Wednesday 20 March 2013

Mother's Day

I had a lovely one this year :)
  Some of my most favourite chocolates, that I keep forgetting exist because they don't sell them in many places, which Rich remembered I like, without prompting ;)
 Two lovely cards from Ethan (left, made at school) and Sam (right, made in nursery at church, with what I suspect to be a fairly large amount of help!)
 A certificate from Ethan that he did at school, and did all the writing himself. Ok, so the date doesn't make a huge amount of sense, but I don't care! He has only recently discovered a desire to read and write and learn, and I love it.
Some lovely flowers chosen by the boys including this pink gerbera, also one of my favourite things.

The two loveliest parts of the day though were at church. First Ethan got up with the primary children to sing. He was first up, and it didn't look like it was going to go well at first when another little boy gave him a shove and a kick and he started to cry. So I started to mouth the words at him with a (slightly maniacal) grin to get him smiling. After a while he recovered and made me cry by belting out the words to 'every star is different'. Then later he and Sam went up together to bring me a flower and held hands very cutely, which is especially lovely when they do it in public ;)

After church I made camp on the couch and was made a delicious dinner and generally spoiled until bedtime!

I am incredibly grateful to the mothers in my life, starting of course with my own. She's a strong woman with incredible faith and a wonderful sense of fun, and I love her dearly.

I'm also grateful for Richard's mum, who brought him up to be a wonderful man, who is the kindest man I have ever known. He is respectful, hard working, and just generally brilliant.

And then there's me. I feel the responsibility heavily with these (soon to be 3) boys. I have to bring them up with love and respect, faith and happiness. They deserve the best, as do their future families. They deserve to turn out like their father. We're trying :)


Update: This blog has now moved to www.undomesticaited.wordpress.com - Hope to see you over there!

Friday 8 March 2013

10 things they don't always tell you about pregnancy

Here's a small list of things you may or may not know about pregnancy. I was going to find some pictures to go with the list, but lets face it, the text is enough :)

1. In the beginning, there was morning sickness. The name is a LIE. You could be a right lucky cow like I was the first two times and barely be affected, or you could be like most normal people (and me this time) and feel absolutely rubbish for about 12 weeks. If you're unlucky it lasts longer. If you're REALLY unlucky, like my sister, you'll throw up around once a day or more, every day until you spawn that sprog.

2. Dog nose. For some reason, mother nature decided the best time to increase your sense of smell to that of a beagle is while you're spending a lot of time hunched over a toilet. Thanks for that. Also not fun, public transport, and sometimes, smells you used to love will turn on you too.

3. If you get a minor illness, like a cough or a cold, there is NOTHING you can take. And then someone suggest paracetamol. *hollow laugh*

4. Relaxin. It's a hormone that relaxes your muscles and stuff in your body. It's to help prepare you for labour and birth, but it also relaxes your digestive muscles, slowing all that down. Hurrah! Constipation! Gas! Bloating!

5. Stomach pains. I have only got these this time around, and was reassured by a friend with 6 children that yes, that's normal. Apparently from baby 3 onwards, round ligament pain (ie a really sore bump) gets much worse. I can attest to this.

6. Sometimes you get hairier. Fortunately I have avoided this one, since my hair is fairly dark and I'm a bit hairy already, I did NOT need this one. Although my sister told me that when she was pregnant with her girls, she felt less hairy.

7. Varicose veins and thread veins. So far I've avoided varicose veins, but have a few thread veins. Nice. And they don't just appear in your legs. They are what can cause hemorrhoids and I was recently told you can also get them in er... other non-public places :S What a fun thought.

8. Kicks and movements are wonderful...most of the time. Then there are the ones where you are literally being kicked in the guts. Or ribs, or cervix and bum. quite yeouchy!

9. You might get SPD. When basically your pelvis starts to get a bit too loose and very very painful. I have avoided this one too so far, thank goodness, but I have had friends on crutches and one in a wheelchair with it.

10.  Skin irritation and itches. This one has not avoided me, but has actually resulted in a funny story.

Apparently, I get to this point of pregnancy (27 weeks woohoo!) and I start shunning clothes. Rich assures me it happened with both Sam and Ethan too, but I have no real recollection of it until much later, like, pre-labour later. So during the day this is fine, my conscious mind is rational enough to remind me that it's not ok to be naked. And it's cold. So while I'm spending more time in loose jammies than is really acceptable, it's not that big of a deal. Night time is a different story. I go to bed in pyjamas. I wake up... less in pyjamas. Again, no big deal. No one's going to see who's not married to me. Except unconscious brain is not so good at the undressing. The last few nights have been funny at the 3am wake up to pee (number 11! though everyone knows that one). One night, I woke up with my top wrapped around my neck. Another night, my top was still on, but my bottoms were round my knees. Not helpful when you jump up to to go to the loo!

And now, a small update on this pregnancy. So as I said, 27 weeks! Boy Brown III is kicking away merrily. He's apparently about 37cm long, and can open and close his eyes. Physically I am approaching ok, though I still have a hideous cold and cough (number 3, joy) Mentally I am feeling shattered, but luckily not too tired physically. I am getting a bit tired of being pregnant though. Not too much longer to go I guess, and we've got Easter and a weekend away to look forward to in between now and the fun that will be actually having the baby. Only 13-15 weeks to go though :)


Update: This blog has now moved to www.undomesticaited.wordpress.com - Hope to see you over there!



Thursday 7 March 2013

World Book Day

Today was World Book Day, and Ethan got to dress up as a character. He decided on Harry Potter (with a teeny nudge from me away from Batman and Thor) and we got him the costume. Sewing was not on the agenda this year, as I am still not firing on all cylinders. He looked so cute, and was so excited to do magic. "I made that car stop!" and "I waved my wand and the door opened!" and "Expelli-larmus!" Were the cries of the day. He got his scar drawn on, and decided it wasn't right, and we re-did it, and off he went to school.

It couldn't have come in a better week. Since starting school in September I have tried to get Ethan excited about reading. It wasn't going well, though in his defence, some of those early books are ridiculously dull. I was (prematurely) beginning to worry that he was going to be someone who didn't enjoy reading. While that may be fine and normal for many people, it is the one thing about Rich that I really cannot fathom.

How can you not enjoy reading? I could literally read my life away, given sufficient books. Luckily for my family I have not been provided with said books, though the ones I do have make a dent ;)

Anyway, back to this week. On Monday we still had last weeks books, one about a princess and a dragon and one about packing for a holiday (like I said, riveting stuff.) and we got them out. And oh. He read about the princess. And sounded out words by himself. And WANTED to do it! We were happy! On Tuesdays he gets new books. It happened again! Something must have just clicked and he read. No, they are not taxing books, but he read them. He figured them out by himself, and then read them to Rich when he got home from work. Then he did something that surprised me, and began really using intonation and making the question should like a question, and the pop! sound right.

And that was when I thought, this boy can get it. He can know how much fun it is to read. To disappear into the other world that is in a book. And I'm so excited for him, I might have got a tiny bit emotional. But that's allowed, because I'm pregnant ;)


Update: This blog has now moved to www.undomesticaited.wordpress.com - Hope to see you over there!




Friday 1 March 2013

Ugh.

Ill. It's so much fun. We've had a full week now of family illness. It started on Friday afternoon when  I was hit with a migraine. I laid on the couch with cushions on my head and begged the boys to play quietly, and Rich hurried home as soon as he could and sent me to bed. All fine, except a few hours later, I woke up to the sound of Rich throwing up. That night was spent pleasantly, with both of us in and out of the bathroom. Like I said, fun.

The next day we were ok, if totally exhausted. Then Saturday night rolled around, I got what he'd had, and I had the added bonus of an already exhausted starting point. At least he got some rest though. Sunday, we skipped church out of exhaustion and not wanting to spread it about. I spent the day on the couch making the sounds of the dying (I'm not good when I'm sick, I tend to go a bit pathetic. I was however proud of myself this time, I managed to be sick without bursting into tears and needing support at the head-in-toilet position.) and Ethan started saying he didn't feel good either.

He got it next, though luckily it was quite mild for him. He stayed off school on Monday and was much better. I took a couple more days to feel up to scratch again, what with the whole growing another person thing.

Sam, the lucky little monkey, has avoided it altogether, but now has a stinking cold, along with me and Ethan. Do you know what's especially great about being pregnant with a cold? NOTHING. There is nothing you can take. Paracetamol is the limit. I am fed up, I have been ill for a week now with various germs and ailments. I have decided to self medicate with old episodes of Friends and this:

I think it's a good choice :)

Update: This blog has now moved to www.undomesticaited.wordpress.com - Hope to see you over there!