8 September 2014

Anxiety and Rest

Week 4 of the building work started today. The 3rd skip out front the house is full of boards and 8" thick foam boards of insulation. They have put a few more slates back on the roof. Jim says the walls will be going up this week. Gosh I'm so ready to have my house back! Feeling like I'm holding my breath until it's all finished.

I *ought* to be grateful for the excuse not to have to mop the kitchen floor (what's the point until it's all done?) But it's hard not to freak out at how chaotic it is. I should comfort myself by taking pictures so that I get some great before and after a.

Another anxiety is the referendum in just over a week on the 18th September.  It's the only thing on the radio and I will be so happy when it's over for better or for worse. I'm mostly worried about our mortgage payments and monthly household bills if Scotland becomes independent.  The Yes campaign seem to just brush over these concerns, shifting blame to Westminster or saying it'll be fine.

9 March 2016

I wish I was sleeping....

It's 2am and my body won't shut off.  I'm on my second ear-infection in 2 weeks.  Earlier tonight I was in so much pain, I couldn't do anything but lay in bed and groan.  I don't know if the cocktail of medicine I've taken has me all keyed up, or if it's the fact that for the first time ever, Titus has slept more than 6 hours on the trot.  So maybe I can't relax because my sub-conscious is saying, 'there's no point.  He'll wake up in another 5 minutes you know.....'

I've been all over the place today.  My GP didn't have any open appointments (even though I called only 15 minutes after the phone lines opened this morning) so I resigned myself to having to wait to see a doctor until tomorrow.  I haven't heard anything out of my left ear for over a week since that ear drum ruptured.  When I felt pressure rising and pain in my right ear today (symptoms of an infection for sure!) I was freaking out about my right ear drum rupturing.  My hearing was deteriorating hourly.  So I packed books, crackers, water, nursing cover-up, and the kids and headed up to the emergency room, prepared to wait a long time to see *someone.*  The wait was shorter than I expected, but the nurse practitioner wasn't happy to see me.  'Why aren't you at your GP?' was her first question.  She unhelpfully said, 'yeah, your left eardrum is completely gone......your right eardrum is bulging and it will either rupture, or it won't.'  And she shrugged.  And she said, 'Ear infections aren't what we handle here - go to your GP or call NHS 24 and get an appointment to see a GP.'  

SO - I was imagining permanent hearing loss and having to take early retirement because of deafness and *heavens only knows* how to take care of the kids if I can't hear!

And I went to my GP surgery (had to fill out a form to request repeat prescriptions for Felicity anyway) and told the receptionist how very concerned I was.  20 minutes later, the deputy doctor called me and when I told her what was happening, she gave me an emergency appointment for 30 minutes later.  And 5 minutes into the appointment, she reassured me that my left eardrum was healing (can take up to 2-3 weeks for hearing to come back) and gave me prescription for antibiotics so that hopefully my right eardrum doesn't burst too.

MAN!

I go back to my job (teaching music - hearing is kinda important there!) in a week and a half.

Kinda freaking out about leaving Titus during the day.  Experimenting with giving him more solid food and water during the day so hopefully he can last without nursing on the days that I'm away from him.  Fortunately, he loves his food.

Loving spending time with Felicity and him.  Even though I was kinda freaking this afternoon, we had a really good morning together.  We went and bought Felicity some thick tights and socks (for her Thursday PM 'forrest school' at the gaelic nursery - dressing in lots and lots of layers for warmth!) and also found some sweet little white patents for her to wear with her Easter dress (£4 - can't argue with that.)  

And we visited a pet shop I haven't been to in a very long time.  It was excellent!  Felicity got to stroke a chinchilla (!) and someone who had brought their dog in to be groomed also let Felicity give their dog a pat.  They had snakes and bearded dragons - but Felicity was just as interested in the live crickets....(didn't tell her they were meant to be food!!)

Felicity has expressed some hesitation about going to the gaelic nursery.  I think it's the busy-ness that overwhelms her.  Simon and I have talked it over.  We both still think it's the best option logistically for us right now.  We definately want her to keep telling us how she feels though.  I've changed vocabulary - it's the gaelic 'playtime' - because it's different from the cozy nursery she's been used to at L.A.  And I've told her that each time I pick her up, she can give me 'a report.'  (She knows her teachers at explorers and Grace Kids give me reports on her behaviour.... and we give reports to Daddy too...)  We're trying out the thumbs up, thumbs down and thumbs in the middle technique.  And it seemed to help on Tuesday.  Tomorrow will be another test of it - hopefully my ear is behaving itself.

2:26am.  I really wish I was sleeping.

21 February 2016

Family Saturday....

The museum was heaving with children because they had special activities on during the February break.  There's a lego exhibition on right now.  I wonder whose job it was to build this guy?  He was taller than me. :-)

Titus has graduated to his forward facing car seat.  He loved it.  Felicity loved seeing him and playing with him in the backseat too.

And I loved being able to look back over my shoulder and seeing this cuddly guy.  *melts*

I'm figuring out how to use my icloud stuff from my iphone.  More pictures coming as I learn.... :-)

19 February 2016

Friday again...

The weeks are just blowing by!  Felicity didn't have nursery at all this week because of the school holidays.  I was nervous about having a *whole week* in front of me last Sunday, but the days have just flown.

This morning after dropping Simon off at work, I went over to Cameron Toll shopping centre, thinking that we'd pick up a couple of minor groceries, walk up and down the mall (out of the cold and rain outside) and we'd go to a cafe (one of Felicity's favorite things to do.)  We did all of those things and as a bonus, I'd forgotten there's also the shop there that sells the shampoo I buy (we'd been running low) and Sainsbury's grocery store has a 25% off all their clothing sale on this weekend.  (Woohoo!)

I bought Felicity her Easter dress (bright yellow shift dress with beautiful overlaid crochet-lace-type-material) and some cute t-shirts I'd been looking at for a couple of weeks (but wouldn't buy full price), some more leggings (the child is completely grown out of 4-5 clothing and is wearing size 6 stuff now), and a green sweater (which she actually requested to wear out of the house this afternoon - for the win!)

Titus got a couple of long sleeved t-shirts and some baby blue-jeans.  He looks so cute in everything.  I also found a cute little sky-blue t-shirt with dinosaurs all over it.

Simon got t-shirts too.

I found a cute, tailored striped office skirt in the clearance aisle which I practically stole for less than the price of a latte.  They also had the turtleneck sweater I'd been eyeing for a while from their winter line in my size (Only £4.50 when I got to the tills - sweet!)  and I actually bought a bathing suit too.  Bright cheerful blue with white polka dots with a skirt built into it.  Reminded me of my favorite swing-dancing dress from highschool.  And you can't really argue with £12 for a swimsuit you actually feel good in!  (LOL - when I tried it on in the dressing room, I asked Felicity if she thought it was pretty and Felicity said, 'Mommy you should wear that in the store!!'  I tried to explain to her why that would be inappropriate - 'it's a bathing suit...'  and she said, 'why not?'  lol  talk about your confidence booster!)

I like taking the kids to their cafe there at Sainsbury's too because the people there are nice, they give you enough food on one plate to share around with kids, it's usually quiet, and they have an *awesome* family bathroom/changing room that's never been busy when we got there.  What makes it awesome is that it's the size of a regular bathroom, but there's only one toilet stall in it.  The rest of the room has a changing table and a sink and a chair.  You can wheel your buggy in, lock the front door, let the toddler wee while you change the baby, then keep an eye on your toddler and baby from the open bathroom stall while *you* wee without worrying about getting walked in on.  And there's enough space around you so you're not worried about the toddler putting her hands on all the germy walls, etc., etc.

Felicity is so much fun to take to restaurants.  She's getting so good at following instructions and helping out.  She never runs off from the table anymore.  Today we were being silly listening to all the pop songs ('Hello....') playing over the radio while we waited for our food.  I also taught her how to set the silverware on the table and fold the napkin under the knife while we waited.  (We're trying to encourage her to help set the table for dinner at home these days.)  She loves having toast at cafes.  We ordered the full breakfast with lots of toast, some scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, hashbrown, baked beans and a grilled tomato.  Titus also helped with a bit of sausage and toast.  (I always used to think baked beans were a weird thing to put on a breakfast plate - they're actually pretty good, especially with toast and scrambled eggs.  I still don't like grilled tomatos though and neither did Felicity today.)

The kids and I spent the rest of the day at home - trying to keep chores rolling over mostly.  I was able to do a bit more piano practice.  I also put my Bluebonnet poster in the (free) IKEA frame - it looks good.  Titus was much more himself today - happy as larry bouncing in his walker and door-jumper-thing.  I'm hoping the cold is really on the way out - though poor guy, he's got about 3 more teeth visibly drilling their way through his little gums.

While he's settling better into his bed to sleep, his sleep pattern at night is still really up and down.  Another challenge I've got to confront (before I go back to work) is getting him settled so that he'll consistently take a feed from a bottle.  I bought some bottle/tippy cup hybrid things at the pound shop this morning and I'll be experimenting with them this weekend.  I think the cup is the way to go actually, except he likes the spout on a tippy cup to be soft.

I've started watching a show on Netflix called 'How I met your Mother,'  It's from like 2005 (I never watch TV) and it's not something I would watch with Felicity, but it has a fun 'Friends'-type vibe.  And Jason Segal is fun to watch in it - I can't *not* see him as the guy in the Muppet movie - he's got such a great self-depreciating humour.

Well, that's about it.  Happy Friday, all.

17 February 2016

Every day school for the 3 year old.

I started reading 'A Well-Trained Mind' a couple of days ago and was so excited about several quick suggestions it had for kids around Felicity's age.  And just suggestions of what was *possible* to teach her - based on the way her developing brain is programmed right now.  Today, I decided we'd do some informal schooling after we dropped off Simon from work.  

Felicity knows the ABC song and how to count, but she doesn't consistently read the numerals and letters.  So, I thought some pre-reading exercizes and numeracy games would be fun.  We have a nice puzzle set of numbers 1-10 that are only 2 pieces each.  (with a number on one piece and a picture of animals of however many numbers on the other side.)  It's technically for babies, but putting the puzzle together is just the first step of our play.  She has to recognize the numeral for each puzzle, and then we put them in order.  I was surprised that she organized them in numeral order on her own initiative this morning.

Then, we put the finished puzzles in stepping-stone pattern, in order, on the floor and walked across the 'bridge', saying each number as she stepped on it.

Then, we mixed them up all over the floor and she had to jump to the different numbers.

Then, we took turns - 'OK, put your knees on 7!  Where's 7? You got it - Yey!'  'Mommy, put your hand on 3 - yey!'  'OK, put your nose on 9!'  OK - your turn!

Then I got a bean-bag, and we threw the bean bag at the different numbers we chose for eachother.  Oh, it was great and she kept saying, 'OK!  Give me aNa-no one!'

Then we played her 'Dinosaur Races' game after she put the numbers puzzles back in their box.  I had her set up the game board herself while I hastily tidied the kitchen, swept the floor, and fed Titus finger food.

Dinosaur Races has a lot of turn-taking, counting and moving the board pieces around.  SO good for her concentration and again, counting.

After she put away dinosaur races, I found a list of numbers for her to trace in her dry-erase book.  We spent a good bit of time practicing drawing the numbers ('Start at the top - no, the top, try again - that's the top!  Oh now, try again, start at the top!')  and when she wasn't secure to just copy the numbers by herself, I made her dot-to-dot numbers across the page for her to trace (thank you, Well Trained Mind suggestion! Dot to dot for handwriting skills for the win!)

Titus got really upset, so we had to stop there for a while.  But I turned the page back to the ABCs before I went to feed Mr, T, and she was happily tracing letters when I left her.

She found me in the rocking chair and brought me a brilliant book (even though I had to put down my book to look at it with her.)  It's this book where they give you a cartoon picture across every spread with a number of animals or things to find on every page.  We found the picture with mice, butterflies, bees, snails, starlings and other garden-y creatures on it first.  Numeracy for the win!  'How many snails do you have to find?  What's that number?'  '10!'  'OKay, let's find them.....'

And the neat thing about this book is they are based all over the world - there was the Outback and the Artic and the farmyard, etc, etc.  Which led us to a little discussion about dingos and emus in Australia.  (Geography! Natural sciences!)

Then, Felicity chummed me downstairs when Titus was napping in his bed.  We made pancakes for lunch.  She was busy doodling in her dry-erase book when I got started, but then noticed me flipping the pancakes and pushed her chair over to stand next to me and help.  She turned on the light from the vent hood herself.  She watched me flip the pancakes.  Then, I had her put her hand on top of mine as I flipped them.  Then, I let her flip one *all by herself*.  She even put the batter in the pan a couple of times by herself.  Granted, some of them got a little burnt.  And I took over a couple of times.  But she was practically singing, 'This is sooo much fun!'  and we had a little talk about how the tops of the pancakes get all bubbly from the hot air escaping when they are cooked (Ha! Chemistry for 3 year olds!)  And she was *motivated* to eat those pancakes baby!  Normally, I have to beg her to eat anything for lunch.  She helped me set the table, gobbled up her food, and then she helped me clear the table and put the dishes into the waiting dishwasher.  Life skills, baby.  She won't starve at college if she knows how to make pancakes.

Titus woke up almost immediately after, but that was OK because we gave him a pancake to eat too.  Then, I needed a little time to do some other cleaning (ha! finally vaccummed the stairs and took out the recycling!) so I set the kiddos in the livingroom in front of a few wind-down cartoons.

Then, we went out to run errands.  Felicity was dressed in her favorite Frozen princess dress over her blue jeans and boots.  Amongst other errands, we ended up over at the library, sitting and reading for at least another hour.  The librarians were greeting her as 'Princess Elsa' (I'm surprised Felicity didn't correct them and say, 'it's Queen Elsa, actually' but she was acting a bit shy.)

Titus' cold is getting much much better today as well.  He slept well during the day and woke up rosy cheeked.  Still a wee bit less enthusiastic about his solid foods, but I didn't have much of an appetite last week either.  I only gave him pain-killers tonight at bedtime and that was more of a preventative action than because he was really asking for it.  He's such a cutie.  When he's happy, he'll shake his head side-to-side and coo 'AHHHHHHHHHHHHH'.  It's like he likes the world when it's going a little visually-crazy.  and he's been starting to put his hands on either side of our faces and give us big wet open-mouthed kisses.  Felicity loves to kiss him - she'll make a totally obvious pucker-up and start humming 'MMMMmmmmmm' about an inch away from his face and wait for him to close the gap with his little face.  I need to video this phenomenon -so cute. 

We didn't get to the new song I was going to teach Felicity today, but we did listen to 'Ride Away on your Horses' CD and practice the order of the days of the week while riding in the car.

Learning.  It's what's happening.  Every. Day.  Gosh, I love this job.

16 February 2016

inFLUenza....


Is what happened to us last week.  Simon and I are much better now - Titus still turning that old corner.

Felicity has only had a cough - I think it's because she had a flu shot in the autumn.

I am getting a flu shot this coming year - no matter what.  This was the worst.



Right.  Short post.  Lots on my mind.  Still not much sleep.



Read Robin Hobb Farseer books - I started the Liveship Triology this week and it's been getting me through the late-night nursing sessions with Mr. Boy.


Time for his paracetamol and milk.

4 February 2016

Felicity-isms

'Mommy, you should say thank you to me for the idea to buy chocolate buttons.'

'Thank you Felicity for thinking of getting chocolate buttons!  That was a great idea!'

'Felicity, you should thank me for buying chocolate buttons.'

'Thank you Mommy for buying me chocolate buttons!'

(me:) 'Thank you God for this beautiful day and for yummy chocolate buttons!'

(Felicity:)  'Thank you God for making me and taking care of me and for yummy chocolate buttons!'  (Felicity chuckling)  'I think God is laughing about that!'

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Me:  Now, you know at nursery Mommy will always come and pick you up, right?

F: Yes.

Me:  And you know if you need the potty, you need to listen to your body and go as soon as you need to.  And you can close the doors with the butterflies on them.  And you wash your hands afterwards.

F: Yes.

Me: And if you need help, you know who you need to ask?

F: Yes

Me:  Who?

F:  I ask the Gaelic people.


(LOL!  As if they're another race of green aliens or something!)

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Felicity sings to Titus when he gets upset in the car.  It's usually a sing-song of her own invention with words as they pop into her head, sometimes dependent on the things we're passing by in the car.  He loves this and it usually calms him.  After he's asleep, she usually says something like, 'Mommy, I singed to Titus and now he is asleep.  I singed him asleep.'

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She wandered in while I was getting dressed.  I couldn't help but laugh loud when she said,

'Mommy!  Your knickers ('underwear' for those not sure of British lingo) are HUGE!  You have HUGE knickers!'

Oh, I laughed so hard.  Then I said,

'Yes.  My knickers *are* huge.  Maybe someday if you're lucky, you'll have huge knickers too.  But only if you are very lucky.'

(No body shaming over here.)
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Her favorite thing to do still is to cut animals out of paper and play with them like paperdolls.  She was talking to a family of bunny rabbits as she snipped away the other day and I overheard..

'and see the mommy bunny?  and see this *llllllittle* baby bunny.......(and as she cut him out of the paper background....) and now you are being BORNed!

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