Well, if it's not one thing, it's another. Today, in addition to having very little sleep thanks to children being awake on and off all night, we had Sarah throwing up this morning (at least 7.30 is better than 4.30) and washing machine outflow pipe being clogged up. I should have been a plumber!

I'm feeling very proud of myself as I've just done an entire stack of mending (I hate mending). Mostly trouser knees and whatnot, but some holes in tights, and a few hemming projects - one still waiting to do, granted, but it's certainly a start. Which means I met get to do a bit of quilting at some point without feeling guilty at the sight of the mending pile (this hasn't stopped me from quilting in the past, mind you, but at least I can ditch the guilt now). What an exciting life I lead. Who knows, I might even get my website updated at some point!

Merry Christmas, everyone! Lovely time here, if somewhat frantic. All the presents are now opened, finally, except some of Alex's, but then again, I think he prefers them with the paper on anyway, so that's ok. We're greatly enjoying the digital camera - do expect to see lots of photos on the website, for those of you who follow such things. Haven't put any up yet, though, so don't go rushing off to check things out.

Olivia's quietly in the other room enjoying Wizard of Oz & we've got a friend coming around to supper, so it really feels like Boxing Day...

Today was the first of the Christmas shows - Olivia's. Actually, Sarah has two performances, yesterday afternoon and tomorrow morning - we're going to tomorrow's one as yesterday clashed with Olivia's swimming lesson. Anyway, it was very cute - lots of sweet angels and stars and shepherds and stuff like that. I think probably if you put a 4 year old in a costume, it's pretty cute even before they speak or sing, but they did a great job & we were all really entertained. Tomorrow morning is Sarah's show, which should also be great fun. I've heard good things from those who have seen the Monday pm show.

Also got a digital camera today (hoorah!) so we'll soon be drowning in pictures of kids, even more than we already are. But it will be so fast and easy - and video, too!

Made some Christmas cookies - well, not really that Christmassy in themselves, but most of them I wouldn't make at other times of the year - on the weekend. The hard part will be in not eating them all up right away. I'd like to have a nice variety to take to people's houses when we go around, etc. Always nice to have half a dozen different kinds. Truffles, too (the chocolate kind, not the funghi), which are a snap to make and much cheaper than to buy them. They make great gifts.

Well, Grandma Kathy (my mom) is here now and we put the tree up today, so it's really beginning to feel a lot like Christmas. So far, so good. Next week is full of Christmas plays and whatnot, so that will be busy. Can't even begin to count the number of times I need to be at school. But it's fun, too. And my mother will enjoy being able to go along and see things, which normally she misses, of course. Geoff's mother is with us as well, but not until the 23rd.

School fayre yesterday (why do they always spell it that way for school fairs, I wonder?), which went well. Sarah and I went over in the morning to help set up, and then I worked in the Santa's grotto (lots of elf jokes) for the first hour - it was quite fun, actually. And a lot of people showed up to help set up, so we were actually ready on time, which was super.

It's amazing how much work it takes for something like a school fair, though. If every parent in the school gave an hour of time, it would be nothing, but as it's a very small percentage helping out, those who do help, end up doing a lot. I don't mind that, in principle, what bothers me is the attitude some parents (admittedly, not many of them; most are fine) have of doing everyone a favour if they do deign to work for an hour at some game or stall. OK, yes, I also only worked one hour on a stall on the day, but I also showed up at 9 in the morning to set up. Not to mention 2 hours on Friday evening. And 2.5 hours every Friday since October. And stuff at home. So there. Not that I said this to anyone, mind you, but sometimes you're tempted!

nits.

ick.

Busy busy busy. I know it's this time of year, and the Christmas fair at school and all that kind of stuff, but I barely have time to sit down these days, or so it seems. Am looking forward to my mother's visit for a chance to relax a bit while someone else helps entertain the kids!

Well, Happy Thanksgiving to all you Yanks out there. Not celebrating here, though my one concession is that I'm doing a pumpkin pie for dessert for friends who are coming to dinner on the weekend. They aren't American, but when Caroline and I were talking about what we'd eat, it occurred to me that pumpkin pie was both easy and seasonal. Not to mention yummy - it's probably my favourite part of the meal, anyway. I'm not a huge turkey fan, so it's mostly the trimmings I miss. Lots of people in the UK do turkey for Christmas, but we all prefer roast beef. With all the trimmings that entails (Yorkshire pudding - yum!)

Sarah's class had a pirate party today - they had to bring in "simple pirate costumes" (which mostly involved headscarves & swords, from the look of the kids after school - and of course, trousers instead of uniform dresses for the girls) and some snacks, and got to play pirate themed games. Wish I remember having had that much fun when I was in school. Perhaps I did, but it doesn't seem that way...

Alex has started pulling himself up on the furniture - and anything else he can. He's not very good at it yet, but he's very interesting in doing it. Only a matter of time, I guess.

Good week last week, with my friend Jen here. Didn't see much of her during the day, as she touristed and I dealt with kids & school, but we did spend far too much time in the evening/night drinking, chatting & playing Trivial Pursuit. I think I'm too old to stay up past midnight 4 or 5 nights running. Sigh.

I keep meaning to write more but somehow, the time just goes. Who knows where, but if anyone finds out, please drop me a line and let me know, so that I can go there and get some of it back!

We're all well again, luckily no one even has a cold at the moment, though I'm sure we'll get another batch of them before the winter's through. Inevitable!

I spent the morning doing some Christmas (and other) shopping in Kingston, before the crowds get too bad. I think I'm mostly done now, though. A few more things for Geoff, though as some of those may be of the edible variety, those will have to be last minute purchases. And no doubt a few more for myself, as I usually seem to end up buying most of my own presents (at least I get things I want!) - however, as it's not yet my birthday (tomorrow), I haven't bought those -- I refuse to buy any Christmas presents for myself until after my birthday. I do have a list of stuff I want, so it won't be that hard to do. And my mom has offered to take the girls out to buy their Christmas presents from me, which will save Geoff having to do it.

Great time Saturday night, as we went down to some friends who live in Haslemere (in Surrey). As it was near Guy Fawkes, we went to a bonfire at a local village to them (Chillingfold) which has a huge bonfire celebration & fireworks. The best fireworks I've seen in ages, possibly ever - who'd have expected it from this little village. But it was a huge turnout, so it's obviously something they're noted for locally. The girls enjoyed it, too. To quote Sarah "I'm going to remember this for the rest of my life". If she's lucky, she will.

I had a virus over the past few days (me, not the computer) - or possibly a bacterial infection, as the sore throat seemed to vanish overnight after the first dose of antibiotics from the doctor & the one skanky, enlarged tonsil (not a pretty sight, I assure you) shrunk back to almost normal size, or at least to the point where I can not only swallow, but do so with relatively little pain. Gosh I love being sick. Not. And it's sure fun to deal with small children when you have virtually no voice - luckily, that was Sunday, when Geoff was there, too. And they were very well behaved, bless them.

Was talking to a friend of mine this afternoon about squandering time in our youths & how nice it would be to get back all that time. Then I spent an hour this evening trying to get the blasted scanner to work & thought about how nice it would be to get back all the time one has spent messing with the computer trying to get it to do what it's supposed to do. If I just had back all the time I'd sat there waiting for a computer to reboot, I reckon I could at least go out for a nice meal or something...

OK, just a quick note to have said something lately. Halloween was fun, a little trick or treating. Did lots of other stuff over half term, including a trip to the British Museum, where we looked at Mummies and Treasure (and lots of other stuff, but those were what Olivia kept telling me she wanted to see). Culminated with a trip to Daddy's office & thankfully, home on the train with Daddy. A bit easier with an extra grownup in tow, though the kids were all very good, considering their ages.

Glad for school to be back on Monday, though. Today, finally got around to repainting the toilet room, which has been on my list for months. And laid new flooring, too. Olivia "helped" with the painting. And then she had a bath...

Whew. Survived the birthday party, which went fairly well, with a minimum of tempers (mostly my kids, but that's often the case as guests are usually well behaved away from home). Also survived Olivia falling off the stool in the kitchen and biting practically through her tongue on both sides (from a distance, it's not too bad an injury, but at the moment the child is gushing blood from the mouth, well, it's a different story, isn't it!). Luckily, we decided we did not need a trip to casualty, which would have been a truly lovely way to round off the evening. Poor thing. Poor Mummy. But on the whole, it's been a good day, though tiring - I may go to bed very soon! We did get to see the fireworks from the back garden though - the local Bonfire Night celebrations seem to range across a wide variety of weekends, rather than the ones closest to Guy Fawkes night (which would be either next weekend or the one after, logically, as Guy Fawkes day is the 5th). Too tired to go in person, and frankly, it's very cold, but as it's just down the road, we can see it from upstairs or the back garden...

Not that much to say at the moment, just trying to get back into the habbit of blogging frequently, even if there's not much to say. We had a nice weekend; Sarah and I went to the Polka Theatre (children's theatre in Wimbledon) on Saturday and saw a piece that was quite experimental, including some trapeze work/rope climbing and lots of other fun stuff. The audience sort of sat in the middle of the stage space & the actors did everything around them. The kids loved it. As did the grownups. :) Geoff and I usually argue over who gets to go to the Polka with the kids - I won this time as it clashed with the rugby (World Cup, England v South Africa). And it was his birthday as well, so he was very pleased that England won. Now if only they can beat the All Blacks...

Still not crawling, just the weird swimming thing. When he's left alone long enough to do anything, that is. His main problem is far too much help from sisters...

Coming up to a busy time here - a couple of birthdays very soon - Geoff's on Saturday, then Olivia's is the 24th. Obviously, hers will require a bit more planning & effort, but I do have to wrap Geoff's presents. And I'll probably have a lot of help doing it, which means it will take much longer than otherwise. Hmm, I sense a theme here!

Well, almost crawling. Today he was doing this sort of weird swimming on land kind of motion. It was a forward movement (instead of rolling, which is his usual favourite) similar to crawling, but much more tortured and slow.

Did I mention (for those of you who might not know) that my brother got married yesterday? Unfortunately, we couldn't be there, as it was in San Diego, but well, there it is. Assuming nothing went wrong, he's a married man now, and is no doubt off in Hawaii where it's nice and sunny and warm, celebrating. Or relaxing. Or both. So congrats to him!

Anyone looking for the official word on my sanity (or lack thereof)? We're having a birthday party for Olivia with 22 children invited (inlcuding my own). Most of them 3 and 4 year olds! I've had one person not able to come so far, out of 5 responses, so actually, if I continue with those percentages, it will be fine. It's going to be a fancy dress (i.e. costume) party, and only an hour and half long, so actually, I think it will be fine. Just enough time to eat something and play some games, and then everyone can go home. Sarah and Thalia are going to be my "helpers". Actually, they will be quite useful for stuff like running the music for the games and helping with the food, and they'll really enjoy being helpers.

OK, so for those of you following the saga of the boy and his kidney, some good news I thought I should share. We have finally finished having all the various tests he had to have, the latest being a DMSA, which is a nuclear scan (they inject him with something radioactive which moves to his kidneys, then take pictures to see how much function each has), which he had on Tuesday. Finally. Follow up on Wednesday with the consultant, and the verdict is that the dud kidney, although small and badly formed is, at present, contributing 25 per cent of overall kidney function (which is great; with 2 proper kidneys, each contributes 50 per cent, so 25 per cent is not at all bad - the paediatric surgeon we saw antenatally said they wouldn't even consider removing one (usually) unless there was less than 5 per cent function.) And as he does not have reflux, the infection risk is very low, which means that a)they see no need to do anything at present and b)he can stop taking the antibiotics he's been on since birth, which is nice.

The only concern is that the dud kidney may not grow, or not grow much, in which event, it would obviously, over time, contribute less and less to the overall kidney function. So they'll check on it periodically (an ultrasound in a year's time is the next step) and see what's happening, and go from there. So that's all sorted, and though I wasn't worried, per se, it's certainly nice to be able to shelve it all for a while. And to know that I don't even have to contemplate the idea of surgery on my baby :)

Figures. Murphy's law or something. Despite the fact that the SMTP error had persisted for a couple of days, the minute I email virgin.net about it & blog about it, it fixes itself. It's like washing your car to make it rain, I guess. At least it's fixed now, though!

Busy busy busy lately. Birthday party today, which went very well. Assembled a bike, too (well, not quite the whole thing, but had to add the front wheel, handlbars, seat and so on. And to get the front wheel on, had to loosen the front brakes, then tighten them again after. So exciting!), so it's been a busy day. And to top it off, my SMTP server (the one that sends mail) seems to be malfunctioning, so though I can read my messages in my virgin.net account, I can't respond to them. Or rather, I can't get the responses to leave my outbox. Grr. I've contacted them, but if it keeps up, I'll have to use my yahoo address for a while. At least I have internet access. And frankly, it's not as though I really feel much like writing a lot of email at the moment anyway...

OK, sorted. whew. (just something fairly stupid after all)

Went swimming today, with Alex, who seemed to enjoy it more or less (the less part being when he was splashed in the face repeatedly as a result of Sarah jumping into the pool as heavily as possible). Not much else happening, really, but just wanted to update everyone who might be worrying about my sound...

Today's challenge in the world of computing - the sound has mysteriously stopped working on our computer. Sometime between one child successfully playing a game (with sound) and another trying unsuccessfully to play (no sound). Have checked the obvious, connections, speakers themselves (work with another device), power, mute, volume, etc etc. Have been all through the more complicated stuff (Sound Troubleshooter) to make sure devices are installed and are default options and whatnot. Still nothing. Grr. I'm hoping Rod (neighbour with some computer expertise) has some ideas. Otherwise, I guess it means taking the machine somewhere. Computers. Gotta love 'em. Or not.

Had a lovely weekend. Gorgeous weather here, and went to the quilt show at Hever, where I got to meet in person many of the ladies I knew virtually from my internet quilt block swap group - lots of fun. The girls had a great time, too, as Hever Castle (where the quilt show was) has a water maze and an adventure playground. Olivia of course made it her personal mission to get as wet as possible. Luckily, gorgeous weather, so it didn't really matter.

Today was the first day of my yoga class, and I have discoverd, to no great surprise, that I have no stomach muscles. Only to be expected, I guess, and at least I have the excuse of having had a baby quite recently, but my goodness. At least Lana, who is in the class too and who is pretty fit, was also suffering after a 2 month absence. In fact, quite a few groans were heard all round, which is heartening!

OK, I'm a slacker. You probably knew that. Just seems like there's no time again, now that I'm home. I think it's that when you're on holiday, there aren't thousands of things hanging around waiting to be done (or rather, the things are still there, but they're at your house rather than being on holiday with you, so you can't do anything about them!). And too, I've had to finish up a quilt for Hever (a quilt show next weekend). Now that that's out of the way, I can actually catch up a little on correspondence and blogging and whatnot.

So, hmm, what's up. School started again this week for Sarah, who is in Year 1. Olivia goes back to nursery Tuesday, and will go in the mornings this term. The official birthday party season has started up, as well. Olivia has already received one invitation, and we've given out Sarah's invites for her party (on the 27th). I swear my kids have twice (or more) the social life I have!

Not much else to say, really, though I'm sure stuff has been happening (but who really cares that the council finally delivered a green recycling box after I'd only had to ring them three times and request one, or that I put a new bolt on the back gate of the garden as the one at the bottom no longer fastens - I mean, these are the exciting features of our days in the North household). Maybe I'll be inspired tomorrow. Or the next day. Or so on...

Well, home again home again, jiggedy jig, as they say. Good flight, despite a slight delay due to weather (and the most spectacular t-storm I've ever seen, bar none). More tomorrow, when it's not so late!

Local time 10 pm ish

Hard to believe the time is almost up. In some ways it seems very short, but at the same time, feels as though I've been away from home forever. I'll be glad to get home, though it's been a nice visit. I keep thinking about all the stuff I have to do this autumn, though, and I'm getting antsy. And it's only 4 months until Christmas. Sigh. Where on earth does the time go, and to whom do I speak about getting some of it back?!

Went to Splash Down (www.splashdownwaterpark.com) again today as the girls really wanted to do it again - took Grandpa Andy again and Barbara this time. Excellent fun again, though it was more crowded this time. Still, the lines weren't that long and we got to do everything we wanted to do - Sarah even got to go on the white slide twice. (She didn't go on this one last time & has been regretting it ever since.) I also went on the white slide (big water slide, covered, very twisty, a little scary) and managed to bump my head going down it and have a huge bump. Sigh, again.

Anyway. Tomorrow is a stay at home day, though we're meeting Kristen & her dad for dinner. Thursday we may go to a park & Friday, it's back home again (though not until the evening). Saturday morning, back in London. The girls will be very pleased to see Daddy, that's for sure. And so will I, of course. :)

Not much happening this week - we've been taking it easy with no huge trips anywhere, just some local stuff. Met up with my friend Debbie (& her mom) for lunch on Wendesday & to discuss (and view & purchase) some fabric to make her a quilt to hang over her bed, which was fun. It involved a trip to G Street fabrics, which I always enjoy, even when I don't get out of the quilting section. Anyway, fabric duly admired and purchased, now I just need to add that quilt to my list of stuff to finish. Which is just far too long. Sigh. But that's ok, wouldn't want to be bored - ha!

Thursday we had a rest day, with just a few local errands, and yesterday we went up to visit Jen at her office. If I was still working, boy would I have office envy. It is really a lovely space, and a lot of thought has obviously been put into making it a pleasant place to work. Of course, this is partly because when there's a crunch, the guys practically live in the office, which would be a drawback for one's personal life (but then, these guys are programmers who write games for a living - perhaps the phrase "personal life" isn't entirely appropriate here). Anyway, we visited - the kids were in heaven because there's a small room full of little kids' toys for when the guys who have kids have them in the office for whatever reason - and then lunched. And had a trip to the quilting shop (that was before the visiting, actually, but who's counting).

Today we're off to my friend Kristen's Dad's house, as he lives near a beach (Severn River). We're going to hang out and eat and do stuff after lunch and I will get to meet her sister's little girl, who's about a year and a half old. Jessy (the sister)'s husband died very unexpectedly a while ago (I think I blogged this when it happened, so if you're a regular reader, you'll perhaps remember), and I haven't seen her since, so it will be nice to touch base. And of course to visit with Kristen herself and anyone else who may come to hang out.

Tomorrow I'm having A Gathering at my mom's house, where all my friends who are available (which is most of them) will come hang out & eat & reminisce and all that kind of stuff. Should be amusing, as it usually is. And everyone pretty much knows everyone by now, even the ones who didn't go to school together, so that will be easy. All very informal, but fun.

Local time, 9.15pm

Well, back to normal, more or less, tomorrow. Dad and Nancy went back Sunday - a short visit, but nice to see them, even for a little while. Steve goes back home tomorrow morning, much to the delight of his fiance, Christine, who really missed him this week - perhaps more than she expected to. Unfortunately, she wasn't able to join us, as she couldn't get the time off. So I've yet to meet her. Not that I don't trust my brother's judgement, I'm just curious...

Anyway, tomorrow should be a nice relaxing day - nothing much planned other than taking Steve to the airport. We've been doing a lot of shopping (Dad & Nancy wanted to buy the kids some gifts, and then today we went to a mall as we needed something indoors to do), which gets tiring after a while, especially for the kids. They've been very good but it's a bit boring for them.

One thing we did that was fun & different is we visited the Patuxent Wildlife Reserve Visitor Centre & took a tram ride around to look at the wildlife. Didn't see a huge amount, but it was still interesting, and made a nice change from all the indoor activities we've been doing. Normally, I'd feel compelled to complain about the heat here, but frankly, not only has it not really been as hot as expected (only in the 80s), but if we were home in England, it would be insanely hot, so I don't feel I can really get away with it at the moment. It's a bizarre thing, having it be hotter there than here. I'm glad we're here, though, as I think the kids would find it really hard to sleep in that kind of heat, without the air conditioning. Not to mention their mum.

Yesterday, the other grandparents arrived - my dad and stepmom, who live in Washington state. Soon, they actually be moving down to live in their beach house in Mexico, but they still live in WA for the moment. Anyway, they came in very late Thursday night and we got together with them yesterday. Lovely to see them, and of course for them to see the grandkids in person and meet the new addition, who seemed pleased with all the attention. But then, he's easy, he'll take attention from anyone :) The girls are definitely enjoying being spoiled by having all these extra people around to play with them and buy them things. It's a good thing that we'll have school starting relatively soon after we get home, as a distraction, or I'm sure they'd go crazy.

Made my first trip to Costco yesterday. I could get addicted to that place, if I had a big enough house to store 72 rolls of toilet paper at once, that is :) Still, I did buy 3200 post-its. (well, they're the little tiny note size & I have small kids in my house, so they're always vanishing - 32 packs of 100 seemed like a good idea, and they aren't big, so no problem getting them in my suitcase...). My friend Yvette says that she's always seeing stuff she didn't know she needed until she got to Costco and then "Oh my god, I must have that".

Local time 10.15 am.

My brother arrived last night, and is still asleep at the moment, as he's on Phoenix time - which, as they don't change for daylight savings, is 3 hours behind here. Mom's about to wake him up (poor thing) and we'll be off to do stuff before long. The kids really need to get going fairly soon or they'll go ballistic. They've been watching Honey I Shrunk the Kids, but that's done now, so...

Yesterday we went to the zoo and got stuck in one of those torrential downpours that are so common here and so rare in the UK. However, it soon cleared and the sun came out and was beating down, so we all dried out pretty well. The girls enjoyed the zoo, and it wasn't nearly as crowded as it might have been - probably due to the rain - so that was nice.

Not sure what we'll get up to today, probably not a lot, but tomorrow I think we'll try to hit the Howard County Fair - it's dollar ride day on Thursday, so that's a bargain! Of course, with little kids, it's not quite as expensive anyway, as there aren't as many rides they can go on. (height restrictions). But who knows, perhaps Uncle Steve and Mummy will go on some, too...

Local time 7.30 pm

Well, we took Geoff to the airport yesterday, so now he's back home again and here we are without him. It's not that strange yet, but I'm sure it will be before long. Now that he's gone, we won't be so frantically doing things all the time - we tried to do lots of things and see everyone before he left, so we were always on the go.

We went to Splash Down on Thursday, which was a huge success, for adult and child alike. I think we'll try to go again before we leave, perhaps taking my friend Barbara along as well. Excellent fun (www.splashdownwaterpark.com). Friday we met Barbara for lunch and hung around Beltway Plaza, a sort of lower scale mall, which was kind of strange for me as growing up, that was the number one place for hanging out with my friends (there was - in fact, still is, although it's a lot nicer these days -a movie theatre there) when I was in high school. Nowadays they have one of those kids play places there, the kind with the soft climbing areas and lots of rides and games to spend money on. We just used the climbing/soft play area, which is free. Saturday, we met friends for lunch again, and then took Geoff to the airport. Today we went to Columbia and walked around one of the lakes there, which has a nice path all the way around it. Then had a bite to eat at the mall and a brief look in the shops. Nothing too exciting, though we did hit Target again (my favourite) on the way home.

I'm sure we'll do some stuff this week, but not out and about every day, or at least, not all day stuff. The girls need some kind of activity, or they tend to go mad. It's not quite like being at home, where they have all their stuff and all their friends, though luckily there are some kids to play with in the neighbourhood. Not all of them are home during the day, though, as in some cases, both parents work. Or the kids are doing other kinds of summer activities. Both girls have made friends with a little girl called Tiffany, who is exactly between them in age, which works nicely. And they like the kids next door, although they are boys, so perhaps not quite as interesting.

Local time, 8 am.

For the past few days, Alex has been back on a normal sleeping schedule - sleeping through the night and wanting to wake up to feed at 7 or later in the morning. Which is great, in terms of getting sleep, but getting up in the early morning was really good for my email and my blog. But well, something has to be sacrificed! Anyway, we've had quite a busy week so far. Monday, we went into downtown DC to go to the Air and Space Museum, which was something that Sarah wanted to do. They had fun with that, looking at old planes and rockets and whatnot, and seeing the film To Fly, which I remember from when I was a little kid (and which is still impressive, frankly). After that, we wandered about a bit, and it started to pour rain, so we ducked into the Hirschorn (modern art) - they had a great time with that, particularly with an installation piece that dropped pieces of paper from the ceiling. Should have guessed that modern art might appeal to kids, as it's kind of strange...

Tuesday we went to a local (huge) mall called Arundel Mills, which was built about 3 years ago. It's one of those really really big ones, half a mile from end to end, and it's built in a loop, so one circuit is a mile around - good for mall walking. And it has a big cinema whaddya callit - multiplex? - anyway, 24 screens or something silly like that. Geoff took the kids to see Spy Kids 3D while Mom and I walked around looking at kids clothing sales. Lots of 70 per cent off on really cute stuff. And lots of exercise, with a mall that big... We were really tired after that, perhaps not surprisingly.

So on Wednesday, yesterday, we just mostly hung around locally. We did meet up with my friend Cathi, who lives in Ireland, and who was due to be in the US at the same time as me (her mother lives near mine). Unfortunately, her husband's father, who has been very ill for a while now, has taken a turn for the worse and looks like he won't live much longer, so she's cutting her trip short to return home and be with Dave. At least we got to see her briefly before she went. Another friend from college came over in the evening for a barbecue - she is also married to an Englishman, though they live here, obviously - and they have two little kids. Their daughter Tibby will be 4 tomorrow (so basically Olivia's age) and they have a little boy born in April (not so little, actually, he's almost as big as Alex).

Today the plan is to go with Andy (my stepfather, more or less) to a water park called Splash Down. I'm sure the kids (mostly the adult male ones!) will really enjoy it. Actually, I'm sure we all will. I haven't been to a water park in years, though there is a swimming pool with slides and stuff that we go to when we're in Ireland. The weather is supposed to be hot, so I'm sure we'll welcome the water.

Local time 7.something. am.

Yesterday was a hot one, though not as hot as we thought it was going to be - high 80s rather than mid 90s. Every little bit makes a difference... In the morning, though, it was overcast, so we went to a really nice playground about a half and hour away - not so bad standing out there watching the kids when the sun isn't blazing down. And of course, being Sunday morning, it was really empty as only a handful of heathens were there playing, as opposed to being in church like good kiddies. :)

We also finally found my mom a bread machine (hoorah!) so she can have decent bread. And so we can, too, of course. Self interest is always in play when it comes to food. Haven't set it up to use yet, but I'm sure we'll get to that point eventually.

And then we met Jen & Barbara and Brian for sushi. Our favourite place closed a while ago, but we found where they went, finally, and went there. And even though we haven't been there in a year or more, they recognised us. Isn't that sweet? And the sushi is still excellent. Relief!

Local time 7.30am.

Much later sleeping today, hoorah! Hopefully this bodes well for the rest of the trip. Maybe he'll even stop wanting an extra feed in the middle of the night (he had stopped at home, so it's not unreasonable to hope...)

Didn't do much yesterday. Ran to Target (my favourite) and bought some stuff and had a quick pop into Joann's - not a lot of great fabric there this time. I'm looking forward to the actual quilt shop much more. Then in the afternoon, Mom and I took the kids to see Finding Nemo, which was very good. Not too sentimental (a little) and more than a little scary in some parts, but generally excellent. I'm sure we'll all enjoy it again (and again and again) when it comes out on video and we acquire it, as I'm sure we will.

Local time, 6.30am

Baby's awake early again. I don't know if he's still jet lagged or if he's going through a growth spurt, or whether it's just that he's thirsty as it's hotter here, and between that and the air conditioning he wants an extra feed. Whatever. It's not that bad, actually, as I can get my email read and something blogged. I hope it gets a little later, though, as once I start really hanging out with friends at night, I may need a little more sleep. It's different when you're on holiday, though, as although we get tired doing stuff, it's fun stuff, rather than stuff like cleaning house, so i don't mind as much :)

Yesterday we went to the Baltimore Inner Harbour and did the Maryland Science Centre and had lunch at Phillips (seafood) with my friend Jen. The girls enjoyed the science centre - it has a kids area with lots of hands on stuff. I think they could have spent most of the day there, though frankly a couple of hours was enough for the grownups. Not sure what we're up to today - we were going to do something with my friend Kristen, but she's got all her relatives descending on her (not quite all, but well, lots of them), so we've rescheduled that. As it's Saturday, we might not do anything really touristy, as those things will be much more crowded. It also partly depends on the weather. I think it's supposed to be really hot today, which means we might not want to do anything likely to be in the strong sunshine all day. Anyway, we'll talk about it when the others get up and see what's what. Some time next week, we're going to try to have a day at the beach, but we definitely won't do that on the weekend.

Local time, 5.50am.

Yesterday morning, the baby was wide awake, wanting to play, at 4.30am. Today, he's fine, but I'm wide awake. Granted, it's not 4.30, but 5.30 still isn't my ideal time to get up. But I'll be danged if I'm going to lie in bed not sleeping for more than a half an hour... Anyway, there's always email to read and blogging to do and that sort of thing - might as well make productive use of the time!

Didn't do a lot yesterday, as we were still recovering a bit and easing into the whole thing. Went to the supermarket and stocked up on general kid fodder and a little junk food. I'm trying to resist that a bit, though I'm sure I'll eat some of my favourites - the ones you can't get in the UK, anyway (fritos!) Then we went to the playground and the library and just basically hung around in the neighbourhood. There are quite a few kids here and they tend to hang around outside in the evening, which is nice. I'm sure Sarah and Olivia will make friends with some of them before long, though many of the older ones seem to be boys. That won't stop Sarah, of course. She might even prefer it. She misses having her bike, though, as riding up and down is one of the primary activities of the kids here. We'll try to find a used one somewhere.

I'm sure today we'll do something more touristy, like the Maryland Science Centre or a museum or something like that. Haven't decided what yet, as that will partly depend on the weather. One day next week, we'll try for the beach or the water park, but both of those are quite a drive away, and I'm not sure we want to do either of them on a Friday. Certainly not the beach. Anyway, we'll see. When the others are up and about and making decisions, I guess we'll work something out. Not like everything has to be planned in advance anyway...

Local time 8.15pm, Wednesday night.

Storm in a teacup. Which is great. No problem checking in or anything. Flight was ok, kids not too bad, we're here (and tired) but, well, the important thing is that we're here. Whew. More soon!

Well, still uncertain what the deal is with Heathrow, although flights seem to be going. We'll keep our fingers crossed that we'll be able to get away and on time. Looking forward to the holiday greatly, if we manage to get off the ground, that is!

As is perhaps typical of us and holidays, the checkin staff are striking at Heathrow over something or other. Lots of people stuck at Heathrow for hours and hours while waiting to see if they could check in, etc. Grr. Called the airline today and they seem fairly certain that everything will be ok on Wednesday, but it does make one a bit edgy. At least the likelihood of terrorist attacks is fairly slim. Of course, I would have said that last time we were going to the US & see how wrong I'd have been!

Today was Olivia's last day at nursery - not last really, as she'll be back in the nursery in the autumn, but last for the year. Sarah finishes tomorrow at 1.30. They're fairly excited, though not as excited as the older kids, or as excited as I remember being as a child (probably older, though). Of course, the break isn't nearly as long here as it is in the US in the summer, so that may cut down on the hyperness a bit. It certainly is better for the parents. Frankly, 6 1/2 weeks is plenty. And it's nice to have a bit of time at Christmas and spread out through the year. Makes the teachers' lives easier, too, I think.

Anyway, less than a week to go until we leave for the US - we're going on Wednesday. I'll have to spend much of Tuesday packing - I've arranged for both girls to go to friends' houses to play for a while on Tuesday, so I'll use the time to pack. Can't believe it's so soon!

Just found out a friend of mine is having her 5th baby. Yep, 5th. (For those of you who follow these things, this is the friend whose children have progressively more unusual names as she and her husband can never agree on anything. It's primarily him who is the difficult one, I think. Anyway, if this one is another boy, goodness knows how they will ever decide on a name!)

So.

Not much more to say, is there? :)

I notice I said I'd post more about the fair. I should never promise in writing to do these things, as I'm too likely never to get back to them... Anyway, the school fair was a great success. Luckily, the weather held up, so people stayed quite a while and spent lots of money. Which is good for the school - we raised about £3900 at the fair (that's the profit - so that's pretty amazing!). So I guess my hour and a half working on the boys' tombola payed off (tombola: where you draw tickets with numbers on, and a number ending in 5 or 0 wins a prize, you know...). The girls had a great time as well. In addition to the usual jars of sweets, Sarah also won a football (soccer ball), a skipping rope and a police set (gun and badge - luckily the gun doesn't actually shoot missiles of any sort, just makes a loud (and highly annoying) clicking noise. I'm hoping it's made of cheap plastic and will break soon...). Olivia won some bath beads and a punch balloon (purple), so she's happy. And mummy is happy because they were selling 2nd hand uniforms for 50p an item, so I picked up 2 dresses, a pinafore dress, a skirt and two school cardigans for £3.00. Bargain.

Anyway, Tuesday was the Foundation stage sports day - footraces and other activities - all the kids took turns (in groups) doing things like walking on balance beams, jumping off stuff, throwing bean bags into hoops, and so on. Then there was a family picnic, complete with a bouncy castle, hired from the leftover 50p money (the nursery & reception classes ask for a voluntary donation of 50p per week - the money is used for things like cooking supplies and other incidentals not covered in the school budget. At the end of the year, there's usually enough leftover to do something special, like hire a bouncy castle for the sports day, etc.)

Wednesday was Open Night, where parents can visit the child's current classroom and see the work on display, etc, and parents and children get a chance to visit the new classroom for the next year, meet the teachers and so forth. Olivia will be in the nursery again, though she's moving to the morning class, and getting a new teacher, so at least there will be some changes for her. Not too many, though, which is a good thing at her age. Sarah will be in Year 1 and her class will be called Ash. Year 1 is roughly equivalent to 1st grade in the US. Her teacher is actually pregnant, so she'll get a new teacher part way through the autumn term, but there should be some overlap, so I'm not really worried. And all the kids know this is going to happen, so it shouldn't be too hard to deal with.

Only a week (and a day) of school left before the summer holidays - and less than a fortnight before we go to the US - I can hardly believe it's come around so soon. And of course, I still have about 6 weeks worth of stuff to get done before we go. It's not going to happen, obviously!

Well, we have a milestone this morning! Alex was under his gym while I was in the kitchen washing the dishes. I heard him fussing & went to see what it was all about - he'd rolled (mostly) over and was stuck in place. So I rescued him - since then, he's rolled over about half a dozen times, so I'd say he's really got the hang of it now. He can only go from front to back, though, not a complete roll, so he still can't really go anywhere with it...

Off to swimming now (Olivia). More later about the school fair, which was yesterday.

Well, amazingly, it's less than three weeks until we go to the US. It seems as though there's about 8 weeks worth of stuff to get done between now and then, which isn't surprising, just annoying. And typical. Both girls are away all day today, though, on their school trip (to a farm), so perhaps I'll get some of the stuff done today. Although some of the stuff, like working at the summer fair at school, can only be done on the day itself, not in advance. Still, I've got a couple of sewing projects that really need finishing, so I guess I should get to them. I might have a good chunk of time this afternoon to do stuff, especially if Alex takes a long nap. This morning, I'm watching a friend's little girl (she's about 18 months, very cute & very well behaved) for an hour or so, so less chance to do stuff like sew or organise the loft, but I might get to finish reading and replying to my email. Maybe.

Spent most of today at a quilt show - Lana and I managed to get a trip in to Sandown (aka the National Quilt Championships), which is just down the road from us, while the girls were in school. I dropped Olivia at a friend's house for the morning, and of course she's in nursery in the afternoon, so it was just a matter of someone else taking her. This is where having lots of people in the same road going to nursery is very handy. Anyway, we had a nice time, though I didn't buy much fabric (as I'll be spending a month in the US this summer, I intend to be very extravagent there, where the prices are much lower). Lana had a quilt in the longarm section (didn't win a prize, but as she's just started, that wasn't too surprising or disappointing), and another friend, who is in our small quilting group, won second place in one of the themed sections - not surprisingly, as her quilt is stunning; I saw it while she still working on it.

Not much else happening here. Conjunctivitis now gone, but boy do I wish the pollen count would go down. Blasted allergies! Oh well, what can you do (except take lots of allergy drugs)...

We've been up to Geoff's Mum's house for the weekend for a quick visit - she seems to be doing quite well, all things considered, though of course, it's odd not to have Dad in the house any more. And even more so for her, of course. Still, it was a pretty good weekend, though Olivia is a bit of a handful when she's at someone else's house as she always wants to be getting into everything (this is true at home, too, of course, but I worry about it less here). However, the weather was good, which meant we were able to get out for a nice long walk along the canal and the local school was having it's summer fair on Saturday, so we went to that - the girls loves these kinds of fairs and fetes, as do I. Back home now to the start of Wimbledon, which means even less time to do stuff as I'll want to watch some of the tennis. What a busy time of year! And only a month to go until we go to the US on holiday. How the time flies.

Absolutely gorgeous weather Friday and the weekend - probably this will be "summer" here - but the kids have had the paddling pool out three days in a row (and it occurs to me as I write that, that one of my first entries in this blog was about a paddling pool, about a year ago - amazing!)

We went up to Cannizaro Park (local park near Wimbledon Common, really beautiful smallish park with interesting planting, etc) this morning to enjoy the glorious weather and coming out of the rose garden, which has a narrow entranceway, encountered another couple with a pushchair coming in & did that whole pushchair-dance-thing & exchanged polite good mornings with them, etc, etc. and only realised after heading off in the opposite direction (and having it pointed out by Geoff - who said in a rather loudish voice "You do realise who that was, don't you?") that it was Andre Agassi and Steffi Graff and baby. So there's my brush with celebrity for the day! Guess it's not too suprising to encounter them in Wimbledon a week before the tennis starts...

Since getting back from Ireland, things have been pretty busy, not with anything in particular, just the usual stuff, but dealing with kids just takes up so much time, as many of you know. Still better than my job was at the end, though, so I'm not REALLY complaining, just a little good natured griping, especially after a generally grumpy afternoon... And now, to top it off, I've developed conjunctivitis in my right eye (here's hoping it won't spread to the left. Or to the kids...), which I'm sure is going to drive me bananas. Short trip, as Andy (my former stepdad) would say.

Tomorrow at school there's the start of a "balloon race" - each kid can buy a balloon, then they are inflated with helium, a stamped addressed (to the school) postcard with the child's name is attached in the hopes that whoever finds the balloon, if indeed it's found, will return the card. Whoever's balloon comes from the farthest away wins the race. I've offered to help blowing up and assembling the balloons (if I can still see, that is!) and at 2.45 the school will all gather to let them go. Should be fun, and an added bonus is that they are using biodegradable balloons - I didn't even know they made biodegradable balloons, but glad to hear it, as I know a lot of schools do these sort of races. Wonder how long it will take to start getting cards back? I think they're planning to announce the results at the school fair, which is about the 6th or 7th of July. Apparently, balloons from Surrey have been returned from as far away as Sweden in the past. Wouldn't that be exciting for the kids. Of course, knowing my luck, our balloons won't even get the cards returned - but then, perhaps Sarah is luckier than I am - she did win a pound on the treasure hunt at the Scout Fair, after all...

Yesterday was an INSET (teacher training) day, so no school for my kids. We took Olivia to her swimming lesson in the morning and bought some Father's Day cards and presents and then spent the rest of the afternoon mucking about. It was nice and relaxing, actually, and is a good lead off into a week that promises to be really hectic, with a trip to the embassy to sort Alex's passport, getting the car in for service and lots of other stuff. And a night out with the girls at a local Chinese restaurant, on the up side!

Olivia has a dentist appointment later this morning, which should be fun - actually, it should, she enjoys it. Sarah's is next week. At least dental care is free for kids, which is a nice bonus.

Another fun filled day today. Sarah had a birthday party to attend at Horton Farm (a children's farm), so we went down with Olivia as well (and Alex, but he doesn't really care that much about farms yet) and let her have a go around the farm while Sarah partied. She got very stroppy after a while (over tired from playing on all the climbing stuff) and actually asked to go home - such a difference from Sarah, who will never admit when she's tired and insists on pushing everything until tears come. Olivia had some tears, too, but at least she knew she needed to go. Of course she's always been better at knowing her limits about that sort of thing, like bedtime. She's the only 2 year old I've ever encountered who would suddenly stop playing and come up and say "Mummy, I'm tired, I want to go to bed now"...

After the farm, we had a bit of a rest, and then went to the local Scouts' group's summer fete. There are always lots of silly games for little kids with small prizes & lots of sweets to be won. They love it, as it's not too hard for them to actually sometimes win the games. I love it because the games are all really cheap, so it's not so bad that they usually don't win anything. :)

Otherwise, nothing too exciting here. My friend Cathi (the one in Ireland) gave me a book about doing yoga with your baby, so Alex and I have been having a go at that every afternoon, and it's really good fun. Some of it involves using the baby as a weight, but mostly it's about positioning him to see you and playing with him, a bit of baby massage, rolling over exercises, and so on. He enjoys it, though, which is great.

So, back home again. Of course the day we drove home (Saturday) was really hot, to the extent that I actually put the a/c on in the car - most English cars don't even have it; that ours does is just chance - we didn't look for a car specifically with it. It was nice on Saturday, though. Sunday, of course, when we were at home, it rained. Today was back to school for the kids and the weather is ok - warm but not too draining. Managed to get quite a lot done, though of course, never as much as I need to. I have this huge list of phone calls to make to arrange things, but all of them but one are dependent on scheduling an appointment (that's the "but one" call) and for that, I'm waiting to be rung back. It's all very frustrating as I keep looking at my list and thinking "Oh, I can ring to schedule a service for the car" and then realising that of course I can't until I get the other thing sorted. The exciting life I lead - aren't you envious?

I can hardly believe it's June already - and the number of things I need to get sorted before we go on holiday in July is staggering. I keep thinking mid July is a long way off, but it's surprisingly close. Everyone says that time sure flies by when you get older - I guess I must really be getting older, as it certainly seems to zip past these days...

What with one thing and another I haven't had time to write much about our holiday, and here it is the last day already. But we've been having fun, going to the beach and splashworld and the park and other fun things, mostly aimed at kids, but stuff that the grownups have been enjoying as well. We're taking (or rather, Geoff is) the girls back to Splashworld this afternoon (an indoor water park - a pool with waves, water slides, fountains, water cannon, etc). Last time the babies went too, and although Aine enjoyed it quite a bit, Alex wasn't quite so keen, so David is going to get off work a little early this afternoon and he'll take Aine with him and Geoff will take the girls. Cathi and I will stay here (and Alex) and perhaps go for a long walk or something, depending on the weather.

The weather hasn't been quite what we'd like - not much sun - but at least it hasn't been chucking down rain, so it's not too bad. We've still managed to get out and about a lot, and the girls had a whole morning of playing in the very nice playground in the centre of Waterford. Yesterday we took advantage of the brief period of sun to go for a picnic on a secluded beach fairly near to Waterford. It wasn't hot, but at least it was warm enough for us to eat lunch outside and for the girls to mess about in the rockpools without freezing.

Back home tomorrow after a long ferry trip and a long drive - I'm going to let Sarah stay up as late as she wants tonight, as that makes it more likely she'll sleep in the car on the way home. On the ferry on the way over they were showing Harry Potter 2 in the kids' cinema, so if we're equally lucky on the way back, that part of the trip shouldn't be too bad.

Well, here we are in Ireland, which is cool. As expected, Cathi's baby is very sweet, although she's obviously going to be a handful, even at a young age. She's about 2.5 months older than Alex, so it's fun to watch her and predict what he's going to be like at the same age. Not that I haven't been through that age before with the other kids, but you do tend to forget at precisely which age they do what...

We spent yesterday driving around doing stuff, went up to a car boot sale outside Kilkenny and then went to lunch in Kilkenny, which looks like a very pretty town. Geoff bought me a lovely piece of pottery as a belated anniversary present (it was 10 years this year, astonishingly). Today, we'll probably not go quite so far afield. i don't think the weather will be nice enough for the beach, but perhaps we can have a trip to "Splashworld" later today, if it's open and if it fits into the schedule. If it doesn't rain, perhaps there will also be a walk over to the local castle or something like that.

The best thing, besides visiting with old friends of course, is that they have a big hottub on their deck, so every evening, after the kids are in bed, it's out to the hot tub for a soak and a gossip & to sort out world affairs and all that. perhaps that's what's wrong with the UN - they don't conduct their business while soaking in a hottub with a nice drink.

Off to Ireland early tomorrow morning. Staying with Cathi and Dave and as Cathi is at least as much of an internet addict as I am, I'll be checking email and blogging as usual, if I have time (and if she's not already online). But in case there's a lot of silence, well, you'll know why! Just hope the weather is better than it has been here this week...

well, today we had a first - solid food. Alex, that is. The rest of us have been on solids for a while! Anyway, he's a little young for it, technically (3.5 months rather than 4) but he's a very hungry baby in the daytime and has recently taken to chewing on his fist, so I reckoned it was time to at least try. And though he's not entirely sure what to do with the food (we had some pear puree today), neither does he spit it back out, scream and make faces, so I think we're on the right track. I just want him to keep sleeping through the night most nights - it's a hard thing to give up, once they've started to give your nights back!

Last night was Olivia's annual ballet show - this is the first time she's been in it, but as ballet looks as though it's here to stay, I'm assuming it will be an annual event. She used to be in a different ballet class, which only had little ones, but now she's going to a different place, which takes all ages. She's only in with tiny little ones, but there are other classes for older girls, so we had a whole show, from 3 year olds up to about 18, I reckon. It was quite sweet. In many ways, the little kids were better than the older ones, as they were much less self-conscious.

After the show, we had Thalia around for a sleepover (she was in the show, too, and both her folks were away, so it was practical, as well as fun), which is our first proper sleepover. We did have Thalia once before, when Lana went into hospital to have Keir, but this was a "real" sleepover. And much more giggly. They did eventually go to sleep, though. Eventually. I can see that the main problem in future will be that Thalia is an early riser, which would be fine, except she woke both the other girls up, too, and they really need a bit more sleep, especially after a busy, tiring day like yesterday. At least they are old enough not to need me to get up with them when they get up at 6.45 on a Sunday morning...

Well, it's been a while since I wrote anything; those of you who read the blog regularly may have guessed that this is because Geoff's dad died, later on the same day as the last entry. We've been very busy since as Geoff's been up to his mum's house twice - we went the second time, this past weekend, for the funeral and so forth. Everything went very well, it was a lovely service with a good turnout and all that, but it was still obviously a bit of an emotional visit. Geoff's doing well, and his mum not too badly. It does help that Stuart is able to be there with her I think.

The oddest thing, of course, is being at the house without Geoff's dad there. Even Sarah noticed it - she said "It's different here without granddad, isn't it".

Only a few days left, and actually, it's not been too bad. We've been greatly helped by having nice weather, and thus being able to get out and do stuff. Today, which looks set to pour down rain any moment, Sarah has a friend around to play, so that's also ok. I think they're upstairs playing with Millie's My Little Ponies (of which she seems to have quite a few - she brought a whole bag full) - the game seems to involve a pony show, which their team (the girls) seems to be winning, over the boys' team (the boys being imaginary, made up for the purpose of the game, so that they could beat them, I think). Such devious minds at only 5 1/2!

Geoff's brother is coming in from Australia later today, somewhat unexpectedly - as Geoff's dad isn't doing too well. I mentioned that he'd had a 2nd stroke, but he's also had 2 heart attacks since then, so none of us have very high hopes for his recovery. Stuart is coming over to spend a month with him and Lucy, just in case. It will be lovely to see him, of course, though one would wish it were in more pleasant circumstances. Anyway, he'll stay with us tonight, then go up to Leicestershire tomorrow. And hopefully he'll be able to spend a few days with us at the end of the visit as well. Someday we may actually make it to Australia for a visit there, but it won't be particularly soon. Might as well wait until the kids are old enough to get a lot out of it, as we won't be able to afford to do it more than once, probably.

So, 4 days of the Easter holiday down, only a million to go. Ok, not quite, but it feels a bit that way. We've been lucky to have really nice weather so far so that we can do outdoor things (it doesn't stop them from whining, but at least the whines aren't as loud outside) instead of being stuck inside. And there are two bank holidays this weekend, which means that Daddy is home to help entertain the monsters...I mean, lovely adorable children.

My friends and I have a theory that although school is great and we love it when our kids are in school, the problem is that they get so used to having their entire day structured for them, that when they have a holiday they spend the entire time expecting their mums to devise activities for them. Which would be ok, if they would do the things we devise instead of deciding that those activities aren't good enough or interesting enough, and therefore, they're bored [most commonly heard phrase during school holidays: "Mummy, I'm BORED"]. At least my two girls are close enough in age that they can play stuff together. It's usually weird stuff involving sitting on each other's heads or something, but at least they do it together, and usually in another room. Not that I mind doing stuff with them, but sometimes I also need to do things like cook dinner, do washing, clean the house, feed the baby, etc etc etc.

Seems to be a problem posting to my blog at the moment, but I thought I'd type something now anyway, in the hopes that when the publishing thing is sorted, I'll not have lost all the stuff I've added. We'll see. Of course, being a tightwad about internet stuff, I don't pay for one of the premium services, so the chances of their dealing with my problem are slim to none; perhaps it's a temporary server thing (I know all about those from the years on ns.com) which will resolve itself anyway. I should be so lucky.

Today was the last day of school before the Easter Holidays - two glorious weeks of bored children, and I'm sure the weather will turn all rainy just to make life that much easier. The kids got out of school today at 1.30, and by about 3, they were already intolerable. It's going to be a fun two weeks. And as Geoff's dad recently had another minor stroke, we won't be making the previously planned trip up to Grandma & Grandad either, which won't help any (that's not my primary concern about Geoff's dad's stroke, of course, but it's an additional negative aspect...)

We did start an "Easter Egg Tree" today, though. I don't know if anyone else did this as a kid, but we did - we decorated eggshells and hung them on a "tree" (ok, a branch), which we used as a decoration. As Geoff says, it makes sense, as eggs normally grow on trees. I know, I know, but I guess it's just a good way to display them. Anyway, we have a couple of eggs I bought at the garden centre, but we're going to make some more - it's a holiday project. It won't be quite the same as in the US as most of the eggs here are brown (although sometimes at Easter they do sell white in some places), but there are other ways of decoration than just dyeing...

The last two posts I've tried to post haven't showed up, so this is a test again. Boring, I know.

This is in the way of a test. I wrote something earlier and tried to post it, but it doesn't seem to have shown up. So you can just ignore this...

So of course, now that I've bragged about blogging a lot, I let it slip and go a fortnight without writing anything. Typical! But it's been busy here (so that's a great change). Not that today is any different, but it was a strange enough day that I just had to say something. This morning when I got up, it was snowing. Yes, snowing. Yes, I know it's April - go figure.

I recently got by email one of those survey things that you fill in and send around to your friends (favourite colour, parents' names, and so on) and one of the questions was how much you love your job on a scale of 1-5. I said 5, which is usually true, but honestly, good thing I wasn't filling it in today, as today we have Mr "I'm going to scream whenever I'm put down" Baby. He's currently with his daddy, screaming because I'm not holding him any more. There are days when I almost (but not quite) wish I was still back at work...

I had a message from a friend of mine who said I "blog a lot", which was great, as I always feel I'm not writing enough, so if at least one person in the world thinks I'm doing ok, I can feel less guilty about all those days I can't think of anything to write, or can't find the time. And as he has a blog himself, and is a computer dude, he knows what he's talking about. Thanks, Richard. :)

Today is a domestic day. Aside from catching up on emails, I'm making jam (plum, my favourite so far), making cakes for a sale at the school (banana chocolate chip - that will solve the problem of the black bananas as well), making bread (bread machine, so that's easy, just measure the ingredients and push a couple of buttons), and, if Alex sleeps well today, maybe even doing some sewing. You'd think I was Harriet Homemaker or something, so just to reinforce the fact that this is not the 1950s and I'm not really that type of girl, my background music today is a playlist mainly consisting of Clash & Joe Strummer songs, with some misc punk & ska stuff thrown in. Wouldn't want to let the side down...

Busy weekend, between stuff and gorgeous weather, so again, not much time online. In fact, I didn't even turn on the computer yesterday, which is a really change for me. I have to at least LOOK at my email, usually, even if I can't respond to it because I'm holding a baby at the time...

Sarah and Olivia went to Thalia's birthday party on Saturday - held in the school hall, it was a proper "disco party" complete with a DJ. They seem to have loved it. And luckily, Olivia is now old enough that I don't always have to stay at these things. I went over a little early so I could say I'd been and not risk mortally offending Thalia - a mortally offended 6 year old is not something one wants to deal with.

Yesterday we had some friends around, some of whom we haven't seen in ages, partly due to their living in Hertfordshire and us halfway around the M25 from there, and partly due to both of us having exceptionally busy years in the past few years, including Nigel's dad dying a couple of years ago. We had a lovely time - again, the weather was fantastic - and after gorging ourselves silly at lunch, we went for a lovely long walk around the neighbourhood - the park (packed with people for a change), cemetery & over to the kids' school. By about 6pm I was ready to crash, as Alex had had a sleepless night, with colic or similar, so I'd be awake more or less since 4am. I think it's the first time in years (barring when I had the flu) that I've been in bed at 9pm!

This has been the most gorgeous week - really lovely weather, warm and sunny, and due to last through until Monday. Part of the reason I've not been online much lately. That and the usual stuff.

This week's excitement came in the form of a visit to Olivia's nursery class. They are doing a unit on babies - learning about all kinds of babies, animal and human, and as part of the human baby unit, they asked if someone with a baby could volunteer to come into the class and show the children the baby being bathed. So, as we are in possession of such a creature, we volunteered & yesterday Alex had a bath in front of Olivia's entire class. He usually enjoys being bathed, but this time, of course, he fussed the whole time. Figures! I still think the kids enjoyed watching the bath, though, so that's ok.

Well, I guess the work paid off, though, as Sarah won 2nd place with her costume (they divided the kids into 3 age ranges - she won among the littles), which is great. She has to take it back into school today for a Show and Tell Assembly this afternoon, which I'm going to attend, with camera & (hopefully) sleeping baby. The joys of parenthood! Actually, Green Lane (the school) is very good about their assemblies, keeping them quite informal and friendly and not too boring, or at least, that's been our experience so far. The school she used to attend was a little less casual about these things, which was a bit of a pain.

We spent the best part of the afternoon today getting costumes ready for the fancy dress parade tomorrow. Sarah is successfully outfitted as a fisherman, with two lovely handmade fishies, and a hat and jacket adorned with "fishing flies" I made of coloured feathers and mini Xmas bulbs (for floats). I'll try to take a photo or two, as the description doesn't really do them justice. I think it works quite well.

Olivia is going to be an Indian (as in Native American), as in 10 Little Indians. Luckily, she already had a Pocahontas (sp?) dress, so we just had to make a headdress. Add a few "war paint" stripes and, voila, sorted.

Well. All the guests are gone, and the house is relatively empty. Not quite back to normal yet, but soon will be, I guess. Only it will be a different normal, of course, as we only had 2 kids before. :)

The next challenge in my exciting daily life will be the Fancy Dress Parade for Maths Week next week. The kids are allowed to go to school in costume - any character from a song, nursery rhyme, story, etc, providing there's a number connection. Not sure what Olivia is going to do, but we think Sarah will be a fisherman, from the song "1-2-3-4-5" (for those without children it goes like this:

1, 2, 3-4-5
Once I caught a fish alive
6, 7, 8-9-10
Then I let it go again
Why did you let it go?
Because it bit my finger so.
Which finger did it bite?
This little finger on my right.)

Truly exciting.

Geoff's just taken the girls out to see a play at our local children's theatre (we are fortunate in living near one of the few proper children's theatres in the country - this is one entirely devoted to children's productions, and has stuff for both the little ones and the older ones. Everything we've seen there has been excellent) - and anyway, it's very quiet in the house all of a sudden. Alex is even sort of asleep, which also contributes to the quietness. I doubt that will last for long, though, so I'm having a quick computer session while he's still happy to be rocked by Grandma.

Monday school starts back again - we've been in half term here - hooray! It's astonishing just how obnoxious two lovely small girls can get if they feel they aren't being adequately entertained. And their standards of how much attention should be paid to them are somewhat different to other, more adult standards, sometimes. Like when said adult has a feeding baby attached to her and therefore can't actually come look at whatever it is they've built using the empty wine delivery case and all the quilts in the house...

Geoff's parents are due to come down for the weekend, from tomorrow afternoon. In order to fit everyone, we'll have to shuffle beds around, with my mother taking the bottom bunk in the girls' room - it's a full sized bed, though, not one of those little kiddie ones, and it has a proper, sprung mattress, not a foam one, so it's actually not that uncomfortable to sleep on, so it's not a problem, as long as you remember not to sit up suddenly... (I know, I've slept on it once or twice when the kids were unwell or couldn't sleep & needed company.) We'll give up our room to Geoff's parents, in part so they don't have to manage the second set of (somewhat steep) steps up to the guest room, and Geoff and I will take the guest room. Which means that I'll have to change sheets on all the beds tomorrow. Which will go really well with the fact that my washing machine broke this morning. Just what I need! Supposed to get a repairman out tomorrow, which is a good thing, as it's hard to go for very long without doing laundry when you have three small children and a houseguest. At least it wasn't halfway through a cycle and therefore leaking water all over my kitchen floor...

Oh, and tomorrow is our 10th anniversary. The joys of being a "housewife" (yes, I really hate that term, but frankly, having to stay in all day to wait for the washing machine repairperson to show up certainly makes you feel like you are married to the house, so I reckon it's justified in this case!)

Today should be a fun day - we've got our friends Roland and Teresa coming around for Sunday lunch, with their kids. They have 4. So, as Sarah pointed out to me earlier (maths showoff) that makes 7 kids. The eldest of whom isn't quite 7 yet. (Sebastian is almost 7, Sarah is 5.5, Darius is almost 5, Freya & Oliva are both about 3.5 - their birthdays are both in October - Solomon was 1 in December, and Alex doesn't really quite count as he isn't mobile yet...) I'm sure it will be chaos. But in a pleasant way. We may make my mother insane though - not sure she's quite up for the noise & whatnot they'll create!

Keep meaning to write something, but keep getting distracted, and then last night, couldn't get on to Blogger, so that didn't help. Not that there's much to say at the moment, just the usual, except the exciting news that Sarah lost a tooth today (as a result of normal growth, not due to an accident or anything). She's very excited, particularly so because her friend Thalia, who is 6 months older, hasn't lost any yet, so this gives Sarah a bit of an advantage in their constant series of one upmanships (Thalia is in Year 1 at school, whereas Sarah is only in Reception, so there are frequently issues about things to do with age & ability...). I'm not quite sure what the going rate for the tooth fairy is these days - I'm sure it's a far cry from the quarter I used to get or whatever Geoff got - I'm guessing about sixpence, given his age! I think perhaps the tooth fairy will give £1 for the first tooth (because it's special, being the first), but only 50p for subsequent teeth. We'll see...

Darling baby only woke up once last night - I don't suppose it will last, of course, but it wasn't bad - he fed around 10.30, then didn't wake until 3.30ish. Then again at around 6.30, which is only a little while before I'd normally get up anyway, so not such a problem. Partly this may be because he didn't sleep very much during the day yesterday, so perhaps he was just really tired out from spending most of the day whinging...

Not much happening today. Olivia is home from school again - stomach bothering her again (middle of the night of course - predictably). She went to school yesterday, so we can only hope that she hasn't passed this ailment to everyone in the nursery as that will make us really popular :)

As though we needed more excitement in our lives, Olivia decided that this was a good time to come down with a stomach bug. Luckily, unlike Keir (my friend Lana, who lives down the road's 2 yr old), she didn't spend much time throwing up, so at least we were spared that. She spent most of today lying on the sofa watching videos, which actually was pretty peaceful. And as she wasn't throwing up, she wasn't really in much pain or misery, just feeling generally blah... At least we didn't have much we needed to do today! If we are really lucky, she won't pass it on to the others. Seems possible we might miss out, as she and Keir basically acquired it the same day, so if the others were going to get ill with it, they probably would have done so at the same time as well.

A lovely grey rainy day today - just what everyone wants on the weekend, with small kids in the house. Luckily, Sarah has a birthday party to go to this afternoon, so she'll have something to keep her occupied. Baby Alex had a touch of jaundice, but it's going away now that he's actually getting milk - the midwives say "keep him in the sunshine if you can" and laugh, because of course there is no sunshine at the moment - good thing we aren't entirely dependent on it! He's having a nap in Daddy's arms at the moment - only fair that Daddy gets his share, though the girls don't understand why Daddy is allowed to hold the baby while he sleeps and they aren't (the fact that when Daddy holds him, Alex STAYS asleep seems to have escaped their attention...). They adore him, of course - the only worry is that they adore him too much and don't ever want to leave him alone. It's getting better, though, and I think by the end of next week they'll be much more calm about the whole thing.

We'll try this again, as he's asleep at the moment. Though given the amount of noise Sarah is making, it may not last long.

We thought he might be coming on Monday, as I thought my waters might be breaking and I was getting some fairly regular (though not very strong or frequent) contractions. So we went in to hospital to have it checked, but it wasn't anything, just Braxton Hicks and all that, so they sent us home again. We were then hopeful that something would happen either later Monday or Tuesday, but nothing did, until around 10.30pm on Tuesday. Luckily, our friends & neighbours who were going to take care of Olivia & Sarah while we were in hospital (if the baby came before my mother arrived for her visit on the 6th) suggested that we go ahead and put the girls to bed at their house, just in case. Makes sense - they'd rather have them unncessarily overnight than be woken up at 3am for some strange reason! So anyway, I went to bed around 10.30 and began having contractions around every 5 minutes - as this lasted for several hours, we felt it safe to go ahead and go to hopsital, and sure enough, when we got there, they determined that this time, it was the real thing and he'd be born at some point. Not that they can tell how long it would be, but at least they didn't send us home!

Anyway, after the various long involved stages of labour (which I won't elaborate on here as I know people of the male persuasion and others who can't handle pain or graphic descriptions of icky things might be reading this) Alex finally arrived at 1130am on Wednesday morning. He weighed 3.61 kilos (that's 7lbs 15oz to those who don't speak metric) and was 58cm long (almost 23 inches). This is longer than Sarah (57) and Olivia (52), and heavier than Olivia (3.3kg) but lighter than Sarah (3.7kg) for those who keep track of these things . Of course, he was earlier than Sarah (41wks) and later than Olivia (38wks) so I guess that's just about right. He's very cute, in my personal unbiased opinion and as soon as there are photos, I'll be sure to share them.

More soon - I'll try to write something small every day or so, but you know how these things go...

Just in case you aren't up to date, he is finally here, born 11.34 Wednesday 5/2/03. I'll write more later, as he's just woken up from a nap demanding to be fed, but those are the basics. We're naming him Alexander David North, though will probably just call him Alex. The girls both refer to him as "my baby", of course...

Ok, it's true that morning sickness, indigestion, swelling, tiredness, and all those other lovely aspects of pregnancy aren't much fun, but frankly, the really annoying thing about being pregnant is waiting. Especially at the end. I thought this morning we might be on the way as I was getting some contractions and having some water leaking (more detail than you wanted to know?), so we went off to hospital for them to check it out (if you've had a caesarean in the past, they like to see you if anything at all seems to be happening, just to be on the safe side). But no, they sent us home again - drat. Now it's the middle of the night (more or less) and I'm still getting some small contractions, basically just enough to keep me awake. I did go to bed quite early (before 10, which for me, at any rate, is early) and slept for a few hours before waking up with these ones, so I have high hopes, but at the moment, it's just enough to keep me from sleeping, which isn't very useful. I know he's not due until the 9th, but one can always hope!

Not much to say, as I'm spending most of my time hanging around waiting for this baby to show up. And trying to avoid doing other stuff as much as possible, though of course my life always involves a large amount of ferrying children around from point A to point B, sometimes via points C, D & E. And not always just my own children (the advantage of that being that sometimes other people will ferry mine around). Sometimes we walk, of course, but the weather isn't that great this time of year, so a lot of it is in the car. People who joke that one of a mother's primary duties is being a chauffeur aren't really kidding.

Still here, nothing happening on the baby front, just in case you are wondering. :)

An uneventful week here, though I had bad news from my friend Kristen in the US, whose sister's husband died unexpectedly yesterday. She says "he had some kind of breathing difficulty and seizure and died, despite my sister doing CPR on him and the paramedics trying to revive him for a long time. We don't know what caused his death, but the coroner has ordered a full autopsy, so we should know in a few days. He did have a heart condition, but was on medication to control it." Even though I'd never met Jim, I of course knew Kristen's sister (I've known Kris since we were about 13, which is a long, long time ago. Some of you know precisely how long.) and so am pretty weirded out myself. And of course, Jessy (the sister) also has about a 6-month old baby, which really doesn't even bear thinking on. As a reminder of how unexpectedly things can happen in life, even when you are very young, I could have done without, frankly. But I'll be sending positive thoughts in their direction, and hope that Jessy finds the strength to cope with this in what's going to be a really hard time for her... Life. Sometimes it can really suck.

Not much to report here. Still hanging in there, still waiting for Mr Boy to make an appearance (not that he's overdue, or even due, yet, but you do begin to lose patience with it eventually). 9 Feb is the supposed date, so I guess we could have a running countdown, but if he's late, it would be much too depressing to dwell on just how late. When there's any news on that front, well, you'll be able to read about it here.

Both kids enjoying school, though Olivia is still really tired when she gets home, and therefore slightly emotional sometimes. Today was good, as Lana took Sarah & Thalia to trampoline, so Olivia could be at home with just me and we could do something quiet, like just watch a video and hang out. I think if she could do that every day, it would work well, but of course when Sarah is around, they want to play, and they wind each other up and get hyper. Predictable, but a little hard for her at the moment. Still, I think it will get better as she gets more used to nursery.

School started this week for Olivia, or, as she insists, "not school, nursery" - and she seems to be enjoying it so far. It does make her a little more tired & grumpy than before, but I think that will change as she gets used to it. It's the one disadvantage to afternoon nursery - that most kids have better energy levels in the morning, and if they do something which tires them out in the morning, they can nap in the afternoon, but most of them adjust pretty rapidly. And as she gets a little older, it won't be nearly such a problem.

One thing that she has in common with Sarah is that she doesn't seem to be able to remember what she actually did at nursery - must be an age thing, as Sarah is well over that now. But it used to be very frustrating when Sarah came out of school and you'd ask what she did, and she couldn't tell you anything. Some days, there are visual clues, of course, like the days they come home covered in paint, but (luckily) that doesn't always happen.

Today was Olivia's first day at her new ballet class - she enjoyed it fine, no problem with switching teachers or meeting new kids or anything like that. She's very different from Sarah in that respect. At 3, Sarah would have spent the entire half hour hiding behind a chair in the corner of the room. In fact, as Lana pointed out, she might still. At least for the first few minutes - she's a lot more tentative in new situations.

More snow yesterday - while the girls were walking to school, which they thought was great. It's still on the ground today, though we haven't had any new snowfall today. Most of the roads are fine, though our street isn't great - it's a cul de sac, so it doesn't get that much traffic, and it's very shaded, so the sun doesn't melt the snow as it might elsewhere. So, slightly slippy, but manageable. Lana and I have been walking the girls to and from school, as that's much easier in this kind of weather, but I do need to get out this evening to take Sarah to her swimming lesson, so I hope the ice won't be a problem. It's really nice for the kids to get a bit of snow, as it's not something we usually get in London at all. And it makes for a very pretty walk to & from school, with the fields all snow covered and so on.

Only a little over a month to go now until the scheduled appearance of Mr Boy. I wouldn't mind if he came a bit early, but frankly, I do hope he waits a week or two longer, so I can have a week or two of Olivia going to nursery in the afternoon - 2 and a half free hours every afternoon - what on earth will I do with myself? Well, I'm sure I can think of something!

Finally, back to school today. And what a surprise when we woke up to find the ground covered in snow! They did mention it might snow, but one never takes these things all that seriously in London. It's mostly gone by now, but the kids had a great time walking to school in it, and Olivia has insisted that we save her snowball in the freezer until Daddy gets home so that he can see it. I did try to explain that he would have seen the snow on his way to work, but it didn't quite get through.

Olivia had her first swimming lesson yesterday, and enjoyed that - she's totally fearless, as I expected, and she'll probably be swimming like a fish in no time. I have a feeling that she will actually learn to swim before Sarah, although Sarah insists that her class of swimmers will automatically be better than Olivia's because they are older (this despite the fact that both are classes for total beginners). Whatever. As long as they are both happy, and as long as they both learn how to swim, eventually.

Sarah's back to her trampoline class tonight, but because her friend Thalia decided she also wanted to do trampoline this term, Lana and I can alternate weeks in terms of taking them - it's Lana's turn this week, since it's Thalia's very first time. Gives me a free afternoon, which is nice. (Well, I've still got Olivia, of course, so not entirely free, but at least I haven't got to go spend an hour in the Malden Centre with her!) We're going to make some popcorn and sit down and watch a video together - just my speed for an afternoon activitiy...

Took down all the Christmas decorations today, and so far, doesn't look like we missed anything. Something will probably turn up next week; that's usually the way of it. The living room feels much bigger without the tree in there, though. I'm sure that feeling will only last for a few days, but it's nice while it lasts.

It's a shame that with the new year, we haven't had a change of weather - it's still raining here, which is a problem with the kids. I was hoping to be able to get out and go for a walk, at least, but no such luck. I guess all we can do is wait for school to start again - not until Tuesday next week, unfortunately, and Olivia won't start until the 13th. But at least the after school activities (swimming & trampoline for Sarah, swimming & ballet for Olivia, though neither of hers is technically after school) start next week as well, which will help give them something to do. And me a bit of peace and quiet.