Toytown Trivia

title-2472056

Mon, 18 Jun 2007 05:14:05 +0200

We had a lovely day up town yesterday. On Friday night, as we lay in bed, Gav and I discussed catching the train to Brighton the next day. We decided to go for it as long as it wasn’t raining. Fate intervened. When the babies forced me to get out of bed I peeked out of the window and found that it had been raining in the night. It was hard to determine quite what would happen with the weather, as there were ominous, heavy clouds as well as blue sky. We decided to go the safe route, avoid the seaside and to take a trip into central London instead. First we looked at the zoo but discovered that it would cost over £50 to get the six of us in! Instead we turned our attention to the museums. We revealed our plans to the children. The girls were really pleased. They wouldn’t have been so pleased if they realised we’d forfeited a trip to the seaside and the zoo for this choice!

The day was mission successful although it was gruelling. The girls enjoyed the train journey in. Gav stayed with the babies beside the train doors as I sat with Cara and Zadie playing ‘I spy’. Arriving in London we decided to show the girls Trafalgar Square. There had been grass there randomly for a short time but sadly it had been taken away. Spotting the National Gallery I suggested going in to show Cara Monet’s work. She’d learned about Monet recently and was developing a real pride in her knowledge of artists. I have also sent her into school with a few gallery brochures that I’m on the mailing list for. She’s proud of this little role that she has and I thought it would be very good for her to see the real artist’s work so that she could not only say that she’d seen the real artist’s work but so that I could show her how he painted. We found an entrance which wasn’t too difficult to manoeuvre a pram into, scoured the plan for the room with Monet’s work and set off to Room 43 on the second floor, thankfully by way of lift! It was hugely exciting. I was touched to see that Gav stepped aside a couple of times to look at details of some paintings. He admitted afterwards that he had been really moved almost to tears by some of the work because it was so enormous and must have taken ages to paint. It struck me that my feelings had been exactly the same when I first visited the gallery when I was seventeen. These days it’s very different because I’ve been there so many times that I can happily dash in and out and home in on the one or two pictures that I’m interested in. It was the only thing to do with the little ones. Their attention span wasn’t going to last too long and we had the threat that Cerys and Thomas would start to cry as they were due their morning nap, interrupting the reverent peace of the high, bustling rooms. Reaching Monet’s rooms I led the children straight to Monet’s water lily paintings. First we looked at The Water Lily Pond, the famous painting with the bridge over the lilies. Cara had been drawing water lilies since being shown the most famous ‘Water-Lilies’ painting at school. Sadly that one wasn’t there, or at least we didn’t find it but it was good to show her the pond and the flowers. I had more fun though showing her the coarsely painted ‘The Japanese Bridge’. This bridge is in a few of his paintings but in this particular painting it is nearly abstract. It was fun to show because I have told Cara for a long time that she doesn’t have to stick to lines when colouring in, she can scribble when drawing and painting. Artists do whatever they want! She was initially very dubious about the idea of artists scribbling. On the web I’d shown her Pollocks’ dribble art and it was brilliant to show her some of Monet’s work which was created by using harsh brushstrokes combined to make a canvas full of scribbles.
“When we stand close it looks like lots of scribbles doesn’t it?” I asked Cara. She nodded, “See how some of the paint is really thick and some isn’t. The brush strokes are curly, just like scribbling. I bet you didn’t think you could scribble when you paint did you?” Cara nodded smiling. “Right, let’s back up a bit.” I was carrying Cara. We stepped back a few paces, through the crowds. “Now what do you see?”
Cara tried hard to see. It was tricky but I was able to point out the shape of the bridge by comparing it to the other, more clear painting. Cara was really pleased when she worked it out. After Cara had had a look I picked up Zadie to show her the picture too. Zadie was pleased to have that moment to look at the paintings with me and followed my swift narrative happily enjoying picking out the colours she recognised. Gav caught up with me and pointed out that Cerys was a little distressed about being left a few paces away so we made sure she was with us for our next painting. I moved the girls on to see Manet’s work and we stood a few moments in front of ‘The Umbrellas’. In this picture I explained a little about the colours that were used. I asked Cara what colour she thought the lady’s dress was. Cara replied ‘Grey’ which I found quite interesting because Cara is usually spot on with colour and obviously the woman’s dress is a blue but I think that close up in front of this large scale painting she was a little thrown by the complexity of colours painted. Cara understands how colours are made so I explained briefly how the Impressionists used complimentary colours, opposites on the colour wheel to give vividness to the painting. On this painting the highlights on the blue were orange, the direct opposite on the colour wheel. I told her how generally they tried not to use black, the colour of darkness but to use the colours to create works of light. I’ve brought up the children to understand that colours are colour, black and white aren’t colours but a darkness and a lightness and I was pleased to see that she understood. With Zadie I pointed out the child’s face looking out of the ‘Umbrellas’ painting and her rosy cheeks. Zadie is learning to draw faces now and we talked briefly about the features the artist had painted. Moving on we hunted out the Sunflowers.
“It’s one of the world’s most famous paintings,” Gav and I told Cara and Zadie.
“Do you like it?” I asked them.
”Yes,” Cara replied loyally.
“I don’t,” I grinned, “I think it’s a bit thickly painted and the colours are sickly. I prefer that one,” I said pointing to ‘A Wheat Field with Cypresses’. “I love the curly painting on that one too.” Years ago I’d painted a copy of that painting and it had inspired me to paint using my fingers in oils for my A-Level mock, earning me a grade A. Sadly in the A-Level finals I messed up the proportions on my friend Anna’s face and only reached a B grade, giving her a rather large nose. We laughed about it afterwards.
“I think it’s a bit pants,” Gav contributed quietly and we laughed, enjoying the irreverence in the thick of the throng of silent visitors who had travelled from far and wide to see this very painting.
The final picture I showed the children was Rousseau’s ‘Surprised’ with the tiger. We didn’t get the chance to discuss this one as patience was wearing thin but headed out then. We stopped off at the shop so that the girls could buy a postcard each before leaving. Cara chose a close up of the little girl out of Manet’s ‘Umbrellas’ and Zadie randomly chose a picture of the interior of the gallery.

We headed up the street, aiming for Tottenham Court Road to reach the British Museum. At the bottom of Charing Cross Road we stopped for a Pizza Hut lunch. It was a real treat although at the moment Gav and I are slightly sensitive about quite how obvious Cerys’s spots still are. Sat in a high chair being a monkey, enjoying the limelight it was hard to hide those spots. A kindly woman stopped by and sympathised with us stating, “chicken pox, I’ve been there too.”

While we were in the restaurant it began to rain quite heavily. Thankfully I’d packed raincoats for the kids and myself. Gav being as brave as ever had ventured out in his teeshirt. When we stepped out we headed up towards Tottenham Court Road.
“Borders suddenly looks really attractive!” Gav said as the rain started to get heavier. We passed the old Salsa bar we went to once together. It was a dire night the night I took him. I still remember being disappointed as I’d had so much fun there with colleagues from Sight and Sound beforehand. When the rain eased off we left Borders, the girls clutching a Bratz sticker book each. While it was raining I’d tried hard to find them a good intermediate book to read to them, a book with mostly text but a black and white picture on each page. I hadn’t found any that quite fitted the bill disappointingly.

We had been humming and ahhing over just going back to the train because of the weather but with a break in the rain we braved the mission finale of getting to the British Museum. I’m now so glad that we did. It took more walking for little legs. I really felt for the girls as I was starting to want to sit down by then. The mission this time was to get to the Mummies as Cara had been learning about the Pyramids in school. Again it was good to have an objective. The first objective though was to find a toilet. Poor little Zee began to need the loo when we were half way down the street on the way to the museum. We hurried along knowing it was nearby but of course reaching the museum it was like getting down another street to find the darned thing. When we got to the loos we found a queue of women about fifteen deep. With a stressed Zadie and Cara in each hand I eyed the queue and grinned to myself as I remembered the nurse’s words in hospital when the babies had RSV.
“When it comes to our children we each have a tiger in us,” she’d said. I doubt I’ll ever forget those words because it’s so utterly and purely true.
Addressing the woman at the front of the line I said,
“I’m so sorry, would anyone mind if we sneaked to the front. I have a very little girl here who is very, very desperate for the toilet.”
Fifteen faces turned towards us then down at the children. Zadie and Cara looked back at those fifteen faces with dark, anxious eyes, hopping innocently from foot to foot and the waves parted. If they hadn’t goodness knows what would have happened! I didn’t fancy continuing around London with two poor children in wet pants and would probably have removed their undies as a precaution!

We found Gav outside the museum doors. He’d managed to push the two single buggies into a disabled platform lift to get outside the doors but it would have been nearly impossible for him to have got the pair through without help as the crowd going through was incessant. The girls contributed some money to the large box at the front then we ventured back in. Gav and I looked at the roof and mused over what the old museum would have looked like. It’s very impressive in the main area with the large circular building in the centre with the glass roof, patterned with triangle shapes.

Finding directions to Africa we zoomed through the crowds, not really stopping to look at the amazing Aztec statutes for more than a brief moment. The girls’ reception to the Egyptian mummies was muted. Zadie looked deeply concerned by the bandaged mummies themselves, peeking at them around the pram. Cara is very interested in ideas about the after life at the moment and I briefly talked her through my understanding of why the Egyptians chose to bury people in this way. They were slightly overwhelmed by the displays and Cara demanded to be lifted to look at a painted face on one of the mummies. We moved on and I showed them the hieroglyphics, the intricate paintings of the eyes and wings and more on the sarcophaguses.
“Look, there’s bones!” Cara said. I thought she meant on the hieroglyphics and scanned them to find some that resembled some but then laughed as I saw her line of vision. She was eyeing a human skull through a gap and was desperate to get round to see it. We wound our way through the crowds to the other side of the cabinet and Cara and Zadie made impressive ‘ewwww’ noises as they looked at the skulls on display.

Gav and I nodded to each other at this point that it was time to escape and head back. Zadie had tugged my sleeve and asked,
“Are we getting the train now mummy?”
They were tired and we had a long walk ahead.

The walk back took a while but we broke it up with a quick zip into Virgin Megastore where I sat with Thomas and Cerys. It’s funny because out and about with the babies at this age you can almost forget they are there until you actually sit down with them. They’re still happy to watch the world go by from their prams for most of the time still. Cerys had relieved her pram boredom by laughing at Cara a few times as Cara had pulled faces at her.

It was then a race for the train. We caught one with minutes to spare and were grateful not to have to wait too long. The double bonus was that the train wasn’t too crowded. On the way back the girls sat together admiring their Bratz sticker books while Gav sat with Thomas behind Cerys and I. Dear spotty Cerys spent much of the journey playing a very lively game of Peep-Bo with Thomas over the seats.

Day over. Enough said. Lots of fun.

As an afternote Gav has reminded me of a couple of things. Firstly that we would love to go back either with the kids when they are older or to spend time there without children to actually spend time seeing what is there. Also he pointed out our laughing about one placard which had noted that the statue was graciously donated by Queen Victoria and we’d laughed about how actually that meant ‘robbed’. Also, we’d thought about how amazing it was that with so many of these amazing historic creations that the artists would never have imagined quite how immortalised their work would have been, on view to the whole word. In the case of the mummified royals the bones of what would effectively have been their gods would have been only feet away from far the masses, for centuries to come. It’s bizarre and so hard to comprehend.

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Another day of spots but in good spirits

Tue, 12 Jun 2007 10:42:01 +0200

Well I’m surprisingly awake again but I suspect that sleepiness is going to crash down at some point. Gav was a superstar last night and urged me to go to get some sleep early evening. It wasn’t really sleep unfortunately as the girls were being quite boisterous downstairs but I probably managed a good hour which helped to set me up for the night shift. Night shift it was. Cerys was so sore that I had to bring her back downstairs for a second night in the lounge. She stayed awake until ten to four, then woke at four o’clock after weeing on the blankets (still nappy-free). She managed an hour but then Thomas began crying. He was crying for ages on the baby monitor and poor Gav had obviously gone into my usual state of survival shut down so I had to nip up to the rescue. I can’t blame him, I’m usually the one who doesn’t wake and it’s amazing how the body can simply refuse to wake up if it’s tired enough. Thankfully Thomas settled quickly but back downstairs Cerys woke again and that was pretty much it. She slept fitfully but not very well so I didn’t really sleep after that.

This morning Cara is looking far better, Thomas’s spots seem to be slowing down. Cerys is still completely plastered and very sore and still has fevers but the spots are the deep red now so hopefully she has peaked. She’s still nappy-free and weeing everywhere despite using the potty to play with! Thomas now has a nappy thankfully so a little less running around mopping up.

The mission today is to get Zadie to preschool without getting the troops into contact with anyone! I wanted to call the preschool to ask if we could arrive a little later to avoid the handover but they’re not answering the phone.

Blimey Cerys is doing a Teletubby dance behind me, she’s looking far brighter…oh and now playing peep-bo with Thomas round the edge of the drawers at the end of the side passage.

The girls are upstairs on the Cbeebies website. I’d like to do a bit of cooking with them later if I can scramble together some ingredients. On the food note we have had some real success on the allergy note lately. Cara can now tolerate a little cow’s milk ice-cream. I’ve been giving her a few spoons each day and Zadie is starting to brave a little too and it’s going well. The babies have successfully eaten cheese on toast and pizza so they are fine with cooked milk products. It makes life a lot easier and gives me real hope they’ll all overcome the allergy eventually.

Right two babies trying to climb on my knee. Better zip.

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Spots continued...

Mon, 11 Jun 2007 13:59:00 +0200

I'm rushing on here quickly because today is a race to keep up. Last night I kept Cerys downstairs with me, sleeping her on her old cot mattress while I slept on Tom's old cot mattress beside her. The plan was that I put the waterproof cover on the mattress, lay a couple of towels over it and try to keep her nappy off for the night. With me beside her she did stay in one place thankfully although it was a night of being kicked in the face and howled at. She was in equal discomfort to the trauma that Zee went through and sleep was very minimal and erratic with lively patches between where I'd have to either dispense calpol or put calamine lotion on her spots. Her lower regions and her scalp were giving her the most pain and often she would simply cry with frustration..

This morning when I woke Gav handed me a coffee and I was amazed to find that I was able to pretty much bounce up and start the day. It's funny how your body can just get on with it sometimes. Thomas is a day behind Cerys with his spots and I suspect that he'll be the one in most discomfort tonight. Thankfully Cara seems to have a mild dose, hopefully that doesn't mean she'll get it again. She does have spots all over her body but quite liberally scattered and isn't in much discomfort at all.

I managed to get Cerys through the morning with no nappy too which has meant a lot of mopping up and I've only just popped one on to put her to bed with Thomas. I've put them together for their nap this afternoon as they need all the comfort they can get. It was very tempting to sleep with them but both girls are home and badly want some attention too. I've already given the babies three baths today so they're due some fun. We did manage to do some potato printing this morning en masse which was fun although there was a lot of bickering over who had which shape from the girls.

Right got to wrap up now. I'm in demand for a change!

xxx

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Fighting Cocks Pox

Sun, 10 Jun 2007 09:34:34 +0200

Yes, Fighting Cocks Pox is my new name for the Chicken Pox. The children are far more like feisty cocks than hens! The illness has turned them all into right nag-bags and they're all arguing and tussling over silly things. I'm off to work today so I dread to think what kind of day poor Gav has ahead. Cerys now has the spots too and I think a couple are lurking on Thomas.

Last night we put the babies into beds for the first time. Zadie moved to a top bunk, Cerys below her and Thomas below Cara. It took about an hour to settle Thomas and Cerys and Zee only went to sleep at about eleven! It's tricky to get them all to sleep because I'm used to settling the babies at the same time. I'm sure we'll find a way. Concerend Cerys kept shouting 'hellooo Tayo' at poor Thomas when I was with her and he was stood at the other bedroom babygate within view. When I settled Thomas Cerys who couldn't see us yowled at her gate. That went on for a while until Gav came up to help and settled Thomas. We then had the rest of the night to convince Cerys that sleep would be good. I'm missing the cages!

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More spots

Sat, 09 Jun 2007 09:34:21 +0200

I’ve not long been up; the children woke at a respectable seven thirty but poor Gav. I could tell from the ‘your go’ nudge and the empty bottles that he must have made a few trips in the night again. I’m giving him a lie-in to catch up. Milk has been distributed and the next mission is to dress everyone, as it’s quite nippy this morning. It was blazingly hot yesterday afternoon so it’s hard to tell quite what is going to happen today. I have to admit that I’m quite pleased it looks a little glum at the moment because there will be a little less pressure to dive out and I may get a turn at lying in too.

I haven’t had much chance to colour in my accounts in the last week. I feel a little more relaxed about adding a few words this morning between children as I managed to get a stack of Ebay clobber up last night so a few pennies will be coming in. Work managed not to pay me for one day last month, which knocked the balance a bit. Thankfully I had the proof that I was there because they still haven’t sorted me out a log-on so I’ve been sending all my internal mail from my hotmail account.

The big news from this morning is that Cara now has the chicken pox. I thought that she was about to pop the spots after her fevers the night before last. It followed the same pattern as Zadie’s. Yesterday she was off school and spent the day organising me and had no fevers at all. I almost regretted keeping her off! By the evening the fevers had started again and she chilled out enormously, which was a relief. We all sat down together to play Zelda. The girls love Zelda and only play the minimal part of helping me to puzzle solve and pressing the green button to open treasure chests. The tricky part of yesterday was getting Zadie to and from school with Cara in tow. I didn’t want Zadie to miss school and as most of her preschool have had the chicken pox in this round I decided that the best that I could do would be to take Cara along but to set her well back from the other children. It was fine apart from the fact that the most garrulous mother decided to chat to me from the opposite end of the room. While we were talking several other parents came in and I felt more than a little embarrassed holding a conversation about why my daughter was off school, in a place where she was likely to spread her illness! The other mum pointed out sagely that the chicken pox is most contagious before the spots appear. Oh dear! Still I did manage to keep Cara well back so her contact with other children was from a good distance.

Thomas and Cerys have yet to catch the chicken pox and I’m now ditching my hopes that they don’t get it when in nappies. It’s obvious that they will so I’m hoping that it’s sooner rather than later. I don’t want to be stressing about it happening next month with holiday looming. At least it’s over with then. Zadie is well over it and her spots are healing marvellously. She’s quite jealous of the fact that the attention has diverted from her illness and keeps claiming to feel hot and talks proudly about how she still has spots. Quite comical really!

The twins are going through that super-powered develop-by-the-day stage where they surprise you every day with what they come out with. Cerys’s favourite thing to say is,‘ha ha, i’s bunnnnnnn’ while she puts on a slightly dorky face when she finds something amusing. She is stringing sentences together now and when she can’t find the words she makes them up, usually when she’s telling Thomas not to do something but she often pulls at my trouser leg and when I drop to my knees she’ll roar with laughter and tell me about something that has happened in complete babble with one or two words she knows thrown in. Thomas isn’t stringing words together yet but he’s beginning to master words very well. His favourite words are ‘nana for any kind of fruit and ‘oo’bor’ for football for any kind of ball and indeed anything remotely resembling something spherical. He says ‘hi’ya’ brightly, in favour of Cerys’s now very posh ‘hello’. The other thing that Thomas has mastered is hitting. The last couple of weeks he has been really going at the boy thing of using every thing that he gets into his chubby mitts as a potential weapon. I now have to look not only at the potential choking hazard of toys but also at their weight and sharp edges! It’s an enormous change from the little Thomas of a couple of months ago who was a complete pushover and had everything taken off him. Cerys still nips in to grab things she wants but these days Thomas toddles after her in his slightly bent-legged way with his arms outstretched like Frankenstein. Cerys will howl and hold her trophy close to her chest and there will be a brief Mexican stand-off before Thomas gives her a good biff. Cerys has another role though. If Thomas gets upset she’ll dive in and say ‘s alrii’ Tayo’ patting him on the shoulder. That usually results in her being biffed too because he can’t stand sympathy when he’s upset. She has decided that taking things to Thomas is her job and when I make a round of drinks she’ll always take Thomas’s to him. He has cottoned on already that he quite likes having things fetched for him. When he’s a bit more mobile I’ll have to get him to do the same back or I’ll have a very pampered young man on my hands.

Right, time to zip. Between sentences I’ve had to fetch drinks, fruit, breakfast, clothes and now I have to run the bath for the babies. The girls are happily playing Mario Kart together. Gav is still asleep. Thomas just walked in saying ‘baaaall’ and grinned broadly as I played a brief game of catch with him. Catch involved holding the ball up dramatically in a throwing position then slamming it into my hand! He is now pushing a toy car around the floor.

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Quick Entry

Fri, 08 Jun 2007 00:19:24 +0200

It has just passed midnight and I'm about to zip to bed but had to pop in a very swift update. Steve, Gav's American boss just called. He was apparently returning Gav's call. Interesting choice of time to call! I've hardly spoken to Steve over the years Gav has worked at his company. I've met him once and he's okay. I found it quite entertaining that he was greeting me,
"Hi Lou."
Even though I always reply to notes with a 'Lou' and my best friends call me Lou I tend to often introduce myself as Louise to people I'm not that familiar with. I find it amusing that he thinks I'm that approachable. Gav must paint a warm picture of me!

Cara is, I think, on the verge of getting the chicken pox as she has had high fevers this evening. The twins are still have a bad viral cough which is low on their chests but are still in good humour and there are no signs of spots and no fevers yet. It will be strange tomorrow with Cara off school taking Zee to school. I bet Cara will enjoy that little venture. I'll have to keep her well back from the other children. We haven't been going to any groups because even though it's good for children to get over the chicken pox early I don't like to be the one choosing to expose them all to it. Sickness is terribly wearing in this house. I demanded that Gav wake me up to take turns with the night-trips the other night. It's incredible how much I sleep through these days. I simply don't wake up if they cry, even if I'm beside them. The other day I offered that I could sleep beside Thomas and Cerys so that Gav could get some rest and I woke to find him up giving the twins a bottle because I hadn't woken! In the last couple of nights he has been nudging me to take turns and it has been far better for him. I don't mind being woken at all if I'm taking turns. It's good to work together on this stuff. Working Sunday has given us a real teamwork edge too.

I've been trying to get my Ebay clobber sorted out the last couple of days. The children helped me out today as I took a stack of photos by diving in front of the camera each time I took a picture. It took a while to edit out chubby hands, feet and bellies on Photoshop afterwards!

Right, I'd better get to bed. I managed to get an hour sleep today when the babies went down. We would have been at the toy library if it wasn't for the pox so I felt doubly guilty about not doing something with Zee while I had the chance. She played on the CBeebies website on their bedroom computer beside me as I slept. I'm so glad she has school tomorrow. Right now I'm so tired in the day that I'm useless. The main antics here tend to take place between two and five in the morning and with Cara being poorly she could be joining in with the other three night-owls tonight.

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Conversations about Mortality

Fri, 01 Jun 2007 00:58:17 +0200

Tonight as I kissed Cara goodnight she said,
"Mummy I don't want you to die."
"I will die one day," I said gently, "everyone does but I'm certainly not intending to die for a long time if I can help it."
"I don't want you to."
"It does seem very scary but don't be scared. My Mum died and see, I can still smile. When people die you do miss them but you carry on and you can still have fun and be happy. Life carries on."
"You can play and laugh and they will watch you."
"Yes, I like to think my Mum watches me. I like to think she laughs at what we get up to. When you get older it's less scary." I sort of lied. I say sort of because I can remember the same terror when I was a child. As you grow older you become more resigned to it. Does it become less scary? I suppose that it does in general life until it's inevitable and you are forced to face it.
"Mille's Daddy died, Millie with the long hair in my class."
"Did he? I imagine he was very poorly. That can happen. Sometimes people can get very bad sicknesses that are much worse than coughs and colds and sick-bugs. Freddie Mercury died of a very bad disease."
"Did he? How do you know?"
"It was on the news," I replied. "I don't intend to go until I'm very old though. I might live until I'm two-hundred and fifty!"
Cara grinned.
"Okay."
"So you have to look after your health. It's my job to look after yours to stop you getting illnesses and to keep your body healthy. I try to make you eat the right food and get you to go to SLEEP on time," I prodded her grinning.
"When Phoenix tried to kill me he broke my heart," Cara added, trying to delay my departure and the onset of bed time.
"Did he?" I replied trying not to smile. "How did he do that?"
"He pushed me...right there..and then jumped on me and pushed me again. It nearly broke my heart and I could have died."
"You know how Thomas does that to you too only he's little so it doesn't hurt so much?"
"Yes but Phoenix did it harder and tried to kill me."
"Thomas does it because he thinks you're great and wants to play with you. Well, Phoenix is doing that too. He's rough with you because he likes you. That's how little boys act when they want you to be their friends."
"But he tried to kill me."
"He must really like you then."
"Ugh! I never want to kiss someone. I like kissing you and Daddy but I don't want to kiss anyone else."
"You don't have to if you don't want to," I laughed. "You might want someone to kiss you one day though."
"Yuck no and I don't want to marry a boy either."
"Look at me, I married Daddy and it's fun. If he does the thing where he tries to show he likes me by breaking my heart I just tell him off and then we're friends again. Boys are fine when you learn how to deal with them."
Cara grinned knowingly and made a few 'eww...kissing...yuk' noises before resigning herself to her bed.

And so the conversation ended.

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Tough night (but a fairly easy one for me)

Wed, 30 May 2007 12:26:33 +0200

Zadie looks dreadful this morning. She is white as a sheet and her hair is matted and greasy from the lotion I've put on her scalp. Spots cover her nose, mouth, cheeks, forehead, neck, ears, chest, back, inside of elbows, armpits, inner upper thigh and above and the back of her knees where her usual eczema is is knarled and knotted by a fierce mass of angry spots. They are past the early red raised bump stage now and a deeper, more fierce red. Some are now breaking. I imagine this is the beginning of the healing stage which must mean that lots more scratching is ahead.

Last night Zadie really couldn't sleep and after her first attempt at sleeping she remained downstairs with me and Gav. I suggested I have a slightly earlier night to do shifts with Gav but after the night before I was worse than useless when he finally brought Zadie up to join me in the big bed (thank you for the tip Kirsty - the larger bed was a good idea!). The trouble was that she was still not dog-tired enough to cope with the soreness and screamed and kicked me. In the end I took her back downstairs to the loo then we returned en-masse to try to settle Zee in her own bed. She settled for all of about five minutes before she began to call out for me. I didn't know what to do! Poor thing. In the end we all tried to sleep together in our bed but it didn't work so Gav suggested I go in the spare room. I was so tired I went and flaked out in Zadie and Cara's room in Zadie's bottom bunk. It was heavenly but poor Gav had to cope with Zee and the babies because I slept through the lot! I made amends by letting him lie in until midday today.

I've got to nip off now because Zadie needs more cream and medicine and Cara is desperate to play Zelda with me.

1.28am - a quick update. Zadie wet her bed earlier but she has been amazingly settled this evening (in her own bed!) so we're keeping our fingers crossed that we might actually be able to sleep without too much disturbance. I'm sure that Thomas and Cerys will do their usual three-to-four-in-the-morning yowl but otherwise I hope Zadie will rebuild her strength by sleeping through. She has had a tough few days and deserves a little respite. We deserve a little sleep too!

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Lots of Spots

Tue, 29 May 2007 12:37:05 +0200

I'm nipping on while the babies are settling for their morning nap. Zadie's chicken pox is going to be a challenge. The bulk of spots seemed to appear last night within the space of a tiny few hours. Over night they have plastered her body. I stayed with Zadie until four in the morning because she was so upset by the itching. Thankfully she was so tired by this time that she did manage to get a little sleep in. There were a couple of cries from the babies after but Gav saw to then and got up with them at the amazingly reasonable hour of nine thirty. I lay in until about eleven when Gav brought up a terribly distressed Zadie. We have dosed her up with Ibruprofen and piriton and I've had a conversation with NHS direct to find the best cream which is apparently called Eurax. The only trouble is that it's no good for under threes so I'll have to check before using that on the babies if and when they get it. The advisor told me that it is so contagious that you only need to be in the room with someone with Chicken pox for a quarter of an hour before catching it! I'm hoping that they escape. Molly, Zadie's friend had it but her twin siblings haven't caught it yet. I think the biggest challenge is going to be the nappy issue. It seems that spots like to cluster down there. I couldn't put Zadie's nappy on last night and even though I helped her use the loo a few times in the night she still woke up wet. It will be impossible if the babies get it.

Anyway, it sounds as if the pair are asleep so I'm off to spend time with the girls. Gav is on holiday for a couple of days which is a big help.

xxx

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Work and Chicken Pox

Mon, 28 May 2007 20:57:53 +0200

Logging on briefly on the computer in the girl's room. We've managed to get the shelves and most of their toys upstairs and so far so good. We're hoping that with the toy clutter upstairs it will save the time and energy we expend running around after the wee ones tidying up. The plan is to only bring down a few toys each day so at least they should appreciate their toys more. Cara has already shown her appreciation for the new order by spending half an hour playing in her bedroom with a Pony toy set which had been under her bed but is now in tubs on the bottom shelves. She even tidied it all away beautifully! Makes it all worth the effort!

Work today was good fun. I had been hesitating over touching the window displays but as most of the properties had been sold long before I joined I grew tired of it and decided to take that over too. When Barry called I buoyantly told him I'd changed everything around because I was tired of looking at a picture of a house with a snowman in front of it! He laughed which was good. We chatted briefly and he confided in me that he's fed up at the moment and that he sympathises with Barbara for the grief she is getting from the woman who trained us. I was glad that he felt he could confide in me. I'm not confiding in him! Barry is harmless enough and I do feel sorry for him with the workload he has but I don't want to share in return because I enjoy sharpening him up from a healthy distance. Barbara on the other hand I trust completely. She's fantastic fun and I thoroughly enjoy our chats. Today I called and she treated me to a batch of anecdotes about the properties she is selling at the moment. Barbara is of course the woman who began working on Sundays with me and has moved to a three day week. Recently though she has been upset by the demands on her time and has often had to work six-day weeks.
"How is it going?"
"Well we've got two offers on the House at Pooh Corner."
"Pooh Corner?"
"Well it should be wee corner really, we've got a house that stinks of urine and it even has an order on it by the health and safety people. It's infested with mice and stinks."
"Ewww. It must be embarassing showing people around that?!"
"Well we do warn them that it smells. When we get back in the car afterwards it's on our clothes."
"It's had two offers?"
"Yes, near the asking price."
"How much is it on for?"
"Two hundred and twenty thousand."
"Ex-Council?! In that state? Someone offered how much?"
"Two offered two-fifteen. When Jim put it on for two-twenty I told him he was mad and I was really upset that he got those offers so he was proved right. He was going on about leafy cul-de-sacs and quiet locations but the house will need another thirty-grand spending on it to make it liveable. The vendors are even trying to get the applicants to clear it out!"
"Hardly a dream home and hardly a bargain!"

Right, that anecdote will have to do for the day.

The other news of the day is that poor Zadie has the beginnings of chicken pox and it's all over her, poor love. She's had fevers the last couple of days. The spots have finally arrived. It could be an interesting week or two. The babies are now asleep so I'd better run down to get the girls ready for bed.

Oh, and it's Dan's birthday and I completely forgot to send a card. I'll try to fish out his addy for an ecard and hope he forgives me for being as useless as ever!

xxx

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Update on Cerys

Sun, 27 May 2007 21:00:37 +0200

I'm adding an update that I managed to fit in at work today. I emailed it to myself to cut and paste. Got to then dash downstairs to help Gav shift things around. The children are all up very late again. We're dreadful at getting the kids to bed in the holidays. Cerys and Thomas are in their cots in the room behind me and all I can hear is Thomas crooning and squeaking cheekily and Cerys interjecting the occasional,
"No Tayo!"

'I’m sneaking a few minutes at work to do the update on Cerys that I’ve been trying to get round to forever.

It’s funny because in the time it has taken me to update on our youngest she has developed so much.

Physically Cerys is still as robust, round, tall and heavy as ever, ‘solid’ is the word people use to describe her when they try to pick her up. She has an adorable inflated belly which she pats proudly when I ask her where her tummy is. Facially her features are still dainty and really don’t give away her weight at all which is why people are so surprised by her mass if they decide to descend for cuddles. I hasten to add that I’m not remotely concerned by Cerys’s cannonball status. Cara was equally as round as a baby and she is now a healthy lean five-year-old. Cerys does love her food and even though we don’t overfeed her she would happily keep eating and often does as Thomas has cottoned onto the fact that once he tires of eating his sister will willingly polish off the rest of his food. They often spoon-feed each other although Cerys usually ends up eating more!

I’m sure that somewhere along the line I’ve described Cerys as a ‘parcel of personality’ and I have to say that as time progresses and the parcel begins to unwrap the strength of her personality continues to emerge. Having a sibling the same age appears to have given Cerys an extra confidence, as she is able to boss someone around at such a young age. Today in the car was a perfect example of Cerys’s baby bossiness. Thomas was cooingly pointing things out as Gav drove me to work. Hearing Cerys babbling I turned around and found her shaking her finger at Thomas and saying,
“Don’ do ‘at Tayo.”
Tayo is Cerys’s first attempt at saying Thomas. For some reason she had decided that he shouldn’t be talking and was practising telling him off. Poor Thomas! Mind you he was completely oblivious and didn’t have a clue what she was saying to him. He simply grinned back cheekily.

Cerys adores linking up with the girls to play games and is growing especially close to Zadie as they spend a lot of time together when Cara is at school. For the first time yesterday Zadie actually stuck up for Cerys. I was painting the girl’s bedroom upstairs and could hear Cerys crying. I was late making their tea and all the children were tired and grizzly. Gav was tired after a day of dramas with Martin the carpenter (who had managed to put a nail through a pipe again) so he was telling Cerys off for crying. Very reasonably Zadie told Gav off and pointed out that Cerys was just a baby. Gav told me about it later on.

Cerys and Zadie spend a lot of time running around playing simple games of chase. Now that Thomas is finally walking he has started to play too. He sometimes growls and sets off after the girls with his arms outstretched like Frankenstein while the girls scatter with peels of laughter. This new agility is bringing Cerys and Thomas together more now too. They sometimes scamper up onto the sofas together and leap around while I tell them to get down, afraid one or the other will fall off. If Cerys wants a toy she will still go and grab it off whoever has it and squeals with outrage if she can’t get it. Thomas is now learning to stand his ground a little and even get quite aggressive in return. He’s learning to use his hands to whack so when Cerys picks up that talent I’ll have some real fights on my hands. Strangely it is independent Zadie who is being the most understanding about Cerys’s thefts. She often shrugs and says,
“She can have it, she’s just a baby.”
Cara is more inclined to snatch things back off Cerys in exasperation. I can’t blame her but being a Mum I have to try to make her communicate with Cerys which is hard when poor Cara is tired from school.

Verbally Cerys is doing fantastically. She pronounces words like ‘Cat’ and ‘Bird’ so perfectly that you can almost hear every letter. She is stringing together simple sentences as well such as ‘I’ve ‘ot a wet bum’ or ‘I wan’ ‘ood’, or ‘look at this’.

Cuddles are never in short supply with Cerys too. Being the ball she is I often find myself bowled over as she charges to me with her arms outstretched and knocks me off balance if I’m on my knees. It makes me laugh. She’ll then clamber up and give me a big squeeze and often kisses too. Kisses delight Cerys. The other day I had a Tweenie bedspread hung over the art easel in the kitchen and she kept going across to kiss each of the Tweenies in turn!

Right I’d better sign off. It’s nearly time for Gav to collect me. I’m working here tomorrow as well so I can make up for a half hour of slack time then.

xxx '

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Quick Note

Sat, 26 May 2007 22:12:53 +0200

Just quickly. Our house is upside-down. We've had the carpenter around again. He managed to hit a nail through another pipe, just like last week! The joys. Poor Gav is very depressed this evening. Anyway, I won't get too much time to update for a day or two as there is so much else to do. We're trying to shift the playroom shelving up to the children's bedroom and until that is sorted out all the toys are everywhere downstairs. We then have to paint the play area and find somewhere to house the millions of books that I'm trying to sell.

Things are good. Thomas is now toddling around more with his hands outstretched like Frankenstein. He gets excited and growls, trying to chase the girls, aware that he can join in the fun now. It has really upped the tempo on the wired evening spirits. I've never heard such a racket as when the four of them are at it! It's funny though.

Right, best sign off and try to make the house vaugely straight. I'm working the next two days.

xxx

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It has been a while

Thu, 24 May 2007 23:06:15 +0200

...but I'm back. I'm setting up blog camp here once again. Now that the twins are a little older I don't exactly have more time but I have a little more determination to find some scraps of time to keep up some semblance of a record of what is going on.

The other reason for starting a diary again here is to share the family frolics with Dad who is now across the channel in France and will probably be glad of the opportunity to take a break from learning French to read a few English words.

I'm dashing out a few words while Gav is putting the girls to bed. The babies are still chatting away in their cots. Recently I've managed to extract myself from their room more easily by allowing them to choose a baby book each to take to bed. To my amazement they have restrained themselves from chucking the books at each other and do actually settle down to read them before going to sleep.

Soooo, today? Today was moderately busy. I share lifts to Cara's school with a local friend Michelle. Her other half Steve rolled up this morning to pick up Cara in his 'Extrememobile'...I think that's what the graffiti-style sticker says on the side! The car has dark windows behind which sat a rather quiet looking Ava with her usual mop of brown curls and dark expression with a flicker of a smile around the lips as usual.
"Hello Ava," I greeted and she ignored me cheekily before Steve told her off they she greeted me brightly with a wave. Cara settled herself shyly in the back and I waved at the dark glass before turning back to the house to sort out the remaining pyjama-clad troops.

The mission for the morning was to get some bread cooking for lunch, to get everyone dressed and wash up then get to the toy library. I managed to get the bread on. Gav was late up this morning after a late night and as he wandered into the kitchen to pour his coffee he commented,
"Ah, Weavil bread!"
I had to laugh. I used to cook bread all the time but it has been about five months since the last loaf because the value flour we bought from Tesco turned out to be swarming with bread mites and they got all over our kitchen cupboards. The worst thing about it is that I'd cooked a loaf the day before and going by the volume of mites we must have eaten more than a score of them! Needless to say I avoided the value flour this time and checked the flour thoroughly before cooking!

Getting the house sorted wasn't so easy. The kitchen floor was stinking, the table covered in all sorts of everything as were all the surfaces anywhere. The sink full of dishes and baskets of laundry were stopping me getting to anything. I displaced the laundry to the bedroom, thankfully it's only mine and Gav's now as the children's drawers are downstairs in the side passage. The children ate breakfast as I tackled some of the pots and then I chased the three round to get clothes on. It was ten thirty by then and I was dying for a cuppa. I managed to sip one while doing my morning check on the finances and Ebay sales. To my huge relief nothing had sold overnight so I was able to miss out on the usual half an hour of trying to stop the babies climbing up on the table as I madly fling around tissue and tape. Instead I took the children out into the garden for a few minutes while I hung out some washing. Bored of waiting for me to lift her onto the baby swing, Cerys mastered climbing into it on her own, squealing with pride. Thomas's first week of walking is still very slow. He tends to walk the most in the early evening, before bedtime. The rest of the day he spends most of the time on his hands and knees still and his poor knees were red and sore from crawling around on the paving stones. Being hot I'd put him in shorts and it didn't encourage him to walk. He didn't even walk over the grass!

We set off to the Toy Library late as usual but with plenty of time for the children to play. The babies are starting to recognise the building now and were very excited as we ascended the hill with the Children's Centre in sight. It still feels strange to be heading to a different building under the label 'Toy Library'. In the old days we used to go to an unglamorous hut, which was placed outside the community centre. In those days it was run by my best buddy Ingrid and only a handful of us attended despite frequent advertising in the estate quarterly magazine. The estate that we live on is still predominanatly council housing and there are scores of single mothers there with children who would benefit from the service that the Toy Library offers. Since the new Community Centre has been built it's good to see new lifeblood seeping in. A nursery is in the centre and that has helped, giving parents there a chance to see other facilities on offer. Some of the Mums are seriously colourful characters and I only wish that Ingrid were still there to share the fun with. She and Laurent are far from private in the fact they are about to try for their second child so maybe she'll join us eventually!

It didn't take much effort to get the babies out of their buggy. Zadie was off in a flash too and I was free to sit down and talk to my Polish friend Beata. We are paying Beata's husband to do a great deal of carpentry in the house at the moment to make it look a little more finished. Beata is a real character. When I first met her she annoyed me because she seemed to moan the entire time. I get seriously wound up by serial moaners. As time went on though I got to know Beata more and I now really enjoy her streak of mischief. It's something that's hard to spot initially as Polish is very much still her first language. Most men would appreciate Beata for her blonde hair and tight clothes. I laugh at her for her bossiness mixed with a hearty sense of cheekiness. Martin, her husband, is the most chilled out softie on the planet. He's well over six-foot tall with long hair in a ponytail and is also Polish. The pair are chalk and cheese but make a very striking couple. Poor Martin is seriously bossed around by Beata who organises all his moonlighting jobs for him. Beata's daughter Amanda is Zadie's age and the pair occasionally play together but more often shyly avoid each other. Amanada goes to Cara and Zadie's dance class on Friday now too so I get a double dose of Beata's chat and I really enjoy it now. On Friday we were talking about the Eurovision Song Contest and I was in stitches listening to Beata asking what on earth Terry Wogan was going on about! Explaining Terry Wogan to someone who hasn't grown up with him was a real task! We also shared notes on childhood fashion disasters and as we laughed about the jelly shoes and matching baskets of the 80s coming back into fashion I was shocked to discover they had been inflicted on Poland too!

Meanwhile, Zadie, Thomas and Cerys were having a lovely time. For much of the first half hour Thomas loitered by my knee, climbing up on it a few times then scampering down to investigate toys. The babies had both missed thier sleep and were tired. As time went on though they went outside and discovered a sand pit. That was it! Zadie had learned to pedal and was proudly scooting around while the babies played with two or three other littlies with the sand. It was warm and they were oozing happiness. Eventually we had to leave. It took some getting the babies away but at least we had some fresh Weavil-free bread to get home to.

Entering the house to a smell of fresh bread is always such a treat. Thomas noticed the smell immediately and scooted through to the kitchen to investigate. I was happy to find that my bread had risen so high that it was almost bursting out of the machine. Lunch was scrummy and even picky Zadie had three helpings. I often have problems with Zee and her eating as she almost verges on obsessive compulsive with her ways. She studies her food for hairs and discolorations. Thankfully the bread (with crusts cut off) met her standards and she ate and ate.

After lunch I got the babies to bed. I had planned to do something with Zee but being my 'time-of-the-month' I felt shattered and begged Zadie to play nurses. I explained that I was terribly tired and asked if she would look after me if I had a sleep. The sleep, on bean-bags, wasn't really sleeping. It was a level below full consciousness and a level above sleep but it helped a little. I'm slave to my hormones these days, especially since the twins were born and sometimes I simply can't fight the tiredness. It felt like a real waste of time because I'd hoped to get us all to the High Street before collecting Cara but I know my body now well enough to know when to stop a while and shut down.

We went to collect Cara and Ava next. Cara's school is an imposing building and I'm now well used to nodding heads at several mothers before plonking myself in roughly the same area. I think most of us do the same. We have our little waiting area and unless the playground is so empty that it's rude not to talk we tend to hang out in our patch and see mothers who hang out to be near the same mums. Does that make sense? Recently I've been less sociable and have retreated to a patch behind a gate. I'm trying to avoid the whole coffee circuit thing thats' going on because I find it horribly tedious. I went to one at Ingrid's the other day and despite being at my best bud's house I still found it painful. It's too grown up for me by about ten billion light years and I spend more time trying to stop the babies destroying the house than actually talking while watching poor bored Zadie anxiously. Anyway, back to Cara and Ava. Ava was on form and I groaned when I saw quite what I had to contend with. I'd been chatting to another friend called Michelle and turned to find Ava whopping her son Phoenix over the head with her book bag. Two other mums were trying to stop her. She then dashed off after another friend's son and I apologised to her while dropping to my knees to chat to Ava who was eminating rays of death and destruction. I managed to drag Cara and Zadie away from the water fountains to the school gates when Ava dived off to chase Joseph again. The pair took turns flinging their bags at each other and kicking until they were separated! The next task was to get to the car. We only had one road to cross. I try to avoid parking over roads if I can as Ava likes to push you to the 'nth degree and had run into the road before now. Thankfully she stopped this time because her latest trick is to hop up onto the metal posts on the street corners and sit there for as long as it takes to annoy you or dive on her next passing victim. We finally got to the car and Ava, ever jealous of Cara's new position in the front seat, raced to sit there first and buckled up. I got to my knees and told Cara firmly not to say a word and to let me deal with Ava. I refuse to take Ava in the front mostly because she would completely put me off driving but also because I don't want to put a friend's child in a more risky place and because I like to give Cara some support as Ava takes over so completely. Unfortunately Cara was in a mood ripe to be wound up and stood by the drivers door giving Ava a serious telling off.
"I'm gonna give you a kickin'" Ava shouted at her and suddenly unbuckled, dived out of the seat and out of the driver's door after Cara who had sudddenly changed from bossing to nervous crying. Ohhhh the joys! Needless to say I put Cara straight in the car and gave Ava a telling off. The minute the rare 'tell your Mum' was mentioned, she was meek as a lamb. I find it easy to keep my temper level until she starts attacking Cara then I really have to battle not to shout my head off at her. Thankfully once she was in her seat, after winding Zadie up for a few minutes she calmed down a bit. I put on some music (LOUDLY to drown out any more bickering) and we got home with no more dramas. As usual I carried Ava out of the car. She shouted as many offensive things as she could think of to Cara and Zadie as we left then once we entered her gate she hugged me and leapt down to close the gates behind me so that her little dog wouldn't escape. She then even picked me a flower to take home! Michelle offered to pick up Cara in the morning and I didn't say a word about the standard antics. It's nice to know I can take it a little easier in the morning, I think I deserve it after dealing with little miss naughty pants! I have to say thought that as naughty as Ava is I really do like her. She is a bloody nightmare but she can be very funny. It's great when Cara gets on with her and I constantly coach Cara in how to deal with her. There are times when Ava can be a useful friend to have because she certainly knows how to defend herself. Cara does understand that she has to put up with her on days they don't get on because I'm duty bound to share the lifts. I think she's gaining confidence but it's hard. I do often feel guilty about forcing her into such a troubled friendship.

After getting home the next mission was to find Groovy for a vet's appointment. The last appointment at the new vet was hell. I'd gone to a new vet for a new diagnosis and I admit that I hoped she would suggest ending it all nicely. Poor Groovy has had so many problems with her wound that enduring another summer of festering wounds and flies is dreadful to think about. The vet had been horrible the first time. She obviously thought we'd completely neglected Groovy. She said she would have to see Groovy's notes before doing anything. Once she received the notes she was a different woman. Thankfully she saw our point of view. The problem we've had with Grooves is that she has an allergy and nobody really knows for sure what to. As she said, the other vet have given loads of steroid injections but never an anti-histamine. We talked about the most cost-effective way of making her better and she agreed that sudocreme and liquid piriton would do the job. This time round she check the wound and has prescribed antibiotics but waived the check-up charge. Next time I'll be stung for the drugs and the check up but at least the wound should be healed by then. Our mission is to put a collar on Groovy and to keep her in the house for a number of weeks. That will be dreadful. Groovy's toilet habits aren't the best so I can see us getting bored of that very quickly but we'll try our best.

Soooooooo tea over Gav got home at half seven and we jointly got the troops to bed. It took a while to get them to sleep.

All asleep now and day over! Now I've outlet a little I'll join Gav.

Love to all
Lou
x

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