Archives: jack

Naaah

It doesn’t look like I’ll polish off that room this week. I took a night off & did no decorating last night. I decided that I wanted to put up a ZUM!& review… so I did. We also have Caroline coming up from London to visit us – which will be good! It would be a bit rude of me to do the decorating while she is here tho…

Eve woke at about 10:20 late night – rather upset. She has not woke at this time for quite some time (she sleeps rather well for at least the first 4 hours of the night, as does Jack). She would not settle either, so Louise took over comforting, & still she would not settle. It’s a bit distressing when this happens, as there is plainly something amiss. She was not comfortable… Stomach ache – possibly just trapped wind though as she did a few class farts. It did take her just over an hour to settle down again. She went off to sleep in our bed, me already drifting off & Louise trapped in her daytime clothes as she was not going to let her go. There was no recurrence in the night, so we can but hope that it was wind, & she is over that. She has got some ‘bug’ at the moment as she threw up her tea again last night. It would have stayed down save for the fact that Jack upset her again, & her upset spiralled into distress & puke. This has happened a few times of recent… & Jack has been warned about such foolish behaviour at teatime. Teatime is not going as smoothly as we would like at the moment. It did not help that I was very late home yesterday… the trains going a bit pooh on me, & all that.

New people started at work yesterday. There will be 3 in all, but we only saw 2 yesterday – such is the staggering of the introductions. Too early to say what I think of anyone & how I feel they will fit in. The fact that they turned up in shirt & tie (we have a relaxed dress code, thankfully) makes judgement all the more difficult.

We shall see…

Groggy (gosh, what a surprise) this morning – polyfillering late again… It seems I always find a little that I can do. My alarm is having to protest at me for me to get out of bed. I normally respond automatically & just start the day, but I’m getting a dangerous tendency to lig a little longer.

Eve was reluctant to sleep last night & made quite a fuss about going in the cot, but go she did & fuss she did. It took a good long while for her to calm down, but Louise did not get her out of the cot again. She cuddled her, but did not lift her. We do not want her getting the idea of a precedence set. It was Jack who eventually calmed her down… Well, distracted her by complaining at her that she was being, “Too loud” so he “could not hear the story” I was tying to read. She turned round as if to say “what?” & from then started to settle again. She was excepting enough to lay back down in the cot with her rabbit & milk (not a ‘bottle with a teat’ – she’s never had one of those). Jack drifted off to sleep as I read Whinie The Pooh (he doesn’t like “big books” a a rule, but this one does have quite a few pictures in it). I got up to turn the light out to leave & Eve’s still awake. Uh-oh… Feel like I’ve been caught doing something that I shouldn’t be so I flap my arms nervously, grin sheepishly & say to her that, “I’m just turning the light off” do so & lie back down with Jack again. Just so she knows there’s someone in the room, like. I give it 5 minutes before I check & she has drifted off to sleep now. She was slow blinking when I stood up, so I guess the darkness was the final blow to wakefulness.

Anxious today. Returning home from work
& inexplicably anxious. Can’t really give a good reason, as I’m
supposedly reassured, but that doesn’t help. I guess it’s all work
based. Got a internal mail of criticism yesterday that was stated
as not being directed at me, but nonetheless… Thought I’d talked
that through & felt better at the time, but as with paranoia it
creeps back at you.

Looks like we will get new staff joining
us, but that does not really help anxiety – perhaps creates more…
We have not been told that new people will be joining us.. but then
no secret has been made that recruitment is being done. As usual we
pick things us by assimilating snippets & gleaming
titbits.

i dunno – i think it’s that which is making
me anxious, but I’m not really sure.

bugger

This evening before tea Jack was drawing, & then wanted some scissors, then rushed into the kitchen with the train. We were delighted, so he cut out some more shapes & drew the truck & car in them

Before we went out to Leeds today, (well, that’s where we ended up again) Jack sat down & did the shopping list. He is loving writing at the moment.

Been messing about with this part of the site – the diary – when I’m supposed to be whipping myself over sorting out the ZUM! stuff… Still, I’m quite please with all my messing about. The code for the pages is a damn site better/cleaner & It’s good practice. I should start doing the same with the ZUM! site. Plans… plans…

Jack asked Louise yesterday if there was anyone on the plane? It’s not like he has seen pictures on the television or anything. We are worried at this age the glamorisation of such an event would take precedence over the reality of it. Talking of that… I managed to catch a few moments of early evening ITV news, & while there was some meaningless news waffle they showed pictures of the second plane hitting the tower repeatedly from differing angles. Once or twice would have underlined the horror, but this was again, & again & again! If that is not glamorisation, I don’t know what is. Yes, anyway… I thought Jack’s question was very well… attuned. He has heard things on the radio (as we have Radio 4 on the background most all the time) & may have heard the teachers talking bout it at lunchtime, from what Louise gathers. Anyway, Louise was a little taken aback by this question, but gave a very good answer of, ‘Yes, & there were people in the building too’. To which Jack seemed sated in terms of curiosity.

Eve is comprehending books more. To start with she really got fixated on books illustrated by Stephen Cartwright as he puts a little duck or something on each page, & Eve would want to look at these books to find the duck, or as she says “Wack-wack!”. Louise says that she’s heard that this is a good 1st step in reading… heard somewhere that academics say that encourages the child to look for patterns, or some such. Now we have a ‘Goldilocks & the 3 bears’ illustrated by this fella & Eve blows the hot porridge & empathises with the baby bear when his chair is broken (“Daddy fix it” says Louise). An interesting development – empathising with the book.

Jack’s writings

Jack’s house (school picture)

Perhaps if I slept a little more, I would not feel like my head was a deep well from whence specific recollection a was leaking bucket.

Ah well. Too much to do.

Got a little decorating done – which actually met my personal target of completing that little bit by such & such. Next bit is the alcove at the other side of that chimney breast – which is also a bit of a mess & needs a fair it of polyfillering… Louise said, “Ah, that’s good, if we can get the rest of the wallpapering done by this time next week…”

Perhaps a tad ambitious, but… well you never know! If the wall patching goes well, it might not seem such an outlandish target.

Eve seems to be coming down with a little cough. Her voice was a little husky yesterday afternoon. I probably have the same, as I felt like I had been sorting out dusty books again as I tried to sleep last night. As all were in our bed I went to Jack’s bed so that I felt free enough to cough, sniff & splutter without disturbing anyone. Hopefully it will not effect her too adversely. She was not eating as well as she usually does over the weekend, but then, she is still suffering with teething as her canines take a while to come through. Fingers in mouth a lot… & biting her nails still… How do you tell a 22 month old not to bite their nails!

She understands most things fully well, & communicates as much as she needs to as well. I seem to recall Jack’s language development having more structural flow – more word strings… but she gets by happily on 2 or 3 word string sentences. Has opinions like, “No want that” as well. I heard her bossing Louise about while I ligged in bed on Saturday morning, demanding “cereal”, “spoon”, “milk” & suchlike.

Daredevil on the backstreet as well. Likes to get a good speed up on her trike, or sit-on-truck. She seems to be able to stop well enough although she’s a bit tough on the shoe leather. Amber & Hamish have been playing around at our house quite a lot as well. I had Jack & Hamish very interested in my wallpapering for a while on Sunday. I looked out the window later & there was Jack, Eve, Hamish, Amber & Jessie all at the table on the front patio at one point yesterday. Jessie, I think, is in the same class as Jack at school, & lives on the street at the end of our cul-de-sac. Although he lives essentially a few doors away, he has only just started playing out with the rest of the kids from the street, or rather off from his side of the road. With all these kids about it does sometimes feel like we have an open house.

I assume they got the class to draw a picture of themselves.

Did I get any decorating done last night? Did I chuff! I did ‘play’ on the computer though. Got a nice chunk of redesigning the bits behind this page done*. Rejigged it so that it is better HTML & uses CSS so that it’s… well, basically better code & easier to ‘administrate’. Not seemingly a lot of good, but it’s a pride thing. I’d been playing with icab as a browser again. It’s a nice little thing, but if a page has ‘bad’ HTML coding it has a little icon of a ‘smiley face’ on the menu bar that goes red & unhappy. I thought I’d cheer it up. There’s still a <strike> code in the August page which I want to keep – so it’s only moderately happy there.

Louise & I were chatting about how well the kids are doing at the moment. She’s chuffed at the was Jack has settled into the school routine so well. I don’t really get that much of an impression on how he is doing, as, I guess Louise gets the detail off him. He did say to me that they had done ‘curly c’ yesterday, but then he knows most of his letters now. The social side of things is enjoyed. They played out 3 times yesterday…

Eve seems to be coming on very well with her language. Louise says that they chat most of the day, so I guess that she would. She says Eve’s ability to copy words is impressive. When talking of colours (which she does not quite ‘get’ yet) she repeated “bluey-green” after the one speaking. Not a useful word, but quite a complicated one. Eve is picking up on singing as well. ‘Wheels on the bus’ was sung yesterday & Eve joined in & may well have been singing it afterwards to. She does sometimes break into a rendition of ‘Twinkle Tinkle Little Star’ but only a few phrases. As we were doing the bed time routine yesterday, I was having difficulty concentrating on reading to Jack as I was listening to the conversation Louise & Eve were having as she tried to persuade her that she should go into her cot.
A lot of replies from Eve like, “No bed”, “No Cot” & even a “No thank you”. Choice was not really an option in the end, & she did go in her cot with the minimum of complaint (crying about the injustice of it all).

*original html based diary pages

i am special …say it every day

Hectic couple of days at work & home, so travelling home today is my 1st writing time. My fault for trying to do too much at home. Been actually starting to write some comic reviews again, & although they are not fully formed enough for ZUM! as yet, I thought I’d bat them off to a review zine in the states. Dunno what will come, but why not thinks me. I was too late to bed last night, so have a ‘background’ headache now, due to tiredness.

Jack’s 1st day at school went well, according to reports, although he was a little tired. He was lying on the sofa watching “The Travelling Thornburys” (my favourite cartoon at the moment) when I got home. Louise says that she was worried how he’s be when he came out from school – overexcited or whatever, but he was happy & placid. He had a good day at school, likes his teacher, & had some stories & … well, rather enjoyed it. It’s not really as if the surroundings are unfamiliar as it is the same school as he has been attending ‘nursery’ school at. He is now in what is termed ‘reception class’.

Louise didn’t tell me how leaving him there was, but then, as said, this is just next from nursery. The school day started later yesterday, but it was a normal start time this morning, which may have been more difficult. Everyone was asleep in the house as I left this morning. Hopefully everything went well, but Louise had go clothes, shoes etc all prepared the night before, so in theory everything will have gone smoothly.

It was just Louise & Eve yesterday, & Louise said that Eve did not stop talking & noise making all day.. well, we knew she was loud, but I guess that Jack has also been around masking the noise she makes on her own. She had fun by the sound of it – playgroup & more attention to just her. Heh… there’s girl about Eve’s age, with an older sister about Jack’s age. She was there at playgroup, & when she say Louise & Eve – she greeted them as Jack. It seems as she likes Jack, both Eve & Louise also must be called the same.

Jack was a bit difficult at tea time yesterday, as he can be sometimes. He did not want to come to the table to eat, so we didn’t bother trying to force the issue. He was mean to his sister when she had finished, a lego dispute again – he was trying to build something & she pinched a brick, that was either next to or part of his construction, he hit her, she got so upset she ‘lost’ her tea… so, effectively none of them had a tea, really. Jack did not get a tea after that mayhem. All calmed & cleaned up reasonably quickly, but it is especially disheartening for Louise when that happens as she spends this time cooking the meal, only to have it all messed up. Nice meal too – a new sweet & sour… Hey ho…

Dad called last night for ‘tech support’ on his computer. It seems, as he is entirely new to a windows or generally GUI interface, he was a bit rash with the left & right clicking, & somehow ended up getting too high a monitor resolution. He got it back to normal eventually in ‘Safe Mode’, but it took a few goes, & we also installed the printer drivers so that he could do what he wanted to do. Quite good to get that bit sorted – next to get him online!

Got home from work yesterday & Louise was sewing tags into Jack’s school clothes… Today, I guess he will get dressed up for school, but it is not the start. He is going with Louise to meet his teacher, whom they already know from contact through nursery class. Tomorrow is the ‘big day’. It’s sort of scary really, when you think about it too much…. He’s going forward into the ‘system’. Obliged to attend. You could say that he is ready for it as he seems keen to be learning, but nonetheless I resent the fact that his days will be taken up by this for the rest of his childhood & beyond. Our influence will also be less central. He is an open & friendly child, but he also lacks guile. Louise said the other day that she thought he was a little green… She caught him mentioning to another lad on the street that Eve had wee’ed on his Postman Pat duvet the other day… He got an, “Eeyurgh!” reaction from the other lad. Ah, he’s sweet & sociable – he should get on. He has some of our quirks, but we can do little about that.

Sigh.

Thinking about it too much…

Jack was still in this ‘at odds’ mood yesterday.  Louise was
saying that  he was trying to bait Eve, by playing with things
that she wanted to play with – thus not giving her much of a look
in.  She however if far more effective at teasing him then he
her.  Especially at the moment when he is so ‘fragile’. For
instance, trains again:  he is paying with his trains &
she walks up & pick one of the ones he is playing with. 
He immediately erupts in complaint – loud & near tearful. 
She regards him a moment & casts the train down 
again.  I’ve seen her do this a couple of times.  If Jack
does this to Eve, it’s 50/50 as to whether she will react or
ignore… actually, it’s probably more likely she will
ignore.  Jack does not seem to have the upper hand in this
‘game’.  Episodes of snatching & howling do occur
though.  We have a brio-esque wooden train track & trains
& have recently got a couple of battery operated engines to go
with it (one actually Brio branded – lummy!).  Last night they
tried to play with them, but… Jack had it in mind that he wanted
all the trains…  It all got very loud, & ultimately, as
Jack was incapable of sharing, the battery engines were taken
away.  Choices or sharing or removal were given, but
ignored.  Cautions were given – but shouted replies, &
ignored – so they had to be put away.  Jack was rather
inconsolable for a bit, but after the excuse of going for a wee
& therefore removed from the room he calmed quickly.  He
was too upset to go to the toilet himself – wanted Louise to carry
him, but she was too tired to take him upstairs… He did not want
me to take him to the toilet, so it ended in the compromise of me
hoisting the wailing boy up the stairs (I jumped him up – dropping
his feet onto each stair – which altho upset amused him) &
Louise taking him to the toilet.
Ah, the things parents do… But as Louise pointed out later –
these things seem trivial to us, but in his world view, where he
has so little control, such things feature large.
Jack does seem to have reached another level of ‘conscious’… He
seems more aware of his surroundings… He is certainly getting
very interested in writing, & will sit writing out words. 
He will ask how you spell a word, & you have to verbally spell
it out so he can write it down.  The results are sometimes a
little odd, but sometimes also rather impressive (from a proud dad
perspective).  Having taken longer on forming letterforms he
also sometimes slows down with his drawing & is taking more
care on what he does – resulting in some rather good drawings
too.  I am too aware that I have the potential to become a
pushy parent with drawing, so I just let him do what he wants.
Eve is eating loads at the moment & growing with it. She seems
to have gone through one of those moments when you realise that she
is a larger version of her former self.  In many ways – since
she has been walking, she has changed little, but such things are
subtle, as I’m sure she’s changed a great deal in reality.  As
enthusiastic as ever & loud, but uses more words (vocabulary
gradually expands).