Who’s Normal Anyway?

On Friday afternoon we spent 6 and a half hours in traffic to travel up to Ingleton for A’s old Mountain Rescue Team families weekend. We were stuck in traffic for ages on the A17 and then in stationary traffic again all around Leeds. Not fun. We even ended up resorting to Burger King for tea on the way. We had a good weekend once we got there though.

On Saturday A went out for a day of climbing and the rest of us met up with Tech and co to go geocaching around the local area. I got lots of exercise carrying L around all day and enjoyed a long time to chat and M was really happy to see his friends again too. We visited the great stone of four stones and then did a short circular walk around a village, ending in a lovely, child friendly coffee shop for lunch. I found out L likes jacket potatoes with leek and cheese LOL. Afterwards we got ice creams and watched the sheep auctions.

Later in the afternoon we drove to White Scar cave and were going to go down and do the tour, but L had fallen asleep in the car and I was reluctant to wake him so D babysat him by the car while the rest of us did some retail therapy in the shop. A phoned to say he’d just driven past us on the way to a cafe after climbing, and then we went back to the hostel to get showered and changed.

In the evening we went for a curry with Tech and co. When we got back we were just in time to join in with the quiz evening with the MRT people and M went on a sticker hunt for the kids while we got drinks and tried to answered general knowledge questions. At the end of 5 rounds our team won and we got a bottle of wine. We also got chance to chat to more of the team and wives/girlfriends. It’s funny how much they’ve changed since A first started and they were all (apart from A) young and single. Now there were 2 other babies and a couple of people were talking about allotments and it was all very grown up LOL.

On Sunday we went out to where A had been climbing on Saturday to take M and 2 other boys who were staying with their dads climbing, though in the end one was a bit too small tof it the helmet etc safely so he just did some rock scrambling. It was the first time M has climbed outdoors on proper rocks and he did really well, getting pretty high and trying really hard and thinking about where he was putting his hands and feet. The walk up to the crags was a bit of a pull on the thighs but I got there in the end and the view was lovely until the mist started to come in. L played close by and then slept and I took pictures with the long zoom.

We got back to the hostel in time for a rushed tea at 4pm because they’d only just found out we needed to clear the hostel by 4.30pm! Then we drove home and did it in 4 and a half hours, much better than the drive up.

I’m not making enough time to blog at the moment and it’ll get worse before it gets better, what with Melrose next week and moving house the week after, so here are a few notable points for the past week.

A has now officially left the mountain rescue team. Earlier this week he was up in Scotland with them for a training week, but came back early to go on holiday. He was pretty fed up it didn’t snow til after he’d come home - they had to do ice climbing indoors. But he did get to go on 2 call outs, so a bit of excitement. The team leaving ceremony has been banned on the grounds it looks like bullying to members of the public, so A was a little sad (and possibly relieved given the weather) not to be “swum”, but he did get lots of whiskeys bought on his last evening out.

Yesterday A persuaded me he really needed to go and buy some of his own climbing gear now he’s not on the team. He got a new harness, stickies (climbing boots), bug and something else I can’t remember the name of LOL and hammered the credit card. But it was a bargain because he got it using team discount before we move

M has had lots of lasts, and more today. It was his final Beavers on Tuesday, last West Park on Wednesday and last Musical Theatre class yesterday. We’re hoping to keep in touch with people from WP though and at MT it was sweet because we were given leaving cards and one family even got us leaving pressies. So we’ve finally swapped names (!) and addresses and may write sometimes. I’ve enjoyed chatting to the mums and grans in the changing room while M’s had his lesson and they’ve seen L grow from bump through tiny baby to crawling around under everyone’s legs.

Today is M’s last dance class and then we’re seeing the doublets and family for soft play and pizza and goodbyes - though they’d better come visit, so not too final.

L has marked the week by finishing one cold and then starting another. He’s honing his pulling up skills ’specially for our week away and was popping up and down to M’s chair over and over yesterday evening, practising. He’s so pleased with himself when he does it. He also does a sweet raspberry noise (well, sweet except when he climbed on top of me in the middle of the night, socked me in the nose, grinned and blew raspberries : ). He’s teething and is waking sometimes hourly. His 2 bottom teeth popped through on Thursday afternoon. There’s no dosing him with anything though, he just won’t open his mouth and squirms away.

My highlight of the week was going shopping yesterday to spend Chirstmas M&S vouchers in Per Una and finding I could buy a size 16 skirt! Haven’t done that in a long while.

We’re all full of cold except for M who I think got it out of the way before the rest of us got going. I’ve been going to bed with L when I put M to bed and just watching a bit of TV and dozing, so haven’t had blogging time in the evenings. L has been snuffling and sleeping on one arm or the other all night for the last few nights. He seems particularly snotty and miserable today, though has perked up a bit this evening and is now trying to help me type and head butting the computer (?!).

Mum came out of hospital on Tuesday and is staying at my sister’s so they can look after each other. They haven’t killed each other yet!

We’ve had a quietish week. We were out Wednesday to C and D’s birthday bowling party. M had a wonderful time and was impressed he did well at bowling for a change. Almost wish he hadn’t because I hate how he gets so competitive about things. He was getting a bit possessive about friendships when we went to play in the park afterwards. I wish he’d just be friendly with everyone.

Today we went to the last music group before we move, so that was a bit sad. We had a Chinese theme with Chinese music and crafts and some Chinese food - yum! L was OK for the first half of the session but then started getting tired and whingey but didn’t want to feed to sleep cos his nose was streaming abd he just cried more and more and I couldn’t do anything with him. So we left earlier than intended and came straight home, so M also missed his musical theatre class. M enjoyed being the front of the dragon at the group and also played and showed his friends his Star Wars annual. C and D had made him some fabulous spying top trumps cards, they must have taken forever to make. Thank you very much, he loves them!

A was supposed to be rescuing mountains this weekend but is so full of cold he cancelled, which is unusual for him. He spent most of today in bed I think.

Carrying on from where I left off yesterday, A and M got back mid afternoon, had a quick cuppa and then went back out to MRT to help set up for A’s leaving do last night. We’re not going for another 6 weeks but it was a joint do with 3 other people so they clubbed together to hire a band and buy food and 2 barrels of beer and make it a bigger do.

A got back in time to make a tasty chilli and rice. Then it was time to drop M off at Beavers so we all went out and then I dropped in to MRT with L and A for 3/4 of an hour before going back to pick M up. After he was in bed and asleep I went to bed to feed L til he eventually dropped off and to read my new book. Thanks for the recommendation Jan, I hope that is the one you meant. It’s very interesting anyway, but I’ve still plenty to read. I seem to be along the right lines for the first stages of doing an elimination diet. He suggests for breastfeeding babies to begin by cutting just dairy out of mum’s diet for 2 weeks (which I did with no noticeable difference last November) and then to move on to eliminating everything you eat regularly and also wheat, eggs, peanuts. So I am kind of half doing that. I am cutting out milk again, wheat, eggs, soya, peanuts and fish. To cut out everything I eat regularly I’d need to include things like chicken, beef, potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, onions, oranges, apples, oats, other nuts and probably lots of things I haven’t thought of. Add in all the related foods (like other citrus if cutting out oranges) and I’m not sure there is much left?! So I won’t be doing that if 2 weeks on this diet (if I make it that far) shows no improvement. Well, certainly not before we move anyway. The book had some other suggestions for things like house dust mites and if he’s reacting to the carpets, so will consider those too, but I don’t want to change anything else at the same time as diet.

In the middle of the night I woke up to A being ill, so found he had made it home but had had a few too many. So he’s been in bed all morning but got up an hour ago when he remembered he had a dyslexia lesson booked for early this afternoon. Then later on he has to go to work.

This morning we’ve been up a bit earlier because we had workmen coming to fix stuff in the bathroom. M has done some Neopets, Lego website, maths and we’ve read the story of Leyla and the Lamp. He got part way through narrating it back to me and we had to break off for me to go to the GP’s, so after lunch we need to finish that. Right now he’s Lego-ing in his bedroom.

We were supposed to be going to West Park today, but with everything else and the doctors we didn’t get out. Going to see the GP was a bit of a last minute decision, because L has come up with 2 lumps on the back of his neck. The GP thinks they’rejust enlarged lymph glands and related to the scaly skin on the nape of his neck.

I’ve made leek and mushroom soup for lunch today - bit of a change from the lentil soup I’ve had for lunch the last 2 days. I also made some flat bread with gluten free flour, but they are particularly stodgy, though improved by dunking in the soup. One I made with crushed coriander and cumin seeds on the top and the other I put walnuts and honey on - not tried that one yet. Oh, and I discovered porridge is much improved by a sprinkling of cinnamon as well as some sugar on the top.

Feeling virtuous cos we’re just about packed for tomorrow when we’re going to stay in Okehampton YH with some other HE friends. We’ve even got the car packed - just the toiletries, bed guard and fridge empty out stuff to fit in somewhere in the morning. The plan is to set off as soon as we’re up and had breakfast, even if it means putting L in in his PJs for the first part of the journey. No idea how long it’ll take us to get all the way from Yorskhire to Devon, but it’s going to be a while with a 4.5 month old baby!

So, a quick catch up before we go. On Friday we had a mad day where A was rushing around sorting out work related stuff and form filling and all sorts of admin stuff all morning, including going into town for the bank. M, L and I stayed home and did bits and bobs, can’t really remember what now.

In the afternoon M had musical theatre and for a change they were learning Christmas songs. “Miss Jo” surprised me by inviting me in to watch them singing and swaying to Away in a Manger and Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer. Next week is parents week (about time, first one they’ve had since he started in January!) but we’re on holiday so was going to completely miss seeing him. They did a lovely performance. The teachers reckon M has really come on recently from being a bit “lost” initially to being keen to join in the drama and dancing now and has also improved in not giving his opinion on everything they’re asked to do! LOL. I can just imagine. When we set off out, A went to MR for his weekend away.

On Saturday I was sorting out holiday stuff and did some baking, while M played on the PC and then on A’s laptop til I told him to find something non-screen-related to do. In the early afternoon he had his dancing class.

Today we did more packing up and I tried (and failed) to catch up on some emails in and among. We went to Church and I tried to get a copy of the service sheet for M & L’s thanksgiving service next Sunday (bit late for M, but better late than never and we were a bit between vicars after he was born so didn’t sort anything). N was vague as usual and since we are away all week was supposedly going to drop round with it this afternoon, but as per he failed to show up. I just hope he gets it sorted OK in the week. Might phone his secretary while we’re away. I told J the organist which hymns we picked for when in the service and she said she’d get onto him too.

This afternoon I chatted with my sis and with T about passwording blogs and I’ve come to the conclusion it’s a difficult bit of netiquette I haven’t sussed yet! I decided this time I wouldn’t email passwords out cos I don’t want people to feel obligated to read it. But then A & T both said they wouldn’t ask in principle - can’t bl***y win! If you send them you feel like you’re forcing yourself on folk, if you don’t send them they get all reticent and huffy LOL!! But basically, happy for anyone I know IRL to read it all, don’t want anyone to feel they have to, but don’t want to put all the details up for strangers to read.

This evening I’ve watched Bleak House while cooking tea and got lost with what was going on, but I also videoed it (if I can ever find time to watch it). A got back about 7.30pm and after M went to bed we’ve been packing up, A’s cleaned the fish tank etc. Ought to go talk to him about his weekend really instead of sitting here blogging!

On Thursday I took L to a new baby signing class to see what it was like. I know a few people who’ve signed with their toddlers and I always thought it looked like something we might have a go at, so I emailed the class leader and asked what age it’s for and she said it was fine to go from birth. I think L was a little bit on the young side for us to easily join in but I enjoyed it. L was a bit too overwhelmed looking round at all the crawlers and toddlers to want to look at me and enjoy the singing (or maybe it’s my singing LOL!). The class is half an hour of singing nursery rhymes and baby songs and signing along, learning 5 new signs (won’t be teaching him biscuit just yet!) and then a half hour for coffee and choccie biccies and having a chat.

While we were there, A and M went to try the climbing wall in the leisure centre and M came back buzzing about how good a time he’d had. (Do you think your big 2 would be interested in going anytime Tech, or is it too far?) We’ll have to take him there again, maybe next time A is working evenings. Next week if we go to Tiny Talk again M will have to come with us, so hopefully he’ll enjoy learning some signs too.

Yesterday morning we went to visit my Grandma, Dad and Aunt who we haven’t seen since L was about 5 weeks old, in fact my Aunt hadn’t met him yet. So we caught up a bit and M helped Grandma in the kitchen, so managed to get a share of the attention. Then he blagged her coin jar out of her cupboard – spotted it when she was getting plates out and asked for it for the Blue Peter appeal. Wasn’t sure whether to die of embarrassment or be pleased at him being charitable. He’s also put a penny jar in the downstairs loo at home to raise more cash, so we literally spend a penny when we go LOL.

We had lunch at my Grandma’s then it was a quick drive home to drop A off for mountain rescue (off to the Lake District again) and out again to M’s musical theatre class. Seems like we never stopped!

Today has been much more peaceful. We’ve spent most of the day at home and M’s had a bit of a Star Wars fest (PC game and a video, in and among other bits he’s been doing) and I’ve been finding things to go to the charity shop to have a bit of a tidy out. In the early afternoon we went out to M’s dancing class.

L’s been working on his tummy shuffle. I’m not sure what he does exactly, but he moves backwards somehow, so need to keep even more of an eye on him, because he doesn’t stay put. And just to even it up a bit so it doesn’t sound like we are ECing wonders or something, we’ve been completely off today. We’ve had so many misses I resorted to disposables til I could get a grip, and didn’t “catch” anything til L’s after nap wee at tea time. We’re often more in tune when we’re out - at home I get distracted doing other things and only think “oh yes, he needed a wee” after the event.

Don’t know where exactly my time is going at the moment, but I just don’t get around to blogging. Anyway, this evening I’m waiting for photos to upload to Bonusprint for printing out and it’s estimating another 26 mins (and I only sent 11!!) so thought I’d do a quick catch up now.

Going back a week and a half:

On the Thursday A went to see an osteopath. I never would have thought I’d be writing that in a million years, I nearly fell through the floor when he said he was thinking of going LOL. I blame it on booking independent midwives for a homebirth - it’s amazing what he’ll consider doing now! He’d pulled something in his back out with MRT carring a heavy rucksack, and had been wincing in pain when lifting L and generally suffering for a couple of weeks. So off he went to see Claire (osteopath I saw in pregnancy and we took L to) and he came back a new man! Apparently his back was all skew-whiff with his muscles tense trying to keep everything in place. She slackened it all off, then told him to take a deep breath and there was a sound like crushing cornflakes as everything went back into place. He’s so much better!

At the weekend we had a Guy Fawkes party and invited up my mum and sis and A’s parents. They came up in the afternoon after M’s dancing class. Once it got dark we bundled up and went out into the back garden to let off fireworks and light sparklers. L stared at them fascinated but wasn’t scared at all. We almost set the fence alight at one point when the catherine wheel didn’t spin, but A had fastened up a spare bit of wood on top of the fence and that got the worst of it. Then afterwards we had a buffet tea with jacket potatoes, bean stew and salad followed by parkin, catherine wheel biscuits and some very yummy lime drizzle cake my mum made with polenta.

This week we’ve not done anything very remarkable. On Wednesday we didn’t feel like driving far, so ended up turning down an invitation to visit friends a good hour’s drive away and didn’t go to West Park either. In the afternoon we went for a short drive to a soft play and met up with a few mums from the Mum and Baby group. It was L’s first soft play experience, not that he can do much yet (but at least babies are free there). He played with the balls and admired himself in the mirror and I got to chat. M was a bit bored with no bigger kids to play with.

M has got into colouring Rangoli patterns that we brought home from the music group and we’ve been reading stories from India and doing a mini India project. Tomorrow I’m thinking of suggesting we do a basic mind map (thanks to Joyce’s blog for the inspiration) of what he already knows about India and see what else he’d like to do (or not). Shall have to get a book from the library or something and find out more about mind mapping I think, if he does OK with it. We’ve never tried it before. He’s part way through making shadow puppets to retell one of the stories we read and we’ve been looking at the geography of India. Found this website which we keep referring to.

M’s also been practising alot of subtraction sums and learning to do them in columns with borrowing. He finds taking away quite a challenge to get his head around, so we’re just doing loads of examples. My mum’s a retired maths teacher and she’s passed on some maths books that have pages of sums to work, so we’re going through one of those for a while. They get gradually harder and then move onto word problems using the same kinds of sums.

Spelling is still going well using Spalding - it seems to make sense to M and give him a method for spelling. We have a laugh about the spelling rules, cos I can never remember which rule number is which and he has to tell me (you probably have to be there to see the funny side). M’s reluctant to put things into writing, but is doing well making up short sentences using words from each day’s spelling. I think his reading is helping this too, it’s all coming together now. He’s realised in the last couple of weeks that he can read chapter books and has finished Astrosaurs and today he read 7 chapters of Mystery Ranch (a Boxcar Children book). At bedtime we’ve begun reading The Secret Garden, and it’s fairly hard going on the readaloud side, especially trying to make sense of how the Yorkshire accent is written down LOL! We’ve had a couple of fairly abridged versions on cassette, so it’s interesting to see what was edited out.

Right, photos have finished and I ought to be going to bed, so better go do battle with the printer to get my eBay packing slips printed from Paypal so I can get things posted tomorrow!

Apart fromA, who has yet to succumb (maybe just in time for bivvying out on the top of a hill in the lake district on Friday night LOL!), we’ve all had horrible colds for the past few days. M started last Thursday, closely followed by L, and then I started with the same thing over the weekend. We’re all getting to the coughing stage now. L has been particularly awful in the way he stuffs up while asleep and wakes up, chokes for a while and then sicks up a bit. Lovely!

Can’t actually remember what we did on Thursday, except I have a vague recollection of it being “a good day” and M and I did some pleasant activities. Hmm… can’t have been that amazing though cos I’ve blanked them now. In the evening the vicar was supposed to be coming round to discuss M and L’s birth thanksgiving service, having cried off on the Monday with a headache, but he didn’t show up. I think perhaps he’s not actually all that well at the moment.

On Friday M was feeling very sorry for himself and stayed in pyjamas cuddled in the chair watching TV most of the day. A finished work early and we briefly went out to the local shops to get fruit and veg for the harvest festival and to return library books. Then we had another day in at home on Saturday.

Sunday was A’s birthday, so we opened cards and pressies in bed. A says he’s a “proper dad” now because he got slippers, undies and aftershave for his birthday! Then we went to church to pass on our germs and join in the harvest festival service. Afterwards we stayed for the pot luck lunch, which was really busy because one family had lots of extra guests because it was their daughter’s thanksgiving for adoption service too. In the afternoon A’s mum and dad came up to visit and stayed for tea.

A has the week off, so Monday we went to Harrogate to shop – A’s birthday money was burning a hole LOL! He bought walking trousers in Cotswold Camping, where we also got walking boots for M. M and L bought A a banana guard from each of them for his birthday and they arrived Monday morning. He got an orange one and another that glows in the dark to take with him on MR.

Yesterday we went into town to sort out a new bank account and do some supermarket shopping. M was feeling more like himself and went on a bike ride with A before going to Beavers in the evening. But we haven’t done anything amazing at all this week that’s blog-worthy!

Today we’ve spent most of the day out at West Park home ed group. M played really nicely with C, they seem to do better when there aren’t as many other boys around? Or perhaps they were both in calmer moods than previously. Anyway, they played Lego for a while together and then found toilet roll tubes and made wrist “communicators” and chased around playing some imaginative game. A stayed home and went on an exercise with the mountain rescue team, where he played a casualty dangling down a cliff. Apparently the harness was digging in somewhat til he was rescued.

Right, I’ll post this and then there’s just nice time to get another coffee and settle down to watch Lost.

I’m typing this on A’s laptop so that I can sit upstairs and keep an eye on both M and L who are in bed, but the laptop and I often come to blows because the keyboard is awful and I tend to accidentally touch the pad and insert what I’m typing into the middle of an earlier paragraph, so fingers crossed!

I’m not keeping up with blogging daily, but I’ll try and recap the last couple of days if can remember what we did.

On Thursday A spent all day out climbing in the sunshine somewhere, then came in just before 4 to get ready for work and went straight back out again – cut it a bit fine really. It’s amazing how early in the morning he can get up after a late evening at work when he’s going to go out climbing! I can’t remember anything particularly interesting that we did at home on Thursday. M did his maths and sounding and we listened to some more schools radio on the BBC website. We read Camille and the Sunflowers together, which is a story book about Vincent Van Gogh. I bought a set of the stories about artists from Red House, having seen them at Melrose (think Merry brought them?) and at the same time I bought some art sticker books, so after reading the story we looked at the stickers and worked out which went where for a while til M lost interest.

At tea time we finished watching Carrie’s War. (I know, eating in front on the TV, terrible habit!) I videoed it ages ago and never got round to watching it. I didn’t know the story and if I had I might have left it a while, because M was a bit spooked about the skull and the house burning down, but we both enjoyed the film and we’ve had some interesting conversations following on from it.

Yesterday we had a family morning, because A went off for the weekend with the mountain rescue team at lunchtime so we were making the most of him til he went. A and M went out for a bike ride while I waited for the latest version of Real Player to finish downloading (took ages cos we haven’t got broadband) so that we could listen to Little Toe on Radio 7. L and I drove to the coffee shop where we’d arranged to meet A and M after their ride. It was drizzling slightly when they set off out, but by the time we all got to the coffee shop it was bouncing down and A and M were soaking. Had an early lunch and chatted to friends who were there and then came home again (luckily the rain had passed over by then).

In the afternoon M got on with his maths really well and we listened to Tony Robinson reading the Pied Piper of Hamelyn on schools radio – Tales from Europe. Afterwards I gave M the option of drawing a scene from the pied piper or having a go at drawing a sunflower like the ones in the story from the day before. He decided on the sunflower and went out into the garden to cut one and bring it in to draw. He chose to use oil pastels and made a good attempt at a sunflower. Later on we started a game of Monopoly and its still out on the dining room table. Then it was out to Musical Theatre.

This morning the plan was to go into town and do Tescos shopping and some bits and bobs from the other shops. I asked M to get his things ready for his dancing lesson, which is at the awkward, right in the middle of the day, time of 1.15pm. He faffed about and took a while to realise he couldn’t find his jazz shoes which he had yesterday for Musical Theatre. He searched his bedroom, went out to check if they were still in the car etc etc. Eventually I rang the dance studio and left a message to see If they were there. I’d left M fastening his last shoe while I went ahead to get L in the car because we were blocking someone in the car park, and M had just come out and left his bag sitting in the middle of the floor. I despair sometimes! Anyway, when we got to town I couldn’t park, Tesco’s car park was heaving and I had to queue to even get back out again. So I abandoned that plan and we went to Somerfield instead, which is outside the town centre and had lots of parking spaces. I didn’t manage to get birthday cards from my Grandma or for A though, so will have to go shopping again Monday morning.

We popped home with the shopping and had a quick sandwich and then drove to dancing. M hadn’t missed learning very much more of his modern or tap routines, so that was good. The class is going much faster now he’s moved up a group, but he seems to be holding his own. This afternoon M played out and also played his Star Wars PC game and I’ve sorted washing, cooked tea and fiddled a bit on the computer. Right, better pop downstairs to connect to the internet and post this!