One word? When seven would do…

But first I forgot to answer Sarah about mobile phones… this is the one I have now and I am pondering on this one. Or something very like it. I am currently with T mobile and would like to change as I have found their coverage poor and had a few customer services issues with them too. Although there seem to be lots of fangled features on the phone I don’t really need I do need bluetooth as I have a bluetooth headset and a blue tooth adaptor to my laptop, I want a camera and a video feature as it’s handy to have with the kids and Ady has them on his phone too and finally I always disliked the clam / flip phones but as mine seems to spend it’s life in my jeans pocket it would make more sense to have one that doesn’t get the screen scratched to buggery. But I would like it to have a caller display window on the outside which I don’t think that one does have – so the quest continues – but Ady will do that as he loves being a consumer and getting the best buy, comparing prices and features and researching products so he will love that little project 🙂

So the bad stuff first – well hopefully not bad stuff. Ady has a small lump on one testicle. He has had pain since he has his snip back in March but it has gotten worse instead of better and for weeks I have been on at him to go to the docs. This week I have made him three appointments all of which ended up being cancelled as he couldn’t get home for them in time. Our docs do this you can’t book an appointment in advance you need to ring on the day and we’ll see you thingy – which is great in theory but a bugger if you are trying to get an appointment at a specific time to fit in round work or someone looking after the kids for you. So this morning I made him stay home til they opened and I rang for an appointment, which he then said was too late in the morning for him 🙁 We had a big falling out over it with my saying that his health is of paramount importance over anything else, I didn’t know why he couldn’t make his own bloody appointments and if there was something wrong with me not only would he be nagging at me to get it looked at he wouldn’t need to cos I WOULD GET OFF MY BLOODY ARSE AND GO TO THE DOCTORS WITHOUT FANNYING ABOUT MAKING ME RING FOR APPOINTMENTS AND I AM A WIFE NOT A BLOODY SECRETARY ANYWAY (cue Davies, ‘don’t say bloody mummy!’). He then got all mopey and said he just needed me to look after him (grr, hate it when he pulls the I am just a hopeless bloke act) and stomped off to work leaving me to worry that we had not kissed each other goodbye so this was bound to be the morning he had a car crash and was left in a coma (morbid I know!).

Got the kids dressed and breakfasted and in the car on the way to soft play when he rang to say he would make an appointment and he loved me, said I loved him too 😉 So he saw the nurse at 2.00pm, she rearranged the doctor’s day and got him back to see the doc at 4.00pm and he is getting referred for an ultrasound scan asap…. don’t quite know what to think and I am reassured by the googling I have done but concerned and I know he is too – hope it is sorted before Christmas 🙁 And glad also that I did yell at him and he did get his bloody arse in gear and get to the docs so whatever it is can be diagnosed and (finger’s crossed not needed to be anyway) dealt with asap.

So the good stuff then…

Had a great time at soft play with Jenny and her brood and barely saw Davies who ran off and played for the whole hour or so quite happily – we went there for E’s birthday back in the summer and he did not leave my side so this was quite a result 🙂 will be going there again! Tarly was her usual fearless self but as Davies was being very attentive and looking after her I managed to allow them off to do their thing with only the odd going to check on them. Towards the end I did find Davies making one of the lads who worked there climb up with him – he is very good at talking to adults and persuading them to do stuff for him 🙂 But as he was being very good with Davies and encouraging him to climb higher and faster than usual and giving lots of praise this was fine and good too 🙂 Jenny and I managed quite a good chat in between children and noise levels and we are both feeling upbeat and excited about our new group – I have had some feedback already and so has she so we are confident it is not just us too loons who think along these line 😉

Home for lunch, which Ady arrived in time for too, which enabled me to run round the shop childless to get the few bits I needed to make those Christmas tree biscuits which I also achieved 🙂 Both kids helped with the weighing and mixing – so good HE value there and they were both distracted by Ady for the rolling and cutting out which was good for my anal ‘they must be perfect’ temprament too! I made two batches – the first I forgot to make ribbon holes in so they were all eaten this afternoon – the second are awaiting some decoration which I might do later, or tomorrow 🙂

Then Rachel, E and A arrived and we had a lovely afternoon – with Ady popping in and out from doctor’s appointments and shopping just in time to make tea for the three children before they headed off home. They all played really nicely today, I had got out the dressing up box, Tarly had another new puzzle from them as a birthday pressie so that was played with and they managed to put away stuff before getting more out 🙂 Ady and Davies then had a long educational conversation about the world, the sun, shooting stars, Bethlehem, Jesus and the stable and volcanos which involved getting books out and looking stuff up before bed too.

So aside from the possible nasty stuff which we will not dwell on until we are sure about we have had a good day today. Surprise panto tomorrow which I am hoping will be a hit and probably parents over in the evening for a takeaway too which will be nice.

Davies spent about an hour today playing with his Leap Pad (which is a largely ignored toy tbh) and the dinosaur book. Not only did it reaffirm for both him and I how great his knowledge is on the subject it was also highly educational and I think has given him a taste for playing with it more agian – and he learnt some new stuff too.

Scarlett showed her less than desireable side today with the twins who just seemed to bring out the worst in her – she walloped Maisie and really shouted at Jack (who will become hysterical if you just look at him on occassion and is a bit of a handle with care type child who has probably never actually been shouted at before!). It’s hard because on the one hand I do not want her to become some wild child who is out of control and allowed to run free with no rules (not that I think there is much danger of that here tbh!) but I also have huge sympathy for her on some counts – the Maisie issue was because she had just been given her birthday pressie from Chris and Julie which was a teaset, had barely unwrapped and looked at it before Maisie was at it and Scarlett was being told to ‘share’ – which frankly seems a bit unfair really – the child is two, it was HER pressie and why the hell should she hand half of it over to another child before she has even looked at it properly. The Jack thing I am also inclined to be supportive of her on as she was in the middle of doing a puzzle when he wandered over and started picking up the pieces. It’s funny really, both Davies and Scarlett have no issues with sharing stuff with each other, but they also seem to have an inherant respect for the fact that it belongs to one or other of them and even Scarlett will check it’s OK with Davies before ploughing in and playing with *his* stuff. But although Davies is pretty good at sharing certain designated toys (anything which he would rather not have played with by other children is put in his bedroom before people come round to play) Scarlett really is not so keen. And I wonder how important it is really to force the issue? Clearly hitting another child and probably even shouting at them is not really acceptable but two days after making a big deal about giving her material possessions is it really right to then have them blatantly played with (and maybe in the eyes of a two year old taken away from forever) by another child. No right or wrong or answer to this one I guess, just a late night pondering. I know I can be quite possessive of ‘stuff’ and am also quite uneasy on their behalf about their things getting broken or ruined – I am quite big on them having respect for their stuff and playing with it ‘nicely’ so I am not comfortable with other children coming over and being rough with it – maybe they are picking up on this, maybe we should just not let anyone over our doorstep – miserable unsociable cow that I am 🙂

One of those conversations…

You know, it’s funny. My whole life I have had two places where I would love to live and they could not be more contrasting. I base both these ambitions on romantic ideals, carved from a life of watching on TV / film or reading about the places in books and a very small amount of time spent in them in holiday circumstances. They are North Wales and New York 🙂

New York was always the place I dreamed of going to from being a small girl, I don’t know what the original attraction was but I guess the words of New York, New York probably sum it up. Stuff just happens there – yes this is probably the result of watching too many films based in New York on Christmas Eve where the hero and the lady finally sort out all their differences and live happily ever after with the backdrop of the the Empire State Building and ice skating at the Rockerfeller Center in misty lighting twinkling with fairy lights, but a visit there when I was pregnant with Davies and our whole lives were at that ‘don’t know what’s gonna happen next but it’ll be exciting and life changing’ phase only served to enhance the dream.

North Wales, well it’s where my Dad grew up. His father’s family were from there although his mother was from London and we went there a fair bit when I was small. Ady and I went on our first couple of holidays together there too, a couple of times with my parents coming along and while we lived in Manchester it was a very regualar Sunday day trip out for us – we have many pictures of the kids standing in places where me and my brother are standing in old photos and my Dad would no doubt have stood as a boy if only we had pictures of those times. It feels like home due to the family history and the initials of my Dad carved on so many tree trunks, bridges and so on – Ady and I even looked round the house he grew up in once as it happened to be for sale on one of our visits there. Our son is named with my maiden name, which is the very Welsh surname of my Dad and it just feels right that although Dad moved away and has made his home here in Sussex we should go back there and bring our children ‘home’.

So New York, but of a pipe dream I guess, maybe more of a one day, if we win the lottery we’ll get an apartment there, and someday we’ll take the kids there too so they can experience that ‘everywhere you look seems like a cardboard cut out film set it is so familiar yet so unfamiliar’ feeling and see if it still has such a strong pull to me. And of course if ever a situation arose which had even a glimmer of a move there in the pipeline then yes, we’d grab it with both hands. North Wales on the other hand would seem quite strong possibility. Need to check house prices out but I imagine they are still a fair bit cheaper than here in the South East. In theory Ady’s job is pretty mobile – if all goes to plan and he becomes the important bloke in the company it would seem he is destined to next year then it would not be a big deal at all for him to be based in North Wales – infact being pretty near to Manchester and Liverpool could even prove a plus. Me and the kids can settle anywhere – the whole Manchester jaunt proved that to me, and being HE can only serve to make you even more flexible, mobile and excited about as opposed to scared of change. Family – yeah we’d miss ’em, but they visited us before and they’d visit us again – we don’t rely on them for childcare or anything so although it’s nice to be close to them it’s a luxury as opposed to a necessity – besides, Dad always seems quite nostalgic about the place – they might just move with us 🙂

So it’s all in the future and it’s all still totally unresearched and unplanned, but it is a definite possibility…. watch this space!

The rest of the day? Well all pretty industrious really, I feel almost smug 🙂 I have finished all my shopping totally, Ady is getting the last thing on my list tomorrow. All the cards are written and posted and routes sorted to deliver the rest, I have a couple more gifts to post which I will do on Monday, the kids have been really well stimulated and learnt loads – Davies was making a real effort to actually read in bed tonight – must get out those Bob Books tomorrow and strike while he wants to learn, I cleaned out the fish bowl, I cooked a nutritious and delicious meal for dinner (beef stew and the kids helped which was very educational as we talked abour what the veg were, the colours, counting and I talked about the fraction side of chopping them into pieces) and it’s Friday tomorrow 🙂

I have sent out flyers for our new Home Ed group starting in January, sent out emails and had a couple of interested replies, been emailing with the Science museum who are looking to work with HE folk (if anyone is interested in speaking to them too let me know and I’ll send you the contact email address – they are looking at doing workshops and so on specifically for Home Edders) and have said they would come and do a session at the group, so I feel that is sorted for now.

I have failed miserably in doing any work which I might get paid for – must must must get my arse in gear over that one tomorrow.

When Ady got home tonight we all walked round the postbox in the dark and did a couple of small detours to look at other people’s Christmas lights which the kids loved – must do that again over the weekend.

The kids are both on the mend – I have even had to holler like a mad fishwife at them a couple of times today, but hey, that’s the pattern of our life, we wouldn’t feel like us if I wasn’t yelling at them a couple of times a day 🙂

The next three days look pretty manic – tomorrow we have soft play planned in the morning, Rachel, E and A in the afternoon, Saturday we are delivering local cards in the morning, town for lunch then the panto and Sunday card delivering a bit further afield with a visit to Chris and Julie in the middle… so as for getting those Christmas biscuits and snowspray done I might be delegating that to the cats 🙂 Really will sort out the work for Miranda though – it’s awful that I have put making glittery cards for people over making some money!

Ooh it’s such a festive sight here in the playroom – kids still in ‘jamas (despite long job list – see later!), Davies has found the sticky gift tags and we are all plastered in them, we’ve got ‘Let it Snow’ playing on the cd player and the kids are playing harmoniously with a puzzle track train.

Right, job list then:
1. Go to Boots for odd bits and pieces I need either as gifts, for me or to tide us over with toiletry essentials. Sorted! Got everything we needed including three of the pressies I was going to have to think of and add to the list below, so result 🙂
2. Go to post office with parcels and cards to send abroad, buy stamps for other 60 odd cards to bring back and do here (not standing outside next to the postbox attempting that with two small children!) Also done – I have a purse full of stamps to be stuck on letters later and possibly even walked to the postbox too
3. Make some Christmas biscuits to hang on the tree
4. snowspray the windows
5. entertain Julie & the twins who are coming over for lunch – this will be best achieved by bringing out a selection of toys to the lounge (dressing up was popular last week) so they are distracted from trashing the place 🙂 and maybe a walk to the park later to run off some of their energy. Done, and while this could easily turn into a toy related rant of the sort you have seen before I will swallow my crossness and be thankful that the children did their socialising and I had a chat and a cup of tea with Julie 🙂
6. Those stories for Miranda
7. That list of final pressies still needs doing, although I have had some ideas for a couple of the trickier ones and sent Ady to get them on his travels. Well I think I am pretty much there actually. I bought three more today in Boots, Ady is getting another for me tomorrow and he has got one for my Dad today, so I am considering present buying done 🙂
8. Online learning course
And I reckon that’s it. You will notice how totally unworried I am about whether the kids are getting educated or not – this is because when we are busy they seem to learn so much more somehow – Davies has done lots of writing this week – he wrote quite a long message in Tarly’s card by dictating it to me, I wrote it out then he copied it into the card, there is plenty of counting and number recognition going on with the advent calendar, we have talked loads about Christmas, various ways of celebrating it, the symbolism of various decorations, carols and songs and customs, we have done craftty stuff by decorating the house and tree and making some cards, we have done music by singing all out Christmas songs repeatedly, and they have done a fair bit of self entertaining this week too. We have done a bit of socialising and have more planned today and tomorrow and over the weekend so I am feeling as though as long as it is Christmas all the time we don’t need to worry about education any more than that!

Well the job lists probably speak for themselves really. I have had a busy and industrious day and feel like I have achieved lots of small stuff even if I didn’t get close to some of the bigger stuff.

I have done lots of householdy stuff – some would call them errands, like washing, I have written all the Christmas cards including the ones I had to make and they are ready to be sorted into piles for posting or delivering, I entertained Rachel, E and A for a cup of tea and a chat while the kids trashed the house, I was comforting and motherly to little Tarly this morning when she was screaming about whatever mysterious and thankfully gone now ailment she was dealing with, I cuddled Davies and told him how brave he was as he had his injections – and put the nurse straight when she said his next one would be age 13 in school (don’t know why, I was just feeling militant!) and I dealt with various paperworky type things so my desk is once again clear of clutter and crap!

Scarlett slept in til 12.30 having gone to sleep just after 9am, Davies spent all that time playing under the Christmas tree with lego and watching various Christmas movie DVDs while I did all my various tasks. I then made us all a different lunch cobbled together from odd bits and pieces in the kitchen cupboards (next task is to see if I can get an online food shop for tomorrow!) and Scarlett and I made the last few cards for the MP list. We both ended up very very glittery which I didn’t think mattered as we were not planning to go out – indeed I was not planning to get Tarly out of her pjs. It got to 5 minutes before Davies’ appointment for his jabs was due and I opened the front door to put some recycling out and spotted Rachel going into the doctors (it is opposite our house) with E and baby A, so rushed back in, got Tarly dressed and dragged the kids across so he could have them done after all and Rachel could mind Tarly in the waiting room while I went in with Davies.

He was very brave and got a sticker to say so 🙂 Rachel did comment on the fact that both Scarlett and I looked like we were about to go clubbing with our spanglyness and asked if I had not checked the mirror before leaving the house – I hadn’t! If ever I looked like that tinsel fairy it was then! I was covered in silver glitter on both cheeks, in my hair and all over my top 🙂 Scarlett was along the same lines! They came back with us for a quick cup of tea and the kids ran round like loonies which probably did mine good but did create a huge mess on top of the mess we had rushed out leaving already there 🙁

After they left I cleared up, fed the kids and Ady rang to suggest he get something for dinner on the way home instead of me going out later. Which is good 🙂 He is dying from the kid’s cold and as we had such a bad night with the kids he feels really dreadful, bless him.

I’m sitting with my laptop in Davies’ room waiting for him to go to sleep so I can go and finish off the last few bits of the job list which were realistic for one day with two children, the rest can be carrried over til tomorrow.

Oh, and a secret I just have to share with someone 🙂 Late last night I booked tickets for the local panto for this Saturday for the four of us. I am not going to tell Ady or the kids, just somehow get them all there on Saturday afternoon – I know Davies will love it, Ady and I always went to pantos on our own before we had the kids as he never went as a boy, so it is just Scarlett who might not like it – but given her fearlessness and love of shouting and joining in with anything Davies does I think she might just love it too 🙂

Which brought with it several more things to add to the job list!
1. thank you cards for Scarlett’s pressies – another one arrived this morning which reminded me cards designed and printed off, just need to write them and add them to the ‘to be posted pile’
2. ring up and refrain from shouting at the electricity supplier who promised a 4th copy bill in response to my last phonecall about the 3 previous ones I have never recieved and assured me their threat about sending it to a debt collectors would be frozen until I had definitely got the copy bill. the letter from the debt collectors arrived this morning 🙁 still no sign of any bill of course. rang and was calm and another copy bill is on it’s way allegedly – and the debt collectors have been frozen for a month.
3. cancel subsription to The Week – which is probably very good but ends up being put with the recycling unread every week when the next one arrives. Also got a £12 refund coming 🙂
4.Send cheque from lottery win of a tenner to pay into bank account it’s now in the pile of stuff ready to be posted.
5. Go to post office! This will have to wait til tomorrow now though – can’t take ill and whinging children out and inflict them on the rest of the world!
6. Pay credit cards well cheques are also now in the to be posted pile
7. Keep checking on sleeping Scarlett to ensure she is okay 🙁
8. allow Davies to eat chocolate tree decorations as bribery for keeping quiet and self amused while I plough through the pile of stuff on my desk

Need to sort myself out this morning so I’m doing a job list which I can hopefully return to later having achieved some of: Scarlett has been up pretty much all night screaming, not sure whether it is something sinister or simply being two – my gut instinct is that it is nothing too concerning and as I have finally gotten her into a semi peaceful sleep and put her back to bed I better make the most of whatever time she gives me before she wakes up screaming again 🙁
1. Get Davies dressed. done!
2. sort out the load of washing already in the machine, put another load on, when it’s done sort that one out, when that’s done do another load and then sort that one out! started! second load is just spinning, first load is hung around the house
3. ring to renew library books which are due back today – and find out how many we are supposed to have scattered around the place so I have three full weeks to find them all ready to go back (AFTER Christmas!!!) done! and there are 11 🙂
4.Finish writing the Christmas cards I started last night, divide them into piles for posting in the UK, posting out of the UK and one’s which can be delivered over the weekend – out of the delivery ones make two piles for ones which I will definitely manage to deliver and ones which if I don’t manage can be posted on Monday all written, were in piles which got disrupted by marauding children but just need repiling and that is done
5. wrap up remaining gifts – some of which also need posting
6. use snowspray on the windows to complete the house decorations
7. make some festive biscuits to hang on the tree to complete that
8. encourage Davies to help make the rest of the MP cards. If he cannot be encouraged or bribed then make them myself. If this is not possible then use the excess family photo cards to send to MP list.This just wasn’t going to happen! I noted how many extra we actually needed, minused the ones I would actually quite like to send festive greetings to as well (that would be you lot on the blogring then!) and made the addtional eight we needed myself. They are actually quite good if I do say so myself – very arty glue drawings of either snowflakes with silver glitter or Christmas trees with green glitter. Scarlett did arrive as was doing the last two so she helped – this has meant her and I have worn glitter for most of the day, but hey, it’s festive 🙂
9. Write in whatever cards are make / selected for the MP listall done, most are home made, the ones I wanted to add greetings to or feel I actually *know* have got one of our photo cards all written and ready to post
10. Make Ady a doctor’s appointment sorted
11. cancel Davies’ injections today and rearrange for next week sorted but then I changed my mind!
12. make a concise, frugal and easy to follow shopping list to rush out and buy later tonight when kids are asleep, using the list of stuff in the freezer which Ady made over the weekend to ensure we are using up food we already have instead of just buying more.
13. find entertaining and educational activities for Davies to be doing and for Scarlett if she wakes up in the frame of mind to be engaged and educated after her sleep sort of 🙂
14. Make lunch!yep!
15. Read the stories Miranda has emailed across and start writing some to email back to her for the end of the week
16. do some more of my online learning course
17. make a final list of all the last remaining gifts still needed to be bought for Christmas and decide whether it is feasible to go out shopping for them or order them online.
18. ring friends in New Zealand at a time when they are either not at work or asleep in bed (note to self – check whether we are 10, 11, 12, 13 or 14 hours behind them at the moment to ensure a middle of the night at their house scenario does not occur!)

Think that’s it – well I guess I better get started then 🙂

We’ve been to Lakeside today. We have listened to all 23 tracks on the Jingle Bells Christmas tunes cd at least three times. Davies has been a total horror and Scarlett had her most impressive public tantrum ever while in Clarks being fitted for new shoes. It’s been an interesting day!

We needed to go up to Thurrock to Costco to collect our family Christmas cards which feature a photo of the kids, so we managed to get out of the house by about 9.45am, Scarlett slept most of the way and Davies alternated between telling me he felt sick, demanding a tissue for his nose and demanding I play the Baby Jesus record again. We arrived and Ady collected the photos then we went into Lakeside for some lunch. Davies demanded McDonalds so after getting them past all the animatronic snowman displays in the mall we arrived at the food court on the top floor to find there is no McDonalds. We had KFC instead – which is the only fast food I would eat through choice – due to the chicken gravy. I ordered my food with someone who had less than even a basic command of the english language (he looked at me like I was a mad woman when I asked for vinegar then asked if I wanted small or regular! I mimed sprinkling it on chips and he said no they didn’t do it after all), discovered they don’t do the gravy anyway and was irrationally pissed off about it! The kids ate very little, I didn’t eat the chips which I had ‘gone large’ on due to their being no gravy and Ady looked at the people on the next table’s lunch and was all pissed off he hadn’t seen the chinese counter as he would have had that instead 🙁 So grr! I told Ady we should have gone to TGI Friday instead 🙂

Anyway. We then went downstairs to get the kids feet checked as although they were only done a couple of weeks ago and deemed fine I am sure she has been walking funny in her shoes. Sure enough they both needed new shoes. Cue Scarlett having a total fit about being measured, having her boots taken off, not liking the (very nice and a bargain in their sale at 13 quid) shoes we chose, demanding something ‘pink’ but still being fairly hysterical at the very pink ones we got, trying to kick the poor woman whilst she measured her. Davies in turn was very straightforward, liked the first pair of boots we suggested, they had his size and he loves them (let’s ignore the fact we managed to choose a £38 pair of fully waterproof goretex boots shall we!!!) Scarlett put her too small boots back on again and I will dispose of them before tomorrow when I will use all my negotiating skills to get her into the new pink shoes!
Then to Carphone Warehouse as I want to change my phone for a more spangly one where they were both not up for standing still and not touching anything, so we set off for home. Back home we played with wooden train track for a bit before packing the kids off to bed. Davies has been really odd lately – I am prepared to put it down to him being poorly, tired, trauma of younger sibling having a birthday and getting lots of attention, excitement of Christmas whatever, but he is clingy, whiny and prone to hysterics at the smallest little thing – so not the sort of behaviour I am used to or expect from him 🙁 Tomorrow he has got some injections (preschool boosters of stuff – ha!) which he is readily primed for but it looks like I will have to take Tarly with us which is not ideal as she is likely to either run round the room self injecting with other vaccinations, or decide to protect her brother from the nasty nursie lady and lay into her while she tries to do Davies 🙁

All this sounds like a really crap day which it wasn’t, funny how you can edit something so many ways isn’t it (just ask Natalie Appleton!) . Currently watching Two pints of lager on BBC3 and it’s the musical one where Janet and Johnny first met which is totally hilarious so a positive end to it all.

A pretty good day all round really. Loads of pictures which I make no apology for so I will narrate around them I think:

Scarlett did sleep through the night but also woke indecently early at about 5.30am. We managed to keep her in our bed ’till just after 6am when Ady and I both got up with her and let her in the lounge which was awash with balloons, helium balloons and her pressies from us:

She set about opening pressies – she selected three identical boxes first and opened Swiper, Dora and then brought the third over to me unopened and said ‘Boots?!’ yep, she was right! 🙂 She then picked each wrapped present up and asked ‘Dora?’ before opening it – she was correct in all but two – she got the small Dora, Boots and Swiper figures, a Dora book for bedtime with a little light up star in it, a backpack (one she can actually wear with a little Map inside) which I had put some stickers in – these happened to be pretty much her favourite pressie and she spent all day sticking them everywhere (even at my parents house where they are likely to be finding them still in February!)

We also got her a little wooden kitchen set with a fridge, oven and sink and a few wooden utensils and pots which she also loved and a Dora bath toy, which got used to the max tonight in the bath:

I had been concerned we might have overdone it with the Dora stuff but clearly not – the girl is obsessed 🙂

She also got various bits and pieces from other people including the funny faces felt kit (thanks Karen – she loves it 🙂 proper thank you note in the post soon xxx), a cheque and several cards. Davies got a small pressie from us too – a dinosaur fossil dig kit, which we did this evening and he really loved:
of course wearing the protective safety goggles!

Then we headed over to my parents. They had bought her premium bonds as they do for both kids on Christmas and birthdays and Bedtime Dora as a pressie to open
which she loves and has gone to sleep cuddling tonight. They got Davies a wooden train track engine shed too
and of course Frazer had got her the house, which was a massive hit she loves it loads, and the kids even pretended to sleep in it 🙂

After a lovely lunch my Granny arrived, which meant that her and Mum sat trying to outdo each other on everything while the rest of us buggered off upstairs! The kids love this spare room as it is like the set of Boogie Beebies and just right for dancing – Davies threw some shapes:
some of us were wallflowers 🙂 some of us sat it out altogether!.
Which called for some light refreshment and then back downstairs for the long awaited Dora cake!
It was very well received by Tarly!
, we all sang and blew out candles, before I finally sucumbed to some lap dancing!

Sadly Chris and Julie and the twins didn’t come along after all as the twins have gone down with the horrid cold that Davies and Scarlett have had all week and were too miserable to be in company (Julie’s phrase!) which was a shame but as the kids had the attention of six adults and loads of toys they didn’t suffer too much! Home again for tea, bath and bed.

Tomorrow Ady is off again so we are going to Lakeside area to collect our Christmas cards from Costco and maybe take the kids to see santa and perhaps out for lunch. In all a perfect birthday for a two year old, surrounded by everyone who loves her and with pretty much all the Dora merchandise on the market in the UK at the moment (with the exception of the rest of the stuff she is getting in three weeks time for Christmas of course!)

Bit of a newsflash really. In a one off special offer never to be repeated grab it while you can stocks are limited (omission of punctuation intentional:-) ) type fashion we put Scarlett in bed asleep at 6ish last night and didn’t see her again until 6.30am this morning !!!!!

Although neither of us slept too well – I kept waking up and missing that little foot in my shoulder or head lying right on top of mine and squashing my nose, and Ady went to the extreme or going to her room and checking she was a) still there and not off wandering the neighbourhood pointing at Christmas lights and saying ‘ooh pretty’ and:
b) still breathing
it was an amazing and unbelievable thing 🙂 Not expecting to get another night like that until she is at least 14 but it was nice to know she can do it!

Had a nice enough evening last night with parents and a chinese, had a lovely day today with 10 adults, 2 children and 3 teenagers for roast dinner (and my two were soooo well behaved and made us very proud :-), drove home with kids in pjs oohing and ahhing over all the pretty decorations between Bognor and here and they are now both asleep. Off to add to the decorations with some happy birthday balloons and banners and eat toasted cheese sandwiches for tea:-)

I know it’s a daye early but I don’t know if I’ll get the chance to do this tomorrow, and she only made it into tomorrow by less than two hours, so most of it happened two years ago today…

It was my first real day of maternity leave – I had stopped work on the Monday, but been at home with Davies until the Thursday when he went off for one of his two days a week at a nursery. I had fallen asleep on the sofa in the afternoon and woke up at about 3pm wondering what had woken me. At five past three I realised it must have been a contraction when I had another one. I sat for about 20 minutes timing them at every 5 minutes, and quite strong and decided I needed to collect Davies while I was still capable. So inbetween contractions I put on shoes (contraction), got in the car (contraction), drove to the nursery round the corner (contraction), dashed in, having one in the hall, collected Davies and got us both in the car (contraction), drove home (contraction) and got us both in the house (contraction!). I got us both upstairs and we sat in his bedroom for a bit with me trying really hard not to let him know I was scared but explaining ‘Mummy hurts’ every few minutes when I was doubled over and pulling strange faces. He took this the wrong way and actually kept walloping me (I think he thought it was an instruction – hurt Mummy rather than an explanation!) which probably helped in taking my mind off it at least!

I decided this probably was the real thing, although it was a week early, Davies had been 8 days early too so I was sort of expecting it (and glad given her due date that she was early – we could have been looking at a Christmas Eve induction 🙁 ) and giving the amount of labour inducing tricks I had been trying all week it was not too much of a shock (still can’t face a fresh pineapple two years on!). Ady was duty manager at work due to finish at 10pm. Given it was about 4.30pm when I rang him and told him in no uncertain terms that I could not hold on ’till then he rang around and got some one to come in and cover the end of his shift!

He arrived home around 5.30pm by which time I was a little more in control and the contractions had actually slowed down a little bit so he took over putting Davies to bed while I rang the midwife. By 7.30pm Davies was fast asleep and the midwife was ringing every few minutes as she drove up and down our road trying to find us. We eventually directed her in using descriptions of our neighbours very extravagent Christmas decorations and she arrived!

It all slowed up a bit then really, me and the midwife sat watching TV while Ady cooked some tea for him and her and phoned round some friends and relatives to give some updates. The midwife gratefully ate her tea, proclaimed it quite the very best home birth meal she had ever had, thanked Ady as she would now not need to have tea when she got home and announced that her shift was about to finish and another midwife was on here way !!!

The next midwife arrived and was a bit less inclined to sit on the sofa or allow me to do so either and had me bouncing on my birthing ball and walking around which really got things going again. Around midnight we moved into the dining room which was where the birth was planned for and was sheeted out appropriately. I had a lot of gas and air (empty canisters lined all along our hallway is an image that will always stay with me about Scarlett’s birth, with a little vest and first sleepsuit hanging over the radiator above them keeping warm waiting to be filled) and as with Davies’ birth the details of the last bit always are a bit shadowy and dreamlike – I guess some of the body shuts down so instinct can take over. And memory dims so we all don’t stop at the first one thinking ‘well I’m never bloody doing that again!’

I know the midwife asked if I wanted her to break my waters – and the choices were do that and it will happen quickly but may be more painful or leave them which would draw it all out more – I said ‘let’s get it over and done with!’ and she did that crochet hook thing! I then recall standing with my arms round Ady while he supported me moaning that I couldn’t do it any more, I just couldn’t, while he told me I already was 🙂 I then felt an overwhelming urge to lie on my side, so there was much rushing around getting all the cushions off various sofas (we have four!) so I could do just that, and there she was 🙂 Ady got to cut the cord, which he hadn’t done with Davies and I held her close while she did that ‘what the bloody hell is this all about, I was quite comfortable in there thankyou very much!’ crying, saying ‘Mummy’s here, mummy’s here’. She was then dressed by someone, the floor tidied up, Ady rang round everyone who would welcome a 2am phonecall, sent a few texts (two of which we were amazed to get congratulaions texts back from!) and as the midwives kissed us all and went off into the night I sat down to feed her.

Within the hour Davies was awake and came down to meet his new baby sister. He was actually quite scared of the small bundle and more interested in opening door 6 on his chocolate advent calendar, but he did get used to the idea and we have some lovely pictures of them in the early hours of that first morning (which I will dig out and upload later). Scarlett and I then went to bed for her first sleep.

So here we are two years on and that helpless little bundle is a raging two year old. In two short years she has learnt to walk, talk, wind me up beyond belief and is more of a person already than some people ever become. She is fiercely independant and will give affection – but on her terms, which makes her hug you till you burst cuddles and push your hair back from your face before kissing you all over kisses all the more precious and special. Her ‘ove oo mummy’ is always well timed (middle of the night when she has asked for juice again, when she has driven you almost to tears by emptying the sudocrem out over the stairs again). She adores her brother to the point of hero worship, and will stand up for him against any child who crosses her, she is charming, bewitching and adorable as well as naughty, cheeky and completely unphased by me shouting!
She has left her mark everywhere – she has added to the crisscross pattern of pregnancies on my tummy, she has scribbled on walls, stained the carpets, emptied perfumes, broken lipsticks, changed our lives, completed our family.

Happy Birthday Scarlett, we love you very, very much xxx

It’s an early and speedy one for a couple of reasons:

Early because I am busy this evening, over to Mum and Dad’s when Ady returns from the footbal (last score check 2-1 to the away team, no wonder he hasn’t texted me 🙁 ) to make up the playhouse for Scarlett which is over there and drop off the Dora cake and some balloons and banners as we are spending most of the day there on Monday. Then I am bringing them both back here for takeaway and wine – which means I will either be too busy being drunk and happy or too pissed to blog anything coherant (and shut up at the back there about that being nothing unusual!).

Speedy because the kids are unsupervised with the tree and all it’s edible decorations while I am cooking them some tea and it is unwise to leave them alone with tinsel and chocolate santas and candy canes for any length of time! Also speedy cos I sliced my middle finger yesterday while cake-creating and it is severly hampering my typing speed 🙁

So a pretty good day today really, photos of decs and tinsel fairy to follow in due course. The kids have been as well behaved as you can expect of them given the amount of twinkly lights, tinsel and other such exciting stuff I have been digging out of secret cupboards, and Dad coming over for a few hours helped their cause too. They have both done some playing with their LeapPads, Davies did the maze puzzle cdrom with my Dad using the laptop (man that made me nervous!), Tarly has done lots of puzzles and found a little pot of foam shapes from the craft cupboard which she has been sorting into colours and shapes and making things like boats out of – all very impressive. We have also talked about the Christmas story, how it all began, my abridged version of what we are celebrating and some of the symbolisms behind stuff like the star on top of the tree and the giving of presents. Ady picked up this fab book which I might read to him tonight.

I have been trying to strike a balance between fun, tacky, classy and childfriendly with the decorations and reminising on this time two years ago all misty eyed! We have watched the countdown to Christmas dvd twice and a rudolph cartoon film which we watched about 5 times a day throughout November and December last year with really catchy songs in it once, so we are feeling suitably festive.

Tomorrow we are going for a big roast dinner with Ady’s oldest and best friend, his parents in law and their children and grandchildren (too complicated to describe in greater details!) which I am looking forward to, particularly as Ady is driving 🙂 so I don’t know whether I will be home, or in any condition to be blogging then either. Although I will be doing a romantic birthday message to Tarly similar to the one I did for Davies at some point in the next couple of days, so all you lovers of tear jerking emotion stay tuned for that one 🙂

Well it’s not actually totally finished, and taking the pic with a dark background doesn’t do it justice and the wet looking bits will dry, but here is the first pic of the Dora cake:

I am pretty pleased with it actually – and the acid test – although she probably shouldn’t have seen it yet I think she will be getting enough surprises on the day not to worry about the cake being one too – and I needed her approval so yes, Scarlett has seen it and instantly recognised it – so HURRAH for that:-)

And while I had the camera out I took some snaps of my poor sore nosed children. Here is Davies with his chapped moustache:

and here is Tarly with her festive nose:

She is now asleep although we have kept her up the latest she’s managed all week and Davies is obviously on the mend as he is still chuntering away asking foolish time wasting questions to keep me in his bedroom. About to go and tackle that clean washing mountain before shoving pie and chips in the oven, grabbing a quick bath and then setting up the Christmas tree ready for decorating with the kids tomorrow.

Rescued it!

Turned the doomed cake into a ‘princess cake’ with pink butter icing and spangly decorations aplenty! Pic taken and will follow later! edited to add – Here it is!

Biscuits are for the bin!

Made another cake which I have just taken out of the oven to cool and has risen beautifully 🙂

Kids very tired, snotty and fed up so we have just dug out the musical instruments and had a singalong, which is having an interval so Davies can watch Kipper (which he has never shown the remotest interest in before, but never mind!)

Crisis over for now:-)

Argh! Well nothing is going right here 🙁

Made my fail safe sponge cake ready to decorate this evening, but it failed 🙁 It’s way too flat to be covered with icing and turned into Dora – especially when there will be 7 adults and 4 children wanting a piece! Also made some gingerbread biscuits with little cut out stained glass effect coloured windows, which due to over enthusiastic assistance from the children have none of the delicate charm and detail they should have, and all of the appearance of a lump of playdough with broken glass chippings – and they caught cos I was busy trying to do something else instead of watch the clock to see how long they were in the oven for!

Had to run out twice for ingredients I thought I had in the cupboard but didn’t – the first time we walked round the shop, the second time I bundled the kids in the car and left them outside the shop while I ran in (you can see the car through the window so we can still wave to each other, I just couldn’t face putting their coats and shoes on again).

We got a cheque from Camelot which I recognised the envelope for and got momentarily excited, but its just a tenner!

Davies is leaving a trail of slightly snotty tissues all round the house – he dabs ineffectually at his very sore nose then just chucks the tissue where he is standing – anyone got any tips for teaching a child to blow their own nose?

Scarlett needs constant supervision so she doesn’t scratch her nose down to the bone and the cat crapped in the laundry basket which made me retch while I tried to clear it off all the clothes before re-washing them. I have three towering baskets of clean washing to put away but as the kids can’t be left downstairs and they will only try and ‘help’ if I take them upstairs with me which will result in clothes everywhere they will have to wait ’till later too.

Not a hope of making any Christmas cards , I think I will make some buttercream for the failed cake and see if they can be persuaded to eat it while sneakily making another one and hoping it rises this time!

‘My God, what’s that child done to it’s nose!?!’

That would be Scarlett, self mutilating toddler! She has managed to replace the bumped head and scratched nose from the incident with Davies and the bin last week with an identical bumped head from falling off the TV unit (don’t ask!) and a scratched nose from falling out of bed (yes we do supervise her, honestly, and frankly given the very small amount of time that child spends in her own bed to manage to fall out of it is quite an impressive feat!).

So the head bump is not too bad but the sore nose is getting worse, and having just found her infront of a mirror, scratching at it until there is blood dripping and then pointing in the mirror at herself and saying ‘Sore, Scarlett, nose BLOOD’ with what sounded like a scarily eery satisfaction I am less than hopeful it will be looking healed and healthy for her birthday pictures! I have covered her entire nose in nappy cream and may have to use make up on it if we have to go out anywhere!

About to do some cooking – a birthday cake for Tarly and some gingerbread tree decorations with crushed sweets in the little windows ready to put on the tree tomorrow 🙂

A pretty good day today, illness aside. Won’t even bother reporting the night infact I think I’ll just leave nightimes ’till we get someting blogworthy on the plus side 🙂

So what did we get upto today? Well first thing we did a small bit of festive crafts – I got out my shiny new compass and showed them how to use it to make circles and also flowers, then we cut out some circles – this is actually quite noteworthy for Davies who has always struggled a bit with scissors and paper doing what they should – today he managed some really pretty impressive cutting round the circle shapes – and using crimped edge scissors too. I made a few snowflakes which Scarlett decorated with glitter glue, I also tried a bauble type thing from one of our Christmas crafts books which looks too good to be childmade and too crap to be proud of so that will be binned! Also cut out a christmas tree shape each for them from green paper to decorate which they both did good jobs on and then they got bored so I cleared all that up (see blog below for handy tips!) and brought out some puzzles ready for when Julie and the twins arrived.

Scarlett was actually qute spiteful today to the twins – she can be like this if she is tired or poorly – sort of toddler PMT I guess and she is really better left alone than trying to make her share or play nicely – frankly I often don’t feel like playing nicely or sharing MY stuff so I don’t see that children should always be forced to! So despite Maisie really wanting to join in puzzles with us I gave Scarlett some one to one and let Davies do ‘big cousin’ with Maisie and do puzzles with her! She then cheered up a bit and we had lunch. After that they all started to get a bit rowdy and before any gratuitous chucking about of toys, mess making or book abuse could start I brought the dressing up trunk into the lounge which occupied all four of them (and Julie!) until they left – which was great. 🙂

After that both of my two faded fast and picked at food all afternoon to keep them going, which meant they didn’t want any tea. At 4pm Scarlett was asking for ‘sleep Mummy, bed’. I told her to wait ’till Ady got home and the instant he walked in the door instead of running to greet him like usual she turned to me and said ‘Now Mummy sleep bed?’ Bless her! Persuaded her to watch Dora before she went to bed at about 5.30pm – but lets face it the nights we are having it makes no odds what time she goes to bed, she’ll still be up again before we go to bed!

Davies managed a respectable hour longer before falling asleep as his head touched the pillow at 6.30pm.

Don’t know what I was thinking getting more beads before I bought a bead recepticle into which to colour sort them I’m sure! And given the kids yearning for familiar characters from TV which need blocks of certain colours I think I need to do a top up order anyway – so put the midi beads away again and made a backpack for Tarly to match her Dora (and use up some of the excess of purple!), Davies watched a dinosaur movie on DVD and Scarlett was actually very good at colour sorting beads for me and naming the colours as she did it – bless 🙂

Tomorrow we were planning a walk in a woodland area with a picnic but given the kids’ already passable resemblances to a certain red nose reindeer and their hacking coughs I don’t think I would be a good Mummy to let them out really, so I think we might do some baking of edible tree decorations and maybe even the cake for Tarly’s birthday which I can then decorate in the evening.

Tonight Ady is cooking some phesants a kindly work colleage gave him (yum!) I am going to have a big bubble bath and lots of wine before Scarlett wakes up, and maybe even do some more bits off my job list!

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Here I am, the tinsel festooned curvy and volutuous Christmas Fairy (photo available on request!) who has all her wrapping done and is now in a position to share with you some of my handy hints and tips – I am to the disorganised Holiday season blogger what Trinny and Suzannah are to erm, board games!

Tip # 1
If you have more than one offspring – or even just the one then buy cheapo wrapping paper in a different design for each child. Saves the need for gift tags on their pressies and makes it easy for even the pre-reader to identify their pressies on the scrum that is Christmas morning!

Tip # 2
Been making snowflakes where you cut out circles, fold them and then snip bits out before opening them up to either be amazed at the beauty of a simple white paper creation or pissed off at how they collapse when you trim too close to the edge and they simply resemble a circle of paper with bits cut out and look nothing like snowflakes??? Whatever, you will now have small bits of white paper triangle snips covering your floor which are a bugger to pick up – too big for the hoover to collect, too small to pick up easily with your fingers. You have two choices – leave them there with the glitter and consider it ‘carpet decoration for Christmas’ or make a sellotape knuckleduster sticky side out and give that carpet a bounding with your fists. Surprisingly effective at both collecting the white bits and getting out any snowflakes didn’t work type frustration you may be harbouring!

Just cos it’s on the radio, and it is a good song!

Don’t know where last night went really, the kids started off both asleep by 6pm. At Rachel’s they had pretty much taken it in turns to sit cuddled up on my lap and were both really tired and cuddly. They didn’t stay that way of course:-(

I managed to wrap up everything we have got so far for Christmas and Scarlett’s birthday, seperate it into various bin liners so I know what is what and stash it all away again ready to bring out as and when – result 🙂 Scarlett was up and down the whole time so Ady had to try and keep her in her bedroom, before eventually taking her up to our bed where she stayed all night. Davies kept waking up and coughing and wanting me to stay with him so I did a fair bit of the night asleep on his bedroom floor!

They both seem a bit brighter this morning – still pale and tired but not so much coughing. They both really need a full nights sleep to get over it, but that seems to be the one thing eluding everyone in the house at the moment!

Today I had plans for hamabeading, finishing off the Christmas cards for the MP list and maybe making some decorations like snowflakes and paper chains, but neither of them seem up to much more than watching TV and cuddling, Julie is due over in an hour with the twins and depending on the childrens’ moods we might wander along to the local park to get them a bit of fresh air and exercise later.

Other than that a quiet day here I reckon – maybe I should break out the ‘learning books’ while they are too docile to fight it:-)