Christmas 2008

Christmas for a 3 year old must be one of the most magical events of the year - easily better than a birthday. I mean you get loads of presents, loads of cake and chocolate, loads of attention, loads os going out to see cool Xmassy things, and there's Santa and panto and carols and zillions of other things to keep an active child wild with excitement. We think Dylan enjoyed his Xmas too with his constant cheeky grin and excited state of being.
Christmas is also a time for sharing, and what better present to share than that of chicken pox passed from brother to sister. Yes, as drove home after spending 3 fun filled days at the MacCallums, Aimee complained of an itchy stomach and feeling a bit unwell. When we got home and checked her tummy sure enough, the tell-tale mini-spots were all over her torso, exactly the same as appeared on dylan two weeks previous. Ha well, another New Year spent indoors - no different to any other year I guess.

A small Christmas surprise

Spotty Boy

They say chickenpox is mild in babies, but poor Dylan is covered head to toe in volcanic pox.

Most have scabbed over and dried up now and I can;t see any new ones, so hopefully he is over

the worst. Not a nice thing, but ultimately harmless. Mind you, it is interesting how many countries offer vaccination for chickenpox. In Germany it is an option, but in the USA I believe it is compulsorary before primary school. what are they afraid of eh? It's not like it's contagious is it? Oh.

Lurgy

Uh-oh, poor Dylan has the dreaded chicken pox.

It spread like wildfire at nursery. I think every kid in the baby room has it.

But Aimee appears so far symptomless.

The silver lining is that at least it will affect him over Xmas, which, in our selfish eyes,

means less time off work to look after him since chicken pox requires quarantine from

nursery.

Weird me watching you watching me videos

Dylan watches Oscar watching Dylan

Let's all clap hands with Oscar!

I'd like to say Hello!

Aimee's first written word. Very apt I think. You can just see the bit of the robot I drew along the top left corner and I wrote the word 'hello' above it (out of sight here), but Aimee copied it exactly, minus the 'h' for some reason. Oh and she drew the three-eyed smiley face next to it too. All the arty drawing presents she got for her birthday have really helped her refine her drawing skills, plus whatever they do at nursery she seems to be really learning quickly. Even Dylan wants to draw now, but the temptation to eat whatever pen or crayon he is given is still too strong and it all ends in tears as I end up confiscating said item. Soon my little man, soon.

Dylan headbanger

Sometimes you can only look on and wonder what goes through a small child's head.

In this case we know, it is a metal tray. sigh.

Birthday Girl

Wow, it was the society event of the year - Aimee's 3rd birthday party. All the food was made, balloons blown, banners hung up, and finally the guests arrived in their stretch limos (well, daddy's car) dressed in their bestest party frocks and the whole bash turned out to be an excellent and fun afternoon for kids and adults. Happy birthday Aimee!

Dylan is one

Hard to believe a whole year has passed already.

We celebrated with cakes, biscuits, jam, jelly and lots of

more cakes. Awesome!

Happy Halloween

Aimee as a little pumpkin. Despite the gloomy face, she did actually love being
a Halloween pumpkin this morning. My accuracy and artistic skills are slightly less
than full at such an early hour in the morning (6am). But I did my best and Aimee
was bursting with excitement at the prospect of everyone at nursery seeing her
facepaint.

Being a Mum

Monday was my very first day all alone looking after the kids for the entire day. Yes, I know it is unbeleivable but with Cat starting work and me with a more flexible working arrangement, I have opted to look after the kids on Mondays until they begin nursery for five days a week next year.
It is not an easy task for the amateur like me so I planned the day to be very active to avoid midday slumps, whingeing and me getting too stressed. So the day began with a trip to the leisure centre for some softplay fun. Dylan loved it and was hard to chase after. Aimee just loves one thing and that is the slanted foam structure that acts as a slide. She really goes for it there. After softplay, we lunched at the cafetaria and then went home to be met by the Homestart assistant Anne. Homestart is a charity that offers volunteers to come round to families with young kids and offers emotional support and a person to just help play with the kids while you take a break. It is a lifeline that Cat very much needed when she was going through a tough period and I guess we just carried on with the scheme. But I suspect our needs are no longer as valid as other families anymore so it is a relationship that may soon come to an end.
With dylan sleeping most of the afternoon, I could take time to paint Aimee's face as you can see.
Finally, dinner and bath, then Mum comes home to kiss the kids goodnight. The day was a complete reversal of how we were when I was working and Cat was home on maternity leave. I felt very motherly all day!
And the good thing I realised at the end was that I did not need to use the TV as a distraction all day.

Fetch

On a dreary Sunday afternoon, the women of the house were off partying so father and son are at home doing what men all over the world do - play ball:

Drawing Skillz

Call me biased but I think Aimee's art output is astonishing for her age. Granted, my pool of knowledge about how good nearly-three-year-olds are supposed to be is limited, but from what I've seen hanging up in her nursery and what they show on the segments in TV, I think this is seriously advanced.

When I was a youth, I was very good at drawing. But I used my powers for bad (getting caught graffitting walls, drawing teachers without clothes on to get cheap laughs...then getting caught, drawing caricatures of the bullies at school, then getting beat up - you see the theme here) I hope Aimee can use her powers to enlighten and entertain. We'll see. In the meantime, here is her most recent output, all drawn without any assistance or copying, on a little notepad in October, cue Tony Hart music...

Having a houseby

Buying a new house and having a baby share many similarities. You conceive the idea, you go through 9 months of waiting and waiting at which stage the whole thing could fall through at the drop of a hat, but then comes to big day, which is painful but exhilarating. However, it is only the start of your problems as you settle in and come to terms with a new lifestyle. Over the years, your new home/baby will grow and become part of you, will have good times, and bad times, will drain you of money, but reward you with happiness. Yup, many similarities. I only say this because ONE year ago today, we moved into our new home and Dylan will soon be one years old (next month). And let’s not forget Aimee will be 3 in November too.
Already we are thinking of how to celebrate. By now, we’ve been to more kids parties than have had sleepful nights, so the pressure is on to do something BIG. But I guess we may end up keeping it a small family affair.
Nursery news. Looks like Aimee has got over her phobia of the nursery and can be dropped off without a fuss now. However she has become fixated on just the one nursery carer who she follows around all day. If this girl ever has a day off or leaves, Aimee will be distraught. Dylan seems upset whenever we hand him over at nursery, but he quickly settles in his baby room – demolishing and bashing everything he can. Bless.

Dreams

Dreams are boring. I mean there is nothing more mind numbingly dull than listening to someone else prattle on about what happened in their dream. So here´s my dream from last night: I´m playing with Aimee outdoors. It is busy. A high street maybe, or a beach. Then she disappears. I´m searching, I can´t find her, I panic. The swell of emotion makes me wake up in a cold sweat. But I hear Aimee laughing in bedroom next doors. Phew. It was just a dream. Here´s Cat´s dream: It is 2am. Cat can hear Dylan struggling in bed next to her. She thinks I am holding him but that I have fallen asleep and about to drop him. So Cat half wakes up in a panic and lunges into me trying to `catch´ Dylan. Only, Dylan is safely asleep and so was I, until I get clawed or half punched by Cat. I mumble something in my half sleep/half unconcious state, then she goes back to sleep and we wake up next morning, bleary eyed but giggling at the silliness of it all. I´m sure I have read that weird dreams and sleep paralysis hallucinations are common to parents of young kids. Maybe it is the lack of sleep, or the constant worry you have generally. So what do these dreams mean? Who knows? But the last thing I want to do is bleat on about them to everyone else. Oh, I already have.