… about playing with a four year old, is that you can cut out paper men holding hands and paper snowflakes and to him they’re still fresh and exciting.

Once he discovers that in reality I have no artistic talent at all, my street cred is going to plummet, isn’t it?

I’ve come to the point, where I can no longer ignore the fact I suffer from hayfever.

I didn’t always have hayfever; although I’m asthmatic, I never had additional allergy problems in the spring or summer and was unaffected by pollen. Then, starting around the age of 20 I would fairly consistently get “colds” for a couple of weeks which never really developed into anything then disappeared suddenly. The last few years I’ve been having really itchy eyes and nose around springtime which conveniently disappears if I take an antihistamine.

It’s not serious full-blown symptoms (I know people get it much much worse) and I’m never quite sure if it’s better just to put up with it rather than taking drugs daily until it goes away again. I do try valiantly to ignore it, but when my nose is about to fall off from rubbing it subconsciously so much and I have the urge to gouge out my eyes, then I figure it’s time to pop the pills.

Despite all this, I tell myself it’s not hayfever, that it’s just some bizarre coincidence. Then I go into the chemist and while waiting for the one-a-day generic antihistamine get handed a “complimentary allergy pack” and get told that they have had all the hayfever suffers pour in this week. It’s probably about time I just admitted to myself that I have another from the family of allergic diseases and just count down the days until eczema strikes to make it a hat-trick…

We are no longer fishless! Finally, we have some new residents in the fish palace, although (as you can tell) I’m yet to get a really decent picture of them. Here they’re still in their polythene bag from the shop, acclimatising to the temperature in our orb (newly boosted – I got a heater so I could go tropical).

They’re white cloud mountain minnows and incredibly pretty. They have little orange tips to their fins and tail – they’re “supposed” to be red, so not sure if this is a variation or they’ll just get darker as they grow bigger. They’re also very nippy and like swimming together in a shoal, so great fun to watch. At the moment, they’re still a bit timid and only sit out in the front of the tank when no-one’s around, otherwise they hide around the back. Hopefully they’ll gain some confidence soon.

Let’s hope they fair better than the last resident, eh? If these do well, in a month I’ll be adding some neon tetras to keep them company. Fingers crossed.

It’s never a good moment, as a parent, when your youngest child is playing out of sight with Granddad and you hear this almighty scream and violent sobs as if something catastrophic had happened.

That moment happened to me this weekend.

I raced up the garden, expecting to find a bee sting, a tooth knocked out, or the very least minor head trauma to discover that the catastrophe was, in fact, Granddad’s model train disappearing through the tunnel where Li’l Bhaji could no longer see it.

*sigh*.

Yes, I am mother to the train obsessed. We took both boys to the Severn Valley Railway (steam trains, for those who haven’t heard of the SVR) on Good Friday and since then Li’l Bhaji’s vocabulary has shrunk to “choo choo train” and “track” and he has barely let go of one of his brother’s toy engines (James from Thomas Tank, if you’re interested) except to sleep and bathe (and both of those under duress). Fortunately for him, he has a very accommodating older brother who (for the moment at least) doesn’t seem to mind one of his favourite toys being appropriated in this manner.

I’ve also discovered, that after a while the jaunty theme to Thomas the Tank Engine really really REALLY eats into your soul after around the 100th playing.

So … three train spotters in the family. I may as well sign up myself. Anyone got an I-Spy book of Trains I could borrow?

Own up – it was you, wasn’t it?!

The son in question is Akra Jr, who went from eating everything at around the age of 2 to eating and trying nothing at the age of 4. I swear he exists on air most days.

Anyway, I noticed tonight that he’d eaten all his lettuce (probably absent mindedly, he normally ignores the stuff).

I said, “oh well done, Akra Jr, you’ve eaten ALL your lettuce, ALL your cucumber and if you eat that last piece of tomato you’ll have eaten ALL your salad!” His response was to cheerfully pop the remaining cherry tomato quarter in his mouth and eat it up quick (he loathes tomato). Just as I was still reeling from the shock, he then picked up his fork and told me, “now I’m going to try more of the pasta” and ate a good few mouthfuls of tuna pasta bake – something he’d never had before tonight, and normally he dislikes anything with a sauce on it, prefering his pasta unsullied.

So there you go. I have a complete stranger in the house. Who took *MY* Akra Jr, eh?

A question for camera buffs: I fancy experimenting with HDR images. Can anyone recommend a good HDR plugin compatible with Paintshop Pro X? Preferably free or reasonably cheap (as long as image quality/ease of use is sufficient).

The stairgates came down yesterday and it’s a very weird feeling.

Li’l Bhaji has been able to safely traverse stairs for quite a while now, they were there more for our own reassurance and convenience by the end (so much nicer to know exactly where he was at any given time). Then we think he worked out how to open the bottom one at least (we never quite worked out whether the catch hadn’t been pushed all the way down, or he’d worked out what the little button was for) so removing them was just a formality.

I never realised how wide our staircase actually was! It’s quite freaky really… I keep walking past and getting this urge to fling myself down them – the stairs seem so … so … NAKED! Plus I can no longer store tat with no home on the side of the stairs pretending it’s about to be put away any day now, as the stairgate isn’t preventing them tumbling down anymore. Bother.

Still, Li’l Bhaji is revelling in his new found freedom. I give Akra Jr a week before he’s fed up of his room being invaded and begs me to put the stairgates up again…

After only 22 years… tangerinecath and I finally got it together to meet up at a secret(ish) location, approximately half way between our two homes.

Although, I have to say, I was starting to wonder whether I was jinxed and our meetup wasn’t to be when yesterday morning Li’l Bhaji decided to tip a cup of hot tea all over himself and we thought we’d be spending our Saturday in A&E instead. Fortunately, after quickly shoving him under a cold shower for 5 minutes, there wasn’t a mark on him and feeling rather humbled we managed to bundle ourselves in a car and get ourselves to the Beefeater in Leicester.

I’m really glad we made it – it was a fantastic day and it certainly didn’t feel like a 22 year gap! Just as well really – where do you start with the catch up? “Well, in 1985 we…”

What was really lovely was how well the children all got on (Akra Jr and Li’l Bhaji were on their best behaviour – miraculously after being stuck indoors all week) with Akra Jr taking Tangerinecath’s little girl under his wing and introducing her to the delights of Wacky Warehouse.

All in all, we’d better not leave it another 22 years…

Okay, I take it all back. The novelty of doing very little is wearing thin, my brain is mush from watching wall to wall children’s television, and I’m getting worn out from having limpet sick child glued to me at all times. I really thought it’d be a 48hr bug thing and then we could just get on with the holiday.

Akra Jr, quite rightly in my opinion, is also fed up and hard done by. The weather has been horrible so he hasn’t been able to play in the garden as an escape from his whiny brother. No friends have invited him over to play (we’re unable to invite anyone to us, as it would be unfair to expose them to Li’l Bhaji’s germs). I’ve been fairly lucky in that he’s happy to go do some sticking/colouring or drag loads of toys out over the floor to occupy himself at the same time as watching crap on telly. (I am going to have SO much trouble weaning them off this television once we get healthy again, I just know it). I’m really looking forward tomorrow, if only so Akra can have the limpet stuck to him for a few hours.

I have so much I need to get done. There’s a friend’s little girl’s birthday next week I need to go and buy a present for, but so far I haven’t been able to leave the house – I should really give up hope on that and order online. Li’l Bhaji has one more day to get better in as we’re supposed to be having lunch with tangerinecath, and as I haven’t seen her in TWENTY TWO years (yes, I feel old), that’s really going to be one cancellation too far.

WHY are we such a sickly family?! We eat healthily, we exercise (when we’re well), we get fresh air every day. Is it just the children under 5 factor?

As you can guess by the sudden lack of updates, the school holidays are upon us once more! And as such my time, energy and motivation to write anything, or actually proceed with any creative endeavor falls by the wayside.

I’m not actually that bothered though, I’ve been having quite a relaxing few days, getting the essential stuff done but effectively chilling. It’s nice that the boys are getting old enough now that they can entertain themselves, so I get to play because I want to and enjoy it more because I know I can let them get on with it while I do something else for a short while. Akra Jr, in particular, has grown up suddenly in this regard – along with being more responsible he has also had a spurt of imagination growth, and not a moment too soon.

The weekend has been a chance to catch up with my side of the family in one of our brief bouts of health. Last night, however, Li’l Bhaji decided that 3 days of health were enough for anyone and decided to spend the night vomiting instead. So today hasn’t been quite the fun relaxation day planned.

Oh well. Maybe we’ll do the healthy thing in May.