Silent Sunday

The Bug

What with the unseasonably good weather at the moment and those general January feelings that it's time to get more active in mind we've been thinking about getting a cycle trailer for the kids and getting about more cycle than car bound!
I know that the best brand is Burleys but I thought I'd have a look on eBay and see what was about as these sell new from between £300-£500!

I saw a few unbranded trailers sell second hand for around £70 and decided for that amount of money it wasn't worth buying as I just didn't feel happy about the safety features these unbranded cheapos might lack!!

I then struck gild finding a brand new burley ladybug trailer being sold locally for £275 as it had been slightly shop soiled. Some haggling later and we met in the middle at £225
While this is still alot of money for a bike accessory I now fully intend to get my money's worth with some family days out a few less trips in the car and using it on holidays.
As my kids are only 2 & 3 I feel confident i'l get my money's worth over the next few years and now I can cycle and take the kids!

Can't wait till I'm off work tomorrow day to hook it up to the bike and get started!
Specially with a name like Burley on the back of our bug!

On the Move part 1

Right,
well we are on the move right now, and by this time next week I will *hopefully* be lying in bed in our new house with the kids fast asleep! Hopefully..

We have had the er blessing of having moved house several time since having the kids and to be honest hadnt pictured moving again for several years, but circumstances must so the packing has begun!

Obviously we are already experiencing all those niggling annoyances that go with any more for anyone. However this time around with two tots in tow there has been a few additional challenges, and theres still a week to go.

Firstly there has been the confusion about what this all means - are the toys going, are they being given away, no just moved to the new house, 10 begrudging minutes later life is relatively calm again.
Then theres the eternal question - 'Will Santa find the new house?!?' now this ones important this year in a way it never has been before.
Alice has been reassured that as the new house has several large fireplaces all should be well on the Santa front, she seems sumwhat unconvinced still!
Iv also been informed (by Alice) that she will definitely be on Santas nice list this year, however Thomas still has some work to do as he's currently languishing down in the Naughty pile!!

So poor little Alice and Thomas have the prospect of what to them is a life altering change to deal with, and so far so bad really.
On the surface all is well but when you look underneath you can see the strange reversion to some extremely dare i say it 'baby' like behavior.
The smallest of reminders even, not tellings off will lead to floods of tears, public places cannot be left without a screaming toddler in tow while morning are back to being early mornings.

We're trying our best to make everything as stressfree as possible for them as much as us and if anyone else has suggestions then please share!

As they will have to share a room post move we have begrudgingly put them in together in the house for the last week, which is so far working out fairly well. (At least in so far as they have both ended up sleeping in the end!). Hopefully that can be one thing which stays constant post move that way.

Also I have good intentions (time permitting) to have the house already christmatised by the time the kids see it, hoping this will sweeten the deal.

Last but not least is the large bag of new (now I say new but these are actually just toys I was given by my lovely friend as her 2 had outgrown them!) toys never seen before by A&T incase some distraction tactics are needed!!

Right well iv only mentioned a tiny slice of our lives in a very rambling sense but it shall have to do for this evening as Im off to the last of nod any minute!

About time too!

Well Im sorry to say that my poor blog has gone sadly negelected over the last several months!!
All I can say is that Im extremely sorry (although I think im probabaly only apologising to an audience of possibly 5 at best!!!) and that I will try my hardest to revive this will it still had life left in it.

A short summary of the events of the last two months could go along the lines of :
Ran a half marathon (extremely slowly!!)
Got married to my amazing husband
Started working full time at the pub
Began packing up all our things to move house
Trying to support my husband while he sets up a new business.

All of the above has kept me really just a little over busy, but still thats no excuse for neglect!

At the moment we're really feeling pretty spread thin as I am working 45 hour weeks at the Pub while my husband now does 1 or 2 of the killer early mornings over at the golf course every-week just to make the books balance. On top of that he is trying desperatly hard to set up his own business from home which is consuming every hour of his day, and several of mine that I hadnt known existed in years!
Now Im not the kind of person that likes to moan and winge but really this is the place for it theres any, so right now I shall just put my marter bid out there and remind everyone that that means Im basically working a full time week at the pub, but still being a full time mum to the kids all but the one day a week I have to do a day shift, while still providing my early morning husband taxi service!
Right rant over, apologies!!!!

I shall really try to get back on track with this though as Im finding more and more of those little moments in the day that used to be set aside for me have turned into parcel wrapping and fruitless attempts to understand html and the never ending nappy changes life just seems to be made of. Therefore Im making a stand, and if Im still not able to retain my privacy on the bog, I will at least attempt to retain my decency on the blog!!

Bliss

Well Yesterday Alice started back at nursery, where she will be going Monday to Friday and staying for lunch Mondays Wednesdays and Fridays.

Life has instantly returned to normal which following 7 weeks of chaos feels like utter bliss.

Yesterday I was able to take Thomas round Tescos and do an entire shop with him blissfully sleeping in the buggy and still have time for a play and a tidy up before collecting Alice.

Today started out a little more hectic and I thought my morning had be scuppered when I was putting Thomas's coat on already a couple of minutes late. I smelt a bad smell and thought it was his coat tried to look and found poop squashed ut the back of his trousers and consequently everywhere else me included.

Not letting this down hearten me I stepped him off showered him down while a very helpful Alice ran upstairs for his clean clothes.

5 Minute late to Preschool but no matter and then I whisked Thomas off to playgroup at our local community centre.
He had a ball and we still had time to come home, him to nap me to tidy and then walk down to pick Alice up. We even fed the ducks on the way home!

2 days in and the downstairs of my house would at least get a past on a hygiene inspection (I reckon anyway!).

I have not felt this relaxed in weeks, despite the fact Ive got work 2 nights in a row.

Mummys Boys

Today is Sunday, which in our house means its mummy's day for a lie in!

I always get up for the kids on a Saturday morning, then work a Saturday night so Sunday morning lie ins are great and I spend just about the whole week looking forward to the next one

I dont take it for granted that the other half is happy to get up for the kids, because the way we've chosen to do things, for the most part I have the kids, and he does the work. I would completely understand if he we're to want to stay in bed all weekend!

However that doesnt mean that at 6am on a Sunday when Thomas starts screaming and the other half is fast asleep I'm jumping out of bed to get him.

This morning I listened to the screaming for about 10 minutes (sorry neighbours) half hopeful the other half would wake up and half hopeful it might just stop.

Finally grabbed T and put him in bed with us, more crying screaming attempts to headbutt mummy attempts to poke me in the mouth/eye/nose because he's bored,

An hour of Cbeebies blaring and finally Alice is up to so the other half has no excuse and carts them off downstairs.

Fast asleep a few hours later and Im being kicked and poked again by two tiny tots, When asked where daddy is and why their back here I'm told Daddy have a poo poo. Now why is it when I use the toilet on a Saturday they dont both end up flocking in the bedroom hmm.

Finally Im up at 10 O'clock. Seconds later they've shot up the stairs and both demand that I carry them back down (they do both walk just fine!) This is fine lovely no problem they love me great.

In the kitchen trying to get to the bathroom just to have a quick wee! Im grabbed screamed at tugged ad more crying from Thomas all because I haven't picked him up and cuddled him to infinity and met his every need.

I love this boy, but if he wasn't my son Id've taken out a restraining order on him by now!

When he feels neglected (2 minutes without a kiss) I get physically abused! Headbutting kicking poking I seriously hope this isn't just his standard for relationships!

I love so much, but Alice';s clingy phase was well past by this point and I just dont know how to get passed it. He's happy to be with other people as long as he cant see me, and even wants to go to nursery (only 5 months till they'll take him!!) but whenever I'm around he has one thing on his mind. Mum!

To Move or not to Move

Well, we have lived in Warwick for just over a year now, and I have to say that from my perspective I love being here.
I have the perfect combination of knowing the area well and still having family and friends here without having had to rely on them as I have easily made new friends since being back.

When we moved back I initially wanted to live in a quite specific area of Leamington (Bottom end of Whitnash) as it seemed perfectly distanced from both town/mum and dad/good school etc. I didnt find a house in our price bracket (renting) in the time we were looking and we fell in love with our house just inside Warwick

The house is lovely and really does suit us perfectly - equally sized bedrooms for the kids, decent shower, garage, dishwasher etc
However we hadnt realised that the new development behind us even really existed, and having not done my research that we fall into a school catchment Im not very comfortable with

I have now come across a house in the perfect location in Whitnash for a rate that matchs what we now pay. I really love the idea of being near to two extreemly good schools, living in a quieter more residential area and the parks/shops around there.
However while the house is a semi, so an upgrade on our mid-terrace it has 2 large doubles and one tiny box room (poor Thomas) and as it wont be our own no potential for extending. It seems to have a fairly rubbish shower, and I doubt space for a dishwasher!
There will also be all the cost of moving and the fact that we have finally ended our contract so can be flexible in our current house. We also have an extreemly helpful landlord.

I have booked to look round it on Monday but need to be very careful. I am so exited about the area and the exterior look of the house that I need to remember to keep an unbiased eye while viewing it and be sure that it really is a house we could all live in happily as a family!