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.

The big day has come and gone. And the kids are still (almost) as hyper as they were before Christmas - I thought (silly me) that they were supposed to calm down a bit! Actually, they are better today than yesterday, so I have hopes that they will be back to more or less normal by the end of the weekend. At least it's the weekend again, so there are two grownups around to help troubleshoot. Too bad school's not back until the 7th, though!

Well, the week of events is over. We had Sarah's nativity play, which went very well (and a photo of the main cast actually appeared on the front of the local free paper - I'll scan it in a put a link to it when I get around to it), and Olivia's ballet class performance, which was incredibly cute, as expected. I got a few photos of each of those things, as well as getting them on video, so when I eventually get the film developed, I'll put the photos up on our website so everyone can see them.

Been to the farmers' market this morning to collect the beef (standing rib roast, 3 ribs - very large, very yummy looking, even though it's not been cooked yet) and it's taking up half my fridge. Also picked up some mulled cider (this is the English kind of cider - i.e. alcoholic, rather than the American kind) - all I have to do it heat it up. My kind of drink, especially in this kind of weather, which is misty and chilly (though not really really cold, which is nice).

Another playgroup event today - the official Christmas party. I had volunteered to stay and help, so I got to see these kids in action, and it's amazing how good they are for people other than their parents. At least, I assume my children are not the only ones who are much more of little terrors at home than in public (of course, when you think about it, that's preferable to the opposite situation). When they arrived, they all sat down on some blankets - and this was twice the number as usual, as most kids only go 2 days a week, so these were the Monday/Wednesday kids as well as the Tues/Friday kids - and sang songs while we finished getting the food ready. Then they all went to the little tables and sat down and ate their food. And the amazing thing is that they STAYED sitting down in their seats most of the time. If they could bottle that and sell it, they'd make a fortune. :)

Then there was an entertainer - I'd say a clown, but she didn't do the makeup and stuff, which is probably just as well for kids that age, who might be slightly frightened by that sort of thing. They loved her, and she was quite funny even from an adult point of view, which was nice for those of us watching. And then a visit from Father Christmas. All in all, a lovely little party - just what I'd expect from this playgroup actually, which is very good quality. I'm sure she'll be sorry to leave it & also sure we'll try to get no 3 into it when he's old enough. The group has been going for about 35 years now, and I think that shows - they are clearly really well thought-out and organised about some of these things, so you can tell they've had some practice.

Tomorrow we've got a nativity play, and luckily, no sign of chicken pox in our house yet (it struck Joseph down last week, and as Sarah is playing Mary, we were understandably concerned). They'll probably wake up with it Christmas morning or something. But frankly, as I've been expecting Sarah to bring it home ever since she started school, I shan't be surprised when she does. And as I'm not working anymore, at least I don't have to worry about how we'll manage the time off...

Olivia's playgroup had a "concert" today - if you can imagine anything much cuter than 20 or so 2.5 - 4 year olds singing Christmas songs while neatly arrayed on stage, I'd love to know what it is (actually, I imagine her ballet class's "recital" will be up there in cuteness, too). Very sweet & astonishing that most of them not only didn't cry, but actually stayed in their places AND knew most of the words to the songs (and actions). They must have been practicing since October!

I think that's all the shows for this week - next week there is Sarah's school play and Olivia's ballet class's "show" (which term I use loosely - basically, the parents just get to watch the class in action - I don't think there's any structure to it. Still, I'll try to get 10 minutes or so of it on camera - not the entire 45 minutes, though).

'Tis the season for school plays, and we've just found out that instead of being a chicken (last year), sheep, star, shepherd or whatever, Sarah actually gets to be Mary this year. So, fame and fortune, at last! I doubt that at age 5 they have to do much beyond stand around, but still...

The other news of the week is that Olivia has got a place at nursery for January - we didn't expect a place to be available until September, so that's good news. It's an afternoon place, which is fine - two other kids in our road go in the afternoon, so we may even be able to share the dropping off duties, which is an added bonus. She'll stop going to playgroup, as we've decided it will really be too much for her to handle, as it would be like all day school, and I don't think she's quite up to that. We will, however, try to find a different ballet class for her to attend (her current one meets in the afternoon, so we can't continue with that). Thalia attends one locally on Saturday mornings, so I'll go along tomorrow morning and have a word with the teacher there to see if there are places - Lana thinks there almost certainly will be, so that should work out ok. We will also try to get a morning swimming lesson one day a week, so that should make Olivia happy, even though she'll be sorry not to be able to go to playgroup any more.

Not much happening lately, or at least, it seems that way to me - I suppose someone on the outside of my cycle of school runs, after school activities & errands might think I was really busy. And I suppose I am, but it's often nothing you can put your finger on. And of course, this time of year, there is also Christmas shopping to be done, Christmas presents & cards to be made, and so on. I managed to avoid getting roped into working at the school Christmas Fayre (they always seem to spell it that way, don't they!) - one advantage of being pregnant is that you have a much easier & more obvious excuse for turning people down &/or not volunteering. We will still, of course, attend the fair, but that's okay - there's not nearly as much energy required in attending as there is in organising or running a stall. I did make some table runners, etc from various donated scraps (a simple matter of some hemming), and I'll probably knock up a dish or two of rice krispie treats for the day, but neither of those things requires a large amount of time or effort, or long periods of standing up, which is probably the worst thing.

It's remarkable how different kids are from one another, even ones who share parents and styles of upbringing... We went to Ikea today, which Olivia really enjoys now that she's 3, as she can stay in the play area while I do some shopping. The minute we get there, she starts taking off her shoes to get ready to go in. Sarah never would go to something like that without me, and in fact, still won't - when given the option a few weeks ago, she declined. And it's not as though I've approached the whole issue of leaving them places any differently - both went to a childminder from a very early age (6 months or so), for instance. Sarah is getting better about things like birthday parties - she always enjoyed them once she got into it, but it took her a while to warm up - it still does, but it's a lot shorter time than it used to be. As opposed to Olivia, who would be off like a shot the moment we got there. It will be interesting to see what happens with this next one, as he won't have the experience of a child minder at an early age.

Another Tots Tap & Ballet class today. I had to collect Olivia about 10 minutes early so we could dash off to get Sarah from school (normally my friend Lana would get Sarah on Thursday, but as her own daughter was off school ill, that didn't work this week). Poor Olivia didn't want to leave early (but was readily consoled with a lollipop) - but collecting her early meant I got to see a few minutes of the class, and I'll tell you - you never saw anything cuter than a room full (must be about 15) of tiny little girls in ballet costumes and other cute dresses all dancing around in a circle, doing spins and so on. And they love it. I don't know what it is about that age and the appeal of frilly pink things and dancing, but it's sure sweet to watch. Of course, like Olivia, most of them are probably a real handful when they're at home with their mothers...

Well, Sarah was back to school today - welcome for all of us, I think. She enjoys school (as my mother says, at some point they lose that - or at least have to pretend they don't like it, so it's nice while it lasts), so that's good. We had our first trampoline class on Tuesday, which she thoroughly enjoyed. Strangely (or perhaps it's not strange) most of the kids in the class are boys - the one other girl is also called Sarah. Still, the important thing is that she had fun, so that's good. She's still not a big joiner, so it's clear that she really likes trampoline, as she's willing to put up with the fact that there are other people she doesn't know there. Olivia's first "Tots Tap & Ballet" class was today - I didn't stay to watch past the first 5 minutes or so, so I'm not sure what they did, but the bit I did see was very cute - they all held hands and went around in a circle for a while, then did some jumping & clapping. I'm sure it's all very basic, but they are really sweet to watch. Most of the girls had some type of ballet costume on, so I suppose I'll have to let Olivia wear her dressing up costume next week. If she stays interested, perhaps we'll buy her a leotard and tutu or something for Christmas.

Busy week last week, though I'm not entirely sure what all we ended up doing that kept us so busy - doesn't matter, of course, as long as the tempers don't get too bad, and we've escaped that reasonably well. I hope it keeps up as I had a call from the school this morning to say that there are problems with the boiler in the wing of the school where Sarah's classroom is, so the little ones (nursery and reception) won't be going back to school until Thursday (instead of tomorrow). So, two more days to fill, yippee... At least the other activities all start up again this week, like Olivia's playgroup and my yoga class. Sarah's new after school activity - trampolining - will start tomorrow, and Olivia's new activity - Tots Tap & Ballet - starts Thursday, so there are some treats for them, which should help keep them sweet. I can't wait to see the ballet class - it's 2.5 to 4 yr olds, so should be unbelievably cute, even though they don't (I don't think) wear "proper" ballet clothes, as it's just a casual, fun-type class, rather than a professional type one.

Olivia had her birthday on Thursday, so is now 3 - hard to believe - and her little party (a "purple party" was requested) on Saturday, both of which went well. The party only had a few children, so it wasn't really that big a deal - not like Sarah's, which required a lot more organisation and effort, as there were about 15 kids. I think next year, we'll do at least one of the parties somewhere other than our own house. Probably it will be Sarah's party as the kids will be older & need more thorough entertainment. There may also be more of them, as she'll want to invite everyone in her class (well, maybe not everyone, but it might be close). If we decide to hire a hall or something like that, she probably can do that. We'll see. Luckily, we won't have to plan it for a while yet. :)

We seem to have survived the first day of half term with no incidents and not too much boredom, despite appalling weather. I guess the real test will be later in the week, Thursday & Friday. Of course, Thursday is Olivia's birthday and a friend of Sarah's from her old school is coming for lunch & to play in the afternoon, so they have that to look forward to, which should help. And it is only a week, though I'm sure that by the end of it, we'll feel as though it's been a lot longer than that. That's one of the really nice things about school - they do keep them so occupied that not only are they not bored, but they are tired when they get home and quite happy to be entertained in a simple way, rather than an elaborate one.

We're off shortly to go around to Thalia's house and watch her new video (Sleeping Beauty - should be a big hit as it has both faeries and a princess in it). We've got a new video for half term as well, but we're saving that until we really need it...

Well, for the first time this week it's not actually raining, so we walked across to school this morning - makes a nice change from the traffic, though it's getting a bit nippy. Sarah was very excited to be able to see her breath, though. Whatever works - I'm glad that something so simple can interest them!

Today should be a lovely day in general though - I haven't got anything I need to do until this evening, so I get an entire day of hanging around and entertaining Olivia (who is, at the moment, watching Monsters Inc for the 50th time - she adores it). I might even get some sewing done, which would be nice. I also hope to make a pumpkin pie, which is more of a task than it might otherwise be, as you can't find tinned pumpkin easily in this country, so I'm making it from scratch, starting with the 3 kilo pumpkin ("small pumpkin" it says on the label) on my counter. We'll see how that goes.

On another note, my friend Neela tells me that the free-ness of museums in London is actually due to the hard work of the former culture secretary, Chris Smith (I think my association with Ken is simply that it was something he strongly supported). Being a firm believer in giving credit where it's' due - well, good on ya, Chris. (http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,495517,00.html)

Took the girls up to the Natural History Museum today, which I think they enjoyed, overall. One of the nice things that Ken Livingstone (Mayor of London) has done recently is make a number of the major London museums free, including the NHM and the Science Museum. Which is great, as with little kids, their attention span is about an hour and a half, so you don't really want to have to pay £8 per adult to get in in the first place.
We went through at the dinosaur gallery, which was packed, of course. Sarah was a bit scared of the animated T Rex at the end (she didn't want to look at it) but Olivia tried to scare it by roaring back. I think that's probably a my kids in a nutshell, right there. Be interesting to see what the next one's like! Then we had lunch (they have a really good picnic area in the basement, which is great, as you can bring better food than you get in their restaurants/cafes and much cheaper) and then had a look at the Creepy Crawlies (which they both enjoyed - much more up Sarah's alley, I think) and a brief tour of the Earth Galleries, though they were beginning to get cranky, so we didn't stay long. But the nice thing is that now that it's free, we can do it again without worrying about only seeing one or two things each time. Same with the Science Museum, and when they are a bit older, some of the other ones. And of course, it means I'll get a chance to see the museums, which I haven't really done here.

OK, well. Now we've been to see the experts and their boss. (And I've encountered the most amazingly convulted route to a car park I've ever seen, but that's another story entirely). And the consensus is that what originally appeared to be a dilated kidney is actually a collection of fluid (a urine bubble) at the outside of some kidney tissue, which is not fully developed. At some point during the development of that kidney & the vessels associated with it, a blockage (most likely) occurred, and it resulted in the malformation of the kidney. It was, at some point, at least, producing some urine (hence the bubble), but probably isn't functioning much anymore, if at all.

What does this mean? Well, there's no danger to the baby in utero (provided nothing happens with the other kidney, which is highly unlikely), and it's not even an emergency once he's born. The urine bubble should disperse itself gradually without intervention. At some point after he is born, they'll do some scans, possibly some x-rays, maybe some other diagnostic tests, with the purpose of seeing if the right kidney has any function at all, if it does, how much, and if there's any chance of it presenting a danger to the baby, in terms of infection or interference with other functions. It's possible that if they decide it poses a risk, they'll want to remove it eventually. The head of the department (the uber-specialist) says that he thinks that it's unlikely that the baby will have much functionality in the right kidney, but it's not something they can tell for certain until after he's born.

So, that's that. Apparently, it's officially known as a "dysplastic kidney" with some "perinephric fluid collection, likely to be a urinoma". In people speak, that's a kidney that's malformed, with a urine (or possibly other fluid, but most likely urine) bubble next to it. Anyway. They'll do a follow up scan in about 6 weeks time, just to check on stuff, and towards the end of the pregnancy we'll get to meet some of the paediatric urology specialists, who will be the ones dealing with him once he's born.

It's still not really a cause for worry (and anyway, there's nothing we can do about it now). I think that's about all they said, except that there's no way of telling for certain precisely when or why the problem occurred. But there's no reason to think that anything will happen with the left - this does not make it more likely that the left will have problems.

And the other good news is that there's nothing wrong with anything else - the rest of the baby - heart, brain, limbs, genitalia, and so on and so on are all perfectly normal - this is just one of those little glitches that sometimes happen. While it's somewhat frustrating to know about it now and therefore have it hanging over you, it's actually a good thing that they know about it before he's born, as they can then make sure that there is no potential for further damage, problems, infection, and so on. Without this kind of scanning, this kind of problem might not show up until much later, perhaps as a series of chronic urinary infections or something, which could potentially damage the other kidney, so knowing in advance that they'll need to check the right kidney & keep an eye on it and/or remove it if it looks like it might be a problem is a positive thing. Best to be prepared, as any boy scout will tell you :)

Well, I went to see the obstetrician today, who rescanned and gave her opinion. The right kidney is definitely dilated, quite a lot, and she thinks the right ureter is dilated (swollen) as well. Left is fine, bladder is fine. This means that the obstruction is somewhere below the bladder, in the ureter vessel somewhere (apparently). Because of the amount of dilation, it is almost certain that the problem will not resolve itself before birth, and will need to be treated post-natally. So, when he's born, they'll check him out to see what's next. Scan him them and see how enlarged the kidney is, and so on. He'll go on antibiotics as a prophylactic, as the danger lies not so much from the actual obstruction (or urine reflux, if that's what it is - the urine flowing backwards) but from potential infection to the kidney. Repeated or consistent infection can mean permanent kidney damage. The likelihood is that they will be able to resolve the obstruction or reflux (which I think tends to simply fix itself) within the first few years of his life - the problems tend to go away as the child grows. As the absolute worst case scenario, he could lose the function of that kidney. However, should that happen, and it's only the worst case scenario, it wouldn't affect his quality of life, as humans are perfectly able to function with only one kidney. (People donate them to relatives with problems, for instance.)


Anyway, as he'll need to be seen postnatally, they are referring me on yet again, to a specialist, at a different hospital. (But at least we have a national health service). In cases where you'll need to see someone after the birth, they like for you to go in and meet them beforehand, and so on. So that's tomorrow. I don't imagine they'll tell me much that we don't know already, though they may be able to give some more precise idea of what the risk levels are. I shall post more later, but it's not something to be too worried about, so if you are reading this, don't worry. :)

It's hard to decide whether to tell everyone or not tell everyone - I've obviously told some people, and it's not a secret or anything, but then again, one does get tired of having the same conversations over and over. And if people are friends but not close friends, well, you don't really want them to worry. But on the other hand, if one is thinking about it all the time oneself...

So, yesterday we had the 20 week development scan (at 22 weeks, but still), which was interesting. The good news is that he's a boy (which should make an interesting change) and that most of him seems to be just fine. The less good news is that he has a small problem with his right kidney, in that it's retaining more fluid than it should be. Apparently, this ("renal pelvic dilation" or "foetal hydronephrosis") is not uncommon, especially in boys. They don't treat it antenatally (at least, not if it's unilateral - not sure what they do if it's bilateral), and in fact, it goes away before birth in around half of the cases. The most common cause is a blockage in the ureter, which can be caused by a number of different things, including a simple kink in the vessel or a mild infection. So, anyway, I've got another scan tomorrow, this time with an actual obstetrician (which in Britain is unusual - mostly you deal with your midwife or GP) who will advise how frequently we need to check it out during the rest of the pregnancy and so on. I do hope she doesn't say that I have to have a scan every couple of weeks - talk about tedious. And we won't even get into the issue of trying to park at the blasted hospital...

Anyway, the really hard thing now will be trying to find a name that we like which hasn't been used by an immediate family member already and goes with our surname (i.e. nothing that starts (or ends) with "n" or has lots of "f" or "th" sounds) - suggestions more than welcome, though I can't imagine you'll come up with anything reasonable that's not in one of our many borrowed name books. Still, we've got a while to go, so I imagine we'll manage something, eventually. I'm beginning to understand what drives people to invent names for their kids - not that I'd do that, but I can see the temptation.

Went swimming yesterday - I'm trying to make that a regular Friday morning thing. It works quite well, as Olivia is in playgroup from 9.30 to 12, but as the general swimming is only open from 10.30, I don't get to have quite as leisurely a time as I might like. Still, if you get there right at 10.30, it's less crowded, too, which makes it easier to swim lengths, before the pool fills up with people pissing about. There are quite a few local schools where the kids come to have swimming lessons once a week, so they often use half the pool for that, which means they don't have lanes set up for lane swimmers, so it can get really crowded. I'd love to be able to swim during the serious swimming time, but unfortunately, that's 7-9 or something, so it's not really possible to do, with dealing with the kids in the morning. But at least I didn't have to worry about swimming around people, which does happen sometimes.

When we used to belong to the David Lloyd Centre (expensive gym) the one good thing was that in the winter, they put a tent/marquee/whatever over the outdoor pool and let the adults swim in it - open until about 11pm (no lifeguard though). I used to go sometimes at night, for instance after my pottery class, and was usually the only person in the pool, with maybe one other. When it was really cold, the steam would rise off the water and give everything a misty effect - really otherworldly, and very relaxing to just be able to swim without worrying about navigating around other people. The indoor pool there was useless, though, so it's no great loss to go somewhere else, in general.

Not a lot to say today, just musing on how "stuff" seems to eat up your time. It's not like I even have a lot to show for it, much of the time. I don't mind, per se, it's just funny how you get to the end of a day and think "ok, what have I accomplished today" and you can't come up with anything. Still, it's better than working (this is my new motto for life). :)

Damn. Just hit some key, no idea what, and everything I'd typed just vanished. I thought it was just the caps lock (to turn it off after accidentally turning it on) but apparently not.

Anyway, just complaining about being tired out from Sarah's party, so no great loss... Actually, it went well. No one got hurt or threw up (at least not while they were still in my house). Nothing was broken, and no one (except Olivia who was a bit tired & grumpy to start with) ended up in tears, so that's all right. A lot of the mums here don't serve the cake at the party itself - for one thing, less mess. I did that this year, and it worked well - brought it out last thing before the parents were due to collect the kids, they sang, then we cut it up, wrapped it in napkins & added it to the party bags. And if you are serving lunch anyway, they don't really need to eat it there. We got lucky this year with the weather. It wasn't as good as today, which was one of those beautiful Indian summer days, but it was fairly sunny, quite warm, and no rain. So they could eat outside as well as play a bit and get rid of some of that energy.

We've also stopped opening presents actually at the party, which I think is a good idea. Let's face it, most kids, especially the boys, just don't have the patience to sit around and watch someone else open gifts. They're bad enough playing pass the parcel, where they know they are all going to get a chance to unwrap a layer! The treasure hunt was a big success, though, and despite hoards of kids running up and down my steps & in and out of rooms, nothing was damaged and everyone got a chance to find a clue. You never saw such an excited bunch of kids, except maybe Christmas. :) But that's good. Better than my friend Teresa who had a party last year which was the same day as another party (after it, not at conflicting times) and the first party was a disco so half the kids kept telling Teresa how much better the other party was. Of course, those were 6 year old boys, and we know what kind of mouths they have on them!

Sarah's got two birthday parties next weekend, one a girl from her old school, one a boy from her new school. Luckily, they aren't on the same day, which should be better for tempers and tiredness. Friends of mine with school aged kids have said that it's a never ending stream of birthday parties, and I'm beginning to think they are right. But that's ok - it's important for Sarah to make friends and have fun, so I don't mind (too much) being a chauffeur. Or however you spell that.

Spent most of the day today doing preparation stuff for Sarah's birthday party next Saturday. We made bookmarks for the party favour bags, assembled the bags, made a treasure box for the treasure hunt & possibly some other stuff I've forgotten by this point in the evening. Fun, but tiring. My task for the coming week is to create the clues for the treasure hunt. Luckily, these kids are only 3-6, so we don't have to be too clever. A good thing,as I think being clever is way beyond my powers this week. I guess I can be thankful that I don't waddle yet, which would be worse, but I keep forgetting how much being pregnant affects your ability to remember stuff - which is probably ironic or something, if only I could remember :)

Looking forward to yoga tomorrow - the first class was good, actually. Not only was it quite relaxing & destressing, but I was by no means the most unfit person in the class - more supple than several of the other women, which I didn't expect. I'm probably the person there who is earliest along in pregnancy (about 20 weeks now) but even allowing for that. I don't mind not being at the top of these things, but sometimes it's a real relief just not to be at the bottom. Actually, Wednesday night I went to dinner with some of the other mums from Sarah's class (and the other Reception class) and we were talking about pregnancy (as happens when you have a room full of women with small children, especially when said women are drinking wine...). Several of them couldn't believe I was 20 weeks pregnant and kept asking where the bump was. Which was very flattering. I always wanted to be one of those women who had a distinct bump when pregnant, rather than looking like a fat whale, and perhaps this time I shall actually achieve that! Not that I'm starving myself, by any means, but I am trying not to pig out too much. And it does help, having lost 3 stone before getting pregnant...

So, today is Sarah's first day of full time school. Which means she's out of the house around 8.30 and I don't have to collect her until 3.20. I still have Olivia, of course, which is more than enough, but at least they won't be beating up on each other all day long. :) First day of my yoga classes today, as well, which should be fun. Olivia gets to spend the time in the creche while I'm in class, so she'll enjoy that - like another playgroup session, really. We've not got a lot planned for this week, but I'm sure that will change and we'll promptly get incredibly busy - it always seems to happen that way. But that's ok. Compared to work, it's still fun. Even when they are both home and beating up on each other all day long...

Watched that documentary about 9/11 made by 2 French brothers last night - very good & tasteful and of course achingly sad & poignant, too. Although we were actually on holiday in Washington DC on the day itself last year, I think I'm quite glad to be here this year, where things aren't quite so focused on the tragedy. And of course, we don't have to put up with Georgie quite so much as over there, though still way too much for my liking.

On a more prosaic note, one more day of collecting Sarah from school at noon, and then we get to go until 3.20, hurrah! It will be much easier to get stuff done if I don't have to worry about that. I still have to collect Olivia from playgroup at 12 on Tuesdays and Fridays, but somehow that's not quite the same. At least I will have a few days where I can do longer, uninterrupted errands, if necessary. As I figured beforehand, I'm a lot busier now than before, but at least it's more enjoyable, mostly. Granted, there's a lot of that whole taking the car in to be serviced kind of errand running, but there's also a lot of playing at the playground and short shopping trips and other enjoyable things.

Well, today is our last day of sleeping in without setting the alarm - Sarah starts "big school" tomorrow, though they will only being going for half a day for the first week. We had a visit from her teachers today, and she just hid behind me, of course. Olivia played with everyone and talked, but she's a brazen hussy, whereas Sarah is shy. I'm sure she'll get over it. It will be interesting to see how long she takes to make a few friends, though. In nursery it took several months before she really started playing with other kids rather than simply near them. But she's a lot less shy than she was then, so perhaps it won't take quite as long. We'll see.

Although it hasn't reached extremes yet, I am beginning to truly understand the elation felt by so many mums when the summer holidays roll to a close and school starts again. I can't begin to image what it would be like in the US, where they are out for even longer. At least it's only 6 weeks here. Which is plenty long enough for them to get bored. And boredom of course brings on whining, which is really tedious. Sarah starts on Tuesday, and though it's only half days for the first week, I'm sure it will still be a big improvement in her attitude, having something scheduled to do every day. Not to mention, my attitude. And Olivia begins playgroup Tuesday as well (Tuesday and Friday mornings). I shall have several hours to myself - I shan't know what to do!

Did something last night I haven't done for ages - slept for almost 12 hours. Amazing. I was up really early yesterday & couldn't get back to sleep, plus I spend a number of hours being dragged around a children's farm by the little one (Sarah was at a birthday party there) - most of Olivia's enjoyment seemed to come from frequent trips to the toilets - there were special small ones for little kids, and some of them had red seats. This made a big impression. But when they've only been using actual toilets for a month, you have to take them every time, because it really might be an emergency. And although there are toilets at several points on the farm, we of course had to use the small ones, which were right by the entrance... The other thing she loved was the hand washing facilities. That's one of her favourite activities anyway, and a place that exhorts you to wash your hands every time you touch some animals, well, probably that's Olivia heaven. But she enjoyed it, which is the important thing. Wore me out, though - I ended up going to bed at 8.30. Pregnancy doesn't help, of course, but I had hoped to be able to finish quilting a baby quilt I'm making which I need done for Friday. It's almost done, so I'm not too worried, but it would have been nice to have enough energy to finish it off, then sit & watch Notting Hill, which was on telly - the perfect mindless evening. However, I have taped Notting Hill so will have my mindless evening another time.

We've had guests for the weekend - Cathi & Dave from Ireland - and the girls spent most of their time making Cathi lie down on the sofa and show them her bump (she's pregnant - due in November) so they could watch and see if the baby moved. I'm hoping this means they'll be receptive to having a new baby themselves - not that they have much choice in the matter, but one can hope they'll be enthusiastic rather than merely tolerant. We'll see, I guess. I'm sure they'll get used to it in time. They both really enjoy other people's babies, although Sarah claims she doesn't want another sister (or a brother). I'm sure Olivia does want one - we were watching a friend's baby the other day (about 10 months old) and Olivia wouldn't leave her alone - kept bringing toys to play with and so on, until she had to be distracted with the paddling pool. (Always works - it's that water thing again.)

Here's a real example of Murphy's Law (aka Sod's Law) in action. This morning, the kids slept late, letting me sleep late. "Late" being 8.30 instead of 7.30. Not that I really mind 7.30, frankly, which is a nice change from 6.30, which is when I used to get up, when I had to work. So, I had a nice leisurely lie in, got up, had a shower, came down, started breakfast & had a look at the calendar to see if there was anything happening today. Which is when i noticed that Olivia had an activity booked for 9.15. Guess what time it is? If you're thinking, oh, about 9.15, you'd be right. Sigh. So, we dashed off & got her there about 15 minutes late (as it was a whole morning - 9.15 to 12.15, this wasn't a big problem, luckily.). Annoying, though, as any other morning this week, we would have been up well before then...

So, we're off to visit Geoff's parents tomorrow, and coming back Sunday. It will be interesting to see how well I cope with that many days without internet access :) Seriously, though, we'll hope that the weather is nice, as it's hard for the girls to be away from all their stuff (and hard for their mum to keep them entertained away from their stuff), particularly if we get stuck indoors for long periods of time. If the weather is nice, or at least tolerable, there are ducks to feed, a canal to walk along, a playground or two, and other things of that ilk. Last time we visited, everyone got sick, so at least we will (I hope) avoid that one. Poor Sarah spent most of that visit curled up in a chair half sleeping, half watching videos and pausing every so often to throw up - nasty virus, which everyone got, except me. (gloat gloat) This time is bound to be better than that. (Or perhaps I'm jinxing us by even saying that...)

There is, of course, something more perverse than small children. Those of you who live in the same country as me, or who have lived here, or heck, even visited here, will of course know that I'm talking about the English weather. It's August. It's raining. Every day, practically. This is not a surprise, of course, but it's still something of a disappointment, particularly with small children at home who would really enjoy a trip to the playground pretty much every day. We did manage it briefly yesterday, in the hour long interval between rain and more rain, but it's a bit hit and miss. It also means that despite now being home during the day, I still have to hang the laundry up inside. The trials and tribulations we endure...

Toddlers, on the whole, are really lovely. They can be bad tempered, it's true, and they can be highly stubborn, but on the other hand, they are fascinating to watch, learn incredibly quickly and very sweet. It's a great age to deal with, in general. The one thing I could do without, though, is the vast quantity of time spent discussing going to the toilet. Yes, that's right, potty training - everyone's favourite. I can accept the whole discussion explaining that you need to learn to go to the potty before you make wee or poo and so on, but sitting with a toddler while she's on the potty & hearing her give you progress reports about where the poo is precisely & what progress she's having pushing it out, isn't really what I'd put at the top of my "must do" list for the day. Particularly when the incident occurs in the middle of eating lunch. And when there's really no poo anyway. Still, the advantage of waiting until they are almost three to really potty train intensively is that they are quite quick to catch on to the whole thing, and have pretty good control. Beats trying with an 18 month old, where you have to put them on the pot every 15 minutes, all day long. And hey, it's still better than work...

Maybe I should retitle the blog "The Unbelievable Perversity of Children" as I sense we've got a recurring theme going... You know, for the past who knows how long, the morning routine has been for me to stumble out of bed around 6.30, have a shower, get dressed, then spend 10-15 minutes attempting to drag the children awake & get them started. It's not just a matter of shouting "time to wake up" at them, it frequently involved physically removing them from bed and threats of sticking them under the cold shower (well, for Sarah, anyway - that girl could sleep for England, I'll tell you). And usually, we managed to get downstairs to eat breakfast by quarter past 7, so that was alright. So this morning - Sunday - I wake up to Sarah's voice in the hallway saying "Come on Olivia, let's go see Mummy & Daddy". It was 6.25. Did I mention it's Sunday?

Sarah's gone back to sleep, but once Olivia is awake, well, that's it - and I'm a bit like that, too, so we've let Daddy have a bit more kip and we're downstairs. But at least the kids' telly is good Sunday morning. Olivia will be thrilled, as Barney is on at 7.30 - they don't normally get to watch it, as I can bear to be in the same room as it, but if it will keep her occupied while I have a cup of tea and do stuff, she's welcome to it, as long as she doesn't get in the habit of waking up early Sunday mornings for it. Luckily, I think she's too young to understand the concept of time, so we're probably ok there.

The up-side to being awake this early (besides a much faster net connection) is that I'll get everything I needed to get done for the day done by about 10am - not normally compensation for sleeping "in" to at least 8, of course. But you can't have everything - as the man says, Where would you put it?

Well, the news of the day is that Motorcat has died. Yeah, I can see the reaction there - a huge "eh?" going across your faces. Well, for those of you who never lived in the DC area, and in particular, in Takoma Park, you probably won't know Motorcat, who is this cat that used to ride around on a motorcycle with the Catman. She had her own helmet. Lots of Washingtonians probably knew about her, but only a few of us have actually seen her. And having spent several years in Takoma Park, I can proudly say, I'm one of the privileged few. (obituary article at the Washington Post - don't know how long they keep up their archives, but this was Tuesday's paper, so I'd guess at least a month or so.) The irony is that she didn't die in a bike accident, she died of cancer. She was never in a crash, so far as I know. There's a better picture at this site. Oh, and as Dave Barry is so fond of saying, I am not making this up.