FOUR DAYS AND COUNTING!!

Another manic day in the countdown to the move! Today after a very warm weekend I decided the children *must* have summer shoes to be wearing – we had had their feet measured last week and they said they both had a couple of weeks left in their shoes anyway so we decided to wait till we get home, but as a fickle female I changed my mind looking at all the other littlies in their cute sandals yesterday at the farm! So went to The Trafford Centre Clarks first thing and sorted them both out with Doodles (the little canvas, chuck em in a machine wash summer shoes) but they had no ‘real’ shoes we liked for either of them. They do this Stomposaurus range which Monster, via Daddy’s influence decided he liked but they had nothing nice in either of their sizes, they then decided at 11am they were both hungry – Monster ‘ Lets go to the food bit and sit down and have chicken nuggets from McDonalds’ who taught my three year old about brand recognition then?! So we relented in the interests of an easy life and no cooking for tea! We then bunged the photos (more of them later!) in for developement, me and Monster had a quick trek round Asda then went to the next Clarks – still nothing, then finally to the last local Clarks where we got Teeny new shoes (hugely cute little floral ankle boots which she keeps fetching to show me and trying to get on herself – sooo my girl all obsessed with her new shoes!) but still nought for Monster. Then home where Ady continued to fret about hoovering the curtains, reupholstering the skirting boards and dusting the linoleum or some other such cleaning type nonsense in the interests of getting as much of our deposit back as possible! All set for a good day tomorrow – taking Boss Lady for one last lunch then shopping for something special as a pressie for Lynda (nanny, childminder, surrogate Mum for me while we’ve been up here type treasure!) and obviously more polishing of the carpet, cleaning of the light fittings and dusting of the curtains!
Struggling to get a cast members list like on Merry’s blog atm – although confident with the help of Jax (waves at my IT icon!) I will get there so here is our current fave pic of Monster and Teeny

An EXCELLENT day today to ‘celebrate’ our last weekend up here! We went to Tescos (dead classy us eh?!) for breakfast – that was a weekly thing for us on a Sunday morning before Atkins diet last year which we never took up again after Atkins finished! Kids behaved like angels, Teeny sat in a high chair pointing at all the other babies in there and shouting ‘aaabee’ at them whilst eating at least two slices of toast, Monster decided he was ‘getting hungry’ and ate two of my sausages, two slices of toast all liberally dipped in ketchup! We then went round Tescos buying bits to make up meals for the rest of the week based on what is left in the freezer and cupboards – kids still behaved like angels – Teeny in Ady’s arms being carried round expressing delight at all the ‘aaabees’ and Monster being the very best food shopping companion ever, he held onto the trolley all the way round, took stuff off shelves and put it gently into the trolley, when Teeny was walking along and knocked stuff off shelves he put it back on again and helped load it all onto the conveyer belt – dream child! We then popped home to drop the shopping off and went on to the local working farm at Stockley which is always a fab day out. It was packed but kids had a ball! Teeny was beside herself to meet pigs

cows, sheep, ducks and various other animals she can do the noises for but has previously (in her memory anyway!) only seen on TV, in books or played with in small plastic animal form. Monster was less enamoured with the animals although he was quite taken with a rabbit but then he has seen them all before – many times! He did however love the sandpit


check out the matching outfits – a bit sad I know but I have not bought them any summer clothes yet and these Ireland T shirts were the only short sleeved items to dress them in this morning! Plus I like to dress them in easily identifiable colours if we are going somewhere busy so I can spot them in the crowd if needs be!

We fed the baby goats and lambs,

had ice creams, cream teas and chocolate cake then went home and baked dinosaur biscuits (kids having eaten organic bananas bought from the farm shop on the way home!) for tea, kids had big splashy bath and then went to sleep amazingly quickly. We continued our packing efforts with the cutlery drawer (how does it get so icky!) and the plate and bowl cupboard (how do a family with only two people who eat off anything other than plastic bowls with Buzz Lightyear or Winnie the Pooh acquire so much crockery?!). Have now eaten lovely roast beef dinner, drunk two glasses of wine and am feeling all at peace with the world….remind me of this in three days time when I am stressing about moving and not having packed and generally pondering why we ever had children!
Loads of learning gone on today too – a great day all round!

Just for the sake of getting photos on my blog and will even it up with some cute ones of Monster tomorrow, here is Teeny dressed as woody!

and here is Teeny and I in Ireland recently.
Pics of Ady and Monster to follow!

Urgh what a day! Starting off with the rest of the week so far – Thursday we did some work then walked into town, lovely day weather and family wise! Friday we planned to go to the local(ish) small scale theme park, Gullivers World, which is usually a fab day out – small scale rollercoasters, flying aeroplanes rides etc for the littlies, oh and a newly finished large dinosaur themed section to feed Monster’s need for learning all about the big reptilian ones… so we sent an email to Boss Lady telling her we were taking some time out on Thursday night (which we both then spent a sleepless night about her reaction to!) packed up a picnic for the children, stopped at Asda on the way for posh prepacked sarnies for me and Ady and pulled up to find it – CLOSED! Argh! After some discussion about how next to proceed – Knowlsely Safari Park, Blue Planet? we finally decided to go to Bruntwood Park – a free but huge and very well set up park with tea room, about four different play areas, ice cream vans, a duck pond, oh and the added Ady bonus of the planes from Manchester airport taking off and landing at very low levels every few minutes…arrived, found space to sit, went back to car for plastic backed rug, sat down, ate picnic (reminder to self, always check Ady prepared picnics in future!), I took the plastic backed rug back to the car and returned to find shaky Ady had ‘lost’ Monster for a short period – very traumatic for him, not least because Monster was simply playing games with him and was behind him as he ran round a big tree all the time, frolicked in park, totally wore little people out and had them both asleep before 7pm! A great day all round! We then packed up the kitchen cupboards ready for the move. It has occurred to me, although I don’t intend to dwell on it too deeply that if we can manage without x,y and z for a month, two weeks, a few days while they are boxed up waiting to be moved we likely don’t need x,y and z at all – but that level of decluttering would just be too radical and likley to inspire a replacment of all our cr*p visit to Ikea within days!
This morning did not start so well and TBH probably got worse! Bad night with Teeny, up pretty much from 2-4am with her, so when Ady woke me at 8am I was not the vision of maternal morning loveliness I could have been! Came downstairs to find him focused on cleaning all three downstairs rooms at the same time – kids trying to play around the cleaning in all three rooms – imagine an explosion in a toy factory with a dismantled Dyson, unplugged but with cable trailing throughout two rooms, damp j clothes in various locations, one child dressed (as he had wet his PJs by not getting to the loo on time) one child in PJs, both with breakfast of chocolate spread on toast still evident round mouth and hands, spongebob squarepants on at top volume on one TV, local radio on full blast in the kitchen and ooh, you’d be about half way to visualising the scene! Two sets of potential new tenants due to visit the house in just under two hours…. as first set arrived kids and Ady had been evicted to the garden, I was on my hands and knees picking up various coppers and 5ps strewn about from emptied moneyboxes and the house had the aroma of freshly changed nappy wafting romantically about – ah well guess we don’t care what happens after we leave! Also had a phonecall from the letting agents of our own house to say that the inventory they were supposed to be doing this morning was not happening due to an administrative error and would be carried out on Monday instead so not to change anything before then – fine expect my Dad was due to go round there this afternoon / tomorrow to totally redecorate half the house ready for us to move back into. I went totally mad at them, telling them I did not want to hear any further excuses and I suggested they find some way of carrying out the inventory today and called me back once it had been done. I then phoned my mum to find out why I had not been told that a car has crashed into one of the garden walls and knocked it down – she said she ‘didn’t want to worry me’. Many frantic phonecalls, several involving me shouting very loudly ensued and I think we have finally remedied the situation – never, never again will I rent out a property to tenants and I hope never never to be living in a rented property either….total 2 1/2 year nightmare on both counts. So with me making shouty phonecalls and Ady doing frantic multiroom cleaning the kids have been pretty much ignored and have played up bigtime! Both have been doing their very best attention seeking antics, both have been shouted at lots and it has not been a happy family home by any means! Alls well in the end, both tucked up with many kisses and cuddles at a very respectable hour, both parents clutching medicinal alcoholic drinks and eating up surplus easter egg chocolate (all needs to go before we move!) and the world is a better place once more!
Tomorrow I hope to sort out the pics on this blog, spend some time with littlies and aim to reduce my speaking normally to shouting ratio accordingly!!

A really good day today after a really cr*p one yesterday! Yesterday we had Lynda to look after littlies while me and Ady went to boss lady’s house to collect some paperwork. Which we did okay, went and bought Ady a new jacket (always a trauma trying to get him to buy any new clothes – I swear he would still be wearing the M&S rugby shirts he had when I met him 12 years ago given the chance!), then we came home to prepare for his trip to London today and till Friday. So three days and two nights away – tricky for us who are not so good at being apart – the stress made us really squabbly – even infront of the kids – something I always swore I’d never do. Poor Monster was asking someone to go with him for a wee wee and he got ignored for ages…we patched it all up again and the kids went to sleep – we then spent HOURS trying to make up all the various paperwork folders and manuals only to find Boss Lady had printed the wrong ones – reprinted them all, ordered a pizza as too late to cook, then Ady packed and we fell into bed about midnight – alarm set for 6.30am with Teeny waking every half an hour! Waved him off this morning, Lynda arrived and I spent a happy hour wandering round Sainsburys buying ‘single girl food’ – chocolate, wine, treats for brekkie for me and the kids tomorrow, some cake mixes to entertain us and so on, then came home to hear from Ady that the office he is supposed to be Health and Safety auditing is an empty room with no furniture or anything – frantic phonecalls and texts batter about between me, him, Boss Lady and Boss Lady’s husband (the man who’s company we are doing the work for) and eventually I go to meet Boss Lady for lunch – have a fab lunch in the poshest area up here locally (glad I ‘did’ lunch there before we go home again!), come home and find Ady is coming home again tomorrow instead of Friday – hurrah! Lynda then gives the loveliest speech about how if I need anyone over the next few days I only need to call her – day or night – she is home both afternoons and will gladly come round, and invited us over at some point over the weekend – REALLY going to miss her! Had a great couple of hours with the kids (see I can do it alone – lol) – Monster was on the verge of a tantrum after he and Teeny both sat on the little plastic tray which houses his dinosaurs so I said we could make a new home for them with an old tissue box (hastily emptied of tissues!) and he insisted on using the ‘box of ‘tuff’ (box of stuff – a birthday present from Teeny to him last year – two big boxes of all crafty stuff – glitter, felt, pom poms, stickon eyes, little hands and feet, pipe cleaners, lace, scraps of material, you get the idea – oh and some leftovers from Merry’s MP christmas craft kit!) so we got out an old shower curtain to cover the floor and both of them got stuck (quite literally – we all needed to bath the pritt stick out of our hair!) in with decorating the tissue box and spreading bits of the box of stuff throughout the house! They then both ate ALL their tea, while I hoovered up (the Dyson is now a symphony of glitter, lametta and other sparkly stuff whirling round whenever you turn it on!) had a very splashy bath and they both went to sleep really well – an excellent day topped off by a text from Ady to say he is on the train home tonight after all! ETA about 10pm! And the rest of this week and beginning of next week when he was expecting to go to more H&S audits is cancelled so we are free to pack up and do any last minute Manchester type excursions too!

The day of the move edges ever closer! Today we went to the City of Manchester stadium (where the Commonwealth Games where held and home of Man City FC) to get a photo of us all stood infront of it – the last place on our list of northern landmarks with the four of us infront of them! Also trekked round Asda and Tescos trying to find Ady some smart shirts for meetings he has to go to later this week (nights away from home – wah! how will we all cope?!). Bumped into Lynda in Tesco – Monster insisted on walking round with her for a bit – she said she loved it and he can be really well behaved but we generallys save the supermarket visits for when she is looking after them so it was a bit surreal for all of us to be there together! Ady and kids then played in the garden for a bit, then I watched Dora with them before their baths – Teeny is so funny with her clapping and dancing along to the songs – you only have to ask her ‘where are we going?’ to get her up on her feet twirling around!
Yesterday we went for a last meal with my mate from up here – D. He is a funny bloke, he sings and performs but is actually quite shy and he’s gay – which is totally not an issue but he did not tell anyone for ages so there was all this speculation about him – Monster was really funny asking why no ladies lived at D’s house and then saying how much he loves D – D is not too child friendly – well okay he’s terrified of the little people and gets all flustered if they even try to talk to him, let alone leap on him with kisses and cuddles – very amusing as this seems to be magnetic to both ours who would happily clamber all over him given half a chance! We had fondue – which we’ve never had before and was actually quite nice – if a little chaotic with a fondue merrily bubbling and burning on a low table with the two kids running about high on all the sugar from the sweets and chocolates D kept bringing out for them! Fun though and as Ady said I think me and D will both miss our friendship in a pretending we are Will and Grace sort of way!
Tomorrow Lynda is here to mind the monsters while we have a final meeting with boss lady before we go, then on Wednesday in theory Ady is going down to London for a couple of nights – leaving me all alone to manage the bedtimes, nights and early mornings with the kids which will come as a total culture shock after having him home for three months! Lynda is coming on Wednesday though – and in a way I am looking forward to doing some Mummy stuff with them instead of family stuff!

More of a test to see if the comments thingy is working than anything to report! Just got back from ‘our last night out in Manchester’ very early as the restaurant was quiet, we were seated and ate early and frankly I was a bit drunk by 9pm! Had a great day today – went to Chester Zoo where Monster had a fab time racing about and Teeny loved showing off all her animal noises – of course her full reportoire of about six she was a bit stumped and pointed and squeaked at the giraffe then tried moo, oink, miaow, woof and gave up! As I don’t know what – or even if – giraffes make a noise with Monster we simply did a hand high in the air to show that giraffes are very tall so I tried to teach her that but she was not having any of it! She loved the lions and tigers and the penguins, hated the bat cave, adored the monkeys and wanted to join in with the elephant babies spray water playing! Monster got a big rainbow fish (too big to be a rainbow fish mummy, it must be a rainbow whale) and Teeny got an elephant helium balloon which they battered us with from the back seats of the car all the way home. A great day had by all! Yesterday was also good – pouncing upon Monsters dinosaur interest we have made playdough dinosaurs with home made play dough (did it on Thursday to keep Monster quiet for a while whilst I did some work and then yesterday when I said he couldn’t play with the playdough as there was none left he told me we could just make some with salt, flour and water – that kid’s too smart!), then plasticine, bought some toy plastic dinos, got a dino dvd (which is a nice enough story but rubbish for teaching any real facts – grr!) and a really good book for teaching me all the answers to the questions he keeps asking! He can already identify (scuse spelling!) stegosaurus, pterodon, t rex (although he says the whole name!), tricerotops, diplodocus and knows you don’t get dinosaurs in zoos ‘cos they are stinked!’. He has also grasped that some eat veg (well trees!) and some eat meat (well other dinos!) and all the various scales and horns were for self protection. Think this one could run and run! Also Ady has totally bought into HE now – all of a sudden he has started commenting himself about how glad he is the kids won’t be going to school cos of x,y,z. He turned some Trevor McDonald thing about teachers off in disgust and is really into the idea – he has been shown just how much the kids have learnt while he has been home with us full time for the last few months, and how much they love to learn – it really sunk in when I said to him that Monster should be sat in a classroom with 30 other kids in a years time having to put his hand up and wait to be acknowledged before he can even speak, let alone ask a question, go to the toilet or learn something – imagine how that will curtail his sponge brain!

Anyway enough rambling – off to see if this produces the opportunity for comments or not!

Leap Pad continues to be a best buy here – the Toy Story 2 book I ordered off ebay arrived this morning as did a Dora book ordered from some collecting tokens deal in one of the tabloids my brother reads – so an exciting post for Monster today! Lynda has been here for the last two days and Ady and I have done sterling work with the garage and the basement, both of which are now ready for the move – as I type I should really be packing up the cupboard under the sink – my task for this evening! Getting really excited about the move – it will be great for the kids on so many levels – they will have ready made playmates in the shape of the friends who we made before we left children who are the same age as Monster, their little cousins who are just a couple of months older than Teeny (and will also be HEing!) a fair few local contacts through HE lists I have already made and all the other groups and HE gatherings that seem to be going on in the area generally. A bit concerned about what I am going to be doing work wise but I know something will turn up and even that is a bit exciting in a ‘new opportunity’ sort of way. Monster has sprung great interests in ‘space’ and ‘dinosaurs’ largely based on an extension of the Buzz Lightyear obsession (which also has Rex the dinosaur!) a dinosaur joke book (I know!) a space man duvet cover and Daddy talking to him about them lots. He is also highly interested in bodily functions! I just know there are loads of HE type opportunities within such a vast spectrum and am itching to get to the library, get some scrapbooks and so on but there is no point in starting stuff like that mid move – think I might make a start on some web research and some project ideas though and scout around for some cheapie books from The Works or somewhere – don’t want to lose the interest by ignoring it. Teeny is as adventurous and mad as ever – she is going great guns with her few words and her animal noises and is just so hilarious to be around. Both children are so touching in the little things they do for each other too – there is such a big bond between them, and such love – yesterday while Monster was eating his tea he said he wanted his juice so I told him to go and get it then, Teeny pushed her chair back, stood up, found his juice, gave it to him then sat back down and carried on with her tea. Today they had some easter egg each for their pudding and after I had split it between two bowls for them Monster sat on the sofa next to me but Teeny put her bowl down on her table so Monster put her chair ready for her, then when she had sat down he pushed the table in for her….so cute! Learning is such an organic experience and part of just living it seems such an alien concept to me now to be sent off for seven hours a day to sit and learn! Feeling very excited and positive about life and the future generally at the moment….skips off happily to start under the sink cupboard!

A Happy Easter had by one and all in the Goddard house. Granny and Grandad arrived for their last ever vist up here (we move back down there in just over two weeks) on Friday – to much excitement from Monster and Teeny (even Teeny recognised them this time – although she flatly refused to stay alone in a room with them for the rest of the weekend – going mad if me or Ady tried to leave!). Had a long conversation with my parents on Friday night about the whole home education thing – both of them listened to what I had to say – I expanded upon what I had previously told them about it all and my reasons for wanting to do it – talking through following a curriculum, the options of HE as opposed to state and private schools, how we would tackle socialisation, the various resources available, the vast network of HEers and so on. Although I am sure neither of them are yet convinced I think they have finally grasped that it is not one of my fancy notions or five minute wonders (not that I think I am particularly prone to such things anyway!) and that it is a well thought out and researched lifestyle choice. I honestly believe that as time goes by they will HAVE to accept it as the children prove it is the right thing for us as they get older anyway. So I sort of feel the topic has been put to bed a bit – which is exactly what I wanted before we go home – a result! On Saturday we walked into town and had a takeaway and drunken mini egg hiding session in the evening. Monster and Teeny awoke before 6am on Sunday which meant only Ady witnessed the egg finding frenzy with them. They were both good about not consuming all 12 easter eggs there and then and even managed to sit at the table with the grown ups for a cooked lunch (although they had nuggets and alphabites as opposed to the roast pork the rest of us enjoyed!), Sunday evening was spent watching William and Mary and trying not to cry infront of my parents (especially at the teenage pregnancy bit) before an early night all round. Today parents went home, taking our second car as an early birthday pressie for my brother (Ady will be getting a company car when he starts the new job) and we had a brief wonder around the town and did some more packing and cleaning. Nothing of great educational note to report but I always feel proud of what great children they are when they are around my parents – so a pat on the back for me and Ady anyway!

a pretty good couple of days here – yesterday Lynda was around for most if it which meant me and Ady achieved loads of moving stuff – repacked basement boxes and got them down from 22 to 7 – huge achievement and wonder quite how we accumulated so much cr*p in the first place! We have still got about 5 boxes to sell on ebay – not sure whether I really well get them all photographed and listed and sold and out the house before we move, or whether they will end up moving with us or whether we will simply be realistic and give them to the local charity shop before we go! We have already given them loads of the kids toys – and felt all glowy and warm when we walked past the shop today and saw them all in there for sale! Did two trips to the local tip – pangs as we chucked the old car seats – especially the baby baby one – it has in its time craddled our two most precious things in the world – seems sad that it ends its days amoung the broken tvs and old fridges! i also managed to condese the kids toys in the dining room / playroom to 12 storage boxes all with lids firmly closed – this means more toy boxes went up into their bedrooms (okay are still piled up in the corner waiting to go in their bedrooms!) – and three boxes packed of photo albums and the like. Today we walked into town and finally bought the Leap Pad we have been debating for ages for the little people – huge success – all hail the leap pad, long live the leap pad the leap pad is king! Monster LOVES it – so far we have only got the freebie book it comes with but have other books in my view already! He is in bed currently playing with it and is so proud of how much he knows – and Ady was so surprised at how much he knows – really afirms the belief that he is learning all the time and we are doing a good job – oh and it might just keep him quiet on the 5 hour car journey coming up too! We got more boxes delivered today for the move and I became a proper customer at Viking Direct – ahhh stationery (said in manner of Homer Simpson and Do-nuts!) first order arrived mere hours after ordering and although it was all stuff for work there was that frisson of excitment while opening the boxes – oh and we got a free new customer welcome gift of easter chocs and biccies too! Then Ady and kids frollicked in the garden (including emptying out and washing the sandpit) while I did some work. Parents arriving for the weekend tomorrow so Ady is currently making their room habitable, Teeny is long since asleep and Monster has finally reliquished the leap pad in favour of Buzz Lightyear and is now yelling for me – so time to go!

Not much educatin’ gone on here today! Well thats not strictly true actuall! Me and Ady went to a work meeting, whcih went very well, then we came home and he got the phonecall officially offering him his new job, I had a long and in depth phonecall with boss lady – result is that we are having lunch on Friday to ‘thrash’ everything out and it looks like I will be self employed and invoice her on an as i work basis – which I think will be the very best option for all of us – so a productive day for the Goddard adults. Lynda was looking after Monster and Teeny while all this went on – we got home to find all sorts of assorted paintings drying in the kitchen and some home made easter cards for us both – very cute and bless Lynda for doing all the messy stuff we rarely get round to, too! So did not spend much time with littlies today but they both had a good day, Monster built another erm, monster train track all round the dining room – convinced he has a career in engineering or similar with his building and visualisation skills, and Teeny worked on her animal noises! Both asleep by a very respectable 7.15 tonight – a rare treat to be honest but one to be celebrated anyway! Tomorrow will bring mammoth packing frenzy type stuff while Lynda is about followed by weather permitting garden activity!

A really good day today – spent nearly two hours on the phone to a friend who I met at baby clinic when I had Monster. She has a son a couple of months older than Monster. She is thrilled we are coming home, really looking forward to getting together every week again and is also pregnant with her second! Its funny cos the other girl we used to meet up with who has a daughter the same age as her son is about to have her second too. When we used to get together (prior to the move up here – Monster was newborn to a year for the time we met back then) I always felt like I was learning from them as their two were a few months older than Monster – now I have two children – Teeny is nearly 18 months and they are both only just starting with their seconds – so I will be the one dishing the advice on second babies! She was also very very supportive of our HE plans when I told her – she has considered it herself but feels she could not give it the committment it would need and does not want to jepodise her children’s education – which I can appreciate even thought I would now consider that to be a groundless fear! but she said (as various others have when I told them) that she thinks I would be great at it and she is not at all surprised about me doing it. I am taking this as positive – I am not by nature a big kicker of the system or a hippy (!) so these people must think I am someone who would do this cos I am someone who values spending time with my kids and makes them my priorty (or something!).
Me and Monster then watched Peter and the Wolf which I had got from ebay for him – three times! He loved the story and the music and we also have the music on cd which I will play for him next time we are in the car. After lunch it really rained and hailed so I went out in it to collect a glass full of hailstones and we had a ‘lesson’ about it melting slower in the glass than in our hands, which was slower than if we put it on the radiator and why, we then tasted it, smelt it etc and Monster worked out that it was just water, the same as snow and rain (his words) – all very educational! We also made a shaker with some water in a plastic bottle, added glitter, then some blue food dye then he told me which colour we needed to add to make it green (he got there eventually!). Teeny has been impressing me with her fast learning too today – before Monster could speak he learnt all sorts of animal noises and she has been doing the same, she can do cow, pig, cat, dog, duck, fish, sheep. she can also point to her nose, toes, eyes, hair, tummy, ears and mouth and anyone elses, she is getting very good at following basic instructions – she can go and choose shoes for herself, Monster, me and Ady, if we tell her she needs a new nappy she will go and fetch a nappy and the changing mat then lie down ready, she knows what biscuit means and will go and find the tin whenever she hears the word mentioned!
Monster impressed our friends yesterday by coming out with several spanish words – all learnt from Dora but they don’t need to know that! – when the husband started speaking in dutch to his father.
Teeny has now scribbled all over my computer desk with a cd marker and Monster is lying on a load of collapsed boxes which we intend packing up the dining room with tonight. Its time to wrestle them in pjs and start the journey towards the child free zone of this evening…. but a good day had by all!

Ahem, drawing a line under my apauling Blog upkeep in the past here is the start of a whole new, far more regular entries phase – maybe!
First an update – back in December life was in limbo – work was up in the air, didn’t know where we would be living and still very unsure of the whole HEing ideas – largely effected by various less than enthusiastic responses to people when I told them and lack of confidence in my ability to carry it all off. Since then work has folded, we have spent the last three months all at home all day long which has been great in many respects – Ady was around for Teeny’s first steps, he has played a big part in their lives the last three months whereas for a long time before he was more of a guest star appearance every so often every other weekend! On the plus side I think he finally has an appreciation of what its like to be home with the kids – just how challenging they can be, how frustrating, how annoying, also how lovely it is to be around and watch them learn, how every day everything you do has an impact on them in some way. His presence has had good and bad effects on the kids too – in some ways good – he is more of a parent, less of a novelty now – if he tells them off they take it instead of crumbling, he does not feel pressure to be fun all the time anymore, Monster has had more boisterous play in the last three months than about the previous three years! And I just feel we are more even as parents now and more of a team. On the down side Monster has started to learn more about the difference between boys and girls, he has been introduced to a whole new world of TV that I perhaps would not have shown him just yet! On the whole I am glad we have had this time, but I will also be glad to wave Ady off to work in the mornings again soon and have my own little life – and my kids exclusively – back for a few hours each day!
We are moving at the end of this month from Manchester back to Sussex, back into our old house which has been let out to various tennants while we have been away so may take a little while to feel ‘ours’ again. We have plans being passed (fingers crossed!) to extend the kitchen into the garage to create a huge kitchen diner which will probably end up as the only room we use! and a third bedroom upstairs for Teeny – until then she will be downstairs on her own in the room which will become an office eventually. The other downstairs room will be a big playroom / HE base for the house so that once the kids are in bed the house is an adult zone again. The upsides of moving home will be all the family and friends we have so missed the last two and a half years, (hopefully) more help with the kids, a massive potential network of HEers – a couple of whom I have already made contact with via email and can’t wait to meet and very excitingly Ady’s brother and his wife are HEing their twins who are the same age as Teeny. I have spoken to a couple of people about us coming home as I sent out the change of address cards and party invites (home coming, Ady’s 40th and most people have not even met Teeny so we HAD to have a party!) and everyone seems thrilled we are coming home which makes me worry less about what people think when we went off two and a half years ago to ‘find our fortune’ but are now coming back again! So with the move home, move towards getting more involved with HE activities and meeting people – and nearly a year of fact finding and research on HE I am now totally convinced that the children will do so well at home with us and sending them to school would be such a wrong thing to 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!

I am writing this in a hurried fashion as a) have had a really good day today and want to capture that before the kids wind me up over bedtime and I just do a rant on them instead and b) Teeny is really, really tired as she has not slept at all today but I want to hold her off going to bed for as long as possible as its my turn to get up with the first riser in the morning!
K and B came over to us today after we went to them last week. They were here for about three hours and we set the front room up with three of the kids toy boxes – the blocks, the pretend play (doctors kit and tea set etc) and Teeny’s toys which are cups. shape sorters etc oh and the sticklebricks. Teeny did as she did last week and largely ignored the other two while doing her latest stunt of a tower of five blocks – she could probably go higher but five is as high as her arm reaches! and calmly bashing the hell out of the blocks until they submit into whichever hole on the sorter she is attempting to fit them in! Monster and B played really well and spent a happy half horu or so taking turns to remove pushed in plasticine from the toy dyson with one of the doctors kit implements! We are planning to see them again at the Warrington HE group next week which Ady is probably coming along to as well which will be nice. Its lovely to see Monster playing so well with another child – he really enjoyed having her here. After they went we walked round to the shops to get something for dinner and saw a marble run in the toy shop window reduced from £10.99 to £6.99. I bought Monster a really cheap (£2.99) and very crappy one a few weeks back from Wilkingsons and its rubbish – the plastic is so thin that you can’t get it to stand up and the marbles keep getting stuck – this one is fab – its got about 100 pieces and its really sturdy. I made one run for it which worked really well before Teeny ploughed through the middle of it – it has since been tidied and got back out three times and Monster has built a bizzer (i think its a version of a laser / magic wand) out of some of the bits too. I am planning on building a monster marble run when the kids have gone to bed!!! he he he.
They both ate all their tea and are now playing round my feet. Really feel like we’ve spent a good day together today – infact I was feeling all smug about not having shouted or gotten impatient today until I sat down to do this and Monster started his usual combination of ‘I need a wee wee’, I need a cuddle, you play with me, come in the lounge and general whinging!!

still a bit early to juge how today is going 🙂 but Lynda will be here soon so I will be getting some work done!
Yesterday was a good day – Lynda was here in the morning so I did some work and xmas shopping (well actually clothes shopping for me and Teeny but they were festive clothes!) then in the afternoon we played sea monsters! which basically entailed Teeny being a sea monster and clambering about the place while me and Monster tried to stay on the boat (the sofa) and avoid falling into the sea (the floor!) Great fun and I think safe to tick off physical activity and imaginative play!
Am finding both children quite demanding at the moment – I know why – I am desperately trying to read through all the stuff that has arrived from EO and HEAS and the many, many books I have got from Amazon and the library but the kids just want me to play with them – we need to reach a compromise!
Today I am popping out for a few more bits of shopping then as its a really wet and horrid day I will attempt to find something fun to do in the house with them both after Lynda goes home.