I feel like the world’s worst mother.

We went on a long walk today – finally, a decent bit of weather. Still very overcast, but not torrential downpour. Went for a walk around Droitwich and surrounding fields – took us about 4 hours in all. Anyway, we got back and then noticed that Li’l Bhaji’s head started to get red – he’s sunburnt all over the top of his head.

I am SO cross with myself. We are usually so careful – the kids don’t go out in the slightest bit of sun without being slathered in factor 50 and wearing a nice big hat. But there was NO SUN today – in fact at one point we put hats on them to protect them from RAIN! Li’l Bhaji pulled his hat off so we put it away, thinking to replace it if the rain got heavier or the sun came out – neither of which happened. The suntan lotion was weighing down the backpack but not applied because we didn’t think there’d be a need.

So there you go. Don’t assume that no sun means no sunburn. Please learn from my mistake…

Found this highly addictive little flash game: Grow RPG and finally managed to beat it this evening!

Via Berklee at New Zealand Story

One of my readers emailed me recently to ask what my reasons were for sending Li’l Bhaji to nursery for one day a week. I wrote out a long reply, then it occurred to me (after I sent it) that maybe other people were wondering – and it’s a good topic for a blog post after all. I hope that my respondent will forgive me shamelessly recycling my reply in the name of blog fodder.

When Akra Jr was a baby, I struggled quite a bit to adjust to notherhood. When he was about 9 months old, I talked it over with Akra and we decided that we could afford to send him to a day nursery for one full day a week – not too long that I’d feel guilty sending him away unnecessarily, but enough time to give me some regular space to be myself for a bit too. So, it was for a completely selfish reason, but in the event it worked really well. Akra Jr settled in quickly, he got to do painting/arty stuff (which I’m useless at – could never see the point of setting it all up, to have 2 seconds worth of interest and spend another half hour clearing away!) and got to do some weird and wonderful stuff (like jelly play?!) So, it felt like the best of both worlds to me.

I didn’t think I was going to send Li’l Bhaji as I don’t feel like I’ve been struggling. With Akra Jr going to school soon I’ll get the lunch time naps “off” again to have some down time, there’s a good local term-time nursery (of the 3 hour sessions variety, not the private day nursery variety) which he’ll get to go to once he’s about two and a half.

But then the last few weeks, sibling rivalry has reared its head a bit. Li’l Bhaji has discovered how to really wind Akra Jr up. Akra Jr is getting less and less time with me alone and is getting more frustrated and uncharacteristically moody and playing up. Someone at one of our groups was talking about their nursery (they’re working part time) and it got me thinking. I *do* feel guilty that Li’l Bhaji gets even less time for arty activities than his brother did – there’s just not enough time during the day. I know I’ll get some more time alone with Li’l Bhaji once term starts again, but Akra Jr is going to get even less time with me. So the plan is, one day a week again starting over the summer holidays, Akra Jr and I are going to do some special stuff together (like going to the cinema) which we can’t do with a baby in tow, and then once term starts he’ll at least get a couple of hours one afternoon a week after school with just me. (Plus I get some time to catch up with chores/life a bit!) It’ll just be for a year, then we’ll cancel and go to the 3 hour sessions nursery for a couple of afternoons a week once he’s old enough (also cheaper!) and by then Akra Jr will have settled nicely into school and we’ll have found other tactics to keep them both feeling like they’re getting some attention, I hope!

Does that make sense? It’s very much a “nice to have” rather than a necessity from our point of view, I think. I’m not sure he’ll gain much from a “socialisation” point of view – but that’s hard to quantify anyway, isn’t it? Especially if you go to other groups with them too.

I was a bit bowled over, yesterday. Along with my usual shopping order from Sainsburys To You (the online delivery service) I received 2 dozen roses and a very large box of chocolates. The occasion? No, not our wedding anniversary (which is today – 9 years, yippee!) but my 200th order with them.

I’m really chuffed. I was only thinking earlier how nice it would be to be one of those people who could afford to always have fresh flowers in the house (although, to be honest, no matter how much money we had, I would always feel that there were better things to spend the money on) – and here I am with two vases full and nowhere really childsafe to put them!

Of course, the cynic in me wonders if it has anything to do with the new Waitrose nearby…

Brief news:

Li’l Bhaji can walk.
Li’l Bhaji is starting at day nursery for one day a week, has had one hour’s worth of settling in so far and didn’t even notice I was gone.
Two days into the summer holiday and I’m getting NOTHING done.

Entries may be brief until September…

Long time no type.

Truth be told, we’ve all been pretty busy. This is Akra Jr’s last week ever at nursery (in fact, today is his last day, eep!) with associated activities, and if that wasn’t busy enough, Akra Jr seems to have been generous with his 24hr bug thing.

As I mentioned on Monday, he was a bit poorly – high temperature and listlessness which fortunately vanished as quickly as it had arrived by Tuesday. Tuesday, I was wiped and ended up dosing off on the sofa with Li’l Bhaji in the morning (yes, I know, bad mummy) and then when the kids finally went to bed at 7pm I could no longer keep my eyes open and went to bed too – sleeping right through until 7am Wednesday. Wednesday afternoon saw the appearance of Li’l Bhaji’s high temperature, and today Akra is declaring himself knackered – so it looks like the bug has done the complete rounds.

Hopefully tomorrow we’ll all be back to normal and be able to catch up with ourselves once more.

I’m dreading the summer holidays.

Now, I’m sure that I’m not the only parent who views six weeks of “holiday” with more than a little trepidation, but I’ve just had a sneak preview today, as Akra Jr has had a bit of a temperature and stayed off nursery for the day.

So he has been lying on the sofa watching television while I have been running around desperately trying to get chores done in between sibling firefighting.

“MUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUM, Li’l Bhaji just turned the telly off!”

“MUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUM, he’s hitting me!”

“MUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUM, tell him I had it first!”

“MUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUM, he pulled my hair!”

It’s going to be a long summer.

Do you realise, that it’s been over a year since I last bought a pushchair?!! That *HAS* to be remedied, doesn’t it, doesn’t it, huh, huh?!

Getting rid of stuff? Can’t be bothered to Ebay it? Don’t want any money for it but neither do you want it to take up landfill space?

Freecycle it.

London Bombing Quotes post – in the spirit of London not being afraid. My favourite quotes are:

“Speaking on behalf of the people of Essex, we are standing by you the peoples of Londonia in these trying times. Mainly because Suffolk won’t swap places with us.”

“I’d like to congratulate today’s terrorists for achieving nothing but instilling a fierce patriotism back into the British Isles, creating a rather wide-spread rash of Blitz Spirit, and giving me a day off work.
I’m a bit pissed off that you nearly blew up some of my friends, but at the end of the day – you failed. We’re still here, we’re not scared of you.”

It’s the Great British spirit of, “Oh well, fuck it, shall we go the pub?”
[...]We’ve had a tragedy and it’s awful, but we personally can’t do anything about it.
Fancy a pint?
Yeah, alright.

When the news reporter said “Shopkeepers are opening their doors bringing out blankets and cups of tea” I just smiled. It’s like yes. That’s Britain for you. Tea solves everything.
You’re a bit cold?
Tea.
Your boyfriend has just left you?
Tea.
You’ve just been told you’ve got cancer?
Tea.
Coordinated terrorist attack on the transport network bringing the city to a grinding halt?
TEA DAMMIT!
And if it’s really serious, they may bring out the coffee. The Americans have their alert raised to red, we break out the coffee. That’s for situations more serious than this of course. Like another England penalty shoot-out [in soccer].

To quote an old Londoner who lived through the blitz and got caught up in the Canary Wharf explosion: “I’ve been blown up by a better class of bastard than this!”

“They did their worst, and they managed to disrupt our transport network and get fatalities in the low double figures. That happens on a fairly regular basis anyway, you twits. What’s your next trick – a fiendish weather control device which makes it rain on a bank holiday weekend?”

The BBC paused news coverage to show *Eastenders*. That’d be the nationwide fear, terror and panic, then.