29 Again!

Ok, well today is my 31st birthday and I have had a lovely day! As you may have noticed I tend to be a bit on the emotional side and have a tendency to cry on birthdays but not this year!!
I decided not to go out for a meal but instead last night we took a visit to Chez Mac's which turned out to be wonderful, we had deep fried brie to start, char grilled Fillet steak for main and apple and toffee cake for dessert, a lovely bottle of wine and it all came in under €35. A bit of a difference from our last meal out which came to about €120!! We both thoroughly enjoyed the night and there was no rushing around getting the boys ready or stressing about whether they were ok, we just waited till they were asleep to get started and were sitting down eating out starter by twenty to nine.
Conor has had 3 weeks in Big School now and is settling in well. He does have a little moan in the mornings about not wanting to go to school but once he gets there he is fine. I think he is enjoying it but it is hard to know as he doesn't tell us much. When I asked him the other day to tell me what he did in school he replied "Can I just tell you some cos it's really long?"
Eoin has decided he likes to wake at about 6am now which is just peachy!!! How well he decides that when the mornings are darker and the weather colder!! I think I am just going to have to adjust to it and start getting up earlier because he is having none of going back to sleep for a while! Which is why I am about to go to bed and try get a good night sleep!

Back to reality

Well we have had a lovely couple of weeks off and been able to spend some quality time with the boys. The time hasn't gone too quickly which is good because I often find when you are off and enjoying yourself the time flies! It has been so nice to be here for the boys but I think Eoin will have some serious issues with me leaving him in the morning!! He has become very clingy over these last couple of weeks and he was even worse after they stayed in my mums when we went to a wedding last Thursday.
This time off does make me sad that I have to work all the time - even though it is only part time. It would be lovely to be here for them all the time and now we are looking into sending Eoin to a creche a couple of days a week which I hate the thought of and would much prefer him to be able to stay at home with me until he is ready for playschool but unfortunately it is not to be at the moment. Who know maybe it will happen!
Now that we have started into the colder weather (not that it really got any warmer through the summer) the worry had set in for Conor and his chest and tonsils and Eoin with his Ears. I was saying to Lee that if I was to take parental leave I would take it in the winter so I would be off when the boys are sick - touch wood we wont have too many infections this winter.

His First Day!!!!

Well the day has finally arrived when Conor starts "Big School" and all in all I have to say it went well. Amazingly I didn't shed any tears - although there was one moment of weakess when my maternal instinct kicked in while talking to his teacher(OMG he has a teacher!) when I could feel myself welling up and I had to stop myself but apart from that I held my composure well. Conor was nonplussed by it all and I think he was wondering why I was hanging around!! When we collected him he said he liked it there so that seems to be positive. I really hope he does enjoy it and is one of those kids that runs in to school every morning and hardly looks back - I can only hope.

Anyway here he is in his uniform...

Yes that is Eoin beside him and yes he is only 17 months!

I know it is one of those days that can be very hard for parents and children but some mothers just need to let go!!!!! There was one woman who did not want to go and not because her child was upset but because she was upset!

Tired now, have had half a bottle of prosecco - my new favourite, and I am just about ready for bed. I don't know about Conor but I feel drained from the day!

School and going out

Wow, I hadn't realised how long it has been since I blogged! Time has really flown! Things have been busy in the Mac house as Conor starts "Big School" tomorrow!
Now, I know I am an emotional person at the best of times so I am not expecting to be able to keep myself from crying tomorrow but today I am so anxious and worried about how he will get on. Is he really ready? Will he make new friends? Will he get upset? etc etc. I'm sure it is normal for mothers to feel like this, but I just find it so hard to concentrate today! I think Conor is only pretend excited cos he told me this morning he didn't want to go. Probably a side effect of Lee and I having been off all week so lots of spending time together and playing and I'm sure he will miss it next week (or at least I hope so or we are doing something wrong!).
I still have to label and cover his books today so I better get organised soon.
What have we been up to...
Well, we have done up Conor's room Transformers style. He decided that is what he wanted so we got wall stickers and bedding and curtains(which still have to be lined and put up!) My sister painted a flame on one wall like the flames on Optimus prime and her and I have drawn a big rig on aother wall which I still have to paint but it is a work in progress (probably eternally).
We tried to go out last night but kids know when you want to go anywhere, and we were about ten yards from the pub when my sister (the babysitter) rang to say Eoin had just got sick all over himself and the cot so we promptly turned around and headed back home. So we sat on the couch and had a drink and I was practically asleep by 11 o'clock! Some mad night we had!!!

Where to begin?

Ok, well, I have started this post about ten times in my head, each one different but all amounting to the same thing. I haven't blogged in yonks(technical term!) and feel bad for not keeping you up to date on what has been going on in Rambling Joey's world.

So I guess I am apologising? Maybe?

I am warning you though, this one is going to be very random and will jump as my train of thought does so be prepared...

So where to start...... things have been fairly busy lately, we had the event of the century a couple of weeks ago when Conor turned 4!!! It felt like it was never going to happen and has been all he has talked about for a good 2 months at least!!! The best part of it was on the morning of his birthday when we gave him his present and he is standing in the kitchen, he suddenly realised and just exclaimed "I'm Four!!". Since then we have had several reasoning's for his ability to do things which of course is because he is now four and he wouldn't have been able to do that when he was three. (All very serious of course)

I have a new Nephew (yes another boy in the mac clan!) Aaron, who is absolutely gorgeous and I am very honoured to be his Godmother. He was christened last week and I think he thoroughly enjoyed the occasion - at least I know I did, and his parents, and his uncles and aunties etc etc. There may have been a few sore heads the following day though! Not one of my better ideas was organising Conor's birthday party for the day after a night out but I put on my game face and kept smiling till everyone was gone home and the boys were in bed when I unceremoniously collapsed on the couch until Lee nudged me to stop snoring and go to bed!!!

Eoin (aka nut case) has taken to walking (finally) like a fish to water. So much so that he is running already and has only been up on his feet 4 weeks. He is quite stealthy too for a toddler, he sneaks up behind me causing many a panicked moment as I nearly knock him down when I move or go to turn. Or I just jump when he puts his grubby hand on my leg. I think I will develop a removable leg patch for my pants, no matter what Eoin had to eat, if he is on the move when eating, it ends up on my pants. He just can't seem to resist grabbing me mid thigh with sticky/chocolaty/wet/milky/banana/yoghurty hands!!! Anyway, as I was saying, I think I should get him a bell or something so I know he is coming.

I am still losing weight!! So far (since I got back to pre-Eoin pregnancy weight) I have lost 21lbs (sounds so much more impressive than a stone and a half!) and still working on it. Lee is also doing fantastic and has lost the guts of 2 stone in the same period of time. It is very gradual which is best I think because our eating habits are changing making it easier to maintain the weight loss once we reach our goals - I sound like an ad for some diet program!!

I think we are looking good though!

It is not rocket science either, the main thing we have done which was huge for us was to cut out bread from our diets which for the first week or two left us wondering what on earth we were going to eat instead but once we adjusted it got easier. I still crave bread from time to time but I don't deny myself it if I do really crave it I will just be more careful with the other choices I make that day. I find the every day choices is what makes a difference, not the bigger things. I am cooking healthier too using spray oil instead of olive oil and making sure I use lean meat and bulking up on veg. Our staple had become pasta with a tomato and vegetable sauce I make which we both love anyway but before we might have had some garlic bread with it and now we just have the pasta cutting out quite a few calories not to mention the bloated feeling you get from eating white bread!

Our summer this year is nearly as good as last years which makes me feel quite happy because last year when I was on maternity leave we had possibly the worst summer ever with non stop rain and wind and it is the same this summer but if it had been really nice all summer I would be so depressed about how unlucky I had been.

Apologies if a lot of this doesn't make much sense it does in my head but not sure how well it translates!

Speaking of translating, when we were in Portugal I became a bit addicted to their Chicken Piri-Piri, which if you have ever tried will know it is flame grilled or barbecued chicken with this piri piri sauce or oil brushed over it after cooking. Really tasty really spicy (surprise surprise!) and I bought a bunch of bottles of the sauce to bring home thinking this was great I will be able to give it a go myself and enjoy it all over again but unfortunately it was not to be. The sauce is really hot straight out of the bottle if you dip something into it or that but when I put it on chicken after cooking it just loses the heat somehow. I know you can get different brands of piri piri marinades and sauces here so I might try a few of those to see if any of them can get it right but I was so disappointed at how it just didn't translate!

I am a bit apprehensive about Conor starting school in September, I know he is well able but I just can't believe I am at that stage already! I was looking at school uniforms the other day!!!! He even has a booklist. I think I could do with a personal organiser but one I could talk into instead of type because if I have time to type it in I have time to remember to do something!!! Then again my biggest problem at the moment is time organisation. I remember most things but at the wrong time so when I should be remembering it I don't and then berate myself later when I remember it again and realise I never did something - like still not send the parcel for Australia which I have had sitting there since February!!! That is procrastination at it's finest!!! On the up side I just keep adding in the cards for the next birthday or event that is happening over there and eventually they will get it all in one big bundle (maybe). Worst case scenario I will bring it with me when we go to see them in the US next year! but that really would be the worst case scenario, I mean, how bad an auntie am I!??!! That's it I have shamed myself into it that is being posted this week come hell or high water!!!

Conor is going to Summer camp starting tomorrow for the rest of the Summer - which basically means he will be going to the playschool he usually goes to but for 5 days instead of 3 and will just be playing instead of ...well ... um ... playing! We have to get him all excited about it though and make him see it not as school but as camp!!! There is a very big difference ........... really!!! In contradiction to my earlier statement I do hope the weather improved because there is only so much "fun" that can be had when stuck indoors with a bunch of 4-11 year olds!!

The playschool year finished up the day after Conor's birthday and they had a "graduation" ceremony in the school so all the parents were invited along. The kids were hilarious, none of them knew what was going on but had practiced what they were supposed to do with the girls there so there was a mixture of some stopping to pose for cameras en route to collect their certificate and others who were too shy to go up in front of every one. After their presentation all the kids got up and sang some songs and I was fine until they started to sing the goodbye song from Bear in the big blue house when I found myself welling up a bit at the thought of them moving on to "Big school". If I was like that in playschool imagine what I am going to be like when he is starting school properly in September!! Aaahh!!

School

My computer has been acting up a bit lately so every time I sit down to try write a post it crashes and I spend the next hour trying to figuire out what caused the problem and never get around to posting! So, apologies for the lack of anything here!

Conor and I went to the primary school he will be going to in September today fo a bit of an induction. He got to go around all the classrooms and see where he might be sitting etc. It's all a bit mad to think he will be starting school in September!!!

I have just been kicked off the computer so Conor can play Ben 10 games!!!!!!

Still number one!

I was getting worried, Conor has had an imaginary girlfriend for a while now and does comment on how prettysome girls are and all that but he told me the other day that when he is big he is going to marry me!! Phew! I am still number one in his books!