Busy times

Well, blogging was fairly difficult this week between all that we were doing and trying to read the new Harry Potter book! Went to the Zoo on Wednesday as already documented (I was not trying to imply that those parents were negligent just that I wasn't!!), then Thursday had Mum and the girls over for some food while Lee was out with his work colleagues. I had such great plans for that night, I was going to do lots of finger food type things and just have that instead of a full meal. It partially worked, I had the chicken wings and the salsa and chilli butter already done so that was just a matter of putting wings in the oven ad warming some bread but that was as far as I got!! No quesadillas, no skins, all because Eoin cried most of the evening. He calmed down for a while but then started again worse than before. At this stage I was getting worried because he never cries like that, it was a different cry to his usual cries and he seemed to be in pain, so I thought I would see if I could get the doctor. Our GP is brilliant, his practice is from his house and he always says if his car is there he is there and to call in. So I did. He checked him over but was a bit concerned that Eoin seemed to be having a lot of discomfort in his tummy so referred us to hospital to be on the safe side. Went in and they did an x-ray and checked him over, x-ray showed nothing but they wanted to keep him there overnight for observation so Eoin and I got to stay there! Yippee!! They gave me a fold up mattress thing to lie on which was pretty uncomfortable but I reckon I managed to get a couple of hours sleep. Eoin slept fine once he calmed down and was full of the joys when he woke, you would never know there had been anything wrong in the first place!!! The reckoned it was just a tummy bug and that he would be as well off at home as in there so home we went and he hasn't had a problem since!!! Thankfully all is well now and he is definitely back to his usual self!

It's a jungle out there!

Yesterday we went to "the jungle" as Conor keeps calling it but really it was the Zoo. While he did enjoy it he is still more entertained by the play areas than the animals but that's kids for you! I did notice some things about him yesterday though, he is getting braver trying to climb fences and stuff he is not supposed to be climbing for one! He was also not too bothered by all the fighting that was going on with the kids queuing for the big slide. Conor chose not to queue but just to wander around where all the other kids were queuing, occassionally stopping to come over to me and laugh. This was while Lee had to go all the way back out of the zoo to the car to get Eoin's bottle which I had left in the boot of the car!!! He was not impressed(Lee or Eoin!).
I had to admire (or pity) the mother who stood underneath the slide trying to get the kids that were jumping the queue to wait their turn while they were skillfully ignoring her even though she was grabbing them by the trouser leg shouting "Excuse Me, Excuse Me!". She was fighing a losing battle when I could see other parents going up with their children and bringing them to the head of the queue in front of the other kids. It is amazing how different parents are, if I caught Conor skipping the queue(not likely as he tended to let any kid that came up behind him go first!) I would make him go back to the back and wait his turn but these parents just didn't care most of them not even keeping an eye on what their children are doing, one kid was even up on the platform crying obviously scared and calling for her mammy and daddy who were sitting on a bench looking at her until finally the father got up with an audible sigh, i mean God how dare she inconvenience him by getting upset!!! Maybe I am an over-protective Mother but better that than negligent!

Lamb surprises!

We got to go for an adult meal last night!!!! And OMG was is good!!!! We went to a french restaurant in Waterford (l'Atmosphere) with Lee's brother and sister-in-law and it was great to have nice adult conversation and good food. The food the food the food, I love good food!! (not to take away from the company which was excellent) I knew it was going to be good when my red pepper soup arrived out and had little lamb surprises in the bottom!!! Instead of bread crutons there were small cubes of lamb in the bottom of the bowl which were absolutely delicious!!! We all had a great meal which was good because Lee and I had been there before and loved it then talked it up and of course when you do that you are always afraid that when you go again with someone else they won't like it. Thankfully I need not have worried. We didn't over do it either so while we were tired today there was no hang-over to worry about. Still didn't get up to too much but at least we were able to cope.

Party season

Party season is finally coming to a close here. June and July are non stop parties for Conor because a lot of his cousins have their birthdays around the same time. Thankfully we have reached the end of it and he attended the last one today. Don't get me wrong I love parties and I really love the independance he is getting going to them, no longer neading Mammy or Daddy around to look after him. I also have no problem going shopping for presents cos I hate to shop(not!). My problem with all these parties is the crap he eats at them and wants after. All he has had nearly every weekend in 2 months is junk food at parties and thinks he can get it when he is at home too. Well he is in for some serious detoxing from here on in!!!!!!! He doesn't really get a lot of sweet things in our house and as a result every time he does it is a big treat, like yesterday I got some Cadbury Moments(formerly tasters - milk chocolate balls) and brought him in one, first he looks at it, grins and says "what is it mammy?", so I told him it was chocolate and the grin got bigger.
A few minutes later he comes out to the kitchen and says "Mammy I am hungry".
"What would you like?" I replied.
"Something small"
"Like what?"
"Like a chocolatey ball" he says with an enormous grin.
Knowing this was coming I had 2 ready to give him, hand them to him and he literally dances out of the kitchen chocolate balls in hand!

Pirate treasure

Yesterday we went to Dunmore East for some food and a wander and it was absolutely lovely. The weather was gorgeous we could have been away in Spain or something!! Unfortunately they couldn't find any pirate treasure on the beach and will need to go back with shovels the next day! A point that Conor did not forget this morning and is already talking about it!!

Eoin was oblivious to it all and was having his own mind game battle with his Lion pram toy...

I'm not sure who won!!!!

Holidays...

Lee is on holidays this week and next which is great and we are all enjoying having him around. The weather is also obliging so far and staying fairly nice!! About the only place that is though, there are reports of flash floods and thunder storms everywhere else in the country. Which is fine but means there is no point going anywhere, we may as well stay where the weather is nice!!!! Conor is enjoying having Lee on his holidays once he realised it meant he was going to be staying at home. He was upset at first when I told him his daddy was going to be on holidays because he wanted to go too!!!
This morning Lee was heading out and asked Conor would he like to go with him, at first he said no but then Lee suggested they go to Tony's (a holiday shop here that has a cafe and games etc) at this Conor literally did a dance for joy around the kitchen and couldn't get his shoes on fast enough!!!! I think he likes it there!?! So they went to Tony's, had a cake and then went on a couple of the amusement rides. Conor is getting more and more brave on those things, before he used to want to go on but as soon as it would start he would want to get off, now he is going on the ones that go up in the air (kiddie chairoplanes but cooler now, flying elephants and helicopters!).
Amazingly I haven't really taken any pictures this week, I was sure I would have the camera out non stop but we are just spending the time going for walks and enjoying having all of us together all day. There will be some before the end of the week though and we are talking about going to the zoo next week so I'm sure we will have some from that too. Will post accordingly.
Of course i also have a projet while Lee is around which is Eoin's room, so far progress is not going too well (all I have managed to do is mask one half of the room), but I will post pictures of the finished room, whenever that will be!!! I have decided on the base colour (baby blue, cliché I know, but cute!) but still having trouble with what I am going to put up on it, I will possibly paint a couple of murals but that requires time and effort so it will depend on how much of either of those I can spare!

Yoghurt

Can I have a yoghurt Mammy?

Yes, do you want to go get a spoon out of the drawer?

No, I will just lick it out with my tongue!

He wasn't kidding!!!!

Boys will be boys

Conor started his day yesterday with a bang - literally! He fell off a high stool in the kitchen hitting the tiles head first! I had turned around to get him a drink, heard a noise and turned back to see him going head first off the stool and walloping it off the floor. It makes me feel sick just thinking about it. A golf ball sized lump formed instantly which of course made things worse for me cos looking at it made me feel even more sick! Iced it straight away and thankfully he doesn't seem to be showing any ill effects from it so far. In his 3 years this is the first big bang he has had and he will have that bruise for a good week or two judging by the size of it. Well he did it in style! I know I should count myself lucky that he is not very accident prone and has managed to get away with just small bumps and bruises. It made me wonder how I would deal with anything serious, I seem to be fine when something is happening and do what needs to be done but kind of fall to pieces afterwards when I think about what happened. Having 2 boys means I will probably have to deal with my fair share of cuts and bruises and all that so I am sure I will become immune to it after a while but right now I feel sick thinking about my poor little boy hitting his head off the ground. If I could wrap him up in bubble wrap to protect him I would but unfortunately that is not an option.
We were coming back from a walk the other evening and saw two boys having a fight on the green near our house. Lee spotted them first and shouted at them to stop because one of them (the bigger one) was giving the other guy quite a beating throwing punches and sitting on top of him. So Lee went over to make sure they broke it up and check the guy underneath was ok - he was but stayed on the ground after Lee walked away so I got in touch with his mother to make sure he was ok. I know a lot of it is boys being boys and I would be dilusional if I thought my two are not going to get into a few fights but hopefully they won't get into too many! Then you get into the whole what do you do when they are in a fight scenario, do you give out to them for fighting or say well done for standing up for themselves. I think I will let Lee have that discussion with them!!
Eoin (dare I say it?) seems to be settling a bit more at night and we are getting some nights where he sleeps till about 6am!!! He didn't do it last night but that was cos he was a bit unsettled during the day yesterday with his teeth so he went to sleep earlier than usual last night without finishing his bottle, but I'll take it whatever way it comes!
The weather here is still crap but had been ok for the last couple of days - we even sat outside to eat dinner yesterday evening!, and while it is raining this morning with no sign of it letting up I am optimistic about it improving, I think the forecast is ok for the weekend. The weather had been getting me down lately and I don't think I could have picked a worse summer to be off on Maternity leave but I just have to make the most of it and enjoy the time with my boys. Lee is on holidays for the next 2 weeks and we are going to get out and do things one way or another!!!
Cheerier post coming soon, I promise!

Time away

I had planned to post about how normal service has been resumed and that I have come out of the dark depressing fog that seems to surround me when I get my period but I am so over that!!! Instead I think I need to moan about how Eoin's teething seems to upset both of us a lot during the day and now Conor has a cold so his nose is like a tap and the nasal drip is causing him to cough a lot keeping all of us awake at night(more us than him, he somehow manages to sleep through most of his coughing). So this morning I am really tired and Eoin would not stop crying let alone go to sleep, it is days like this when I can't wait to go back to work! My opinion on that can change hourly depending on how the boys are behaving! To cheer me up I am going for an adult lunch with friends and leaving the boys with their Granny, it will be nice to have a bit of time away from them on my own and I will appreciate them more afterwards! I definitely think it is important for all parents to get some "me" time away from kids and house otherwise you could just go nuts!!!! (More nuts than I usually am, that is)

Teenagers and teething

At 10 this morning Conor comes into the kitchen and says "Mammy I hungry!" So I go through the usual what do you want to eat? Cereal, toast etc etc all of which received negative responses until finally he points to the press where we keep the sweet things. I told him no it is too early for anything sweet and he could have any of the forementioned options. At this he storms out of the kitchen giving out. About five minutes later he comes back "Mammy I want something to eat", so we started again with similar results but this time he storms out saying "I'm going cos I never get anything to eat!" Of course I started to laugh which did not go down well at all he just got more annoyed! How old is he?? 3 going on 13!!!!! If he is starting the moody teenager now what on earth will he be like when he hits puberty!???!
(I caved about half past on his fourth attempt and gave him a rich tea biscuit.)
On other matters, I am finally back to normal and got my first period in a year yesterday - *Joy*. I forgot just how horrible it can be and combined with sleep deprivation does not make a happy mamma!!! If I could I would curl up in bed with a hot water bottle, 10 gallons of tea and a kilo bar of chocolate but I'm a mum so I cannot be afforded such luxuries!! -Pity.
Eoin has started teething already and looks like he is constantly chewing gum except of course when his fists are shoved in his mouth. Thankfully it is not bothering him at night just during the day but it makes it difficult for him to settle down for a decent sleep, he is just getting 20-30mins at a time before he wakes and starts chewing again. I think Conor is sleeping more than him at the moment getting nearly 13 hours last night while Eoin got 7 straight then 2 more and just cat naps since. Hopefully he will be able to settle down for a decent sleep later today. If he does I can try convince Conor he wants to cuddle on the couch for a while and I can wallow in self pity for a little while! I can only hope!!

The swing set.

It has taken 13 weeks but we finally have the swingset we wanted for Conor put up in the garden. First there was the delay on delivery when we ordered it which took nearly nine weeks to get!!! Then we had to wait for our carpenter to be free to put it up! I know you are probably thinking we are mad to get a carpenter to put up a swing set but as you will see from the picture below it is not that easy! It took the carpenter plus a helper a full day to put it together!!!!!

Can you imagine us trying to put that together! Ha Ha is all I can say!! The instructions were just mental you nearly needed a degree just to figure out what you are supposed to do with the pieces.

Conor and his friends all approved though and braved the July sun to have a go on it anyway - the jackets and hoods are just for show! The slide is a water slide but if the weather keeps up the way it is I don't think they will learn about that this year!!! I really don't think I could have picked a worse summer to be on maternity leave!!!!!!!!!!

Routine

Well, he is just gone 12 weeks old and already Eoin has me in a pretty good routine! So much so that I actually woke up before he started to wake up for his night feed last night. Things are not going too bad on that front, he usually goes down about 9pm and sleeps till about 4am and then goes back until about quarter to seven so I think we are doing fairly ok so far. Every evening I say I will go to bed as soon as he is asleep but it never happens. I find it is the only time in the day when I can actually sit down and relax, try to unwind and maybe even get to talk to my husband! It is also the time to get the bottles washed or ironing done or whatever else needs to be done around the house. So, for the meantime I will just stay tired and hope he will be sleeping through the night soon.

Head melting days

It is so hard to keep up with Conor between the food he wants to eat and his attention span my head gets melted some days!!!!! Of course it always coincides with the days where Eoin refuses to sleep properly and just has little cat naps so I can never get anything done! All part of the joys of parenthood I suppose. Lee asked me at the weekend what do I do with them all day, all I could reply was "not much!". The day tends to go quite quickly with everything that goes on but I did manage to make a jigsaw with Conor today and build his lego hovercraft(thanks girls!) so I think it was a day well spent! All the while trying to keep up with who I am supposed to be pretending to be in Conors world - it changes every few minutes! Over and out from Joey the policeman/fireman/pooh bear/kitty, who am I now?

The Hovercraft with Conor's wing and diving board additions!! Cos every hovercraft needs a diving board!! Strangely it kind of looks like a face, maybe I should have taken the picture from a different angle.

Happy birthday Ian!!!

Happy Birthday Ian!!! Miss you sooo much and wish we could be there with you on your special day!

Uneventful and busy

While it has been a very quiet week it seems to have been very busy. I haven't had a minute to myself during the day between the two boys - mostly wanting food! Eoin is getting too used to falling asleep in our arms and I am dreading getting him out of it but the way he is with his colic sometimes the only way to get him to stop crying is to hold him till he calms down and falls asleep. The problem with that is during the day he wants the same thing and is already having difficulty settling on his own. I know I need to work on this now but it is easier said than done! At the same time I feel poor Conor is losing out because I spend so much time telling him "in a minute" or "once I finish feeding/changing/calming Eoin". Before Eoin was born Conor had our undivided attention and never had to wait for us to do something but now he is having to compromise but I have to say he is doing well. We do get a good bit of moaning and I spend a lot of time explaining that he has to wait etc etc but all in all I think he is doing good as a big brother.

After the wedding last week one of Lee's colleagues that I wouldn't have known very well was commenting on how happy and full of life I was. I thought it was a lovely compliment to get, and yes, I know it was my first real night out in about a year and I definitely let my hair down but I have to say I am really feeling full of life and I am probably the happiest I have been. I was thinking about this yesterday when I passed someone and the usual how are you greetings were exchanged, I replied "Great!" which I really am!! Don't get me wrong I am not some nut job gushing about how wonderful life is but I am just really enjoying things at the moment. Yes I am sleep deprived and can be cranky as a result but overall things are good! I am so different now than how I was after Conor was born, I was very post-natal but never realised it until now really when I see how things should have been. I was so depressed and everything upset me while now I am so much more chilled and easy going which is great for all of us! All we can do is try enjoy each day we are given and hope we can remember it all when we are old and grey!