Sunday

I have been up for precisely two hours and three minutes. My lovely husband got up and went for a bike ride, the bears got up and FHB made them all a drink and put the telly on. And I got a Lie In! Since I got up:

::There has been a hot chocolate/magazine incident.

::Miss T has eaten all her dad's breakfast.

::Custard has had a tantrum of astronomic proportions during which Miss T escaped onto the road, then W and Miss T escaped to Tesco; there was some concern over whether Custard had broken the front door; then I joined in and lost my temper too.

::Someone has been discovered to have scrunched up all yesterday's clean laundry and wiped it around the floor. I lost my temper.

::The three biggest bears have been paying a game involving lots of light sabre noises (but no actual light sabres- they are still under embargo on the top of the wardrobe). The boys appear to have fabricated faux lightsabres from a small plastic tube and a pair of Sportacus sunglasses. Mouse is running around waving a small pink castle. During said game, a large blue plastic box full of Stuff To Go Upstairs was kicked down the stairs. This resulted in a Glitter Mishap.
They bears did not tell me about the Glitter Mishap until they had tried to clean it up. With wet wipes. The top stair now looks most unfortunate, and who knew that purple fairy dust went brown when wet? And...I did not lose my temper. I have reached a point of resignation.

I am off to work again this afternoon, and am going armed with my baby jumper:

Looks weird doesn't it? All will be revealed...

x

Bike versus car

Custard: Are you going to bring your bike to get me or are you going to bring the car?

Me: Custard, I am getting you now. Do you think I have the bike or the car?

Custard (Standing on the bike): The car.

Me: The car?

Custard: Ha ha. Can I have some chocolate now?


x

This week I have been mostly...

Wondering...

::Why my children can not eat with knives and forks. Or spoons. Chopsticks would do. Any sort of culinary implement that would mean I did not have to watch them pick their food apart with their fingers and examine every mouthful before deciding whether to consume it.

::Why Mouse allows us to get as far away from a public toilet as humanly possible before saying that she needs a poo.

::Why Miss T cannot learn to say anything positive. Today's Give it back does not count. She is steadfastly refusing to say Daddy too, which is winding up W: Say Dad. Say Daddy. Go on...Daddy...Dad-dy. No, I am NOT Mum. Say Dad... and so on.

Being irritated:

::I see no reason at all why it would be acceptable to squash a punnet of grapes in my armchair. Twice.

::I do not understand why the bears refuse to eat on any given day, especially when it something they have eaten many times before, and it is healthy, homemade and tasty.

::Even when he is wearing reins Custard still manages to escape from me. How is this actually possible?

::Dog poo.Walking to school is like running the gauntlet in that department. I am watching out for eight feet and four wheels. People of Essex- clear up after your animals!

Planning:

::Christmas makes- for my bears and other little ones I love; to decorate the house; to put in my family Secret Santa bag.

::Crochet projects- for me, for W, for a few new babies.

Dancing:

::In the kitchen, with my bears, to whatever they fancy- FHB favours Katy Perry and 70s disco; Mouse will dance to anything; Custard likes the Theme from Star Wars and Scissor Sisters; Miss T likes 'I like to move it' from the Madagascar films.

::In the car (as much as you can) and shouting along to old school rock. I have been rediscovering Meatloaf, Skid Row and other sounds from my youth. Love it!

Crocheting:

::I frogged the baby jumper- truly I was never going to concentrate enough to complete an aran jumper, even a tiny one. I found a fab pattern on Ravelry instead and have whizzed through. More of that to come...

Enjoying:

::Time with my bears on the beach. Sometimes an unplanned trip is just what you need, so today, even though everyone was tired and it was frankly a bit chilly, we piled in the car after school and hit the beach.

Cadburys caramel nibbles- oh yes!

Then Mouse needed the loo and Miss T went blue, so we came home.

x

Small Pleasures

It is a grey Tuesday, there is a definate chill in the air and we are not quite in half term yet. The bears are all ridiculously tired and all looking rather peaky, W looks exhausted and I am feeling decidedly under the weather- not quite ill, but certainly not feeling great. We are having a Quiet Week.

I have listened to an awful lot of I hate you Mummy, a fair bit of It wasn't me, it was him (loudly, from various sources), far too much Am I going to nursery for a short time or a long time? How can you leave me? You must not go! It is just a short time isn't it? I CAN NOT WALK! and a lot of Go Away! Mine!

:: I made some cakes to cheer us all up, but used too much peanut butter and not enough jam, and now none of the bears will eat them.
::I have a mouth ulcer the size of Mount Vesuvius which is making my whole head hurt.
::And I have just wrenched my hip by hooking Miss T round the waist with my foot, whilst holding a huge basket of laundry and teetering on the top of the stairs, in order to prevent her from rolling head first down the stairs. Ow.
::And, goodness me but I'm hungry. One unloved muffin and a banana does not cut the mustard for breakfast, but I am really am limited to soft food at the moment- how tragic is that?

Anyway, it is on days like this that I try to make myself think of the Good Moments:

Mouse, Custard and Miss T with a really big box. (You would not believe how small the item that arrived in the box was!) Mouse would only let Custard in if he called himself Duke. (?!)

Miss T's new lounge suit. I found it in a charity shop at the weekend. It's velour and much too big for her, but it really makes me laugh. She is channelling one of her great-grandmothers in this get-up. All she needs is some spangly diamante.

My new hat and mitts. I made them yesterday and am excessively pleased with them. Not least because the hat is quite slouchy and makes me look about ten years younger, which can only be a Good Thing.
The mitts look a bit clunky, but I made up the pattern as I was going along. Every winter I go through about four pairs of gloves- they take a lot of bashing with all the buggy pushing I do. So I made these with reinforced thumb gussets(!) and we'll see how we go. At least they only took a couple of hours to make.

Am definately running out of steam now, so it must be coffee and paracetomol o'clock,

x

All is quiet...

It has been a quiet and peaceful week here in the land of the wild bears. Since parents evening we have all been making a big effort to behave ourselves- less shouting, more being patient, kind and pleasant to each other. Goodness me the house is a far more enjoyable place to be!
We asked FHB to write his class rules on the board in our kitchen and now whenever anyone is not behaving themselves we stop and ask whether we are following The Rules:

In addition, as my exam is OVER (!) I feel as if I am back in the building again, available to entertain, pay attention to, and even feed my kids. It has been lovely all round I think. We have made bead necklaces:

This was a birthday present to Mouse from her best friend, but, bless them, the boys wanted to make necklaces too. So we did.

And we've made flowers. Another Mouse gift, with glue this time! She and Custard had a lot of fun building these and she has put them proudly on her bedside table. I suggested the bookshelf in the living room so I could look at them too because they do make me smile, but she said that they were hers and she wanted share them only with Bumby (her rabbit). So there you are.

I have spent my none mothering moments Reading (Oh how I have missed Books! Real ones, not text books! With a story and everything!) and as I had a Kindle for my birthday I have been gorging myself on a mixture of e-reading and hard copy books, three on the go at once, just like the old days. I have also found the time to finally make FHB's hat:

And have received rather a lot of gratifying comments about it from ladies of a certain age. It is the lion hat from Inside Crochet, Issue 6.

Here is Mouse's hat (my pattern, with most of a small snowball flower from Nicky Epstein):

And Custard's hat (Crochet today, September/October 09):

I am under orders to make some fangs and eyes for it now he has seen his brother's finished hat.

I have also started a baby jumper. Not for me!

And managed to replenish my homemade cards stock, fuelled by much rum and black and a very fine lamby dinner made by W.
So there you are, a quiet, enjoyable week. FHB is much nicer, my throat does not hurt as I am much quieter and a great deal less stressed, the bears are all playing games- no telly, no computer games, just good old fashioned low tech cards and fuzzy felt. So relaxing...

x

Anger management

A brief photo free blog today. I feel the need to unload.

Yesterday was parents evening. My beautiful Mouse came away with a glowing report. FHB did not do so well. Academically my son is doing splendidly, behaviourally he is - challenging, shall we say? I'd like to think he is just bored, but I do rather worry that I am breeding a sociopathic menace to society. Anyway, after a lot of discussion last night, during which we removed all his books from his bedroom 'because the reason I'm angry is because I'm tired, and I'm tired because I stay up all night reading', we decided on a couple of strategies for FHB.

1- A reward system. Obvious really, but easy to slip out of.
2- Making him write down 5 reasons why he is feeling angry. (This afternoon's reasons, following the Black Straw incident, were: I am tired. I read too much. I never sleep. I don't like sleep. I always read. Hmmmm).
3- Sending him to school with a pocket dinosaur. When he is angry he has to tell the pocket dinosaur all about it before being nasty to anyone. It seemed to work.

I am feeling very gloomy about it all, and trying very hard to put a positive spin on this.

Custard also took a pocket toy- a dinosaur, to talk to when he gets sad because I have left him. (Evil parent that I am).

Miss T has fallen head first off the kitchen table. But in a positive discovery, she can now say 'cheese', 'go away', 'it hurts' and 'arghhhh Mummy, come'.

Ah well, tomorrow's another day. Just got to get through swimming lessons...

x

Cat and Mouse

On Friday, with Custard and Miss T safely in the custody of my in-laws (Custard was sick 5 times in their car on the way- glad it was their car for a change), I sat down and did some serious revision. At lunchtime, complete with a serious case of brain-freeze, I collected Mouse and FHB from school and we headed down to the beach for hot donuts and hot chocolate.

It has to be said that while I missed my two babiest babies hugely, it was a great deal easier just taking two bears to the beach. FHB pretended to roll in:

and I got told off by a very elderly man who was concerned for FHB's welfare. I did tell him that I would indeed hop into the estuary to retrieve my son, should he roll in, but the boy is like a monkey- no chance of him rolling in unless he wanted to.

The council has finally repaired the cliff lift, so we had a trip in that too:

Then we went home and I made Stuff with Mouse. Well, Mouse made stuff and I threaded a needle for her and sewed on two buttons- she did everything else herself:

 



Look!!!!!!!!!!

I am just so proud of her! She has carried her little bag around all weekend and is very pleased with herself indeed.

And I feel all fired up and full of enthusiasm and ideas for things to make myself. Just got to get through this exam tomorrow afternoon!

x