OK – I’m back.

Hi.

I have been taking a break – as if you hadn’t noticed :)

I took a break from work and kind of decided to take a break from everything. I wanted to say Happy New Year to Everyone and thank you very much to everyone that sent me Christmas Wishes and New Year Wishes and sorry I wasn’t around to respond.

We had a good Christmas. Rowan had a great time. Loved it and totally went for Santa in a big way this year. We left out a mince pie and milk and an apple for the reindeer. They got stockings and basically too much other stuff!

I loved watching Rowan get so into it and I can’t wait till next year when they are both excited :)

I will post some pictures. We had  no digital camera this year so BN took loads on our SLR. I’ll get those developed and see if I can get some of them on here. We don’t have a scanner so not sure how I’ll do that..!?

We continue to be concerned about Rowan really and I’m quite down about it at the moment. She is still vomiting. This latest bout started on the 16th December. Since then, she has pretty much vomited daily. She’s down to 2 stone. She is starting to look skeletal. Her eyes are red rimmed. She’s knackered and back to having long naps most days.

She looks drawn and tired. And pale.

I am worried. I am so worried that I could be missing something that needs to be addressed as much as I am convinced she is just suffering from a virus and responds to being ill with bouts of vomiting.

It’s so hard to say.

I was overwhelmed tonight with how tiny she felt in my arms when I carried her up to bed. She now weighs less than her sister who is under 17 months old.

She is reasonably interested in food. She’s eating mash potato most days and is very keen on tinned bolognaise for the last couple of days. She doesn’t really complain of nausea but has said the last few days that she doesn’t want to be sick but she has to be sick when she’s eaten too much. She said she didn’t like to be full.

I asked her if she was sick at nursery and she said no. I asked why and she said because they would be upset. All those things linked together make it sound psychosomatic. Is she causing her own vomiting? Is that even possible?

She doesn’t do anything to make herself vomit. No fingers down her throat, no stressing, no wretching. She just says it’s coming and puts her hand to her mouth. Sometimes it’s time delayed but she’s rarely wrong.

I asked her if she could stop herself being sick and she said no. She said that she didn’t want to do it but it was difficult to stop it. She’s bizarrely intellectual in these conversations. It’s like talking to a child twice her age. She complained today that her back won’t stop swallowing.

I am stumped.

Utterly. Obviously we are taking her back to the doctor next week. The weight loss can’t continue if nothing else. She’ll have to have some kind of supplement I guess.

But I am scouring the internet looking for symptoms that sound even remotely like what she has to see if I can make sense of it in any way.

I am worrying that something could really be wrong with her and we are missing it. Would stomach growths produce symptoms like this? Is there anything that anyone knows of that could produce chronic vomiting? Immediately afterwards she’s back to eating.

Yesterday we took her for lunch and she was enjoying pasta with no problem whatsoever. At the end of the meal she was sick. Everything came up. Immediately after she’d finished she asked for her ice cream and polished it off no problem. No vomiting.

In the middle of this meal she said she was going to be sick and I took her to the toilet and this is where she told me that she had to be sick because she had eaten too much.

Anybody… any ideas???

The Great Mofo Delurk!!

The Great Mofo Delurk 2007

I first saw this over at Flutter’s and that led me to this post over at MilkMoney

What a great idea!! I too have been checking my armpits and been feeling particularly unappealing to you lurkers out there.. I figured it may somewhat be due to WP deciding that all commenters had to have WP accounts in order to comment in the first place….. a touch unfair I thought… but my thoughts had progressed to the fact that I must have become uninspiring…

So say hello!! Tell me who you are and where you’re from… or just say hi :) and if you say hi to me… I’ll come say hi to you too …. you scratch mine and I’ll scratch yours so to speak…!

I would really love it…. :)

3 in 1 Vacuum Cleaner

OK.

We want one. We can’t find one.

The only one we can see is the Vax Orange Monstrosity which just isn’t what we want and… it’s too big for our cupboard which would just cause us other problems.

Then I found the George one…. ideally don’t want this one either.

Really, we wanted an upright one.

Now seriously. Lurkers out there. Who knows of a good 3 in 1 combination washing drying hoovering vacuum that would be a good buy?

Anyone??

Do you think ..

…if I asked for forty comments I might get them? Or am I not popular enough for that…?

I too am a comment pro.. but the scary thought of offering no more blogging is that someone might actually take me up on that!! :lol: I love getting comments – I do.. I can’t help it… I even think about my blog when I’m at work and wonder if anyone has been by.. and if I’m having a particularly quiet day then I try and see if I can squeeze in a sneaky login and check out any new visitors….

I know I know… sadness in the extreeeeme…. but I just can’t help it… my little heart skips a beat when I see ‘1 comment awaiting moderation’

Woohoo!! I think… someone new wants to talk to me… how exciting!! Then my disappointment when it’s usually Porn Queen Jemima trying to sell me Viagra or a penis transplant… or a Ford Escort .. which frankly is just the most bizarre spam ever!

So… I am asking how many people want to say hello… can I get 40 comments?

How about 10 then?

Scary thought.. the heavy weight of impending rejection… :)

Greer needs…

From Merry at ..PoP

Greer needs to send email addresses to the Board of Directors to Peter Tu to get Board Vote to proceed

Mr Greer needs to get in touch with Bush and Blair to tell them to stop lieing to the world! Get this technology out there …… in the public! …

Greer needs to add strength to help in the base defense. …

Greer needs to leave before he gets really embarassed. …

Greer needs swabs from pugs who are suspected to be suffering from the disease

Ms Greer needs to re-think her classic “Any publicity is good publicity” policy before any credibility that she may once have gained in past years vanishes …

Judge Greer needs to be impeached for murder.

And, believe me, the 5′7″ and up club thinks Greer’s editorial was ill-advised. Yet something about the assertion that Greer needs to “make a name for …

I particularly liked this one….

:lol:

Greer needs to put together a different plan, go international and seek out unusually brave witnesses for a further round of exposures. …

What a whirlwind weekend!

Ok — where to start…?

The weekend started off easy peasey.. I took Friday off work (under strict instructions from my boss which is weird in itself.. she thinks I’m working too hard … what kind of boss is this we ask ourselves?) .. I took Rowan to nursery in the morning and for the first time ever, got to pick her up.

The worst pick up ever as she jumped up to see me and banged her head on the fence….!

It was great to see her playing outside though with all the kids and so weird to see her with friends!!

Um… the Friday we went over to Mum & Dad’s and there ensued a weekend of fun, frivolity, drinking and Spiderman!!

Saturday the girls arrived with Merry and Max and we spent the day doing stuff I can’t even remember now… but I’m sure it was good… great to see all the girls.. I took absolutely no photos as our digital camera is still dead and we can’t afford a new one. How pants is that?!?

But I’m sure PoP has some over there..

Then Saturday night we got to go out!! I felt a bit bad as Dad bought enough food to feed an army and I always feel terrible cos I know he buys it all out of such generosity and wants everyone to have something there that they like and no one will be left out… but it never gets eaten and God forbid you’re the person that eats the thing he bought with himself in mind cos then you’re in all sorts of guilt ridden trouble… that’s a whole other story.

Anyway.. we got to go out. It was great. That’s the only trouble with having children in such quick succession is that it sucks the life out of alone time.

Our alone time is an emaciated being with no mind of its own! It doesn’t stick up for itself anymore and it very often stays in its room for weeks at a time!

This was the first time we’d been out for months and it felt really good. Actually, the last time we went out as a couple was the 3rd of March. It’s got so sad I can actually count the dates.. but then the weird thing is – it feels longer than it actually is..? Weird.

Anyway.. Spiderman 3.. how good?! I loved it. Really funny and well worth the watch I thought. It was funny and good effects and well thought out… good acting.. good sets.. characters developing and all that jazz.. an all round goody.

Better than the second I think.. and I really liked that one too in fact.

Saturday morning I also got a lie in which was excellent and really needed. I caught up a bit and managed to sleep until 10am. I know. Don’t faint.

I vaguely recall the days when I slept in till 11 or 12 every Saturday to sleep off the trials of the busy week at work. Recuperate and recharge ready for a weekend of late nights and evenings out. Loved weekends.

Loved weekends out. Loved weekends in. Just loved weekends.

Now weekends are different. They are about seeing more of the girls and seeing family so that they can see more of the girls as well. Spending time with each other where we can.. and now that both the girls are generally sleeping through the night… they are about babysitters!!

Sunday .. we went to Snibston Park in Leicestershire .. never been there before AND I have to say I absolutely loved it. I really enjoyed more than anything, playing on the adventure playground with Rowan. She absolutely loved it. She ran about like a lunatic, climbed, swung and slid.. BN and I joined in and had a go on this massive climbing frame and went down the big slide with her which she thought was just hysterical.. She was clearly pleased as punch that we’d done it with her and I really felt a boost and a tremendous closeness to her just being silly in the moment… It will be one of my best ever memories with her.

Have a look

She was travel sick as always .. seriously if anyone has any tips on how to stop kids throwing up in the car.. that would be fab :?

Then Sunday night.. I rather excellently looked after ALL the children while Merry and Max went out for a drink.. We all stayed up watching High School Musical and then I put all four of them to bed which involved making a magic bed for Josie, tucking everybody in twice, counselling one who missed parents and taking one back to a room to sleep on her own.

I was great and rather a proud moment as Josie and I had a little cuddle and discussed magic beds.. and poo! :lol:

So today all the girls left and we came home early afternoon to washing, naps and lots more food. I’m ashamed to say I have put on 5lbs in 4 days. Is that even possible…?!?!?

So yet another week will be about shifting the weight that I have put on over a weekend. Rather daft. I have to find my willpower again. I was doing so well but I seem to have lost the will to be good at weekends which is proving to be some what of a problem. I lose weight all week and then put it straight back on Friday to Monday .. then spend another 5 days getting rid of it all.

SO I fear that in this month’s BOTB, it will be yet another week where nothing actually changes although officially there will have been times where I was slimmer!!

:roll:

Um.. this evening I will mostly be eating chocolate and drinking beer… hmmm and tonight will be the first night that we sleep as two adults alone in our room since 9th August last year.

Yes.. We have claimed back our bedroom!! Ella has moved into Rowan’s room.. so far… she may yet be back… we’ll keep you posted..

:)

Right….

And the answer is…

The first animal represents what you think you’re really like….

The second animal’s words represent what you believe others perceive you to be.. and

The third set of words represent what you wish people would perceive you to be!

Mine were quite freaky!

A friend of mine did this to me the other day and I was pretty impressed with mine… what do yours say about you and are they right..?!

:)

Play this game!!

Play this game!!!

That’s an order!!

I’m hooked and I need fellow junkies!!! :lol:

What kind of Blogger are You?

Your Blogging Type is Kind and Harmonious

You’re an approachable blogger who tends to have many online friends.
People new to your blogging circle know they can count on you for support.
You tend to mediate fighting and drama. You set a cooperative tone.
You have a great eye for design – and your blog tends to be the best looking on the block!

People are getting Braver…

Come on … have a go..It’s nothing weird or bad or humiliating.. just insightful and sometimes very revealing…

I found mine really pretty spooky considering what I feel I know about myself…

Just a couple more people.. and then I’ll tell you what it’s all about…..

Come onnnnnnn…. :)

Posted in challenge, lurkers unlurk. Comments Off

Fancy a dive?

Fancy diving into your inner psyche with me?

Leave a comment with your three favourite animals (in order) … and three words that describe why they’re your favourite…

This is the answers I gave when someone did this to me today…

Whales

Strong Protective Friendly

Hamster

Cute Funny Loyal

Cats

Sleek Intelligent Impervious

Push the Button.

You know when I thought about having children, there was so much to be frightened of and nervous about.

Will the baby be OK? Will it be healthy..? All the absolutely normal worries that any mother or father will have whilst they are waiting for their unborn baby. Not just their first .. but every one.

Something that crossed my mind a lot with my first pregnancy was the way in which I would manage to parent.

It’s no secret to those that know me well, that I have quite a fiery temper on occasion. It’s not something I struggle with in a ‘worrying’ way … only something I occasionally struggle to contain when something (or someone) really pushes my buttons. I have to be pushed, a lot, to lose my temper.. but there’s no mistaking it when it’s there.

I have particular buttons.. I don’t know exactly what they are… but there is something particularly button-pushing about 2 year olds ….. and that happily coincides with a life where you just don’t get enough sleep. :roll:

This leaves me at a point where I am possibly not the most patient of parents. :)

I have this tendency to want to physically hit out when I am really pushed by children. Well not children. My child. I have inherited this … or acquired this from my parents … I know that.

My mum really struggled to keep her hands to herself when she was provoked and I often got a slap round the legs, arm or occasionally to the face if I was being particularly annoying or just if she was feeling so inclined in that particular temper for whatever reason.

I always remember thinking at the time – of my parents’ parenting style – that there were things I would never do.

I think on the whole I have little to complain about. I grew up in a lovely house, in a nice village with good schooling and friends. They made a lot possible for me that others just do not get. I was not battered, nor was I tortured, or bullied or abused nor have I ever suffered any kind of serious wrong doing at the hands of my parents.

Clearly, there are plenty who are not this lucky. I read only the other day about a mother somewhere in America who, daily sold her daughters to men, with what I can only imagine were horrendous consequences. Why some people even have children bewilders me.

On the whole.. I believe my folks did an OK job. None of us are murderers. We’re not evil people. We’re all capable of having positive relationships with others. We are all independent, financially and also emotionally. However.. there were things I silently vowed I would not be. I would not do.

I would not shout uncontrollably at tiny things. I would not fly off the handle at insignificant incidences and go on and on shouting and shouting. Beyond usefulness or reason.
I would not look for fights, provoke them at hard times, or hold grudges against my children for things that did not go my way. I would never make it all about me.
I would never make them feel like they couldn’t come to me with absolutely anything. I would make sure they knew I was their friend. I could be trusted. I would support them and I would look after them.. at all costs. There would be loyalty between our unit. They would come first.

But it’s actually having children .. that I see the feelings I said I would never have.. those awful feelings and imaginings of violence and the need to shout at them because they just.won’t.stop.talking.for.one.second… or do as they’re told and PUT.THAT.DOWN! or Don’t TOUCH it’s HOT!

Tipping food off their spoon all over the table .. down themselves.. while half of you says it doesn’t matter.. the other half is looking at yet another load of washing…

It is frustrating.

It’s really very terrifying to admit to strangers that you are capable of imagining whacking your child. There are times when I am actually visualising it when she’s doing something that’s pushing those buttons.

Her new thing is walking deliberately slowly, right in front of you, when she knows you are trying to get past her. That’s the very thing that makes me want to pick her up and chuck her across the room.

I once read something somewhere that Miriam Stoppard had written. She said all children push us to the limits. Babies push us to our extremes. They are frustrating and beyond frustrating. It is not abnormal to imagine harming your child. It is only abnormal to do it.

I take great comfort from that statement and it goes through my mind very often when I’m dealing with Rowan. I am not abnormal. I don’t think I’m abnormal. Sometimes I don’t like her.

I don’t want to see her at those moments. But not really because I don’t like her but because I want to remove the possibility of smacking her when I really don’t want to parent in that way. For whatever silly reason it is that she’s annoying me.

I don’t hit my kids. I don’t actually think there is anything fundamentally wrong with a well intentioned attention-grabbing slap that stops them either harming themselves or stops them from harming others…

But. My parents did hit. And I want to. I desire it. I just don’t actually do it. BUT I see Rowan with that desire. If she think she’s in trouble .. she whacks her own legs. Smacks herself. She’s only been smacked such a few times and actually not for such a long time. But she has copied it. She has that ’snap’ temper. I can see it in her. She shouts out and she lashes out at one particular child. Although – weirdly… never at anyone else?!

I don’t judge people who parent in that way. I just don’t want to do it. We have only really resorted to smacking in situations where she doesn’t listen…  to her possible physical detriment & potential danger.

My main focus as a parent is to bring up two children as clear thinking, dependable, sensible, loving, caring, independent, intelligent women. And so much more.

Nevermind the few that go so obviously wrong… how does anyone get through parenting without screwing them up with your own shit?

Happy Easter Everyone

Happy Easter everyone by the way …

I hope you all got some time with your families and that you got to eat some chocolate.

My weight watchers may have taken a hammering taken a little bit of a back seat this last week..

Ah well!

There is always next month!! :)

UM OMG YUK!!

When I was writing the post before.. I was originally going to do a picture of a facial expression… gross or eugh!

I was looking for a piccie that I liked and I typed in Yuk on Google image..

The second photo in….

UM…. OMG YUK!!!

They really weren’t kidding when they said yuk..

My instant reaction was a kind of blurt of laughter followed by a quick cover of my eyes and pointing the laptop straight at BN to make him go blurgh as well!!

I was laughing out loud!!

OMG YUK!!!!

Go on I dare ya..

But don’t say I didn’t warn ya!!

:?

Fear.

I’ve been thinking about this post for a while. Since reading this and then this…. but totally cemented by reading an email from a dear friend that caused me to really think about a) a way to make her feel better but b) really looking inside myself and try to get to the bottom of what I think and why I think it.

About life. The universe and everything. The bit afterwards. If there is.

The email started like this…

When Rowan was born I developed this fear of falling down stairs.. weird but true..

Even now – I’m almost convinced that I’ve had this weird kind of premonition that I’m going to die falling down the stairs.. well an accident at least.. maybe death is a little extreme!! :)

Whenever I’m coming down stairs I always kind of half imagine or dread that I’m going to catch my heel in my trouser leg or step wrongly and slip.. and I don’t even have to have a child in my arms to be worried about it.

Surely if you’ve been reading for a while – you’ll have already understood that I’m a bit loony… these are just some of the mental thoughts that flitter and skitter through my mind on a daily basis..

I’m very consequence oriented. If I’m making a choice, I’m always thinking about what that choice means.

What will happen if I do that?

This could happen. That could be bad. Well I won’t do it then.

I think mostly this approach saves me quite a lot because (although it sounds ridiculously impossible like I’m oxymoronic) but I’m actually also pretty impulsive, particularly when a situation appeals to my protective/defensive streak toward my loved ones or even my extended family of staff.

So, being consequence conscious often means I am able to save myself from making a complete tit of myself or even getting myself into a trouble… whether work or home related.. :)

It’s the same kind of thing that’s stopped me from driving for years. I just can’t think of being in control of a car without thinking that I could kill someone. Probably sounds ridiculous to most people I’m sure..

Extending from this, is the other thing I have …. this total full on proper irrational fear of death.

Total fear.

Not… oh dear one day I’m going to die, ah well…. but

I can’t actually think about death without having to practically verbally or physically stop myself from thinking about it when I start to panic.

I’ve always thought that it’s probably because I don’t believe in anything after life.

I don’t believe in a God – I don’t believe in an afterlife. I can’t explain why and I certainly don’t judge or mock those that do.. I just don’t.

The trouble is then, that when I think about the fact that one day I will die.. I have nothing to fall back on.

No buffer, no safety zone.

No ‘I’ll be looking down on you’ or ‘I’ll be waiting’ ..”I’ll be back..’ No fluffy white cloud to sleep on.. … … just nothing.

I kind of believe that people live on in the memories of others. That’s how we keep people alive … by keeping them remembered. And talked about. And loved. Cherished. Laughed about.. Fondly ..

But when I think about death… I start to feel my heart rate rise and I can feel utter panic rising.

One day I won’t be here.

I’ll leave my family…. my beautiful girls, my soul mate and maybe my brother and sister etc. etc. and that’s it.

No coming back from that. I can’t watch. I can’t observe, I can’t reminisce.

I’m just.. not.

How can I protect if I’m not here?

Most times when I accidentally find myself on that train of thought.. I feel scared. I have to literally say to myself, ’stop thinking about that.’.. and push it out of my brain.
Spiraling thoughts that you have to physically control …

I remember this thing from university once where we were learning about adrenaline. It’s the worst hormone, it gives you that ‘pit falling out of your stomach feeling’ that makes your heart skip a beat and your palms sweaty while you feel the colour draining from your face as nervousness and trepidation rises like cold water..

But.. I remember this one thing. (we were talking about phobias) they were saying that some treatments and therapists believe in shock therapy to treat phobias and that shoving someone into close proximity with their irrational fear (and thus proving that nothing happened to them) was a great way of treating someone’s irrational fear.

The reason being that even if you were shit scared. Like the most scared you’ve ever been in your life – in a shedful of spiders, you had to calm down eventually.

Adrenaline is a hormone. It runs out. Its effect wears off and it’s physically impossible to remain at that heightened sense of fear for any extended length of time.

Even with adrenalin coursing through your body…

You have to calm down. It’s inevitable.

The anxiety has to go away because your body can’t sustain it for long even if your brain wanted it to.

So what I need is someone to come along and shove me in a big shed with Death and then I’ll be fine!!

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