I know I'm Behind Again

Quick update:
I'm trying to sort out all my crap in my documents to change over my operating system, thinking Linux Mint but that might change by the time I'm ready to go ahead. And with 13gbs to sort through and compress its been taking ages. Then hubby came up with an idea to upload it all to media fire instead of discs but don't think that's going to work...Would take so long.
Finally sorted out the main bills to direct debit woohoo so don't have to worry about that anymore.
G had a week of peeing on the floor, think she had a potty phobia but she's over that now and she's doing really well again.
And we're getting ready for birthday's left right and centre, one in May,one in June 2 in July and mine in August (but that one can get swept under the carpet).
The gardens almost done now too OH YEAH!!!
(Just realised that my images are all in zip files.So will post pic later)

Family Update

Well that's the last playgroup for a fortnight, daughter did really well today and was quite chatty with some of the other mums which isn't like her at all so was very proud, maybe it was the potential Easter egg.
Was a bit strange hubby not being around for most of the day as he had to go to his mums, first it was to sort out her cats injections (why she would book the cat in for injections when shes just had a foot operation is anyone's guess). Then it was to move her TV and laptop, and then it was to be a witness for the council because she was allegedly being a bad neighbour to the lady who lives upstairs (whilst she was in hospital?).
I still haven't finished sorting out all the stuff from the loft! And its getting me more and more angry as I am sleeping on the floor in the kids room.
Today I wanted to give the bathroom a little clean, do the pots and some ironing and maybe get through some of the loft stuff but there's little use in trying to do anything with the kids around because one of them always wants something! And trying to get anything done in the kitchen with daughter in the garden is nigh on impossible.
although the previous two days we've been trying to sort out the garden and daughter has been a bit helpful with that. We were going to get a skip for all the rubbish but my life its expensive so the pile of stones I made by the shed on the first day had to be moved back to the bottom of the garden because then at least we can have a lawn by the summer for the kids to play on.

Happy Mother's Day

Today's been interesting, exhausting, fantastic. It started early 6am (usual time for the kids though, so no worries when they reach school age), hubby gave our daughter the cards and book to give to me, she wanted to keep the cards. Bless her. We made a deal and she got the envelopes to draw on. I got Keri Arthurs " Dangerous Games" which is the only one of the Riley Jenson series I am missing until the new one gets released, so once I've read this one, I have to go through boxes of books to find the Dean Koontz - Odd Thomas series as I have the 4th one to read and then I will read the Keri Arthur ones in order, and then the third Dean Koontz Frankenstein will arrive in April so I will re read the first 2 of those and then the third then I will be about ready for some new books for my birthday in August. Anyway to go back to what I was saying, I made pancakes for breakfast for us all and they were fantastic, they were flat and cooked right and everything, not the usual mush I end up with! Kids were getting a bit crazy and whiny on and off all day so we went in the garden for a bit, then had a walk to the shops ( I desperately needed some sugar so I could get my coffee fix). Then I thought I'd make some bread, well we had ran out and I forgot to buy some at the shops and we had the ingredients. Hubby enjoyed it so much he thinks I should make it everyday. So that was really nice. And then I got an email from the lady at the local brownies/guides branch as I'd requested some info on helping out. Looks really fun so I'm definitely going to go for it. Son's had some rosy cheeks all day and was really grumpy at bedtime so he might be finally getting a tooth soon, boy at playgroups 2 months younger with 2 teeth already, but when they come they come, I'm not that eager to rush the long tearfilled nights and drool that come with teething.

Nurofen is Great

Headache is almost gone now!
THANK YOU NUROFEN!!
It was almost an early night for me, but then if I had gone to lie down you know the kids would have decided to throw a very noisy party!
Daughter went out with Granddad and his wife today and had a great time, and they even brought me a Mother's Day card from her that she made at the park. Which was really nice because as always when they come to visit I always seem left out of the gifts, not that I mind although a 15p fudge bar would be fine by me...Hehe
Son got another jacket/jumper, daughter got a cute little lilac dress with a little purse on it, and 2 pairs of tights, and hubby got a jacket.
Although the jacket had been worn by Granddad a couple of times so I guess his gift doesn't count so much on the scale.
I'm waiting for the big Easter Egg score to come my way in a couple of weeks, (but they were a bit vague as to whether we are getting eggs or something more useful).
Don't get me wrong I'm all for useful gifts (I've sent my mum a list of stuff, space saving vacuum bags, a jigroll- so I can do those jigsaws and put them somewhere while we eat, clothing vouchers- I did make a new request that my clothing vouchers are for Asda instead of Evans in future though, love the clothes just don't like the price.)And I can get 10 pairs of sweats instead of a pair of trousers and a top with the same amount of money.
But where was I...
Oh yeah, so hubby took son out to buy mother's day cards and I got back into the loft thinking theres only a few things left to take out before starting to put all the sorted suff back in....WRONG!!
But to be fair a couple of the big bags of soft toys are to be washed and donated so needed them out.
Did find a Star Wars monopoly game and a Spiderman modelling kit which are very exciting.
And also found a few gluebooks I had started, mainly to just store potential images that I may or may not be interested in painting in the future so finishing them will be fun, and saves me a lot of paper falling out all over the place.
But still not any closer to actually sleeping in the bed as yet.
Wondering how tomorrow will unfold...

Potty Training

It's been going well daughter went 7 times yesterday on her potty and she's loving her Upsy Daisy doll.
Now we've upped the stakes a little and she's working towards some garden toys, so that gives hubby and me an incentive to get that garden finished too!
It's either going to be a sand pit, a water table or a wendy house for the next milestone, (probably all three eventually), so with the 7 yesterday and another 3 today she's well on the way to her next treat.
Although she still won't poop on the potty and I don't know if that's why we had a constipation issue today but ooh it was awful because she wanted to go but kept crying because it hurt her, I don't like to see her cry.
But she gets tomorrow off for her day out with granddad and the wife and then we'll be back on it on Sunday.

The Health Visitor Comes

Its been an interesting day.
We ran out of kitchen roll, toilet paper and baby wipes this morning so me and the kids made a mad dash to the shops. Didn't want to tempt fate with the two little poop machines in tow.
Daughter was a bit of a terror again to and from the shops, think it was excitement over the health visitor coming to do sons 6month + review.
And daughter likes her coming, but then she thinks any guests mean she's going to get presents...
Well a few hours later and a time out or daughter and health visitor came, weighed son, a whopping 9kg (19.15lbs) at just 34 weeks.
Well he's only just above the average line so its not that big. Tested his grip on some bricks and a rattle. He's progressing nicely.
She was also impressed with our daughters speech and said she was very advanced for her age which was great.
Now just to get the potty training sorted and then we can focus on her reading and writing skills. Not that we're trying to push her or anything.
Back to the potty training, we finally made it to 19 today so daddy will be buying the toy tomorrow whilst me and the kids are at playgroup, so it'll be at home for when we get back.
I've also noticed she seems to follow a pattern, manages to make the first 2 attempts on the potty and then forgets what she was doing and everything else goes all over the floor.
So from now on she gets the magic star for completing a day without accidents on the floor (obviously days wearing nappies don't count). Think she wants the Little Einstein toys or Fifi and the Flowertots Doll.
Either way its a more complex task for her and we're not buying toys every five minutes. hehe.

Crazy Day...

Phew what a day, I am TIRED !! And I have more to do tomorrow.
The plan was if the weather's nice we will go do some gardening (it will be nice for this summer, we've only been here almost 3 years).
But it was awful and cold and windy, not rainy though, so I opened my big mouth and said
"Hey, why don't we sort out the loft",
So up the ladders I went, thought I was going to get stuck with my big booty but should have been more worried about my head getting wedged trying to get boxes down.
The plan was to get everything down, organise and throw stuff away, and then put the rest back up tidily so we can get to the water tank if the need arises. You know for stashing the millions etc. I wish.
Hubby was helping retrieve the boxes then had to feed our son for his nap and entertain our daughter so her constant questions didn't put me off and I fall off those ladders. (Yep she's at the stage when she has to question everything).
You'd think I'd be used to it by now as my sister would constantly ask questions while watching tv, especially films, so if there was anything on you wanted to watch don't do it with her in the room. (She did it until she was about 15 too which was a nightmare).
Anyway back to our eventful day, now where was I... Oh yes, well we didn't get everything down because there wasn't enough room in our bedroom and even as I type this there's stuff all over the bathroom floor. But I'm having a rest.
So started going through the boxes, found some really amazing things like a few sketchbooks I'd mislaid and a lot of tat.
And a lot of stuff that I really don't have the space for but can't quite bring myself to throw out or donate them just yet, like my micro machines death star, and my WWE bash at the beach wrestling ring.
But I am donating all the old kids clothes to charity and I've wrapped up my pottery pig collection too, so that will be gracing a charity shop window in the near future.
I know I could use an auction site, I could use a swap shop, but those take time and they're still in the house, and then there's the taking them to the post office with the 2 teeny weenies in tow. I know I can't be bothered either, so to a worthier cause they go.
We braked for lunch and no sooner were we downstairs daughter whipped her togs off and used the potty, she almost got a standing ovation for that one. her second attempt also hit the mark, so she was on a roll and only needed 4 more attempts until the cuddly toy was in her little mitts but to no avail.
If she had managed to get on the potty and not pee all over the floor this afternoon she would have only needed one until she achieved her goal. Never mind.
Didn't get much done this afternoon because daughter was following in my wake just in case I found something toy related that she could snatch from my grasp, so I gave up in the end.
I did find some temporary tattoo paints (oil based not henna) and we had fun with those once son was in his cot, daughter now has a pig and a dragon on each arm, a flower, a chair?, a bat, spider, person and a yellow blob on her legs.
Why a yellow blob, she wanted a "poorly" on her knee to go with the one she has on her other leg hehe.
I might give up now and just relax for the rest of the evening because even if I get it all done I'll still have to change the bedding and have a bath.
So a camp out on the sofa/kids floor is how I'm ending this evening.

Communications Breakdown

So Nanna's been wondering if our daughter likes her because she says
"What's That!" at everyone and everything, but then nanna only comes once a fortnight or even less so how would she know.
(she'll be here this weekend)
And Saturday saw granddad and his wife come to take daughter out for the day. We've had problems with communication with them in the past and it seems its still going on.
Daughter told them she wanted to go see the animals in the park, which they did but they took her to the playcentre first and I would have thought that they would have taken her to the park first, but I guess that's neither here nor there really in the whole scheme of things.
What I did find interesting was that on Sunday I took the kids to the shops and daughter started getting nasty about me holding her reins (there's no way she's walking by herself as she would run into the road), and it got me thinking, it always seems to happen after they've been.
Fair enough she won't need them going from their car to the playcentre, but what are they doing in the park...
So I asked our daughter and apparently they don't use the reins but a wrist strap that the wife bought and I adamantly refused to let her use it on our child.. (see wrist strap post)
Now I know kids get confused and she might have got it all wrong and misunderstood what I was asking her, but I'm not totally sure on that because the wife was really put out by my not wanting her to use them.
But if it turns out they have been then maybe they will have to spend the day at our house in future.
And hubby and I will have to take her to these places on weekdays instead.

How do they do it??

How does everyone manage to get so much done while I'm left floundering about and scratching my head (better time management you say....Yeah your probably right)
But what I mean is if I try to drop the requisite numbers on entrecard, I don't get anything else done. If I actually get some art work done nothing gets done on the pc.
Although with my new found information on ACEO's I have managed to do some work on those whilst putting the kids to bed but its only the initial Biro or pencil sketch that needs painting afterwards, but that's a definite saving of some time once they're asleep. But it can be a struggle if our daughter is feeling a little bit naughty and decides that I'm not really using the pencils etc. and she wants them.
And I need to buy a marker or a stupidly small paintbrush for the more fiddly pictures, because the ones I've got just don't cut it. And it doesn't matter if I've just bought them or how pricey they are the bristles ALWAYS start to deviate from the initial shape and blob paint all over where I really don't want it to go.
So how do you manage it all, the work and all the social networking/ promotions stuff and painting so little and finely because I want to know!

ACEO's

I finally found out exactly what they are thanks to
Pat's Encaustics - Art in the Wax
and I am so very excited by them, now I really can't wait for Friday because I'm going to buy a new cutting tool too so I can cut out the little 2.5" x 3.5" card and get my paint and sketch on. I have far too much going on in my head and will be glad to get it down on the cards as well as a few new greetings cards and paintings, oh yeah I'm going all out on Friday, just hope I can carry it all back with the kids in tow. We're using the ultra light Quinny pushchair with no underneath for storage as our Graco died a horrible, horrible death. (And I miss it like crazy, think daughter does too as there's no riding on the roof of this pushchair).

W.T.F!

Ok so yesterday hubby had to nip into town to get some stuff so I said our daughter could watch some cartoons, bored out of my mind with playhouse Disney (its good but on all the time), and noticed that Something Special was on on the CBeebies channel, she loves it so I popped it on. During the segment between shows I noticed that they had new presenters.
They were both playing a dressing up game and kept getting it muddled up and our 2 year old loved it and thought it was hilarious.
It wasn't until hubby came home that it was brought to my attention that there's apparently a one armed lady working on the show and that she was causing an uproar because she "might" be scaring people's children.
I mean come on...
Yeah I noticed she only had one arm and yes our daughter probably noticed it too, but was she scared? No.
Did Cerrie Burnell give her nightmares? No.
Would I not want my children watching it because it may bring up uncomfortable questions? No.
What does it matter that she only has one arm, she was great at presenting, she entertained our kids, and at the end of the day isn't that what its all about.

Potty Training Day 2

Oh it started so well today, she peed on the floor then used the potty, then on the floor again and then in the potty again so we were evenly matched on her attempts to use the potty to her just not realising, then it all went downhill after that...But at least she managed to use it twice again today, tomorrow will be interesting as its playgroup in the morning so I'm wondering if she's going to try and go there.
But we decided that she has to use the potty 19 times in total for the upsy daisy doll, so its like a pound a go, and that's 4 attempts down so she hasn't got long to go now.
Plus Nanna's not coming until Saturday now so that gives us an extra day without too many disruptions.
And it also means I don't have to rush going to buy my paint on Friday yippee!

Potty Training

Well since xmas we've been trying to potty train our daughter, she's 4 months away from her 3rd birthday and so far we've been a little lazy but today we stepped it up a gear and oh my life! I've spent most of the day elbow deep in tinkle.
We have 2 incentives for her actually getting on the potty.
1) An upsy daisy dress up doll she saw when we were grocery shopping in asda last week
and
2) Nanna's bringing Easter eggs on Friday, (if she thinks they'll make it until April she's just a little crazy)
She seems to grasp the concept that once she's reached a specified number of times using the potty she will get the doll.
Does the bribery work....Not so much hehe, although she has managed to use it twice and there was six other failed attempts along the way so hopefully the ratio will improve.
One thing though when I was trying to tell her that she needs to sit on it before she thinks she's going to tinkle, I'm not sure if she understood what I was going on about or that she really doesn't know that she needs to go until its all over the floor.
So I'm going to research it just to see, I know it's not a huge thing to be worried about but Hubby has the impression that she needs to be potty trained by September for starting at the local nursery so I better go have a looksie...

Granddad's been and Gone

Well today was a little easier than normal the wife didn't come with granddad for his visit so hubby had to go out with him and our daughter, don't think granddad would have coped by himself.
It was good for me because it meant hubby could pick up the nappies we desperately needed, saving me a trip to the shops, I could watch what I wanted on the TV for a change, son and I partook in a little bit of rocking out to the Kerrang music channel.
Also it meant I could get a little housework done, i really don't like doing it when everyone else is about, under my feet or making me feel jealous because they're playing video games....Not that I get this choice very often. But the stairs look wonderful now, I lost the special attachment for the dust buster so had to do it with the dustpan and brush...At least my arms got a work out if nothing else.
And even better granddad paid for the nappies so we have a little more cash now than we thought we would have.(If the wife was with them he doesn't usually pay for stuff) But they do take our daughter out once a fortnight so I am grateful for that.

Happy Valentines Day

So have you had or having a nice valentines day?
Ours has been different to say the least.

I mean I know not to expect anything too romantic and crazy as we have 2 small children so anything we do do will involve them in some way or another. But then we remembered that Nanna i.e. the Mother In Law was coming for a visit today.

So my first job was to get myself and the kids dressed and out to the shops to buy milk as we'd ran out last night, and Nanna always has at least one cup of coffee whilst she's here. And then there's all the tidying to be done before she gets here so she doesn't fall over all the kids stuff.

Oh and hubby and I gave each other a Valentines card. ( He bought me 2 Keri Arthur-Riley Jenson Guardian novels a few days ago and said I could have them early)

He didn't know what he wanted so he's got some cash to buy himself a book or add on for his webpage or whatever he likes really.
Anyway that done and then daughter and hubby had to go meet Nanna in town (she is able to come straight here on the bus by herself as she's done it before, but she wanted meeting), which was fine as son was asleep so I got a few more bits done without daughter running around my legs and taking out what I've already put away.

So halfway through washing the pots they roll in and wake son up, well he was asleep in pushchair behind the front door so can hardly blame them for that. Daughter got a nurses outfit which once on she spilt banana milkshake down so more washing for me woohoo!!, she also got s peppa pig towel and some ducks for the bath, but the ducks she can share with our son.

Have noticed a pattern whenever Nanna comes one week son gets loads and daughter gets hardly anything and then the opposite happens the next time she comes.

Was wondering if the thought had occurred to her that it was Valentines day or not and she did mention with a disgusted look on her face how much mush was in the shops because of Valentines day. ( Brain into overdrive wondering if she knew it was today or not and if so did she put me in the camp that it means nothing and I wouldn't care about her being here, or was she playing the territorial mother towards her precious son and wanted to sabotage even our most lame attempts at a nice Valentines day)
Who knows....All I know that is after this little rant I will give as little thought to the potential craziness of the M.I.L.

So if you have an equally strange Valentines or even a toe curling horrid one I would love to hear it....

Now to order take out and have a bit of a relax!

One Dragon's Dream...

I've just read this children's book to our daughter to help her go to sleep, read it about 12 times until she finally fell asleep.
It made a nice change to the usual menagerie of story books that I have to get off the shelves, also by the tenth read through I had it memorised.
It's by Peter Pavey, and our version was published in 1979. (I've just had a look on amazon.co.uk and its only for sale through third party sellers at about £20 - £30 so when my mum bought it for £3.95 back in the day she was getting a pretty good bargain.)
And not only is it a great bedtime story its fantastic for helping kids learn to count too, as each page is numbered one to ten throughout the story and each corresponding page there are lots of things to count and find, a bit like where's wally but with amazing illustration.

Wrist Straps for Kids

O.K. so I'm probably not the only parent that worries about their child's safety especially when they're out for the day with grandparents etc. But earlier when granddad and his wife came to take daughter out for the day, the wife mentioned that she already bought one of the wrist straps for our daughter so they don't have to use the reins on her when they go to the park. Now I must have been talking in a different language about how I personally don't think they're very safe, it's just a personal opinion granted, hubby feels the same, and yet the look of utter contempt and disgust at my not wanting them to use the wrist strap was priceless. I forgot to even mention the comfort factor which has only just occurred to me. But either way I thought I was talking sense and not sounding like a crazy hysterical woman, but then I've just had a look at prices online so that could be why I got the look, as they cost between £4/£5 where she bought them from....So maybe she should have asked first and I just hope she kept the receipt...

Hidden Forces at Work

So far I have managed to miss the premiere of season 5 on sky one, mainly because I was late putting daughter to sleep and also wanted to see if hubby remembered it was on, he remembered at 11.30 pm so if I had used the multistart tool i would have missed the first half hour...

And then tonight daughter has only just fallen asleep so I've already missed the first hour so theres no point in my watching it tonight...

There's still tomorrow night and if I miss that I can hopefully watch it on Saturday night before the next episode on Sunday...

Although Nanna is coming to visit on Saturday so hoping that I'll get to watch tomorrow because daughters sleeping pattern always goes a bit nuts with relatives coming...

Fingers Crossed....

...That hubby's teeth will NOT be hurting so he is able to look after the kids...
....That daughter has been good enough for daddy to take both her and our son to the deep to see the fishes...
...That I get enough sleep tonight so I don't fall asleep during Twilight's 3pm showing tomorrow...

Yep its been rearranged, my sisters coming to take me to the cinema and I am very excited but a lot can happen during the night, especially with these kiddies...

Jealousy

Daughter has started playing a little rough with little G. She's even taken to hitting him if either me or hubby tells her off for doing something naughty and he's in her local vicinity. If he's not then it could be me, or the walls, or even the furniture that gets a punch.
I've noticed that because he's started to roll over by himself she tries to do it for him even more now, using his mat instead of actually turning him so there's more of a chance that he might get hurt.
Also once he's on his front she thinks she can ride him like a pony...
I mean I know hes 17lb and 8oz (got him weighed on Wednesday) but blimey he's only 6 months old. Oh and when he's in the pushchair and she tries to climb in and sit on his legs oh my life!
I know its a bit of jealousy coming through and I know that most of the time its a healthy thing that she's not afraid to show us she's jealous but after speaking to my mum...
She told me about a family she knew and they had 2 kids about our kids age and the youngest was in the cot with one of his arms poking through the bars and the other child managed to break the arm and the parents had them both taken from them because the social workers thought it was the parents that did it....
I don't want that to happen with our kids.