Making it up as we go along

putting a link at the top of the blog

hope to see you there...

For some reason, ds decided he would wake up early this morning. Given that he doesn't go to bed particularly early I think that is cheating, so I was singularly unimpressed. Dd slept in a little - yesterdays injections do seem to have knocked her a little. :-(

Anyway, my good resolutions to be up and about early to get to Kirsty's fell by the wayside as usual, and by the time I'd gathered the things I was taking, done the obligatory extra nappy change and sorted me and two children out, it was 11.30. Sigh. And what time am I going to be ready to go to Hesfes then? Dark images of arriving in the middle of the night...(Plus I dreamt about it too...aargh)

Anyway, went up to Kirsty's and had a lovely afternoon. Mainly ignored the children ;-) who seem to thrive on it to be frank, although I was a bit of a hit with A this afternoon - at one point she was sitting so close as to be practically on top of me! We planned our shopping list, went through and figured out what we do and don't have from the camping list and had lunch. Then I had to come back in time to see the doctor.

I have blood pressure, which is unusual for me, but it's in the normal range. I did try to comment that as mine is usually low, perhaps normal is high, but he didn't go for it. Discussed the pain I'm feeling while breastfeeding - there doesn't appear to be anything wrong that ceasing applying a small sharp suction device won't cure. As I'm not planning on ceasing right now, guess I'll just have to grin and bear it. :-( And I gave him a letter about the children's bill. He was quite surprised by this - said he didn't know anything about it, but would use my letter to make further enquiries. Think he's in for a shock then.

I know I'm banging on about this rather, but I think it's terrifying that parents don't realise what is going to happen to their children, and that professionals dealing with children don't appear to realise what effect this is going to have on them. I mean, I was talking to a teacher last week who didn't think that it would make any difference to her workload at all - that's not the way I understand it. I would have to think long and hard before returning to work with children if this legislation passes - I think of it as a massive invasion of privacy that has nothing to do with child protection at all.

Sorry to drift into the political realms there, but there you go.

Anyway, dd has gone up for her bath, and ds has thrown all his food on the floor, so I guess I'd better clear up and get him his dessert.

I made a list.

Now I know we've been here before. But I figured out that I have rather a lot to do before I tootle off to Hesfes next week, and I'm stressing enough without not being quite sure what I'm up to. So I made a list.

And what's more, I actually managed to do some of the stuff on it! Which was bad news for dd as it included her vaccination boosters... :-(

It also involved a trip to the library, and I was very pleased with myself when we walked from there round to the local co-op to buy emergency weetabix. You know how well you are doing when a five minute walk is a triumph...

Then we came home, had lunch and Small went to sleep, meaning that dd and I could spend a little time together on her wall chart - a simple laminated chart of activity slots for the week, which we filled in together so that she knows what is going on.

Bit later on, friends came round, and we had a pleasant afternoon/ evening with them.

And unbelievably, I did some gardening tasks after dd had gone to bed. Now it is incredibly late, and I'm off to bed. Night all.

couldn't do this last night as blogger was updating - and now I'm going to have to wander round and figure out where everything is again. Sigh.

Anyway, had a fab day yesterday. Chucked the kids in the car and drove two hours up the road to spend the afternoon with a university friend. He lives in the states now, and isn't here very often, so when he is, I feel like I have to make the effort to see him. Even though seeing him isn't an effort if you know what I mean. He is one of those friends that it doesn't seem to matter how long it is since we've seen each other, we're just relaxed in each others company. Might seem odd with some ppl now that I've got children, but he just takes that in his stride too - and the kids adore him and his family as well.

So we didn't do much else, unsurprisingly.

as it would appear that I now have it (one?) in both eyes. Took advantage of morning without dd to potter up to large shopping centre with dp and get my eyes tested - prescription has changed a bit, but the astigmatism is all new (lucky me). So I have new glasses, which do make the world look brighter and sharper - thought you were all looking a bit fuzzy round the edges out there!

Unfortunately, the contact lens lady was all booked up, so couldn't get those done at the same time :-(

Then dropped dp back at home and went to pick up dd from birthday party - lots of little girls in fancy ball gown disney dresses, and dd wearing hers cinderella side out. Did think it looked a bit sad actually - when we went to fancy dress partys as children, it was always home made fancy dress. There wasn't one home made outfit in the lot today. Caught up with a couple of ex colleagues, including another one on maternity leave, having just had her lovely sprog (Jasmine - nice name for a baby I thought).

Took the opportunity to pop to CCCOutdoors while we were there, but very disappointing. They make a big fuss about being really cheap if you use their discount card, but I don't think they *are* particularly cheap - certainly not on tents and stuff and if you are only buying small stuff, you've got to buy a fair amount to justify the £3 you spend on the discount card. Plus ds was complaining having spent the day in either buggy, sling or car seat, and dd was still hyper from the party, so gave up and came home.

They've wound down with a very long bath and now dd is upstairs having bedtime story with daddy, while ds is bumbling round the floor after his first milk of the day (?! I know that there is no such thing as a normal pattern and every baby is different, but it does seem a little odd that he doesn't feed at all during the day and then feeds every two hours during the night....if I offer it to him when he doesn't want it he bites me, so there isn't much I can do to switch the pattern. Oh well, he's thriving on it anyway....)

Slight interruption there to the blogging when we discovered that we had absentmindedly left two chelsea buns within reach of Small, who thought he would have supper and redecorate with the rest....urgh.

Tomorrow we're off to the frozen north to visit a friend of mine who now lives in Denver, but is over for a brief visit with his family. Of the opinion that any time he is around it's a good idea to fit in seeing him as I never know when he'll be here again (he was over about 4 months ago, but before that there was a 4 year gap!) so going to chuck the kids in the car and drive up in the morning. Should be back tomorrow evening, but might be a bit late....

Oh and those pictures

that somehow the conversation with K got around to the Children's bill. She works as a teacher, so I asked her what she thought the impact of the database and so on would be. She hadn't heard of it...

aargh! Big Blunkett wins again - it is going to just drift by without ppl even knowing isn't it?

For anyone unsure of what I'm talking about, try looking at ARCH, which lists a number of other sources as well.

for your kind comments.

Really made me feel much better. Which was good, as ds fed several times last night, so I got even less sleep than usual!

We've had a pretty good day today. Went up to the photographic studio to pick up our pictures - I splurged and bought three poses worth of piccies of my gorgeous offspring. Considering finding an agency for children's modelling (seriously!) as they've already featured on a website or two, and of course, ds has his nappy campaign behind him (sorry...) Well, it would be a different experience anyway, and if we all hated it, we could stop it again.

Then we went on to a retail park in search of yet more holiday gear. We picked up some picnic style crockery very cheap in Poundstretcher that was shutting down, and got a couple of sleeping bags that will unfold and zip together to make a joint one in Morrisons. See, I am covering the 'it's going to be cold' point of view as well. In fact, I managed inadvertently to reduce dd to tears in the middle of Morrisons by explaining that we might need to share the sleeping bags, which would mean that we are sharing a bedroom - she really wants to have a bedroom of her own. Aww....

She was pretty good all day - came home and a friend of mind came around - she has a boy just 2 days younger than ds. Discovered I've been had by aforementioned Small - I've been chopping up food, including bananas for him, and K got out a banana for her son, peeled it and offered him half. So I tried the same, and he just took it and ate it. Little fraud. Yesterday he sat there with his hands down by his sides and his mouth open! He then threw a major tantrum at tea time until I handed him the bowl and the spoon and left him to it. My poor floor....but he is making a major bid for independence now it would seem.

Dd's nursery friend came to pick her up at about 5pm for a sleepover and her behaviour instantly deterioriated. :-( Shame, as like I said, we'd had a really good day. Although I was a bit unnerved by K's conversation about her elder son - apparently at the age of 6 he is discussion algebra with her. Eek! Still, I've yet to figure out what use algebra is to everyday life (anyone?) apart from those daft puzzles in the paper, usually about cups of tea and slices of cake....

I'm rambling. I'm tired. I'm going to go read End Of Story and go to bed.

and I hadn't even had a drink.

Just didn't want to get moving this morning - don't know how long the alarm was going off for, and by the time I got downstairs with dressed children it was 10.30. Mooched around getting a couple of bits of work done and feeling sorry for myself - had planned to go to the Flea Market, but it wasn't happening. Decided we would go after lunch, then discovered that we didn't have much food in to have for lunch, so fed the offspring and eventually tootled off.

Parked up in the multi-storey carpark, looked at the car next to me and rang my mother.
"Where are you?"
"In town."
"I know that, I've just parked next to you."

So we met up with her, and then bumped into Sarah as well. Dragged mother to poundland arcade in search of birthday presents, and then went along to Sarah's shop for some more. She had also made me a laminated week chart so that I can discuss with dd what we are doing when, and she can see it on a chart (got a feeling I'm going to end up drawing some odd captioned pictures so that she can know, otherwise we're going to run into the can't read thing again). And Roo had managed to pick up an End of Story book that she didn't want, so I've borrowed that to have a look. *If* I get time.

I really want to write stories. I used to write stories and poems. I even had some poems published, and short stories (although the latter were in a sci-fi mag run by a friend, so I'm not sure they count). I'd like to do more on my artwork, and I'd love to finish some of the craft projects I started for sale. I just don't quite know where every day goes. It's not like they are full to the brim with home edding as dd is still remarkably unimpressed by anything I suggest.

I watched part of the programs on genius on BBC2 last night. There was a woman on there who was marked as being a complete failure as she had never achieved her potential. Apart from the obvious points as to who decides what is potential and whether you've met it, I do sometimes feel that I have rather failed to live up to my own. I look back on the past year and can't quite see where it has gone and what I have to show for it. I don't seem to have stunningly happy well adjusted children, and if I haven't managed that, you'd think I'd have something else to show for it, but no. My own website hasn't been updated in months (apart from blogging tutorials...), I've got several hundred books that I bought and haven't sold, the house is permanently a tip....

so what have I done to make myself feel better? Start a new website, *obviously*. If I get a bit more work done on it tonight (write a style sheet basically) I might even let you all have a look....

well, we were supposed to go to the nature reserve meeting, and Kirsty made it over in time, equipped with her packed lunch. I was still breakfasting and making sarnies, but we were more or less organised on time (ish). But the weather didn't look good, and the children wanted to play, and we needed to talk Hesfes, so we didn't make it out. We *did* do major planning - looked at a number of different camping lists, pooled our ideas on who has what and can borrow what (Jan, will be dropping you a line later ;-) ) and began to feel like we can manage this.

Then we picnic-ed on a rug on the carpet, loaded up the offspring and chucked them in the car and went shopping. Well, first of all the children had a good play in the free play area, including ds having his first wander into the baby zone. He seemed to like it.

Found the cheapest uv sunsuits were in Adams (boo hiss) so swallowed my principles and bought a set for each offspring. Perfectly lurid set for dd and blue for ds. Did have a quick peek for some for me, but all I could find were surfing tops, so I gave up on that idea.

So I've got uv suits. I've got a fleecey all in one for ds, and jumpers for dd. She has a raincoat - considering either dungarees or splash suit for ds. Does that cover all eventualities? I'm not sure.

Then we went to woodcraft folk. Bit disappointing this evening, the group is a touch on the disorganised side, and this evening mainly seemed to consist of lots of children running around screaming. Not that I think there is anything intrinsically wrong with children running around screaming (although I'd rather not be too close to it), but there are safer places to do it than a smallish room with lots of furniture, and dd got trampled on a couple of times. Another (rather larger) boy retired from the fray in tears, and a medium sized girl tore her arm up as well.

It did occur to me that that the whole thing wasn't so surprising - most of those children are from school, and generally they spend their time with peers being told what to do, so shove them into a relaxed atmosphere with a varied age range, and why would they have any better ideas on how to behave? Schools seem to achieve very little in the way of socialization if you ask me. And I'm no better an example of it - I sat there wondering why nobody else did anything, when thinking about it in the car on the way home, it was just as much my responsibility to say or do something. I could make excuses about being new to the group, which I am, but when it comes down to it, I was really just waiting for someone to tell me what to do...

Beginning to wonder if dd is quite ready for woodcraft though - she ran around with the best of them, but doesn't get tig - just chased about shouting tig without cottoning on to the rules! - and refused to join in with any other games. Given that she is always shattered by the end of the session perhaps I should quit it for a bit and try again in a few months time. Next week is a bluebell walk in the woods though, so assuming that the weather is OK, I think we'll try that.

Ds finally keeled over about midnight tonight, the kitchen is an absolute disaster zone, this room is not much better and I can't comment on most ppl's blogs as Haloscan is undergoing maintenance. I am setting up a domain so that I can port all of this to wordpress, but got a bit of work to do on it first. Time for bed now though methinks.