A bank holiday over. Nice to have a long weekend!
Not so pleasant to be butting heads with Jack. He’s a whirls of ‘wants’ at the moment. Grumpy with it too. It must all seem so unfair to him as he perceives constant disappointment. Well, it was more Sunday & Monday that were like this. Saturday we went to Elaine’s – Louise’s sisters. Not something we especially like to do, but family & duty & all that. The kids enjoy it… but I’m not really sure that I had a conversation that lasted for more than a few non-sequiters. Did have a chat in the car going to the house about Mac techy stuff with Louise’s (&, I guess my — eep!) brother in-law Kyle, but Jack suddenly took a turn & wanted to get out for a moment. He gets car sick. Odd, but he doesn’t seem to get car sick in my Mum & Dad’s car, even with their at times erratic driving, but there you go… he must be distracted enough then, or something.
Kirk & his missus & kid were there. Louise was not overjoyed at the prospect of socialising with them due to the knock on’s she had the other week from her mum due to the problems that Kirk has with money… Still – the babe was there. 10 months (i think – not really sure). Amelia – she is just standing – so it won’t be long before she’s away & walking. Cute kid. Big cheeks make her look very square faced. They all seem besotted with her (heh – that’s babies for you). She seemed to like Jack, so Jack responded with charm & gave her a few hugs. They have a pond with fish, & Jack & Eve went out to ‘look’ at it. 1st time that Eve has had the chance to get close to it. It’s raised a little so that it’s just the right height for her to look over into. She can reach her hand in too – as she did – & started splashing the water about! Something that had never really occurred to Jack before, but as Eve was Jack did. It started off innocently enough, as Kyle encouraged them to put their hands into the water as the fish come up to your hand with the thought that there might be food. Degenerated soon enough though. Fish must have been having a great time as they disappeared to the bottom of the pond. Kyle didn’t seem to mind this, so it was lt to continue a little, until Eve was noticed to have gotten herself quite wet… then we went back inside. Fortunately we always carry a spare set of clothes for such emergencies.
Much chocolate (as always). Jack was running about a fair bit, came up to me, said he needed to go out & promptly threw up. Fortunately, although just next to me, he managed to miss me entirely! We managed to get away at s sensible hour. Being careless, we are dependent on they for transport too & from the train station in Bradford. I sat in the back with Jack this time & he curled up on my lap & hid himself away for the journey home. This worked well for him & he nearly drifted off to sleep. Eve certainly did… she was not awake will we were off the train at home. All in all relatively painless expedition. A little socially uncomfortable, but nothing that served to twist the knife (as was feared).
I’m trying to think if there were any warning signs that Jack was going to have a bad day on Sunday morning, but I cannot recall anything specific. The supermarket was the 1st flash point. We were going to the cafe there after shopping (as we often do on a Sunday) & Louise was getting some things & Jack wanted a tray as he usually does, except today he had it in his mind to have about 6 trays…., no, put them back… he did not – he wanted to take a heavy load of trays & presumably load them with something. Shouting on his part ensued, so we left – we did not go to the cafe – even though Louise was hungry & Jack must have been (as he had decided that he did not want any breakfast). He was very tearful at having left, but as we tried to tell him, if he does not listen to us he does not get what he wants. This could be considered one of his shortcomings – not listening, but then, I’m sure this is a common thing, not just at this age. He is wanting to push boundaries again, it seems – try to get away with more than we would like, & is finding that we do not make idle threats when it comes to getting ‘our’ way. Shame, as I really do not like the whole process. Having said that, he came in on his own last night for a bath when Hamish came round just as the bath was being run. Louise said he could go out for “2 minutes” & he was back in just as everything was ready. He did not go to sleep until 10 o’clock, but that’s another matter. He confessed that he “did not want to go to sleep”. No seeming reason, not really sure why. Don’t really think it’s bad dreams, but it’s all rather difficult to say. He woke up upset in the night, but that was perhaps as we had put him back into his own bed after finding that the only way to get him to go to sleep was to put him in our bed. He could well have been a bit disorientated due to that.
Heh… Saturday night Eve got herself well over exited before bedtime & had a difficult time getting to sleep. She (as said before) fell asleep on the train home, so we were wary of setting them to bed to early, but thinking about it, she must have got overtired. Jack was reading a counting book with Louise & as there were some good pictures in it, Eve was joining in looking at it as well. She was told that the pictures of fish were ‘fishes’ & she picked up that new word – recognising them, perhaps from earlier in the day? She was joyous to learn this new word & ran to me to exclaim it… then… got over exited in general. Rushing back & forth – trying to wrench the book of Jack & myself when we were looking at it later, indulging in hugs with Jack & falling over the floor with him in an embrace – laughing & giggling. Even more full of life than she usually is. Running about like a thing possessed, she was. Sweet with it though… shame it all ended in tired frustration as she did not want to sleep even though too tired. When calmed down she fell asleep in seconds flat.
Now on the train home – wondering if the post has bought anything good. After my fruitless treks across Manchester the other day I decided to try to but a usb to serial adapter. I’m waiting for that to arrive, as well as the new Plaid album – which I ordered from the Warp website…
We shall see – patience of a boy on Xmas eve, has I.
I really want to get the link with this emate machine & my mac at home working…