6:30 in the evening. Outside again, Jack is helping our neighbour Caroline again. She’s trimming a bit of privet hedge & he is helping to clear up by looks of things. Eve has just popped inside… oh hang on… i can hear her up to something in the porch… Ah – she’s only trying to put one of Jack’s sandals on. Too big, but it nearly stays on. She’s got a real thing for shoes. She was putting on her boots just now… then kicking them of… then I’d put them on… then she’d kick them off… & so on.
Ah – she has another of his old shoes on now.

Her language is coming on – she plainly misuses words. “Hamish Ball” is one of those things that can mean a lot of things. Neighbouring lad Hamish has left a ball here, so that’s where the word has come from. She is starting to use “where?” a fair bit – asking for things – & she even says “why?”. She loves chattering. “oh dear” is when something has gone wrong. Another general exclamation is, “Ee-aye, ee-aye, oh” (as in ‘Old Macdonald had a farm….’).

Hmm yes well – all this box in room juggling feels a bit like a perpetual motion machine. We got the back room sorted. We thanked Caroline for helping out keeping an eye on Jack. It was not something that was intended – Jack just slipped off – but she said it was a pleasure & she enjoyed it. Jack enjoys the idea of gardening. He has a little area in our garden where he digs & plants things – like – um – twigs & plants he & Hamish have uprooted, & paintbrushes… Hamish even buried some money in there once! Buried treasure. Jack & Hamish sometimes go off searching for treasures, & come back with all sorts of things – like – um – wood & um – bits of metal – shiny things. They had a horde of it once in a little area where someone parks their car (at the front of their house) at the bottom of the street. I have even (horror of horrors) thrown away a pile of treasure that they left on the back street just outside our gate. Meany daddy.
Yes, anyway – a good start has been made on clearing out the back room. Perhaps it is a good thing that we are forced to do this every so often as it makes us throw away a lot of accumulated, but possibly useful – um, things … ok – rubbish. Perhaps adult treasures, then.
I worry that I still have not heard in regard to my taking a holiday. It is supposed to start this week & it would be… a tad frustrating (GRRRR) if it was lost due to me not having been got back to on the matter.

A few moment before bathtime.
The kids are playing on bikes on the back street one more.
Eve has just passed by on Amber’s tricycle saying, “Hiya dadi, hiya dadi, hiya dadi”. Amber is Hamish’s younger sister. She is a couple of months older than Eve – can’t remember how many. She had foolishly left her tricycle in our yard, & Eve has not removed her bottom from it in about an hour. Heh – she is now telling off Jack for sitting on the wall at the top of the street.
Our excursion to Bradford yesterday was exhausting. We walked many miles in search of a border, & miraculously we found one in the end. At the noted tacky home improvement emporium; Fads. A terracotta coloured border textured, with a spiraling yellow stitch motif. It should work well. Not over decorative, not twee, & hopefully the right sort of colour so that it doesn’t make the rest of the paintwork seem grubby. Phew.
Today I started off inexplicably tetchy. No real reason. Still, got on with getting Eve breakfast & Jack on the Internet while Louise had her shower. Slobbed it a bit when Louise came downstairs, & then Louise got tetchy & started fretting about the fact that we needed to get the back room cleared as the decorators are due this week, so we had to move some things upstairs, but to do that we needed to move some of the things that are in the bedroom at the moment (that used to be in the attic) back up to the attic, but the floor has not been completely cleaned in the attic as yet – so not that much can go back up…
Kids are bathed & bed.
Frayed nerves are I guess understandable. I got on with moving some boxes. Louise started tidying & sorting in the back room, Jack wet off to watch & help Caroline, our very good next door neighbour do some planting in her garden & Eve – well – she pottered about amusing herself. It’s amazing that she manages that… Jack used to demand your attention, but then I guess, he being the 1st, we indulged him in that.

A few moment before bathtime.
The kids are playing on bikes on the back street one more.
Eve has just passed by on Amber’s tricycle saying, “Hiya dadi, hiya dadi, hiya dadi”. Amber is Hamish’s younger sister. She is a couple of months older than Eve – can’t remember how many. She had foolishly left her tricycle in our yard, & Eve has not removed her bottom from it in about an hour. Heh – she is now telling off Jack for sitting on the wall at the top of the street.
Our excursion to Bradford yesterday was exhausting. We walked many miles in search of a border, & miraculously we found one in the end. At the noted tacky home improvement emporium; Fads. A terracotta coloured border textured, with a spiraling yellow stitch motif. It should work well. Not over decorative, not twee, & hopefully the right sort of colour so that it doesn’t make the rest of the paintwork seem grubby. Phew.
Today I started off inexplicably tetchy. No real reason. Still, got on with getting Eve breakfast & Jack on the Internet while Louise had her shower. Slobbed it a bit when Louise came downstairs, & then Louise got tetchy & started fretting about the fact that we needed to get the back room cleared as the decorators are due this week, so we had to move some things upstairs, but to do that we needed to move some of the things that are in the bedroom at the moment (that used to be in the attic) back up to the attic, but the floor has not been completely cleaned in the attic as yet – so not that much can go back up…
Kids are bathed & bed.
Frayed nerves are I guess understandable. I got on with moving some boxes. Louise started tidying & sorting in the back room, Jack went off to watch & help Caroline, our very good next door neighbour do some planting in her garden & Eve – well – she pottered about amusing herself. It’s amazing that she manages that… Jack used to demand your attention, but then I guess, he being the 1st, we indulged him in that.

(Morning) Yeah – all went well on Thursday (prev entry) – Louise was already home when I got home, so my rushing & fretting were thankfully for naught – thankfully. Louise got of fine to have the scan in Burnley (bussing it). She said it was very weird not having a child with her. Able to get on & off buses, go us escalators, that sort of thing. The scan went well – the little, little one was moving about. The size correlated to the expected age of development – it waved its arms & flexed its hands. I will try to scan it into the computer so that I can put the picture with the note. Louise’s mum was just coming up the hill home from the park when Louise caught up with her – having returned on the bus. Eve had not done a nappy that Louise’s mum had to change.
We are off to Bradford now to try to find some wallpaper border that does not insult our aesthetic. It is needed, as when they come to do the ceiling they will need to remove the present border that abuts the meeting of the ceiling & wall; thus a replacement is required. Hopefully a nice day out as the weather seems thoroughly pleasant at the moment. Eve was a bit mischievous & messy with her breakfast this morning & Jack is seeming just a touch rebellious, so we shall see how their behaviour holds.

Buggerartion!
Damnation!!
I was rather hoping to get home early from work today – but here I am on the train after the one I normally get!! AUG!
The transition of shifts did not really occur as it usually does today – it was in fact just a little later than usual – just a few minutes (although it would have been nice at the usual 2:30 instead of the official 3:00) if that were not bad enough, I was the only one able to accept a call past 3:00 when I would normally not have my phone on the hook, even (preparing to get away). Consequently I missed the chance of even getting my normal train. GAH!
I have to hope that everything is going well at home & that Louise’s mum has not had any problems – like nappy changing – to contend with while Louise has had to go for her scan….
Oh great – the more I fret the slower the train goes… ah – good – it moves again.
Hope all is going well…

Plumbing fixed. Please let there be no more leaks. At least they are due to come & repaper the ceiling next week.
Had arranged for the day off work tomorrow to help with Louise going for the scan, but it seems like this may not be such a great idea due to the fact that Louise’s mum is rather keen to look after the kids on her own & it may be taken as an insult that I would help… …So I go to work instead. Whatever.
I get to go on holiday for a bit from a week tomorrow anyway. Quite looking forward to it!
Jack came into our bed quite early last night (just as we were dropping off to sleep). Dreams… He said (stirring in sleep) at one point, “hairy rocks with scary bears inside”. No doubt an alarming concept – but roll the words round your brain for a bit… there’s a certain ‘poetry’ to them.

After feeling well yesterday – it’s a bummer to feel like I have a phantom hangover today. Phantom as I have done nothing to earn it… sigh… Perhaps feeling fine is too much to ask at the moment.
Hattie is due to return to fix something again today! When she put the new fittings on the bath the other week the waste pipe from the bath was not flush. Noticed that there was a new stain developing on the ceiling, so had a check & discovered this (drips when the bath empties). I tried to fix – screw back on – but I was over tired at the time & just got myself in a bad mood as I could do nothing with it. Tried again a couple of days later & found that it seems the screw threads do not match up… You’d’ve thought that something as universal as screw threads on plumbing pipes would be…universal – the same… but – it seems not… sigh. Perhaps I am missing something here. Whatever, Hattie has to take some time out to look at it again.
Again, there are new stains on the ceiling of the back room… There are so many stains now, it could be mistaken as part of the decor. It does not matter! Hah! they are coming to repaper & paint it all as part of the insurance for the pipe that burst the other month. It is only a week away that they come to start work now – so I guess it’s kinda important that the ceiling actually has time to dry out now…
Jack was in a ‘tidy’ mood when got home last night. Helping & tidying. He can be very industrious when he is in one of these moods & does not like to be put off his stride. For instance I got some water for him, as the water left over from washing up had been poured away – & he was offended & threw it to the floor… I’m not really sure he knew why – it was probably more the fact that the washing up water was poured away that had riled him.
Eve was in a happy – if not slightly clumsy mood. Tired really, as she had not had her daytime nap. She got upset having fallen over badly a couple of times. She is delighting in the use of nouns – picking up on what the names of objects are quite a lot now. She also got herself a sore bum (no sitting down in the bath) by filling her nappy 3 times in @ 1 & half hrs.
Jack was on about his ‘other tod’ again as he was in the bath & going to bed. It seems his washing machine in his other house is broken – it needs some twisty dust. We had a nice discussion about who might come & fix this broken washer for him. I do not recall whether it was to be (other) Hattie or (other) Jill. Anyway – the root of the problem of getting it fixed was the availability of ‘twisty dust’. The charity shop in town did not have any, (this might be the regular source) & the other charity shop didn’t have any either. Interestingly the other charity shop seems to have it’s door on the 2nd floor – so it seems that you get into the shop via a ladder (?). Specialist shops are no good either, it seems as the just don’t have the ‘twisty’ variety of dust…
To burst a bubble here – I think the ‘twisty dust’ may be something that he associates with the Dyson vacuum cleaner we have. The vacuum spins – the washing machine spins…
Did I not mention that Jack has an ‘other tod’ ? (We live in tod – Todmorden). He also sometimes has problems with his ‘little boys’ misbehaving. Whether these are truly imaginary characters or a sort of proxy empathising with us poor parents, I’m not really sure. I don’t know if there is a boy/girl he knows called Sam Waldren, but that is the name of one of his ‘little boys’ (although he may be a she…).

Heh
That last bit of typing yesterday was done by Jack – playing with the eMate while my back was turned. He also turned up the screen contrast, & as it uses an LCD screen, I was a bit confused for a while, with the screen appearing to be blank/dead. I had not realised what he had done, but was not mad – just perplexed as to what was going on as there as nothing that he had done that cold have stopped it working.
Train home.
Ahhhh – got through the day without feeling [bleh – substitute word as appropriate here]. A major improvement of recent & the main reason why I have been writing little for a few days. Headache – aching limbs/joints run down mentally & physically.
Blimey – we must bring out kids up with inordinate amounts of charm. I called in to home before leaving work to discover that Eve has now been given a dolly high chair & tea set by someone else on the street! Sounds like she’s been merrily going between all her new toys all day – lucky thing.
Louise also told me that she will be going for her 1st scan (for new babe) this Thursday – lawks! That all seems a bit soon! They do like to do these things earlier nowadays it seems – although what possible purpose it serves, I have no idea… A bit annoying that I am not going to be able to get time off from work at such a late stage – still – I may try. It is not a good day though as the other lads are not usually in on Thursday morning shift…