The terrible threes

Never mind what they all say about 2 year olds, they are actually quite lovely. It's 3 year olds that are the real pain - that's when they get all willful and horrid. Witness my son's new favourite expression - "no way". Obviously, he gets this from his elder sisters, but still - to hear your lovely cuddly toddler start shouting "no way, Mummy, no way" at you whenever you suggest something ("Time to tidy up and go to playgroup") is ever so slightly disheartening. And I know he's not quite three yet - what can I say, he's precocious...

"I not very well"

Poor sausage, he isn't. He has had quite a high temperature, especially at night, for several days, and has been sleeping lots and not eating much. Thought he was much better this morning until he decided to throw up on my bed. Luckily, it was on top of the top quilt, so I could just take that off and wash it. And doubly lucky, he hadn't eaten anything since lunch yesterday, so it was just juice. He's off on the sofa now, watching Thomas (the Tank Engine). But he keeps telling us "I not very well. I need medicine." Bless.

A well narrated life

Anyone who has or has ever had a toddler will appreciate this quote from a friend's Christmas letter - "[he] is a very active toddler with quite a vocabulary. We now lead a very well narrated life, as [he] comments on all of the things he sees and does and wants to do...." I've told my friend I am going to adopt the phrase "well-narrated life" because I think it's perfect to describe toddlers. It's great to watch them become more and more interested in the world around them, and being toddlers, they of course have to tell you all about it.

"We're going upstairs now, Mummy. I'm going first, and then you. We're not downstairs anymore, Mummy. The telly is downstairs, but my bed is upstairs. My dinosaurs are in my bed. One is green, one is yellow. I like dinosaurs. They aren't downstairs. I'm going to sit in my chair. I'm going to get a dinosaur. Mummy are you going downstairs? I'm going dowstairs, me first, me first."

And you have to respond in some fashion or all you get is the same sentence over and over again at increasing volumes until you do...

one of those waste-of-time days

You know the type of day I mean.

You see a nice skirt at Asda (supermarket), so grab your size off the rack. Don't bother to try it on because you haven't time, too lazy, and usually their size 12 fits anyway, etc and when you get home & try it on it's way too tight. Luckily, this is because it's the wrong damn size (tag doesn't match hanger - when will we ever learn!), rather than because you gained tons of weight over Christmas, but it does mean that the next day, you have to go back and exchange it. Except of course there aren't any in your size.

So then you go to Woolworths to exchange the pyjamas you bought earlier in the week for your daughter - you were debating between two similar styles (both with Scooby Doo on them) and picked one, only to find that when you went to have them rung up, they were half the marked price. So you run back quickly to get the other style as well - might as well at that price, as she needs several pairs. Of course, when you get home you find that you have two identical pairs of pyjamas, hence the need to exchange. When you go to make the exchange, of course you find that only the one style is on half price sale - the other is the regular price.

After hitting the second half of your son's playgroup (having missed the first half due to errands) you spend the afternoon at home waiting for the engineer to come and do the annual service on your boiler (afternoon = 12 to 6, hence the need to do errands before playgroup rather than after). When at 6.15 he still hasn't showed, you ring British Gas to find that although they called you to set up a service appointment, they have somehow neglected to actually BOOK the appointment, which explains why no one showed up.

At least I had time to do some laundry and assemble the new sofa bed. But honestly, some days...

Invasion of the computer snatchers...

Sarah's been dying for Sims (the computer game) since she played it at a friends' house (it's probably a little hard for her, but that's not going to stop her) - she finally bought one out of her pocket money today - and I think I may never get near the computer again. (Or at least, what happened tonight, which is that I had to insist she stop, by means of evil threats & then we had tears & tantrums - will happen a lot.) I'm sure the novelty will wear off soon, so it won't be quite so hard to get my computer back. It does look like an addictive game. Of course, tonight one of her Sims set his kitchen on fire, so perhaps they will all die off soon anyway...

Think you've got clutter?

Here's something to make anyone who sometimes feels overwhelmed by their stuff, a bit better:

http://www.local6.com/news/5917330/detail.html

Sad, of course, but at least most of us can take comfort from the fact that our houses are surely much less cluttered!

Sofabed 1, Mattress 0

We braved the mighty Ikea today (including Geoff, surprise surprise) - such expedition brought on by Geoff deciding, after he spilled his drink all over the bed this morning, that we were about due for a new mattress anyway (we'd been waiting until all kiddies were potty trained just in case we ended up with one in bed with us for the night...), so I suggested we hit Ikea (we have an Ikea bed). Geoff tried to suggest we simply buy the same mattress we did last time, but that being around 8 years ago, they've all changed, so I thought we ought to go lay down on them. Plus, we wanted to look at sofabeds, too - one holiday with an airbed on the floor for a week is enough (though the girls, who were the ones sleeping on it, enjoyed it, admittedly).

As it happened, all of the possible mattresses (i.e. sprung ones) were out of stock, and won't' be back in for a week or more, so I'll have to go back to Ikea after all. But at least I'll know what I want. We did, however, buy a sofabed - nothing exciting, but it will be welcome, not just for the bed aspect, but we've been wanting to get rid of our orange sofa anyway - it has a slightly wonky leg and a stain on one arm (just a dark spot caused by Alex opening my Christmas bath oil and spilling it on the sofa) so really, it's time for it to go.

It actually wasn't too bad (Ikea) despite being a Sunday and the weather being absolutely foul, though by the time we left, around 2pm, there was a queue about 30 cars long waiting to get into the car park, so it clearly pays to go early. Going back will be fine, because I'll do it in the week and it will be virtually empty. For Ikea.

peace at last

Well, the girls are back to school today, finally - towards the end of a break, they always start picking on one another (not that they don't do that normally, but it's worse) and Grandma Lucy went home as well - so once Alex and I got back from the supermarket, it was really quiet, and peaceful. I do enjoy having a full house over the holidays, but I am equally glad for things to return to normal...

The lion, the witch and the Christian metaphor

Saw the Narnia film the other day with the girls - I thought it was very good and the girls loved it. Sometimes critics get really stuck up their own backsides, don't they - the Christian metaphor is there, but I doubt most kids would pick up on unless it was pointed out or their dad was Ned Flanders. Kind of like reading the books... Anyway, great effects, good acting (always something to be wary of with most of the main characters as kids) and just very entertaining. Recommended.