Friday, July 29, 2005
Holiday
Well, not exactly, but I am in need of a little R&R so I'm going (with kids!) to stay with my friend in Cambridgeshire for a long weekend. I haven't seen her for such a long time so it's going to be great. Sad to be missing the Portico do but hope you all have a great time!
Sunday, July 24, 2005
For Sarah
It's not lovely, it's just a 1949 ex-council semi:
But in the desirable North Cotswolds, it's the best we can do! Besides, it's got a big front garden:
and back garden:
and the back garden also contains chicken house (top right of back garden), Bill's big shed/workshop, garage, and caravan/trailer storage space. But as you can see, we really need a garden designer and a windfall to afford to implement it, followed by a gardener each week!
But in the desirable North Cotswolds, it's the best we can do! Besides, it's got a big front garden:
and back garden:
and the back garden also contains chicken house (top right of back garden), Bill's big shed/workshop, garage, and caravan/trailer storage space. But as you can see, we really need a garden designer and a windfall to afford to implement it, followed by a gardener each week!
Saturday, July 23, 2005
Hacking through the jungle
The jungle that is our front path, that is. It has been impenetrable for weeks, as neither Bill nor I are the gardening types, or even the 'keeping the neighbourhood tidy' types. So here is the 'before' pic:
And here is the 'after' pic:
And here is the 'after' pic:
Our first history lesson
Well, I made some notes of the stuff that has been going on the past couple of days, but I have lost them in the piles of tat around here. But we've been doing some good stuff!
Earlier this week, I bought two children's cassette tapes (for 29p each!) from a charity shop. The first one was songs and stories, including "London's Burning" which Tamsin had never heard before. "Why was London burning?" she asked, so I told her that a long long time ago there was a very big fire in London. She asked more and more questions about it, so when at home I Googled it and found some interesting information which we looked at together, including an animated map of how the fire spread. I then looked in one of my earlier charity shop purchases, this book, and found a story about the fire. It has very advanced language for a 4-year old, but she seemed to enjoy it and has requested it and listened to it again this morning. Since then, she has asked several times "Why was London burning?" so we have gone over the reasons time and time again - houses made of wood and thatch, built very close together, windy weather, started in a bakery, no fire brigade, etc, etc!
We have also read a couple of other stories from the history book - about the first Eddystone lighthouse and Stephenson's 'Rocket'. I don't expect that she'll retain a great deal of it, but it's a start on history anyway.
This morning, following a second reading of the 'Fire' story, I showed her a practical experiment with fire. I lit a candle, and explained how it needs air to burn, and then put a little glass ramekin over it and we watched the flame go out when it had burned up all the air (OK, so I know it's oxygen, but thought that 'air' was a simpler explanation at this stage!). We did that a couple of times, and then I explained that's how you put fires out - by excluding the air with water or foam or whatever.
She's also been asking questions about why plants die (plenty of evidence of that round our place!) So we've talked about the things they need - air, soil, water and light. Each time she sees a dead plant or flower now she asks why that one died. Actually, those questions started being triggered when we went to Benjamin's grave to check on the little trough of alpines that we planted up there, and they have died :-( I haven't been watering them, thinking that they were well established enough by now to be able to cope with a little dry spell, but apparently not! So we'll be off to the garden centre to replenish those shortly.
She's also been working on several of her Learning Land CDs and she's now pretty proficient at 'left' and 'right' (tells me which way to turn while we're driving), and I've heard her working on simple fractions, adding and subtracting and this morning has been introduced for the first time to odd and even numbers. Actually - just checked on Ebay and some of these are available but I have learned that there are more issues than I have (I have up to number 28) so that could have just cost me more money to try and complete the set. Tamsin does enjoy them and they are good.
Lulu the speckledy chicken has given us a surprise! She disappeared earlier in the week, and I thought I had lost her but later in the day she unaccountably reappeared. She did that a few more times during the week, and once I saw her coming out from behind some old fence panels that are propped up in their run, but I didn't have time to investigate. Then on Thursday morning I let them out in the morning and she was missing, and having been out all night I thought for sure she would be a goner. However, I thought it was time I investigated behind the fence panels, although I had tried peering behind them a few times when she was missing. On moving them one by one, I eventually found her - sitting on 17 eggs!!!!! I knew we had only 2 hens laying but had thought it was the black hen, Flora, who wasn't laying. Now it turns out they have all been laying, but one in secret! Lulu was most outraged at being chucked off her eggs but she fails to realise there is no fella around to give her any babies!!!
Apart from that, playschool has now finished for the summer so I will have childcare struggles for work, especially in the coming week when Kate is away. Never mind - we're flexible enough that we can just shut the office if it's impossible to go in.
I took some lovely photos of the girls earlier this week - will try and get them uploaded asap, but must go and get showered and dressed now!
Earlier this week, I bought two children's cassette tapes (for 29p each!) from a charity shop. The first one was songs and stories, including "London's Burning" which Tamsin had never heard before. "Why was London burning?" she asked, so I told her that a long long time ago there was a very big fire in London. She asked more and more questions about it, so when at home I Googled it and found some interesting information which we looked at together, including an animated map of how the fire spread. I then looked in one of my earlier charity shop purchases, this book, and found a story about the fire. It has very advanced language for a 4-year old, but she seemed to enjoy it and has requested it and listened to it again this morning. Since then, she has asked several times "Why was London burning?" so we have gone over the reasons time and time again - houses made of wood and thatch, built very close together, windy weather, started in a bakery, no fire brigade, etc, etc!
We have also read a couple of other stories from the history book - about the first Eddystone lighthouse and Stephenson's 'Rocket'. I don't expect that she'll retain a great deal of it, but it's a start on history anyway.
This morning, following a second reading of the 'Fire' story, I showed her a practical experiment with fire. I lit a candle, and explained how it needs air to burn, and then put a little glass ramekin over it and we watched the flame go out when it had burned up all the air (OK, so I know it's oxygen, but thought that 'air' was a simpler explanation at this stage!). We did that a couple of times, and then I explained that's how you put fires out - by excluding the air with water or foam or whatever.
She's also been asking questions about why plants die (plenty of evidence of that round our place!) So we've talked about the things they need - air, soil, water and light. Each time she sees a dead plant or flower now she asks why that one died. Actually, those questions started being triggered when we went to Benjamin's grave to check on the little trough of alpines that we planted up there, and they have died :-( I haven't been watering them, thinking that they were well established enough by now to be able to cope with a little dry spell, but apparently not! So we'll be off to the garden centre to replenish those shortly.
She's also been working on several of her Learning Land CDs and she's now pretty proficient at 'left' and 'right' (tells me which way to turn while we're driving), and I've heard her working on simple fractions, adding and subtracting and this morning has been introduced for the first time to odd and even numbers. Actually - just checked on Ebay and some of these are available but I have learned that there are more issues than I have (I have up to number 28) so that could have just cost me more money to try and complete the set. Tamsin does enjoy them and they are good.
Lulu the speckledy chicken has given us a surprise! She disappeared earlier in the week, and I thought I had lost her but later in the day she unaccountably reappeared. She did that a few more times during the week, and once I saw her coming out from behind some old fence panels that are propped up in their run, but I didn't have time to investigate. Then on Thursday morning I let them out in the morning and she was missing, and having been out all night I thought for sure she would be a goner. However, I thought it was time I investigated behind the fence panels, although I had tried peering behind them a few times when she was missing. On moving them one by one, I eventually found her - sitting on 17 eggs!!!!! I knew we had only 2 hens laying but had thought it was the black hen, Flora, who wasn't laying. Now it turns out they have all been laying, but one in secret! Lulu was most outraged at being chucked off her eggs but she fails to realise there is no fella around to give her any babies!!!
Apart from that, playschool has now finished for the summer so I will have childcare struggles for work, especially in the coming week when Kate is away. Never mind - we're flexible enough that we can just shut the office if it's impossible to go in.
I took some lovely photos of the girls earlier this week - will try and get them uploaded asap, but must go and get showered and dressed now!
Wednesday, July 20, 2005
At least I'm consistent!
Your English Skills: |
Grammar: 80% |
Punctuation: 80% |
Spelling: 80% |
Vocabulary: 80% |
Monday, July 18, 2005
Remarkably accurate!
 You are dependable, popular, and observant. Deep and thoughtful, you are prone to moodiness. In fact, your emotions tend to influence everything you do. You are unique, creative, and expressive. You don't mind waving your freak flag every once and a while. And lucky for you, most people find your weird ways charming! |
Cleaning (Edited at 4.30pm)
Sunday was carpet-cleaning day. It's something I've been meaning to do since early Spring, and eventually had the motivation on a sunny day when we could put all the contents of the living room out onto the lawn. I took the kids over to Evesham in the morning to collect the machine while Bill started clearing both downstairs rooms. When I got back there was still a ton of clearing to do and then vacuuming and then carpet-cleaning. All on an extremely hot day. Phew, I'm glad that's over! I was half-expecting the carpets to change back to their original colour when relieved of all the dirt, but they can't have been as bad as I thought as although there was plenty of dirty water emptying out of the machine, the carpets look the same colour!
Bill and I looked longingly at the mostly empty and clean-looking living room, wishing it could stay that way, but I guess all the toys and junk has to come back in, at least until we get a makeover from Life Laundry.
Bill and I also discussed the children's future sleeping arrangements. Tamsin's room is the smallest bedroom, with the 2nd bedroom being our guest room (and junk-dumping room!) where my Mum often sleeps when she comes to stay. However in a year or so, we think we will have both girls sharing in that bigger room, and change the small room to the guest room. Tamsin has been wanting bunk-beds, as her friends have them, but we though getting each of them (at appropriate ages) a cabin bed each with play/storage space underneath might be better. So I started showing Tamsin the beds in the Argos catalogue, and she fell for one which can have a castle-type canopy and a slide coming off it. Trying again on the sleeping-in-her-own-bed task, I promised her she could have one of those beds if she stayed in her own bed all night till it was light in the morning for a month.
In the small, dark hours of the morning she crept into our bed again, and on going into her room this morning she was surprised when her old bed was still there. Hmmm, methinks she didn't quite get the message!
Today's tasks are:
Return carpet-cleaning machine to shop - done
Walk dog - not done
Go swimming - not done. Tamsin didn't mention it/forgot so I kept quiet
Drink lots of water (am feeling rather lethargic, due to dehydration I think) Done & feeling better
Tidy living room contents back to their proper places, decluttering and editing as much as possible. Not done
So what have I done? Brought in/folded one load of washing. Put wet washing on line (and no0w it's raining). Put another load on to wash. Cleaned out chicken house. Done track. Spent too much time on computer. Tamsin had her first ever Happy Meal at McDonalds - does that count as cultural education? i.e. education about our culture, not high culture of course!
Bill and I looked longingly at the mostly empty and clean-looking living room, wishing it could stay that way, but I guess all the toys and junk has to come back in, at least until we get a makeover from Life Laundry.
Bill and I also discussed the children's future sleeping arrangements. Tamsin's room is the smallest bedroom, with the 2nd bedroom being our guest room (and junk-dumping room!) where my Mum often sleeps when she comes to stay. However in a year or so, we think we will have both girls sharing in that bigger room, and change the small room to the guest room. Tamsin has been wanting bunk-beds, as her friends have them, but we though getting each of them (at appropriate ages) a cabin bed each with play/storage space underneath might be better. So I started showing Tamsin the beds in the Argos catalogue, and she fell for one which can have a castle-type canopy and a slide coming off it. Trying again on the sleeping-in-her-own-bed task, I promised her she could have one of those beds if she stayed in her own bed all night till it was light in the morning for a month.
In the small, dark hours of the morning she crept into our bed again, and on going into her room this morning she was surprised when her old bed was still there. Hmmm, methinks she didn't quite get the message!
Today's tasks are:
Return carpet-cleaning machine to shop - done
Walk dog - not done
Go swimming - not done. Tamsin didn't mention it/forgot so I kept quiet
Drink lots of water (am feeling rather lethargic, due to dehydration I think) Done & feeling better
Tidy living room contents back to their proper places, decluttering and editing as much as possible. Not done
So what have I done? Brought in/folded one load of washing. Put wet washing on line (and no0w it's raining). Put another load on to wash. Cleaned out chicken house. Done track. Spent too much time on computer. Tamsin had her first ever Happy Meal at McDonalds - does that count as cultural education? i.e. education about our culture, not high culture of course!
Saturday, July 16, 2005
Finding the time
to blog is very difficult. It wouldn't be if only I blogged before I read everybody else's, but reading is easier than thinking, composing and typing. Anyway, here I am at last.
On Monday we didn't do much in the morning, and went swimming in the afternoon. I couldn't find Tamsin's armbands so she went in without, which as I was carrying Isabelle made me a bit nervous but in fact it was all fine, and I think I will carry on without them so that she just learns to swim on her own. Isabelle loved it again. Afterwards we went to the big Tesco (our local one is small and doesn't stock any 'extras', just food) and I bought a range of small presents and one bigger one (a splash-around Dora the Explorer and Boots). This was to bribe/tempt/encourage Tamsin to stay in her own bed all night instead of getting into ours. It's not a big issue for me but sometimes Bill gets irritated by it. Anyway, she was all for it, but that night in the wee small hours when reminded that she wouldn't get presents if she came into our bed, she said she would prefer not to get presents then. Hmmm, time to think again on that one! So presents are still tucked away unused.
Tuesday was a good day when a lot seemed to happen. Before breakfast Tamsin found the big DK 'Animal' book and was looking through it and we discussed the various pages she turned to - spiders, crabs, frogs and toads, fish etc. It's normally one of my free days but I had to go into work for a meeting in the morning, and the girls came with me. Tamsin brought her own 'work' in the form of sticker books/dot-to-dots and also played on the CBeebies website and with the big Noah's Ark which is in the office. Meanwhile the meeting was with Fair Shares staff from the other sites and we were discussing/agreeing what we wanted in our new contract - seems the right way to do it! We threw out a couple of clauses from the current one which we didn't like, and added a few bits which we felt appropriate.
Home for lunch, and then Tamsin played with her train track with the new trains we also bought at Tesco on Monday. Meanwhile I surfed! Later we made a cake, and Tamsin helped me weigh the ingredients. I told her we had to weigh 100g and told her to look out for when it said 1 - 0 - 0 which she did beautifully. While I made the normal cake, Tamsin made her own 'cake' with flour, salt, water, milk and copious mixing (yuck). Meahwhile Isabelle was doing her own sensory exploration sitting in her high chair with various bits of food for her to play with - some fruit puree, half-grapes, dry flour and a tomato to squidge. It went everywhere (sticky grin)! So the next stop was the paddling pool for a good wash down. While filling the paddling pool Tamsin noticed the measuring jug and spontaneously spotted '500' and then saw 400, 300, 200 and 100. I also pointed out that 'half' was written 1/2 which we had never discussed before.
When we were just too hot outside we went in and I put on 'Peter and the Wolf' CD while Tamsin played with her tea-set and she also did some writing in a Letterland workbook, and actually formed the letters properly according to the dots and arrows, instead of doing it 'her way' as she usually prefers. She also spelled her own name using Scrabble letters with no help at all - she's got the hang of that now. And then while watching 'Dora' she did some 'magic painting'. Meanwhile Isabelle was getting teeth numbers 4 and 5!!
Okay, so that's the day I took notes because we seemed to be doing so well and I wanted to blog it!
On Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, other stuff happened ;-) No notes for those days! I worked those mornings while Tamsin was at playschool and Isabelle was lent out to a variety of people. On Thursday evening both Bill and I fell asleep at about 8pm while settling children to bed, and he didn't get up again till the morning and I only got up at midnight because I had to shut the chickens away!
On Friday I completed my Sonlight order to get the majority of the balance of the Pre-K curriculum, part of which I bought from Katy. I think we'll start in September, but not in a pressured way - if we miss bits and miss days then it doesn't matter. I would like to start Reading Reflex and Handwriting without Tears as well but she said recently she doesn't want to learn to read :-o ! Still, that's fine! I'm just eager to get on with it! I will have to hold myself back. But I think when she realises that her friends who are starting Reception in September are learning to read, she might change her mind.
Today, Isabelle has started eating! She's really not had much so far - she's been interested but not in purees, only finger food, and then mostly just tasting and spitting out. At lunchtime, however, I gave her a few pieces of the pasta and tomato sauce we were eating, and she just kept on and on eating, and then was mad keen on the slices of kiwi fruit we had afterwards. She probably ate almost as much as Tamsin. Amazing! She didn't do quite so well with the cucumber and hummus I gave her at teatime but I didn't think bacon, egg, chips and beans were really suitable for an 8-month old!
On Monday we didn't do much in the morning, and went swimming in the afternoon. I couldn't find Tamsin's armbands so she went in without, which as I was carrying Isabelle made me a bit nervous but in fact it was all fine, and I think I will carry on without them so that she just learns to swim on her own. Isabelle loved it again. Afterwards we went to the big Tesco (our local one is small and doesn't stock any 'extras', just food) and I bought a range of small presents and one bigger one (a splash-around Dora the Explorer and Boots). This was to bribe/tempt/encourage Tamsin to stay in her own bed all night instead of getting into ours. It's not a big issue for me but sometimes Bill gets irritated by it. Anyway, she was all for it, but that night in the wee small hours when reminded that she wouldn't get presents if she came into our bed, she said she would prefer not to get presents then. Hmmm, time to think again on that one! So presents are still tucked away unused.
Tuesday was a good day when a lot seemed to happen. Before breakfast Tamsin found the big DK 'Animal' book and was looking through it and we discussed the various pages she turned to - spiders, crabs, frogs and toads, fish etc. It's normally one of my free days but I had to go into work for a meeting in the morning, and the girls came with me. Tamsin brought her own 'work' in the form of sticker books/dot-to-dots and also played on the CBeebies website and with the big Noah's Ark which is in the office. Meanwhile the meeting was with Fair Shares staff from the other sites and we were discussing/agreeing what we wanted in our new contract - seems the right way to do it! We threw out a couple of clauses from the current one which we didn't like, and added a few bits which we felt appropriate.
Home for lunch, and then Tamsin played with her train track with the new trains we also bought at Tesco on Monday. Meanwhile I surfed! Later we made a cake, and Tamsin helped me weigh the ingredients. I told her we had to weigh 100g and told her to look out for when it said 1 - 0 - 0 which she did beautifully. While I made the normal cake, Tamsin made her own 'cake' with flour, salt, water, milk and copious mixing (yuck). Meahwhile Isabelle was doing her own sensory exploration sitting in her high chair with various bits of food for her to play with - some fruit puree, half-grapes, dry flour and a tomato to squidge. It went everywhere (sticky grin)! So the next stop was the paddling pool for a good wash down. While filling the paddling pool Tamsin noticed the measuring jug and spontaneously spotted '500' and then saw 400, 300, 200 and 100. I also pointed out that 'half' was written 1/2 which we had never discussed before.
When we were just too hot outside we went in and I put on 'Peter and the Wolf' CD while Tamsin played with her tea-set and she also did some writing in a Letterland workbook, and actually formed the letters properly according to the dots and arrows, instead of doing it 'her way' as she usually prefers. She also spelled her own name using Scrabble letters with no help at all - she's got the hang of that now. And then while watching 'Dora' she did some 'magic painting'. Meanwhile Isabelle was getting teeth numbers 4 and 5!!
Okay, so that's the day I took notes because we seemed to be doing so well and I wanted to blog it!
On Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, other stuff happened ;-) No notes for those days! I worked those mornings while Tamsin was at playschool and Isabelle was lent out to a variety of people. On Thursday evening both Bill and I fell asleep at about 8pm while settling children to bed, and he didn't get up again till the morning and I only got up at midnight because I had to shut the chickens away!
On Friday I completed my Sonlight order to get the majority of the balance of the Pre-K curriculum, part of which I bought from Katy. I think we'll start in September, but not in a pressured way - if we miss bits and miss days then it doesn't matter. I would like to start Reading Reflex and Handwriting without Tears as well but she said recently she doesn't want to learn to read :-o ! Still, that's fine! I'm just eager to get on with it! I will have to hold myself back. But I think when she realises that her friends who are starting Reception in September are learning to read, she might change her mind.
Today, Isabelle has started eating! She's really not had much so far - she's been interested but not in purees, only finger food, and then mostly just tasting and spitting out. At lunchtime, however, I gave her a few pieces of the pasta and tomato sauce we were eating, and she just kept on and on eating, and then was mad keen on the slices of kiwi fruit we had afterwards. She probably ate almost as much as Tamsin. Amazing! She didn't do quite so well with the cucumber and hummus I gave her at teatime but I didn't think bacon, egg, chips and beans were really suitable for an 8-month old!
Wednesday, July 13, 2005
Yes, she is
Very well, that is. The spots are just fading, but she's been bright as a button all the way through, and was only hot for about 24 hours. Isabelle is fine too.
It's a shame I didn't get to blog last night, as we had such a good day I made notes on it. And now Isabelle has just woken up so gotta go.
It's a shame I didn't get to blog last night, as we had such a good day I made notes on it. And now Isabelle has just woken up so gotta go.
Saturday, July 09, 2005
Now Tamsin's got whatever-it-is, as well. She was hot all Thursday night and Friday, and today has come out in a spotty rash. It doesn't seem to be making her feel ill, though, and once again refuses to subside quietly onto the sofa and give me an easy day. It's only Bill who's been sent to bed by this particular bug. Hmm, could insert rude comment here about men and illness, but Bill reads this blog!
Today has been the usual mix of Brio, Nick Jr, painting, going to the library where Tamsin very proudly took her own books up to the desk and got them issued to her on her own card, lots of swinging (which Isabelle loves too), and a lovely interlude just lying on the grass in the garden, looking up at the sun coming through the trees and making a halo effect round Tamsin's fair hair, and thinking she looked just like an angel. I gave the dog a good brush as she is moulting, and believe me, a Sheltie moulting could stuff several pillows or even an entire duvet. When Isabelle had her afternoon nap, I did too (Bill being on the road to recovery), which was good!
Today has been the usual mix of Brio, Nick Jr, painting, going to the library where Tamsin very proudly took her own books up to the desk and got them issued to her on her own card, lots of swinging (which Isabelle loves too), and a lovely interlude just lying on the grass in the garden, looking up at the sun coming through the trees and making a halo effect round Tamsin's fair hair, and thinking she looked just like an angel. I gave the dog a good brush as she is moulting, and believe me, a Sheltie moulting could stuff several pillows or even an entire duvet. When Isabelle had her afternoon nap, I did too (Bill being on the road to recovery), which was good!
Thursday, July 07, 2005
Snotty, spotty and grotty
Isabelle, that is. She's got some sort of horrible lurgy. She had a high temp. on Tuesday night so we had very disturbed sleep; then she came out in a rash on Wednesday. And my ear was rather painful on Wednesday and I was developing a sore throat so I asked Bill to come home and take care of the kids while I went to bed; then late last night he started to feel fluey, came to bed shivering, and has come home from work early today and gone straight to bed. (Sigh) ... and I thought it was my turn to be ill and have a few days in bed.
Ah well, educationally speaking it's been a bit lean but we have discussed cows chewing the cud, Tamsin's had 'free play' with a bag of flour (i.e. it went all over the living room); also paint and glitter liberally spread around this afternoon; she's currently doing another Learning Land CD-Rom and been to playschool yesterday and today. In fact, last week at Kessingland she kept asking me how many days it was till she could go to playschool again, and was delighted when the figure kept going down... I'm certainly glad she enjoys it but have a lurking concern about how she'll feel this time next year when she will shortly not be going any more.
Ah well, educationally speaking it's been a bit lean but we have discussed cows chewing the cud, Tamsin's had 'free play' with a bag of flour (i.e. it went all over the living room); also paint and glitter liberally spread around this afternoon; she's currently doing another Learning Land CD-Rom and been to playschool yesterday and today. In fact, last week at Kessingland she kept asking me how many days it was till she could go to playschool again, and was delighted when the figure kept going down... I'm certainly glad she enjoys it but have a lurking concern about how she'll feel this time next year when she will shortly not be going any more.
Wednesday, July 06, 2005
And the winner of the 'imaginative roleplay' prize goes to.....
Tamsin!!
She was sitting on the arm of a chair, poised over a big beanbag.
"Mum, pretend I was a poop."
She slid down the chair arm, dropped onto the beanbag, landed in a heap and lay there for a few seconds.
Dontcha just love 4-year olds?
She was sitting on the arm of a chair, poised over a big beanbag.
"Mum, pretend I was a poop."
She slid down the chair arm, dropped onto the beanbag, landed in a heap and lay there for a few seconds.
Dontcha just love 4-year olds?
Tuesday, July 05, 2005
Seemed like a good idea at the time
I know what I forgot to blog about, and if I don't, I expect Merry will tell everyone anyway! I suppose it's too funny a story (in retrospect) to keep to myself.
Well, I don't ever remember having earache before, but in the middle of the Kessingland week, my ear started to feel very odd and sore. Not really bad, but of course I wondered if it might get worse and I may end up in agony at some point. I couldn't decide whether to go straight to the doctor or not, but decided a 'wait and see' policy would have to do. So there I was, in the middle of a Suffolk field, in a caravan, with all my normal resources (local chemist, doctor, acupuncturist friend, homeopath) a long way away. And then I had a brilliant idea! I had a perfect, anti-bacterial liquid immediately to hand, or perhaps I should say, immediately at boob. It is recommended to apply breastmilk when a baby has a little eye infection (sticky eye), and it really does clear it up. So, breastmilk in the ear seemed like a perfect solution (pun intended!). So I expressed a little into a cup and put a few drops in my ear. I did that one evening, and the following morning, but by the next day things were worse. The ear was quite sore, I couldn't lie on that side, and it had got totally blocked up and I couldn't hear anything with that ear. So I phoned the local doctor's surgery and got an appointment to see the nurse.
I told her all about my symptoms, and then she peered into my ear with her clever ear-inspection thingy (otoscope?). "Oh, you've got a horrible fungal infection in there," she said. "It's all white and damp." Then I remembered. And told her about my attempts at self-medication. She did a perfectly professional job at keeping a straight face, although was clearly nonplussed by this apparently normal-looking stupid weirdo! "I've never heard of it (breastmilk) being anti-bacterial and working against sticky eye," she said. "I'll have to ask my microbiologist friend about that! But even so, the ear is enclosed and warm and probably not a good environment for putting anything into ......" I had to admit she had a point! And felt rather stupid .....
Several conventional antibiotic eardrops later and things are much improved. So remember, potential earth-mothers out there, breastmilk does not cure everything!
Well, I don't ever remember having earache before, but in the middle of the Kessingland week, my ear started to feel very odd and sore. Not really bad, but of course I wondered if it might get worse and I may end up in agony at some point. I couldn't decide whether to go straight to the doctor or not, but decided a 'wait and see' policy would have to do. So there I was, in the middle of a Suffolk field, in a caravan, with all my normal resources (local chemist, doctor, acupuncturist friend, homeopath) a long way away. And then I had a brilliant idea! I had a perfect, anti-bacterial liquid immediately to hand, or perhaps I should say, immediately at boob. It is recommended to apply breastmilk when a baby has a little eye infection (sticky eye), and it really does clear it up. So, breastmilk in the ear seemed like a perfect solution (pun intended!). So I expressed a little into a cup and put a few drops in my ear. I did that one evening, and the following morning, but by the next day things were worse. The ear was quite sore, I couldn't lie on that side, and it had got totally blocked up and I couldn't hear anything with that ear. So I phoned the local doctor's surgery and got an appointment to see the nurse.
I told her all about my symptoms, and then she peered into my ear with her clever ear-inspection thingy (otoscope?). "Oh, you've got a horrible fungal infection in there," she said. "It's all white and damp." Then I remembered. And told her about my attempts at self-medication. She did a perfectly professional job at keeping a straight face, although was clearly nonplussed by this apparently normal-looking stupid weirdo! "I've never heard of it (breastmilk) being anti-bacterial and working against sticky eye," she said. "I'll have to ask my microbiologist friend about that! But even so, the ear is enclosed and warm and probably not a good environment for putting anything into ......" I had to admit she had a point! And felt rather stupid .....
Several conventional antibiotic eardrops later and things are much improved. So remember, potential earth-mothers out there, breastmilk does not cure everything!
Monday, July 04, 2005
The week we had
Must blog about Kessingland, although with two twitchy girls currently being my only company, I am liable to be frequently interrupted.
Overall, I had a great week. Although originally I was somewhat hacked off with Bill for deciding not to stay, in the end it avoided that feeling of divided loyalties of wanting to spend time with online friends who I wanted to get to know better, and DH with whom I don't spend enough time either. So I was glad to be able to spend satisfactory (although would have liked more) amounts of time sitting, chatting and generally hanging out, after sending Tamsin off to play with sundry other children and putting Isabelle down on a mat with her fellow triplettes (made-up word for small female triplets?!) and a few toys.
The good stuff:
The weather for the first half of the week
Tamsin going off and playing with others (last year she wouldn't leave my side at all) and especially bonding with Naomi (of Stef and Dawniy); Barbara's E and B, and Freya whose family wasn't on the list of attendees so I'm still not sure who her Mum is but she liked us so much she came and spent a night in our caravan!
A lovely conversation with Ammi on Friday
Going to Sea-Life in Great Yarmouth
Joining the blogring bandwagon by getting a Lidl like-a-bike equivalent
Getting to know people a bit better, esp. Katherine and Helen/Chris
The MuddlePuddle triplets of Isabelle, BB and Josie
Basket-weaving
Just getting away from it all
The bad stuff:
Not getting any decent time on the beach because by the time we tried (Thurs/Fri) it was too cold and windy and rainy. In all Tamsin's 4 years we've never spent more than 10 minutes on a beach.
Not spending much time with Jax, Alison or Merry - we just never seemed to be in the same place at the same time
Feeling humbled that Kris towed her own caravan, whereas I got Bill to drive us there & back. OTOH, if I learn to do it myself, I'll be expected to just do it alone from then on .....
I'm sure there was more but can't remember right now. Will edit later if I remember more vital stuff!
Very strange - just noticed the 'IQ test' post has disappeared. Is the universe trying to tell me something...?
Overall, I had a great week. Although originally I was somewhat hacked off with Bill for deciding not to stay, in the end it avoided that feeling of divided loyalties of wanting to spend time with online friends who I wanted to get to know better, and DH with whom I don't spend enough time either. So I was glad to be able to spend satisfactory (although would have liked more) amounts of time sitting, chatting and generally hanging out, after sending Tamsin off to play with sundry other children and putting Isabelle down on a mat with her fellow triplettes (made-up word for small female triplets?!) and a few toys.
The good stuff:
The weather for the first half of the week
Tamsin going off and playing with others (last year she wouldn't leave my side at all) and especially bonding with Naomi (of Stef and Dawniy); Barbara's E and B, and Freya whose family wasn't on the list of attendees so I'm still not sure who her Mum is but she liked us so much she came and spent a night in our caravan!
A lovely conversation with Ammi on Friday
Going to Sea-Life in Great Yarmouth
Joining the blogring bandwagon by getting a Lidl like-a-bike equivalent
Getting to know people a bit better, esp. Katherine and Helen/Chris
The MuddlePuddle triplets of Isabelle, BB and Josie
Basket-weaving
Just getting away from it all
The bad stuff:
Not getting any decent time on the beach because by the time we tried (Thurs/Fri) it was too cold and windy and rainy. In all Tamsin's 4 years we've never spent more than 10 minutes on a beach.
Not spending much time with Jax, Alison or Merry - we just never seemed to be in the same place at the same time
Feeling humbled that Kris towed her own caravan, whereas I got Bill to drive us there & back. OTOH, if I learn to do it myself, I'll be expected to just do it alone from then on .....
I'm sure there was more but can't remember right now. Will edit later if I remember more vital stuff!
Very strange - just noticed the 'IQ test' post has disappeared. Is the universe trying to tell me something...?
Saturday, July 02, 2005
Home again
Got back about 6pm; got lots of lovely things to read in the post (one of my favourite things about being away is all the post-opening when I get back) - Home Education Magazine, Mothering magazine, "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" book which I have bought 2nd hand, and, most interestingly of all, Benjamin's birth notes which I have just got from medical records in Birmingham. Am now thinking that I want to get his medical notes from his surgery etc, just for completeness.
Oh, and the other thing we came home to was Bill's appointment for a vasectomy - on our 15th wedding anniversary in September!!! Much thinking to do about that.
Oh, and the other thing we came home to was Bill's appointment for a vasectomy - on our 15th wedding anniversary in September!!! Much thinking to do about that.
Friday, June 24, 2005
Nearly there...
Last blog before going off to Kessingland. I've been trying to pack since about 2pm and it's now after 11pm and there's still stuff to do - I'm leaving the rest till the morning now.
Tamsin fell asleep at 5pm, and I left her there hoping she was so exhausted (long story) that she'd stay there all night, but no, she woke up at 8pm and is still up with us! We're all off to bed shortly, though.
Looking forward to the week!
See lots of you soon!
Tamsin fell asleep at 5pm, and I left her there hoping she was so exhausted (long story) that she'd stay there all night, but no, she woke up at 8pm and is still up with us! We're all off to bed shortly, though.
Looking forward to the week!
See lots of you soon!
Thursday, June 23, 2005
Must get on with stuff....
No packing been done here yet ... must get on with it tomorrow afternoon, which is the only chance I'll get. DH isn't coming ..... or at least, he is going to drive the caravan to Kessingland and stay till Sunday and then come home again for a week getting stuff done at home. Chance would be a fine thing, is all I can say ....
I feel like I only got about 3 hours of sleep last night, what with one thing and another. Had to work this morning, with a fussy and irritable Isabelle stopping me get a thing done, and the same will happen tomorrow morning.
Hmm, this is just disjointed ramblings really. Too tired to blog straight .... must go to bed.
Oh, I know what I was going to say. Benjamin's anniversary passed unremarkably yesterday. I would normally have a candle burning all day, but was out too much to do that. And I even forgot to take the cute little stone trough and plants up to the grave last night - took them this morning instead. I still think of him pretty much every day, even after 6 years, so really an anniversary day isn't that much different to any other.
I feel like I only got about 3 hours of sleep last night, what with one thing and another. Had to work this morning, with a fussy and irritable Isabelle stopping me get a thing done, and the same will happen tomorrow morning.
Hmm, this is just disjointed ramblings really. Too tired to blog straight .... must go to bed.
Oh, I know what I was going to say. Benjamin's anniversary passed unremarkably yesterday. I would normally have a candle burning all day, but was out too much to do that. And I even forgot to take the cute little stone trough and plants up to the grave last night - took them this morning instead. I still think of him pretty much every day, even after 6 years, so really an anniversary day isn't that much different to any other.
Tuesday, June 21, 2005
Sunday night fever
And Monday night fever. Tamsin's not well - she's got what Bill had all last week, with what I guess must be laryngitis (not much of a voice and very croaky) and a bad cough. And a bit of a high temperature, especially at night. Poor thing was quite delirious last night for a while. Of course, as soon as she gets up in the morning, she's fairly bright and lively, and won't do me the favour of languishing on the sofa all day, like other people's ill children do, to let me recover from the disturbed night. Anyway, she's learning about normal body temperature and the immune system fighting off infections as we go!
So, Monday was quite good. We started off the morning with 'track', of course - a pretty much daily occurrence for at least the past year. We also had another game of Pairs, and some skittles, and then Linda, my hairdresser, came to the house to give us a trim. It was her first time back since having her baby Louisa, who was born 3 weeks before Isabelle. We were supposed to be due about 2 months apart, but then I was 2 weeks early, and she was over 2 weeks late and ended up with an emergency caesarean. Anyway, Louisa and Isabelle sat and looked at each other and played with the toys and grabbed them from each other and cooed and were generally extremely cute! Tamsin, however, refused to let the scissors anywhere near her hair and generally threw a complete strop, but I guess I'll let her off on the grounds of being rather under par. But please excuse any resemblance to a scarecrow next week at Kessingland!
Then Isabelle needed a nap and the dog needed a walk, so I got Isabelle into the buggy and we all walked into town where I picked up a few things to eat, and met several people to stand and chat with :-)
Home again, and we sat in the shade of our lilac tree and had some lunch, and then Tamsin complained of being tired and cold (!), so she curled up on the bean-bag and watched some TV. At about 3pm I asked her if she would like to go and see Henry the Harris Hawk, with whom she appeared on the front page of our local newspaper a few weeks ago after he had visited playschool. She said yes, so we set off up to the Falconry centre. We arrived in time for a demonstration, so we saw a falcon being flown, and then we asked if we could see Henry, so the man got Henry out to fly. He did several low-flying manoeuvres very close to our heads, which freaked Tamsin out a bit and she started to say she wanted to go home, and she didn't want to hold him :-( Never mind - I'd forgotten my camera anyway! We looked around a little, but Tamsin was really a bit scared of the birds, even though they were in cages, so we left, not really having had £7.50's worth! We wandered up to the nearby Batsford Garden Centre, where I used to work before I had Tamsin, and said hi to some ex-colleagues. Isabelle coughed a lot and consequently did a major puke while I was sitting in the office talking to my ex-boss! We had a brief wander round the garden centre where I got a small stone trough and some low-growing plants to make a permanent pot for Benjamin's grave, to take up there on Wednesday. We've had some spring bulbs in the plot, and also occasionally go up and put fresh flowers, but most of the time it's just been bare grass by the headstone, and that doesn't feel right. I'll feel better knowing there's a permanent flowery indication that he is not forgotten.
After getting home and a quick salad tea, I bathed Isabelle but Tamsin refused. I at last got round to changing the sheets that had been on the bed all last week while Bill was ill. Tamsin and Isabelle fell asleep quickly, and I lay there for a while, relaxing and dozing. 45 minutes later, Tamsin woke up confused and feverish, and vomited on the clean bed :-( I was just about to get the Calpol and dose her up when she just conked out again and slept fitfully for the rest of the night in our bed.
So, Monday was quite good. We started off the morning with 'track', of course - a pretty much daily occurrence for at least the past year. We also had another game of Pairs, and some skittles, and then Linda, my hairdresser, came to the house to give us a trim. It was her first time back since having her baby Louisa, who was born 3 weeks before Isabelle. We were supposed to be due about 2 months apart, but then I was 2 weeks early, and she was over 2 weeks late and ended up with an emergency caesarean. Anyway, Louisa and Isabelle sat and looked at each other and played with the toys and grabbed them from each other and cooed and were generally extremely cute! Tamsin, however, refused to let the scissors anywhere near her hair and generally threw a complete strop, but I guess I'll let her off on the grounds of being rather under par. But please excuse any resemblance to a scarecrow next week at Kessingland!
Then Isabelle needed a nap and the dog needed a walk, so I got Isabelle into the buggy and we all walked into town where I picked up a few things to eat, and met several people to stand and chat with :-)
Home again, and we sat in the shade of our lilac tree and had some lunch, and then Tamsin complained of being tired and cold (!), so she curled up on the bean-bag and watched some TV. At about 3pm I asked her if she would like to go and see Henry the Harris Hawk, with whom she appeared on the front page of our local newspaper a few weeks ago after he had visited playschool. She said yes, so we set off up to the Falconry centre. We arrived in time for a demonstration, so we saw a falcon being flown, and then we asked if we could see Henry, so the man got Henry out to fly. He did several low-flying manoeuvres very close to our heads, which freaked Tamsin out a bit and she started to say she wanted to go home, and she didn't want to hold him :-( Never mind - I'd forgotten my camera anyway! We looked around a little, but Tamsin was really a bit scared of the birds, even though they were in cages, so we left, not really having had £7.50's worth! We wandered up to the nearby Batsford Garden Centre, where I used to work before I had Tamsin, and said hi to some ex-colleagues. Isabelle coughed a lot and consequently did a major puke while I was sitting in the office talking to my ex-boss! We had a brief wander round the garden centre where I got a small stone trough and some low-growing plants to make a permanent pot for Benjamin's grave, to take up there on Wednesday. We've had some spring bulbs in the plot, and also occasionally go up and put fresh flowers, but most of the time it's just been bare grass by the headstone, and that doesn't feel right. I'll feel better knowing there's a permanent flowery indication that he is not forgotten.
After getting home and a quick salad tea, I bathed Isabelle but Tamsin refused. I at last got round to changing the sheets that had been on the bed all last week while Bill was ill. Tamsin and Isabelle fell asleep quickly, and I lay there for a while, relaxing and dozing. 45 minutes later, Tamsin woke up confused and feverish, and vomited on the clean bed :-( I was just about to get the Calpol and dose her up when she just conked out again and slept fitfully for the rest of the night in our bed.
Sunday, June 19, 2005
Some like it hot.....
but I don't. Phew, days like this mean I just lie around feeling lethargic and sweaty. Attractive, huh?
The day started in a wobbly kind of way too, with Isabelle being awake from 6am and despite yawning and appearing to be quite tired still, wouldn't go back to sleep. So we got up and came downstairs, and I did a quick round of the blogring. Or at least, I got as far as Merry's blog, which reduced me to a sobbing heap and I had to go and get my beautiful, cuddly, perfect baby and just hug her, crying madly. She is just so perfect right now, so adorable and beautiful, and I wish I could keep her like this forever and ever. Of course, it's exciting and lovely to see the development too, and I love so many of the stages to come, but something about my current mood is just making me feel grief and loss at her moving on from what she is now. (Oh, DUH! I only just thought of this - could it be because the anniversary of Benjamin's death is coming up on Wednesday...? Strange how the grief can get you even when you haven't been thinking about it. You might not think so from reading this blog, especially as I have recently had another baby which brings things up again, but I really feel the loss of Benjamin is a fairly small corner of my life now, but I guess this is what it means when people say you never totally 'get over it' - it pops up at odd times even when you aren't anticipating it.)
After recovering, the day went fairly nicely. Tamsin has developed a very husky voice and a cough so I didn't think we ought to go to church this morning, even though she is well apart from that. So yesterday and today we have had much splashing in the 'paddling' pool, which is actually what I bought as a birth pool but never had time to get into for the birth. I put Isabelle on the lawn with a bowl of water and utensils to splash in it, but she either didn't 'get it' or wasn't interested, unlike when she is in the bath when she splashes madly with great delight. However she was happy to sit there for quite long periods of time.
What's this green stuff?
Love the pool!
Later Tamsin played on one of her Learning Land CD-Roms, which included identifying various insects among other things. We've played some games of 'pairs' with a set of cards she got for her birthday, and she's got a pretty good memory for the position of the cards. We went for a walk in the woods, and talked about the different leaf sizes of many of the plants, and I showed her how to identify a fern. Oh, and yesterday we did the 'OW' lesson in 'Sound of the Week' and she did a fabulous job of looking at the pictures I had printed off, and finding the appropriate word to go with it. She was probably mostly just choosing by the first letter, but slowly, we are making progress. I am thinking of making a semi-serious 'start' on reading, if she seems happy to, in September when she would 'normally' have been starting Reception class. No push and no rush, but as long as she is comfortable with it I think she is beginning to show some readiness for reading. She has all the letters extremely confidently under her belt, and, having learned them in the 'phonic' way (a, buh, cuh, etc) she is now thrilled that she has learned the 'ABC song' and sings it several times a day. Also, having agreed to purchase a good portion of the Sonlight Pre-K curriculum from Katy B, we will probably start that in September too.
While Isabelle had a nap this morning, I watched the 'Sign with your Baby' video that I had and used with Tamsin. Isabelle is about the right age to start signing to her, although it is likely to be 2-3 months at least before she starts signing back. We did some of this with Tamsin, although we found it difficult to remember to do the signs consistently so it was never a major thing. She did learn signs for milk, Poppy (the dog), aeroplane and flower and maybe a few others. I would love to be more consistent with Isabelle, though, because again watching that video I was welling up with tears because it is such an amazing thing to see such little children so clearly communicating.
I'm sure there's been other stuff today, but can't remember what. As far as other members of the family go, I think one of the hens might be going broody. She's sat in the nesting box just about all afternoon. It could be the heat, but she definitely needs keeping an eye on. It means she would sit there for about 3 weeks barely eating enough to keep going, and not laying, and blocking up the nesting box so the others would find it difficult to lay. To stop it you're supposed to put them in a wire cage for a few days, but (a) I haven't got one and (b) it seems a bit harsh. I'm going to do a bit of online research to see if there's anything else I can do.
The day started in a wobbly kind of way too, with Isabelle being awake from 6am and despite yawning and appearing to be quite tired still, wouldn't go back to sleep. So we got up and came downstairs, and I did a quick round of the blogring. Or at least, I got as far as Merry's blog, which reduced me to a sobbing heap and I had to go and get my beautiful, cuddly, perfect baby and just hug her, crying madly. She is just so perfect right now, so adorable and beautiful, and I wish I could keep her like this forever and ever. Of course, it's exciting and lovely to see the development too, and I love so many of the stages to come, but something about my current mood is just making me feel grief and loss at her moving on from what she is now. (Oh, DUH! I only just thought of this - could it be because the anniversary of Benjamin's death is coming up on Wednesday...? Strange how the grief can get you even when you haven't been thinking about it. You might not think so from reading this blog, especially as I have recently had another baby which brings things up again, but I really feel the loss of Benjamin is a fairly small corner of my life now, but I guess this is what it means when people say you never totally 'get over it' - it pops up at odd times even when you aren't anticipating it.)
After recovering, the day went fairly nicely. Tamsin has developed a very husky voice and a cough so I didn't think we ought to go to church this morning, even though she is well apart from that. So yesterday and today we have had much splashing in the 'paddling' pool, which is actually what I bought as a birth pool but never had time to get into for the birth. I put Isabelle on the lawn with a bowl of water and utensils to splash in it, but she either didn't 'get it' or wasn't interested, unlike when she is in the bath when she splashes madly with great delight. However she was happy to sit there for quite long periods of time.
What's this green stuff?
Love the pool!
Later Tamsin played on one of her Learning Land CD-Roms, which included identifying various insects among other things. We've played some games of 'pairs' with a set of cards she got for her birthday, and she's got a pretty good memory for the position of the cards. We went for a walk in the woods, and talked about the different leaf sizes of many of the plants, and I showed her how to identify a fern. Oh, and yesterday we did the 'OW' lesson in 'Sound of the Week' and she did a fabulous job of looking at the pictures I had printed off, and finding the appropriate word to go with it. She was probably mostly just choosing by the first letter, but slowly, we are making progress. I am thinking of making a semi-serious 'start' on reading, if she seems happy to, in September when she would 'normally' have been starting Reception class. No push and no rush, but as long as she is comfortable with it I think she is beginning to show some readiness for reading. She has all the letters extremely confidently under her belt, and, having learned them in the 'phonic' way (a, buh, cuh, etc) she is now thrilled that she has learned the 'ABC song' and sings it several times a day. Also, having agreed to purchase a good portion of the Sonlight Pre-K curriculum from Katy B, we will probably start that in September too.
While Isabelle had a nap this morning, I watched the 'Sign with your Baby' video that I had and used with Tamsin. Isabelle is about the right age to start signing to her, although it is likely to be 2-3 months at least before she starts signing back. We did some of this with Tamsin, although we found it difficult to remember to do the signs consistently so it was never a major thing. She did learn signs for milk, Poppy (the dog), aeroplane and flower and maybe a few others. I would love to be more consistent with Isabelle, though, because again watching that video I was welling up with tears because it is such an amazing thing to see such little children so clearly communicating.
I'm sure there's been other stuff today, but can't remember what. As far as other members of the family go, I think one of the hens might be going broody. She's sat in the nesting box just about all afternoon. It could be the heat, but she definitely needs keeping an eye on. It means she would sit there for about 3 weeks barely eating enough to keep going, and not laying, and blocking up the nesting box so the others would find it difficult to lay. To stop it you're supposed to put them in a wire cage for a few days, but (a) I haven't got one and (b) it seems a bit harsh. I'm going to do a bit of online research to see if there's anything else I can do.
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