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2007-12-20 - 1.20am previous entry next entry
Definitely a 3-year-old boy....
Thank you for the comments on the photos of my sweet beany boy! :) I never quite see how he looks SO very much like me, and my parents aren't sure who he looks like! He is a mix like Arthur, but people DO tend to say he looks like me and Arthur like Neil. I'm always intrigued to hear what people thing on that :)
Well, it's 1am and I need to go to bed. I'm up late keeping track of my Christmas budget. I went (waddled) into the local high street today and got MYSELF some Thorntons chocolates for Christmas! That is from my mum's Christmas money for me. I just thought, yes, yes, we've got money issues and this could be far more useful in the bank, etc. But darn heckit, it's Christmas and I feel like I deserve to unwrap a gift that I would reeeally like to receive, on Christmas Day! I don't care if I buy and wrap it myself! All I know is that it's money given to me specifically to buy things that will make me feel happy, special, or pampered at Christmas. So I made a little wishlist!
Half of it is FlyLady tools - I really want to get her feather duster set and also her ultimate timer. And the calendar for 2008. But I will have to wait till next year I think, or maybe even use birthday money in February. FlyLady's shop doesn't take paypal payments - if I don't use a credit card (which I do not intend to ever again!) then I have to BUY an international money order and send it snail mail to them. Tsk! So I am not getting that sorted before Christmas. Besides, the stuff would never reach me before, well, probably February anyway! ;) So, I'm leaving that stuff till next year.
I put other things that I like on my wishlist. Chocolates, obviously! Thortons make me feel special because they're a bit "special" and pricey, and I just like the actual chocolates! I always like getting pyjamas too! But, I'm huge and pregnant so I wouldn't be able to wear any of what I buy, if I get myself some PJs. I decided to look out for PJs on eBay that I really like the look of, in a size that I will HOPEFULLY fit in when I have just had a baby - size 16 maybe? I was easily that size, maybe even 16-18 after Matthew (from a 10 pre-pregnancy!!!), but PJs are roomy, so... Anyway, PJs that FIT during my postpartum period and which I really like and make me feel special, will be LOVELY to relax around the house in :) So far I have bid on (and won!) a pair of La Senza PJ bottoms, brand new (!) for just a few �. Just bottoms is fine with me because I have a zillion tops that will be comfy with them and I'll need to change my top like 3 times a night in the early weeks of breastfeeding anyhoo! I am a leaky lactator once I get going! ;)
I also wouldn't mind some Crabtree and Evelyn soaps and stuff, which feel VERY special to me. They are just expensive and what's-the-word, and lovely quality. And I'd NEVER get that stuff outside of a special gift, so using some Christmas money on a few nice smellies from Crabtree and Evelyn would make me feel very pampered! :) I haven't bought any though. They didn't really have what I was looking for when I went last week. Maybe I won't get anything from there after all?
I can't remember what's on my wishlist - a couple of books?? Something else sugary to eat? I can't remember now. Anyway. I don't mind buying them myself - they are still a gift from someone else, and I'm still excited to have them and keep myself from opening them till Christmas morning!
I don't know what Neil will buy with his Christmas money from my parents. We aren't buying each other Christmas presents this year, because there's just no point really. We have money for gifts from family, and we have NO money to spend on each other! And we don't need to either. We will definitely not feel deprived without buying each other a gift! We'll be super busy with our little boys on Christmas Day anyway. They have got quite a lot of presents now, from my parents and grandparents, and the few things we bought before we ran out of money a couple of months ago. My family have been sooo generous with Christmas money for the boys, so they do have some nice things.
Arthur is getting a lot of books this Christmas! Matthew is getting a few too - notably a Bob the Builder musical book, which he's going to LOVE! He also has a pair of sturdy Bob the Builder boots, and some Bob the Builder slipper socks (Arthur has a pair of the socks too, for stocking fillers). Matthew has one pair of expensive Startrite shoes that he just got fitted for a couple of weeks ago - his feet grew a bit, so he's now in size 4.5. His foot width is an F at the moment, down from his last size of 4G. They are nice little navy shoes with red parts and velcro straps, and they are PERMANENTLY caked in mud from walks at the park! He does have welly boots but they slow him down a bit and get him frustrated, so unless he's out to splash in puddles, he's better running in normal shoes. But ohhhh, the mud! So he needs another pair of shoes, just so that one can be being cleaned while the other is used, or something. The Bob the Builder boots might be a bit big for him at first, as they don't do half sizes so they are size 5. His wellies are size 5 and fit him fine though, so we'll see.
Why am I here waffling about stuff at this hour?! I had no idea of coming here to waffle! It just happened! I like that I'm updating more often at the moment. I hope I can keep it up. I really like it when I keep touching base here, and adding photos and things that I'll otherwise forget, on a more frequent basis.
I DO have the photos ready of the attempts to take a photo of the boys for sending out with the Christmas cards (sent 21 cards out today at LAST! Woohoo! Now only another 30 to go...), but there are LOADS of them and I really just meant to pop on here and write a LITTLE entry (haha!) and one photo and then go to bed! I will update again with those photos very soon - maybe tomorrow even? And I had an antenatal appt yesterday so I want to update my pregnancy journal about that too.
Today I am writing here because there are a few things Arthur has said this week that I didn't want to forget.
He's SUCH a boy, with such a gross sense of humour at the moment! Sometimes it really makes me chuckle, and other times I just want to put my head in my hands, wonder where I went wrong, and pray for guidance on how to bring him up right! Here are three examples, all from the same day, of the kind of humour that characterises my 3-year-old son at the moment (wait, oh my gosh, I have a 3-year-old son!!! I never write it like that! I feel so mature, haha!) - I jotted them down in Word so I wouldn't forget them at the end of the day:
Looking in Neil�s mug of tea (still with a teabag in it) this afternoon: �Is that a poo?�
To Granny when they visited us briefly tonight: �It�s BOGEY time, everyone!� (much giggling). Sticks finger in nose and runs about madly, giggling and squealing.
After covering the Christmas cake with marzipan with me this afternoon:
Me: �You can make the spare bits of marzipan into shapes if you like!�
Arthur: (fiddles with marzipan for a moment, then starts giggling)
Me: �What have you made?�
Arthur: (barely able to get the words out for giggling) �It�s a marzipan willy!! Hahahahaha!� (hysterical laughter and waving about of said marzipan appendage continues for a good few minutes)
This too shall pass, right? ;)
But, the next day when we had finished making the cookies for my grandparents and my parents for Christmas, Neil took the boys over to my grandparents' house to deliver the cookies for them to take to France that day. I was going to go with them, but I had a sore/scratchy throat yesterday, and did not want to give them a cold or whatever it might be, to take to France for Christmas! So I decided to stay home and make dinner ready for the boys when they got home. Arthur was disappointed that I wasn't going with them, so we explained that I didn't want to give them a sore throat if I went to see them.
Arthur listened and then thought for a moment and said, rather shyly, "I know, why don't we pray for everyone to stay healthy?" He has never suggested praying like that before, and he seemed kind of shy about it, but we were so thrilled and proud of him. We sat with him and prayed right then and there, that everyone would stay healthy over Christmas, naming all the family one by one :) What a sweet boy!
He is really pushing boundaries at the moment, testing us a LOT with the discipline. Sometimes he feels like REALLY hard work right now, but he's also just completely delightful and I love him so incredibly much. I can't believe how fast he's growing up. It seems slow sometimes until I step back and look at him and then I realise, WOW, he is shaped like a little boy and not a toddler, he talks fluently and not like a toddler, he moves like a little boy and soooo much less like a toddler (*sniff* I really miss his little toddler strut!), he is learning and developing and understanding and changing at SUCH a fast pace! He tells us when Matthew is "doing something weally dange-wus!!" so we can dash in from the kitchen or down from the toilet and scoop that binky boy from where he's standing on the back of the armchair flicking the light switch on and off! He's kind and generous and affectionate.
Tonight he brushed his teeth in the bathroom in front of the mirror, standing on his potty/step-stool combo thingy. He usually just sits wherever and brushes his teeth a bit and then we finish off. It's HIGH time he was brushing his teeth more like a big boy, so we finally got round to standing him at the bathroom sink to brush and spit properly and see it all in the mirror. He loved it! Meanwhile, Matthew and I were in the bedroom doing Matthew's teeth. After I brushed them for him, he had his turn with the toothbrush, and went over to the bedroom mirror. He watched himself brushing his teeth in the mirror for ages, breaking off from it now and then to smile at himself and look VERY pleased with what he was doing! He has never done that before. BUT, he does copy everything Arthur does at the moment. He didn't see Arthur in the bathroom though so it was a coincidence.
Anyway, Arthur came back in and saw Matthew brushing his teeth (read: chewing his toothbrush!) in front of the bedroom mirror, and RAN up to him excitedly! When he got to Matthew, he leaned right into his face and said to him, "Mashew! You're brushing your teeth in front of the mirror! Well done! I'm so pleased with you!!" :) Then about 2 minutes later, Matthew tipped all the cars out of their box (we had just told Arthur that, no, he could not get the cars out now because it was bedtime, and Arthur had protested at first). Arthur looked satisfied and said, "I'm SO pleased with Mashew again!" hehe!
Okay, that's all from my frazzled memory banks for now! Glad to have downloaded some stuff before it is buried in the mists of time and forgotten. I MUST get the photos from Arthur's birthday up. I know it's crazy late, but I need to post them just for my own sake if nothing else. If I leave it much longer, I'll forget the details of the day and never have it recorded for prosperity. I must do that soon. I still have a few left to resize, so I'll try to get to it.
Tomorrow we are beginning to clear the small bedroom out for transitioning the boys to a shared bedroom - eek! I'm nervous. But I asked around and so far people online are saying it'll be okay. Anyone here have experience with transitioning two toddlers to sharing a room, where both have been co-sleeping of sorts (well, Matthew less so, but right next to my bed and he knows I will respond to him instantly if he wakes in the night because I'm right there), but not in the same room as each other?! Is it toooo close to the arrival of a new baby? We have to have them in a shared room, otherwise we won't all fit in our tiny 2-bedroom house! Also, we have no car that will fit us all. We are just praying that we'll be able to quickly sell the car in January, and that we won't be without a car at any point (unlikely??) while we search for/buy a bigger car, which somehow has to cost the same or LESS than what we got for our already very second-hand too-small car!! Hmmm! But God can provide, even in unlikely circumstances!
Neil's latest sense of direction for a career - he is looking into working for the church, OUR church, specifically. But he may well need a ton of training first. He is going to talk and pray with our good friend Gordon tomorrow, who happens to be one of the leaders at our church. I'm excited and happy about this yearning of his. It keeps me here where I'm comfy :) And I love that he may work for the church. Love it! We are praying about it a lot at the moment.
Okay, MUST go to bed! I can't believe I wrote this much for a "quick" diary entry late at night!
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