Well, everyone seems to be back to normal. Geoff and I had our night out (and very nice it was, too - we went to a Chinese restaurant we like in Wimbledon Village) and today we had some friends around for lunch. They have 5 kids, so with our 3, we had quite a houseful. But actually, they were very well behaved & luckily the weather was clear, though cold, so they actually went outside for a while.

Just when you think it's safe to go back in the water... Honestly. Both Olivia & Sarah have had a stomach virus (luckily, short lived) this week - at least neither of them threw up all over their beds, which is the usual middle of the night being ill scenario. I just hope Geoff & I don't get it. Particularly as we are due to go out tomorrow night for our anniversary (which is actually today - 11 years - amazing). The joys of parenthood!

Just finished this month's book for my postal reading group

[This is a cool concept, actually: there are 12 members and at the beginning of the year (which for us, is October) everyone chooses a book (someone coordinates, to ensure no duplicates - best if it's someone outside the group), which they have read & commented on in a small notebook, puts it & the notebook in an envelope and sends it to the person who is next on the list after themselves. We all read the book we have received, comment on it and on the 1st of the next month, send it to the next person, and so on. So you receive a book once a month, have a month to read & comment on it before sending it on, and at the end of the year, you get your own book back, with comments from all the others. We're in our second year now.]

anyway, my book this month was "If no one speaks of remarkable things" by Jon Macgregor, which I highly recommend. Excellent.

OK, so I just realised I haven't blogged in a while. Sure enough, chicken pox arrived for the other two. Alex got some spots Tuesday evening, while Olivia's showed up Wednesday morning. They've not been too bad, unlike my friend Lana's little boy, Keir, who was totally and utterly covered in spots & running quite a high fever with it (apparently, the two are linked - the more spots, the higher fever they get). He's on the mend now, but was truly miserable, poor thing. Alex and Olivia are nearly better, and I'm sure Olivia will be able to go back to school Tuesday (Monday is an INSET day (teacher training) so they aren't back to school 'til Tuesday).

Olivia will be very glad to hear she can go to school Tuesday, because as part of "book week", which is the week they go back, they are all allowed to dress like a character from a book for school on Tuesday and Olivia would hate to miss that. I think she's going to insist on going as Belle from Beauty and the Beast - I expect we'll see a lot of fairy tale princesses in the nursery. I think Sarah will go as Pochohontas (sp?) as she has an Indian costume she'd like to wear. At least it's different from what most of them will be wearing...

Had a relatively good half term, despite the pox. Tuesday we went out and did some spending of pocket money and had lunch out, luckily, as we were housebound after that. Thursday we did some tie-dyeing (pictures on the website later today), and now we have some fabric squares to make into things. We'll probably overdye a few of them, as they were wrapped a bit tight and had a bit too much white in the centres. It's been a while since I tie-dyed, and I'd forgotten that for the spiral kind you needed to make the bundles a bit looser or leave the fabric longer, etc. It was a very successful activity, though, so I'm sure we'll do it again at Easter or in the Summer holidays, or sometime. Sarah wants to do a sheet for her bed.

The eye is now largely purple, with attractive yellow bits. Sigh. But the good news is, we have successfully survived one day of half term. And no sign of chicken pox yet. :)

Chicken pox are gone - or at least, at bay temporarily. With the half term holiday starting Monday, we're expecting the other two to come down with it any day now, though. Got head-butted by Alex this morning and have a huge black eye to show for it - I knew it hurt, but didn't realise it would be quite that bad. The funny thing is that I didn't know about it until after I came back from the French Market in Wimbledon this morning, so I'd been walking around with a huge shiner for several hours. Of course, there's not anything I could have done about it, but at least I would have known...

Happy Valentine's Day to one and all.

Well, little man is now a year old. Doesn't seem that long since he was born, but as he's almost walking and says "ma ma ma ma ma" and "da da da da da" I guess I shouldn't be that surprised... He had a lovely birthday yesterday and even played with a few of his new toys rather than just trying to rip the wrapping paper into a million pieces and/or eat it. Although, to be honest, I think that was probably still his favourite activity.

Some photos of this (and other stuff) on the website.

chicken pox.

I was beginning to think my kids were never going to get it, as they've been exposed a number of times and never had it. It's been going around the school (nursery and reception) like wildfire, so it's not surprising, really. Olivia shows no signs yet, but Sarah is covered, poor thing. Doesn't seem to be bothering her that much - she's not particularly itchy or irritible, though I'm sure she'll be worse by this afternoon as her energy levels go down naturally as the day gets later. Olivia will probably get them for half term & we'll be stuck inside the whole time...

Hard to believe that Alex's first birthday is this week (Thursday). I won't claim it feels like only yesterday that he was born, but it sure doesn't seem like an entire year has passed. It may be a cliche, but time certainly does seem to go faster the older you get.