Archives: paul

No typing yesterday. Train strike – so bumpety trains with no tables & half the journey home by bus.
Tired this morning – up late mad rush but leaving me with plenty of time to leave the house to get to the station.

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).

When the kids were asleep last night, we moved bedrooms. Thankfully it was not a noisy affair. We’ve now got a relaxingly large room to sleep in instead of a room that is only just bigger than the bed (well – it is a king size). It’s funny – the bed seemed bigger…
We went to Louise’s sister’s yesterday. Adventurously setting off to Leeds to meet them. It all worked rather well getting there (what with being able to set off early as the kids were up early). They took us to their house once we met up & the kids enjoyed themselves. Jude fell asleep on me (for about the 3rd time that day) & I managed to absorb more & more sleepiness to the point where I also sat down with him resting on me & fell asleep… That was a bit weird, & I suspect a bit rude… or at least bad etiquette. No one seemed to mind though. Amazingly the kids did not try to wake us. Back home & the day seems over far too quickly.
Bah
Louise said this morning, as I left how pleased she was with the house again. Actually moving upstairs has made the house seem bigger.

Train to work Saturday (sigh).

New carpets are in – they are very very nice.
Jack managed to be the 1st with a muddy footprint having been next door where Mr Spoforth had dug all the mud out of his pond, & got his little waterfall water feature working. Such things are of obvious interest, but Jack brought a fraction of mud home. Ah well.

The man who cleaned the attic stairs carpet said that there were at least 3 inches of soot in the bottom of his bucket. That’s good – hopefully there’s no more lingering in there.

I popped off to the dr’s yesterday afternoon & came home with the diagnosis of psoriasis… weird. That’s my elbow etc – might also be my nose, but I have some cream to shove up me nose as it’s all infected. Shoving cream up me nose – very bizarre. Well – if it gets better quick, I have no problem with it.

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.

One of those mornings where my mind was really convinced I was still n bed, but I was actually getting up, & doing those routine ‘getting up’ things.
I could do with some more sleep, but then, I always say that… I like sleep… I never have enough. Before I worked, I slept a lot more & revelled in the waking up dreaming state… which is quite impossible nowadays.

When I got home yesterday the house was empty…. No Louise or kids… I thought that perhaps they had gone shopping… I thought about joining them for a bit, then thought I had better get on with some work! The carpets are coming, the carpets are coming! So, in preparation for Friday I cleared just about as much as I could from the floor space in the attic area. The cupboards of the eve’s are now stuffed to the gills, but all the important heavy things are away. The wardrobe is still out, but that can be easily picked up & moved (it’s a kind of tent construction thing – quite funky). I even remembered to call the carpet cleaning people re the stairs which still have much ingrained dust from when they were doing the building work up there. We might actually be up there next week! Walls are not painted, paint on the beams is not striped, but hey… we can work on that!

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)

Guilty of reading the paper in the morning the last couple of days. Such naughtiness – not occupying my time with something vaguely constructive, like, like… typing this stuff.

What have we been up to? Well – yesterday we fell prey to aggressive mortgage marketing & went to the Halifax to have an interview about them taking over out mortgage. Coincides with a desire to get some money for home improvements. All looks as though it will go swimmingly.
Jack was tired & ratty yesterday – he was tired – late to bed & early to rise. He was away for most of the day, the day before in ‘the countryside. Ruth, Hamish & Amber’s mum had taken them out on a trip to Pendle. Louise didn’t really realise it was that far afield. She imagined that they would be going local, as there’s plenty of countryside around here, but there was something missing in the communication. This was seemingly mainly done by Hamish, who is really only a little older than Jack… They didn’t get back to way past teatime, but they had set of later than planned as Louise took them to playgroup as previously planned. The county jaunt was only introduced as an idea that morning & caught her somewhat off balance – but as Jack was keen, she let him go.
There was another trip of some form planned today, but Jack has a dental appointment for that missing tooth he now has to be checked upon. Is there actually another tooth coming up or not?
Personal preoccupation – the pain I have in the nasal cavity. There’s a boil or something right up my nose. Nothing that can be seen, but it’s certainly uncomfortable. Just thought I’d share that.