Archives: eve

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.

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).

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…

Jude is crawling rather well now. He can get a reasonable pace up… He’s not fast yet, but he gets about. He started ‘getting it’ on Sunday & has become more co-ordinated with it over the last few days. His next step will be to get himself into a sitting up position, as he can’t manage that himself at the moment & occasionally gets himself stuck.
My nose still hurts… I was thinking I could call from work & see if there was a doctor’s appointment, but then, I don’t have the number… duh.
Eve woke up this morning (06:00) with a racking cough. It sounds a little ‘croup’y – which is worrying. She’s also got a cut on her little toe from not wearing shoes. Her pal Amber, whose birthday it was yesterday has a habit of not wearing anything on her feet – so Eve wants to do the same, but Amber is more cautious in her walking whereas Eve still runs & jumps.
Louise’s pal Carolyn came a visiting yesterday. They were still about when I got home, but I needed to get back out to do the shopping, & by the time I came home they had gone. Their kid Katie, from my brief stay, looked a happy sort. She’s trying to walk already – only 10 months.

Oh they’re my favourite trains, are those ones – the old ones than don’t even have a drop down table on the back of the seat in front for you to use & swing around on suspension springs better suited to slinkeys. Thankfully today, we have a better train.
Now, I can’t remember a jot of what’s been doing. My brain is empty this morning. I will try to tease some glimmer of though like a tortoise being tempted out of a shell with a nice bit of crisp lettuce.
The carpets are due this Friday – they are coming to fit them! Ah, that just reminds me of something else I forgot – to get call the people we want to clean the stair carpet.
Must … try…. to…. remember….
um
This will be good though as we will be able to move into the attic space even though I have not completed lots & lots of things. This is immaterial – we will be up there! Woo! I will paint strip, paint & scowl at the damp plaster that still seems to refuse to dry out. Perhaps the presence of people up there will help… I dunno. Scare it away with our contempt of it or something?

How did the weekend go? Hmmm – well at some point Jack was in angry defiance mood. I suspect this was Friday. That evening he was very mad with me for stopping his shower & we were in a stand off situation. He angry with me & me, as usual, not backing down. He’s still in the bath – sitting down & reusing to get out. This could have continued a while, but fortunately Jude was still awake & Louise needed to get something. She handed him to me & Jude smiles at Jack & Jack just melts. He loves his brother. Jack plays up for Jude & I melt. I love my kids.

We went to Bradford on Saturday. Another ‘out of the blue’ “lets go to…” from Louise. I like these – unplanned & haphazard. Can’t really recall what we did. No real impact on memory. I wonder if we did anything that might impress itself on Jack & Eve’s memories? Ah – we met one of the teaching assistants that were attending to Jack’s class on the way home. She’s nice – she has a family of her own, but she stopped for a chat with Jack. Jack likes to engage people.
Sunday – we -um- what was it?
We did a little tidying & sorting – moving a cluttered shelf of toys from the front room to the back. The front room carpet is also due a ‘replace’.
Oh – & what else we’ve gorn & done? Louise, I suspect, would not like me reporting this, as it’s our private lives – but this journal thing documents our lives (kinda). We have moved our mortgage to the (hateful*) Halifax. In doing so we keep our outgoings about the same & my personal cover is better, & we have a little money for home improvements!
(* I say this out of knee jerk on long dissipated chagrin at being manoeuvred out of a job I quite enjoyed)

Journey to work could have been better… I took my wallet out of my pocket when I got home yesterday as it was too hot & was carrying too much. Forgot to put it back until I was half way to the station – so had to turn back… Missed the train & then faced 2 cancels & a very packed train on the way in. Arrived at work an hour later than I usually do… & that was because the train was so packed it took an age to get there.
Hey ho.
It’s a lark
etc

So – we went to Urbis yesterday. The inside of the building looked interesting… what I saw of it… It cost £5 per adult, so we were less than enthusiastic to pay £15 for the 3 of us. There we were thinking that museums were free by law these days… how foolish. Jack was most disappointed. He had been very good that day, but crabbiness due to lack of sleep was probably starting to surface. He coped very well in general though.
We sauntered off to Piccadilly station (taking in a couple of shops on the way) to see Caroline off. Louise got some new shoes – she is pleased about that. Eve fell asleep – so missed Caroline getting on the train. It was good to have her visiting for the weekend. She’s a good guest to have about & the kids really like her. Jack was quite good with it – quite & sad. He only cried as we walked away. We distracted him with the palaver of getting to the trams to get back to Victoria: lift down – across concourse – lift up – across concourse – establish final lift down inoperative – carry pushchair down the stairs against the flow of oncoming commuters.
Home a little late & the kids late to bed again. I hope they managed to sleep in a little today.

Are you calling me dull? dim? vacant?
Well – I concede there’s an element of truth there… I cannot deny it. I should not have stayed up late at the weekend… but hey – we had guests… a guest – Caroline from London.
Been good to have her here. Jack really likes her; Eve has no worries & Jude smiles at everyone.
Louise was saying that by this age Eve was starting to become clingy & not want others to hold her, Jude however is quite happy for anyone friendly to hold him & will smile at everyone. He’s even known to instigate smiling. That’s not to say that he’s one dimensional – he did the most quizzical side look at Eve the other day after she got down from the dinner table to lean forward at him & go “EEEaaaark!” & walk off. It was a definite – ‘what the hell was that about – is she crazy?’ look. He is, on the whole an immensely happy baby tho.
What have we done while Caroline has been with us this weekend?
Well… We were in Manchester after picking her up on Saturday. We are impressed with the refurbishment at Manchester Piccadilly station – Drab modernist to open sweeping ‘glass’ roof – all curves & elegance. We’d rather not have waited quite so long for her train. It was nearly an hour late after mysteriously taking a wrong turn & ending up in Coventry. A train taking a wrong turn? Bizarre. We wandered into a very busy Manchester. Not only was it a Saturday, but the last weekend of the Commonwealth Games. Abuzz, it was. People all over, band playing & all sorts. Quite cosmopolitan (well – it is a city – duh!). Not home too late for the kids, but they could not get a grip on going to bed – so were playing out in the back yard in their pajamas, before we dragged them off to bed.
Sunday – off to Hebden bridge. Jack has gone with Hamish on an earlier train & we get there a bit later by bus. We meet up in the playground & the skies open just as Jack & Hamish get to the paddling pool. I’m impressed by the speed at which the playground empties. There are a few persistent kids getting wet. Jack & Hamish shelter with us, even thought they are already sodden from the pool. Logic does not really come into it. That could have worked better…. Oh well.
In the evening, Louise it’s tired & although she wants to stay up, she can’t cope with watching Monster’s Inc with us all (Jack has had a bath & come back down to watch it.) He is very late to bed – I hope that he sleeps in a while this morning. Louise fell asleep getting Jack to sleep. I just about did as well… but managed to hang on for a bit longer.
Caroline heads back this evening. I’m meeting them after work in Manchester & we’re going to go & visit Urbis… Should be interesting – I’m intrigued how the building will look on the inside.