mainly nonsense
Here’s a tip for anyone feeling a little down over breakfast.
You will need one small boy who needs a hair cut and is willing to put toast (complete with margarine and marmite) in his hair, and a damp flannel. Attempt to rub toast, margarine and marmite out of hair with the damp flannel.
Voila – instant entertainment that all the family can enjoy.
The girl has a friend whose birthday is on Boxing Day. Her parents came up with the ingenious idea of celebrating her birthday at the 6 month mark – a bit like the Queen, she has her real birthday and her official one. It’s a good idea, most of my mummy friends were met either through ante or post natal groups so we have loads of birthday’s in December/January.
It’s nice to have a party to go to in the summer, it gives us a chance to get a bit more wear out of the party dress.
As you can see, the girl was quite excited about having a party to go to too.
Everytime I see this box I misread the label.
There follows a conversation I had with my daughter a couple of days ago.
Me: “What would you like in your sandwich?”
The Girl: “Crumby ham1 and cheese”
Me: “Crumby ham and cheese what?”
TG: “Crumby ham and cheese please mummy”
Me: “Wooden cheese2 or cow3 cheese?”
TG: “Cow cheese please”
Before I had children I had a lot of ideas about how we would bring them up. The usual things like no TV (whoops), breastfeeding until weaned (whoops), no bribing my children with food (whoops). I also assumed that I would teach my children how to speak my language, not that they would teach me how to speak their language. Whoops.
It’s taken me 3 and a half years to come to the realisation that the child-rearing assumptions I made before having children were completely unrealistic. Thank goodness I didn’t share those assumptions with too many other people, particularly people who had children before me!
1 Crumbed ham
2 Hard cheese that you would slice or grate to put in a sandwich
3 Cheese spread
The boy has taken (much like Christopher Robin) to dragging a stuffed toy around behind him. I was particularly amused by today’s choice of stuffed toy.
Anyone else thinking of Calvin and Hobbes?
Once every 4 months I go somewhere on my own. When I get there I am always greeted like a hero. Everywhere I look there are beaming smiles and comments of “we’re so pleased to see you again”. I get to lie down for 20 minutes (on my own without a child trying to climb on me) and then I get made a drink and forced to eat biscuits. When I leave it’s to the sound of people thanking me and hoping for my return. Sounds great, don’t you think?
Once every 4 months all I have to do is endure a pretty insignificant pinching/scratching feeling in my arm. I wouldn’t say it hurts but it’s a little uncomfortable for about 3 seconds (I’ve counted it in my head, that’s all it takes).
Once every 4 months I give blood. It’s something that I’ve done for a while. I’ve made 15 donations so far, which I’m quietly proud of. It has, of course, become more important to me since I’ve had children.
It’s something that I’ve never really talked about to other people. I always assumed that most people that could, would. After all, it doesn’t really hurt and I’ve never suffered any ill effects. I also didn’t want people to think that I was either showing off or trying to push them into doing something they didn’t want to do.
It’s only lately that I’ve realised that a lot of people that I know don’t give blood and it seems that it’s mostly because it just hasn’t occurred to them, or they’ve thought about it but never quite got round to it.
Last year I started reading a blog called Three Ring Circus. Tiff’s past and ongoing story is amazing; sometimes funny, sometimes sad, but always inspiring. She is a fabulous and strong woman. Her youngest daughter, Ivy, has been diagnosed with immune deficiency and a monthly infusion of Intragam P makes her life liveable. I had never heard of this before I read Tiff’s blog. I always assumed that giving blood meant helping people that needed whole blood. Blood lost through an accident or operation. I didn’t know that my blood could help a little girl who is poorly. A little girl who needs anti-bodies. I’d like you to read Tiff’s speech to the Australian Red Cross (Ivy was their poster girl for a month – an advertisement for donating blood) rather than me twittering on about it any longer.
I don’t like to tell other people what to do but I just want to say that it’s easy, it doesn’t take much time, it doesn’t hurt that much and it helps so many people. And if you clicked the link, how could you not help that beautiful little girl?
I got the husb to take this picture. If you look really, really hard you can just about see the puncture mark – not that big really although I must ask why they use such a big plaster next time.
So, here’s me saying I won’t be posting everyday and here are two in a row. I’ve been wanting to post this for a while but I had to wait until after our holiday, otherwise it wouldn’t have been a surprise.
My parents-in-law are celebrating their ruby wedding anniversary in December of this year. Many congratulations and much love to you both. I made and decorated a cake, partly to congratulate them but also to say “thank you” for everything they do for us.
Our holiday seemed the perfect time to give it to them – it was a fruit cake and there’s always plenty of that around in December.
In other news, we had some weather this evening.
Here’s a close up of a hailstone for purpose of scale.
Hello, is anyone still there?
Sorry for the absence but things have been building up for a while. Little things like asthma attacks, sleepless nights, back pain, picky eaters, tantrums, tears, A&E visits for bashed in little heads, teething induced and sometimes scarily high temperatures (not to mention the nappies that go with that) to name but a few.
Thank you all for your kind comments on the last post. I was on the verge of giving up completely but you’ve helped me to come to another decision.
When I started this blog I needed the dicipline of posting every day to ensure that I kept it up, otherwise I would have started well but tailed off into nothing. With everything that’s been going on lately though, it was beginning to feel like a chore – one more thing that I had to fit into my increasingly busy day. I want to continue with the photography and the blog but I’m not going to tie myself down to posting everyday.
So, I’m back. I’ve decided on a swishy new design and a rename (although I have yet to come up with the name). I wish I were clever enough to think of and design my own look but I know where my strengths lie and arty stuff isn’t where it’s at for me! I’m also going to stop numbering my posts – I have enough trouble getting it right when I’m doing it daily, there’s no hope for me if I’m going to skip some days here and there.
This is my favourite picture from the holiday.
I’ve come to a momentous decision. Well, it’s not that momentous to anyone else but having done this daily (pretty much) for a year and a half it’s pretty momentous for me. I’ve decided to take a break from the blog.
We’re on holiday in the West Country at the moment and it’s all been going terribly wrong (which serves me right for the last post I wrote!).
The boy has been incarcerated at the local hospital with another quite nasty asthma attack and while I was in there with him I had to go to A&E by wheelchair because my back gave up on me and I was unable to move around. I’m on some hefty painkillers which are making me feel a bit odd (that and the 2 hours sleep I have managed in the last 2 days). Then there are all the other little inconveniences that go with trying to manage a hospital stay from a hotel room which have made the last few days a bit crap frankly.
This is how I feel. All blurry around the edges.
So, I’m having a holiday and I’m not going to tie myself down to trying to take a picture a day and post something, I’m going to enjoy my family and try and get some rest (yes, I know).
I’ll be back next Saturday. See you then.
We’re on holiday at the moment and it’s proving harder than I thought it would to find time to post. I may have to do a massive catch up next Friday. but I’ll try and do it before then.
Don’t want to make you jealous but we’re having a lovely time and it’s sunny and warm.
