We are all sick!

Well T is recovering but Ry and I are sick, I have a cold, he has man flu AND conjunctivitis and we are both feeling pretty pants. We did manage to have a wonderful weekend with G&G P though. Ted had a riot and did lots of playin with his G&G. Saturday he spurned swimming because Laura the normal lady was not there. He was not having any of it. When she took him for a quick swim he roared his head off and drank a bunch of water so it was not the sucessful showing off to GrannyP session I had imagined! Post swim it was big breakfasts all round before we went off to London to go to the Science Mueseum – what a hit that was with all the Perryman menfolk especially. In the basement there is a kids zone which is great for littleuns – pics of Ted doing playin to follow at some point. We had lovely dinners out and in and a great big roast on Sunday before they went back to Zanas. We will go to the airport tomorrow night for dinner and to see them off. So nice to see them again so soon after Cape Town.

Sickness kicked in in earnest this morning – my throat feels like I am swallowin razors and I have sore ears and dizziness. Ry has a blocked nose and gunky eye and even took a day off AND went to the doctors – for the first time ever in our 10 year relationship! He is on antibiotics for the gammy eye and will be contagious for 10 days so we will need to be careful so Ted and the other kids in Inshriach don’t get it – dedicated towels etc. Work is bedlam this week and we are progressing with the house sale – works to be scheduled and selecting an agent this week so its rather too much when feeling rubbish – oh and the small matter of figuring our what we should take to Scotland of course. Nevermind – once we get there it will be time for R&R and yomping to burn off some of these excess calories I am luggin aroud in a spare tyre round my waist. I have told R when we get back I will be going to the gym as soon as he gets back 3 night a week to try and run off some of my holiday pounds.

Bed now as I have the chance to get a solid nights sleep having been ousted from the marital bed on the grounds of contagious gammy eye seepage – gross – solid nights sleep because I won’t be woken up by Rys restless crocodile roll where he throws himself over with such force the divet flies, but also because I won’t be woken up by Ryan to tell me I am snoring ….. seems the extra pounds and cold have that effect (thanks alot Dad)

Nighto

Barnaby Bear

T has been abit poorly – rash and fever, but fine in himself, so I think it might be Scarletina which has been at the nursery or Fifths disease, both of which sound ghastly but are in fact fairly inocuous. Either way he was seeming much better tonight and although the rash flares up after his bath (heat I think) I am anticipating he will be off to nursery tomorrow.

We have had Barnaby bear to stay for the weekend. He is the nursery bear who goes to stay with various children for a night or for the weekend so I have had to write his exploits at our house and somehow tomorrow will have to try and print some pics. As if I didn’t have enough to do!! The stress of leaving him somewhere has almost been as worrying as if I were to lose my own child! Now all I have to do is remember to take him tomorrow morning – you can imagine with everything else I have to do in the mornings remembering Barnaby bear and his journal is something I could live without!

We have had a lovely weekend. Swimming on Saturday actually seemed to do T some good as although he was poorly once his temp was down with some help from the trusty kids nurofen he was in fine spirits and he made it through most of the class without my being anywhere near him. When he did have a wobble about 10 mins from the end I managed to persuade him to stick it out – bribary. He has reached Duckling level 5 and as such is entitled to a badge – he is very excited and we will make a big fuss over him once it arrives – has to be ordered in! The next two weeks will be a challenge though as Laura the normal teacher wont be there so I am ready for there to be ructions. Will just have to play it by ear. He can be very stubbornwhen he decides to be – I am sure thats all Ryan

After swimming we drove up to Zanas to see G&G P who are visiting from JoBurg. T was very excited and had a great time playing with Guy and Guys toys – Vivi and Eva were also there with Daleen although Pete had stayed away with the Norovirus – grim. Eva is the spitting image of Vivi – at that age and you can see how alike they will be looking at how Vivi looks now. Al is doing well at 3 months and is looking more robust and alert and is doing his baby chat and gurgling very nicely. T did fade a little towards the latter part of the day as his temperature came back, but a dose of the nurofen and he was back in business. Even though he didn’t have a nap he stayed awake all the way home which is pretty unusual at the end of a long day.

Today was all about getting the house tidy and decluttered for valuations. I have put away as much as possible into cupbards and boxes to make the place look at spacious and organised as possible – I know its just valuations but I am sure valuers form opinions in the same way that buyers do so its important. I will have to tell the valuers that we will be getting someone to redo the front of the house and probably the garden, unless we can rope G&G into a garden day later in the month. Its mostly some heavy pruning and taking out anything that looks dead – I always think there is nothing worse than walking round a garden and looking at dead plants! But I also want to pick out some winter flowering things to lob in the front pots and the edge of the terrace to brighten things up a little.

Gallery to follow for you picture junkies. Lots of Barney the bear to go in his travel log!

How proud am I

Its been a busy old week with all the normal stuff, work, swimming, nursery, playing, sorting stuff out and so on, but feature even of the week was dinner at the weekend at Claires house with her and Russell, Barney and Lukie, all the kids, Mum and Dad and Ryan and I with Ted. I am so proud of the way Barn and Claire have worked things out. It was so nice to sit down as a family and with Russell and Lukie who are now very much part of the extended family and certainly a huge part in the kids lives and have a cracking roast lunch together. It was relaxing and fun and so nice for Sam to have everyone there for his birthday lunch together. Dan and Ems and the girls were missed but had other plans and no doubt we can catch up with them at Inshriach. But couldn’t help but comment on how brilliantly B and C and their respective new partners are dealing with what could be, and is for some people, a tense, unhappy, awkward, friction ridden situation. It makes me very happy that the people I love are happy, and able to be happy for each other.

In other news T had his first swimming class without me in the pool on Saturday morning, it was interesting! The first few widths he wanted me there next to him by the pool, but soon enough he was sufficiently distracted by the swiming and splashing and jumping in that he was happy for me to just be there in the background. He did so well, and is such a good little swimmer, although I am going to miss being able to swim with him – roll on half term!

We are running up to our week in Scotland soon so there is planning afoot, sleeping arrangements, food arrangements, travel arrangements and so on. I am really looking forward to the family time and some R&R as T will really enjoy having his 6 cousins to hoon about the house with, especially now he is old enough for some proper boy hooning.

G&GP arrived very early Monday morning and are staying with Zana and Patrick and boys – it was so early we couldn’t get to the airport to meet them for a coffee before they went up there as 0500 is no longer a normal time to be awake since T has taken to sleeping to 0730 – cue trumpet fanfare – finally! (although he woke at 0430 last night I think because he just knew I had a big meeting in London today!) Since I have been talking to T about G&GP and how we will see them on the weekend he now yells ‘Ganny and Ganpa P on dat airprane’ every time he sees one in the sky! He also has it sussed what Ganny and Ganpa’s are for because when I tild him they were coming to stay next weekend he said ‘Oh dat be fun for playin’ wiv me’ followed by ‘where mummy and daddy goin?’ – so essentially G&G’s are for playing and babysitting – thats about right!!

We are very much looking forward to seeing everyone on Saturday at Zanas.

I have flipped my days off this week so tomorrow I am going to the optician and then the hairdressers to get myself sorted out! I am in danger of having a mullet which is a wholly unacceptable situation. My hair is so short there are not alot of style options but I am thinking of keeping it short as opposed to cropped so might go to midlength for a while until I get bored and chop it all off. Friday car is getting serviced then I will be in the office – but noone knows so there will be no meetings and I should get some actual work done! Next week its all about the house with quotes for works and valuations so we can be raady to get it sold once we are back from Inshriach.

Thats it – updated on the day to day – its not too humdrum and T keeps it interesting – todays little thing was pretneding to go to sleep, then getting up an announcing that he needed to do a poo in the potty – which he managed to spin out for 20 mins of poo in potty, poo in toilet ‘oh dear mummy poo is stuck’ and ‘poo is hidin’ and ‘maybe mine not go poo now’ and so on. I think they need to stop him having a nap as he is not tired enough when he comes home! Might see about that from next week.

Perryman Cuzzies – the next generation

What a gallery for Granny P – printer at the ready

Big boy play

Few pics from when we visited Mark and Emma last weekend – their last weekend before taking the big marital step! Lots of ppics of that to come from this weekend!

Insights of a two and half year old

Putting Ted to bed tonight, as we got to the part where we were ‘talking about my day’ Ted and I had a conversation along the following lines…

Me: Who did you play with at nursery today
Ted: Kaitlin aaaaaand Rocky aaaaaaaand Tomas aaaaaaaand Edwood. Edwood was norty.
Me: What was Edward doing that was naughty?
Ted: Edwood trowin’ toys
Me: Oh, why was he throwing toys was he angry
Ted: No Mummy, he was sad
Me: Oh, why was he sad?
Ted: He want his Mummy and Daddy
Me: I see. Do you get sad at nursery
Ted: Noooooo Mummy, I’m big boy, I happy
Me: Thats good
Ted: Eddy trow toys too
Me: Is Eddy sad too?
Ted: No Mummy Eddy jus norty

Wonderful

Working the list

There seems to be an endless number of ‘to do’s’ at the moment, finishing up late gifts and thank you cards from Christmas, tidying up odds and ends with the tenants, laundry (of course), loading the software for Teds camera onto the PC so I can attempt to start Teds picture blog, which already has a string of snaps to post from Christmas which will no be added to from his and Islas efforts on the weekend, downloading my pics – I am not even sure how many there are and what they are of but its been a little while since I cleared the camera, salad for lunch tomorrow, use up all the half jars of antipasti and mix up the oil and vinegars to make salad dressing (its my Mums fault!!), picking up groceries, hemming some trousers for Ry … it never ends.

I have had to section the list – tonight was cards, gifts and parcels, tomorrow will be sewing and ironing, wednesday will be cameras and pictures, and then maybe by the end of the week I can be looking at exterior decorators and estate agents, because what I really want to crack on with is getting the house valued and into a state where it can be put on the market and the only big hitter item is the exterior decorating and getting initial valuations so we can decide on an agent.

Work is going well, I am pretty motivated at the moment so that helps me avoid procrastinating and trying to half to work and half to home tasks at work which is a recipe for total lack of productivity on either front. Ted seems to be in a good place with nursery, he loves his little friends and all the girls who look after him and he is now happy in the mornings when we arrive and then excited to see me when I collect him.

Last weekend was busy with catching up on social engagements, swimming on Saturday morning – the last lesson where I will be in the pool with him, next week I will sit on the side while he goes in with Laura! How much of a wrench is that! Then we saw Mark and Emma on Saturday afternoon and were all going to go to Tam and Bernies leaving party but the pub was a ‘no kids after 6′ so Ted and I came home and watched Mickey Mouse ClubHouse instead!

Sunday I got a lie in until 11am! Ry took Ted downstairs and he played happily while Ry dozed on the couch in the playroom and I slept upstairs. Bliss. Bex and Al cam over with the kids in the afternoon. Sweet little Ted kept peering out of the window and saying ‘dey gonna be here in minit’. Lots of playing and a big roast later we had all had a good catchup and a good feed. They set off before the weather closed in – in case it di. It didn’t.

Snow is mostly gone now which is good because we can get around in a timely way. Only took 30 minutes to get to nursery this morning.

This weekend of course is Mark and Emmas wedding, all starts Friday with Ted and I going for a manicure then home to meet GW who is coming over for a girls night while Ry goes STAG. Antia is arriving with Nathan on Saturday morning so Ted and I will nick off to swim class and be back for 11 which will give GW and Nathan some time to get to know each other and for Antia to tell GW what Nathan needs in terms of naps, food etc. Antia and I will head off at midday and GW will have her hands full with the boys. Am guessing Mums will return mid evening and Dads late night but expect we will have a full house Saturday night then GW will leave early Sunday. Zana and Patrick are coming for Sunday lunch so we will be having another roast. Am not sure if C&A will stay for lunch or head off but wither way will be lovely to see Guy and Al and exchange their Christmas presents as we have not seen each other since we came back from Cape Town – so we have a load of things from G&G P to hand over as well!

Hmmm, blogging was not on tonights list … plannings all well and good but sometimes its necessary to just unload

Wow – its cold

What a wierd week. Its cold as hell outside, although if stories are to be believed hell is actually quite hot, poor analogy on my part,either way its ice everywhere now the snow has been crushed into a hard flat pack which has then frozen overnight. Make driving interesting but we have been managing with the 4 wheel drive which is coming into its own. Nursery to their credit have been open all week, why the schools can’t manage it I don’t know, but getting everything together in the morning is proving to be a little more challenging and I have not been at work before 10am this week. Although this is in part because I am taking time to spend with T over breakfast. He is eating like a small horse at the moment, not only everything at nursery and a big breakfast but also a major meal at home. Tonight he demolished 4 fishfingers, 2 tomatos, 1 malted milk, 1 ryvita, a bowl of strawberries and a madeline and then washed it down with a full beaker of milk. It makes me so happy when he has his appetite, he is such a string bean.

We have now managed a week with dummy only at bedtime, although I relented at 7 tonight as we were running late with everything, I am also starting the potty training. We get into pants when we get home, although this led to a wet floor today I am sure we can get him using the potty as he is showing almost all the signs of being ready. Lets give it a punt and see how we go.

Christmas and New Year including pictures will be well documented at Janthina Journeys so have a look to get a feel for our Christmas from GW perspective. I am also aware I didn’t post much about Christmas so you can see more of ours there.

Ry sent me this

which I think is lovely and just a little bit cute (but then I am crimianlly biased on that front.

Ry is somewhere getting back from London having had some drinks with Barker, who is back to Pakistan Monday for the final leg of his stint there. Tomorrow is a work day for me, lots to do, weather is stopping me from doing my normal manicure with Bex and boss has called a meeting at midday and it would look good for me to be there even though its my day off – I know, what a suck up, but when there is a restructure looming its no time to be taking a stand!!

Back to reality

With a bang.

I am four loads of laundry down, one to go. We are a well stocked household with fruit and veg and salad and fresh fish so its health kick all the way. I have stepped on the scales but I am sure they must be wrong …… there is work to be done! Everything has been put away and R and I are getting ourselves organised to get some bits and pieces done on the house and get it valued so we can decide about putting it on the market asap! Big year, big plans so we have started as we mean to go on with shared Google docs for planning and our usual somewhat military approach to organising everything.

T slept through last night – first night back – which was great and he went to bed without too much bother tonight too so I am hopeful.. ever the optimist, that we are not going to have to painful a transition back to work, nursery, sleeping routine, etc. He knows he is off to nursery tomorrow and I am hoping it will be ok, although I know I will feel wretched when I drop him off. I am thinking about having breakfast at home with him every morning – especially now he is waking up later. Partly for some extra time together, partly so I can give him eggs, or sausages, or smoked salmon or cheese to boost his protein intake while he persists with his veggie stage (sausages and ham are not meat as far as he is concerned) and partly so I don’t go to the garage for coffee and a sandwich which is not going to help my diet whereas at home I can have skinny coffee and muesli and fruit. It may mean I have to work some Fridays to compensate but it would be worth it.

Have not yet done December accounts, coming on the back of our Cape Town hols Nov and Dec were bankbusters and frugality is the order of the day for Jan through April. That being said we have some biggish house jobs to be done ahead of any sale – not least replacing the lock on the back door – T put key in recycling we think – although I might wait until we have packed everything up before getting that done. Who knows he may not have thrown away my wedding present necklace and that might show up too! Oh and there goes a flying pig. I have at least sorted receipts so will get down to the serious business of balancing the books tomorrow night.

So early night for me now – 930 and I am tired and ready for bed. Looks like its back to reality….

PS – couple of new Tedisms

Hotel = hoetail
Skiing = Skiboard
Sword = Sorder
Snooker = Golf
Golf = Nooker

Today the pirate ship ransacked the expedition ship to the cry of ‘go harties’

Practising the art of doing nothing at all…

We left the UK on Christmas Eve on Eurotunnel after early start and uneventful drive round the M’s (3, 25 and 20). The trian was only delayed a little and the crossing over very quickly. GPS kicked in and we were on our way south to St Vaast. The snow had obviously fallen heavily and it was white everywhere with big banks of snow along the side of the roads. The GPS seemed to be takng us a somewhat scenic route, often since buying the car we have wondered on its alleged fastest route selection, and on this journey, a year after we bought the car we finally read the manual and discovered that we had various road restrictions on – including toll roads – which had a considerable impact on the jouney time in France. We changed the setting and immediately the journey became an hour shorter! Unfortunately we had already lost an hour but lesson learned.

Arrived in St Vaast early evening, Ted was very excited to see Granny and Grandpa and was quickly off to explore the house. After a wonderful supper it was time to find a mince pie and drop of wine for Santa and then Ted went to bed.

Christmas Day dawned and Ted woke at 7ish and was not immediately remembering that Santa might have been – until he saw the sack of presents by his bedroom door. Into bed with Mummy and Daddy to open the gifts he was very excited. Granny got up and we went downstairs to find Santa had also left some of the larger presents under the tree so he opened them slowly, savouring each one. Probably the last year that will happen! We had a wonderful breakfast and then got round to opening the other preents under the tree, from people not Santa – which took some explaining but I think he got it. Then it was time for lunch. GW had come up trumps on the lunch front and we had a wonderful roast duck, cheese platter and general indulgence. No walks – it was too windy and we were too lazy. We spent the rest of the day relaxing before settling Ted and having a first look at The Wire – Mum bought Dad the boxset so thats TV viewing sorted for the next 3 weeks!!

Boxing Day and all the days since have been broadly the same – good food, good company, some walks, some visitors, alternate day lie ins, little bit of treadmill, although not enough to stem the tide of pounds gained. The cantihistamines I have been taking this time seem to have been very effective in keeping the cat factor at bay – although not being able to slump on the couch is a small limiting factor at Christmas – but its a small price to pay!

Ted is now hooked on Ice Age – 1 and 2 as his new favourite DVD – even ahead of Madagascar and has been playing with all his new Lego, Playmobil and Thomas Train Set so Christmas gifts a winner all round. He has also been taking pictures with his camera – with mixed levels of sucess – I will be posting his pictures on a blog once I get organised so his output can be shared … we will see whether he continues to take pictures on a regular basis or whether it is something less frequent – at the moment the issue is he points it then points it down to press the button – we have alot of pictures of the floor!

Here is a selection of our pictures from Christmas …