Archives: eve

No typing yesterday as I was too wet – I was dripping & the keyboard is not waterproof. Was dipping today as well – but I seem to have stopped dripping now.
Back into the attic last night – hopefully the start of a better routine. Paint stripping again – the nasty layers of white gloss off the beams – but there are a few jobs that need doing. I have to concentrate & focus better. Louise said last night that she feels I’m more positive at the moment – hinting that I might have been in a rut of recent… Perhaps I have? Jack did not sleep so well – kept calling out when he roused for someone to visit him. Staggered off a couple of times in a very sleepy fashion, but did not get in his bed – which is what I suspect he wanted. I blame this for my grogginess this morning.
Interestingly on Wednesday night he was in the bath on his own for a good while – I was reading to Eve while Louise fed Jude, & then Louise & I were chatting… Jack was chuntering away to himself & I eventually investigated. He was acting out a little tableau with lego brick & cars as characters (they are imported unofficial bath toys). He was telling tales of woe – a sombre voice describing how ‘they all died – there was no food, only drink’ & things like that – then a few sobs & so forth. The sobs are what might have got my attention in the 1st place as I checked on him – he smiled sweetly & said that he was not really sad. When he came to get out of the bath & Louise had gone downstairs he burst into despairing tears. Louise came up & we had quite a performance – although it was pretty obvious he was ‘enlarging’ his emotions… hmmm….

Bit of a funny evening… It’s very hot at the moment & Jack has considerable trouble getting comfortable, & settling own to sleep. I eventually fell asleep with him. When Louise roused me it was half nine. I doddered off downstairs & put the kettle on, while Louise stayed upstairs for the moment. Jude woke up, so I stumbled back upstairs & took him to Louise, lay down on the bed a moment & promptly fell asleep again. Could see it coming & should have got up, but couldn’t be bothered. Woke at eleven thirty & thought… Ah! Better turn out the light & lock up the house. Putting the cover on the sandpit woke up Eve (as it’s below their bedroom window & it’s hot, so it’s open… Back upstairs & she wants her mum. Louise staggers over having woken up & I pootle off to lock doors & turn lights out again. Back to bed; back to sleep. Not very productive, but I do feel a little fresher this morning… I guess.

Jack has a guilty secret at the moment that I don’t think he realises I know about. Jack & Eve were play fighting the other day (Eve is usually the more antagonistic in these situations) & Jack bit Eve on the side. He drew blood. Eve was very distressed. It’s all getting better now healing already. I think Jack, from what Louise says, was very shocked that he had hurt Eve so, & asked Louise not to tell me. The big plaster was difficult to miss.
When I got home yesterday everyone was wilting from the heat. Our neighbour Caroline then turned up with a paddling pool for the kids! Wow! Much huffing & puffing & water carrying later the kids were wet & happy. Jack had his water pistol & Caroline had her watering can & they had a little duel. I would say that the watering can is more effective. Heh. She’s too good to us is Caroline

“Um…” is about all I can think of this morning.
A one-day weekend again – so not much doing. Jack & I cleaned the bathroom. Eve helped as well. Not terribly exciting, I have to concede, but it went surprisingly well considering it was me, & 2 young children & a lot of water. They were remarkably restrained… Actually, I think it was because Jack was good & Eve follows that lead.
Jack’s pals Jessie & Hamish were not about. Hamish is in London & Jessie must have been out for the day. Jack is worried as Jessie’s house is up for sale. He does not want him to go away & is afraid that he will move schools as well. As far as I can discern – they are not leaving the area & Jessie’s older brother & sister go to Jack’s school as well. I may be wrong, but I don’t think that they will be moving schools as well.
Jack takes his friendship very seriously. I’ve seen Jack trying to comfort both friends when upset. Jessie went off in a huff once & Jack was most disturbed, & ran after him asking what was wrong. I think Jessie felt aggrieved at some perceived slight. Hamish is the harder of the 2 as he does not seem to want consoling when upset (hmmm – that’s what Eve’s like). His elder brother had upset him & he went into his front garden to cry & sulk. As we were in our front garden Jack was most concerned & went to see what the matter was. Unfortunately Hamish just cold-shouldered & was probably more upset by the attention. Jack can’t really get his head round this reaction to being upset. When he’s upset he needs comfort from one of us (me or Louise). Big on contact & hugs, is Jack. I guess he expects others to need contact when they are upset. He wants to help.

Train Strike day. Sitting on the ‘turn around’ to Southport – that, of course goes through Manchester. They also seem to have laid on coaches today… That’s a 1st. Surely nothing to do with the Commonwealth Games starting today…? Noooo…

Louise, her mum & the kids went to Hebden Bridge yesterday. I think the plan was to look at a shoe shop there, but it has ‘intermittent’ opening hours – so as nothing has been said on the subject, it may not have been open. Eve is in need of new shoes again. She has a pair that seem too small for her; her 3rd toe has a tendency to hide under the 2nd toe if there’s not ample room.
Back to Hebden again today for Harvey & Flo’s birthday party. Not sure why it’s in Hebden bridge tho – but that’s the way it be, so that be the way it is (they live in Tod, & like us do not have a car). I will be late, & will have to spend longer on a bus that I’d like. The trains back home only get as far as Rochdale today, & thus I get a bus from there all the way to Hebden – bleh!

A feeling there’s much to say & a brain that still can’t get past the rudimentary. I guess this is what all parents are like… Too tired to think too hard.
Louise thought the 1st day of the summer holidays went quite well. The kids played well & the day went surprisingly quick. Jack was starting to act up a bit by the time I got home – an accumulation of petty things & ‘that look’ (I know it all – I’m better than you). Not something that sits well with your 5 year old.
Louise went off to the shops & Jack & I stayed a home. Eve is very willing to go with Louise & the pushchair – essentially as we now have a buggy board. We went off on a great trek on Saturday to John Lewis in Manchester. It’s in Cheadle; we needed a train, tram, train & 20 minute walk to get there. All for a retail outlet with a buggy board. It was not something that was really planned. Jude woke us early on Saturday (as mentioned) & Louise piped up that she thought it might be a good idea to try to get there… Heck – why not! The train etc went well to get us to Cheadle Hulme, but it was a little odd when we got there as we had no idea where we were & where Lewis’ might be. Got direction & started the hike. Jack coped well, but got truculent because he kept missing the planes that were coming into land, & blamed us for not pointing them out to him well enough… He was not actually listening when we were trying to point them out. This made the journey there more difficult. When we finally arrived, it was a tad busy… We do not get along that well with busy shops… but never mind. We managed to stay together for the most part & get the new buggy & buggy board. We had arrived there with no buggy/pushchair. The stock collection computers were down, so rather than have our crazy kids running back & forth through automatic doors to the ‘collection point’ outside, we opted to try to get some food. Cafes crazy busy. Supermarket sandwhiches, then. Jude does a poo, Louise goes off to change him while the kids nearly sit down to eat. Eventually we get back to the store & still have to wait an age for the buggy & board. Assembled & homeward bound. There may well be mac computers in this store for me to drool over & Rowan wool for Louise to muse over, but we cannot get out of there soon enough.

Just woke from a snooze on the train. Closed my eyes on the platform & found that I continued as I got on the train. Feel a bit better for that, actually…
Jude was up early again this morning. Saturday & Sunday he woke at 05:00 & started burbling on happily as he does. This morning he awoke at similar time, but this time it was caused by Eve waking up & crying for a cuddle. It probably doesn’t take much for him to wake up at that time anyway. So, Louise is going to be jiggered today.
Jude is sitting up. Sunday morning I had him sat down & he was holding himself very well, & by the afternoon when Louise sat him down, he was almost confident about it. It doesn’t seem like it’s going to take him long before he’s figured out crawling now. He gets himself onto his tum & shuffles about at the moment, & he’s getting to the point where he’s lifting himself very strongly.

Eve woke up in a good mood on Sunday; chirpy, smiling. What a difference it makes! She’s been teething of recent, & has been in a sod of a mood; always whingeing & carrying on. It wears you down, grating at the nerves so much it makes you physically tired. Louise copes extraordinarily well with it all. One main tactic was to just get her out of the house, really so that she has distraction other than complaining. She’s got our sense of humour though… Louise says that she was on her shoulders on her way to playgroup when she did a massive burp, “Pardon me” she said. Louise must have chuckled as she repeated with fake burp all the way through the park. Louise burped yesterday as she was relaxing in the house & apparently Eve jumped on her & wanted “Again, again” – thus the game continues.
Sunday was not all good. We had a run in with Jack, or should that be Jack had a run in with us? We were just in the Co Op car park, after doing some shopping. We were going to go back to the park & see what was happening. There looked to be the music event for the end of the Hebden Bridge Arts Festival with a fair attached. This is what it looked & sounded like from the playground anyway. Not too loud… Could be fun. In the car park, Jack noticed a small light bulb. He picked it up, much to my concern – it being rubbish & glass rubbish. I told him to put it down, he did. Whether I remonstrated for lack of care, or whether he just got the idea, he picked it up again & threw it down… He wasn’t successful in breaking it – so he did it again – by which time I was nearly shouting at him. He did break it – to which I exclaimed “JACK!” very loud. Louise had cottoned on to what he was doing & made the swift ‘right – that’s it!’ decision. We were going home NOW! Jack immediately burst into tears. How could it be fair? Well – if he had listened to us & not messed about… He cried & denied that it was his fault most of the way home on the bus. Only getting into town did he calm down. He later even conceded it was his fault for being naughty… but that was only after another smaller incidence (stone kicking, “don’t kick that stone Jack… No… Stop that Jack …JACK!) & punishment (not going to the bike shop for a bike stand) & another flood of tears. It’s hateful to see him so upset & to have caused it, but… but he really does need to listen & have more respect for things. Having said all that – he has been very good since then. He’s come back to more his normal self.
Jude was a ball of energy yesterday evening. Louise says that he hadn’t really had a proper sleep all day. He was asleep when I got home, but I probably disturbed him. He was kicking his legs & waving arms like mad – not in a frustrated way, he was happy & burbling most of the time. Just energetic & happy. He wants to be off & crawling I’m sure… I’m also sure he’ll probably be doing it sooner that we imagine. Not immediate – but soon.

Pleasant weekend.
We did not really do that much, by way of adventuring out, but I’m left with the afterglow of contentment. I would doubt that Jack sees it the same way. He had gone into ‘cocky mode’ to the end of last week, & it was starting to grate. He was not listening, & it all eventually ended in tears. We were having a fine time in Hebden Bridge yesterday. We went to the playground after collecting some sarnies from a cafe, & found that the paddling pool was full of water. Why not? – It was a lovely day after all. Jack & Eve stripped down & played in the water. Jack rushed about & splashed with the others, & Eve kept more to the edges, splashing her feet while sitting on the edge. Enjoying it, but not a boisterously. She eventually decided when she’d had enough & wanted to play on the swings & the rest of the playground. Jack had sunburnt shoulders in the bath that night – “my arms & neck tingle”.

Jude has started baby talk. Well – he was last week, to be honest. “La, la na ya ya na aya ya ya” . He’s 6 months old now & you wonder where the time goes… where the days & weeks go – is it Thursday already? Louise had a hectic day yesterday – Jack off to school, then off to playgroup with Jack & Eve, then home, (11:00) then off to ‘college’ for Eve’s afternoon playgroup there. Eve is starting to be left there on her own. The off to Supermarket, then drop shopping at home, then off to see Jack at his sports day, then off to pick up Eve. That’s where I met up as I was making sure that I got there in time in case Louise was held up at sports day.
Jack won the race where you have to run to a point, run back run to the next point, run back etc & then to the finish line. Louise says he got boxed in, in another race & could not win that (memories of losing the sprint when I was young there). He was upset at not being able to do the skipping race. All in all he did well & got a few 2nd’s & 3rd’s – but he did sound a little disappointed. He might be competitive… I’m not sure. I’m not really sure I want to find if I’m competitive by proxy – the last thing I’d want to do is become pushy. I’ll have to keep a check on me just in case.