Thursday 20 February 2014

Half Term

It's Half Term aka school holidays this has been both fun and difficult. Monday was a pretty normal day as I work in the morning then we had our teenage babysitter over to spend the afternoon with Joss which was good since Jasper looked like this every time I tried to put him down


Teething and a cold are turning my normally chilled boy into a hot mess.

Tuesday I put my big girl knickers on and negotiated the train to London with two kids on my own as well as the Tube. It was a bit hairy on part of the Tube journey but all I can say is a huge thank you to all of the random strangers who helped me navigate stairs with the push chair and held doors and were just generally kind.

We met up with a close friend who is a nanny and another of her nanny friends to do the Natural History Museum. There were 3 adults and 6 children so still a 2:1 ratio but it is so nice to have some one keep one kid while you take the other to the toilet or feed.

Joss went on and on about seeing dinosaurs all the way to the museum and then was kind of like oh no big deal when we did see them.


She loved all the stuffed animals though


Philip works not far from the museum so we met him for coffee afterwards then he walked us to a bus that went straight to our train station. So much easier than changing Tube lines with grotty children getting close to rush hour.

The train journey home was not pleasant but could have been so much worse and the part I was dreading having to walk the long way around the station and under the train tracks as I couldn't use the stairs with the push chair was actually fine. I was worried Joss would be shattered and would whinge the whole way (it's a good ten minute walk up hill ) but she must have had a second wind as she skipped along recounting the day as we walked.

Wednesday in the morning we met up with some friends from our birth class so the little girl is just two weeks younger than Joss and they have a second 3 months younger than Jasper. 

The afternoon was unpleasant as Jasper had not napped properly and decided he was going to be grumpy but not take an afternoon nap.

By the time I picked Philip up from the train station I was only too happy to hand the kids over and head to work.

Today has been crazy busy but I put the effort in this morning to set us up well for the day. I hit the ground running and started split pea soup in the slow cooker, packed up lots of snacks for the day and made my lunch in advance. I also made sure everything was in place so Jasper could have a good morning nap which he did though I was sad to have to wake him to head to gymnastics even though he had done two hours.

We headed out to gymnastics which is now proving quite difficult as the parent viewing area is so small and cramped with people not to mention a few weeks ago they installed flip up seats like at a movie which equals lots of danger for little man.

This afternoon Joss had her first speech session. It was interesting there was lots of testing boundaries from Joss but the speech therapist seems good and I think it will work well. She sent us home with some "homework" which I am nervous about but I think it will be okay.

On the way home we dropped Joss off for an evening with Auntie Pauline and Uncle Richard which included Play Doh, art, making cupcakes, playing with Auntie Pauline's new Buzz Lightyear, stories with Uncle Richard as well as dinner.

It amazes me when it is just Jasper and I what a content little fellow he is. He is quite happy to play on his own and explore at his own pace. Joss always even at that age wanted interaction from others so it lovely to see Jasper's different personality shine through.

Tomorrow we have bowling with friends planned then a quiet afternoon and then back to "normal" on Monday. 

It's funny how I dread the lack of routine over the school holidays as there are more through out the year here (shorter summer holidays) but each time it goes smoother than expected and it is always fun to fit in big activities we don't normally have time for.



Saturday 1 February 2014

Right Now

1. I finally got my hair cut after 8 months of never having the time. It feels so good to have my short hair again.

2. Joss is obsessed with when it will be her "Happy Birthday Day" she runs through a long list of family birthdays before hers on a regular basis many times a day

3. My parents are coming over in March and I am way beyond excited. Probably just as excited as Joss is for her "Happy Birthday Day"

4. Joss has started to refer to Jasper as Jaspy sot sure where this has come from as even though she has some speech problems she has always said Jasper pretty clear. It makes me think of the fact that Joss had so many nick names but really we only refer to Jasper as Little Man and Trouble. I have come to the conclusion there are worse things than Jaspy.

5. I have come to the stage where Jasper is not so reliant on me which makes me yurn for some me time but am finding implementing it hard. I really want to get back to being more active at the gym but as I only really enjoy classes finding the time when they are running is proving difficult.

6. Jasper is cutting more teeth. We have two more on the bottom and two on the top are close. Teething is evil right up there with potty training.

7. I still have 7lbs to loose from Jasper and it driving me mad that I can't seem to get in the mind set to loose it. I really want to enjoy my summer clothes this year and know I need to loose it to feel comfortable.

8. I felt we did really well focusing on the moment over the summer and into the Autumn and then when I went back to work it fell apart. I did lots of fun things with the kids and we did lots of outings. I know part of it is that the weather has been so crap for the last 6 weeks and part of it was moving into an area that just does not have much to offer but I need to push myself harder.

9. I really want to shake up my make up routine but in the past I have always relied on really knowledgable friends to help me and at the moment I am struggling. Think I am just going to have to do some trial and error.

10. I am really struggling to find a way of documenting our life that works for me. In the past I have been an avid scrapbooker but this is not something I can commit my time and energy to at the moment. I did make a 2013 photo book using Photobox but really want to find a happy medium that allows me to do more altering and journaling to document more. I got Photoshop for our anniversary in Sept and I think I need to find some tutorials and maybe look at digital scrapbooking.