week....

As we work , Owen and I discuss his frustration earlier and reach a solution.

Today Sam's new mattress arrives and he helps me haul it up to his room. It's vacuum packed and he enjoys watching it fill with air and plump up. He's needed a new mattress for sometime now but has found it difficult to let go of his old one. We put the old one under his bed, but he is already negotiating terms for it not to go to the tip, despite the springs feeling uncomfortable. 

Both boys decide to go to Jujitsu and afterwards Sam settled onto his new mattress with a contented sigh. The wind starts to howl and wakes us all up at 2 am, we doze fitfully for the rest of night, Sam coughs along to the gale.

Sam is up at 6am and after his breakfast wants to do some word searches.

He completes one on words associated with keeping warm, asking what new words mean as he comes across them. Next he works on a page of Canadian National Parks, there are some unusual names like Nahanni and Wapusk, which starts conversations about indigenous people and countries being 'discovered'. We look up some of the places named on the Canadian map and what they mean. This leads to a conversation about small pox, which leads us to vaccines. * blinks * ...it's not even 8 am yet and I need another coffee.

We also watched some of this:

http://richannel.org/christmas-lectures/2015/how-to-survive-in-space#/the-next-frontier

We stop half way through because Sam wants to talk about supernovas and get me to look things up with him.

Then black holes 

He rattling questions off ten to the dozen now and I am finding it hard to keep up. In amongst the space facts and questions, he asks what Baskerville font is, so I show him.

Next he wants to find out which Shark stuns its prey and how it does it. We find out it's the Tresher shark and watch a clip of it whipping it's long tail.

http://www.livescience.com/38077-thresher-shark-stun-prey-with-tail-slap-video.html

It's nearly 9 am now and he's been full pelt since 6am ...I feel in need of a break and suggest he uses his iPad for a while , whilst I collect my thoughts and grab a coffee. Even so, it's lovely when he is all fired up like this.

Owen started doing word searches over breakfast, then went on to watch some wildlife documentaries. 

After lunch we met up with friends and the children alternated between inside and outdoor play. On the way home they told me they had had 'a brilliant time!'

When Blokey came home we played cards with Owen, Sam was tired and a little teary so didn't want to play..later he joined us for MiQube.

Today my parents came over and took the children to play squash at the sports centre. They noticed a big difference in Sam and his ability to follow instructions. Owen did really well at hitting the ball and my Dad was impressed with how well he managed.

After lunch, we sat chatting and a new board game was delivered called Triominos. The children watched us adults get to grips with it and joined in as team mates to get a feel for the game.

They then showed Nanny and Grandad how to play Guess Who and Don't Say It! We were howling with laughter at some of the descriptions Grandad was trying and he had a whole world of flappy handed wafting going on. Owen looked on aghast and at the end of one round said 'Grandad you are a bit rubbish at this game!' ...which thankfully grandad saw the funny side of.  When describing "Monkey" Sam said 'it has 98% of our DNA' and I guessed right. 

Owen couldn't get 'ring' when Grandad said 'it's something you wear on your hand' ...Owen: well, if you had said Hobbits and Mordor I may have had a better chance...with much eye rolling . My mum and I were in stitches by this point. There was that much arm windmilling in action , we could have fed the energy back into the national grid.

Owen also took this opportunity to show them his new sweatshirt.

After Nanny and Granddad left we settled in to some much needed quiet time...we all agreed it had been a very successful visit.

Still not much sleep, so Sam went back to the GP again today. They have decided to send him for an X-ray on Monday.

I have to do some paperwork and make calls, so the boys have free play whilst I crack on. Later we play Scrabble and cards.

Owen and I played Pass the Pigs...he can remember how to score and add the figures up much faster than me these days.

Ice cream and scrabble 

Sam awaits his next challenge in a game of Headbands. This helps the boys improve their descriptive skills and they are getting much less stressed about timed games. 

Blokey and I are laughing because Sam resembles Monkey from the old 1989,s cult program ...the boys haven't a clue what we are talking about.

No swimming this week, none of us are feeling up to it, so we chill out doing our own thing at home.

Reading, writing, playing, keep fit, Victorian bakers, animal facts and games.

Sam has been in his new medication for a few days now, I really noticed a difference today, so did he.

It made his learning activity so much easier for him. I honestly couldn't believe how much better he was concentrating. He did four pages of writing ..which is incredible and he found listening to my directions easier, sat still for periods of time and just looked so pleased with himself. I felt so emotional about this. He normally finds it so hard to settle and work through a task, but he was even doing self directed work today..I am stunned.

Despite still feeling under the weather with his asthma he was so funny and we had a great time. He even woke up this morning and starting reading quietly to himself.

Owen read some more of his book, he informs me he is on book 2 now and still enjoying the series.

He then played Guess Who with me whilst he ate his boiled egg.

After 10 games he was declared the winner, much to his delight.

He then asked to do some writing practice.

Sam came back in to join us and decided to do some more writing, on his own. He didn't need help getting his pens or paper and happily wrote messages for Owen,  telling him he was doing well.

After this we played more Head Bands together and did some keep fit on the Wii.

Over lunch Sam was very excitedly telling me how ' I feel like I can concentrate on one thing at a time, I  enjoyed my learning more' and could explain how everything was jumbled previously. We knew he was struggling to focus but he couldn't put it in words. I am so relieved he feels better about himself and can see how capable he is..it's already helping his confidence and he's seems less fraught about ..well everything. Fingers crossed it continues to help him.

I was up most of the night with Sam because of his coughing, he still got up early and decided to do some Wii fit. After I had stashed the shopping I joined him. Owen came down very grumpy, all the coughing is keeping him awake too. He ate breakfast and joined us for a quick work out afterwards.

Following this , they both did some writing practice.

And wrote some thank you cards.

We then played 'Guess Who' ..not easy when facial recognition is hard but they are getting much better with perseverance. They are finding crafty ways ( as ever) to work round this issue, by remembering the previous cards used. It s serious stuff....*plays mastermind music* 

After numerous disturbed nights we are all pretty much dead on our feet and things are a bit twitchy here.

Sam informs me they are building a Spleef Arena with his friends on our Minecraft server....they have explained it..I am non the wiser. I am also listening about what you can do with command blocks..I can feel the facts flying past my ears and over my head at warp factor ten. Even if I had more sleep, I am not sure I would understand it any better.

Jujitsu tonight ,so off the menfolk go and come back tired but happy. Sam still struggled to get to sleep  with his cough, but I think he maybe a little better.

Thankfully Sam managed to sleep through the night last night, I hope he's turned a corner. Both boys are keen to do some more Wii fit today, so I set it up while they are eating breakfast. They both practice their running, balancing and try their luck on the step class program as they watched me earlier doing mine. Both agree, it's much harder than it looks.

After we have 'fitnessed' I suggest they may like a history program about Victorian Bakers. 

They look at me sceptically but 2 mins in are engrossed and chatting furiously about various aspects of the program. Sam is googling facts about Bakehouses as we go, I tell them about the coal fired Bakehouse in Stoke and they would like to have a visit. We also bake some bread and feel very loved up about our theme.

The boys start to wonder if we could have a Victorian themed day, no electricity, cooking on a fire etc. I smile to myself about how that could pan out but agree in principle to giving it a go. I can't see them eating cheese and bread for supper some how *chuckles*.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06vn7sj

Blokey and I wrap up warm because we are out dog training tonight. Blokeys parents are looking after the boys, so they are in board game duty tonight.

Sam had another disturbed night and his cough doesn't seem to be going anywhere a hurry. He has lost another tooth this week.

Whilst Owen finishes his breakfast Sam is quizzing my knowledge of animals. I am blown away by how he can now pull the facts he needs together. Some of the stuff he is telling me, I thought he had lost/regressed away from. It's all there, he's giving me questions and answers whilst googling pictures and proving his facts and answers...he's multitasking beautifully and he's loving it! I sit back and enjoy his new found confidence.

These are just a few of the animals he was telling me all about.

He was telling me how Cheeta curbs have fluffy heads to mimick the tenacious Honey badger, to keep predators at bay.

He is face area by Sun Fish.

Owen looks on bemused. I don't think he's quite got his head round the changes in his brother yet. He decides to look up some science facts for himself and we spend time discussing those.

We play Guess Who and then watch the rest of the Victorian Bakers series. The boys thoroughly enjoy it and we talk about going to Blists Hill in the next few days. The beam with excitement at the prospect.

We have lunch after which, they choose a present for Blokeys birthday and write on his card. They settle into their free play. Owen with friends online and Sam continues to research animals on the Internet and watch films. It's a very calm household today and I spend some time doing some of my own research and reading..prepping food etc.

It would be absolutely perfect if it wasn't punctuated with continual coughing...despite it I have two happy boys.

We played Black Jack and Rummy too, the boys enjoyed pretending to gamble...Owen enjoys being reckless , Sam plays it safe.

We had an asthma review today, Sam's still not well and the nurse felt he needed to see the Doc immediately. This will be his 5th appointment about 'le cough'. We are now awaiting an appointment to become available for him at the Children's hospital. He's still not getting much sleep (neither are we) and it's been going on since before Christmas now.We did a quick shop and chemist run after he was seen and that wiped him out, so back home for board games and quiet time.We also did some Wii fit and I watched Goosebumps with Owen whilst Sam dozed. I was glad Blokey was home today and that I had the extra pair of hands onboard.

The next day we needed to go into Stafford ,both children needed new clothes and I was collecting my spectacles. We weren't in town more than an hour or 2 before Sam started to show signs of fatigue, so we quickly finished off and headed back home.

He perked up enough in the afternoon to play cards with Owen and I . It was tense stuff..Owen checked out the rules on some new card games, so we played Cheat, Black Jack and something Owen insisted was a game but didn't make much sense. Sam had a few tears but recovered enough to play with Blokey helping him.

Tomorrow is  Blokeys  birthday, he wants a 'weekend pass' to go to London and catch up with friends, so that's been arranged. We also got him a small gift to give him on the day..the boys are excited.

Today we went swimming early but had to leave early because Sam was getting so tired and breathless. After doing some chores at home, we headed off to a Chinese buffet to celebrate Blokeys birthday. Owen was a little perplexed by the many food choices but tried a couple of new things. He wasn't keen, so stuck to some known favourites on offer. Sam was quite adventurous and had a few different options, including noodles and 'red' pork. Both thoroughly enjoyed sampling all the dessert choices. Blokey worked his way round the buffet and enjoyed every dish he tried.

Afterwards we visited the large Hospice Charity shop that Blokey loves. The idea was to drop some things off...but we started wandering and bought glasses, clothes, a book and an oven dish. The menfolk tried to convince me they needed a full sized drum kit, which was on display, but there I wasn't having any of that ...*killjoy*.

Sam liked trying on this hat...

Back home we chilled out with our own stuff and finished the day with a family card game session.