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2007-12-29 - 10.27pm previous entry next entry
Christmas (no pics yet)! And thoughts...
We had a lovely Christmas! I hope everyone reading this did too.
Arthur came down with a cold on Christmas Eve but it didn't slow him down too much on Christmas Day, and it has cleared up already - none of the rest of us caught it so that's a relief! Neil has a sore throat today, but we spent the 27th with Neil's family, including sweet little Ella (the boys' 2-year-old cousin) who had a runny nose. I know we're coming to the peak of the germy season in the New Year, but I sooooooooo just want us to stay healthy somehow all the same! I really don't want any illness at ALL when I'm this pregnant and when we've got a teeny tiny new baby in the house.
I am eating Thorntons vanilla fudge. Ohhh yes :)
Neil's brother got us a CROCKPOT!!!! I'm sooooooooooo excited! And we had planned to pool our money from my grandparents (they usually give Neil and I a separate cheque to spend on something we'd like) to buy one, after Christmas. I was looking online only last night, and had chosen the one we would buy. And then Ian dropped by today with our Christmas present, and it was a crockpot!! A really nice one too, and as big as the ones I'd been looking at. I can't wait to start cooking meals in it!!! :) And we can use the money for something else, yay!
All the Christmas photos and video clips are still on the cameras and not uploaded or resized and all that stuff, so I will have to get around to doing that before I can post them here.
I'm not sure what I came here to say, actually! I just thought I would update. I kind of want to wait to write about Christmas in a lot of detail until I have photos to go with it, but knowing me, that might not happen till April or something, haha! So maybe I should write about it?
Well, in a nutshell (stop laughing), the boys got up as late as 7.30am!!!! Which was lovely! We spent Christmas Eve wrapping presents, but I'm so proud and joyful because although I did not follow my FlyLady Holiday Cruising thingy to a T, I followed it enough so that most of the gifts were wrapped by the week before Christmas. We put together a couple of bigger toys that Ian brought over for the kids before Christmas - Matthew got a wooden rocking horse! It's an Early Learning Centre one, for toddlers. It took Neil HOURS to put the thing together, but it was worth it when they tore the paper off it in the morning and could ride on it with great delight straight away! I put together the light-up globe that Ian got for Arthur, and wrapped it. He loved it! Straight away we showed him where we live, and where Nana and Grandy live.
And today he learned where America is because my parents are (as I type) on a plane to San Francisco for a 10-day break. I'm nervous. I always feel nervous for my mum when they are flying long-haul. She is terrified of flying, always has been. And the last few times they've flown to the States, she has been really sick after the flight and not at all well. Like flying just doesn't agree with her physically any more. She has refused to go again for quite some years, but my dad LONGS to go and so she said yes this time! I hope she's doing okay over/up there. Anyway that was a good example to show to Arthur on his new globe! The United States has a picture of a car on it (for some reason!) and he wanted to know if they were going to drive that car when they got there :)
My parents came to see us yesterday! It was so nice to see them!! Arthur was so sad when they left. They came a day earlier than they needed to fly out, because then they wouldn't have such an early start in the morning. And they got to spend a good part of the day with us! Yay!
It was so nice to spend Thursday with Neil's family. The last time we did that was exactly a year ago. We must do it more often! We don't live all that far from each other, really, except his mum and youngest sister in North Yorkshire. Ella has changed sooooooooo much! She has a headful of wildly curly hair! She's 2 and a half, and talking so clearly like Arthur does. She is completely potty trained! At one point Rosemary (her mummy) took her for a wee in the toilet, and Arthur waited outside, very curious! As she was coming out, I was busy explaining to Arthur that Ella was a big girl and did all her wees and poos in the toilet, and she wore big girl pants! When she appeared, Arthur said, "Well done Ella, for doing your wee in the toilet!" and tried to look up her dress, I guess to see if she REALLY did have big girl pants on, haha! Ella obliged by lifting her dress to reveal her princess knickers, and Arthur seemed satisfied by that ;)
They played together sooooo sweetly! They sat on the floor at one point while the grown-ups were still at the table eating, and I could hear them chatting away to each other, so I leaned back in my chair to crane my neck round and see them. Arthur instantly spotted me and held his hand out like a stop sign, saying quite crossly, "No! You go away! We're busy talking!" !!!!
We're having SUCH trouble with Arthur's attitudes and behaviour at the moment. *sigh* I mean, yes yes, he's completely normal to be like this at his age. But we really don't intend to tolerate it at all. He's so RUDE and grumpy and, well, kind of like a stroppy teenager if I'm honest! He rolls his eyes and shouts and calls us names, ugh. He gets disciplined a LOT at the moment. Thank God Neil is home all the time. I would not manage it otherwise, I think. I just don't know how I would. I'm praying that it's short-lived, or else that we get a seriously firm grip on his behaviour very soon, because soon enough Neil will suddenly find a job, and equally suddenly, I will give birth and then have 3 children under 4 on my own, one of whom is just impossible half the time! I don't know how to manage that. Matthew is a handful himself, in lots of ways, but it's the attitudes and stuff from Arthur that NEED active responses from us to correct him constantly. That's such hard work at any time, but I can't think how I'll juggle it with the littler boys' needs too.
We are currently working on him saying things nicely, not shouting at us, not using certain words that we have decided we won't have ("hate" in any context, "bleuuurrrr, it's YUCKY!" about my cooking at the table, "BLAST YOU, Mummy/Matthew/Daddy!" when angry with one of us - he got that from Tommy Zoom, which we have finally decided to stop him watching from now on - etc.) It's not just the words, but the nasty tone of voice that goes with them. He also shouts rudely at us all the time, especially when we are attempting to correct or discipline him over something. Quite apart from the shrill screaming of his regular tantrums (!), the neighbours must hear things like, "NO! I'M NOT GOING TO ASSEPT MY DISCIPLINE!!!" and so on, on a regular basis!
He IS, however, completely lovely and delightful the rest of the time! It's just harrrrd work with Arthur right now. And it needs to change, he needs to learn to obey and respect us asap. Our discipline method is still going strong, and it's the longest we've stuck at any method by far. We comfortable and confident with it. We have added "The Porch" into the mix though. When he is just a screaming flailing creature as we're trying to explain why we have to discipline him, or why we have just done so, and he won't stand still and listen to us, he goes into the indoor porch (a tiny room with just coats and shoes in it, between our front door and our inner door to the living room) until he can calm down/behave himself. He HATES this. Partly it sometimes becomes necessary for him to be able to calm down, if he's too far gone otherwise. And partly it's for US, so that he doesn't drive us soooo crazy that we start to lose our cool. It's so so easy to lose your cool with that boy right now. *sigh* We've both done it, so we decided on The Porch to help us all. Matthew also gets scared by the very loud angry screaming that Arthur makes, so separating Arthur till he can calm down gives Matthew some space, and me the opportunity to reassure him instead of wrestling a 10-armed three-year-old while Matthew cries in terror! It's sure to be necessary for when Nathan is here as well. I'm not having that noise and fuss around my new baby. Urgh, it drives me crazy!
Annnyway! Back to Christmas. The boys opened their presents (Arthur peered over the stairs to see if Father Christmas had been, on his way down, and gasped, "He HAS!!!") and we all ate breakfast (the usual cereal/toast thing) at 8.30am because it was "time", despite Arthur's protests - he hardly ate a thing, but wanted ALL his edible stocking fillers to eat moments later! At the last minute before Christmas, I got Arthur a variety pack little box of Frosties cereal, and Coco Pops too, for stocking fillers (Matthew had the same for his stocking). He often asks for "blue cornflakes" and would LOVE chocolate cereal, but never gets them. The boys eat rice krispies and weetabix and normal cornflakes for breakfast, and sometimes my muesli/granola with raisins too. They like those fine, and they're so much better for them, so we don't give them the sugary stuff. The cereal stocking fillers were a big hit! And Arthur ate his Frosties at the table about 15 minutes later :)
I wrote a schedule for the day (mainly the cooking, but also the morning because of needing to get out to church on time, etc) and put it on the fridge door the night before. That was so helpful because I could stick to it and see what was happening next, all day. I put a HUGE chicken in the oven (we're too small for a turkey!) right before we left for church, and then we went to the short service at a different church which we join with on Christmas Day. That was lovely, as some of our friends from waaaay back at our church now go to that church, and we only get to see them for our joint services. They didn't know I was pregnant, obviously, so that was fun :)
Random strangers commented on my bump after the service - ALL of them saying, "Ohhh, that baby's about due, isn't it?" or "February?! You'll never make it that far!" etc, etc. I just smile and nod. Yes I am ENORMOUS and feel positively full-term this last week (I'm 34 weeks tomorrow), but I always manage to go beyond my due date all the same. *sigh*
Anyway. The service was nice, but we spent it with the boys in the creche room trying to referee "tensions" over the one toddler slide and ride-on car in there! I came over sweaty and faint and basically just sat down fanning myself a lot. But afterwards it was fun to chat to friends and see people. Then we came home, and I put the potatoes and parsnips on, and the mixed fruit sponge (no Christmas pud for my picky boys!), and we played with the little ones and their new toys for a while. Then we all ate a YUMMY and hugely successful (yay me!) Christmas lunch with fabulous homemade gravy, and I ate a miserably pathetic individual-sized Tesco Christmas pudding (never again - even if it's just me next year, I AM making REAL Christmas pudding!), and then Matthew went for his nap and Arthur played with his new things.
They got a lot of toy cars which was Arthur's favourite present :) He also liked the chocolate presents - covered raisins, and chocolate biscuits and Smarties. We had trouble limiting those throughout the day! He kept sneaking off with them and eating them behind furniture where we couldn't see what he was doing!
In the afternoon the boys played with toys and watched Arthur's Roary the Racing Car DVD that he got for Christmas, and then a little of Matthew's new Thomas the Tank Engine DVD - those went down very well! Matthew was soooooooo excited about his Bob the Builder presents!!! He is so tiny, still such a baby boy at only 18 months old, and he doesn't speak yet as such, which made it soooooo much cuter to watch him peer into torn wrapping paper, gasp exaggeratedly, and exclaim, "Boh-Buh! Boh-Buh!" (that's Bob the Builder in Matthew-speak!). As we helped him get the item out, he would stand as close as he could, hands held up either side of his face, and his arms and hands did the tense little shake that he does when he's really excited :) He's such a sweetie, that boy. He got some GORGEOUS Bob the Builder boots, but they are a tiny bit too big for him so we'll save them for a few weeks. I reckon he'll fit them within a month though. He is enjoying just "handling" them at the moment! :)
The boys had their usual lunch of sandwiches and stuff for tea, as Neil and I were still so full from lunch (which the boys didn't eat much of). We ate Christmas leftovers and pickles and things, later in the evening after the boys were asleep. They had a bath, and then went to bed! It was a lovely day!
Did I mention that Rosemary (Neil's sister) is pregnant? I can't remember if I did. She had a miscarriage at 11 weeks in March. Anyway she is 17 weeks pregnant now, due in early June, just like Matthew was - and Ella, for that matter! Matthew and Ella both have birthdays on June 14th, and now there will be another little one with a similar birthday! I'm excited!!! They are not going to find out the baby's sex - they didn't with Ella either, and they like the surprise. I can't wait to find out if it's another girl! Rosemary thinks it is so far, though she's had more morning sickness this time, so hmmm. She had very little with Ella.
The three little cousins are such sweet little stair-steps! Arthur is 7 months older than Ella, and Ella is obviously exactly 1 year older than Matthew. Then my brother's baby girl, Thea, is 11 months younger than Matthew, and Nathan will be 9 months younger than Thea. When Rosemary's baby is born, he or she will be 4 months younger than Nathan. I LOVE LOVE LOVE how the boys have siblings AND cousins on both sides so close to their ages! It's so lovely for them!
On Thursday, all 3 played so sweetly together. Matthew didn't seem in the least bit left out as the youngest with the biggest age gap amongst them. I think he may do well in that dept though, as he's very forthright and won't BE left out if he has anything to do with it! Also it's good for him that he is close behind Arthur in age, because there are no big gaps to isolate him somewhat in play when the two older ones get together and want to play something that Matthew isn't "big" enough for. Matthew IS big enough because he's still so close to their age, which is lovely. They all ran about together, back and forth, like they were playing races. Matthew runs as well as the other two now, and they had so much fun! They yelled and laughed till they were breathless, and danced to some music on Auntie Lilian's (Neil's youngest sister) mobile phone. The dancing was so so indescribably cute that I swear I felt my ovaries aching, haha! I actually said, without thinking, "Ohhh, my ovaries!" as I watched them, and everybody laughed so hard that I blushed horribly!
We forgot to take our camera AND our camcorder :( I can't BELIEVE we did that. I know some of the others got some pics and video clips so hopefully I can get hold of some soon and post them.
The little ones all played cars and shops and jigsaws, etc. We had to referee a little bit now and then, but mostly between Arthur and Matthew, as Matthew is so.... "forthright" like I said! He is so determined, and currently wants to do everything that Arthur is doing, and play with the exact toy that Arthur has in his hand at all times. Fun times ;) Arthur tolerates this better than many kids might, but it still erupts into scuffles sometimes. Matthew has started to have some serious tantrums lately when we have to give a toy back to Arthur that he's swiped. Poor little boy! It's a learning curve....
Arthur got a few jigsaws for Christmas, and can do the 24-piece one pretty well, though it takes him a while. Matthew got a box of beginner jigsaws but prefers to eat the pieces, so they have been put away for a while! They both got wooden stacking toys. Arthur got quite a complicated wooden stacking jigsaw that said from age 4. Matthew LOVES it! Arthur has been too busy with his Roary jigsaws so far to pay much attention to the wooden stacking one, but Matthew is loving the more traditional toys this Christmas. His favourite seems to be the rocking horse, and although we are making it something they can generally share (whilst emphasising that it's Matthew's present), Matthew gets VERY put out when he sees Arthur on it, hehe! He kind of stands close by with his arm out, pointing at Arthur, face scrunched up into a most dismayed expression, and moaning, "Ohhh!" to alert us to his severe displeasure, hehe! He's so funny :)
Matthew's other favourites this Christmas have been a great ball that we bought him (a red one) - it's soooo easy to catch and grip, and it's so lightweight and bouncy that it doesn't hurt anyone or anything. We inflated it to just the right squishiness for Matthew. He LOVES it! He throws it about for ages, crying with glee, "Boah, boah!" (ball, ball!). He also LOVES his wooden stacking toy. It's just a pole with bright coloured wooden rings, you know the type? Very traditional. He got stuck right in the instant he opened it, and we didn't say anything, just let him get on with it. He sat down, pulled all the rings off, and started stacking them back on. Each time he put one on, he clapped and shouted, "Yaaaay!" and then reached for the next one. When they were all on, he pulled them all off and started again! This went on and on. He got so focused and concentrated so hard that his movements got faster and faster. He would drop each one on with a flourish and whip his arms away quickly to grab another ring as fast as he could! It was such fun to watch! Anyway he loves that toy :)
Arthur did a wee on the potty by himself the other day. He isn't doing much of that lately, but the other day (AFTER our visit to see Ella, actually!), we had him undressed for his bath, and he was running around upstairs while we got Matthew into the bath. He came bounding into the bathroom all excited, shouting, "I did a wee, I did a wee!" Neil thought he had done a wee on the FLOOR somewhere, and was about to be not-so-pleased, but then Arthur said, "In the POTTY! All by myself!" He had found the potty, lifted the lid back, and sat on there to do his wee! He got a green Smartie :) Matthew has lately got very interested in the potty. He likes to sit on it after Arthur has had a turn (not while there's still something in it, of course!) fully clothed or nappied, and he smiles like he's soooo proud of himself while he's sitting there! He makes a concentrated face, and then gets up, peering into the potty, hehe! I think he might possibly potty train earlier than Arthur will - much earlier perhaps? Because he is so keen to do what he sees Arthur doing, and he has quite a different personality - he has always been so determined to get things DONE that he wants to achieve, which Arthur has never really had. He was so determined to crawl that he was cranky as anything about it by 5 months old. He worked on it, literally like an adult working out, day by day, and was crawling at 6 months. He has done EVERYTHING else the same way. I think (hope!) he will tackle potty training this way too, and a crazy thought occurred to me the other day, that just maaaybe if Arthur potty trains on the late side, Matthew will have reached an age where he's actually old enough to potty train at the SAME TIME! What a strange thought! But how nice that would be :) And maybe it would help them, to do it together?
We sooooooo need to get them in the same bedroom. It's going so slowly, getting the room ready, urgh. We are running out of time!!!! I feel a little more panicky about it now that Christmas is over, January is imminent, and I'm ABOUT TO HAVE A BABY, FOR GOODNESS' SAKE!!!! Ahem. I made a list of everything that needs doing before Nathan arrives. That way it will be easier to check the list and use any spare 30 minutes I have to chip away at it. I never have 30 straight minutes of energy any more, in fact I'm lucky if I get 15 straight minutes, but I'll take what I can. I feel sure Neil is ABOUT to get a job and then I'm in trouble!
Our sink is leaking big time in the kitchen. We can't fill it at all. Someone needs to fix that but we have no money-o. The bathroom sink was leaking the same but it has somehow stopped for now. It did that a while back, too. There's a towel under it just in case it starts again! We got advice on our damp problem, and it turns out to be a condensation control problem, not penetrating damp or rising damp - PHEW! It's because the bathroom fan broke, probably, and thus the house was too humid. We have no working extractor fan in the kitchen either, and don't open the windows so much now it's all freezing cold and wintery, so there we have it.
The advice line told us we should get some devices fitted in our bedrooms that would permanently remove the condensation issue, even without replacing the bathroom fan. I told them we had no money and were not eligible for benefits! The guy was so great. He asked if there were any children in the bedrooms. I said yes, in both! He asked their ages. I said, "Three, one, and another on the way." He was really concerned and said we had to get the black mould cleaned up right away - today even. He recommended Dettox (Dettol?) mould cleaner, and we happened to have some in the cupboard! Neil cleaned the mould off and it's all healthy again upstairs. We have put the heating up by 1-2 degrees, and make sure to open the windows even if it's just for 10 minutes a day. The thermostat thingy in the bedroom is giving us much better readings now - humidity is down from being permanently between 85% and 95% (!!!), to between 60% and 75%. And the temperature in the bedroom is about 20, whereas it was about 18 before - cold and damp. That might be enough to control the condensation issue without having to spend money on a solution, for now. If the mould grows back then we'll know it's not working (but we'll clean it off again all the same!). For now it looks okay.
Nicola, lovely Nicola! She sent another package! I'm sorry I haven't emailed you yet Nicola. I'm so behind, and I wanted to mention it here in case it takes me a while to get to my emails, to thank you! There was a LeapFrog interactive book thingy for Arthur! He loved it and is learning to use the pen thing to make the sounds and letters. And Thomas trains!!! Both the boys were so excited to see them and spent ages playing with them the day they arrived. They are played with every day. I have photos, but they are with the Christmas ones on the camera still. Nicola sent the sweetest letter and �20 for us. I was just completely bowled over by her lovely generosity! We were all so blessed by the package - thank you so much Nicola! xxx
Well it is getting late and I want to try to keep up with the FlyLady stuff that I've started to pick back up on these last few days. And then go to bed. Tomorrow is Sunday (it's so hard to keep track of the days, the week of Christmas!) and we'll go to church in the morning. On Monday we're going to lunch at my grandparents' house, but if we're all coldy then we'll probably have to postpone - they're in their 80s and get positively battered by colds these days. And then it's New Year!
We are not doing a thing for New Year, as always. I never have any interest in seeing in the New Year, etc. I'm not the party type at ALL, and getting drunk bores/disgusts me, so there's nothing much in it for me really! If I go to bed before midnight (not so likely these days!) then it's no big deal - it's still a brand new year when I wake up in the morning, which is the exciting part! Only I'm not nursing a hangover and have had a (vaguely!) good night's sleep ;)
I'm excited for it to be 2008! I am going to have a BABY in 2008, wheee! And be an auntie again! And have a 2-year-old again :) And a FOUR-year-old! I'm so excited to live out this next year! My little ones will change so much and it's so much fun to watch them change and grow - so long as I always have a little baby or one on the way, haha! Then I'm okay with it! Which I do, so yay for 2008!! ;) Also, I'm weird probably, but I really feel "comfortable" with even numbered years. I love even numbered years! Odd numbered years make me feel strange for some reason. Like, not quite settled under my skin, and I'm always quite keen to see the year go and the next one start. That's so weird and inexplicable. But there we go. I have always felt that way. Maybe it's just something simple like I was born in an even numbered year (1976 - oh that is starting to sound long, long ago!).
Neil will be 34 in January. My mummy will be 60! My brother will be 28. I will be 32 in February, and my granny 82. And Nathan will be born! So exciting!!! :)
Okay I am starting to waffle, so it's time to go! I feel a bit fudge-queasy, but that's my own fault! I think I will go and eat a nice apple. And drink a lot of water. That will be nice :)
Recent entries.....
Moving time... - 2009-01-04
Christmas Eve! - 2008-12-24
Long-overdue update, a few Nathey pics and a video clip :) - 2008-12-01
Lots of news! - 2008-11-03
Nathan at 8 months... - 2008-10-12