Sunday, April 18, 2010

Buh-bul

There's something very therapeutic about sitting on the back steps on a clear autumn morning blowing bubbles. Watching the light make iridescent rainbows dancing over the lawn and up, over the fence and away...


If you're feeling mellow, you can just dip and blow, dip and blow.

Then, there's the quest for the perfectly uniform stream of smaller bubbles, or slowly blowing one enormous bubble.

The baby is entranced, and the three year old runs around, squealing, trying to pop as many as he can.

When you catch a glimpse of your two beautiful offspring surrounded by a cloud of shimmering, dancing balls in the morning light, you get that fleeting moment of pure, unadulterated bliss that you wish you could bottle and take with you to open and sniff when you are feeling low.

Hang the free nappies and bottom cream: they should hand out a bottle of bubble mixture to every new parent.

Saturday, April 03, 2010

Boys -> Men

Well, not quite men. But they are growing at an alarmingly fast rate.

Oliver is trying very hard to walk. He toddles when you hold his hands, and is getting to cruise the furniture. Won't be long before he's toddling unaided. He'll be one in two weeks' time... already.  He is pointing at everything, mostly trees and trucks, but also at whatever he is interested in (which is helpful). He says four distinct words: Mama (works for either parent), Yumyum (food) and Gat (cat) and 'no' (mostly as nonononono). His hair has distinct curls: at the back of his head there is on that sticks out like a cocky's crest, one on the top of his head that looks like a 'baby' cartoon, and inexplicably, one over his left, but not right ear, which just makes him look lopsided. Patrick loves to point at his head and tells us "His hair goes round and round like a washing machine". God love him, he's using similies.

Patrick's imagination is going crazy. The trains all converse with each other, every toy has a story to tell, and he invents excuses for things. The downside is that he has become scared of the dark, specifically shadows. For some reason "Shadow" from the Bear in the Big Blue House scares the bejesus out of him. He sees monsters in all sorts of things- like a portable air conditioner we bought for his room. He is toilet trained (full stop). Very occasionally he will try and hang on just a little too long and has an accident, essentially as he is trying to get his pants off. The only problem now is trying to get him to put his pants back on: the star chart is now repurposed for this. It's getting very full: we haven't promised anything at the completion of it, but I'm sure we'll think of something. He is learning how to use the computer, and can use the touchpad well (the mouse is too big for his hands) to open "his" games and videos. Sign of the times I guess. Best of all, sometimes he will spontaneously tell us he loves us. It is just the best thing in the world.

I'm really getting back into the swing of study: I'm trying to do three hours a day on most days of the week. I'm not sure if that will be enough, but as the exam is now under a year away, I have to really get down to it. If it's a non-daycare day I've given up trying to study at home, and just go in to work. It's frustrating, because I have to cope without all my usual resources (notes, cards, my own textbooks) but at least I get stuff done. MrT is working more and more: somehow I forgot to post that he has quit his specialist training and is now working as a locum at a private hospital ICU. It's not a position that offers much career advancement, but the pay is severely lucrative, so he only has to do two shifts a week to make almost as much as he was making fulltime in his training post. He is officially trying to figure out what to do next, but I know him too well, and I know he's just enjoying the time off, working in the garden, and being a daddy. In addition, It would really suck to have both of us studying whilst trying to look after the boys, so he'll put off any decisions until after my training is finished (end of 2012 if all goes well).

I'm loving seeing you all on facebook. Thanks for letting me into your lives!