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!

My Alternative Valentine

So if like me your fed up with all the adverts promoting ballads and love songs galore, plus I don't really enjoy listening to a lot of them, and in my opinion when you listen to the lyrics most of them are about loss and make you feel sorry for yourself.

Now personally whether you have a partner or not the last thing you need is to wallow in self pity on a happy day about love for your partner, family etc. so I put together a more upbeat alternative version to the usual valentines mush.

Dental Appointment...

Well that's hubbys dental appointments done now, he had one tooth out a fortnight ago and was meant to have three out today but came away with only having two out, a wisdom and the accompanying molaral on the bottom left hand side. They both got stitched so hopefully he won't have any problems with bleeding. But with having them stitched it will take three weeks for them to disappear.

I went with him to town because he doesn't like the injections and he was a bit worried about it but he was fine with me going to tesco's for some shopping which was very liberating not to have the kids in tow, (my mum came to sit with them while we were out), I don't get to do a lot without them so even just shopping for a few groceries was very strange but I managed to get everything I meant to which usually doesn't happen with the kids there...

The kids are still full of cold too so it was good that they didn't come because as soon as we got to the bus stop it started to snow, its stopped now so I'm betting that our trip out to the local shops in the morning will be nice and icy for us. Although it is amusing watching our daughter slide around on the iced over puddles, she looks like the roller skating spider from Harry Potter.

Now I've just got to print off some valentine images for daughter to colour in and make some cards for daddy and brother and whoever else she decides on making them for.

Doctors, Doctors, Doctors.

I find it strange that for two consecutive Mondays I've had to take one of the kids to the doctors.
It's a little more strange that both kids had something wrong with their eyes. Son had sticky eye and daughter has an abrasion on hers.
But what makes it totally bizarre is the fact that the only snow we've had here that has settled has both been on Sunday night/ early hours of Monday morning, so we get to walk in the slushy icy remnants all the way to the doctors.
It's supposed to snow again tonight but I don't need to take anyone to the doctors tomorrow (touch wood).
It is raining though at the minute so I might have to go somewhere tomorrow with the nice fresh black ice under foot.

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...

What Have I Been Doing?

Not enough if you ask hubby hehe
And it does feel like that, seems I have done absolutely nothing...
Although that's only a half truth I have been doing some things like get dressed, the pots, ironing etc but art wise hmmmm....
Well I figured out how to print off 6x4s without getting a 3 sided border so should be adding some prints in a week or so to etsy, also half way through some more greetings cards...
Also started doing some alphabet colouring pages based on Harry Potter, coming along slowly but getting there...
I've also been honing my digital scrapbooking skills which is very difficult so super kudos to everyone out there that does it.
I've also started knitting my xmas jumpers for the kids, well I've done 6 rows on the back so far but its only February and its still a start.
Hubby had his first tooth out with little trouble but I'm going to have to be there next Thursday to hold his hand because he's having three out and he really doesn't like injections. So we've booked my mum to come over and look after the kids while we go...