Monthly Archives: November 2001

Now there’s a novelty – I was up late this morning. Still work on time, but.. gah! Lying on top of my alarm clock seems to – uh -prevent it from working (there’s a thing).
Not achieving much at the moment.
Kids played together well yesterday. Jack seems to have got over the niggles of present giving.

Eve’s birthday yesterday! She got more presents than I had anticipated & I do believe Jack was a little put out. He had a couple of presents as well, but he was more interested in what Eve had on the whole. There was a lot of wanting what Eve had when she had it… sigh…

All in all though, the day went very well! My parents arrived a little past 7 am – so I managed to get an extra hour in bed before getting up in anticipation (lawks – I even remembered to change my alarm back again so that I would not be late this morning). Dad bought his drill along so that we could put the blind up in the back room .. This unfortunately took a little longer than it should due to unpreparedness. We set off for Skipton at 10:00. I think, if we had realised that dad had to back for a (ahem) Mason’s meet that evening we would not have been so ambitious. Dad had it in his mind that they would have to set off back again at 1:30, & as we got stuck in a traffic jam just outside Keighley (road works) so we never made it to Skipton as we planned. As something to amuse the kids we tried Cliff Castle in Keighley – which is not a castle, but a stately home sort of thing – animals, art, stuffed animals & rocks. Some of the crystal displays were pretty, & uh – the kids ran about a lot. I don’t think they found it very interesting. Then off to a toyshop where Jack was quite keen on a lot of things. We bought some stuff for them both & then had to scarper home again so that Dad could set off… sigh…

Jack nearly coped with the presents that Eve got. He did get some… but he seemed continually more interested in whatever Eve was playing with at the time – which caused a few upsets. We had candles in Ice Cream for Eve, but Jack was crying while we were singing as I wouldn’t let him blow the candles out before Eve had a chance. He got a go the 2nd lighting. I can remember being resentful of my brother’s birthday presents & so forth. Easter was a a bad one especially… I would wolf my eggs but he had the superhuman ability to leave them standing around in his room for days on end! AAArg! The temptation!!
Heh – Eve did enjoy opening her present though.
Jack seems to have learnt to whistle. He cannot do anything like a tune yet, but I noticed that he was whistling the other day as we were doing some tidying (or something inconsequential). I don’t know if anyone at school has been telling him, or he’s just picked it up. I remember I had to be taught by my grandma or something. It certainly have a memory of being at the house she had at the time & someone telling me. It could have been that grandpa – but I don’t even really recall what he looked like…

Sitting waiting for the train to go home. I have my shopping booty – presents for Eve’s birthday tomorrow. I have the day off & mum & dad are doing one of their infamous flying visits!
…must… write… more…
sorry – have that old ‘brain is sludge’ problem… Lack of sleep catching up on me again. Bother…

We did a good bit of tidy Sunday work yesterday – moving our clothes rail from the kids room & throwing out 2 & half rather large bin-bags of clothes. 2 of them went to the recycle in – which was fun – dragging them into town, & 2 the last was too poor for recycling (!). Naturally they were dusty – so I got my lungs in all of a tizz & had a pleasant night waking up every so often for a good cough. We got another of those jobs you never seem to get round to actually done though – so that was a very good thing.
The kids fell asleep early yesterday as well… They were up early though… Jack woke up at goodness knows what time – probably barely past 6:00am & shouted for Louise. He was in our bed with me & Louise had just gone off to their room to settle off Eve again. He wanted Louise, as he wanted her to turn on the telly!! (We have one in our room.) Grumpily – to shut him up – I stuck the telly on & fell back to sleep while he watched BBC News 24 for probably a good long while… I have no idea – I fell asleep while they were doing a ‘special travel news report’. Jack must have found it all riveting. He did kick off a bit later after failing to rouse me, concerned that he was missing a particular programme… Macdonald’s Farm, or some such – but his protests were for nothing as it was not on – so there! There are times I feel like throwing the telly down the stairs… but I would only have to clear up the mess.

Pratting about redesigning the code behind ZUM! pages again, & realising that there’s sod all progress I’m making… I did at last figure why I was getting a stupid ‘nested tag’ warning’s though… silly things that are sent to try us.

So… I really do feel like I should be using this train journey to catch up on a little sleep – so I close my eyes for a little while…

Went with Louise yesterday as she was having her antenatal scan. All looks well – baby right weight, correct position, Louise blood pressure fine – all that sort of thing. The visit to the hospital went well as well – a definite lack of waiting around getting completely bored – scan to midwife to Dr checkups went through the quickest I’ve ever known – & we do not have to go back for another scan. The only reason we need to contact the hospital now is if the baby is late – or in fact coming!

I took Jack to school yesterday morning – which was a pleasant novelty for us both. Jack has had a habit of protesting about going to school of recent, but the novelty of me taking him negated that.
<Sixth consecutive sneeze – nose itching like mad. bunged up & snotty. Dry throat & lips – lawks – I do believe I have a cold>
When we got there – he showed me where all his things go – coat – lunchbox, books etc. He then showed me the computer (the apple one not the PC – hah). He gave me a hug which knocked me over (I was squatting down to his level & he caught me unawares – overbalancing me…) Then his pal Jessie arrived & that was it – hardly a ‘bye daddy’ – he was off!
Yesterday evening he started kicking off with unruly behaviour again. He took it into his head to start slapping me & biting at me again (he only really bites at clothes – I somehow doubt he is really trying for more, because I know he could). I was annoyed with him, but I tried tickling him instead. Well, it’s all a game to him anyway, I guess… It did stop him trying to hit me… changed the nature of the argument, as it were… Not really successful though as he remained somewhat hyped up. So – when he was in the bath he tried to splash me… so I removed the cloth he was trying to splash me with…so he used his mouth – spitting out mouthfuls of water at me – so I just left him to it… so he ran out of the bath to spit some water at me & ran back to the bath <sigh>. End of bath. Aggrieved at being hard done by (yeah, right) he opted to curl up into a ball with his towel on him for warmth. After some protestation at not moving & us not wanting him to get chilled – I picked him up to dress him & as he was not keen on letting me, he opted for Louise dressing him <phew>. Louise quizzed him about this silly behavior – trying to pry a reason from him. We are concerned that this sort of thing is getting regular & think that there may be an underlying cause for it…. He is not normally so aggressive. He popped out with the reason being that he does not like school… which is a bit, well… I hesitate to say ‘untrue’. Further prompts got him to say about 9 things that he likes about school, & only 1 thing that he truly does not like; the ‘home corner’. An area in the class that has a Wendy house & such pretend things that go along with it. It’s too difficult to say what it is he especially dislikes about this, or whether this is the real reason for his dislike for school… He does not really go in for the ‘pretend’ element that ‘playing house’ entails. He would much rather do real cleaning & real cooking with us (Louise & I). Thinking about it he does not really do too much of that suspension of belief such role-playing relies on. He will do it when he plays with his cars & so forth though… so perhaps that’s a dead end in terms of theorising.
He does like things to continue as it is… he does not like having to do things like having a bath for instance. He will protest about having a bath, & once in he will protest about having to come out. It’s the way he is… always has been & most likely will always be. It can make life hard for him though as we cannot just have him doing as he wants… he does have to go to bed sometime! He has hardly ever fallen asleep of his own volition – say just playing with his toys… he has a marvellous (infuriating) capacity to keep going & going; like last Saturday when he was watching fireworks from the front room window, & trying to tell me what fireworks were about & bonfire night was about… & just, well talking nonsense – literally, & getting annoyed if I so much as tried to help him with his words. Who knows how long he could have kept going in that situation, but as soon as we’d managed to get him into a ‘it’s time to go to sleeep’ routine he was asleep.
Hmmm whatever – Jack actually slept quite well last night & was still asleep as I left for work – something he has not managed for a good while. It could all be that this stems from being over tired, as he is wanting to stay up as long as possible & wake up as early as possible. You worry about your kids… you want them to be happy.

Another on the way in January! What will Eve make of it all?? I think that hospital visit & watching Louise have the scan & all that may have got into her head that there may be something going on & ‘baby in mummy’s tummy’ might actually mean something… but whether she realises that this is the real thing & it’s going to change her life remains to be seen. Jack’s been through this before & grasped the concept quite well… He knows what’s in store.

Heh – still remember well when Eve was born. It was all over & we’re still in hospital. Eve was in the cot & Louise sat in a chair. We were waiting to be discharged & Jack arrives with Louise’s mum – rushes into the room & stops dead looking in shock at Louise, “Where baby in tummy?!”. He was then introduced to his sister.. heh.

Louise’s friend Carolyn came round with her new babe the other day & Jack was very sweet with her babe. When it was upset he tried to stroke its head to sooth it. Eve stands a little further off & says things like, “Baby under cover!” & so forth – a little awed, perhaps? If she takes her lead from Jack – the new baby will have no problems.

Missed writing yesterday as the trains were pooh (only a lap to balance the eMate on & I don’t fancy that).
Today I am at home – so snatching a few seconds while Jack is still upstairs obsessing about telly, & Eve & Louise have some breakfast.

(added 9/11: Eve noticed I was writing yesterday – so came over with cereal encrusted finger… eMate retreated quickly)

One of those odd night sleep where you wake up to the alarm, convinced it must be wrong as you’ve only been asleep 5 minutes… but no… that was a night sleep.

Jill (builder/carpenter Jill) arrived yesterday to look at the roof again. It has been leaking (again) by the chimney (again). Bit worse this time, but they think they’ve cracked it this time. We have been cautioned that they think that a hole in the lead flushing may remain – so to keep an eye on it (would we do less?). Happy to have had it looked at & hopefully rectified! Got my arse into gear a little last night & varnished one of the plaster walls up there. The one that will have a radiator on it (so we can now call the plumber to get a radiator fixed up there now – heh. The varnish went on quite well – the porous nature of it sucked the moisture from the varnish quite quickly – leaving a brush-stroked finish that was quite pleasant. However, I am going to put on a second coat to see how that feels.

All this delays me getting my comics online – which naturally stalls me doing work on ZUM! – so… how far am I behind on personal projects? Who gives a damn! Actually – ZUM! does plague me a little with guilt… but I have learnt to live with that :)

Took the foolish step of deciding to put some more of my old comics online last night – so was up later with the scanner than I should have been. Not suffering too badly from it this morning.

Sunday was my weekend this week after having to work Saturday. When I got home Saturday Eve was already asleep… which is a little sad – not seeing her off to bed… Jack was still awake & pined to the window watching the fireworks. He was also very tired… not that he’d admit such a thing. He was gibbering somewhat though. They had had a good day over at grandma’s by accounts – & had a nice time in Manningham Park – near to where she lives. The council seems to be putting some money into the park & it sounds to be very nice there now (I’ve seen the renovated boating lake & they did a nice job there). They have drained a water feature stream, which leads to a waterfall into the lake, it seems, & Jack was most put out by that. It seems there’s another stream running at the moment (this gets confusing as it’s what Jack was telling me – consequently not that clear) & Jack seems to have got it into his head from somewhere that they will not be starting the old stream up again. I said I could not see why, but he was most insistent that they would not be. What evidence there is for this belief, I don’t know… but I can’t see then ridding themselves of a waterfall feature by the lake… seems a bit extreme. Nevertheless, I tried to persuade Jack in this delirious state of his that there was no reason to mourn the loss of the stream as yet – they might be doing clearing, repairing, or whatever… but no – he insisted on taking the doomful view that all was lost.
He then proceeded to tell me several time the meaning of bonfire night was fireworks, but I don’t seems to recall him coming up with a reason for fireworks, other that it being bonfire night. Louise came back with the best one there, saying that it meant it was early November. A lot shorter than my foolish attempts to explain such daft abstracts as ‘gunpowder, treason, & plot’ while avoiding anything as gruesome as effigy burning & sectarian war. sigh.

Sunday would have been a better day if Jack had not taken it into his head that he would be what we would call ‘naughty’ in the evening. Trying to annoy us – I guess to get our attention. I of course fell for it & got mad at him. I find it difficult to react other than how I … uh… react. I’m not good at masking my annoyance. Still, it all calmed down enough in the end. I do not know what to make of these situations – I feel like homer simpson.

3:00 pm

Back from work – sitting in the dentist’s waiting room wondering if everyone else is here? Jack has an appointment at 3 – or was it just before 3? Whatever, they are not in the waiting room & the receptionists has not answered the “Ring once & wait” bell – so all I can assume is that they are in there, & Jack is having his teeth looked at…
Naturally I am now hypersensitive to my own teeth – as the smell & general aura of the dentists must always make you. Not been for far too long – I really should etc, etc.
Bother… I am getting itchy that they are not even here now – I cannot hear enough behind the door to tell, but I certainly would expect to hear something from either Jack or Eve… Darn the receptionist…
Hey ho.
The day passed rather quickly today – so much so that I realised I had missed the boat in terms of actually getting anything done… (In terms of ‘personal work’)
What a bother.
At least my brother wrote with his address, so I can get his pressie off to him at last. I worry now that I have bought him a repeat present… Did I get him that book last year? Uh, oh! That makes one more “we shall see”.

Half hour later…

Ah.. That’s OK – sitting around proved the right thing to do – I was early! I thought Jack’s appointment was at 3:00, whereas it was 3:20 – so Louise arrived with the kids a little bit ago & I have been left in reception on my own again looking after the pushchair… I would rather have gone with them but I guess that I need to look after the pushchair.

Returning from a day at <shudder> work!
Hey ho
Louise & the kids have had a day out at Louise’s mum’s – where they would have met up with Louise’s auntie, who was 80 yesterday. There’s a ‘do’ tomorrow that we will not be attending, but Louise is meeting her today for the ritual exchange of gifts & goodwill (as much as can be spared). Sigh… I feel a little guilty really as she doing this absolves me of the duty – but it would be a distinct lack of fun to have to work today & then the niceties with the relatives tomorrow. Not really much of a weekend…

Hmmm can see a few bonfires burning on the journey home. There is no bonfire in Tod organised this year… A shame. Jack would have enjoyed it. Not sure what Eve would make of it – she may seem fearless, but I think that close up, a firework display is another level beyond her experience. She’s seen a few fireworks from the window. If fact each time she goes to the window at the moment & sees a light – or perhaps… well, anything – she says, “firework!” She also says, “Come on Fireworks!” if there has been some – to will on more. Heh – there are a few nice things she says at the moment… She counts quite well – knows which number comes after another, but really – I don’t think she knows the concepts.

Then again, she knows 2 – as if there’s more than one of something she has said “2 [whatever the object is]”. She also is learning the words for colours, but again doesn’t really have the comprehension of colour identification. She sees a bus or a train & calls it a “yellow (bus/train)”. Yellow seems to be the colour of choice for anything that she wants to identify chromatically.
Hmmm – not sure where the train is now (does it stop at Walsden station on this run?) – so best pack up in readiness of leaving the train in a hurry…

Louise’s Birthday today!!
I managed to get the pressie that was ‘requested’ – so no surprise there – but I did try to hide the fact that I managed to get it – so that might have been a surprise. Got Jack to write a card from Eve & himself this morning, but he was watching ‘The Hoobs’ yet again, so his mind wasn’t fully on it.

The kids played out last night until it was quite dark & all the others had gone inside for their teas. The new family’s girl is called Kirsty – she must be 8,9 & is a bit rough with the little ones. Well, boisterous… she does not let them play without her input; picks them up & plays with their ball or bike or whatever. Jack likes to be picked up & spun around. Amber & Eve are not at all keen. Eve shrugs her off, but Amber disliked her attention, & she could not see that. Perhaps, as she’s new to the street she is trying to impress… If that be the case, I hope she calms down the sooner.
Went to bed earlier in the hope that I would feel less sleepy today. Partially worked – feel less ragged, but still sleepy.

Brain is sludge.
At home now – the working day done, the kids are on the back street, (I am vaguely monitoring) Louise is making tea.
There’s a new family moved in street, & am yet to decide in their favour… hmmm.