Monthly Archives: August 2002

Louise has not broached the subject of school yet. Jack’s holidays end next Tuesday & he is still basically unaware of this fact. Louise now worries that she has left him unprepared for this sudden halt in the holiday.
Louise’s mum came over for a weekly visit yesterday & she was apparently in one of her blacker moods. Before Jack went to sleep he said that he hadn’t seen Grandma that much that day. He recalled when he had seen her; “I was playing out on the back street & she was sitting on the bench…. Then….. Sitting on the bench…. Then sitting on the bench… Then Sitting on the bench…. & then…. inside… & then & then….).

Aware that I’ve been writing a lot & not finding the time to do the website. Have been doing a little rejigging with the ZUM! Catalogue, & I only have limited time. I was trying to get a ‘Box Hack’ to work, as although it’s nicely HTML4 transitional compliant, Internet Explorer 5/5.5/6 on a PC is not in the way the page is rendered… The Box Hack is supposed to work round this & does allegedly work. My problem is that I don’t actually understand how it works & could find no proper explanation as to how it works, thus …well, I couldn’t get it to work. Seems fair enough. I opted to remove the code rather than sit with untidiness.

The paddling pool was out when I staggered home in the heat of yesterday. Louise said it took over an hour to inflate & fill. Sounds like a lot of effort with the accompanying chants from Amber of
“Where’s the pool?” and, “Where’s the water?”
“In the tap” (Louise manages)
“I’ve got a tap at home.”
They all enjoyed the water.
Jack crashed his bike in the evening. Nasty scrape on his shoulder. I would have gone to investigate which van he claimed he ran into, but I reasoned I’d rather not know & concentrate on Jack. I’m not aware there’s a red van that usually parks around our way. He was off again in 5 minutes with instruction to be more careful. I don’t know if he was as I didn’t have to go & collect him at bath time. Hamish must have gone in – so Jack came in. He’d been playing with Hamish constantly since about noon (Louise says). They must have come to an accommodation between themselves where they know how far to demand from each other in the direction of play. Eve & Amber have not quite managed it yet. Eve is accommodating to bending over backwards, but when she starts to take the initiative or go in a direction that Amber does not Amber goes from a scale of huffy to bealing. It’ll come – I remember Jack & Hamish used to have similar.

Eek! Another month is fast evaporating.
A bank holiday & feel nearly rested. One of the 3 days off I recall being quite stressful – but I couldn’t be certain now. Possibly Sunday as Jack was playing up, Eve was winding Jack up & whinging constantly as her top right molar is coming through & Louise was feeling off as well. I was probably feeling over tired, as there are not that many occasions when I don’t feel over tired, but that’s just a symptom of there never being enough hours in the day for me to do anything close to what I want to do. At the moment, for instance, I think our garden looks the worst on the street. The hedge is half cut & the grass is – well – it’s green, but it’s uneven, & the beds are lacking any distinction. Oh, & there are a few holes where things have been dug up & the kids have been digging up. Hmmmm… At this point I actually lament having any form of personal transport as although I can get things done in the garden there’s always one thing that does put me off – having bags of hedge clippings hanging about & being beholden on the good nature of neighbours to take them away (when they’ve been our for quite a while & are full of water & rotting garden matter). It’s not that I resent them taking it, but I feel guilty about being beholden & not really having anything I can do in return & being impatient that the rubbish sits in the garden collecting water when it rain & smell as it rots down in the bag… sigh.

Anyway – the Spofforths next door have sorted out their pond recently & smartened up their flower beds & it all looks rather spiffy. Jack is interested as their water feature contains a waterfall, a fountain & fish. He climbs the wall to look at it – which worries me & weakens the wall. He goes round next door &, in his good natured way still (in my mind) makes a nuisance of himself. Also – their garden puts me to shame – it used to be unkempt a little more & let me fell less guilty about our garden. Now I just have to put up with feeling guilty. Hey ho.
I know it still won’t make me actually do something about it as I still have other things to do.

Well -I was supposed to be on the earlier train, but it was cancelled. My mild panic after a dawdle in town was pointless. Hey ho.
Home a little later than intended. I hope it doesn’t piss off Louise as she’s hoping that we take advantage of her mum’s presence & go take books back to the library, get shopping etc.
Oh – & it’s a bank holiday – so I get to have a long weekend! Yeay!
The new arrangement of Louise & I sleeping upstairs (attic area) seems to be OK. It does have it’s drawbacks. Jack shouted out “Paul! Paul! Paul! Paul!… PAUL!” last night & I had to stagger across the room, down the stairs & into his room to see what the matter was; “Can I pop upstairs for just a minute?”
“No.”
It only used to be a stagger down the hall to his room. There’s a lot more to negotiate in a semi-comatose state.
Is Eve better on with the potty at the moment after recent ‘lapses’? Uh – well – take each day as it comes. She gets distracted & tired & she can be just plain lazy about it as well. She can remember though & makes a mad dash for the potty.
I can remember my parents getting mad at me as I was always leaving things to the last minute as a kid. Mad dashes used to annoy them.

No typing yesterday. Train strike – so bumpety trains with no tables & half the journey home by bus.
Tired this morning – up late mad rush but leaving me with plenty of time to leave the house to get to the station.

Up in the attic… It kinda dawned on me yesterday that it’s quite an ‘important’ landmark in the house – us moving up there. It’s something we’ve been working toward for quite a while, & to actually have made it… It’s… well, it’s satisfying. It’s not like I’ve finished work up there though… & there are not a dozen other things I need to do… Oh, stop tainting the moment, Paul.
Eve was doing well with her potty training. She’s been a bit tired & certainly run down (too excited to go to sleep & up too early in the morning). Her concentration is not what it should be & she’s had more than her fair share of ‘accidents’ & has been, on occasion, plain wilful. Louise has started a ‘star system, & by yesterday evening she was up to 10 out of 12 for a balloon… but then 9 again by bedtime. Jack also has a vested interest – Eve could not have a balloon & Jack not – so they will both have one. Jack has tried to be encouraging as well.
Jack was in a stroppy mood yesterday. A few curt sulking sessions. He was playing with his friend Jessie – with the ‘Thomas the Tank Engine’ collection & some dispute arose about the role of their respective trains. Jessie was not happy with what Jack wanted to do & Jack was probably unwilling to back down (this is not an argument – this is just a, “& then my train” discussion). Jessie got upset by this & as he does, just went off in a huff. Jack doesn’t understand this. Jessie then goes all “not my friend” which Jack also doesn’t like, so he came back up the hill with his forehead laid on the steering bar of his scooter; all forlorn. Not answering “What’s the matter queries & being jolly surly. He eventually relented to a cuddle, but was still only communicating in “Nuuurks” (as Eve does).

When the kids were asleep last night, we moved bedrooms. Thankfully it was not a noisy affair. We’ve now got a relaxingly large room to sleep in instead of a room that is only just bigger than the bed (well – it is a king size). It’s funny – the bed seemed bigger…
We went to Louise’s sister’s yesterday. Adventurously setting off to Leeds to meet them. It all worked rather well getting there (what with being able to set off early as the kids were up early). They took us to their house once we met up & the kids enjoyed themselves. Jude fell asleep on me (for about the 3rd time that day) & I managed to absorb more & more sleepiness to the point where I also sat down with him resting on me & fell asleep… That was a bit weird, & I suspect a bit rude… or at least bad etiquette. No one seemed to mind though. Amazingly the kids did not try to wake us. Back home & the day seems over far too quickly.
Bah
Louise said this morning, as I left how pleased she was with the house again. Actually moving upstairs has made the house seem bigger.

Train to work Saturday (sigh).

New carpets are in – they are very very nice.
Jack managed to be the 1st with a muddy footprint having been next door where Mr Spoforth had dug all the mud out of his pond, & got his little waterfall water feature working. Such things are of obvious interest, but Jack brought a fraction of mud home. Ah well.

The man who cleaned the attic stairs carpet said that there were at least 3 inches of soot in the bottom of his bucket. That’s good – hopefully there’s no more lingering in there.

I popped off to the dr’s yesterday afternoon & came home with the diagnosis of psoriasis… weird. That’s my elbow etc – might also be my nose, but I have some cream to shove up me nose as it’s all infected. Shoving cream up me nose – very bizarre. Well – if it gets better quick, I have no problem with it.

The health visitor came to give Jude a check up etc the other day. He’s fine. She was impressed with his crawling. He’s on the 50th centile for weight – which is dead centre average, & the 75th centile for length (height). Hmmm…. neither Jack nor Eve were that big. How that continues in life is yet to be seen. He’s a strong little thing as well – this crawling business seems to have given him even more get up & go. Last night bath was hard work – constantly moving, wriggling, standing up & generally giving me quite a hard time keeping him safe & in control. I did give up eventually & just got him out. At least he didn’t pooh in the bath – which is something he seems to quite a bit. He’s only a baby – he’s not aware. Speaking of scatological things… Eve’s potty training is on/off. She finds it difficult at the moment not to get lost in the moment. We are getting through a lot of pairs of knickers a day… & socks for that matter – all wet. She is a bit off colour at the moment – a cough – teething – so she’s much less likely to be able to take notice of these things than when she’s on form – at least one hopes that’s the case.

My nose is still not better, & I also have an abrasion on my elbow & lower back that seem to be infected as well. I keep thinking things are getting better (at least my nose does not hurt as much) but all I can honestly say is that things are stable. As this has gone on more than a week now I’m going to make a conscious effort to try to see a doctor about it. I would rather be better than stable.

Carpets are coming today! We were moving things around last night to clear room for them to work. There are a few items which have no space t go elsewhere but the fitters should be used to such things… Hopefully…
Quite looking forward to getting home to see the transformation…