Chicken Pox or Midgie Bites?

Dervish wakes up with bright red angry cheeks and a few spots on his legs. Angry looking things they are.
Lifted his top to reveal 3 or 4 littler ones on his tummy.
Panic Stations!
We are meant to be visiting my Brother and his pregnant girlfirend this weekend.
SO off to the doctor we scooted.
He took one look and, just as I was saying 'They could just as easily be midgie bites, but I need to check cos....', glanced in my direction as if to confirm, then began searching books to show me what chicken pox really looks like.
But the next day one of them started to look a little like it was developing. A bath later revealed a few more on his groin.
But the next day he wakes up and no red cheeks, the spots are less angry and the ones on his groin are few.

So how the heck do you know!!?

I mean spots don't appear on your child for no reason, but if the doc dismissed me and dervish isn't feverish or wappit.....??

I just don't know what to do with him or us?

Does he or doesn't he.
Should he and Darling be in Quarantine or not?
Can we go see our in laws, they have had it and a holiday was planned anyway. Poor DH hasn't had a break since Christmas and being with his parents as my child has chicken pox would be handy/helpful if not a little tense at times. But being in someone elses house always is.

So red spots angry looking, wee head on one, more arriving but not wappit boy or itchyness.
Is it just very mild chicken pox or not?

Silent Sunday

Five things I don't want my children to know about me

Hmm, Five things I don't want my children to know about me??

Ok, gosh, where to start? No, How to start.......

I could go with the obvious one, the temper, but hey I guess they will know about that one, so no point in trying to convince myself I can keep it hidden.
Though I would rather they never see the full extent that it can get to. Rows are normal but fury, I can only hope that that can remain contained.

Someone wrote about drinking. I had my time with drinking when I was a Student. I guess, in a way I am proud of those days. I didn't drink until I was 18 then I didn't really do that in my home town (too small, too many people to tell me what I did) but I think I made up for it when I was annonymous in the city. But boy do I Never want my children to know/see me in that state.

I hope they never see me as lost and floundering. As I feel I am now. I don't really know what I am or what I want to be. I hope that they have a clearer direction in their life and never really realise that I never did. What I mean is, I want to be a better role model. I am sure I will be, eventually, but I don't think I want them to think of me as a floundering soul.

hmm....?
Body image, It is important to me that they are body confident. I was very afraid of mine as I grew up. Catholic upbringing I think.
Is afraid the right word?
I don't cover up in front of them because I don't want them to be over conscious but it has taken a bit and I am still not all that happy with me. I don't want them to know that.
Does that make sense?

Last but not least. I don't want them to know that, actually, I really Hate spiders and most creepy crawlies!!
Ok this might change as they get older but right now it is something that I am trying to teach by example, but it is pretty hard to say 'oh look darling an earywig. Isn't it fascinating how many legs he has?!'
No!! Eurch!!!

Snow white does her maths

My Darling B has loved numbers for some time now.
I took a wee gee one time, nearly two years ago and made her some fabric numbers that she could practice putting into order.
I made them cos she loved sorting paper ones for me.
I would place them down, out of order, then count with her

So it goes 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 4, 7
No no, mummy 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7,
ah! I see, silly me! Then it finished 7, 9, 8, 10?
Nooo! silly mummy. 1, 2, 3, 4, .....

And so it went, with me getting just one or two numbers out of sinc and Darling B spotting it. This was when she was just shy of 3.5yrs.

Now, we add.
She places the numbers out on the floor in numerical order.
Chooses a number, practices writing it down on her chalk board.
Then, we have talked about plus signs and take away signs. So she writes down her symbol and chooses another number, popping on her equals sign.
Here she is, with her brother, ready to go.

Now the fun part!

You gotta jump on the first number.
Then, what is the second number?
That is how many you jump on.
Where have you landed?

Horray!!

Daffy Down Dillys

It is the time of year to display all these beautiful Daffys, before they all die off.
We have rows and rows of them just down the lane. I pick some from all along, so that there are no bald patches.

This year I have a fancy new purple vase, my favourite colour! But it has a big wide top.
So I thought that I would need tons of the things to fill it or have them all hanging over the edge and all baldy in the middle.
I figured I would need some way of holding them centrally.
Raffia and that twisty bangy way?
Yeah, that's right, I have no idea how to do that snazzy trick!

So I looked around my house and came across, what I thought, was a Fantastic idea!

A Pint Glass!
Placed inside.
Hmm, looked a bit poo.

Needed jazzing up.
What to do, what to do...........

aha, TWINE!

ah, finally I remembered to take a photy

I started this by leaving the end up, and wrapping it around itself.
Bit dull though, don't you think?

Aha. BEADS!
I had to pull it all off again so that I could thread all the beads I had from the bunch DH gave me for Mothers Day.
I threaded them all on together then just placed them where I fancied as I continued to wrap the twine back on.

Much better

To finish, I left the last round loose, then tucked the end in and cut off the excess.

Darling B took a hold of the camera and caught me arranging the flowers.

What do you think?

I was really pleased with the way this worked out.

Silent Sunday

Snow Whites Eyelash wish

Do you wish on your eyelashes?
You know, when they fall out. Do you scoop them up, make your wish, blow your eyelash away. If you blow it away, you get your wish. If it stays put, you wish won't come true.

You do that, right?
I do.

Well, Darling B had a wish to make tonight and everyone know you gotta tell your mummy your wish or how will it come true?

Her wish today?

I wish that, when we have finished the cakes we have, that I can bake some more for you mummy.

Heart....
Melt....

The Climbing Wall and the 4.5yr old!

Yesterday we went along to a Scout Recruitment day, to support my sister and father.
The minute we parked up my 4.5yr old daughter spotted the 20ft high climbing wall and said, 'Mummy, I want to go on That!'

Nothing was going to divert her from her goal, straight across the field she ran!
We thought the queue looked a little long so went to the assault course first instead. This was, of course, aimed at 6yr olds and above but my little girl and, for that matter, my 2.5yr old boy did not let that stop them!

Through the tunnel, over the net (it was waist high for Dervish J!), through the tyres (well, y'know skip through the 6 laid flat) a balancing bar next, with J pushing my assistance aside (until he needed it) over a wall, then a shaky balance bar.
The bar scuppered them both, but Darling B wanted straight back on to try again!

My sister met us at that point and took B to stand in the queue for the wall that she was still Determined to climb!
My Darling B waited for at least 20 minutes in the freezing wind, her desire diminished not a jot.
They took her name at this point and said come back in 15 mins.

So, back she went, to queue for a further 10 minutes.
I can hardly believe that by this point she was not fed up, I have to admit, I was.

But she finally got into her harness and began her ascent!

They moved her to the other side and off she shot!!
It was much warmer on this side too, so Mummy, Daddy and brother were much happier now.
Well, except that poor Dervish was itching for his shot!!

This last shot was taken after Darling B had shouted for her aunt to let her go!

Look at my dare devil go!

Silent Sunday

The silly things we do!

Just been over to Super Amazing Mums blog, a fabby blog by the way, have you had a look?
I found her latest Bedtime Lullaby blogspot and it really struck a cord with me cos we have our bedtime rituals too. Everybody does, I guess.

But ours began with getting that extra cuddle in.
It started with getting a cuddle and a kiss at bedtime, then we said 'and a squeeze too?'

So now everynight we get our Cuddle, Kiss and Squeeze!
It has extended beyond bedtime though, through Darling B when she said goodbyes to Granny and Grandad. She would do our wee ritual.
'Cuddle, kiss and Squeeze, Granny!'

Now it is everybody and everytime.
Aunties, Uncles and friends, if they will (mainly they won't, so she has to make do with just a wee cuddle)

Super Amazing Mum also had a song that she had to make up the words for it made me smile cos we have a silly song too.
It is so awful that it is funny, to me anyway, haha
It goes with the silly name that we have for her, Mrs Goo, and goes to the tune of Nick Nack Paddy Whack.

Mrs Goo, I love you.
Even when you are a poo
Cos I love you Mrs Goo
Yes I really do
I love you, I truly do

It changes with the situation, what ever way I can get it to rhyme.
It now works for Mr Goo too!

Mr Goo, I love you
Even when you are a Moo
Cos you can just moan and groan
And I'll still love you
Cos you are my Mr Goo


Bit rubbish isn't it!
But it makes me smile to sing it everytime I do!

So not so much bedtime rituals as silly things that have become all day habits!

Oh, I have another!
When I ask then for a kiss.
If they give me a fleeting peck, which are rubbish aren't they?
I say 'Oh that was rubbish. Try again.'
So I get another better one.
If the next is just as rubbish, I repeat it.
Sometimes I just do it for fun, so we end up with lots and lots of rubbishy kisses and lots of giggles!

Thank You Super Amazing Mum, for making me think about the silly things we do!

We have been shorn!

What a lovely morning spent at the hairdressers.
We have found such a lovely lady to do our hair. She lives at the other side of the county to us, but it is well worth the trek.
Her salon is set up in a back room of her house, so it is just you and her. She is great with the children too.
Well, if you count having a bowl of sweeties ready for them ;)
They were in seventh heaven!

I didn't bring my pictures. They wouldn't download to my phone?? I don't know why. So I had to make do with talking my ideas through.
I decided that I just wanted a trim to his fringe, a bit of length of the back and layering throughout to give it movement.

The before shot.

He looks a bit worried doesn't he? Poor love.
He hopped up to that chair with delight. The first of us to have their hair done.

Here he is sitting like an angel to get his hair cut.
You wouldn't believe that he was anything but, would you.
He certainly had the hairdresser convinced ;)

The after shot. Straight to that bowl of sweeties!!
He spent a good while with that lolly in his mouth trying to pull it off it's stick so he could enjoy without the encumberance.
You can't really see any difference with his hair cept that his fringe is clearly shorter but it made a huge difference.
When we washed it, it dried all curly at the back and looks heaps thicker. Brilliant!!

DH thought that he would get more cut off, but I am so not ready to lose the length yet.

Darling B was, of course, a darling. She waited patiently for her turn (gobbling sweeties with a grin so huge!!) then up she hopped for her turn.

She just got a fringe trim and a bit off the back.

First things Granny said
'Oh now you look like a proper little boy!'
intake of breath 'Why did you get so much cut off Darling Bs hair?!'

She had less than an inch taken! :D
Haha, trust Granny to notice!

As for me, well disappointingly I look nothing like Jennifer Aniston or whats'er name.
I made the mistake of saying that I really didn't want a bob, so she layered into it.
Now my longest layer is about shoulder length, shortest is just about ear length.
Looks nice but not quite what I was looking for. So now I will begin the growing out of these layers. Mind you some of them were there already so I guess it was never really going to happen. haha

I think you have wishful thinking when you go to the hairdressers. If I wanted it smooth with only a few layers throughthe bottom, it would have looked more like whats'er name and that would be just a touch too short for me.
Haven't managed a decent shot of me yet.
(she say's. You just know it's cos my children are better looking so Thier mugshots will always be up first!)

Oh, couple of interesting things the haidresser said, well to me anyway.
Darling B does not have brown hair, but Dark Blonde.
HUh, I just thought it was brown.
Mine too.
But I am ash brown, which is still part of the blonde range.

Ah, so I AM a blonde afterall.
That explains a lot!!