Equal Oppertunities

I have bought my little man a doll, although we are calling it "baby". So far baby has been mostly ignored until last night. Little man saw his bouncy chair in the spare room and ran to get baby and put the baby in it. He then got a blanket, covered the baby with it and said de-dah to it (de-dah means bye bye). This morning he saw baby and he to bring it down for breakfast, he then forgot about it for a while.

Baby is using reusable nappies (hankies!) which little man is desperate to try and put on, he gets his bottom wiped with a baby wipe quite often too! He also gets given juice by his "big brother"! Then he is forgotten about again in place of his trains and diggers.

We're just letting him play with it when he wants and not making a big deal out of it really. My mum was very bemused though!

Penniless Sitar Players!

DH and I enjoyed watching Moulin Rouge some years ago now. It was great and we even bought the soundtrack. With me being very into musicals and the theater and DH interested in the technical stuff. We also loved Cats when we saw that.

I really like all the Andrew Lloyd Webber stuff and was I was a teenager and struggling to compose I really wanted to meet him. Now I have seen him on TV I am quite disappointed! I still think some of th music he wrote is very good.

Anyway back to Moulin Rouge and the penniless sitar players. We've turned into them - well minus the sitars anywWe are officially broke, managed to pay one credit card bill but are going to have to use our savings account to pay for the other one and also tax my car this month. My car has no petrol and we can't afford to fill it up until DH gets paid. I don't go very far in it but I do miss it when we can't use it for a quick nip to Tesco as walking there is great until you get to the roundabout and then you stuck as it's impossible to cross. I've planned next weeks menu out of the freezer and shouted at DH about his self employment constantly dipping into our account.

I'm also considering a job, will have to be in the evenings and haven't found anything yet, might be better doing word of mouth type things. Can't afoford childcare so a day job out of the question.

Hopefully things wil resolve themselves, I'm going to tighten up on food shopping and possibly go to cheaper supermarkets for the tinned/packet stuff or maybe drop to value brands. The other place to cut spending is on fuel, wonder if DH will go to work with his Dad for a few days?

Need to sort it as it has made DH into a grumpy moany "have a go at J" monster.

Oh how I wish I was a baby/toddler or maybe a cat!

Shiny Happy People :-)

Today Little man and I met some firemen at playgroup. Lady at playgroup got very excited about organising the event and was squealing about "sexy firemen". I did have to point out that they may send fire women/ladies and also that all the firemen I have met in my life have not been sexy and most have been old enough to be my Dad.

Anyway 5 guys turned up and 2 out of the 5 were youngish and actually quite nice looking. (don't tell DH!) I wondered if one might fit the criteria of "man wanted" (not for me) but couldn't tell how old he was!

The firemen tried very hard to ask a room full of toddlers if they knew what firemen did but most of the children were more bothered with the toy cars and toy kitchen. One guy then put on his firefighting kit and most of children cried!! Little man wasn't very bothered and I was glad when we went to see the Fire engine. Little man got a bit jittery as they had to turn on the engine so the pump would run, he didn't like the noise and was much more interested in his latest fascination - cars!! The car park was full of them. With some gentle mummy persuasion little man went to help hold the hose and was allowed to pull back the lever and squirt the water. Of course, naturally he loved it! He wanted to sit inside the engine but he wasn't allowed.

Back inside he went, back to merrily playing with trains, tractors and diggers and pushing them round on the road rugs. I got 3 nice photos printed for me by the lady from playgroup but I need to get electronic versions. I posted about it on facebook and was thinking very carefully about the wording of "meeting firemen and playing with hoses!" as I didn't want inappropriate comments - but maybe that was an inappropriate thought?!

he he - this is making me think of rose wine, crisps and giggling - mmmm maybe a girly night is in order. Hang on it's been that long since I had one that I don't think I can remember what to do. As for drinking, 1 glass of wine would probably be the limit - quite shocking for someone who used to drink a full bottle quite easily!! I definitely don't drink a bottle a month at the moment! But a glass of red/white or rose is certaintly appealing right now. Maybe I should organise a night out - just need some capital funds first.

Hmmm, yes money very tight right now - having to decline days out and lunches out to try and save money. Spent a lovely free afternoon in the library today and hopefully things will improve soon. Possibly considering employment but we will have to see. In the meanwhile I have set up a website www.glutenfreeideas.co.uk and with the google ad words hopefully this will bring us some income. At least once we move off page 700 of the google search! Meanwhile your homework is to go to my site and click on the sponsered links and browse those sites a bit - I might just get 10p for your effort!

On a completely different note I feel very happy - I have unplugged the TV and little man is only watching it in the morning now. We are having so much more fun and playing lovely games together. I am slowly introdusing him to music, yesterday we had Abba Gold and today Queen Greatest Hits I. You should of seen him dancing to "Another one bites the dust!" classic.

Also note to self - stop talking about your child & childbirth when you go out!!!!!!!!

Growing Fast..

Little man has just gone to bed in a pair of pyjamas for the first time ever. His 12-18 month sleepsuits are getting tight around his feet and I don't want to affect their growth. So thanks to the credit crunch my little man got 2 pairs of pyjamas from Woolies from his Grandma on his first birthday. They were far too big then and I didn't want him to wear pyjamas as was still my baby boy, we have 2 sleepsuits in 18-24 months but both are currently in the wash.

In London at the weekend, little man got a bad case of trapped wind. He woke up crying and nothing would settle him. A dose of mummy milk helped the wind to escape but this upset him just as much! I cuddled him carefully and explained that he had bubbles in his tummy. He then cuddled up to his Daddy and after a few more long, loud farts and pointed to his tummy and said "bub bub"!! wow.

Tonight he made his special star sign whilst we sang Twinkle, Twinkle to him in the bath. He also decided to "sing" along when we sing the "how I wonder what you are" bit - it sounds like woar, waor waor waor but it is amazing. He's also becoming a pro at wind the bobbin up and tonight we taught him head, shoulders, knees and toes as he can now point to all the body parts mentioned in the song.

He can now do so much and we are getting a new word every day. You can ask him a question and he will respond you can't always understand what he says. Usually he says yeah, yeah or no no no.

He's amazing and I love him more than anything.

Spring Cleaning

Today I made a decision and stuck to it. I would spring clean my wardrobe. I decided to throw away all the horrible frumpy stuff that I never wear, rejoiced in throwing away trousers I used to wear for work which are now far too big and to keep the maternity stuff just in case. I rearranged everything left behind into some sort of order and folded it all reasonably neatly. I decided that hanging most of it up was the best idea and then found out I hadn't enough hangers.

I don't have a lot of clothes, well I don't think I do anyway. I have a lot of smart clothes for going to weddings etc.. most of which are satiny/silk and I love them but never seem to get chance to wear them. I have a terrible weakness for clothes from Coast in particular and must now stop buying smart stuff and concentrate on improving my casuals collection and buying some shoes which will go with all of the above!

Along with a good clean out of my underwear and socks drawer I have a small pile to be sent to Oxfam or similar so I can do my (very small) bit for charity and the environment. I have decided to cut up an old dressing gown to make face cloths and will have to get hubby to show me how to use the sewing machine.

Was very pleased with myself and am enjoying the extra space in the drawers. It is easier to choose what to wear in the morning. Although this morning my 17 month old baby boy decided to choose my top me, so a green top it is :-) - matches the new leaves on the trees.

Baby Envy

For a while "to be or not to be" has been on my mind. Today I had just about convinced myself I was pregnant and was going to have a baby in January. My period wasn't even late - it was due today. Writing this now makes me sound very silly and embarrassed as true to form my period arrived late this afternoon bang on day 28 of my cycle.

Yes I am one of the lucky people who seems to have a regular 28 day cycle every month and I must not moan. I have the ability to pretty much predict the exact day it will happen and it usually does. Back in 2007 I had worked out that my period would start on our Wedding Day - big no no. I remember saying to my hubby "I will find a way to make sure I'm not having a period on our Wedding day!" - I intended to get the pill from the doctors and skip a period. Instead I got pregnant 2 months prior to the Wedding - Ooops - but it did solve the period problem!!

I can't help feeling a bit down about not being pregnant also at the same time pleased that I get little man to myself for a while longer and I was very scared of how I would cope with a baby and a 25 month old toddler. The only thing I had decided is that a double pushchair was NOT an option and I would consult my experienced baby wearing friend to help choose slings for my newborn so my lovely little man could still go in his pram/pushchair. (Ok, perhaps I got a bit too carried away with the possible baby thing!) ((just noticed the pun on words he he)). Thinking about babies is making me very broody - argh flipping hormones!!!

Back to Reality

Bump! We've ended up back home after being on the M6 for the best part of 3 hours on Monday. Serves us right for going on a bank holiday. The drizzle & rain which arrived on Monday morning persisited throught the entire journey and is still hanging about today.

Today we are adjusting back to normal in a sleepy haze of drizzle. The sleepyness is because little man hated the idea of going to sleep in the caravan on the first night so much that it was 11pm before he went to sleep! Driving him around in the car didn't work and we eventually put him in bed with us and turned off the lights. After being physically abused by a wiggle worm we had to just put him in his cot and leave him to settle himself. The next morning he woke up at 6am - yes little tots do not sleep later if they go to bed later! He has since been having 2 naps a day to try and catch back up!

Today little man seems a bit confused, although is overjoyed to be reunited with his long lost friend the TV! (note to self to stop him watching so much). He is finally asleep now and I've set up the car monitor so I can have my me time.

Little man loved his adventure in Kirkcudbright-shire and so did we. I loved the open-ness of it all up there, the strange combination of yellow gorse and blue bluebells and green grass by the side of every road. The lovely uncrowded beaches where little man built his first sandcastles, experienced shells (he put them on his head??!!) and went paddling in a large pool left behind from where the tide had gone out. The sun was good to us and shone all day Saturday and Sunday with only the occassional shower.

The business of suburbia is bothering me today - I am longing for that outdoor space again, and I am trying to resist going on the internet to look at house prices up Scotland - at least now we have the caravan we can go more often. Just got to save up for an awning now so we can have more space and also so we can invite friends along too.

The new accomodation i.e. the caravan went very well. Slightly claustrophobic in the mornings and you have to keep it tidy for sake of your sanity. The site was lovely and hubby was fantastic playing with little man and getting him to do jobs like help to fill up the water & empty the dirty water. Little man was great and I think the constant new things really helped his development and there were no tantrums at all! I was very impressed that we cooked every meal in the caravan and helped to save the pennies.

Off to upload the pictures....

Still worrying about to be or not to be and desperatly hoping Aunt Flo makes her apperence in the next few days.......