Archives: amber

Beautiful clear light this morning. It pissed it down last night – water thrashing on the roof & velux windows. I have to say, this is one aspect of sleeping in the attic room I really like. I smile to hear the rain beating down & the wind thrashing about.
I forgot to mention earlier in the week – probably Monday, as I didn’t type on Tuesday, that Jude has cut his 1st tooth (at last). Louise ways that he cut it’s neighbour yesterday – so there are 2 bottom teeth. I could not feel it, & have yet to actually see the 1st one – he likes to keep them covered with his tongue when he concedes to open his mouth…
Looked like Louise had to endure a day of mayhem yesterday. Hamish & Amber have returned from a trip to London, & were round to play a lot. The upstairs rooms seem to have been rearranged a little – chairs moved bedclothes everywhere. hmph. I tidied up their front bedroom when I got home as Louise was out with Jude getting shopping (delayed) & her mum was playing with Jack & Eve downstairs. Apparently Jack & Hamish had done a good job of tidying it already as they had scattered lego & bionicles everywhere – which was gone by the time I got to it. Ah – the world of small advances.

A pleasant weekend, all in all. Out & about on Saturday. We had money things to sort out & Louise managed to get an appointment with the opticians in Bradford. She also likes the glasses I’ve been thinking I want. We went to a toy shop as Jack had a party to go to on Sunday & we ended up getting presents for Jack & Eve as well (how can you escape such in a toy shop?). Eve got a small dolly which had a tiny bottle & dummy etc. She sat in the pushchair & played with it a lot. Kept her quite happy all afternoon. Jack got a bit of technics lego – a ‘drome racer’ which flies apart when it hits something. He was a little frustrated that he could not have it until he was home – but we had to be sensible with it really. Thinking about it he was a little easily frustrated this weekend. This could be an indication that he’s not really well. Retaliated at Eve a couple of times. Oh, & there was Hamish; he upset Jack. Jack wanted to show Hamish the neat technics/bioniclish car that he had & Hamish brushed him off. Seems Hamish was being busy being a ‘big boy’ & didn’t want to bother. Jack came back in tears. Amber came round a little later to play with Eve – but they didn’t really cotton on to this neat car & bionicles thing. He tried, but she just left in the end – which she (& Hamish for that matter) have a habit of doing.
Jack enjoyed his party over at Tom’s a lot. He was a little worried as I took him that I might not hang around, (I didn’t) but as soon as he was there he was happy & last seen dashing off with pals up the stairs. When I came to get him later he was full on giddy. He charged out of the door at me happy as anything. Crashed into me, as he likes to do. I bent down for a hug & got a real good slap on the head for my trouble. Diane, Tom’s mum was really good & gave us a party bag for all of our brood which included hair grips for Eve & a rattle for Jude – uncommonly generous! Jack had a couple of his party bag sweets on the way home & Louise said he was completely bug eyed when we arrived back. He danced through the door & announced to Louise – happy as anything – that he’s had, “too many sweets” – which was, by & large, patently obvious. He remained in a happy & convivial mood all afternoon/evening. Played well with Eve – ate his tea – gadded about – played with Junkbot on the lego site & did not worry when I was not there to assist. Actually – he played quite happily on his own – completing the puzzled to complete the levels quite well. OK then, all in all Jack has been abundantly loving this weekend. It’s true what Louise says – when he’s in a good mood everything goes smoothly.
I stayed up a little late last night watching most of ‘A Clockwork Orange’. I gave up in the end as I realised that I needed sleep more than I needed to know what happens in the end. I’ll watch it again sometime, & I’ll be able to play proper attention. Sleep will nag at me now this week – I must remember to get to bed on time to make up the deficit.

Aware that I’ve been writing a lot & not finding the time to do the website. Have been doing a little rejigging with the ZUM! Catalogue, & I only have limited time. I was trying to get a ‘Box Hack’ to work, as although it’s nicely HTML4 transitional compliant, Internet Explorer 5/5.5/6 on a PC is not in the way the page is rendered… The Box Hack is supposed to work round this & does allegedly work. My problem is that I don’t actually understand how it works & could find no proper explanation as to how it works, thus …well, I couldn’t get it to work. Seems fair enough. I opted to remove the code rather than sit with untidiness.

The paddling pool was out when I staggered home in the heat of yesterday. Louise said it took over an hour to inflate & fill. Sounds like a lot of effort with the accompanying chants from Amber of
“Where’s the pool?” and, “Where’s the water?”
“In the tap” (Louise manages)
“I’ve got a tap at home.”
They all enjoyed the water.
Jack crashed his bike in the evening. Nasty scrape on his shoulder. I would have gone to investigate which van he claimed he ran into, but I reasoned I’d rather not know & concentrate on Jack. I’m not aware there’s a red van that usually parks around our way. He was off again in 5 minutes with instruction to be more careful. I don’t know if he was as I didn’t have to go & collect him at bath time. Hamish must have gone in – so Jack came in. He’d been playing with Hamish constantly since about noon (Louise says). They must have come to an accommodation between themselves where they know how far to demand from each other in the direction of play. Eve & Amber have not quite managed it yet. Eve is accommodating to bending over backwards, but when she starts to take the initiative or go in a direction that Amber does not Amber goes from a scale of huffy to bealing. It’ll come – I remember Jack & Hamish used to have similar.

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.

I got Jack home from school quite quickly yesterday. William was there (his friend who moved to Spain). Don’t know if he had been there for the day, but I think Jack was pleased he was there. It’s always so difficult to judge Jack’s mood as he leaves school with how his day went, as he’s onto the next angle already – how to get me to pick him up & carry him, or something like that. Anyway – I told him that I had already taken the stabalisers off his bike. That got him home in a good mood. He was off as soon as he got home. The street full of kids : Hamish & Amber, Jill’s Tara & Maraid. & Kristen – who had just had stabalisers taken off her bike by looks of things. Hamish got his bike out as well – he’s been off stabalisers for a good while, but his transition was a little shakey. I think because Jack has got so adept with the scooter he’s got good balance & he made the transition quite easily really. Pedaling along with ease after a while.

It’s half term holidays for Jack – so no school. He is going to a playgroup with Louise, Jude & Eve today, so I hope he’s well behaved with all the young ones. Of course he may not be the only ‘older’ one there.
Hectic at work yesterday, & being late in, it seemed more so, as I had no chance to get going with mail queries. Constant ketchup. The trains were running again for the journey home. The ran stopped as I was travelling & as I got to Manchester yesterday the dark clouds seemed to be peeling back. The day was apparently delightful & sunny – not that I can see such from work as we don’t have a view of the sky (excepting the view from the toilets).
The kids got to play out yesterday on the back street. It would have been better for them if a neighbours kid (Kirsty – poss 8/9 & plays too rough) wasn’t bothering them. Louise was annoyed by her presence, as it seems she was possibly ‘leading them astray’. Louise shocked her with the acuteness of her hearing. She was whispering to Jack & Eve that they could have some Pringles (crisps) if they came out of the back yard. Louise shouted out that she should not & Kirsty was suitably shocked at being caught. She usually scares Eve, but I think this wanton bribery won her round (annoyingly). Eve was not running away from her. Kirsty still has not grasped the fact that if you run up to a 2 year old – as a stranger you are likely to scare them silly. Eve has never really trusted her before because of this, & I’ve no reason to think that she will not become scary once more (“Scary Kirsty”). Amber also is very wary of her – last time I saw Amber on the back street she was running inside her house (to get away from Kirsty)

Another false alarm last night – this time at 1:40. Louise was woken by strong Braxton Hicks contractions & was worried for a bit. Not the panic of last time. She left me dozing in bed wondering what was going on & went to get a hot water bottle for her back (I did offer to go & get it.. I did!). She says the baby started wriggling about & the contractions abated & she fell asleep again.

Train home

Brain was not working this morning. Dull head, not from having been awake in the night, I’m sure, (I was not awake that long) but probably just a general thing. Curiously, with Louise ranging about in the night, the kids slept through again.
When I got home Hamish & Amber were playing as well. Then Hamish wanted to go home (I think he perceived a slight when we asked him not to do something). He suggested that Jack come over to his house, as Jack did not want to go, so I went to check this was OK (it was) & then Eve wanted to follow Amber as well. So Louise & I had the house to herself for a little while… weird. Queue mad bout of tidying up after finishing of a crossword.
Further weird was that Jack decided he wanted to come home, but Eve wanted to stay there a little longer. Jack & I hoovered the stairs & then hoovered the stairs to the attic with the Lazarus dyson, & then washed the filters for it when I realised that they were so clogged that the suction it was giving was minimal. I went to get Eve when tea was ready. Was initially greeted with a couple of defiant “No!”s, but she trotted back to ours without any further encouragement. She really does like plying with Amber. Before they went off to her house Amber & Eve were pushing dollies in pushchairs, (actually amber’s pushchair was the baby walker with the dolly asleep in a toy shopping basket, but hey). “Bye-bye!… Catch a bus.” they say & stroll off to the back room” No doubt similar play at Amber’s house. It’s all quite encouraging if they need to spend some time there while Louise & I dash off to the hospital in the next few days due to new baby arrival. Called Louise from work & she does not think the baby will be long waiting now.
Jack was ‘naughty’ last night before bed. He’d had a good day in general & we were playing with building bricks in their room before we got round to running the bath. I popped downstairs for something or other & Jack was rolling about on his bed. Louise took his shoes off because he was in danger of knocking the wall & marking the wallpaper. He was resistant to the idea & Louise explained that it was to stop the wallpaper being damaged. He immediately decided to pay too much attention to the wallpaper. Louise warned him against messing about with things & came downstairs to get the milk for their bath time drink… That might have been what I went down for, as the bath must have been running. Anyway on returning upstairs we found him picking a little hole in the wallpaper! Louise was upset with him, I remained calm (no point in both of us raging). He was in tears quickly as he really dislikes being told off by Louise. They were only tiny bit of paper he took off, but it looked bad. Eve starts to get upset that Louise is upset, (“Mummy fed up!”) Jack is crying & I walk off downstairs… Time to get some glue. Stick on the bits taken off with PVA glue – which I think will be sufficient. I’ll need to paint over it again to ‘hide’ it better though. Louise is immediately regretful that she lost her temper… she almost never does with them even under extreme provocation. I think she was so shocked that he would do such a thing after he has been so responsible & generally good of late. Jack has a cuddle a calm down with me & a few words as to why it was such a silly thing to do – for which he makes no attempt to try to make excuses for, & conceded that it was wrong (which I take as encouraging).

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