Monday...

We started our day with a trip to Hull...

...where Edith and Dylan shared a blueberry muffin and enjoyed orange juice, Innocent smoothie, and a sip of Chai Tea Latte.  From a mug bigger than Edith's head.

I took Edith in to have her third of 3 blood tests for von Willebrand's disease.  She had a good time playing in the waiting room.  Going to the women and childrens' hospital rocks--they have the best toys in the waiting room!

We also had a lovely meal at Cathy's house, and the kids fell asleep in the car on the way home (again).

I'm sensing a theme here.

Last week...

Sunday involved church, of course.  Then we enjoyed the best of both worlds--a visit with the Mundays AND a quiet night in...

The kids played so well together.

Emma let Dylan borrow the Mr. Incredible suit, and he's been wearing it every time we let him since then!

Dylan fell asleep on the drive home.

So did Edith.

Then Martin and I vegged out and watched telly all night.  Well, until 11pm or so.

Perfect day, really.

On my mind, but not too deeply...

I've been having a bit more quiet time lately.  Not because the kids are quiet, of course.  Having pushed their bed time back by half an hour, if anything they are a bit more noisy and hyper than usual.  But on Friday and Saturday nights, I didn't turn on the telly or listen to music at all.  Like a good little Relief Society teacher, I was preparing my lesson (it went quite well, thanks).

I really enjoyed the peace and quiet, and I've resolved to have more telly-free time in the future.  Maybe just 1 night a week or something, since I AM at home on my own 4 nights a week.

Anyway, this extra quiet time has given me some good thinking time, and here's what's been on my mind lately:

It really pisses me off that people think Martin is gay.  Ok, so I (and my posse of gay friends) thought he was gay when we first met.  To be honest, that's probably what attracted me to him in the first place.  In the grand tradition of "damaged" women everywhere, I used to be hopelessly drawn to emotionally unavailable men.  I've often wondered how many guys I made out wi--erm, kissed who actually turned out to be gay.  I can think of at least two that I know of for sure.  But anyway, I digress.  I'm totally ok with people thinking Martin is gay--until they find out he's got a wife and two kids.  Also, it's especially not ok to continue thinking he's playing for the other team once they've met me.  That's so incredibly insulting to me.  Yes, Pete.  I'm talking to you, man!

Watching Edith growing up is so bittersweet.  She gets more and more beautiful, and I just keep getting older.  50% of her looks came from me.  Sometimes I wish I could have kept them.  I get a little bit jealous.  It's only going to get worse as she gets older, because when she's 15 I'll be 45 (oh boy, pushing 50.  It's looming).  She'll be peaking and I'll be troughing at the same time.  Why oh why couldn't I have had another son?  It's a good thing I love her so much...

I love gardening in England.  Seriously you don't normally even need to water anything.  But it took me a while to figure out which were weeds and which were flowers--totally different weeds here than in Utah.  Except for dandelions. Those seem to be universal.

The new car is so fantastic!  It's such a treat to drive, and it's nice to be able to drive somewhere with confidence that the car isn't going to break down or fall apart.  I need to get some new shades to wear when I drive.  It's kind of funny, really.  Martin and I now fight over whose turn it is to drive.

And that's what's on my mind right now.

See, I told you it wasn't too deep.

Pictures of our weekend activities to follow.

Kiddie pics...

Cute kisses--and man, my eyebrows look fantastic, don't they?

Long and lean, just like daddy.

Best mates!

My little beauties...

Charlotte gets giant cuddles from Dylan and Edith.

Piggy-tails!

Cheese!

Bed bouncing.

One of those days...

I love my job.  No, really.  I do.  But every once in a while I just get fed up with being a full time stay-at-home mom.  Today was definitely one of those days.  But more so.  Today I was just fed up of having kids at all.

The last 24 hours have brought urine and squash on my carpet, crayon on my walls, the iPod speaker getting dropped (and possibly broken), toys left on the floor and stepped on (I hate Lego) and a creeping and pervasive mess in my house. 

I just feel as though the kids are gradually turning everything we own into absolute crap!

I remember one day not long after my grandpa died when I broke a bowl.  It was an accident.  I opened the cupboard and it fell onto the ceramic tile floor in my parents' kitchen.  My mom screamed at me, and then she started sobbing.  Her parents had bought her those dishes when she got married, and she was devastated when that bowl broke.  I thought she was being ridiculous at the time.

I so get that now.

Nobody tells you when you start this whole parenting thing that all your stuff will be systematically destroyed.  You know, it would probably be really good birth control if they did.

I love my little mess makers, but jeez louise, enough already.

Tomorrow should be a better day.

A sound financial decision...

Things that are wrong with our car and cost of fixing them:

2 new tires:                          £100
Front end suspension:          £250 (inc. parts and labor)
Blowing exhaust:                  £100 (estimated)
Wing mirror:                        £25
Brakes:                               £125 (estimated)
Climate control fan switch:  £50 (estimated)
Road Tax:                          £105
MOT test:                           £35
Ignition repairing:  Not a clue!  Just started having problems last week.

Grand total:  £790 (plus the cost of fixing the ignition, whatever that would be)

Total cost of new car which we just bought:  £800

This includes the tax until September.  The MOT is good until February 2012.  The new car is 4 years newer than the one we currently drive, will cost about £40 less per year to insure, is in a lower tax bracket, and gets better mpg. than the Nissan we are currently driving.  The bodywork has a few bumps and scratches, but it is in much better shape than the old one.

Plus, it is a Seat Leon.  I have wanted one of these cars for about 4 years now. 

We'll be picking it up from Heanor first thing Wednesday morning, and leaving the Nissan with a scrap dealer in Nottingham.  I can hardly wait to start driving this new car. 

Of course, the most sound financial decision of all would be to do without a car entirely, which is very feasible for us.  Martin walks to work, we live super close to a Tesco, Dylan's school takes less than 5 minutes to walk to.  But we have that 35 mile round trip journey to church every Sunday.  The church isn't on a direct bus route so we would have to change buses twice, and leave home 2 hours early and church 30 minutes early every week.  AND would cost us about £15 a week to do it.

The best decision for our finances isn't necessarily the best decision for our family.

And, well, it's a really pretty car.

Ewww...

I know my kids are entirely too old for me to blog about their poop, but here goes anyway.

Edith wouldn't come in the house this evening for bedtime cartoons.  That's very unusual!  She just stood out in the middle of the garden and cried.

When I went to collect her, I discovered a big old mess.  She had to be sprayed down in the bathtub.

I guess I will stop blogging about my kids' bowel movements when they are no longer the most interesting part of my day.  But scraping human waste out of Edith's boots sure seems newsworthy to me.

Motherhood is such a treat sometimes.

ARGH!!!

Dylan has an annoying new habit.  It's even worse than the incessant "Why?"

He asks a question (or makes an observation). 

We answer the question (or acknowledge the observation, because he's Dylan and he won't shut up until you acknowledge his comments).

Then, 10 seconds later, HE ASKS THE QUESTION AGAIN!

Seriously, the kid is making me crazy.

Oh, and for some reason Edith has started freaking out if she doesn't have her feet covered. 

My little neurotics.

They say the apple never falls far from the tree, right?  So who's the nut job--me or Martin?

Ooooh, don't answer that, ok?

Girl time...

Dylan is sleeping over at the Mundays' house tonight.  Emma kindly invited him over, and I couldn't say no.  So Edith and I had the house to ourselves for dinner, bath, and bed time.

At first, it was a bit strange.  She cried when Dylan left, but perked right up when I let her sit on the kitchen counter while I cooked dinner.  She loves to do that--mostly because I give her pieces of vegetable and chunks of cheese, etc. while I am cooking.  So we cooked dinner together, did a little bit of shopping while it was in the oven (cottage pie, and one of my best ones yet), then came home and ate.  She watched "In The Night Garden" instead of "Octonauts" for her bedtime cartoon, and got to sit on my lap the entire time.  Then she had the bath to herself and got lotion rubbed on her cute little body before we got jammies on.  We read the story that she chose ("Good Baby / Bad Baby) whilst lying side by side on Dylan's bed.  She got to hold my hand while we said bedtime prayers.

Edith was in heaven.

I liked it, too.

Sometimes I miss the attention I was able to pay to Dylan when he was an only child, and I feel guilty that I can't lavish that kind of attention on Edith.  She never has me to herself.  So the rare occasions when I do have her on her own (she usually sleeps the entire time Dylan is at school) are such a treat. 

The thing that amazed me the most was how much more she talked tonight.  Seriously, she was a little chatterbox.  I guess she just can't get a word in edgewise when her big brother is around.

Edith has always called me either "mama" or "mom."  She learned it from Dylan, who always calls me "mom."  But just this week she has started calling me "mommy."  It just makes me want to pick her up and cuddle her every time.

Having just said all of this, I DO prefer having them both around.  When they aren't fighting, they play together so beautifully.  Every once in a while, Dylan asks Edith if she will be his best friend.  And she always replies, "Yes, Did-dun." 

Girls' nights are fun, but I prefer it when our little family is complete.

Awww...

Today my son stripped down to his birthday suit and ran through the sprinklers. 

I looked at his little pile of clothes on the kitchen floor.

I watched him tentatively sticking his hands and feet in the water.

I listened to him shrieking with pleasure.

I melted a little bit.

Sometimes my kids make me all gooey inside.

A revelation...

Sometimes my bathroom really reeks. 

The smell seems to be coming from the toilet, so I often bleach it and scrub it to get rid of the smell.  Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. 

Last night, as I was getting the kids into the bath, I looked down into the (empty) laundry hamper.  It was wet.  I wondered aloud, how on earth did the hamper get wet?  And Dylan told me...

"Sorry mom, I accidentaly peed in there."

So the times when the bleach worked probably coincided with laundry day.

Sometimes it is awesome having a not-quite-four-year-old boy living in the house.

Hey, at least now I know.

Right?