incremental progress

Words

The little one now has some words.
Being a boy, an early one is digger! said with great enthusiasm.
Being pretty normal - MAMA. Important for ensuring food and love. In that order.
Then there is car-car (kah-kah). This covers all things with engines including aeroplanes.
And his best one is LOOKATDAT! This is shouted while holding up his shirt so we can all admire the huge puku and outy button.

Two boys

Exhausted children

h was declared to be normal by the plunket nurse today, so I am not supposed to accuse him of being a shrimp or squirt or in any other way denigrate his height any more.

I'm quite pleased with that actually.

It was too hot to do anything much today. So won't dribble on.

The kids collapsed tonight instead of going to sleep. Poor wee mites, playing all day in the heat.

Lucky things...

Me and my big mouth

I think I just agreed to be the cyclist in a triathlon team today - I don't even own a bike yet. Fortunately, I am also pretty sure this is for next year. Plenty of time to sort it all out.

h was very hot when I picked him up from sleeping this afternoon, and slept an extra half an hour as well. I didn't think much of it. He had a bit of a screaming fit while I was cooking, and I didn't think much of that either - its not unusual behaviour. But after tea which he didn't eat much of (not normal) he just wanted to sit on my lap and cuddle. Some penny or other finally dropped and I got the thermometer out. 39.5 deg C. So he got some drugs and got put to bed early. No yodelling, not normal either! Friend's sprog had a temperature last night but got up full of beans, so hope it is the same thing and that he will be beany tomorrow. Poor wee thing feels pretty sorry for himself.

While the other is Very Beany and has a new computer game from the library which is very difficult for him to turn off. Took senior son biking again today, am thinking about his larger bike with yearning. He might get it early at this rate and get nothing much from the parents on his birthday... Those wee legs are doing a hell of a lot of work for not much results at the moment. Stopped by the river today so he could play in the mud.

Went to school and have arranged a new improved timetable and also a new laptop. Extremely useful visit, neh?

I want to ride a bicycle...

Yesterday while out with the certifiably crazy senior sons of two family's, I bought my senior son a new bike. It is for his birthday, so we have left it at the shop, but it was very exciting. We have been trying a camo painted bike with gears, and that was so not working - he wouldn't ride it without someone beside him, and couldn't get on and off. So we tried another racy red bike, and he was off like the actress's knickers, as the bishop said. Much better. No gears, so no mother telling him to keep pedalling when he clicks the gear doofer round. I bought a helnut, so today we went on an epic journey on his little bike and the friends second mighty steed. The mighty steed has 27 gears, more than I know what to do with. So I found a gear I liked and stuck with that.

Man, they do a hell of a lot of pedalling on those little bikes. We went to town and back down the riverside walkway, and he was fair pooped by the time we were nearly home.

But then he got a fresh burst of energy, cos he decided he was crazy, and so had to ride like crazy g.

...

I've booked bubs for a plunket check on friday. He has some kind of discharge from his penis, and is way too small for his age, so I will get them to check him out. He is still happy so prob just a shrimp who needs more washing!

UnCtrolled circus

Took the two five year olds on a mission this morning and it would have been funny to watch, but at times was a bit frustrating being in a bit part. I provided transport and finances!, and the boys provided a great deal of shouting running around and demands for treats...

All my smoke alarms have started beeping even when I put new batteries in them. What wid dat?

We have auckland traffic in wangavegas today due to the movie premiere - streets have been shut off and so other streets are getting heavy use and overall it reminds me why I like living in provinces - cos city traffic is stressful.

on turps

Friend came over last night for tea and alcohol. His family are at a tangi and away for five days. My hubby is somewhere near Taupo, so we thought we would share solitude! We got pretty much totally wasted and told each other stuff. He has picked up children's arms after bomb blasts in Ireland, and been places the government has strenuously denied sending troops to, and done some really wierd shit. And now is a family man. Also owns a bicycle worth more than my car! So he falls asleep on the couch - so I woke him up to throw him out, and as we are lifting the aformentioned bicycle over the fence the chain came off. I got it back on, and then was riding the bike. It is a beautiful thing to ride, feels a lot like flying. When I got back he was back in the house asleep again but this time on the floor... So I woke him again and sent him home.

He rang this morning and Cfessed he had gone home then retired to the bathroom to take a shit. After the event was over, he twisted round to remove detritus - and put his back out! Its going to make the funniest ACC form EVER. But I think he is planning to lie and come up with another scenario. Chicken.

Also met new teacher who has come here from Scotland to teach at my school. He has a family similar in age to mine and we had a great afternoon eating lunch, admiring what seems to them to be our enormous house, jump starting their car and getting them to a motel... Could be a great asset in the friendship stakes for us.

And in the evening it blew

So I'm down to putting the weather in the title! But this morning was hot and windless, and tonight there are gale like blasts.

A day without much of significance but I did finally start preparing for school. I have lots of different classes this year, and no double ups, so have lots of preparation to do. I don't usually prepare much for classes, but this tends to increase my stress levels. I am going to try working a bit harder, so I am winging it less and also worrying less and see if that improves my ability to retain weight. I am also thinking of doing a correspondence course this year which would involve some reading and a few essays - it sounds like such a doddle after the phd and is a new topic so is bound to be interesting.

but I think I should start the course next year. This year I will be teaching full time for the first time in seven or so years, and trying to publish the papers from the thesis and it would be kind-of nice to do some craft stuff, and carry on with working round the house. So the sensible thing to do would be to leave it. They run the course every year...

I'm not generally good at doing the sensible thing. I tend to take on heaps more than I should, and then get wound up because at least one of those things is not being done or not being done well enough. Its one of those life lessons I need to learn- to pace myself and say no to things I would like to do but just don't have the time to do well.

Its a pain when I can see the lesson so clearly but am such a shocking student.

I am the handiest person in the house!

Over the past week I have been very handy. Super-duper handy. I have painted the dining room, emptied and re-filled the pool and installed a toilet roll holder in the laundry toilet. And fixed my faultily installed towel holder. I have kept everyone fed and reasonably clean. And the husband who is leaving tomorrow hasn't even had to mow the lawn cos I did that too.

I went to the hardward store today, and they have little statues of St Fiacre the patron saint of gardeners. I'm very tempted to get one as a present for me for doing a month without R.

I got back home and was just planning to use my new goop gun to fill holes in the wall and the new set square to make things level when the phone went. It was Carol who cares for H. She doesn't normally ring so I knew something was wrong. And H had fallen backwards onto a Ccrete edge and cut his head open. Carol was probably more upset than H - last time something like this happened she was going to give up doing the childcare because it was too traumatic. But anyway, I went and got him and took him to A&E. He didn't need stitches, but did need to be glued back together. He was funny because he didn't mind them looking at the cut, but when I held him still so they could glue it there was a lot of outraged screaming about the unfairness. He was obviously sore after his nap, but pamol and chocolate ice cream solved all problems!

Husband fell asleep while reading stories to brat. He leaves tomorrow for a month. Poor bugger will be shattered by the end of annual summer camp!

Returning from Christmas

That was a long break from blogging... But its over now.

I had my parents come up for a week - they hadn't decided how long they were going to stay, so it must have been reasonably pleasant for them to stay that long. While they were here we had Christmas. Me and the boys went to midnight Mass, and boy was it dull. I've been to great midnight masses, but that one panned out at the other end really! We spent a lot of the week the folks were here working round the house. Our hedge now has no rogue plants, not much height nor much depth! it will look great in six months, but at the moment, it looks nothing more or less than mutilated.

On the 28th, the boys were baptised, which was a nice quiet little ceremony. Father Brian has a sense of humour and is a pretty relaxed kind of dude, so he coped well with the family. And there was a pretty raucous after dipping party. Which I enjoyed a lot, but my parents I think just wanted to hide from!

My brother bought a house - we now both have addresses on Cambridge Streets, but in different cities.

New Years was not celebrated here - no one actually cares much.

We then suddenly decided to go to Auckland. R's parents live up there, we haven't been for a while and my m-in-law is having a tricky operation soon and shouldn't travel down here. So we went with much trepidation, as neither of us gets on with said m-i-l. and it went surprisingly well. We were there for four days, and no-one needed to be talked out of leaving or killing... more successful than we have ever had before.

My theory is she is on happy drugs.

And now I am painting the dining room. I have done most of the prep and will start painting colour tomorrow because I can't wait any longer, and it is only one section that I can't do, and that can wait. It will be pink.

I have No Money, because the misery of denigration paid me all my holiday pay on Dec 7, and I used it to pay the credit card, and so now we have Nothing till mid Feb (except of course R's pay, which should be enough for normal people anyway, but no longer is enough for us).