Ways to make Mommy proud 101

A few nights ago Gareth, James and myself were sitting in the lounge. Gareth watching TV, James playing with his pirate ship and me busy with the laptop, when I sneezed, and James does not even look up from his pirate ship, but says "Bless you Mommy" and carries on playing. No prompting, no nothing. My kid has manners.

Some of my favourite photos....

.... for the last quarter of 2009.

James Day!

The Newborn

The One Year Old

The Two Year Old

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY BABY BOY!

May you have many more. Mommy and Daddy love you lots and lots and without you our lives would not be complete.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

I stole the Stolen.....

I stole this questionaire from Liane, who stole this from Vegemite Wife who stole this from someone else.... but I am going to go with um, sharing is caring?
1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping Paper, unless I run out.
2. Real tree or artificial? I love real tree's but scrooge(Gareth) said that we will have an artificial tree that we bought on clearance when woolworths closed down last year.
3. When do you put up the tree? 12 Days before Christmas
4. When do you take the tree down? 12 Days after Christmas
5. Do you like egg nog? Love it, anyone know a good recipe for it?
6. Favourite gift received as a child? Either the toy piano's that my sister and I each got, or the toy telephones that we got and could phone each other to differant rooms
7. Hardest person to buy for? Gareth, maybe. Not sure, this year was pretty easy
8. Easiest person to buy for? James, I am his mother, I will tell him whats best for him (insert evil laugh here)
9. Nativity scene? Nope
10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Christmas Cards? I actually did them this year and I sent them with Royal Mail. I find e-cards very um, impersonal
11. Worst Christmas gift ever received? Luminous Orange Satin dressing gown from an Ex-boyfriend. Lets just say that orange is not my colour.... he did admit that it was the only colour they had left in the store.... um, there are other stores?
12. Favourite Christmas movie? Any! I love Christmas movies. But if I have to choose a favourite then Love Actually
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Throughout the year. All my pressie shopping was finished in early December.
14. Ever recycled a Christmas present? Don't think so, although I probably should. I am a horder, its bad.
15. Favourite thing to eat at Christmas? Roast lamb/beef and roast potatoes.....mmmmmm.
16. Lights on the tree? You bet, and they must flash!
17. Favourite Christmas song? Santa Clause is coming to town/Jingle Bells.
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? This year we are hosting Christmas, so staying home.
19. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer? I can name some. But I can name all the dwarfs (from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs)
20. Angel on top of the tree or a star? We have a star, Scrooge would not buy me the Angel I wanted.
21. Open the present Christmas Eve or morning? At my Moms house we open the presents at 10pm on Christmas Eve. Its one of the compromises I have had to make in married life. We now wait for Santa to bring the gifts and they get opened on Christmas Morning.
22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? People think that its acceptable to eat Brussel Sprouts. Its not! They make stinky farts and you are a whole lot of people crammed into one place together..... how rude.
23. Favourite ornament, theme, or colour? I am getting one special ornament a year. This year I got a Choo choo train from Selfridges. I think it represents our year perfectly and its my favourite
24. Favourite for Christmas dinner? Roast Lamb/Beef and roast pork with Roast potatoes, lots of mint sauce, and cranberry sauce....yum yum yum.
25. What do you want for Christmas this year? To not wash the dishes?

Some medical advice

James is having his 2 year old check up on Friday with the Health Visitor. The last time that James and I saw our Health Visitor we had a little conversation that went a little like this:

Me: So, what foods should we be avoiding with James?

HV: Anything with nuts

Me: Um, he likes Peanut Butter sandwiches

HV: Ok, thats fine. And he should avoid shellfish

Me: Um, he had scallops for lunch yesterday

HV: And he was fine, ok good. And I wouldn't give him any runny eggs yet.

Me: But he likes eggs and soldiers for breakfast.

HV: Well just don't give him whole nuts

Me: Only an idiot would do that, he would choke.

So Friday should be fun, although I am not sure who might need luck on this appointment James, Me or the Health Visitor.

(My HV is actually really lovely)

Santa Claus is coming to town.

James had a message from Santa tonight. Click here to watch it.

My day

Choo choo train, choo choo train, choo choo train, Bob, car, bus, roary car, bus, choo choo train, Mommy poo, Bob, choo choo train, bottle, tea bottle, car, bus, Daddy, roary car, mieow, mieow, choo choo train, juice, choo choo train, mommy poo, choo choo train, Bob, ice cream, car, roary car, bus, Mommy poo, bottle, tea bottle, choo choo train, car, bus, choo choo train, juice, milk bottle, ice cream, Mommy poo, choo choo train, mieow, mieow, Daddy, Daddy, Pooh Bear, choo choo train, car, bus, roary car, choo choo train, Mommy poo, bottle, tea bottle, choo choo train, Bob, choo choo train........... need I go on?

He can say other words, but these are the words I hear all day! And guess what? I want another one, I do ask myself why?

Skinny Genes

Ok, so this might surprise, but these 2 are both my sisters.... so here is my question. What the hell happened to me? And why did I get all their fat genes? Because seriously, this is my mom -

And now I am going to take my chocolate biscuits, curl up on the couch and sulk......

Finding The One.....

For Christmas this year Gareth is buying me a Winter coat as I have been living in the UK now for 2.5 years and still do not own a winter coat. I needed to know what sort of coat to look for, seen as all the jackets I have been trying on have all made me look like a giant marshmallow. So, I turned to Gok Wan for some advise. And this is the advise that he gave me (well, at least his website did):

Don’t create unnecessary bulk with your coat, and make sure it fits perfectly. Snug fits will show off your figure and make you seem slimmer. Keep the shape simple: A-line that is either mid-thigh or knee-length will look great as it covers your bum and slices those thighs in half.
Avoid obvious pockets on the chest or hips as these will add bulk, and you want single-breasted to slim down that torso. Make sure it fits perfectly on your shoulders, and leave the neckline open to reveal a little chest. It’ll stop you looking top-heavy.
Top Tip: Avoid large shapeless coats; they’ll make you look large and shapeless too. Double-breasted is also very unflattering on a larger-breasted lady.
So this is what I found:

I think it meets all the necessary requirements (although I must admit that I have no idea what double breasted/single breasted means - in terms of a coat that is).

What do you think?

A little moan

I love my son and I love him just the way that he is. In my eyes he is perfect even when he is having an off day or an off moment. Yes, I am aware that he has moments and that they need to be dealt with, I don't think that he is always an Angel and I would not ignore him pouring grape juice over anyone (as I recently read about on a travel forum) or doing anything like that, in fact I am usually very aware of his behaviour and do try and curve unruly behaviour before it can occur, but this is not what my moan about.

My moan is the fact that there are other mom's out there that feel that it is their responsibilty to point out to me how small, or diddy as they put it, James is. Yes, I am aware that James is small for his age. Yes, I am very aware that when I dress him in the morning that most of his clothes are 6-12 months. Yes, I am aware that he only weighs 21 lbs (or 9.6kgs) and that he is 23 months old. Yes, I am aware that he still wears size 4 feet. Yes, I am aware that he is only on the second centile in his red book. And yes, I am aware that he was a big newborn at 8lbs (3.63kgs).

But I am also aware that he is happy and healthy. And I am also aware that the pediatrician thinks that there is nothing wrong with James, she thinks that he was born big and is growing into his natural size. And yes, I am also aware that Gareth is 6ft 1 and only weighs about 159lbs (or 72kgs) and that my sister (who is only about 5ft on a good day in very high heels) only weighs about 99lbs (45kgs) and thats when she is having a fat day and that my grandfather is 6ft something and weighs less than Gareth, so yes, it is in James' genes to be small.

So next time a mom says to me "Your son is so cute, how old is he?" And I say "23 months" and they go "His um, well, um, very diddy, isn't he?", please beware that I am aware and that I can't change it and love him as he is and I would prefer you to focus on your own child and leave mine alone...... because one day I am not going to smile and say "yes, I know", I am instead going to loose it, and then its not going to be such a pretty picture, because trust me I don't loose it often but when I do there is usually the need for health professionals and lots of medication, and really I don't feel like going through that again. And the only reason that I feel that I need to moan about this is not because its been a handful of moms that have commented on this, but its about every second new mother that I meet, so basically I get told this at least 2-3 times a week, times that by 52 weeks in a year for almost 1.5 years and see how you feel.

(*And just for the record - he is advanced in almost every other way)

Gloop

This morning James and I had some messy play and we played with some Cornflour Gloop. It was lots of fun and wonderful to see my little boy who does not like getting his hands dirty getting really messy and having the gloop run threw his fingers while he was giggling.

To make the gloop you need to mix 2 parts cornflour with 1 part water, and thats it. It goes runny and hard at the same time. Sometimes its smooth and sometimes its velvety. I did keep changing the quantity of the water and the cornflour so sometimes it was runny and sometimes it was harder.

If you do want to do this at home make sure you do it on a hard floor and not carpet. I cut open a black bag and put it on the floor then we sat on the black bag and played. James had a big plastic scoop and a second bowl. So, we were sticking our hands in the gloop and transfering the gloop to another container. For cleaning up purposes, it is easier if you let the gloop dry if it does splatter onto the floor as it will go hard and then when you scrape it, it will go powdery. You you try and clean it up while it is still wet it is likely to spread and leave marks.

Three Years Ago Today.......

Pizza Base Recipe

As requested by Jelena, here is the recipe for pizza base that I make:

300g Strong Bread Flour
1 teaspoon Instant Yeast
1 teaspoon Salt
1 tablespoon Olive Oil
200ml Warm Water

1. Put the flour into a large bowl, then stir in the yeast and salt
2. Make a well, pour in the warm water and olive oil and bring together with a wooden spoon until you have a soft, fairly wet dough.
3. Knead dough for +-10 minutes
4. Brush a little Olive Oil on the dough and cover with a tea towel. Put the dough aside for a minimum of one hour (I usually make the dough in the morning to use that evening). Make sure you put it somewhere warm as this helps the dough rise
5. When the dough has risen to at least double its size, you can break off about a fist size and roll it out on a floured surface. Don't forget to brush some olive oil on the base before you put the tomato paste on and don't decorate all the way to the edges, there still needs to be a crust.
6. Bake at 240C/fan 220C/gas mark 8 for 8-10 minutes. I sometimes find that I do need to bake it a little longer, you know that it is ready when you tap the crust and it sounds hollow.

The pan that I use for pizza looks like this. I don't think that it is an absolute necessity, but it is handy. The one I bought was from Asda and was under £2. If you have any questions, just ask.

FAB Pizza

I miss being able to pick up the phone and order a FAB pizza. FAB for those of you that don't live in South Africa means Feta, Avocado Pear and Bacon. Its been 2.5 years since I have been able to just pick up the phone and order one, and if I mention this to a British person they will look at me as if I have 7 heads. Its not an unusual pizza in SA. Although here in the UK you can order sweetcorn and a fried egg on your pizza, now that to me is strange. So, on Friday night we had home made pizza's, and I had Feta, Avo, Bacon, Garlic, Peppadews, Olives and Caramalised Onion. Can I just say Yummy, yummy, yummy! And we let James make his own pizza, he has pineapple, orange peppers and bacon, and then he ate it all. We took photos of James making his pizza, so now we just have to wait until we can upload them.

Update

So our computer has still crashed and I have about 100 photo's on my camera to load. We are using my SIL's computer for now until we buy a new one. So here is an update of everything that we have done since I last posted.

In October we went to Butlins in Skegness. It was lovely. I was a little worried before we went that it was going to be very Chavvy (yes, I am a snob), as the price was really good, but here is my review of Butlins:
Butlins is great if you have kids - the entertainment consists of Bob the Builder, Barney, etc. But the swimming pools and funfair was a lot of fun. The food was ok, it was kind of like eating in a Tesco's Cafe every night, except that there was more choice and maybe slightly better quality. But for £153 for accomodation, entertainment, breakfast and dinner from Monday to Friday for all 3 of us, I really can't complain. We never took as many photo's as I would have liked, but that is because we were too busy having fun. James was sleeping like an Angel and hardly had a tantrum, there was just too much to do. There were Chav's (and Chav children that don't know about taking turns), and there were people there that could be Chav's, but have not allowed themselves to sink that low, and then there were 'normal' people. I did not feel like the place was over run. We had very basic accomodation, just a room and a bathroom, and the bed was very uncomfortable, but we never really expected much. We will consider Butlins for a holiday again, but next time we will upgrade our accomodation.

On our way back we stayed with Gareth's aunt in Liverpool and then on our way back to Bournemouth we stopped at the Land of Lost Content in Cravens Arm in Shropshire for lunch. The food was well priced, but huge and delicious. The museum however, was scary. It was cluttered and full of (crap) contents. And it had scary dolls whose eyes followed you every where, but then we did have lunch with Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe and Michael Jackson all under a Disco ball.

Since we are back I have taken James to both the theatre and to the cinema and he sat through both shows.

We went to the Bournemouth Pier Theatre to watch Chris and Pui from Show Me Show Me, the show was almost 2 hours long, including a 20 minute interval and James sat through the whole show and clapped his hands and sang and danced. It was definately well worth the £6.50 we had to pay.

Yesterday I took James to watch Beverly Hills Chihuahua at the cinema. He loved it. He watched the entire movie. We took advantage of the Odeon Kids movie Club which means we paid £2.50 for both of us to go. Although James did have to sit on my lap at both the theatre and the cinema as they have the pop up seats and James is too light to keep the seats down.

And now I have to run because Gareth is home to study so James and I have to stay out of the house.

The Crash of 2009

Dear Any Readers,

I have not just stopped blogging again after blogging for a week, but our laptop has crashed and therefore I do not have access, except where I steal someone else's computer and seen as I am not in the habit of stealing I don't think that I will be online for a while.

Love,
Janine

Leaves, Clouds and Smiles

What is James pointing at?

Why, his Masterpiece of course!

Yes, he is very proud of himself for running off with the glue.......

And now its time for a rest.

Today's word was 'Leaves'

Today went better than yesterday.... no weather conditions, except for bright and sunny were felt in my house. James learnt to say leaves today. We went to the Woodland Walk this afternoon and must have spent a good 45 minutes throwing leaves in the air and chasing each other. We then took the actual walk, crunching the leaves under our feet (and using it to get rid of the dog poo that James had stood in) and spying on squirrels that were running up trees. We plan on going back tomorrow to collect some leaves and bring them back home to make a picture. Tomorrow's word is going to be clouds (assuming that there will be clouds in the sky - this is England after all), so hopefully tomorrow night I can display a picture made with leaves and cotton wool (clouds).

On the domestic front things went well. I even managed to do 2 loads of washing, and I hung them up to dry - that's impressive for me. Something I did learn today was that when your self esteem is at a low you should not sort of your clothes wardrobes.... um, yeah. I now realise just how much clothing I have, but how little actually fits me......... Its time to get back to those scales.

Full time Stay at Home Mum reporting for Duty....

On Friday at 12:45pm I was called into the office, informed that I no longer had a job, and by 1pm I had packed up my desk, been escorted out of the building and was no longer employed. So now I am a Stay at Home Mum, which means that I now work for loves and kisses instead of pound sterling and my hours are 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. And instead of getting upset about it I am going to live up to the challenge. Gareth and I have agreed to re-evaluate this in the new year and see where we are, but for now I have the most important job in the world. I will have to take care of all James' nutritional needs (dietician and chef), his education (teacher), discipline (police officer) and fix all his boo boo's (nurse).

I also get the job of keeping the house in a tip top condition (cleaner). Now to say that I am um, domesticated, would be true to sense.... Name me a food and I will cook it for, of late, name me a cake and I will bake it for you. What you want your dishes cleaned and your kitchen swept and mopped, not a problem. You need your toilet cleaned, ok no hassles, I know how to do bathrooms too, and how to dust... but I am afraid that is where all my being domestic stops..... ummmmm....... yeah. Gareth has spoilt me since I became pregnant. He has always done all our laundry and I bet if I asked nicely enough he would even do my ironing (if I bought clothes that needed to be ironed of course), and he changes all our bedding and he does all the vacuuming. He is the man to call when you need to oven cleaned or the dirt taken out. What you have a hole in your trousers? I will just ask my husband to sew it up straight after he builds the wall unit. I think I can safely say that by me being spoilt Gareth has learnt alot.... he can even cook a decent tomato bredie or curry if you ask nicely. But seen as I am now home all the time, I have decided that I will need to take on the domestic side of things and that way we can spend more time together doing family things on the weekend.

Today reminded me of how undomesticated I can be..... James was being an angel for me this morning so I took a shower and washed my hair. While I was drying my hair I could hear James in the lounge playing happily, and then it happened! My son walks into my bedroom, looking very pleased with himself and hands me his nappy, inside his nappy was a nice poo. Yes, James had taken off his nappy himself and brought it very proudly to me. So I chase the little monster to clean his bum and to put a clean nappy on it and then carry on drying my hair. I then walk into the lounge and guess what I find? James had smeared his poo all over his bean bag chair! He had taken his nappy off and then sat on his chair! Great stuff. Luckily I remember that the beans can come out of the chair and that it can be machine washed, so I take the bean bag to the kitchen and try to pour the 10 million beans into a refuse bag..... yeah, that did not work so well.... there were white beans everywhere, except in the refuse bag, it looked like it had snowed in my kitchen. James thought this was great fun. So I sweep up all the beans and I take the bean bag to the bedroom where I attempted to put the beans into the mesh washing basket, this works great until the washing basket gets too full and there are still beans in the bean bag. So I try and put the refuse bag over the top of the mesh washing basket, but the damn thing moves and white beans snow everywhere. Great I eventually get all the beans out and into the washing basket, the refuse bag or on the floor. I sweep up as many of the beans as I can using my hands and put them into the refuse bag, and then decide that I need to vacuum up the rest. I fetch the vacuum, great. I attach all the necessary pipes to the correct holes, great. I plug the vacuum cleaner in, great.... but where is the on button? It took me about 5 minutes to find the damn on button!

Next job, I thought that I would wash all the bedding, so I go and fetch the duvet covers off the top of the cupboard and as I am pulling, 2 winter King size duvets and about 6 pillows with all necessary covers and about 6 blankets all come tumbling down on me.... I was standing in an avalanche of bedding.... This was just too much for me, I looked at the bedding and stepped over it, and walked out the room. So, when Gareth got home tonight, I told him about my day and he just seemed to understand. He helped me clear up everything, after he had stopped laughing, of course.

Next step - education. I have an Internet friend - Abby that does the most wonderful things with her son. I am always so envious of her good ideas, but one that I am going to steal from her is her theme's. Every week she does a different theme with her son. They read a book and that book forms the theme of the week and they do all sorts of activities based around that. So, this is where you come in. Please suggest a theme for James and I, please mention the book that you would use too. What was your favourite childhood read? I am going to add to this as well, by saying that I am going to have a word a day for James to learn around that theme as he is picking up words all the time.

Ok, its now midnight and I have had a long day.... and tomorrow I get to try this being domestic thing again, hopefully without snow or avalanches.

Where to start?

Well clearly I am not meant to be a person who updates their blog on a regular basis. Oh well......

James has turned into a monster and discovered the art of throwing a tantrum, great! It just means that I am ready to murder him at any given time, including when he finds it funny to empty out his box of muesli on my kitchen floor and draw pictures in it. I think it is safe to say that the terrible two's are hitting us already, as my child now throws himself on the floor and has a body wriggling, head banging, smacking, kicking, pinching, scratching, biting, screaming tantrum when he can't get his own way or if we are too slow.

Gareth has just finished his second lot of exams today. We are holding thumbs on that. Since April 16 Gareth has been away in Brentwood for work. Luckily he comes home for weekends, and has had some study leave lately, but I really can't wait for this to be over. Being a single parent to a terrible two's toddler sucks.........

And then me, where do I start? Well, as of Monday I have gone onto part time hours at work. Great! I am heavily overweight and have started Weight Watchers (and have started a second blog about that - maybe I will actually update it every now and then .......lol - http://heavysights.blogspot.com/) and I am starting at the gym on Saturday. I have a special 3 month referal programme from my doctor that I need to do. And then my kind of big, kind of probably not so big, but kind of worrying me news. Since July last year my doctor has been running blood tests on me every so often and since the beginning of the year, every couple of weeks. The have found that my CSR(?) and my ALP(?) levels are up. This is a sign of imflamation in the body, particulary the liver. My GP sent me for a scan, but they could not pick up anything, so she has refered me to the Liver Disease Clinic at Bournemouth Hospital so that I can see a specialist. Now I know that I have no reason to be concerned yet and that this is all probably because I am too fat, but when you see your name on a piece of paper and it says liver disease next to it, it kind of freaks you out a little bit, especially when I know that a friend of mine's Dad got told that he had liver cancer and 6 weeks later he was dead.... yes, I am thinking the worst, but wouldn't you? So I am asking anyone out there that reads this, if you can please muster up any vibes, prayers, thoughts or whatever it is that you do, that there is actually nothing wrong with me, and the 20 odd blood tests that my doctor has run are all wrong or that it is nothing serious. Thank you....

Well, I had better go to bed..... have an early start tomorrow. And we are having the first delivery of Organic Veg and Fruit box (and I added some fresh herbs) tomorrow, and I will need to be bright eyed and bushy tailed to think up recipes with low point values to make with my veggies..... oh and I have to have myself and James up and ready by 7am tomorrow morning.......

Sour Lolly Pop?

Gareth has gotten a promotion at work, which is great - its a step in the right direction and its more money. The down side - he has to go to Brentwood (near Basildon) for 2 months, only coming home on weekends and our trip home that we had planned for May has to be postponed until later in the year, probably October or November..... So we have compared it to a sour lolly pop - its a treat, but you need to work through the horrible sour part first to get to the delicios yummy part.... I just hope that the sour edging is not too thick.

Remember us?

So, its been a few months since I last posted.... oh well. Lots has changed, I no longer have a baby, I now have a toddler that tried to walk everywhere. He has had his circumcision and has lived to tell the tale. I have gone back to work, and James has started nursery. We both love it, although I am probably going to be cutting down my hours to part time soon, and only work 2.5 days a week. We have moved house and James is in his own room and sleeps through the night.

And this weekend we will be having another new change.... I have decided that I have breastfed James long enough and Friday night, 20 March 2009 will be his last breastfeed...... now that is a huge change for me.........

And thats us up to date, hopefully I will start posting more soon again.