Monthly Archives: October 2002

Hey ho… Brain still awaiting catch up on the sleep thing. Nice & Groggy this morning.
Got my new CD-RW working last night after faffing about for a good while. The software the manufacturer supplies is… not great. By that I mean that certain unrequired components seem to freeze the mac on startup. I conclude that it is probably a clash with Login on my verson of Mac OS – which is well stinky.
It’s taken me a couple of nights of pratting about starting with extensions off to come to that conclusion – which is far more time than I’m willing to concede to any problem – but needs must. I now actually have facility to do a proper backup of my files – which is like – really amazing! Hmmm – that sounds a little ‘gosh, wow’ of me – but I have not been able to do a proper backup since I got the computer – which in my opinion is very unwise. I’ve had a few scary moments where I thought I’d lost all – & the risks become greater the more I accumulate. I’ve been taking loads of photos for nearly a year now without any safety net if I suffered major problems. Anyway – now begins the process of putting back extensions & hoping it doesn’t all go wobbly… Hey – That does give me the very good excuse of prattling with the kit to back up all files before doing that.
Thinking of doing some passive newspaper reading.
Summary on the home front: Jude is happy – seems past recent tummy upset. Standing up against everything he can. It is wise not to stand still for too long as he will crawl up to you & stand up against your legs now.
Eve is fractious – she has a back upper right molar which still has not come through proper. This makes her more barmy & volatile than usual. She is now going to Monday afternoon school playgroup as well. She likes it all & is not troubled by Louise leaving any more.
Jack is … well Jack, really; loving & boisterous.
Louise is going for an eye test tomorrow. The 1st in many years. A new pair of glasses! She may even get a pair of wire framed ones & a pair of free sunglasses!! Louise has never, as far as I know, had a pair of sunglasses – let alone prescription sunglasses.

A pleasant weekend, all in all. Out & about on Saturday. We had money things to sort out & Louise managed to get an appointment with the opticians in Bradford. She also likes the glasses I’ve been thinking I want. We went to a toy shop as Jack had a party to go to on Sunday & we ended up getting presents for Jack & Eve as well (how can you escape such in a toy shop?). Eve got a small dolly which had a tiny bottle & dummy etc. She sat in the pushchair & played with it a lot. Kept her quite happy all afternoon. Jack got a bit of technics lego – a ‘drome racer’ which flies apart when it hits something. He was a little frustrated that he could not have it until he was home – but we had to be sensible with it really. Thinking about it he was a little easily frustrated this weekend. This could be an indication that he’s not really well. Retaliated at Eve a couple of times. Oh, & there was Hamish; he upset Jack. Jack wanted to show Hamish the neat technics/bioniclish car that he had & Hamish brushed him off. Seems Hamish was being busy being a ‘big boy’ & didn’t want to bother. Jack came back in tears. Amber came round a little later to play with Eve – but they didn’t really cotton on to this neat car & bionicles thing. He tried, but she just left in the end – which she (& Hamish for that matter) have a habit of doing.
Jack enjoyed his party over at Tom’s a lot. He was a little worried as I took him that I might not hang around, (I didn’t) but as soon as he was there he was happy & last seen dashing off with pals up the stairs. When I came to get him later he was full on giddy. He charged out of the door at me happy as anything. Crashed into me, as he likes to do. I bent down for a hug & got a real good slap on the head for my trouble. Diane, Tom’s mum was really good & gave us a party bag for all of our brood which included hair grips for Eve & a rattle for Jude – uncommonly generous! Jack had a couple of his party bag sweets on the way home & Louise said he was completely bug eyed when we arrived back. He danced through the door & announced to Louise – happy as anything – that he’s had, “too many sweets” – which was, by & large, patently obvious. He remained in a happy & convivial mood all afternoon/evening. Played well with Eve – ate his tea – gadded about – played with Junkbot on the lego site & did not worry when I was not there to assist. Actually – he played quite happily on his own – completing the puzzled to complete the levels quite well. OK then, all in all Jack has been abundantly loving this weekend. It’s true what Louise says – when he’s in a good mood everything goes smoothly.
I stayed up a little late last night watching most of ‘A Clockwork Orange’. I gave up in the end as I realised that I needed sleep more than I needed to know what happens in the end. I’ll watch it again sometime, & I’ll be able to play proper attention. Sleep will nag at me now this week – I must remember to get to bed on time to make up the deficit.

Type now read paper later for I will have some plonker come sit next to me in a station or two’s time. The only problem is, this induces the ‘pressure’ to actually write something – which in turn makes me wanna say, “Oh, sod it all!”.
Jude is not especially well at the moment. This is not to say he’s not really his usual chirpy self. He’s still happy but on occasion he cannot seem to keep his food down. There’s a bit of being sick. Now there are a few possibilities. The plain fact of the matter is that he’s super teething at the moment. I don’t think Jack nor Eve had such lumpy gums as he now has. It’s like he has a real crop of teeth all coming at once. He could also be at the stage where the oesophagus is changing. It moves down, apparently, in babies of a certain age – it’s just I can’t remember what age that’s supposed to be. This can cause a lot more spluttering etc as they adjust. Louise said just yesterday that she though his neck was getting longer. He could also be suffering a relapse from the illness that’s doing the rounds of our town at the moment (the one Louise had last week). Louise is worried that he’s swallowed something & he can’t eat anything. He does have that annoying of so many babies of picking up anything he finds & shoving it in his mouth (& he has a capacious buccal cavity – a trait from his dad). She feels guilty & sometimes thinks that he looks at her as if to say, “you let me swallow such & such”. Well, it’s only natural for a parent to feel guilty & worry that they are messing things up. I do point out that he can actually keep food down sometimes & if there was a ‘blockage’ this simply would not be the case.

Good morning – how _are_ we this morning?
Well – for the 1st time in …I don’t know how long, none of the kids were downstairs before I went to work. No I did not say awake, as when I was leaving the house Eve’s usual wake up routine started. She still seems to wake the majority of the time in tears &, “Want” ing someone or other. No doubt there will also have been the, “I want me daddy” when I was not there. She does seem rather incessant at the moment. Always on the go & chatty & not leaving Jude alone & wanting this & wanting that & especially wanting all the attention she can get. This, as any parent will tell you, is only normal. She gets a bit to tired & emotional by the end of the day as well (probably because she’s up early). Still – she’s had an extra half hour more than usual this morning. Some days Louise’s sanity is tested to the limits, I’m sure.

The train has been more crowded of recent. I have been told why now – the ‘turn around’ from Tod to Southport has been removed from service. This does not bode well as that was my ‘stand by’ train in case there were any problems with this one. This means I have a much higher chance of being late for work. Bah. Not happy about this. Especially not happy about the ‘little things’ like having to start typing as soon as the train starts, rather than wallow in the paper for a while my by brain solidifies from the liquid state induced by sleep & waking. Again, BAH!
<Tries to tune brain in to thinking> ummmmmmm
Duh yeah – went to school last night. One of those ‘parents meet the teachers to discuss schooling’ things. Just 10 minutes. It seems Jack is happy, confident & social at school. Such things are happily reassuring. He is also willing to answer questions & be involved. He did have & still does to a lesser extent, it seems, have a tendency to be a perfectionist. He wants to get things right. He is less worried about this now though. Whereas last year this impeded him – slowing him up to the extent that he was not getting things done; he now completes tasks in the given time. I think he’s less afraid of mistakes – which is a good thing. Having said that…. Louise & I have noticed a tendency to be worried more about making a ‘social’ mistake. He seems to be worried more at the moment about doing something wrong. It’s a little odd, as he can get himself quite upset if you reprimand him for some minor misdemeanour. It’s like suddenly we have this aura of ‘they must be obeyed of you suffer the consequences’ – which can be quite disconcerting.
Jude still has no teeth. He has very very lumpy gums at the moment though. He was throwing himself about as I was holding him the other day – jumping up & down in my arms to the extent that I thought he was going to hurt himself on my shoulder. He didn’t seem to – but still – you think – that surely can’t be good for him.

Up a little later than I should last night putting a note on the Bugpowder Blog. Silly me.

Eve was up early as usual. She has developed the habit of waking before 06:00 at the moment. This morning I was in the shower when her howls started. She does not wake up quietly, but then ‘quiet’ has never been her thing. Louise tried to convince her back to sleep, but she never seems to fall for it. Its dark out – it looks for all the world like night time – but she is not fooled.
It’s [cut short as fellow passenger wants a seat]

Back to work (albeit later than usual today – I saw Jack off to school with Louise).
I had to stay at home yesterday, as Louise was rather ill. There’s this rather unpleasant bug around, you see. It all came on rather suddenly. After tea on Monday, Louise was not feeling that good… When we were getting the kids off to bed she took Jude up to our bed & went off to sleep with him, as she was rather tired. Then when all were asleep & I’d just popped downstairs to prat about on the computer I heard her shout form me. Dashed upstairs & she’d made it to the bathroom to be sick. She was in a bad way though. This continued for most of the night. We had a bowl by the bed & all that.
She was plainly incapacitated so I took the next day off to get the household things done. The kids up & fed & Jack off to school, & washing etc. I only really had Eve to keep amused, which was quite good. Jude stayed with Louise & slept for most of the day with her. This was rather good for me, as I would not have been able to cope so well with he straying as he does. Eve also acts different when he’s about. She either wants your attention in rival to him, or will play with him – but play with him wrong – she’s too rough & boisterous & want to pick him up & all that. All in all it went quite well.
Louise was able to stand up & move about again by yesterday evening, so was confident enough that I should return to work. Her mum’s also coming over today so that Eve can have someone to distract her. Eve wanted to come on the train to work with me, but we all had to wave bye-bye.