Ten months on

My last post was in February which makes me A. Guilty B.Thinking how time flies.

I am currently writing this sitting in the dining room of my parents house where we are living, firstly, don't panic, we havn't lost the house, we sold it and bought a new one. This of course will need to lead to the question, if you have bought a new house why aren't you living there? Well, it's because it not actually a new one its 80yrs old and needs a bit of work!

I guess at this point we should rewind a bit, we lived in a little house in Beckenham and we loved it, the area was great, the neighbours were great, everything was in walking distance, but......

Well I guess you knew there was a but coming, simply put, though we knew this wasn't our forever house we knew it'd fit our needs for a couple of years, but then in came time to choose schools, I know it doesn't seem like it, but AG is now 4 (going on 14) and it is time to choose schools and it turns out that the school catchment areas are so small we didn't get a choice!

Well, for us "no option, is not an option" so we have to move, I know it sounds like a big thing to do with so much going on in our lives but thats our crazy life.

Anyway, to cut a long story short we found a lovely old house in Hayes, its not the house we had our eye on but the estate agent showed it too us first and it felt like home.

A quarter way through

Inspired by reading about Robert Llewellyn's empty nest I thought I should give this diary an update.

AG has just had her 5th birthday, and whilst standing in the middle of a draughty church hall surrounded by screaming kids hyped-up on hummus that I am a over a quarter-way through the nurturing part of my journey with her.

wow, that was quick.

My dad will be proud

One of my dad's hero's is Frank Whittle, the pioneer of the modern of jet engine, so I can't wait to tell him AG's latest trick.

Thanks to her brothers love of the book "Amazing Aeroplanes" she now recites from memory the basic principles of their engines and wings!

I am now planning my retirement based of the future income of my little aerospace engineer....

Worrying silence

I was home alone with "Mr T" when I was called away from the kitchen to a call on the computer.

During the call I realised there was what you would call a "worrying silence" I hurried to the kitchen to find he'd taken advantage of the gate I'd left open to try and start the microwave!

This morning, it got worse, I found he'd loaded a bowl of lego into it!

Having a pile of melted danish construction blocks would been bad enough, but he'd also chosen a bowl with a foil rim so would of had his very own firework display too!

Trying out an eighties artform

I'll admit it, I grew up in the eighties and one thing I loved was alternative comedy, and one aspect in particular, the long-form insult.

For those not aware of this craft, and it was created by comedians Rob Newman and David Badiel playing the part of dusty old professor's in a late night TV show called "history today", The two would ramble on until they eventually came to verbal blows using crafted insults that ran over several minutes.

Anyway, it seems the 3 year old has the knack, as the other day she turned to her mother whilst I attentively listened and said "mummy, I don't like my daddy anymore, will you please ask him to go, so you can get me a new daddy", ah bless, and makes you feel proud....

Vampires versus Lions

Halloween is fast approaching and AG is growing her final two teeth, her canines.

The unfortunate downside of these vampiric teeth is that she sank them hard and painfully into mummy's arm and didn't seem the least bit remorsefull, unfortunatly for her, she wasn't prepared for my insticntive response when she went on to do it too me, I roared YOU DON'T BITE DADDY, which scared her and then the poor little thing was then inconsolable repeatedly saying through her tears "I bit daddy".

So now I have a sore arm and the guilt of upseting her, but at least she'll be wary of biting anyone again.

Happy halloween :-[

Managing expectations

As usual bath time can be quite challenge, from persuading her there are inappropriate places on her brother to blow raspberry's to stopping her throwing water and toys out.

The most tiring is the battle over brushing teeth, just getting her to stay in the bathroom and give her teeth a good brushing would break the will of even the most hardened soldier.

I thought I'd cracked it last night however when I made a deal with her that she would get two books read to her if she stayed in the bathroom and did it properly.

From then on the bedtime routine all went rather smoothly but what I didn't realise is she thought the deal was three books, and had a look of shock when I stopped at two and put her to bed.

Once downstairs I could hear the call "daddy? daddy?" so after a while I went upstairs to find not only had she got out of her sleeping bag, she had escaped the bed and was waiting patiently by the door with her chosen third book.

It seems we have a determined negotiator on our hands.