Clare's diary

Photo-a-Day 2012 week three

2012-01-24T15:14:00.001Z

Photo-a-Day 2012 week three
Originally uploaded by clogsilk.

Catching up! A busy busy week this one:

A fun Sunday afternoon at the park, where James practiced on his pedal bike and was soon zooming off all over the place!

Monday I was at work so took the opportunity to snap a shot of the house and cafe on North Gower Street where lots of the latest Sherlock was filmed (used instead of Baker Street).

On Tuesday I met up with former mortality/ONS colleagues for bowling and karaoke at Bloomsbury Bowling Lanes and had a superb evening.

Wednesday I got to play with my new macro lens, but I had two photos for the day because when I got to school James had made bread and he was so proud of it, I just had to snap a shot of him with it before he devoured it!

Thursday was book club where we reviewed the Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern.

By Friday I was well and truly flaked out so relaxed at home with a glass of wine and a pizza, oops!

On Saturday James got to go to Gambado for the first time in a while, for his classmate Ethan's 5th birthday. A great time was had! Then in the evening we had Levin and Jess over for dinner and much wine was consumed/Guitar Hero played!

Phew.

Photo-a-Day 2012 week two

2012-01-23T00:01:00.001Z

Photo-a-Day 2012 week two
Originally uploaded by clogsilk.

Totally behind on blogging my week in photos and I've hardly started!! Here is week two, which started with Toby's 5th birthday party at Rascals, then continued with a few quiet days (with gorgeous sunrises/sunsets, one of which is captured here), through to Camera Club on Thursday night and Alice's 1st birthday party on the Friday. Saturday saw a cold and frosty morning and it was Mike's turn for a lie in, so I was out in the garden snapping frosty flowers in my PJs (sorry neighbours) - the results of which can be seen in my final photo, which was my photo of the week! A close call between that and the sunrise. Rather pleased that I used my "big" camera for 6 out of the 7 shots this week. :)

131/365 Before

2012-01-18T14:13:00.001Z

131/365 Before
Originally uploaded by clogsilk.

I've not shared an awful lot on this blog about my weight loss plans before now (I've not share an awful lot on it at all recently), but just wanted to share this one (taken in May last year) as it has just been voted as a joint winner in the "Bravest Photo" category in the Photo-a-Day group I'm part of.

I really hate this photo, but I have to keep looking at it (even though I don't like to) to remind me why I've made the changes I have to my eating/drinking/exercise habits, and where I don't want to go back to.

I'm struggling a little bit with post-Xmas motivation, so it was lovely to be recognised like that by the group and it's great that I no longer look like that too!

I hope to be posting a goal picture some time this year, but I will still keep this one as a reminder when I do. :)

Photo-a-Day 2012 week one

2012-01-14T19:53:00.001Z

Photo-a-Day 2012 week one
Originally uploaded by clogsilk.

My plan for 2012 (stolen from spudballoo) is to blog my photos on a weekly basis. I kind of failed at the first attempt because week one had a picture in it I needed to keep private for a week or so, so here it is now, better late than never!

It was a busy week: celebrating New Year and recovering from those celebrations on New Year's Day, back to Weightwatchers on Monday, a visit to the Horniman Museum on Tuesday, sorting out thank you cards and a playdate at Sally's on Wednesday, back to school (and some kind of normality) on Thursday, taking down Christmas decorations on Friday and collapsing in a heap on Saturday!!

Week two to follow tomorrow!

Photo-a-Day 2011

2012-01-08T15:52:00.001Z

Photo-a-Day 2011
Originally uploaded by clogsilk.

Quick review of 2011 before finally moving on to 2012! Normally I would post a review of my new year's resolutions and how well I'd done at achieving them. Only in 2011 I never even got round to blogging any resolutions! I had a vague idea in mind that I would lose 2 stone, which didn't look to be going too well by May when I'd gained another half stone from January. Managed to sort that one by joining Weight Watchers (thanks for the encouragement Sally!) and by the end of the year had lost 3 stone (so 2.5 stone over the whole year I guess). Hurrah, non-resolution achieved!

It was a busy year this year - early in the year my job situation got a whole lot more precarious as my project was canned. In the end though, I've been employed for the whole year, bar a month in April, so not too bad. All the uncertainty isn't much fun though. My current contract ends in March, so we shall see what happens after that.

In February, James was 4 and we held a chaotic party at our house. Not something we shall be repeating this year, we've booked soft play instead! March was relatively quiet, though we started a book club with local friends, but in April I got to go away to Paris to meet some fellow PAD-ers, which was ace. Then we toured the North of England and Wales over the Easter holidays.

May saw me starting WW, losing my phone for the first time and Jess's 30th birthday party. In June I got to go for a night away with Sally and Suzanna thanks to Sally's competition win and we had loads of fun, despite ending up in the wrong restaurant...

In July we headed to France for our annual holiday with Nikki, Tim, Ben and Izzy and had a superb time. In August Claudia was 3 and we had a party for her at home for the first time, having been in France the previous two years.

September saw all change for James and Claudia as they left their old nursery and started at their new school, James in reception and Claud in the afternoon nursery. It's gone brilliantly and they both love it.

At the end of September I headed up to Edinburgh for another PAD meet, and had a fantastic time. At least until I was 5 minutes from home anyway, I was mugged on the way home and lost my second phone of the year, though thankfully not my camera and all the pics on it. October also saw the Harvest Festival at school, and the Sponsored bounce and a bake sale, phew! I also got a lovely spanking new phone, hurrah!

In November James was the class special person at school, we went to Brian and Kim's wedding, and I hit 3 stone lost at WW.

December was all about the run up to Christmas - we went to see the Gruffalo early in the month, Camera Club went from strength to strength, doubling the number of attendees from November, and James and Claud had their Christmas fair and nativity play (James was a snowman and Claud a star). We had all the family here over Christmas and ended the year with a fab mini-party with Andy, Trine, Nikki and Tim and all the kids. We also had some sadness - Mike's Nanna sadly passed away at the age of 99 just before Christmas.

I wonder what 2012 will bring? We have lots planned already - holidays, the Olympics, paralympics, a PAD meet in Belfast and of course Claudia starts school in September. It should be an exciting year.

So suburban

2012-01-06T13:21:00.003Z

It seems we can't win in our little corner of London. I've lost count of the number of people who have said to me they couldn't possibly bring up children here, without seeming to realise how insulting that is to me, given I have chosen to do exactly that.But now, according to Location Location Location, where we live is "too suburban", not close enough to central London (15 minutes from London Bridge on the train obviously doesn't count, although with Southeastern running the service perhaps that's understandable), and not edgy enough.Well, that's fine by me (although I take issue with the term suburban, having grown up in a proper suburb myself). We have great schools, lovely Victorian houses at reasonable (for London) prices, and I have a lot of fab friends here. I would be foolish to pretend there aren't issues of crime and the like, but at the moment that's offset by all the benefits.So I'll stay where I am for now and carry on regardless, and I probably won't watch that episode of Location....

Book Clurb update

2012-01-05T22:12:00.001Z

Posting very short and sweet "reviews" of the books we've read most recently over at Book Clurb. Could do better with my reviewing methinks!

Hello 2012

2012-01-04T23:58:00.001Z

Writing this on the iPad to see if that makes me blog more! Appallingly bad show on the blogging front in 2011, I even missed the 5th anniversary of setting up this blog. It was originally intended as a pregnancy diary, the result of which is now asleep upstairs in my bed (sigh) and almost 5 years old! Time flies when you're having fun/getting no sleep/both.

I will do better in 2012. It might even be a new year's resolution!

HPAD Edinburgh 2011

2011-10-04T21:14:00.001+01:00

HPAD Edinburgh 2011, a set on Flickr.

Fantastic weekend in Edinburgh with the Photo-a-Day girls!

243/365 Dirt

2011-08-31T21:14:00.001+01:00

243/365 Dirt
Originally uploaded by clogsilk.

Via Flickr:
I took the opportunity this lunchtime to catch the Dirt exhibition at the Wellcome Collection - I work about 5 minutes walk away, it's been on since 24th March, so of course I waited until its very last day before getting along there.

They don't allow photography inside so I had to make do with a snapshot taken at the entrance to the building - I love this chap suspended from the ceiling!

The exhibition claimed to uncover the filthy reality of everyday life and used the British anthropologist Mary Douglas's observation that dirt is defined by its context (There is no such thing as absolute dirt: it exists only in the eye of the beholder.) The exhibition looked at six different urban locations to explore the subject of dirt, its threat to our health but also its necessity for our existence.

I couldn't spend long there but managed to pootle round the whole thing - of course I spent far too long looking at Snow's map of cholera and some fantastic analysis of weekly deaths in London by William Farr (once a mortality stats geek always a mortality stats geek). Apart from the street, London 1854, the exhibition covered the home, Delft 1683, the hospital, Glasgow 1867, the museum, Dresden 1930, the community, New Delhi and Kolkata 2011, and the land, Staten Island 2030. Fascinating and challenging stuff.

A new blog!

2011-08-13T21:31:00.000+01:00

Not content with never updating this one, I have started a new blog!!

It's for our book club, so we can post up our reviews of what we've read. I think it's fair to say it's as much a "meeting up to eat and drink" club as a book club, but we're enjoying it regardless!

Vassiviere 2011

2011-08-12T22:04:00.001+01:00

Vassiviere 2011, a set on Flickr.

Fantastic holiday with Nikki, Tim and kids. Just a shame it was over too quickly!

199/365 Orange eye!

2011-07-18T21:30:00.001+01:00

Not exactly what I had planned for today's snap! A bit of fun went wrong over lunch and James accidently got poked in the eye with a twig by his friend Toby - complete and total accident, but it seemed to have caused a little bleed in J's eye, so I bundled Claud back to Sally's then headed off to A&E with J.

Luckily it was pretty empty, so we were seen quickly. A lot of umming and ahhing was done, the senior doctor was called over, the specialists at King's were called, orange dye was put into J's eye (much to his disgust). It is scratched, but not badly, and will be fine. He has antibiotic drops to put in, 4 times a day for 5 days - aargh! The first attempt was not a success - I am covered in bruises from all the kicking that was done to try and stop me putting it in! We have instigated a bribe chart and rewards per drop, so hopefully that will work!

Interestingly, J's letter recognition was pretty good when they were checking his distance vision, but I notice they used capital letters, which surprised me given it's a specialist paediatric A&E. He didn't like trying to do the letters with only one eye though, regardless of which eye it was - "I need both eyes mummy!"

Legoland Windsor 2011

2011-07-06T00:09:00.001+01:00

Legoland Windsor 2011, a set on Flickr.

We decided we'd better get a Legoland trip in before James starts school and Claud starts school nursery and we are condemned to do everything at the busiest times for the next 14 years!

Being us though of course we left it to the absolute last minute to sort out and it was pretty busy today. We only paid £30 for the whole family to go in though, so we were happy.

Had a good stroll round miniland, a play in Duploland, avoiding the water fountains (which we planned to let the kids play in later but ended up not doing because of the rain). Went on every train in the place I think.

The Learner Driver cars were a big hit - we spent the whole time in the queue coaching Claud that she had to say she was 3 when asked as that was the minimum age to go and she was desperate for a go. We thought we'd cracked it, then as we got near, James piped up, "don't forget to pretend you're 3 Claud!!" Luckily he wasn;t heard and she managed to say 3 when asked how old she was and on she went. And she wasn't half bad at it actually!

Just time for an ice cream and a go at the digging, then the heavens opened and we, like everyone else, decided to abandon ship and decamp to the shop... All the money we'd saved on the entrance fees gone, we headed home with two very happy children indeed!

June 2011

2011-07-02T15:43:00.001+01:00

Another month gone by, half way through the year and I still haven't made any new year resolutions, so no chance of a post reviewing how I've got on! Maybe I should be setting out what I want to do in the rest of the year!!

One of the things I did want to do in 2011 was lose 2 stone, and I'm half way there on that, although I hope I might be able to do better than that!

May 2011

2011-06-01T00:03:00.001+01:00

HPAD May 2011
Originally uploaded by clogsilk.

Oops, another month creeps by! I did join Weight watchers though. I didn't blog about it though. I will soon!

Another month goes by

2011-05-06T16:47:00.001+01:00

Bad blogger me!

An eventful month this one - we found out James has got into our first choice school, which is great. I ventured to Paris with a fab group of photographers to take snaps and generally enjoy ourselves. Such fun!

We spent half the month almost touring the north of England and Wales, visiting our families that we don't see enough of! We had a great time, although J in particular was homesick at times.

We've had some amazing weather too, which has certainly helped!

London Marathon 2011

2011-04-17T20:52:00.001+01:00

London Marathon 2011, a set on Flickr.

A few snaps from our trip up to spot friends Abby and Mince running the London marathon (not together, though we saw them both, yay!)

HPAD Paris trip Spring 2011

2011-04-11T23:43:00.001+01:00

HPAD Paris trip Spring 2011, a set on Flickr.

Images from my trip to Paris with some of the HPADers, such a lot of fun was had!

March 2011

2011-04-04T16:03:00.001+01:00

HPAD March 2011
Originally uploaded by clogsilk.

Another month done and another month of no blogging!

Bad Clare.

February 2011

2011-02-28T21:56:00.001Z

HPAD February 2011
Originally uploaded by clogsilk.

Another month of 2011 gone already and I still haven't written any New Year's resolutions!!

46/365 Love cake?

2011-02-15T21:52:00.001Z

46/365 Love cake?
Originally uploaded by clogsilk.

Imagine if you were unable to touch or kiss your newborn baby. This is an ordeal thousands of families, whose child arrives too soon, too small or too sick, are forced to go through each year. Indeed, as readers of this blog will know, this was something I and my family went through when our son James was born at 33+6 weeks gestation.

But you can help. By baking and selling cupcakes, you’ll be raising funds to help support families during what can be a very lonely and frightening time, and to provide a brighter future for their babies.

Some facts and figures:

• There is a shortage of 1,150 nurses to care for the 70,000 babies in need of specialist hospital care in England. Less than a third of units have enough nurses to meet minimum standards.
• Neonatal units are working way above recommended occupancy levels meaning there is no safety net for peaks in the number of babies being admitted to units.
• Families of babies admitted to specialist hospital care face a crippling financial strain on top of the normal costs of having a new baby.
• Over half of parents face the prospect of not being able to stay near their baby in hospital due to a shortage of overnight rooms for families.

Cake A Difference is the annual fundraising initiative from Bliss, the special care baby charity. Bliss offers guidance and information at a critical time in families' lives, funds ground-breaking research and campaigns for babies to receive the best possible level of care regardless of when and where they are born. Cake A Difference 2011 takes place from 14-20 February 2011. For more ideas on how you can support Bliss contact katiaw {at} bliss.org.uk

Go ahead, bake my day!

January 2011

2011-01-31T23:45:00.001Z

HPAD January 2011
Originally uploaded by clogsilk.

What a month! Pretty proud of this batch of shots - hope to keep it up for the next 11 months and document what looks to be setting up to be an interesting and rollercoaster year!

Claudia's parents evening report

2011-01-17T14:51:00.002Z

Second attempt at posting this. First scuppered by James switching off the computer mid post!

We had Claud's parents evening last week. It should have been in November, but for various reasons it took until last week to rearrange it!

Like James's report, it's divided into the six areas of the EYFS, and the nursery have written a bit under each based on their observations.

Personal, social and emotional development
Claudia has formed good relationships within toddler room and knows the names of all staff and peers. She is friendly and cooperative. She enjoys playing alongside peers and on her own. She loves to share her experiences and feels a sense of pride in her achievements

Communication, language and literacy
Her vocabulary is developing very well and she can use language to communicate with her peers about things that interest her. She enjoys singing nursery rhymes and reading stories. She joins in at circle time. She can distinguish between marks, writing and numbers.

Problem solving, reasoning and numeracy
Claudia enjoys singing counting songs such as ten fat sausages and can use some number names spontaneously and accurately in play. She can count to ten without support. She will categorise objects by size and shape.

Knowledge and understanding of the world
She enjoys exploring the toddler room and the activities set out. She is very curious and interested in what's happening - she will observe, comment and ask questions about new experiences. She knows the nursery routine and anticipates specific times. She can operate simple electronic equipment.

Physical development
She can move freely with confidence in various ways. She is aware of objects and people around her. She responds to rhythm and music with gestures and has a good understanding of her health and bodily awareness. She is aware of her own needs too. She has developed good fine and gross motor control.

Creative development
Claudia can identify different sounds and smells and will ask questions about what she hears. She can recognise the difference between different tactile materials. She differentiates between most colours. She enjoys playing musical instruments and singing. She uses her imagination during play and invites her friends to join in role plays.

When we looked at Claudia's folder, I noticed that a lot of the observations were not very up to date and there were plenty of things she does that weren't observed. Nursery are going to give us an observation sheet where we can mark what we think she is doing so they can look out for it.

They are also finally going to let her not have a sleep at lunch time (yay, she might actually go to bed at home on nursery nights then). She will go up to preschool while the other toddlers are napping.

I asked about the visit we had from the manager to discuss both James and Claud's behaviour. Interestingly, the former toddler room leader (and now preschool room leader) had no idea about the meeting and said she didn't think there were any problems at all with either of their behaviour. Which is interesting considering how we were made to feel before Christmas!

Cheers Boris!

2011-01-05T20:12:00.001Z

Goodbye Charing Cross
Originally uploaded by clogsilk.

My daily fare into work went up by 16% for one route and 11% for the other today. And what a great service we get for it too! NOT!

Still at least I get to snap shots of the London Eye on the way home.

Worth a tenner a day?

2/365 Mini-HPAD anyone?

2011-01-02T19:24:00.002Z

I'm doing Photo-a-Day again this year, and it seems Claudia quite fancies getting in on the act! Here she is having borrowed James's latest toy - a vtech kidizoom Buzz Lightyear camera.

The Buzz camera is definitely more for fun than any serious photography but hopefully it will give them an interest in photography in advance of them getting a 'real' digital camera. We still have our original Canon Powershot A40 sitting around at home so I figure they can use that first if they get into it, then perhaps moving onto the recently superseded Ixus 750!

Goodbye 2010

2011-01-01T22:00:00.002Z

2010 mosaic
Originally uploaded by clogsilk.

So, farewell 2010. This is one of those really dull end of the year posts where I get to look back and see if I kept any of my resolutions!

So what were they?

1. Become a better photographer. I've got my course in Feb and I will be getting myself a shiny DSLR at some point, but beyond that I want to get better at composition of photos and "seeing" the good shots that are out there. Take a photo a day for my project.

I think I did this, though I think I've also got a lot more critical of myself. I do want to keep improving though, so that's important. I've tried to stick to my course tutor's recommendation of shooting in manual whenever possible, so at least I am thinking about the shot. He also said if you get 12 good shots in a year, you're doing well. I think I've a handful I'm really proud of.

2. Lose weight. Dull, dull, dull, but has to be done.

Hmm.

3. Move on from my current job in whatever way turns out to be right for me.

Well, I left at the end of February and started a new job in June that was originally going to be for 3 months, then 6 months and now 10 months. We'll see what happens at the end of March!

4. Put up the things in the house that are waiting to be put up and have been for about a year (mirrors, blinds etc), and get the house painted and our nice shiny new front door ordered. (At the risk of making this sound like a to do list).

Most of this was done! Just one blind to go up and the house still to be painted, but overall pleased on this front.

5. Potty train James and (possibly) Claudia too. Preferably not at the same time, I don't think my floors or my washing machine could take it.

Well James was potty trained at the end of June and dry overnight 3 months later. All good and very glad I waited, especially as I didn't instigate the actual potty training, that was done by my mum who was looking after the kids while they had the dreaded pox!

6. Get some more sleep (pretty please, Claudia).

Hurray! This did happen to some extent, though she still probably only sleeps through on 2 in 7 nights a week, but that's so much better than it was! And only back molars to come through now, so maybe we'll be on the home straight then...

7. Make a final decision (not on my own obviously) on whether to stick with two children or try for more.

I think we're sticking with two, and selling the baby stuff! I don't think I can go through that level of sleep deprivation again.

8. Go on two (hopefully) fab holidays with parents and with friends.

Yep, they were fantastic :D

9. Knit knit knit. (and perhaps learn to crochet, I received a set for Christmas to crochet a couple of little animals).

Hmm. Still haven't done the animals and not sure I finished a garment this year. :(

10. Get a new laptop (or perhaps just a new power supply for this one).

Ooh, did even better on this one, I got a new iMac! And it is wonderful.

Onwards and upwards to 2011!

Guest blogging

2010-12-14T14:37:00.000Z

Over at From student to midwife, telling my breastfeeding stories.

My year in Facebook statuses

2010-12-07T22:25:00.002Z

In advance of my own review of the year....

James's parents evening

2010-11-20T22:43:00.002Z

We had James's parents evening last week. I meant to write about it before now, but haven't had chance yet. We haven't managed to have Claudia's yet as we couldn't make the day (adjacent days where they expect you not to bring the kids. Bit difficult when you don't have a babysitter you can just call on at the drop of a hat)

Anyway, James's report made for interesting reading.They divide it up into six areas, which are all part of the Early Years Foundation Stage. This covers nursery and reception, so quite a wide range. In his folder the staff write observations and mark off when they have seen him do a whole stack of things along the development pathway for each of the six areas, which in turn each have about 10 different elements. It's a lot of paper! It gets passed on to the school I think so they should have a good idea of where he's up to.

So the brief highlights of each of the six:

Personal, social and emotional development
James seems to get on well with everyone but he has particularly strong bonds with a small group of peers. He "tests the boundaries within the preschool room by displaying behaviour that he knows is not right". (Basically if he doesn't want to do something he refuses point blank to do it and answers back. He's started timing himself out to get out of tidying up too!) He shows concern for his peers and tolerates the younger children in the room and nursery. He has a well developed sense of humour and will often be the one making his peer group smile (I love that comment!!)

Communication, language and literacy
James can recognise some letters, eg J and M, where they are related to him. He has a wide vocabulary and communicates confidently. He uses body language and facial expressions to express his feelings. He knows the difference between past, present and future.

Problem solving, reasoning and numeracy
He can count to 20 but mixes up the numbers 13-20. He can recognise 1-10 written down, but for some reason doesn't get 9. He can match objects by colour, shape and size and can identify a range of shapes. He can tell the difference between big and small and uses mathematical and positional language in his play.

Knowledge and understanding of the world
James enjoys building cars and playing with the trains and track. He likes messy play. He is interested in the computer and knows how to complete the games. At nursery he needs adult support with the mouse, but at home he uses the mouse to navigate the CBeebies website without help.

Physical development
He enjoys riding the bikes and scooters. He can climb the ladder and go down the slide safely. He can walk on the balance beam with adult help.

He can use scissors to cut paper and one handed tools such as hammers (eek!!)

Creative development
He can recognise all the basic colours and enjoys using his hands to do painting and sticking. He likes pretending to be a monster and chasing his peers. He enjoys stories and singing songs/doing actions.

We had a long chat with nursery about his behaviour. Basically I think the recent downturn when we had seen a lot of improvement is down to him feeling pushed out by Claud because of all the attention she's had over her foot. I've tried really hard since to give him lots of positive attention and his behaviour (for me at home) has improved no end. I think he's been better at nursery too.

I am looking forward to him starting school in September actually, as I don't think nursery really challenge him enough with things and he gets bored (which also contributes to the behavour things).

Pops latest

2010-11-16T22:55:00.001Z

319/365 Cuddles at the hospital
Originally uploaded by clogsilk.

So today was Claud's fourth appointment at the fracture clinic and the third where I've taken James along too. I was slightly later than I wanted to be setting off this morning and then when I got to my now favoured parking spot there was no space. Helpfully I think it is Eid? Anyway, the nearby mosque was heaving and there were no free spaces whatsoever so I had to park miles away.

We just about made it on time to the clinic. When we got there the nurse asked if we wanted to see the consultant or one of the registrars. I said we didn't mind, anyway we saw the consultant who had two medical students with him. Their task was mainly to entertain James while Claud and I were with the consultant. He asked her what song he'd asked her to sing last week and she remembered it was twinkle twinkle little star without any prompting, but when she started singing it she was wise to his tricks and complained that he should stop holding her leg and she wanted mummy to hold it!

I explained that she'd not really been complaining of pain but that she wouldn't bear any weight on the leg. He decided to send her for an x-ray this time, so we headed up to the x-ray department. We were seen pretty quickly but with added complication that I needed to go in to hold Pops so there was no one to look after Jam. One of the other patients offered, but the hospital provided another person to sit with James while we went in. He was good as gold, telling her all about his toys (including Cuddles who we'd taken with us for an adventure - Cuddles is the nursery cuddly toy who travels round to different children each week so they can talk about what they've been up to at circle time).

Claud was not at all happy with the x-ray process and basically screamed the place down. It took me and another member of staff to hold her while someone else operated the machine and boy did she make a lot of noise! It was soon done thankfully.

We headed back down to the clinic where we sat around for a while because the consultant was up on ward rounds. J & C played with their toy cars and were pretty well behaved thankfully so no repeat of anyone tutting or complaining at me this week. (Although I did have a helpful lady when we were trying to book in for the clinic tell me I should take Claud's shoes off as they were clearly hurting her. I resisted the temptation to tell her to mind her own business.)

We were seen almost immediately once the consultant returned from ward rounds. He spent quite a bit of time looking at the x-ray but basically said it wasn't clear and you could convince yourself either way as to whether she has an undisplaced fracture of the distal tibia (think I've got that right, anatomy was never my strong point). Basically undisplaced means the bone hasn't moved. And given that it's more than four weeks since she slipped and she's been castless for a week, that means it isn't going to move.

We decided not to put another cast on her, though I think they would have done if I'd insisted on it. It didn't seem sensible given that she's been fine all week apart from simply not wanting to walk.

We have another appointment in two weeks time, which I desperately hope we'll be able to cancel! We were there for about 2 hours in total and they were so well behaved considering the circumstances. My nerves were shot to pieces by the end of it though, constantly on alert to make sure they weren't disturbing anybody else, breaking any equipment, tripping anybody up etc etc. It's bloomin' hard work I can tell you!

313/365 No cast!

2010-11-09T12:19:00.001Z

So after categorically saying last week that she would have another cast on this week whatever, Claud's consultant decided today that she didn't need one. He's looked again at her x-rays and he's not sure the leg was ever broken (!) He got her to sing twinkle twinkle little star while he moved her foot around and he said she didn't seem to be in pain, just a bit of stiffness.

So, we have to see how she goes and go back in a week to confirm that (hopefully) she's ok. Fingers crossed! I won't miss going to that hospital I can tell you. I know it's no fun for anyone but no one wanted to cut Claud any slack today. She was a bit upset (as she would be, she's two and doesn't really understand what's happening to her) and I had two or three people looking at me and tutting as though I should be able to shut her up. And one pleasant gentleman asked me to stick a dummy in her mouth!! It was all I could do to restrain myself from going over there and stamping on his broken leg to be honest.

Still, at least parking all went smoothly today!

Broken leg week 2

2010-11-02T14:57:00.001Z

Today was Claud's second appointment at the fracture clinic after breaking her leg two weeks ago. We were expecting to take her in and have the red cast removed and then for her to be x-rayed to assess whether her leg is actually broken or not and then take it from there.

This week I had James with me because the timing of the appointment wasn't suitable for me to get a babysitter, so I wasn't looking forward to trying to deal with him if he decided to kick off, but so be it. Lots of other mums have to take all their kids with them to appointments, so I would just have to get on with it!

I decided to park in the hospital car park. Big mistake. This had been really easy last week, plenty of space and pay on exit so no need to panic about meters running out and the like. Plus I would be on site so not too much walking with the two of them. Ha. Since last week, the hospital has changed all its parking set up. The car park where we parked last week is staff only and visitors are limited to a tiny little car park which was of course full by the time we got there. And there is no way to circle the car park in case someone goes, you just get shunted back out onto the main road. Brilliant bit of design guys. Luckily they give you 10 minutes grace, so we didn't have to pay at least.

The problem now was it was 10 minutes to our appointment by this time (we'd had to queue to get into the car park and I hadn't arrived very very early as I didn't want to be sitting around in the clinic with two bored children and I'd foolishly assumed I'd be able to park like last week). I also didn't have any change on me for parking meters. Nor could I actually find a meter. I did eventually find a spot to park where half the car was in a space and I went into 5 local shops to see if they had change for a note. None of them did, or if they did they weren't willing to change it with me. (I'd had a couple of frantic phone calls to Mike by this point who managed to get me to calm down and stop panicking.) I rang the clinic who said if I got there by 12 they'd still see us. I took a few deep breaths and decided to drive to the petrol station and buy a bar of chocolate. This was 90p, I paid with a £10 note, giving me the change I needed - 4 pound coins, a 10p and a £5 note. Change obtained, we headed to find somewhere to park. By a miracle I stumbled on a road where there was ample parking (I will remember this for next week!), parked up, put £3 into the meter and headed off to the clinic.

We arrived at the clinic 25 minutes late. She marked down on our folder that we'd been 15 minutes late (bless her, I think they aren't supposed to see us if we're later than that) and we settled down to wait. Fair enough, we were shunted right to the bottom of the queue so we were the last people to be seen in the clinic, a further 35 minutes after we arrived. James and Claud were pretty well behaved thankfully, with not too much shouting or fighting.

When we finally got into the consulting room, every man and his dog was there. The consultant put in an appearance (it had been his registrar who'd seen us last week), last week's registrar, plus another chap who I assumed was either an SHO or an HO, plus the nurse. Phew! That's a lot of folks. I guess Claud's is an interesting case then.

I then had to go through the whole tale again for the consultant. He said he'd looked at the x-rays and what looks like a break could just as easily be blood vessels, it's very hard to tell in someone as young as Pops. He said there was no point x-raying the leg this week and they would remove the cast then take another look at her leg with the cast off and see what sort of pain she was in (or not). They would then decide whether or not to put another cast on, but if they did then we would come back next week. They say they will x-ray her then and if it has been broken they should start to see signs of a healing fracture. If they see that then she will get a new cast for another two weeks and that should be that. If not, then they will check her for pain again and we will go round the whole cycle again.

So - they removed the red cast. James behaved beautifully in the room where they did that while I sat with Claud on my leg and they took the cast off with a saw. He didn't like the noise and he told everyone so. Claud didn't like it either and cried. A lot. She was also scared of the saw I think, so by the time the cast was off and the registrar came back to look at her leg she was in floods of tears and not a happy bunny. She wasn't happy for him to touch her leg either, she tried to shove him away and said it was hurting her. He decided very quickly that she would have another cast on.

Once she'd chosen purple as the colour for her new cast, she cheered up immensely and we settled down for them to put it on. This is actually quite a quick job - the stuff that forms the cast is in rolls in little packets and is warm and malleable when it comes out. Once it's in place it cools down and hardens to form the cast. All clever stuff.

We got our appointment for next week while that was going on and then we were ready to head off!

What a morning. Still, I have learned for next week that we will park in the nice road I've discovered straight off and I will go equipped with plenty of change.

Happy Hallowe'en!

2010-10-31T23:24:00.001Z

I don't normally do Hallowe'en, but I thought the kids might enjoy the chance to do a bit of trick or treating this year. Yesterday we were at a party for the occasion, very generously hosted by Sally, and then today Sally and I took Oscar, Toby, James and Claudia on a short walk round the district 'trickle treating' (for some reason my two couldn't manage to say 'trick or treat', it would always come out as trickle treat instead!)

We stuck to houses with decorations, or those of people we know, some of whom were primed to expect us! The kids had fun so I think we'll do it again next year, and I hope to persuade them to dress up properly too next time! (These were their pjs, they didn't want to dress up to actually go out, but luckily Oscar and Toby had fully embraced the occasion!)

{ Friday Photo Bliss }

2010-10-29T22:15:00.001+01:00

297/365 Starting to turn
Originally uploaded by clogsilk.

Once a week posting a photo that makes me happy. I missed this last week, but seeing as I wasn't feeling very blissful that was probably appropriate. This is the tree outside our house on a glorious autumn day.

Claud is happier this week. She is getting on much better with the new cast and doesn't seem to be in as much pain. She's done brilliantly at nursery this week too, which is such a relief. She has another appointment at the fracture clinic on Tuesday so we'll see where we go from there.

291/365 Suspected broken leg

2010-10-19T00:01:00.001+01:00

Oh dear. Well, I suppose we'd done well to get to over 3.5 years of having children without a single trip to A&E. We broke that duck today in spectacular style. Yesterday we were round at John and Liz's for Ben's 6th birthday - a quiet gathering which was a lot of fun. Late on in the proceedings Pops slipped on the floor - a totally inocuous slip, but it really seemed to bother her so we packed up hurriedly and headed home.

This morning she still couldn't bear any weight on it, after an absolutely abysmal night's sleep. (She has a cold as well, just to add to the fun). I ummed and ahhed about what to do, but when Sally came round with Oscar and Toby I decided to listen to her advice. She stayed to look after James until M could get home from work and Claud and I headed to A&E.

We were seen pretty quickly by the triage nurse - within about 15 minutes of getting there I'd say. She gave Pops some calpol and then we waited. We saw a doctor after about an hour and a half of waiting. He decided it would be best to xray her leg, so we headed down to A&E xray. Luckily there was no one else waiting so we got that done straight away. Back to A&E for more waiting, then the doc called us in and showed us the xrays. Just as he was saying he couldn't see anything obvious, he spotted what I could only describe as a dark mark on one of the bones in her leg (I should know which but anatomy was never my strong point). He said it might be a fracture, and that what usually happens with toddler fractures is that they take a few days to develop. He decided she was to be plastered up and then we would return in a week or so to get her leg re-xrayed.

Poor little mite was beside herself at this point, and I felt like the worst mother in the world when he asked why we'd waited to bring her to A&E. Over we went to the nurses who plastered up her leg and commented on the marks on her feet (made by her scratching during tantrums, which I explained).

The doc came back with some forms for the follow up appointment and he explained, full of apologies, that it was protocol that the Health Visitor would be contacting us to make sure we were ok (code word for check up that we aren't abusing our children). At first he said that was because we'd delayed in taking Pops to A&E, but then changed his mind and said it was because it was a fracture in an under 3 - he showed me the point in their protocols where it says that's what should happen. I'm fine with it - I know they need to check up on things, and I'd rather they were over cautious than missed something. I still feel like the worst mum in the world though.

The doc clearly felt sorry for us as he escorted us back to the main entrance of A&E and handed over the papers for the follow up appointment himself (or maybe he just wanted to make sure the appointment was made....)

We got home about 4 hours after I'd set out, Pops a whole lot happier than she had been so clearly the cast had had some effect. Just hope she sleeps tonight!!

{ Friday Photo Bliss }

2010-10-15T22:22:00.001+01:00

Had to be this one today! They make me very happy indeed and they were so pleased to see me today after my night away. James spotted me walking home and literally ran down the street to hug me! :)

285/365 Do Blue

2010-10-12T15:33:00.001+01:00

285/365 Do Blue
Originally uploaded by clogsilk.

For World Arthritis Day, the Arthritis Foundation is encouraging everyone to "Do Blue" today, Tuesday 12 October, from lighting up national landmarks in blue, like Niagara Falls, to wearing blue shoes and other apparel.

World Arthritis Day has been celebrated 1996 by ARI (Arthritis Rheumatism International) first. It is being celebrated each year on October 12th.

The aims of World Arthritis Day are:

To raise awareness of arthritis in all its forms among the medical community, people with arthritis and the general public
To influence public policy by making decision-makers aware of the burden of arthritis and the steps which can be taken to ease it
To ensure all people with arthritis and their caregivers are aware of the vast support network available to them.

I am taking part in this photo-a-day project today in memory of my Nan, who suffered with arthritis for a long time. x

283/365 101010

2010-10-10T16:37:00.001+01:00

283/365 101010
Originally uploaded by clogsilk.

Today is a very special day! It is 101010, which equates to 42. Which as we all know is the meaning of life itself!

So here is a snap to mark this auspicious occasion.

Try this fellow bloggers

2010-10-09T22:48:00.001+01:00

http://www.urlai.com/url/clogsilk.blogspot.com

This site analyses your blog and claims to say who you are based on the writing style! It was reasonably successful for me even though it only analysed the 9 most recent posts. I am female - tick. My writing style is personal and happy most of the time - tick? I am aged 36-50?! Sob.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

{ Friday Photo Bliss }

2010-10-08T23:07:00.001+01:00

Once a week posting a photo that makes me happy. Here's James enjoying the music room at the Horniman museum last Monday.

Claudia is 2

2010-10-04T23:20:00.001+01:00

Shamefully I haven't blogged this before now, but I officially don't have any babies any more! My baby Claudia is now 2 whole years old. This picture is one of me and her on our recent holiday in France. She is becoming an absolute delight. Her speech is brilliant, speaking in sentences and new words every day, she can pretty well make herself understood which means tantrums are (at the moment) not that frequent. Apart from when I accidentally choose the wrong item of clothing for her to put on - then all hell breaks loose!

Her relationship with James is lovely too. They flit between loving each other and fighting like cat and dog, but they really miss each other when they're apart - I think it'll be a big shock when James goes to school next year.

Her sleep is up and down. We're on an up at the moment, with a few nights of sleeping through, but I'm all too aware of how easily that can turn around.

It's been a fun 2 years, hard work at times, but so worth it.

Here is a shot of her just born for posterity:

{ Friday Photo Bliss }

2010-10-01T22:08:00.001+01:00

Once a week posting a photo that makes me happy. I thought I'd hark back to summer now that we are well and truly into Autumn, and a shot of James and Claudia playing together.

This is something they are doing more and more now and it's lovely.

Aldwych Station Blitz Experience Tour

2010-09-25T22:33:00.000+01:00

Mike and I were luck enough to be able to go on one of the tours of Aldwych station that are currently being run as part of a series of commemorative events taking place in London to mark the 70th anniversary of the Blitz. We've both always wanted to have a look around Aldwych station - I moved to London just after it closed in September 1994 so was never able to actually experience it as a working station.

The tours sold out pretty quickly, but some persistence by Mark and Mike in staying on the phones for hours meant we got some tickets. Mark wasn't able to come in the end, but I hope you enjoy looking at the pictures and thanks for getting the tickets!

We arrived and queued up with 78 others to go into the station, where we were greeted and had the tour explained to us. We also got the opportunity to visit the toilets (unusual for a tube station to have them!!) and I rather enjoyed this poster:

We were then given our instructions by the air raid warden, who told us off for forgetting to bring our gas masks!

It was then on down the 160-step staircase to platform level where the shelter warden explained how we could find a spot on the platform (or the track!) to settle down for the night. Once onto the platform, we moved along four different carriages of a 1938-stock tube train, where actors played out different characters chatting to us about life in the Blitz.

It was all fascinating stuff, and would be brilliant for children, apart from the 160-step spiral staircase down and up. Aldwych has no working lifts so that's the only way in and out, apart from walking up the tracks to Holborn station. I must admit I quite fancied the idea of that, but we didn't need to be evacuated, so walking up the spiral steps it was!

The whole station was decked out in authentic posters - I particularly liked Doctor Carrot and Potato Pete. My only gripe was I would have liked longer to simply wander around at my own pace and really take the station in, but I guess that wasn't really what this was about.

Mike spoke to one of the museum staff afterwards and we got the impression that perhaps there would be more of this sort of event in future, let's hope so!

Once outside we got to look round a restored RT8 bus, which you can see on the picture above. This was a precursor to the Routemaster and remarkably similar all round. All in all a fascinating event, well worth going along to. (Thanks to Mum and Dad for babysitting so we could actually go - definitely not an event suitable for pre-school age children, even though I'm sure James would have loved to sit on the RT8).

{ Friday Photo Bliss }

2010-09-17T21:40:00.001+01:00

Once a week posting a photo that makes me happy!

Claud enjoying a trip on the petit train on our holiday. It seems rare these days to get a snap of her where she is smiling naturally rather than pulling a silly grimace!

Incy Wincy Spider

2010-09-12T22:26:00.001+01:00

255/365 Tribute to Lumpy Golightly
Originally uploaded by clogsilk.

Just blogging this shot because I'm proud of it! Look at mr spider's stripy legs and his delicate web! :)

I like spiders, but this pic makes me shiver a bit...

{ Friday Photo Bliss }

2010-08-13T21:46:00.001+01:00

Houses of Parliament
Originally uploaded by clogsilk.

Once a week posting a photo that makes me happy!

One my pictures from the HPAD London overnighter.

Thanks to Rita from Coffeeshop for the idea.

Things I learned on the HPAD London overnighter

2010-08-08T11:31:00.002+01:00

1. I need a tripod. Park benches, random walls, bind and the edge of the river just don't cut it for night shooting.
2. HPADers are fab! Particular thanks to Emma for letting me use her tripod and letting me try two lenses (both of which I am now coveting), and Laura for sharing her tripod too!
3. I should shoot in RAW. I am dreading how my pics have turned out and RAW would give me more chance to fine tune them on the Mac.
4. Being able to follow simple instructions is a really useful skill. (sorry we made you wait so long while we found the toilets guys!)
5. I would like a remote shutter release for my camera.
6. The South Bank is surprisingly quiet on a Saturday night.
7. I can't stay up all night! I'm too much of a wuss when my bed starts calling!
8. I am so unfit. Everything aches this morning!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Update on James's weight and height

2010-08-07T10:15:00.001+01:00

So. I was a little concerned (though the health care assistant wasn't to be fair to her, I think she just wanted us out of there) about James's weight and height as measured on Tuesday at the panic.

I decided to check him again myself today.

I measured his height as 4cm taller than she did, just under the 50th centile. I also realised she'd put him in the book as 3 years 5 months instead of 3 years 6 months. I also redid his weight on our scales (I redid Claud too and she came out exactly the same as at the panic - 11.4kg) - He came out 1.2kg lighter than she had measured him! Guess where this puts him on the centile charts?

You got it, just under the 50th! In other words, his weight and height are perfectly in proportion. Silly clinics and all the more reason to not go there again until Claud's pre-school booster in 18 months time.

{ Friday Photo Bliss }

2010-08-06T21:06:00.002+01:00

Posting a photo that makes me happy, once a week (starting today!!)

With thanks to Rita at the fab Coffeeshop blog for the idea.

Aww

2010-08-03T23:28:00.002+01:00

Aren't they angelic?

Not a bit of it! I took them to clinic today to be weighed and measured to finish off their 3.5 and 2 year checks and for James to have his pre-school booster. They behaved so badly. It didn't help that the clinic starts at 1:30 but you basically have to queue outside to get a decent place on the list and (hopefully) not have to wait too long. So they were grouchy before we even got in. You aren't allowed to take buggies in so they were both on the loose.

While I was getting Claud out of the buggy the guy behind me in the outside queue got his name down ahead of ours in the book as he had no buggy. And there were a few people in front of us as we obviously hadn't got there early enough.

James then decided he wanted to sit in the doctors waiting bit, not the clinic. I should have just left him sitting there but I tried to bring him back and this resulted in him charging about all over the place. Claud was getting manic too and also charging around, mostly in the opposite direction to James. It was so hot in there too, I was melting, which didn't help my mood.

Then the mother with the calmest daughter in the world who always sits still and behaves impeccably at every group we've ever seen her at came in. I tried to sort of chat and laugh off the way J&C were behaving but got nowhere really.

We were eventually called in and managed to get them both weighed and James measured, in between lots of them running in and out and me charging after one or other of them. Claud wouldn't have her height done she'd got so worked up by then. One small victory was that the woman doing the clinic assumed she wouldn't be able to measure James either but he did stand still!

He weighs just under 17kg and is 94cm tall. He's on the 50th for weight and 9th for height. Perhaps once you factor out the big bowl of pasta he had for lunch and the fact he was crouching a bit he's probably ok ;-) Claud weighs 11kg.

J was a brave boy for the jab. He cried a bit but got over it when he got a sticker. When we got outside I was quite upset and explained to James why. He seemed to get it and apologised. He then said he didn't want to go to the panic (his word for clinic) again and next time he would see the doctor not the nurse.

Bless his little cotton socks.

3.5 and 2 year checks

2010-08-03T00:05:00.001+01:00

James and Claud had their 3.5 and 2 year checks today. Absolutely nothing to report I'm afraid. The nurse came to the house as I couldn't make a clinic before October thanks to being a working mum. That meant they couldn't be weighed or measured (heighted as she called it...), which is surely the main point of these things.

We discussed Claud's sleep but basically agreed that my strategy of not doing much more to tackle it until all her teeth are through was the right one. She didn't even question the co-sleeping, which surprised me.

I'll probably take them to clinic tomorrow as James needs his pre-school booster doing so I could get it all done at once. He was just gutted not to get his treasure chest - apparently we should get that through nursery, or the library,

210/365 Oops

2010-07-29T22:03:00.001+01:00

210/365 Oops
Originally uploaded by clogsilk.

On Tuesday we were round at Sally's house so James and Claudia could play with Oscar and Toby. They had a fab time, then it was time to come home. We could only find one of James's crocs. In the end we had to leave without the other, after a good search around turned up nothing.

Fast forward to tonight, when at bedtime James informed me that he had put his croc in Sally's bin. I triple checked with him, but he was adamant. Cue frantic texting of Sally to find out if they'd emptied their bin since Tuesday. They had. At least once, probably more.

I ummed and ahhed about whether to just abandon it and buy him a new pair but decided to head over to Sally's to go through the bin. In the meantime, Sally's lovely husband Rob had been through the bin bags and found nothing but a few fly eggs, and generally stinky rubbish. You know, bin-type things. He then had the genius idea of looking behind the sofa, where the croc was nestled happily under a sparkly purple cushion. And here it is, in all its glory.

Rob, I'm so sorry!

Latest Wordle of my blog

2010-07-23T18:43:00.002+01:00

Six (ish) months in, how's 2010 going so far?

2010-07-22T21:12:00.004+01:00

So, how is 2010 going? In time-honoured* tradition* I'll take a look at my new year's resolutions and see how I've been getting on so far!

1. Become a better photographer. I've got my course in Feb and I will be getting myself a shiny DSLR at some point, but beyond that I want to get better at composition of photos and "seeing" the good shots that are out there. Take a photo a day for my project. Well, I think it's fair to say that photography has taken up an awful lot of my time so far this year, and I am absolutely loving it! I got my DSLR at the beginning of February, in time for the week long training course I did in how to use it.

It's been one of the best things I've ever done! Doing the course so soon after I got the camera means I didn't get chance to get into bad habits or get comfy with it, I've learned to shoot in manual from the off, and I (almost) managed to stick to Alex's demand that we shoot only in manual for three months after the course! I'm more comfortable with some aspects than others, that's for sure, so I need to keep challenging myself, but with the photo-a-day project I'm doing that (and I've been taking a photo every day too). I'm happier with portraits and still life (endless flower macros r us) so I want to get better on landscapes and capturing movement.

I would really recommend anyone who gets a DSLR to go on some sort of training to go with it, it's been so so useful, and of course practice practice practice! I've got myself 3 additional lenses to the kit lens too - I'm loving having a hobby that's creative and all mine! I think my old art teacher would be amazed that I had an ounce of creativity within me to be honest.

2. Lose weight. Dull, dull, dull, but has to be done.
Oh dear. I need to get a grip on this one, I think I've put on about half a stone since new year.

3. Move on from my current job in whatever way turns out to be right for me.
Well, lots to report on this front. I was (finally) made redundant at the end of February, and had a couple of months off. I started a new job at the beginning of June, freelancing because of the general state of recruitment in the public sector. It's been tough going and I've wondered if I've done the right thing. Things have picked up in the last week or so - let's hope they improve over the rest of the year!

4. Put up the things in the house that are waiting to be put up and have been for about a year (mirrors, blinds etc), and get the house painted and our nice shiny new front door ordered.
Well, the mirror is up, 3 out of 7 blinds are up, the new front door is in and I need to get quotes for the painting! Woo hoo!

5. Potty train James and (possibly) Claudia too. Preferably not at the same time, I don't think my floors or my washing machine could take it.
Well, thanks to mum, and not quite in the first six months, we now have a potty trained James! He got chicken pox from nursery and during the couple of weeks he was housebound, mum got him doing wees and poos on the potty! And he seems to be (bar the odd accident when he's tired or very distracted) doing great! Thanks mum!!

Claud is showing more interest, but I'm not pushing things.

6. Get some more sleep (pretty please, Claudia).
Hmm, this is up and down, I think it's fair to say. She has slept through on a couple more occasions, but pox made her sleep go rotten and we're only just coming out the other side of that now.

7. Make a final decision (not on my own obviously) on whether to stick with two children or try for more.
No comment

8. Go on two (hopefully) fab holidays with parents and with friends.
We've been on one, it was ace! Going on another soon, hurrah!

9. Knit knit knit. (and perhaps learn to crochet, I received a set for Christmas to crochet a couple of little animals).
Hmm, I think knitting has taken a bit of a back seat to photography on the hobby front. I've almost finished a top, which I think I've been doing since new year. I'd forgotten I had the crochet set, but I think I need to not get ahead of myself!

10. Get a new laptop (or perhaps just a new power supply for this one).
Well, I got a new power supply, but now I'm thinking new powerful desktop for photo processing (and for James and Claud to use as a family computer) and an iPad. Got to be done!

Outside of my own little sphere, I'm watching my old employer and new Government with interest and a little dismay...

187/365 'Arry and Bert

2010-07-08T22:54:00.001+01:00

187/365 'Arry and Bert
Originally uploaded by clogsilk.

Oh my goodness! I never thought this day would come but we finally seem to be getting somewhere with James and potty training!

While he has had chicken pox, his Grandma has been looking after him so I could still work and keeping his nappy off to stop all the spots getting even more grim! This has turned into potty training him, and despite my reservations, he's taken to it really well!

These two engines were a reward we'd got in for him ages ago to tempt him to poo on the potty but until this week he was having none of it. We had battles and shouting and in the end decided to give up. And we'd even managed to persuade nursery to leave it a while.

Now he seems pretty happy to go on the potty without reward, the first couple of wees got rewarded with stickers and his first poo on the potty got 'Arry and 'Bert, but after that he seems to just be happy enough to be pleased and praised.

For the first few days, he would only go on the potty if he was wearing nothing on his bottom half at all. That was never going to work though, because he had to go back to nursery on Wednesday this week. So on Tuesday we bit the bullet and put him in pants and trousers. And he did it! We've had 3 accident-free days so far (two of those being at nursery!)

Touch wood he might finally have done it! How happy would I be about that?!

175/365 Breastfeeding awareness week

2010-06-24T20:40:00.001+01:00

This week is national breastfeeding awareness week, although if you visit the Department of Health website you'd be forgiven for thinking they'd forgotten. There are loads of benefits to breastfeeding, some of which I'll repeat here!

Breastmilk gives babies all the nutrients they need for the first six months of life and helps protect them from infection and diseases. It also reduces mothers' chances of getting certain diseases later in life.

Breastfeeding also allows you and your baby to get closer - physically and emotionally. So while your child is feeding, the bond between you can grow stronger.

Bottle feeding does not give your baby the same ingredients as breastmilk, which is designed to be easy for your baby to absorb and is perfect to help her grow and develop. Also, bottle feeding doesn't provide protection against infection and diseases.

Breastfeeding helps protect your baby against:

* ear infections
* gastro-intestinal infections
* chest infections
* urine infections
* childhood diabetes
* eczema
* obesity
* asthma.

Breastfeeding helps protect mothers against:

* ovarian cancer
* breast cancer
* weak bones later in life.

Those of you who know me well know that I didn't manage to breastfeed my son James after he was born prematurely and unable to suck. I got no real help and gave up pretty quickly, though I expressed milk for a while.

With Claudia I was pretty determined to succeed, and I'm pleased to say that despite one early wobble we are still going now. She is 22 months old. Of course, according to many people, some of them health professionals, that makes us weird, obscene, disgusting, you name it.

I don't see it like that. I'll admit I never intended to breastfeed much beyond 6 months, I was going back to work for a start. Claudia had other ideas though, and wouldn't take a bottle. So I carried on. And carried on. And carried on. To be honest it's so easy now - she feeds most evenings and some mornings, but not much more than that, that I'm almost inclined to just carry on until she wants to stop. And if that makes me some kind of crazed lentil-knitting hippy, so be it.

173/365 Dentist

2010-06-23T22:19:00.001+01:00

Not exactly the shot I planned but I ran out of time as I was dashing off out for dinner with former colleagues! James was such a good boy at the dentist yesterday, happily looked at his book while I had my teeth checked, only stopping to check I was ok, and then he got on the chair and had his teeth looked at with no problems at all. So different to six months ago where he point blank refused to even sit on the chair.

174/365 Come on England!

2010-06-23T09:13:00.001+01:00

174/365 Come on England!
Originally uploaded by clogsilk.

Say no more!

A few firsts

2010-06-20T16:49:00.004+01:00

We had a bit of a trip on the train today, unplanned - we'd originally been going swimming but the pool was shut for a gala. We headed up to London Bridge on th 'electric train', then over to North Greenwich to the O2, where we had lunch. Amazingly I've never been to the O2 before.

We then promised James he could go on the 'orange train', so we sped back to Canada Water and headed for our first trip on London Overground.

James enjoyed it and I was fairly impressed. The carriages are wide so there's plenty of room to sit down with a buggy when it's quiet. We didn't actually have a plan of where we were going so decided to jump off at Shadwell. I lived here for a year between 1997 and 1998.

We wandered to the DLR (or 'puter train as James has named it). Not much has changed in Shadwell really, the pub has gone to be replaced by a corner shop and Crispy Cod & Crunchy Chicken is now Ocean Fresh but it still looks very down-at-heel.

We headed back to Lewisham and James got to drive* the train so he was happy. Not so happy with the wait for a 225 to get back to Hither Green (it was that or the rail replacement bus). Still I think Daddy enjoyed his Father's Day trip - he's fast asleep on the sofa now!!

(oh and James did a wee on the toilet at Pizza Express, I was so happy I nearly cried!!)

What have I done?

2010-06-09T22:32:00.001+01:00

160/365 Last of the sweet williams
Originally uploaded by clogsilk.

I'm feeling a bit exhausted today! Day 4 of my new job and I'm feeling a bit out of my depth and starting to panic a bit. These flowers are some of the ones I got to celebrate getting the job, so a picture of them on their last legs seems appropriate for how I'm feeling.

I feel like I'm running to stand still with stuff like washing, keeping the house tidy, and we even have a cleaner already!

I guess (I hope) it will pass, I've not had a new job for such a long time I've forgotten how it feels. And it's good to have a challenge, right?

Just not sure how I'm going to get everything I need to do on a daily basis done and still find time to relax a bit. I'm only coping at the moment by partitioning my life massively, but this sometimes leads to problems of its own - most usually when something from one partition impacts on another!

And I'm so behind with birthday present and card buying it's not true. And lets not even go there on the long term to do list. James's christening anyone? I mean, he's only 3, how long does it take to organise?

AAARGH!

We've been gardening!

2010-06-06T23:25:00.001+01:00

157/365 Acer
Originally uploaded by clogsilk.

With the help of Mike's Mum and Dad and some good weather, the garden is now looking brilliant. We've planted up everything we had in pots that survived the winter (ie a few irises and not a lot more) and they brought down a load of stuff we had in our old house and took cuttings of when we left ready to plant here.

This photo is of the acer we got today for Mike's (belated) birthday present. I'm so excited, because I've always wanted one in our garden and now we have it!

Now I think we just need a swing or climbing frame or similar and it will be ace. We've just got to clear away some leftover rubbish and cover the weedproof membrane in the beds with something and then we'll be done for a while.

Hurray!

James's parents evening

2010-05-27T14:15:00.001+01:00

So, we had Claud's parents evening on Tuesday and yesterday it was the turn of James! Again, we had a report to read and digest before we went along, of which more in a minute.

This time, however, we didn't expect the meeting to be completely plain sailing. I think it's fair to say that two issues have persistently dogged James's settling in at preschool since he started in February. The first, and biggest, is toilet training. At our nursery they "like them to be toilet trained before they start at preschool". For this reason they wanted at first to keep him in toddlers with 2 year olds despite the fact that in every other regard he is plenty developed enough to be with his peer group. (and despite the fact that two of his closest friends were already in or moving to preschool). Anyway, we persuaded them to let him move up. We also agreed, against my better judgment, to allow them to start putting James in pants. This led to a lot of accidents at first, then eventually to him withholding any movements until he had a pull up on at naptime. Pretty unsatisfactory, so (I thought) we agreed to go back to pull ups all the time. Then last week they put him in pants again without our permission. Aaargh!

The second issue I touched on above - naptime. Since he started at preschool, James hasn't really napped at lunchtime when he's at home with me. If he naps, he's a nightmare (for him) at bedtime. Just won't go to sleep, messes about etc etc. And this leads to him actually getting less sleep overall. So we asked nursery to stop putting him down for a nap. You would think we'd asked for the earth! They had labelled him as a sleeper, so therefore he was a sleeper as far as they were concerned. (The preschoolers are divided into sleepers - those who nap after lunch - and nonsleepers - those who don't). Eventually we managed to get them to agree to limit his nap to 30 minutes. But occasionally they would forget, or he just wouldn't wake up. And he was a nightmare at bedtime anyway!

So we went in yesterday, having digested the report, but really wanting to talk about the two issues above. The first thing we had to do was sit in front of the two keyworkers and fill in a form about how we thought he'd settled at preschool. (Something similar happened at Claud's meeting, where we had to fill in a form on what we thought of the nursery, but in front of the keyworkers). Someone really should tell them that isn't the best way to make parents feel comfortable, but, hey, it's not going to be me, I'm causing enough trouble. Anyway, I thought, "sod it" and just filled in the form saying basically everything was great apart from sleep and toilet training.

We discussed it with them and we have (finally, I hope) got them to agree that James can be a nonsleeper. Yay! And they've agreed to hold off on the pants until we say so. Double yay. But why did that have to be so hard?! Anyway, we'll see how it goes.

In terms of his report, it was fine, he's developing nicely. He has good relationships with the staff and his friends. Amusingly he doesn't always share, but sometimes "needs reminding". And an interesting comment was that when he doesn't want to do something he goes and sits by himself until he is ready to join back in.

He is confident and clear with his language and is starting to use the computer a bit. He memorises stories and apparently talks about what he's done outside of nursery (would be good now if I could get him to tell me what he's been doing in nursery, other than, "I hit Nathan. Nathan's hit me." etc etc.)

He can count to ten (well I reckon he can count to fifteen for what it's worth, which is not a lot at this stage really). He knows he is three and can recognise shapes. He can understand sizes, like big and small.

He likes doing messy play and can describe what he sees and feels, including understanding the difference between hot and cold. He likes playing with cars and trains.

He can run, jump and stop when asked (sometimes!) He can thread a lace and use scissors (with his right hand interestingly). He can use a hammer and pins safely. (All sounds pretty scary to me!) He enjoys dancing, but not for long!

He can recognise and name all basic colours and enjoys singing songs. He has a good imagination and uses it to role play going shopping, cooking or phoning mummy. He enjoys doing creative activities and will talk about what he's done.

He can also (I found out last night) recognise pictures of different stocks of tube trains! And of course he knows the difference between a steamie and electric train and a diesel...

This picture is of him trying out our friend Greg's motorbike on Sunday. He loved it! He put his cycling helmet on by himself to persuade us to let him sit on. He also put his own shoes on and as you can see, they are on the wrong feet!

My little one is growing up fast.

Claudia's baby room report

2010-05-21T17:03:00.001+01:00

Claudia has got a parents evening at nursery next week and yesterday we got her report to digest before we go! It's divided into 6 areas of development:

Personal, social and emotional development
Communication, language and literacy
Problem solving, reasoning and numeracy
Knowledge and understanding of the world
Physical development
Creative development

It's really interesting reading someone else's observations on your baby, it makes you feel quite "territorial" - I dread what I'll be like when they're actually at school!

A few highlights:

Personal, social and emotional development:
"Although Claudia is happy within the nursery environment, she does find separating from her parents difficult" (You're telling me!)
Apparently she is particularly affectionate when new children join the room (maybe she knows what they're going through!)

Communication, language and literacy:
very confident with language and combining words
enjoys exploring and looking at books
able to follow simple instructions (unless it's mummy doing the asking!)

Problem solving, reasoning and numeracy:
Enjoys singing counting songs
Can count up to 5 confidently and 10 with adult help

Knowledge and understanding of the world:
Will explore all the activities set out
Familiar with the nursery routine and knows how to tidy up (will have to try that one at home!!)
Understands that tools can be used for a purpose - eg a brush to brush hair

Physical development:
Developing well, very active with a good sense of balance (which she doesn't get from me!)
Good fine motor skills

Creative development:
Enjoys taking part in lots of different creative and messy play activities and spends a long time on them
Enjoys dancing and action songs

All interesting stuff!

Camera Trails course

2010-05-01T22:22:00.002+01:00

Jubilee Bridge
Originally uploaded by clogsilk.

I went on a course taking photographs on the South Bank and had a fantastic day out. Mike stayed home with J & C, so I really got to concentrate without any distractions!

Here I am taking photos on the Jubilee Bridge, we started there, then headed along to the Skate Park, Tate Modern and Borough Market.

I really recommend it - Camera Trails limit the numbers to 5, so you really get a lot of attention (and in fact today there were only 3 of us) and they tailor it around what you want to get out of it too.

101/365 Ready for my new bed

2010-04-15T23:50:00.001+01:00

James is (finally) in his grown up bed! Having been fine with the side off his cot for a while now we decided he could take the plunge and went for it at the weekend!

As I guess we ought to have predicted, he's taken to it fine. Really (without wanting to jinx things...) the boy is one of life's sleepers and there doesn't seem to be much we can do to spoil that.

Not even letting him bounce on said bed and crack his jaw on the headboard on the first night he was in it. Nuff said.

Claud's sleep continues to be variable.

98/365 Claudia gets crafty

2010-04-08T22:07:00.004+01:00

I've got the kids all week this week as nursery are on a week's holiday. I decided to try out a Let's Get Crafty session at the Limelight centre this morning. Claudia got really into it and basically sat and got on with producing her art work all by herself. Which was a good job, because I spent most of the session chasing James around and trying to stop him from decanting the foam and custard from messy play into the water for washing hands. Sigh!

They both produced decorated eggs, pretty much by themselves. James was loving the glitter and Claudia the coloured pens.

"Yay," thought I at this point. Not a bit of it - he wouldn't do the second activity, which was to make an egg with a chick out of card. Claudia produced a fantastic one though, with very little help from me, apart from the obvious cutting out.

Messy play distracted James for a nanosecond. But basically he was a pain! Why can't I have two children who want to get on and do activities rather than muck about?Still, he does sleep so I shouldn't complain. You can't have everything...

88/365 I have daffodils!

2010-03-30T15:34:00.004+01:00

88/365 I have daffodils!
Originally uploaded by clogsilk.

My 8th explore! (OK so 3 of them have been dropped, one of them from #33, but still.) I am loving the PAD project at the moment, it's really given me a focus and it's lovely to do something that is fun and for me. Sorry if that sounds a bit selfish, it isn't meant to be!

This pic was processed using the Coffeeshop Color Tints Action for Photoshop Elements, choosing the rosy layer. I love it!

Edited to add, this pic made the front page of explore! Woo hoo!

James and Claudia update

2010-03-29T23:20:00.001+01:00

I've been pretty remiss at updating my blog recently. I started well, but that was mainly copying from my photo-a-day project straight into my blog. I'm still doing the PAD, and this is my pic from yesterday. I think it nicely captures the relationship between James and Claudia, and James summed it up tonight when he said, "Claudia is my sister friend." They really are sweet together (when he isn't pulling her hair and pushing her over). Today at a new music/movement class we went to he rushed to her aid when another boy pushed her over, he really is quite the protective older brother already!

So what are they up to? James is 3 years and 1 month and is a proper "threenager". To be fair to him though, his behaviour has improved in many respects. I can, in general, trust him not to run off if I don't have him strapped into a pushchair, and we can confidently walk from our house up to the community centre, something I couldn't have dreamed of doing a few months ago. His speech is great, we can have proper little conversations and his memory for stories and the like is phenomenal. He will often come out with a little titbit from a story he saw or had read to him days or even weeks ago. It takes me a while to work out what he's on about sometimes! We're looking to get him a big bed now, he's almost outgrown the cot. He's had the side off it for a while, which has been fine apart from a short period of getting out of bed after supposedly wishing us goodnight. He still isn't potty trained, and I'm afraid that it's looking like I am going to be proved right. I suggested to nursery that they leave it 6 months and then tackle it. They insisted on tackling it now, so I went along with it, but all that is happening is that he saves up all his wees and poos for when he has a pull up on. He's done 2 or 3 wees on the loo ever and no poos. I suppose it will be alright in the end, but it is a bit of a worry.

Claudia is doing really well. She is sleeping so much better, sometimes even sleeping through. I don't feed her at night and if she wakes, Mike goes to settle her, which works pretty well usually. My only complaint is that she wakes early, usually before 6, but we are so much further on than we were in January that I'm not going to complain. Her speech is great, she has well over 200 words, and her understanding is fab, provided you talk slowly and clearly enough for her to get what you're asking. We're even getting a few yesses to go along with the noes.

I can't wait for the proper spring and summer now, I hope we're going to have a lot of fun!

A new career awaits?

2010-03-15T15:08:00.003Z

74/365 Tribute to samanthajane81
Originally uploaded by clogsilk.

One of the challenges that our photography group has every month is to tribute another group member's photo. This is my shot for March. I waited until my nifty fifty arrived and had a play, this is about the third or fourth shot I've taken with the lens so I am very much a novice.

This book is my journal of my thoughts and ideas on my new career hunt/job search/whatever you want to call it, so I thought it fitted quite well with the idea from the original photograph of hopes and dreams. I hope happiness and perhaps even love can follow later on when I find the career of my dreams!

66/365 New shoes!

2010-03-07T21:37:00.002Z

66/365 New shoes!
Originally uploaded by clogsilk.

Now I have Photoshop Elements for my Mac I've finally got round to properly checking out a site Spud recommended ages ago. It's called CoffeeShop and has loads of free stuff for Photoshop and Elements. It's run by a stay-at-home mum called Rita. Everything on the site is created by her.

She writes, "My main "claim to fame" are all of the free actions I have designed. An action is just series of programmed steps you commonly use in editing to get a certain "look" or effect. For example, you can use an action to create a soft vanilla B&W, a bright color pop, create and load a storyboard, or even retouch a portrait. My actions are special in that almost all of them run in Photoshop Elements, an amazing editing program most people can afford to buy (unlike its big sister Photoshop). And most of my actions are completely adjustable so you can get your own unique look.

CoffeeShop has plenty of other free goodies. I create custom storyboards, textures, brushes, patterns, cards, etc. and post them here. I also write all types of tutorials covering photography, photo-editing, and Blogger blog design."

She manages to do all of this whilst also looking after her two children and the blog survives on donations alone!

If you use Photoshop, or Elements, it's well worth taking a look at.

Testing BlogPress for iPhone

2010-03-05T08:54:00.002Z

Just found this rather cool (free) app for my iPhone that means I can post to my blog from it. So before I go back to bed and catch up on some sleep, here is a cute pic of the cause of my sleep problems!

Ooh, being unemployed is hard work so far.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Explore Front Page 27022010

2010-02-28T16:26:00.001Z

I'm a bit excited! One of my photos made the front page of Explore on Flickr! The group I do my photo-a-day with had a charity day on Friday, raising awareness for the British Heart Foundation and at one point I think the top 14 photos in Explore were from our group. The highest mine got was number 2! Hopefully we did manage to raise awareness of the important work the BHF do.

The leavers

2010-02-27T23:05:00.001Z

The leavers
Originally uploaded by clogsilk.

So, after just over 11 years, I left my job yesterday! I went on redundancy which has been a long time coming but in the end all happened rather quickly. This photo is of the 6 of us who left on the same day and we shared a leaving do in the local pub.

It was strange in the end, it's been so long coming that I didn't get too emotional, even though at one time I was really angry about what's happened. There just doesn't seem a lot of point getting angry now; time to move on.

I'm going to have a bit of a break I think, then take things from there. I need to catch up on my sleep for a start, given that I've had a non sleeping baby for 18 months and I didn't get loads of sleep during my pregnancy either!

Onwards and upwards!

34/365 AAARGH!

2010-02-03T21:54:00.001Z

34/365 AAARGH!
Originally uploaded by clogsilk.

So, James is now 3. According to nursery, this means he should now be potty trained, because "in the preschool room we like them to be potty trained because we don't have the facilities to change nappies." Because, obviously, you need special facilities and an NVQ2 to change a nappy.

I had serious misgivings, but they were pretty insistent, with thinly veiled threats to keep him in the toddler room until he's potty trained. He's ready for pre-school in every other respect, so I felt bound to have a go. They said they would try it today, so we were to send him in pants, with lots of spares.

Cue this morning. Two wee accidents in the 15 minutes between putting on pants and leaving for nursery. Three further accidents in the morning at nursery. Pull up worn in the afternoon. I was presented with a giant bag of washing at home time. Joy of Joys.

Now, I might not be a childcare professional with 15-20 years experience of children, but I do have 3 years experience of my son. And I think that qualifies me to judge whether or not he's ready to be potty trained. He isn't. But apparently 5 accidents *in a morning* doesn't weaken nursery's resolve. It has however strengthened mine. He will be going in a pull up tomorrow, as normal. They can find "the facilities" to change his nappy 3 times in the day. And he'll let us know when he's ready to be potty trained.

James is 3!

2010-02-01T23:30:00.001Z

Happy Birthday James! It doesn't seem a minute since you were born, taking us all by surprise and to be honest you continue to do that most days!

It's been a rollercoaster ride so far and that looks set to continue; I can't imagine life with you will ever be dull!

26/365 style

2010-01-26T23:20:00.001Z

26/365 style
Originally uploaded by clogsilk.

To celebrate my last day of my early 30s, me in a pair of boots I'm very unlikely to get away with wearing again!

Roll on my mid 30s.... ;-)

You won't see me pushing the buggy in these, that's for sure.

19/365 Tribute to ~aspidistra~

2010-01-23T20:22:00.003Z

19/365 Tribute to ~aspidistra~
Originally uploaded by clogsilk.

I need to bask a bit in this. One of my goals in doing my photo-a-day project was to make Explore and 19 days in I got to #39 with this tribute to fellow PADer ~aspidistra~. It was created using a slinky on a window ledge (to get lots of natural light, not much of that around at this time of year, and a white background). I then processed it in picnik, boosting the colours a bit, then crossprocessing (with a lot of fade) then using the lighten bit of the HSLfilter, Then finishing off with some nice rounded corners!

22/365 Spa Fields

2010-01-22T17:41:00.001Z

22/365 Spa Fields
Originally uploaded by clogsilk.

This photo is of the park on my way into work. I had a stress management course this morning, could have done with one a while back I think. I ticked about a third of the physical symptoms of stress and all but one of the mental symptoms. ERK.

I think whoever said you can cope with issues in one part of your life but as soon as it jumps to two or more you have a potential problem was probably quite right. We also did a ticklist of "life events" which was scored and if you got above a certain level then life events were likely to be causing you stress. My score was way above....

I think I might have coped better with the work thing if I'd been getting some sleep at night and maybe lack of sleep would have been easier to handle if the work stuff wasn't going on. I don't know though, sleep deprivation is all consuming, the tiredness invades every part of your life, making it harder to cope with.

One thing is for sure, when I finish in Feb, if not before, we are going to tackle the sleep thing. Again. It has to get better if I'm to get on with anything approaching a normal life without annoying everyone with how grumpy and miserable I am.

I can feel the work stress lifting already, but I need to make sure I don't replace it with something different, like jobhunting stress or something else entirely. The course today has given me a few ideas for things I can start to do now, which is great.

It will be nice to think I can start to feel normal again soon.

20/365 The future is in sight

2010-01-20T20:40:00.002Z

20/365 The future is in sight
Originally uploaded by clogsilk.

Today marks the beginning of the end for my civil service career. I'll be taking redundancy on 26th February. I'm excited and I'm ready to go now. It's not something I would have chosen back in September 2004 when plans to relocate all our work were first put forward, but it's definitely the right thing to do now, over five years later. The role I loved doing has gone (though, yes, I admit, I complained about the work at the time, who doesn't?) and it's time to move on.

I'm nervous about what the future might hold but I'm looking forward to it. It's time to make the most of things rather than waiting for them to happen to me!

There's been a lot of change in my life over the last five years of uncertainty, including of course the births of my two gorgeous children. I wouldn't change that for the world, but it has been stressful and the inevitable stress of having two young children has been compounded by work stress. It's time to put a stop to that aspect of things.

Here's to the future, whatever it brings!

14/365 Oyster PAYG is here!

2010-01-14T20:45:00.002Z

14/365 Oyster PAYG is here!
Originally uploaded by clogsilk.

This is rather a dull subject and a pretty terrible photo to boot but it's something (sadly) close to my heart. Finally we have Oyster Pay As You Go on National Rail Services in London. It doesn't work perfectly (see Darryl at 853 and Boris Watch for more info), but it does mean that people like me who don't travel into Central London every day can finally use our Oyster cards and (hopefully) not lose out.

No more queuing for a paper ticket in the morning, missing my train in the process! The 'beep' of the Oyster reader at Hither Green station this morning was very satisfying. (See I said it was sad).

Mind you, I'm not convinced all is well with my journey - my walk through Southwark station this evening appeared to cost me the princely sum of £6. Yes, that's £6. Unfortunately it's 48 hours before I can check it out on the Oyster website...

12/365 Blue eyed boy

2010-01-12T18:21:00.003Z

Butter wouldn't melt! He's been behaving a bit better since Saturday. Let's hope it continues.

Some big decisions to be made over the next few days, so not got time to take any fab photos. So I'm using one I took yesterday but processed today. I used a crossprocess filter in picnik then did black and white and used the pen to add the eye colour back.

I did take two today and also processed them, using picnik but I didn't love them as much as the one of James. The first has had the background whited out using the doodle pen, then the lomo-ish filter. The second had the background greyed out. I then used the cross process filter, a vignette and softened it.

11/365 Stop taking photos of me, mummy!

2010-01-11T23:22:00.001Z

Claud's getting a bit fed up of being snapped...

We got out in the snow!

2010-01-10T15:10:00.001Z

Hurrah, we got out in the snow today, just as it had started to melt. We built a snowman, which James managed to be scared of! Claudia enjoyed it though.

The Norwegian wet weather gear has come into its own! (and of course the grandma/granny-knitted hats and gloves). The red trousers might be a little on the long side for pops just yet though ;-)

I auto-fixed and cross-processed this photo using picnik. The original was a little flat and didn't really catch the great colours in Claudia's outfit!

9/365 Help, please!

2010-01-09T15:00:00.002Z

9/365 Help, please!
Originally uploaded by clogsilk.

James is nearly 3, surely the terrible twos should be over by now? Not a bit of it! He is a nightmare. He was supposed to have his first pre-school swimming lesson today, but his behaviour meant I had to take him out of it. He didn't do a single thing the instructor asked him to! Not one single thing. I'm at my wits end as to know how to get him to behave. His Little Kickers instructor said he was a free spirit. I think he was just trying to politely say he was a pain in the neck!

On top of that, he has to go back to parent and child lessons until he's 3. Because the pool aren't insured to have under 3s in their pre school lessons. Nice of them to tell me that when I booked it, but then we know that they have form in this area from previous booking disasters... So for the next 4 weeks he's back in his old lesson. We then need to reassess whether he's likely to behave himself or not. I'm not hopeful. He knew he'd done wrong today and he was very upset about it, but quite often he just laughs in your face when you tell him off.

I've thought about trying reward charts, as I know others have had great success with them, but I just don't think he's got the intellectual capacity to understand what it would be for, and to care whether or not he got a sticker. I'm starting to worry that it's more than just toddler bad behaviour and that there's something really wrong, health or development-wise. Other toddlers just aren't like him. They will sit still and listen to instructions, James won't. They don't sit there screaming and refuse to shush, James does. They will look you in the eye when you are talking to them, James won't if you're trying to tell him off.

Yet nursery say there's nothing especially wrong with his behaviour; we specifically brought it up with them at his parents evening. And when I looked in on him having lunch yesterday he was beautifully behaved, sitting and eating nicely with no thought of getting up and running off or screaming at the top of his voice.

I'm getting to my wits end to know what to do about it! I wonder if these books will be any help?

Happy Birthday Toby!

2010-01-08T15:49:00.005Z

James's oldest friend, Toby, is 3 today! They first met when James was 6 weeks and Toby was 10 weeks old! How time flies when you're having fun eh!

Thanks to netmums for introducing me to Sally, you've been a fantastic friend ever since, Sal! and James and Toby have had some brilliant times together!

Here they are at Toby's second birthday party:

And at about 6 months old:

And even younger than that, enjoying a cuppa in the fab Caravello:

(the classic Toby's giant hand pic)

7/365 Snow on leaves

2010-01-08T11:10:00.001Z

7/365 Snow on leaves
Originally uploaded by clogsilk.

It's been a bit cold (for England) in the Catford/Hither Green borders. And obviously since we had a few flakes of snow, SouthEastern decided to run an emergency timetable on Wednesday and Thursday. We were warned of the nightmare that was Hither Green station by a quick phone call from a poor soul who'd been there for an hour by 8am and couldn't get on any of the trains. Yes, they were running but they were too full to get on by Hither Green!

I worked from home Wednesday and yesterday, thankfully, so I didn't have to brave the elements. This morning I've dropped Mike off at the Jubilee Line so he could get in. We had to do some shovelling of snow to get the car off the drive though!

On leave today, hurray!

Bye Bye Xmas

2010-01-06T15:45:00.001Z

6/365 Tinsel farewell!
Originally uploaded by clogsilk.

Farewell to Xmas for another year! Despite the sadness of losing my Nan just beforehand, we had a really lovely family Christmas this year. We were at home, for the first time ever since we got married in 1999. James really started to "get it" this year too, and Pops was dragged along in his excitement.

Every morning after Christmas day he would ask if "Farmer Christmas" had brought any more presents! And he loved regaling us with "Twinkle twinkle Christmas star" and "Jingle Bells".

I had my in-laws here for Christmas itself and I did my first ever roast. This was a great success apart from me forgetting the stuffing. And almost coming a cropper when the roasties took almost twice as long as I expected. Sadly James wouldn't eat the dinner until it was covered in Thomas spaghetti (Thomas aghetti as he calls it), but you can't have everything.

My parents came down after Christmas and we had a re-run on 28th. The kids had so many presents, they're so lucky! The duplo has been a particular hit, as well as the Little Tikes car.

But it's all over for another year and the decorations have come down. Roll on Spring!

Sleeeeep!

2010-01-05T21:39:00.001Z

Look! Claudia does sleep sometimes! This is her during her afternoon nap. She's forgotten that pillows are for putting your head on, and that it's nice to be covered with a quilt, but hey, at least she was asleep.

Her night time sleep has gone spectacularly pear shaped. She usually last from bedtime til about 11, 11:30 but then she wakes and doesn't settle back down until 4am. I am wrecked! She's cutting her canines, and after these will only have her back molars to go. James didn't get these until after he was 2, so maybe I'll get 6 months or so break when her canines have come through.

So frustrating as she really was improving, sleeping through on a few night and when she did wake settling back quickly!

This too shall pass. This too shall pass. Repeat ad nauseam.

(Today's photo was meant to be a pic of J&C together, but I couldn't get them to pose, so will reserve that for another day!)

4/365 Thomas and Hiro

2010-01-04T21:42:00.001Z

4/365 Thomas and Hiro
Originally uploaded by clogsilk.

James absolutely adores Thomas the Tank Engine and he has quite a few engines in his wooden railway set. We bought him the Hero of the Rails DVD for Christmas and he adores it, particularly Hiro, a "new" engine who is one of the main characters. So when Mike spotted this in ELC at Bluewater on Saturday, we had to spend his Christmas money from Mike's Nanna on it. Needless to say he loved it, so I had to wait until James was in bed to snap this shot of Hiro with his faithful friend Thomas.

I messed about with loads of different shots, and effects on picnik, but in the end this is the first shot I took on manual with my P&S (the flash ruined it on auto mode), just cropped a bit. Ortonish on picnik worked quite nicely but I lost a lot of the detail on Hiro's body. I tried using a flash but covering it to diffuse the light slightly, to sharpen the image, but they just turned out very very red!

I like the way you can see me in the magnet! I am suffering for my art already. You won't catch me going outside in the cold taking pictures of frost though. Oh no.

The famous Newstead lights

2010-01-03T20:46:00.001Z

The famous Newstead lights
Originally uploaded by clogsilk.

These lights are AMAZING. It has to be the single best house display of Christmas lights I have ever seen in my life. They are just round the corner from where we nearly bought a flat, and only a short hop from where we live now. M took J round them tonight while I waited in the car with C (it was -1 degrees!) J absolutely loved them. Chattered on about them all the way home.

Hope they'll make a return next year so C can enjoy them properly! They must cost a fortune to run though.

New Year's "resolutions"

2010-01-03T14:19:00.001Z

3/365 New Year list
Originally uploaded by clogsilk.

Not so much resolutions as plans, possibly. What do I want to achieve in 2010?

1. Become a better photographer. I've got my course in Feb and I will be getting myself a shiny DSLR at some point, but beyond that I want to get better at composition of photos and "seeing" the good shots that are out there. Take a photo a day for my project.

2. Lose weight. Dull, dull, dull, but has to be done.

3. Move on from my current job in whatever way turns out to be right for me.

4. Put up the things in the house that are waiting to be put up and have been for about a year (mirrors, blinds etc), and get the house painted and our nice shiny new front door ordered. (At the risk of making this sound like a to do list).

5. Potty train James and (possibly) Claudia too. Preferably not at the same time, I don't think my floors or my washing machine could take it.

6. Get some more sleep (pretty please, Claudia).

7. Make a final decision (not on my own obviously) on whether to stick with two children or try for more.

8. Go on two (hopefully) fab holidays with parents and with friends.

9. Knit knit knit. (and perhaps learn to crochet, I received a set for Christmas to crochet a couple of little animals).

10. Get a new laptop (or perhaps just a new power supply for this one).

First shoes

2010-01-02T19:54:00.001Z

2/365 First shoes
Originally uploaded by clogsilk.

We took Claudia off to be measured for her first shoes today. She's 16 months old and has been walking confidently for about a month. Not quite the 6 week wait we'd wanted, but the weather is horrible and she wants to walk outside!

It was funny when she first tried them on though, she obviously didn't want to walk on a hard sole so she started crawling round the shop floor instead of walking!

I didn't really want too pink and girly, but the choice in her size (4F) was fairly limited. Next time it'll be pretty red Kickers. Maybe!

My little baby girl is growing up! Weep.

One of my new year's resolutions

2010-01-01T20:17:00.001Z

I've started on a photo-a-day project. Probably completely insane, but I want to try and chart an improvement in my photography over 2010. I should be doing a photography course in Feb, all being well, and in July/August I plan to buy my first DSLR. I shall use the time until then to work out what model and lenses I want to get at first. Just something to start me off I think, so I can have fun getting new stuff over time.

As you can see, this is hardly an auspicious start to the project. Hopefully by 365 of 365 they'll be much better. Half the battle is having some inspiration for a good shot and composition, which I hope I'll get better at. I'm not very arty, though I wish I was, so this is a chance to indulge a bit!

More new year's resolutions to be posted later in the week. (What else will I base my '2010 - a year in review' post of 31/12/10 on?)

End of a year, end of a decade

2009-12-31T14:21:00.004Z

Thought I'd better up my game and improve on my shameful blogging record for 2009 by posting a "year in review" or some such nonsense.

Everyone is claiming it's the end of a decade, but it doesn't feel right to me as I was one of the annoying people who claimed that the last Century was 1901-2000, which means that this decade should be 2001-2010 no?

Anyway, I made 9 plans for 2009 at the beginning of the year and posted them here for all to see. So how did I do?

9 Plans for 2009, in no particular order:
1. Make our house more of a home
I think we're slowly getting there on that front, but we still haven't put the mirror up in the living room. I wonder if we'll manage that in 2010?

2. Potty train James
Nope, not even an inkling of this happening any time soon. Sob.

3. Get Claudia onto bottles for my return to work
Abandoned. Return to work delayed by 3 months.

4. Get Claudia sleeping through the night (ha ha ha ha)
The ha ha ha has in that plan were obviously knowing. We managed to get her to sleep through for a few blissful nights in November/early December. Then she started cutting canines and we were back to waking at least twice.

5. Find a new job and possibly take voluntary redundancy, not necessarily in that order
Well, I won't be taking voluntary redundancy, but I am sitting on a compulsory redundancy notice now, with a last day of service of 30 June 2010, so watch this space.

6. Finish off the outstanding bits of the decorating/building works on the house
Finally managed to get the builders to come back in November, over a year since we did the snag list, sigh. They still have some things to finish. Will it ever happen? Who can say?

7. Lose a bit of weight
Hmm, well I have gone backwards on that one. Reckon I have put on half a stone since I scaled back on the breastfeeding. Must do better.

8. Rediscover my social life
I've done a bit of this, but it's never going to be easy with a non-sleeping baby. It just wouldn't be fair on a babysitter. We were supposed to go away for the weekend for our 10th wedding anniversary, but we couldn't thanks to Pops's non-sleeping habits. Surely she must get better next year?

9. Finish the bits I've started knitting for Claudia and improve my knitting skills all round.
I knitted two bits for Claudia this year. I didn't finish the scarf. May do that next year, or maybe not. I've moved on to my third item, also a top for Claudia, lucky girl.

One thing I must do in 2010 is blog more. In 2009 I posted 56 posts, only just over half my tally for 2008 and 2007.

Little Kickers - final session

2009-12-01T14:26:00.002Z

James had his last Little Kickers yesterday. I'm just reading through my report of his first session, which was back in April. I thought nothing had really changed but reading back, some things have and some things haven't!

He's now quite happy to give up his football and put it in the "hungry bag" at the appropriate time. Tidying up is one of the things he enjoys when we're at a class (when we're at home it's a different matter!) He enjoys the warm up, and enjoys copying the instructor (Denzel) in holding a cone behind his back and asking, "what colour is this one?" and when I tell him, he says, "well done mummy!" Of course he isn't meant to be doing this, he's meant to be picking up one cone at a time and putting them on the separate piles to match the colours.

And here we come to the problem. He doesn't like to do as he's told! I identified this on his first session and if I'm honest it's not really improved. He runs off instead of sitting still and when it comes to kicking the goals, he doesn't like to sit down and wait his turn. The problem I have is that I can't usually sit with him to make him sit down because I've got Claudia. And Claudia, being a clingatron, won't sit in her buggy and watch like the other little brothers/sisters. Oh no. She insists on being held or she wails the place down. That means I can't hold onto James. So he runs off. He also doesn't like the fact that I have to hold Claud a lot of the time, though he tolerates it remarkably well when considering how he could react to it. But occasionally he wants some "mummy time" to himself, and fair enough really. So thank you to my mum and dad, Jess and Anne for being Claudia-sitters on occasion to allow me to take James to the class on our own. He has definitely enjoyed it more when we've done that.

It's getting to the stage now though where it's not fair to keep going. James's behaviour isn't getting better, so it's disruptive for the others and Claudia is getting to the stage where she wants to be doing something too. So we're going to look for an activity that suits them both. We do one already, which is singing class at the Limelight centre and they both get a lot out of that. I don't want the stress of doing Little Kickers any more and I don't think James enjoys it that much!

On their side, I think there are things Little Kickers could do to improve the sessions. They're expensive, so I expect quite a bit in return for parting with my hard-earned cash. They're supposed to have two instructors for the number of children in the class, but I think we've only had that on about 3 weeks. Denzel is a great instructor and does his best, but he can't do everything (and he does spend quite a bit of time on James, credit to him). They should more strictly enforce parents sitting at the side rather than with their children. James would be much more likely to sit still in that situation, but because everyone else sits with their child, if I don't sit with James he gets upset. Another thing I've noticed is that the class is all boys! This is a class for 2-3.5 year olds - it's amazing how gender stereotyping is already happening even at this young age! If I can manage to fit it around everything, I would like to take Claudia to Little Kickers when she's 2, even if just to buck the stereotype for 12 sessions!

Little Kickers is a franchise, so yours I guess will be similar, but as a lot depends on the individual coaches and the parents who go, you can't tell what it would be like unless you try it. As a concept it has a lot to recommend it.

So, goodbye for now Little Kickers (and goodbye to the two nice mummies who bothered to chat to me during our 6 months of attending and yah boo sucks to the yummy mummies who didn't).

Terrible ones and twos!

2009-11-24T21:38:00.002Z

Look at these two angels. Ha ha ha, they've been driving me to distraction! James's behaviour has been atrocious. Lots of nos, lots of ignoring me and generally being a right royal pain. Monday's Little Kickers was hideous (though more of that later as we are stopping going and I intend to review how it went for the time we were doing it).

It's not helped by the fact that Claudia has been super clingy. Nothing much new there - she still cries if I put her down and walk away (not out of sight) when we're out and about and if I go out of sight at home. Sigh. It's somewhat trying and makes it difficult to give James enough attention.

I think this is partly what's causing J to play up. I made an extra special effort with him today - to praise good behaviour, talk to him a lot and do an activity after nap time (we did colouring in, though Claud was more interested than he was!) It worked to some extent. He was great at singing, but then he usually is, as Sally works really hard to keep the kids interested and involved and it's a great class. We then went for a cuppa at Susannah's (a friend from my original GP group who I've recently got back in touch with). He played really nicely with her little girl Marianna. We got to sit in the back room while they were off in the front! He also behaved himself at lunch and went for his nap nicely too. And ate most of his dinner! Such a contrast to yesterday which seemed to spiral from one disaster to the next. I do think having things to do helps as well. Keeps Claud distracted too!

Claud is doing ok. We've all had a bit of a bad cold, so sleep has been variable. I decided 3 weeks ago to night wean her and to some extent it has worked. She slept through for the first time ever 7-7 and has done so a few times since. Mostly when she does wake she squawks a bit then goes back off. A few nights have been hideous and we've ended up having to bring her in with us, which goes against what we wanted to do, but I don't want to be too hard and fast about it. Especially when she's ill and teething all at once, poor little mite.

Standing!

2009-10-26T12:54:00.001Z

As an antidote to the no-sleeping misery post of earlier, here's a picture of Claudia standing unaided! And loving it!

I hope she starts walking soon! (and her teeth come through) Then maybe things will settle down a bit!

She likes standing like this, saying "ready steady go!" and then falling to the floor. She thinks it's hysterical.

Pear shaped

2009-10-26T10:27:00.002Z

Sorry for the lack of posts this week. A combination of illness, nothing interesting to say and....

guess what?

Pops has stopped sleeping as soon as she started! Back in our bed from 11pm til morning.

SOB.

Oh wow, a weekend of firsts!

2009-10-19T13:41:00.003+01:00

Well, little pops is surprising us! On Saturday night she took her first unaided steps. Only two of them, so she's not exactly running her brother ragged yet, but I'm so chuffed! She looked so pleased with herself and from a selfish point of view, my life with two toddlers will be easier in a number of ways than my life with a baby and a toddler. (No comments from smug mothers of two toddlers about how hard it is now please! Let me bask in my ignorance...)

And then, the best thing - on Sunday night she slept from being put into bed at 9pm (after Ben's 5th birthday party) until 7:30am this morning! Can we call that sleeping through?

[I also had a first, my first ever trip to the Valley to see the not so mighty HTFC play Charlton. Unfortunately we lost 2-1, so heigh ho! Still, the company was good so not all bad...]

As an aside: the pic above is a cute one of Claudia on our trip on the Kirkless Light Railway last weekend. I meant to blog about that but I haven't, so I'll do a post about it next time we go. I think we'll do a Thomas day there at some point. I edited the photo (taken using a Canon Ixus 750) using a fab app called FotoMuse on my iPhone. This app is brilliant! It was recommended to me by Spud. Have a look at what she's done with it - some excellent stuff. I'm quite pleased with my effort, think it makes my little one look a bit hip and trendy!