One word? When seven would do…

gets worse! can’t believe its been this long but of course i have the seasonal excuse of crimbo to let me off the hook!
So all is well, kids have been doing lots of crafty stuff, making cards, decorating biscuits, ripping all the cards off the wall yesterday while i was on the phone and making a creative mess with glitter!

Teeny is getting more vocal every day and she is great fun, she has a real temper on her and mine is no better that the average toddlers either so we are already clashing! this weekend we walked down into town and she made such a fuss about me putting her mittens on that in the end i yanked them off and yelled at her ‘ let your hands freeze then!’ Ady just raised the one eyebrow and carried on walking! Davies is really, really into books and stories at the moment – he keeps telling me stories which don’t tend to have much of a plotline and almost always feature Buzz Lightyear but he is very imaginative and enjoying the starting of recognising words in books – he loves ones with repetitive lines such as the three little pigs.
he is also getting good at writing the letters for his name although he struggles getting them in any sort of left to right order and tends to just plonk the pen down whereever in the page it lands and do the next letter which could be before or after the one he has just finished – never mind!
had a long phone chat with a friend yesterday and told him about HEing plans – he was amazingly supportive, very encouraging to me and totally ‘got’ why i want to do it – he would have been one of the last people i would expect such a great reaction from and i actually value his opinion quite a lot so it was a refreshing change!
pretty much sorted for crimbo now – have had something of a craft saga with some papier mache stockings i saw made on Art Attack and have tried and failed to replicate but i am hopeful the lashings of paint will be dry in time to use them tomorrow night even if they are only ever used the once (likely!)
as usual can’t actually remember all the pressies i have bought people so will enjoy the surprise myself as they open them! Have got some United tickets for bro which he will be sooo thrilled with for Boxing Day and best of all i’m going too – hurrah! hope its not raining!
think thats all – not very educational I know but hey, its the holidays!!

Once a week – ha!
Well I have the excuse that last weekend was Teeny’s first birthday and my parents came up. She had a great day, sensible amount of pressies all of which she loved – main one was a FP little people dolls house and another was a pink girlie handbag full of play stuff like Mummys – mobile phone, purse with credit cards, hairbrush etc for her to empty out just like she does mine – a great success! We went to the local working farm where they were doing a christmas weekend which consisted of a santas grotto – Monster went flying up to him and cuddled him – he thinks its the real Santa – the same real santa we have seen at two other grottos so he feels like he knows him really well now!! a live nativity scene, with a Mary who tried to explain that the baby was baby Jesus when all Monster wanted to know was why it was a ‘tend baby? (pretend!) Monday me and Ady had a big meeting in Blackpool which went very well so I was at home with kids on Tuesday instead when the MP xmas craft kit turned up so we had fun making more glitter in the carpet, Wed morning I worked and Thursday we went to the library in the morning and for a short walk in the afternoon – Monster is getting really good at recognising letters on the road name signs now, he also remembers every single little detail of the regular route that Lynda walks with them once or twice a week. Teeny saw a builders hat hanging on one of the barriers round a hole in the pavement and was all excited pointing and shouting Bob, Bob at it! Friday I worked again in the morning, yesterday we went for a drive to deliver a couple of xmas cards, get my mobile phone fixed (while we waited in the shop Monster charmed the woman working there and another couple of customers by being all cute and cheeky and singing Rudolph the red nosed reindeer for them!) and hunting for xmas decorations. Today we went for a puddle splashing walk – quite a long one we were out for nearly 2 hours. Teeny slept for about an hour, we bought some stuff for lunch, looked at every single thing along the route, bought Monster some new gloves as he insisted he didn’t want his on until we were out then insisted he needed some (I know a good mother would have brought his anyway!) and some cute rudolph mittens for Teeny which she promptly pulled off and dropped! We have eaten lunch, played hide and seek and Monster is now watching Nick Jnr and Teeny is emptying a packet of nappies all over the floor while i have some pooter time.
i have been feeling pretty down this week for various reasons and have been beating myself up over the fact i enjoy escaping from the kids when Lynda is here and that i get impatient and shouty and don’t really enjoy them. i have made a pact with myself that when they clearly need me or want me i will be there for them and have some fun being their mummy with them instead of being some old crone who spends all day telling them off and shouting and willing the clock to bedtime! on which note they are both edging towards me now so i will be off!

I’m a bit rubbish at this daily blog business – so if i aim for once a week i stand a chance of beating myself! So after the rubbish weekend have had a few nice days – Monday we went out with the kids round the shops – pretty well behaved actually then came home and started putting the decorations up – also sent the first batch of christmas cards out and bought stamps for the rest. Monster very excited about christmas now – every time we go in the car we have to listen to Rudolph the red nosed reindeer on a continuous loop, Ady has told him that Father Christmas sees everything and that when the little red movement detector light in the alarm points in the house is flashing that is when he is watching us!
Tuesday Lynda came in the morning and Ady and I did as much of the xmas food shopping as we can this early – spent loads but it was lovely to walk round everywhere holding hands and just the two of us! A very big day for Teeny today – her hair is finally long enough to put two little bunches in – she looked soooo cute and i was all happy and glowy about having a little girl! In the afternoon we all went into the kitchen and made some gingerbread tree decorations – only one of the sweetie window ones worked and I have just been in the longue to see it being eaten – but there are lots of pretty hearts with silver balls and writing on – the tree is almost all edible decs this year – candy canes, chocolate santas and gingerbread and it looks fab.

Today I went into work for a brief meeting then ran around town getting Teeny’s birthday cake, candles, balloons, helium balloons, banners etc. When Lynda goes at 3.30 we are going to finish making snowflakes and decorate them with some glitter before stringing them up about the place.

So today I am officially ‘shouty mummy’ I hate, hate, hate the weekends when Ady works – I feel like a trapped single parent home alone with the kids. Its not so bad in the summer when at least we can wonder round the park for a bit but with no one around to visit its just really horrid!
Thought I had done nothing except shout at the kids this weekend but as I sat here reflecting I realise I have actually done a fair bit. Yesterday while Teeny had a morning nap Monster and I made the last few cards for the Muddle Puddle list – glitter everywhere and gluey bits of stuff still being pulled from the carpet! We did some serious marble run building – even Teeny is into this – when she can be persuaded NOT to eat the marbles she loves dropping them in and then cooing and pointing as they go down. We played with the shape sorter and books lots too. Today while she napped me and Monster wrote the bits from him on all the xmas relatives cards and Teeny’s birthday card. He is pretty good at recognising letters and knows that D is for Davies, S is for Scarlett, M is for Mummy, A is for apple and C is for cat. We are not using letter sounds but are using the name of the letter. I know there is loads of stuff out there saying to use phonetics but we have started and I know Lynda does letters the same way with him and he is doing fine so I am sticking with what we have started… then we did another marble run and then we sat on the computer and did some colouring in on the work website which he loves and is getting really good at the mouse with too. When Teeny woke up we had lunch then had a mad hour of listening to Monsters favourite songs on the computer and singing and dancing along: woo hoo song (Blur song2) you did you did (ABC poison arrow) me want to, me want to (Billie, cos we want to) and Justin – rock your body. great fun and loads of exercise had by all. This moved on to getting the instruments out and playing with the drum, xylophone, tambourine and clicky clacky thing for a bit till i got fed up with the noise! then we played in the lounge with the wooden train for a bit, had some tea and then they were the brats from hell (!) when my parents rang and they just followed me room to room shouting and drowning out the phone – Monster then smeared apple fruit winder all over the TV set – (confess i just laughed!) and continued shouting until i gave up. Had just wrestled them into their pjs and given Teeny her milk when Ady arrived home. Teeny is now asleep, Ady is putting Monster to sleep and I have whizzed round with the hoover and am about to wrap the last of the xmas presents before sitting down with a big glass of wine and my roast dinner…
so bad mummy for all the shouting and impatience but we still did loads too!