part timer...

That's what I feel like lately.  My in-laws had the kids on Monday so Martin and I could do some DIY.  That turned in to a disaster, with some unexpected water pipes.  We have a plumber coming today to look at the job of moving the pipes, as that needs to be done before we can do any more work.  We're knocking out the bathroom closet and making it part of the kitchen.  I can hardly wait!

Anyway, the kids were gone for 24 hours, so Martin and I took advantage of it and went out to see a movie that night and took a lunch break at the Place while they were still there.

Monday night was my friend Noelle's Pampered Chef party, so we went to the in-laws for dinner, picked up the kids, brought them home and put them in to bed, and I left for the evening.

Last night, we got a babysitter.  The lovely Alice Whall came over and watched our telly for 2 hours while we went out to dinner at Pasco's in Cottingham.  It's owned by the same people that own Stables, so we got our dinner for free.  It was a lovely evening.

Tonight is book club, and I am the hostess this month.  So I'll have adult company tonight, as well.

I almost need Martin to go to work on Thursday so I actually feel like a parent again.  This is GREAT!

We're enjoying Dylan's half-term holiday so far, and Martin's time off even more.  Obviously, Monday was a day of hard work for us.  But the kids had a great time having a sleepover at their nanna's house.  Then yesterday we went for a fun walk.  I think we might do it again today, because the kids seriously had so much fun rambling around in the woods.  It was raining, but we didn't mind.  We would have walked longer, but the path was part of the Earl of Yarborough's estate, and was technically closed.  We walked until we started hearing gunshots in the distance.  Then we figured it was a good idea to get out of the way of a shooting party!  We are going to take the kids to the circus--most likely on Friday.  Then Martin and Dylan are going to the Leeds v. Scunthorpe United match on Saturday.   It's in Scunthorpe, and they have to sit in the "wrong" stand (with the Scunny fans) but they are both really looking forward to it.  I'll take Edith shopping, I think.

Dylan will be back at school on Monday, and Martin will be back at work on Tuesday.  We are squeezing a lot in.  Then it's no more time off until Christmas for Dylan, and no more time off until January for Martin.  I hate having him work in a restaurant at Christmas time!

the Entertainer...

My son is a total attention hog.  Last night we sang a song together at the ward talent night, and he was fantastic!  While we were on the stage waiting to go on, he was actually dancing because he was so excited to sing.  We left early, so I don't know if we won or not.  But he was completely adorable.  I asked someone to record it for me, though I haven't had a chance to check out the video yet.  Hopefully it worked and you will all be able to see his performance soon.

I took the kids to the talent night because I couldn't stand to be cooped up in the house alone with them for another second.  They got to bed an hour and a half late, and they woke up an hour early this morning, so I will be paying for our night out all day long.  I think it was worth it, but will have a better idea about that come bed time.  Of course, the time changes tonight so it IS the perfect day to put them to bed an hour early.

I don't know why, but every once in a while my lifestyle starts to really chafe.  It's one of those weeks right now--I am sick to death of having pooping, crying, hungry and demanding kids hanging off me all the time.  They require so much of my time and energy.  They are sucking the life out of me.  I love them to pieces, but I can't stand having them around all the time.  I feel like a single parent most of the time, and it is exhausting!

Martin is such a wonderful father, but sometimes what I really need is a husband!

Random update...

I was giving Dylan a cuddle the other night when he was having a night terror and I made an interesting observation.  At the tender age of 3 years old, his head is about the same size as Martin's.  It kind of creeped me out, because when I was hugging him it felt a little bit like I was hugging his dad.  Not helped by the fact that their ears are the same, as is their hair color.

We got Dylan's surgery date through the post this week.  He'll be in Sheffield Childrens' Hospital on the 29th of November to have his hydrocele operated on.  In the mean time, we will all be rushing back and forth to the hospital in Hull for various hematologist appointments.  Ugh!  I think the hardest part of the surgery will be not giving Dylan anything to eat after 7:30 am when his surgery isn't until noon.  Anyway, we have about 6 weeks to go so no use fretting about it yet.

Dylan breaks up for the half term tomorrow.  Exciting stuff, as Martin is taking a week off.  It's actually meaningful this time.  We will have a whole week where we don't have to schedule things around school, and we will be able to do stuff as a family.  Bliss!

Edith has learned how to make an "oooooh" sound, and her face is priceless when she does it.  She really purses her lips together.  Her face is so mobile.  I am sensing a career as an actress in her future.  Or maybe a mime.  Her face is incredibly expressive.  That's part of the reason I think she isn't talking much yet.  I can tell what she wants by her facial expression a lot of the time.

I've now finished the rubber ducky page for Edith's quiet book and the spaceman page for Dylan's quiet book.  So that makes 6 pages done, and 14 to go.  A couple of them are really simple.  Some of them are not.  But I am pleased with the progress we've made so far.  Especially since I have been taking a few nights off to get some extra sleep.

Wow, things are busy right now!

Ducks...

Time flies...

Hauling out the winter gear.

Nearly enough hair to style now!

Look, Ma--pigtails!  And they stayed in for about 30 seconds, too.

Slim Jim

Politics--what a joke!

A woman in a hot air balloon realized she was lost. She lowered her altitude and spotted a man in a boat below. She shouted to him, "Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don't know where I am."

The man consulted his portable GPS and replied, "You're in a hot air balloon, approximately 30 feet above ground elevation of 2,346 feet above sea level. You are at 31 degrees, 14.97 minutes north latitude and 100 degrees, 49.09 minutes west longitude.

"She rolled her eyes and said, "You must be an Obama Democrat."

"I am," replied the man. "How did you know?"

"Well," answered the balloonist, "everything you told me is technically correct. But I have no idea what to do with your information, and I'm still lost. Frankly, you've not been much help to me."

The man smiled and responded, "You must be a Republican."

"I am," replied the balloonist. "How did you know?"

"Well," said the man, "you don't know where you are or where you are going. You've risen to where you are due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise you have no idea how to keep, and you expect me to solve your problem. You're in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but somehow, now it's my fault."

(http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/)

Coming home...

The kids spend most afternoons camped out on the sofa watching cartoons while I make dinner--Dylan is too tired to do much else.  So tired that this sometimes happens...

And when it does happen, Edith has a hard time resisting the urge to do this:

It's official...

We had a hospital appointment at Hull Royal Infirmary yesterday--Dylan was meeting with the hematologist. He definitely has Von Willebrand's disease. Since he has it and it is a genetic thing, Edith needs to be tested as well. Also, we need to figure out which parent passed it on to them. We're 90% sure it's Martin, but both of us will have to be tested.

So what does this mean for Dylan? Well, it means if he ever cuts himself (like he did yesterday, when he pitched headlong off his bouncy horse onto our coffee table) we will have to take him to the hospital for an injection. He will have to go to the hospital for an injection prior to having dental work done. He will have to have the same medication before having any surgery done.

I've been thinking about the long term consequences, as well. Mostly the fact that he probably won't be able to enlist in the military. It also might mean he's not able to participate in school sports, though it will probably depend on the school's policy and (maybe) on our willingness to sign a disclaimer of some sort.

The bleeding disorder (remember when I blogged about it way back in about May?) is not as serious as hemophilia, but the medication he will need to have pre-dental work and surgery and post major cuts is a blood product. So Dylan (and possibly Edith and most likely Martin) will have to be regularly screened for all the hepatitis diseases as well as HIV. Just to be on the safe side.

So I guess it is kind of a big deal, but we are all pretty cool about it. The doctor said that Von Willebrand's is actually quite common, and there are thousands of people who don't even know they have it. It actually IS very noticeable in Dylan, because it takes him absolutely AGES to stop bleeding when he is cut. We took him to A & E while I was pregnant with Edith because he'd been bleeding for about 4 hours from a cut on his chin that didn't even need stitches. But the bleeding does eventually stop on it's own. It will only be a big deal if he is losing a lot of blood very quickly. And it will just be a nuisance with the dental work thing.

I just hope Edith doesn't have it as well, but I'm pretty sure she does. I've seen the same little red spots on her body that Dylan has, and those spots were the reason we had the blood work done on him that alerted the hospital to the problem.

Isn't it funny? My kids seem so incredibly healthy. They are strong, and very robust. They very rarely have colds or stomach bugs. But they have weird, underlying, and potentially life threatening illnesses just lurking under the surface.

So, other than the diagnosis yesterday, we are all doing well. Dylan still loves school, Edith still loves our mommy-daughter time, Martin still loves his job, and I am managing just fine. I've had a lot of random thoughts about stuff lately that I'm looking forward to blogging about, but haven't had a very good internet connection. I'll get to them later. I've also got some fab pictures to get up here. Be patient though-I'm working on the quiet books, and it's not long now 'til Christmas!

On the rising generation...

I got into a "discussion" with Lewis quite some time ago about the newest generation of young mothers. It must have been before I had any children of my own, and I was talking about how their kids were destined to become benefit sponging hooligans. Lewis disagreed with me (he has a tendency to do that, which I love!). In his opinion, this new generation of parents were doing their best for their children and trying to make up for the "bad" parenting they had received.

At the time, I must confess, I thought he was completely nuts. Now I am meeting a lot of young mothers, and I can see where he was coming from.

What makes a good mother, anyway? If it's working hard to provide the necessities of life for your offspring, the ladies at the Castledyke School gates aren't cutting the mustard. They are, for the most part, on benefits. A lot of them are single mothers and don't work at all. But I don't work, either. And with the cost of childcare and the average wage in this area, if you have more than one child you can't afford to work!

What these women are doing is trying to give their children advantages that they never had. They make sure their kids come to school in clean and tidy uniforms. They make sure they're there on time. They are taking an interest in what the kids are learning.

I've been really impressed with the women who go back to school when their kids start. They do extra training and get NVQ's (national vocational qualifications). They do their best to drag themselves up the socio-economic ladder.

I've made a friend who I will call "Alice" recently. She has twin boys who are 11 and one daughter who is three--just a few months older than Dylan. She is a total chav. She's on benefits and has recently split up with her partner of 15 years--they've been together for about that long. She left school at 16 when she got pregnant. And you know what? She is a good mother!

I've never met her boys, but I know she worries about them. She talks about them having problems at school, about punishing them when they make trouble. She worries about them getting bullied. She kicked her partner out because he was getting drunk and neglecting the children when she left the house. And I KNOW she does a great job with her daughter. She took her to play groups, worried about her language development and worked with her constantly on animal sounds, numbers, etc. when she started falling behind. She taught herself to read (having left school with the reading level of what sounds to me like about a 1st grader) by reading the Harry Potter books to her sons. They helped each other learn to read. She is pulling herself up by her bootstraps, and taking her children with her.

Her kids don't have the best in life. They don't have their dad around a whole lot. They are on benefits. They live in a council house on one of the roughest estates in town. But their mother cares about them, and wants them to be more than she is. And I believe that they will be, because of her.

There are so many people like "Alice" out there. And I wonder if I have been judging them unfairly for years. I can only hope that I can be half the mother that she is.

Shh...quiet (books)

Edith has learned another word. She now says "stars." We had some amazing cuddles while she was pointing to the glow in the dark ones on my bedroom ceiling.

Unfortunately, she is a bit confused. She also calls the lights "stars."

It's kind of like when Dylan called everything that was on his head a hat.

Toddler speak is so amazing!

We think that Edith is also getting some more teeth. What a pain in the backside. Dylan had all of his by the time he was 18 months old, and Edith's only got 8 teeth. I wish we could just get them all in and done with.

It's so strange to think that when Dylan was Edith's age I was heavily pregnant. 18 months is so young, no wonder I spent almost my whole pregnancy freaking out about having another baby. We're almost done with high chairs and pushchairs, and it's sure a good feeling! I've even dragged the potty out. Not that we'll be potty training the little darling any time soon, but I want her to get used to having it around. She's started showing interest in Dylan when he's using the toilet. I'm looking forward to being done with diapers!

The kids are being a bit difficult this week. Because of the teething, Edith isn't really eating much. Dylan is just going through a non-eating phase. So they are both hungry and grumpy. Because they are hungry, they are waking up earlier. This means they are tired as well. Not a great combination. Especially because I've been having some late nights.

I totally blame the quiet books.

Seriously, it's addicting. Working on them is my heroin. I start sewing stuff, and I just can't stop. I sit down at 7:30 when the kids go to bed, and next thing I know it is 11:30pm and Martin is getting home from work. But I have all the stuff done for both bees and flowers pages, Edith's handbag page, and Dylan's clock page. 4 down, 16 to go. I've just started working on Edith's rubber ducky page. Then it will be on to Dylan's space man page, which I'm really looking forward to.

I'll get some pictures up soon(ish). I still haven't been able to get any muslin for the actual pages, so right now I am concentrating on getting everything totally ready to sew onto the pages once I make them.

Anyway, I have kids crawling all over me and it's getting difficult to type. I'd best put the laptop away before it gets broken and stop neglecting my brood. Wish us a happy rainy autumn day.

She speaks!

Today Edith told me that she needed her diaper changed. She toddled up to me, grabbed at her crotch, and said, "dirty."

One step closer to potty training!

I've also decided that watching "The Day After Tomorrow" while it's absolutely chucking it down is kind of a bad idea--like watching "The Blair Witch Project" right before going camping. I'm now paranoid that climate change is imminent and am waiting to hear that the entire royal family have died in a helicopter crash.

Going shopping for bed linens tomorrow, and I can hardly wait. I've patched the hole in the sheets we've got, but it's not very comfortable. New sheets--I can hardly wait to go to bed tomorrow night.

Dylan did better at school the last two days. Today we took the kids for a drive just so Dylan would get a nap before school. And I spent the afternoon with one of the other school mums, because it was raining buckets and she had a long walk back to her house. Adult company is so nice to have.

As I become more involved in the community through my children I realize just how strange Barton is. The school gates are full of all sorts of drama. Everyone has slept with everybody else. The men all have children with at least two of the women waiting at the gate. I'm hearing all about it, and it's a little bit disturbing!