Poor Sam, poor Ethan, poor us!

Sam did not get better the next day. Or the next. Or that week. In fact he was very poorly for 6 days and then slowly picked up. The day he stopped vomiting, Ethan started. Though he at least lasted only 2 days, and being older, knows vaguely that he will be sick rather than springing it on you.

We now are well thank goodness, just in time for Shrove Tuesday yesterday :)

Disclaimer: these pancakes were actually made today. They are the good normal thinny pancakes. Yesterday I made fatty pancakes (also known as fluffy or American) and they were not much cop. Bit stodgy. Once again, the simplest method remains the best! So today was the second day in a row we had pancakes for lunch. I love that there's an excuse :D

The children loved them too, and I was kind enough to let them finish off the last of my maple syrup. Surely, sainthood to me? No? Really?

In other news, Ethan has decided he likes drawing! I am pleased, I love to draw or doodle or scribble or whatever, though I rarely do anymore and I miss it. Today he has drawn me several mazes in different colours, the puppy who was brought into his class today (more of a blob with spots, but not the point) and this:

That's all of us at the bottom ("I did mine wrong so I crossed it out and drewed it again") and that at the top is a pretty big deal - it's the first time he has written his name alone by choice. He writes it every morning at school, but always says he doesn't want to, and insists he needs help. Again, very proud of him! He's left all his drawings in a nice tidy pile to show Daddy when he gets in.

My boys are so cool! Granted, they are both asleep at this moment, but they are!

Update: This blog has now moved to www.undomesticaited.wordpress.com - Hope to see you over there!

Today I have been mostly...

Doing this. Poorly Sam has been very sad, and surviving on bread sticks and water.
He has such a pitiful wail, it's so very much "Mummy, I really don't want this anymore, I am tired and I don't like it."

Then he flaked out.
Poor little mite.

The cuddles were nice though. He's not normally much of a snuggler, too much to be doing. Hopefully tonight will be less vomity than last night and more sleeping will occur. Please.
At least tomorrow, being Thursday, we will have Rich working at home.

Please be better though. Poor boy :( x

Update: This blog has now moved to www.undomesticaited.wordpress.com - Hope to see you over there!

You might think you're just making conversation, but actually, you're being really quite rude.

So, you're married. You might have been married for anything from a couple of hours to a couple of years. You're talking to someone, who might know them fairly well, you might barely know them at all, suddenly, they randomly drop the bomb.

"When are you going to have children?"

Just reading it written down like that, it seems innocent enough right? And it is innocently asked, of course, it's never meant with any maliciousness. At first it's kind of hilarious that people (even almost strangers) feel like they can ask you this incredibly personal question. I had a friend ask me at my wedding reception, and I laughed my head off, it was so crazy-out-of-the-blue. Especially when you consider I was not yet quite 20!

Fast forward a couple of years. I was at church one Sunday (where this question is especially prevalent) when someone whose name I still don't know asked me the same question. I don't remember what I said, but I do remember how I felt. And I remember crying in the car on the way home. It was a bad day, and definitely a bad day to ask me.

At that point we'd been trying to have a baby for about 18 months. We were at the stage of being tested by our wonderful GP. I had just had to have blood tests, and the reason on the form was Sub-fertility. Even seeing that word on the paper was horrible. It's a fairly long story, and though it has a happy ending, the middle was not a huge amount of fun.

I'm not angry at being asked, not anymore. Before it was something that affected me I am sure I asked it myself, but I don't now, because the real question is, what makes us think we should know something so personal? Even completely ignore the hurt caused to people in situations like I have been, or harder, How is this anyone's business except the couple? I have few people who I would be happy asking me this, and they are generally people who know my situation, and add to that the fact that I have mellowed a lot now that I have 2 children, it doesn't bother me nearly as much anymore.

Except.

A couple of weeks ago, while at church again, I happened to be out of Sacrament meeting with a particularly whingey Sam. I was pretty frazzled, Sam runs on a lot less sleep than I like to run on, and I happened to be talking to the same person who had unwittingly initiated the sob fest about 5 years ago (I still don't know her name, she's a friend of Rich's family). Can anyone guess what's coming?

After asking me how the boys were (fine, hard work, enjoying nursery school, whingey etc), came the doozy. "So, are you going to have any more?"

Seriously? I'm out wandering the hallway with a whiner. It can be enough, in the moment at least, to put off any serious broody feelings. I gave her a curt reply, inferring that two was enough (not true), and it ended the conversation and I made excuses and left.

I'm not sure why people think it's acceptable to ask. It probably doesn't even occur to them not to. All I can say is, if this is a question you would ask without thinking about it, please reconsider. I'm pretty sure I didn't tell anybody that we were trying to have a baby for at least a year. It's a difficult situation to be in.There are a lot of people out there who are desperate to have a family, and either find it difficult or impossible without medical help, or can't have children at all.

I'm not saying don't ask, just be considerate. Unless you barely know the person, then I'd say yeah, don't ask ;)

Update: This blog has now moved to www.undomesticaited.wordpress.com - Hope to see you over there!

Christmas (A little late!)

We had a brilliant time at Christmas, with Christmas morning at home, Christmas day at Rich's parents and Boxing day at home with my parents and Jess and Jonny.

This tree is slightly different to the original tree this year - Sam decided that the lowest string of lights were ripe for the picking, and pulled them off, breaking them. On the 22nd of December. We dashed out to the shops for what I though was an easy find, Christmas lights at Christmas. Ha! Everywhere was selling off anything that was left, and what was left was rubbish. We went to B&Q, Sainsbury's, Tesco, and 2 branches of Asda, and in the 2nd Asda found some white 'berry' lights, which weren't what I was looking for, but I wanted white ones, so they'd do. I got home, stripped the tree and started over (lights HAVE to go on first don't you know!) and they looked really good. In fact I bought another box the next day as this year's tree was a bit little and so I might need more next year. So three boxes in all. Oh, and when I took the old lights off, they magically fixed themselves. I had tried to push in the bulbs again, but apparently bashing them on the floor was the way. Still, I like the new ones better!


Christmas eve we went to Pizza hut with Rich's side of the family, where Sam ruled as pizza king..

And loved it :) We were lucky, as every time we go to a restaurant, Sam is very restless, but this time my parents had taken him out in the morning and he'd had a lovely sleep, so was happy as Larry!
Christmas eve pyjamas from the elves! And gruffalo slippers this year for Ethan, he was so chuffed, and the Elves found them in Sainsbury's for a bargainous price!

Sam was less impressed, as he was totally shattered. But check out that after bath blow dried hair, it's so much fun to do it!

Christmas day! This is Sam absolutely adoring the stuffed horse Ethan picked out for him, so lovely!


The mini quad bike from Aunty Amy and co, which he also loves :)



Ethan and his loot, the grabber was his favourite, but he loved it all.


Sam now takes Horsey to bed, and I snapped this smoochy pic before we went to bed. Sleeping babies - there's nothing like it!

Update: This blog has now moved to www.undomesticaited.wordpress.com - Hope to see you over there!

It's a small world after all, or, how the internet causes me to embarrass myself.

This actually happened months ago now, and I keep meaning to blog it but recently had it brought back to the front of my mind.

So picture the scene, I am in Nando's with Rich and the boys, one of whom is still very small and therefore making a bit of a racket in the very full restaurant. Not embarrassing enough apparently.
I turned to see a couple of people leaving, walking past our table as they went.

"Oh," says my brain, "That's Sarah. Check her badge just in case." I did (she was wearing a work badge, not just for funsies) and it said, funnily enough, Sarah.
"You should smile at her so she knows you've seen her." said brain. So I did. "You should wave too, I don't think she saw you," said brain, "it's important for us to be nice to people. Go on, wave."
So I did, just a little wave, the kind you do to someone you know, but not well, across a small space.

Sarah gave me a very odd look with a polite smile, and hurried on to exit the restaurant.

Under normal circumstances, that response would probably have upset me. As I say, under NORMAL circumstances.

It was then that my brain chipped in again....

"Ah... We don't actually know Sarah do we?"

No, brain. We do not. Thanks for that.

Sarah is in fact, the Sister-in-law of an old friend, Tim. More recently, I have been reading the blog of Sarah's sister, Rachel, Tim's wife. Therefore, I have only ever seen pictures of Sarah online. As a side note, is this not slightly bizarre? Sarah lives not far from me, but I don't know her except via her relatives, who live 200 miles away near my parents. And yet I've seen her dancing to Feliz Navidad.

Facebook and Blogs have made my world a smaller place. To Sarah, (and no doubt the future similar victims of my friendly wave) I'm sorry.

Just know that the random woman waving at you wasn't crazy, or drunk, just internet-addled. *waves* :D

Update: This blog has now moved to www.undomesticaited.wordpress.com - Hope to see you over there!

Pre-Christmas Fun!

Bit late with this post, as Christmas is almost upon us!

Christmas Tree!

I had to relinquish control over the tree totally this year. It was a difficult day, but actually a lot of fun decorating with Ethan this year. I am now doing constant battle with Sam for him to please NOT pull off all the decorations within his reach (the precious ones are at the top, for example the glass angels!)

Gingerbread house! With candles inside, that remain lit for very short periods of time, seeing as the roof has chocolate on!
Matchmaker log doors, Windowsills, and log pile. and Jelly tot lights! It smells amazing in my kitchen right now.
I built it, but didn't bake it. I want to try that next year :) Ethan and I decorated it together. What this picture doesn't show, is that when the house was facing the other way, Sam climbed up the stool Ethan had been using and pulled off some of the roof. Clearly his mothers son ;)


Sam and Annabel (his little friend) at their toddler group Christmas party. Food, Bouncy castle, presents. What more could they want?

Ethan in Sunday's Nativity, as a cow. He was supposed to be a sheep, but was very upset as he was a sheep last year, so we asked if he could be a cow instead, and he was delighted. So it's not traditional, but there were probably cows in the stable, right?

So Christmas is fast approaching, much to do! Have a great one!

Update: This blog has now moved to www.undomesticaited.wordpress.com - Hope to see you over there!

Centre Parcs - Updated with new pictures :)

Totally Awesome.

So I don't have many pictures at the moment because the good ones are on Rich's phone and I can't find his cable, so, helpful. Even so though, we didn't take many anyway as we are forgetful and get too busy having fun. It happens every holiday.

The swan up there - lethal. That was our little patio, every morning we were greeted pre-dawn by squirrels, ducks of many varieties, pidgeons, the occasional seagull and these 2 monstrous swans. They were fine for a couple of days, but on day 3, one of them saw me coming with the food, and started PECKING THE GLASS. It was also pressing it's body up against it. There was no way I was opening that door. It was not giving up. I had to go around to the bedroom window and lure it away while Rich opened the door and threw out the food as quickly as he could.

The squirrels too were fearless, we had a few mad scrambles to shut the door before one got in with those too. Sam and Ethan loved it though, and spent ages each morning watching them.

After that it was swimming each day. On day one Sam cried the entire time. Rich and I kept throwing each other what-have-we-done? glances, as we'd bigged up the swimming everyday to Ethan, and so couldn't really back out! The next day we let Sam nap first, fed them and then went and he decided he loved it, phew!

On the Tuesday evening we took the boys to 'Animal Magic' and animal show and tell sort of situation, with all your fluffies, rabbits, baby chicks, a couple of cute rats. Then they brought out the hissing cockroaches. Bleurgh. They didn't hiss, as we were told they'd become too domesticated and they only do it under attack. All I can say is thank goodness, they were revolting enough as it was. Funnily enough, none of the children or parents wanted to hold them.

Then came 'Rosie' the Tarantula, who also didn't get a hold. I did however learn that if you drop a tarantula on it's abdomen, it will pop like a light bulb. Thanks for that, animal experts, excuse me while I throw up.
After that was a bearded dragon, a boa constrictor, and a tortoise. Much better. Sam loved it ALL and wanted to touch everything they brought around!

We took Ethan for a pony ride to Santa, which he loved, and he got to pick a present from Santa, he picked a Lego digger, which was handy as he'd been talking about a digger for Christmas recently and we'd not got him one. He loved it so much we took them both again the next day as Sam had been asleep. Sam was slightly wary of this man with a beard (never seen one of those before!) and just stood and stared at him, but was happy enough to get a stuffed Tiger from him :)

One of Ethan's favourite things was the child sized trolleys in the little shop, too cute!

We went to a gorgeous fireworks display, where there were also some jugglers and 2 dancers, who were doing hula hoops, 4 at a time. Ethan thought it was very cool so he and Rich went to look closer. The dancers were wearing very small skirts over shorts (I guess to not impede the hoops) with tights and fluffy boots, and the girl did a spin while spinning these hoops (I'm not explaining this well!) and turned her back to Ethan who promptly said "Daddy! I can see her bottom!"
Santa then did a pass of the beach on a speedboat, which Ethan loved, and then came round again. We'd already put him back in the pushchair to head home, and so we started getting him out to see over the crowd. He started shouting "Daddy! make Santa wait! I want to see him!" we got him out in time and he said "don't forget to come to my house Santa!" and blew him kisses. Bless him!

All in all, a wonderful week, we didn't want to come home at all!

Update: This blog has now moved to www.undomesticaited.wordpress.com - Hope to see you over there!

Blue Lights on the Ceiling

Let me start by saying, I am in fact fine now.

On Tuesday I was happily out shopping with a friend, when I got tingly fingers. Ok I thought, I am getting a migraine. I should have eaten breakfast. Never mind. At which point I grabbed a Wispa and some Ibuprofen at the checkout. To clarify, I am usually very lucky with migraines, in that I get some weird tinglies up my left side which then stops with a minor headache in the right side of my brain.

I'm not sure which side I think with, but it's definitely misbehaving!

We finished the shopping and went to get Ethan from school, I hopped out the car and walked in to the playground, realising my legs felt a bit odd, but shrugged it off as 'tinglies' and carried on. We got back to the car (no, I wasn't driving, that could have been a lot worse!) and Jannine my lovely friend took us back to her house to get my pushchair, where I declared that actually, I didn't feel that great. Jannine kindly offered to have Ethan (and to let me sleep in her bed while she watched BOTH of my boys, and her mindee, though I declined) and I set off in the fresh air thinking I'd put Sam down to a nap and have one myself.

Halfway home and ..hmm.. I feel sick. great. I phoned Rich to see if he could ask his mum to have Sam so I could really sleep and kick the migraine. I had thought to ring her myself, but, call me old fashioned, I only feel comfortable risking a phone puking for my husband. They obliged and 15 minutes later Sam was packed off with Grandad and I headed for bed, thinking that was that, I'd wake up in a couple of hours and be at least mostly fixed.

Ha. Ha ha ha. Oh how I was wrong.

I woke up about an hour later and crawled to the bathroom, head pounding, and was sick. Here is where it gets a bit hazy for a bit. I remember struggling to make my phone ring Rich, it was so weird, it was like the buttons were all jumbled up. He told me to ring NHS direct and later told me I had been slurring. I struggled again to first of all find the number (it wasn't til this morning that I remembered it's actually stored in my phone - I ended up trying to google it on my phone!) and then trying to dial it. The lovely lady on the other end told me she was getting an ambulance and to try and go down and unlock the door. She stayed on the line and talked to me, but I've no idea what she said. I vaguely remember slumping to the floor against the couch and seeing the blue lights on the ceiling. Somewhere in my head I remembered seeing it before - we used to have a lady living on the street who was quite ill with diabetes, and I distinctly thought Well it's much less interesting when they're here for you!
After that I remember a male paramedic asking me which shoes I wanted and where my bag was -very surreal- and that it was raining. Also, quite possibly the worst place to physically be when you are ill, is in the back of an ambulance, because those things can bounce. Seriously, the paramedic kept apologising. Not great when you already feel like your brain is trying to burst out of your skull.

The ambulance service, if you're not nauseous now you will be!
The short version is that I then sat in A&E for about 5 hours, literally crying in agony, with people talking to me about possible brain bleeds, being fed (and throwing up) various painkillers (which either didn't work or didn't have time to) and hilariously, anti-sickness tablets. I have *never* understood the logic of giving oral anti-emetics to someone who is already throwing up. I was finally promised some Morphine and an IV anti-emetic, but a bed became available on the ward so I was denied the Morphine and promised some on the ward. Except I got there and didn't see a doctor for another 3 hours. I was not a happy bunny. Then they gave me something powerful (Tramadol maybe? it began with a T) and I fell asleep, until I woke up to someone talking obnoxiously loud at 3am while moving into the room. I must have started feeling better at that point because I could spare a thought to think murderous things.

In the morning I was feeling much better and allowed to come home, having been told yes, it 'was just a migraine'. Unless of course I wanted the medication they prescribed me, in which case I had to wait 2 hours because of the strikes, or buy it over the counter. I bought it at the chemist and came home to sleep. So all in all, not a great experience. I'll never take my mini-migraines for granted again - I wouldn't wish that on anybody.

And to the weirdos who try to ring an ambulance for a tummy ache and such (Rich's dad is and ambulance phone man, we hear it all) trust me, get a cab or a bus.

Update: This blog has now moved to www.undomesticaited.wordpress.com - Hope to see you over there!

Things I'm loving

My Pampered Chef Chopper. I like to cook (I almost typed love, but that would be a lie!) but I hate chopping. I can never 'dice', I end up with massive chunks and it takes me ages. 30 seconds with the chopper and it's this:

Woop!

The Foxwise Etsy shop. Harry Potter and The Hunger Games AND Serenity, oh my! This I love SO much :

And this:
And if you don't know the second reference, you REALLY need to watch Firefly and Serenity. Trust me, you are missing out.

My favourite blog, www.epbot.com, run by Jen and John Yates, who are by far the coolest couple I've ever not met. Their house., oh my gosh, it's steam punk-a-licious. And Jen's penny desk. So so cool.

here is how they did it.

My Mother in law, Joyce. On Wednesday I had to take Ethan for his pre-school booster injections (which, incidentally, NO ONE loved), it was Grandparents' day at Ethan's pre-school, and also staff double discount day at Asda (thanks to my Brother in law, Sam, we had access to a card). Joyce kindly went to school with Ethan for an hour, waited at home with me til he finished, took us over to Asda after, paid for my shopping as I'd forgotten to get cash out, took us to the doctors, waited with Sam while I took Ethan in, waited again while I took him straight back in (screaming, I hasten to add) as he had a rash around his stab site, and then brought us home. Not to mention the midnight babysitting she has done 3 times now (4 if you count Sam's birth) for us when I've had to go into hospital. She is pretty golden! If I need help I know I can ring her and if she possibly can, she'll be over in a flash, just as I know my own Mum would if she was close enough. I'm very lucky!

Thanksgiving dinner. People of England (nay, the non-American world), we are getting gypped. On Wednesday night (yes, it should have been Thursday, but there was a lot on this week) I went up to church for the Relief Society Thanksgiving Dinner, and boy, was it delicious. It was like Christmas a month early! Turkey, gravy, roast potatoes and roast veg, broccoli in a delicious cheese sauce, sweet potato mash.

And the dessert. Pumpkin Pie. for something that is basically sludgey brown baked custardish stuff in pastry, amazing! I also, like a pig, had a slice of homemade chocolate cheesecake too. The night was perfect. Plus I sat with 3 pregnant friends who also had 2 desserts, so I didn't feel as bad :)

Next week is one of said pregnant friend's baby shower, where I get to give her my gift. I'm so excited, I made her this:

It's my first attempt at a baby blanket, and I love it, so I hope she does too!

P.S. It took me 3 edits to make those links work. I was at the precipice of the decent into rage, so thank goodness it worked this time ;)

Update: This blog has now moved to www.undomesticaited.wordpress.com - Hope to see you over there!

Bonfire Night in Blackpool

We had a gorgeous (if freezing) day in Blackpool on Saturday with Richard's parents, and his Sister, brother-in-law and nephew Seth. It was lovely! We walked along the front and Ethan begged to be allowed onto the beach, where he ran around like a loon :)

Note the ever-present Raffey :)

Where there is a wall, it must be walked on. Such is the law of small children.

I've never been to Blackpool before, except for one year pre-children when Rich and I went to drive through the Illuminations after a temple visit. I love it, it's so... tacky! We went up the tower, where we saw a 4D movie that Ethan freaked out at a bit, I think the 3D felt a bit close to him, and then we got a bit wet and clouds and foam came out, but he calmed down and laughed when I got wet. We got to the top, and the little trooper ran straight out onto the 'sky walk' (ie glass floor :S ) while I stood at the edge and clutched a metal girder in fear. It took me by surprise actually, I've done similar before in the Sky Tower in New Zealand which is far taller! I eventually walked across, while holding Rich's dad's hand!

We then walked for AGES along the illuminations, which were lovely, but lasted for miles. I remember distinctly thinking at least I'm burning off the KFC I had for lunch. The only dark blot on the day was that I missed out on fresh donuts. That and the creepy stall guys on the pier who badgered us to play the games, then one of them followed me for a bit, it was really uncomfortable, but I got through it with a constant ignore policy!

I love this one, even though it's blurry, the web of lights and the moon were cool :)

These were my favourite decorations, Daleks and Tardises (Tardii?)

And to finish, something that amused in the view from the tower... how would you get your car out of this?!

All of these cars were parked, not one of them moving. I don't even know how they got in, let alone out!

Update: This blog has now moved to www.undomesticaited.wordpress.com - Hope to see you over there!

My terrible typing skillz

Dear Readers (if there's anyone out there...)

Just a quick one, grammar errors annoy me so very much. However, I am a terrible typist, and make several mistakes that seem to slip through checkers. I apologise. I know my family (or atleast some!) will be twitching about it too, just know it's accidental!

Yours,

The Terrible Typist x

Update: This blog has now moved to www.undomesticaited.wordpress.com - Hope to see you over there!

Halloween

The boys have had a brilliant Halloween - Ethan was a bat and Sam a tiger, who could be skinned to reveal a skeleton - it was a bit cold!

Ethan won first place in the Fancy dress competition at the Wakefield fun day, Hayley (his cousin) came second :)
The tiger costume was pretty hilarious, it was really too big for him, but when he walked around in it he looked like an ewok, it was too cute not to put him in it!

Too fast for a good photo!

We had a ward trunk and treat that was brilliant and I sadly took no photos. The games were all brilliant, including one car boot that had been lined and partially filled with compost, in which skeleton bones were buried, to be found an joined together in order to get the sweeties.

Ethan was desperate to go 'Trickle Treating' to a few friends on the street and we did our pumpkin, again, bats. Sensing a theme? The street really got into it, lots of pumpkins, and decorations, and Ethan liked going to his friends, but his favourite thing was giving treats to the Trickle Treaters that came to us, and I was so pleased to see him happy to give things away to the other children, and I was really pleased to see that we only had a few older 'kids' come, one set were bringing younger siblings, and all of them were happy to get sweets rather than money.

All in all, a good time! Ethan has since asked several times if it's Halloween again, and we're trying to get him looking forward to bonfire night tomorrow instead!

Update: This blog has now moved to www.undomesticaited.wordpress.com - Hope to see you over there!

Oh Dear!

So, it's been over a year since I posted, eek!

I have been very busy with the boys, Samuel Timothy was born on the 23rd of October (12 days late, the little monkey!) and maybe one quiet day I'll add that story and Ethan's too. For now a picture will have to do..

It's too bright out here!

Sam is now just turned one, and I feel a bit terrible that there is no record of him here, so I'm starting over, and will work much harder to get the blogging done! I thought about starting over with a new blog but I didn't want to ditch the old posts, so here we stay!

Ethan, who was only 2 and a bit at last post, is now 3 and a half, and at nursery school. He is loving it, and adores his teachers. They are wonderful ladies, amazing with the children, and far more patient than me! Ethan if growing up so fast and absolutely adores his brother, although sharing is a bit of an issue at the moment.

I will teach you in the ways of small boys, young padowan

They really do get on well and if Sam starts to cry Ethan will go over to him and sing twinkle twinkle to him and hug him. Or make silly noises to make him laugh, either way! Sam's favourite thing is to watch Ethan jump up and down like a loon, he laughs like a drain! They are my little darlings, my little terrors, my loves.

And sometimes, they're just a pair of animals :)

Update: This blog has now moved to www.undomesticaited.wordpress.com - Hope to see you over there!

So it's been a while...

And as you can see, Baby boy Brown mk 2 is well on the way! He is as yet unnamed, but due on October 11th. I'm hoping he's a bit smaller than Ethan was at 8lbs 11oz, big babies are unusual on my side, but not Richard's. Baby is measuring a little small, but we'll just have to wait and see!

Ethan is now 2 and 3 months, and is potty training. He's doing fairly well with it, so hopefully he'll crack it soon.

In other news, I passed my Driving Theory test on friday, so will hopefully soon crack on with the practical test, although the baby will cause a bit of a delay! Fingers crossed it will be done before Christmas.

Apart from that, all quiet on the western front!

Update: This blog has now moved to www.undomesticaited.wordpress.com - Hope to see you over there!