Musings...

My husband is such a great father! Dylan absolutely adores his daddy. They play together and have such a great time. Martin lets him help out with the DIY he does in the evenings and it's so adorable to watch them. Martin is incredibly patient with him, helping him hold the ruler and mark bits of wood for cutting, and then praising him for doing well. He is fantastic at bath time and at bed time and he is always willing to change dirty diapers.

That said, sometimes I wish he was that attentive as a husband. It's probably just raging pregnancy hormones, but I am feeling neglected lately.

Take tonight, for instance. It's Friday night and Dylan is tucked up in bed. I've spent a romantic evening with me, myself, and I, finishing the plastering in the kids' bedroom. Martin went in to Grimsby to play squash and have a quick drink with Steve.

I don't begrudge him the time out. He's been planning it for three weeks now, and he doesn't often go out. But he spent my birthday at a church meeting, and the following night (the one we planned to just chill out and watch movies together all snuggled up on the sofa) was when the car broke down on the side of the road and we didn't get home until late. Yesterday was all about doing some more plastering and working on the closet for the kids' room, and I was upstairs all evening while Martin was downstairs. We didn't even see each other until I came down to wash out my plaster bucket.

I really feel like Martin and I have been focusing so much on being good parents and getting stuff done on the house that we have forgotten to be a good husband and wife to each other.

I guess I'm just feeling lonely.

On a positive note, I finished the big plastering stuff in the back room tonight. I've just got a few holes to patch, but I can't do those until Martin does some work first. We're ready to start painting, and then it will be just a case of putting that closet together and getting the carpet laid. Martin's grandparents have offered to pay for it, so that's going to be the easiest bit. Most places do free installation, so I can stand back and watch somebody else do all the work with that one.

We are going to have Martin's grandad Priestley help us wallpaper the stairwells, and then those will need painting. I'm hoping to have them done by the time the baby is born. Once that's done, the house will be sell-able. There are a few bits and pieces to finish off--fresh paint and carpet cleaning and just generally making the house look more homey and inviting. It'll be nice to finally have this finished and be able to concentrate on something else--like getting Martin's green card and having a baby. And, of course, getting ready to move back to Utah.

We got the car fixed today, and it mercifully cost less to fix it than we thought it would. We had to replace the muffler, but the exhaust pipe was still usable. We had them check a slow leak on one of our tyres, and it turns out that it wasn't a puncture--the tyre had just slipped off the rim a little bit and had to be eased back on. It only ended up costing us an extra £5. Now the car is nice and quiet again, and we won't have to put air in the tyres every 5 days or so.

Dylan was really cute at stay and play today. He has started singing to himself when he is playing with toys, and I love listening to him! He was also really good at home. He's actually been an angel all day long. We've played and napped and had snacks and been for a couple of walks. We sang songs and read books together. He watched CBeebies while I went on line and rested. He's so good at entertaining himself, but so much fun to play with as well. I really do love being his mom.

Speaking of which, he has just started calling me "mom." He's been calling Martin "dad" for weeks now. It's funny that he calls us mom and dad, not mommy or daddy. He also says "cat" instead of "kitty" and "dog" instead of "doggy." He says grown up words instead of baby words. I guess that's because Martin and I don't really use baby talk with him. That's not a bad thing, though.

Anyway, it's late and I'm going to try to get some sleep. Wish me luck--the pelvis is starting to hurt at night now and sleep is becoming elusive!