Archives: paul

um…
Well – I still have not managed to extract the files from my newton to OSX.
Bah
At least I can back things up onto a memory card now – but all the same – this is not good. I’m actually going to have to do some reading & research.
This is not to disparage OSX – I’ve never been able to get the blighter to work with a PC or the older mac in the office – so it’s… one of those things, perhaps. I could still bash away trying to do other connection type things, but I think reading would be good now.

Jude has been going through a few subtle changes of recent. There are a whole new slew of facial expressions, including a very good sneer; lots of ‘amazed’ & happy faces also. He’s starting to copy – I put my hand up at the dinner table & he copies from his high chair… & then everyone puts their hands up. He’s also moving around very deftly on his feet. He doesn’t balance properly yet – well – not for more than a few seconds anyway – so is not really near walking on his own yet.
Louise took Eve to the supermarket & the tacky Xmas decorations were up. She says Eve just exploded with excitement at it all. She was nearly screaming at Xmas…. Oh boy… she knows…
That reminds me – I really must get in touch with me dad about getting a lift down to Somerset for Xmas. If he can’t its getting time to book the train.

Better sleep last night. I sometimes gauge my wakefulness on how I manage to prepare breakfast – more that one brand of cereal for each bowl y’see – so can I get it all right? I failed again this morning – but only to a minor point. Louise got a few crunchy nut cornflakes – which I’m sure she won’t mind.
Apparently I took some cajoling to get out of bed to go comfort the nightly howl from Eve. Don’t remember if she made it up the attic stairs or not, but I woke up with her at 4:10 & thought I’d get more room in our bed upstairs. I was wrong… but at least it’s the bed I’m supposed to sleep in. Jack grew out of waking in the night from all noise & bluster. Hopefully Eve will soon… but then there will be Jude. Hmmm… as I went upstairs to wake Louise & collect Jude this morning (he always seems awake at that time at the moment) he uttered faux words. Me in my tired state thought that one of the other kids must be up there – but no – it was he. He is using a wider range of noises at the moment, & that was one of those moments where he uses the intonation of a sentence.
Louise hoped she was beating her cold yesterday, but she awoke this morning as stuffed as ever. It’s not like her to have one in the 1st place, but she’s stuck with a real pest at the moment.

Poor little brain want more sleep.
Later I talk of…

Train home

hmm… does my brain work yet? I’ve been at work all day, but that does not mean…
Been up too late too much of recent – not really a good idea.
Why? Mostly just prating about. I have been trying to figure a way of getting files of this eMate & into OSX at home. Should all be logically easy – but I seem to have conspired against myself in an attempt to make things difficult. Hey ho.

Caroline came over for the day yesterday as well. She’s been oop north at a conference & opted to come over & see us. Stayed up too late again.
Should go bed earlier, but good company.
Silly
Stop now

No typing yesterday – stood in the rain for an age falling asleep waiting for the train to arrive & it was somewhat crowded when it did.

Eve’s birthday went rather well – she had lots of presents… We’d accumulated quite a few. Much excitement for her; when I got home on Wednesday she was a whirlwind of it, showing me this, showing me that. They’d sung “Happy Birthday” to her at playgroup & oh, a million other things. Happy, but already starting on the road to tired & delirious. Tea was early – pancakes & strawberries & raspberries. They scoffed all the fruit & I had a couple of pancakes. My mum briefly called & Eve shouted to her that it was her birthday to her down the phone. Eve had been anticipating the birthday since before Louise’s birthday – so it’s hardly surprising she was a bit excitable. It’s the 1st ‘occasion’ that she’s really ‘appreciated’.
That night she went to sleep straight off. Excitement being the only thing keeping her going by then, once calmed she was out.
Jack was in the bath when he complained of not feeling well. We got him out & got him dressed, then back to the bathroom to be sick. He’s not often that ill, but he has been ill on scoffing ‘too much fruit’. The raspberries were not as ripe as Louise would have liked for letting the kids have them …that’s probably what was to blame. Jack was awake again before 11:00 & I could not get him to settle again. In the end I got to bed at 12:30 …& then woke up a bit later to start a night of going up & down stairs to see how the kids were. Eve was probably suffering from the raspberries as well as they both had disjointed sleep. All were also awake when I was due to get up at 5:30… We’ve all had better nights …shame – tarnished a really good day.
Louise called me at work yesterday morning as Jude had torn Jack’s library book & she needed to know what I had done with the cellotape after present wrapping. The library book needed to be returned to school that day. I ended up with Jack on the phone, which evaporated my grumpiness by him saying, “Sorry for keeping you awake last night Paul”. Oh, my kids call me Paul & Louise Mum or Louise. I rarely get called daddy by Jack. Without Jack Eve calls me daddy.
They all did very well yesterday evening for the tiredness they must have felt. There was basically the one incident when I got home of Jack bashing Eve on the head for taking a sticker. This caused her to be sick. You can tell when upset will result in vomit from Eve by the way she cries. Louise’s mum was there & had a go at helping her; tried to calm her down, but that’s a little pointless sometimes when she’s ‘crying like that’. She took her to the kitchen & managed to hold her all wrong by the sink & ended up with sick on her jumper. Hey ho. Eve soon calms down & is onto other things.

Did a little shopping in Manchester on the way home – picked up my sunglasses (well pleased) & a few essentially for home. Popped into a record shop (as I just cannot resist) & had an impulse buy of the latest ‘best of’ from EBTG. Made the evening go well – all heads nodding to the music at tea time …well …except Jude.
Jack slept well last night; Eve a little less so. We all were in bed early as …well …it was needed.

EVE’S BIRTHDAY TODAY!
Kinda hard to believe she is only 3.

A good nights sleep last night as well – still feel a bit groggy, but that may be because the previous night was so grotty & I had no ill affects yesterday… It’s gotta give somewhere.

Only Jude awake when I left the house this morning, which in a way was a shame as it would have been nice to see Eve open a couple of presents. Am I mad? This is my daughter’s birthday! I should be at home!

Louise was telling a whole bunch of amusing anecdotes about the kids yesterday, but I can’t remember bugger all. This is certainly one of the deficiencies of writing this stuff when my head is a fog. I remember she said that Eve said that she did not want to be a baby now, as she was a BIG GIRL!
Jude is balancing – he’s been standing for a while & this past week he’s been walking around the furniture a lot. He’s now just started ‘letting go’. Only for a very short moment – but he’s doing it.

Just made myself cringe and sink internally for a moment as I recall that I caught Eve’s fingers in the door frame yesterday. Jude is trying to climb the stairs (he can do now, but certainly not without supervision as he slips sometimes). Eve was trying to help move him from the bottom of the stairs & I then made to close the door – which wasn’t closing – because Eve had her fingers in the space where the frame closes in… & there was this little grinding noise of her fingers squashing…. eurg…
She cried a lot…nearly was not sick – but that was inevitable in the end. Two little crease lines on her fingers looking like it was very close to breaking the skin. I was worried I’d done some real damage, but she was able to bend them without any problems. Plasters were put on – she demanded them & I guess they act a little as a placebo. They’ll also help her to keep her fingers padded & straight.
Didn’t like that.

Jack’s tired at the moment – he’s playing up a bit – being a bit of a ‘wild boy’ sometimes at home. Still has some sleep to catch up on methinks? Having said that he & Eve played together very well last night before bed. Very much as a unit, no bickering & sniping. To bed a little later due to good behaviour.

Yeay! Managed to get a haircut! That’s better.

Hazel – Louise’s pal from London sent the kids an enormous bunch of pens & paper & stickers yesterday. Cor! It kept them jolly busy until tea time – allowing me to prat about getting little jobs done. Made for quite a productive little time.

Still no OS9.2.2, (pedant in my version descriptions, eh?) when I got home. Unfortunately I looked at the apple site again with details as to delivery times & all that & noted with some dismay, that although they claim to have a 2/3 day turn around, they also state that it can take 7 to 14 working (not normal) days for the goods to arrive – which means that I have only really touched the 7 working days limit. Bah! More being ‘adult’ & patient.

All the kids were asleep when I left this morning. That hasn’t happened for… well – some considerable time. Peaceful & stress free.
You kinda miss them though.

Yesterday Eve was completely & utterly tired out. She was ready for dropping off to sleep before 7, but then the fireworks started & it was at least an our later before she could keep her eyes open no longer & flopped down from the bedroom window & was willing to be carried over to her bed. Just a few seconds before she fell asleep then. Jack stayed at the window watching the fireworks around the town for another half hour or so before he was wrenched from the window & dropped into the bath. It took him quite a bit of reading before he would calm down enough to slip into sleep.

I tried to get a haircut again yesterday & failed miserably – annoying that. Queue to big at the barbers in Manchester (I could well have missed the train I need to get – so off home to try the 2 others. Tuesdays one closes (I’m sure I managed to get a cut there on a Tuesday before…) & the other one has a notice declaring that it’s closed – just for today. Petty frustrations…. Ah, talking of which; my other petty frustration – my Apple CD of 9.2.2. still has not arrived. [Summary:] I got my OSX install CD the week before last & realised that I could not do a straight upgrade, because OS 9.0.4 on my machine would not be compatible for use in OSX’s ‘Classic’ environment (allowing usage of the current apps I have). No OS 9 upgrade CD is packaged with the latest version of OSX – thus I have to send off to apple with monies for P+P & ‘handling’. Done 25/26 of last month.. & I’m being very good… I’m being adult & not installing OSX & then sorting out the problems later -!
I’m just waiting – I’m BEING PATIENT! gah! Most unlike me & ‘new toys’. Excuse me while I just go & sulk in the corner for 5 minutes…

Heh… While Jack was on holiday the other week it was ‘photo’ time at playgroup. Someone comes around to take those ‘your child (nearly) smiling photos’ like the ones they take in schools. All the brood went to have their picture taken. Louise was a bit worried how the photo would turn out, as Eve was a bit nervous of it all. It has turned out very well! We have an adorable photo of the three of them sitting in a row – smiling (well – Jude is more quizzical & Eve’s smile is not carefree – but Jack is on full ‘charm offensive’).

Oh, my brother & Jess are hopefully dropping by this weekend – it will be good to see them – it would also be good if I could get in touch with him to figure out what his plans are… but those are just details.
We’ll then have Caroline coming to visit in a few weeks as well if things work out. We are a bit ‘socially booked’ at weekends at the moment… weird.

Power cut this morning – I feel grecky as the hot water although gas, is dependent on electricity. Bah. Still – it was a novelty of sorts.
Got me new glasses yesterday! I can see everything crystal clear. My eyes were not enjoying it that much yesterday & my head & eyes feel a little dull this morning; that’s probably through sleep drought.
Giving up typing this morning for the more passive activity of sleeping. I feel I need to.

Hah – this machine would hardly work this morning (the eMate on which I type) as I’d filled it so with all my waffling. I deleted a stack (to free up the memory stack). I’ll concede I need to look at deleting some apps I don’t really need either.

On Friday last week they came to fit the new windows in our house. They took just the one day to do it. They did rather a good job. It’s all rather gratifying. I was sceptical about moving to PVC double glazing, but it has made quite a difference to the aspect of the rooms – they seem much more light & airy without the heavy coloured wood of the previous windows. The Kitchen door is rather pleasant as well. We have not done the windows in there as we are looking to change the room round before we do that – but the door is such an improvement. We decided to have a big window on the door to let in more light & it works a treat.

Been quite a good weekend. Jack’s was a bit cocky on Saturday, but we put that down to the fact that he refused to have any breakfast. By the time we were going out he’d got himself cranky (& was demanding food – but we were going out!). Got present for Leila’s birthday party – forgot most things – back home & off to the party in the pouring rain. We arrived half an hour late, but it was the best we could manage & it was to little ill effect. Jack was not keen to join in musical bumps & other party games. Whether this was because we were late or because… it’s not what he likes (not a great one for competition sometimes – he comes over shy all of a sudden) I don’t know. He was happy enough to join in hide & seek & run around like a mad thing though. I wheezed about the place a bit as i had forgotten to bring my inhaler. I’ve been more reliant on it the last week after hardly using it for ages. I have a cough. Got soaked on the way home as the rain was even worse. Paced quite well as not to get too out of breath though.

Took Jack swimming on Sunday morning. He’s starting to have lessons – this being the second now. He really, really likes going swimming. He enjoys himself to the extent where he doesn’t really listen to the instructor sometimes. I have to strain my ears to listen to what she is saying. Did backstroke & practiced getting legs straight & kicking well – which Jack managed fine. I seem to recall that I was happier swimming on my back to start with. I never was that coordinated & it’s nice & simple on yer back. That breast stroke… eesh – all those odd arm & leg movements.

Off to Leeds for the afternoon – & pottered about very easily. Pleasant bit of consumerism & then home. Yeah – that went well.

Blurg boogle bliuh nurgah.
brabinb no want work.