Remember how I've had a really stressy, knackering week with Alex being sick? Remember how much I was looking forward to a relaxing, sleep-filled weekend?

Yeah... doesn't really happen when you've got kids.

Was having a nice Friday night - a bit of wine, a bit of Afterlife - had just fed Alex at about 11.30 and managed to put him down awake & was feeling all smug about it and starting to think about bed at midnight when I heard a really loud, repetitive, barking cough from upstairs. 'Poor Alex', I thought, 'that cough's no better'. Only, after 30 seconds or so I realised it wasn't Alex, it was Vi. When I got to her room she was crying & struggling to breathe. a 999 call later, the paramedics arrived, diagnosed Croup and took me and her to the nearest Hospital with a proper A&E - in Ashford, 40 mins drive away. She was able to breathe better by that point but still very uncomfortable. Long & short of it, she was given steroids at half 1 which soon made her feel better but we still needed to wait for one of the handful of Doctors in the packed A&E (BTW - hey, drunks! That's some nice straining of NHS Resources you're doing there! I really like the way your self-inflicted maladies take space and medical attention away from those who are genuinely sick or badly hurt - please, keep that up!) to check her over and sign us out & that didn't happen til nearly 3.30. And after that I needed to call Hubs to sling Alex in the car & drive all the way over and pick us up. Got to bed at 5. I'm not too bad after sleeping til noon and Hubs is surprisingly chipper, but poor Vi is exhausted. Bah.

Anyway, thanks to Albino Cavewoman for sending me this last night. Really cheered me up. 'Warp me to Halifax!'

We found the car keys!

Unfortunately, I found them about 10 mins after the locksmith had arrived. Vi had hidden them right at the back of the playpen and then had denied all knowledge. *Sigh*.

Oh, and Alex has started teething (yes, already!) and currently can't go for more than about 4 hours without crying for a feed, so I'm getting him up at 10.30 for a feed, then getting up for him again between 2 and 3, then Hubs sees to him at between 6 and 7. Tiring.

I may have just been brilliant in the chapter of Rollercoaster I'm currently writing, or may have jumped the ficcy shark a little. Hard to tell. I'm fairly certain I've just written an action sequence that's physically impossible, but it was too spectacular not to. Hey-ho.

And La Reynolds was in Casualty again on Sat! Was just channel hopping and there he was! He was playing a Paramedic this time so I was concerned he was coming on as a regular. Alas though, it turned out he was a thieving scumbelina and got sacked before the episode was through. Oh well, at least that means I don't have to watch Casualty every week now.

ME: I love you, Vi-Vi.
VI: I love Gene Kelly.

*Sigh*.

Went to Farming World *again* today - with lady next door and her Granddaughter this time, as well as Hubs & a very well behaved Alex. Vi & the granddaughter (let's call her E, for the sake of her privacy) get along like a house on fire, and they played together beautifully for hours on end. Vi is starting to act like a proper little girl around her peers & was holding hands, chatting and laughing with E, sitting together and sharing their chips at lunch and playing pirates on a little boat. Beyond adorable. Luckily, it was really sunny today too, and we've all gone a little bit pink this evening.

Nice to be able to go out all day as a family. Can't wait til Alex is old enough to start actually enjoying stuff like this, too.

Poor Vi still isn't well. No more sicking so far, and no squits, but a fluctuating temperature, grumpiness and sleepiness, plus she's off food and now off drink as well. Really hope this is short-lived and doesn't pass on to Alex. At the moment we're keeping Alex in a different room to Vi, but it's quite hard when he needs something and she's still very clingy to be there for both of them, seperately.

Plus Vi's such a skinny thing that she always worries me when she gets a tummy bug and loses yet more weight.

*Sigh*

Vi had her first train ride today! She bloody loved it! We had another Playgroup Excursion to this park not far from Dover - it had been rescheduled from a fortnight ago when it had been raining, which was great because it's been a glorious day today. Vi had loads of fun, played with her little friend Henry (chased him around a lot shouting 'Henry, come back!'), kicked balls, climbed on climbing frames, covered me in chocolate icecream while remaining immaculate herself somehow - the lot.

One minor point, I'll have to create a virtual memo to myself that while my pride in many of my friends writing and publishing both online and in paper Gay Erotica is a fun addition to many discussions about literature, mentioning it to a group of mums from a Church Playgroup in the presence of their tots might not be a great idea. There was Tumbleweed Moment, and the conversation moved on. Hopefully they'll forget about that one or attribute the faux-pas to somebody else.

Great toddler conversation from today:

Little Boy to Vi: You're a Bashy-Bashy!
Vi: Not Bashy-Bashy; Vi-Vi. I'm a little girl.
Little Boy: I'm a boy. I've got a winkie!
Vi: I've got a winkie!

Also, while colouring in and waiting for her dinner, Vi picked up the calculator, held it to her ear as t'were a mobile phone and said:

Hello, Nana. (*pause*) Playing. I'm drawing Igglepiggle. (*pause*) Mummy's pretty, Daddy's pretty, Vi-Vi's pretty. (*pause*) OK. Bye-bye.

That kid. Cuter than a kitten full of baby rabbits.

Nobody tell Friend Claire, but she's getting a massive box of Vi's 12-24 month clothes as her welcome-to-mummyhood prezzie! Tried to include plenty of basics as well as the pretty-pretty. Got all nostalgic packing it up. Alas, couldn't find the Monsoon Summer Trousers or purple hat o'cutery. Hey ho.

Vi's in a bit of a rotten mood today, *but* so far she hasn't complained that her teeth hurt at all - first time she's gone this long without needing Calpol since she bashed them in.

Vi is slowly getting better, and as her puffy lip goes down her mouth doesn't look *too* bad any more. She's eaten loads so far today, which is good.

plus, my friend Claire has had her baby - I wanted to beat her, or least have a Father of The Bride 2 situation where we ended up having our sprogs on the same day. But it's great news for her, and she got a girl, which was what she'd hoped for.

Plus plus I am now Celebrity Endorsed on Twitter! David Schneider recommended me for Follow Friday - I'm well chuffed! I feel like I should have a badge made up.

We've had the InLaws over today and all went out for a day trip to Farming World. Me & Vi went before, with Playgroup, but because there were more people to run around with Vi we were able to stay out much longer today. So. Much. Fun.

The B-i-L is currently obsessed with goats and spent ages cooing over various different breeds. Vi really liked the piglets, the rabbits, the shire horses and the shetland ponies. She's spent most of the rest of the day telling us that she fed the rabbit some grass and that one of the horses was lying down. She also loved the various climbing frames and spent well over an hour on them - much easier for me to sit on the grass and watch someone else scampering after her on them than to try to haul myself up there with her. Oh, and she loved my ice cream too - so much so that I had to abandon it and buy myself another, even though we'd got her a perfectly good Mini Milk.

She now has an adorable pink line over her cheeks and nose where she caught the sun.

It knackered me well out, though. I had to have a nap this afternoon.

I have been in need of cheering today. Due to irritable legs (ah, Pregnancy, never change) I took some time to get to sleep last night, and then Vi was up very early and has been, while generally in a better mood than lately, still quite temperamental. Plus I still have a bit of a cold and a very hoarse voice - not made any better by having to repeat phrases like 'come on', 'don't do that', 'hold my hand', 'eat your lunch' and so on ad infinitum. Oh, and Vi decided she wanted to watch Big Cook Little Cook while having breakfast today, which just sealed my bad mood. They are the shittest people on telly. And that includes Horne & Corden.

Anyway, what ended up cheering me was the discovery that Vi enjoys the dance numbers from Singin In The Rain - 'Make Em Laugh' is her favourite, but this number particularly cheered me. And, as Vi noted, they are very naughty for jumping on the table.



If you've had a crappy day today, give this a watch. I guarantee it will make you feel better. If it doesn't, there's something wrong with you.

This child will be the bloody death of me. She still has this weird bed-phobia, has been very difficult to get down to sleep at bedtime, up at the crack of dawn, and then refuses point blank to nap despite being visibly knackered for the last few days. After a hissy fit at Playgym, she passed out in her pushchair on the way home today for about 10 mins. I tried to carry her up to bed straight away. She woke up and screamed the house down. that was two hours ago. the proper attempt at nap time started an hour ago and she's still clonking about in her room, talking to her toys and pretending to play the trumpet. But every time I go upstairs she's suddenly, miraculously lying in bed. She keeps asking me to lie with her but I'm not getting into that habit of her needing one of us with her to fall asleep again.

She is a monkey.

may have to give up on naptime yet again in a bit, although she's then absolutely guaranteed to fall asleep in her pushchair this afternoon, only to wake up the moment we're in.

EDIT - everything went quiet just as I was about to submit defeat and get her up. Let her doze for an hour then woke her, causing an HOUR LONG tantrum. *Sigh*

OK, now why the Hell has Vi suddenly decided that she hates her bed? At what was supposed to be nap time today I came upstairs to check on her and found her lying, half asleep, on the floor next to her book box. All attempts to get her back into bed were met with horrified screams. I thought it might just be that she didn't want to nap today, but now that it's bedtime she keeps crying and leaping out as if it's a hot potato. All that's different is that I've changed the sheets, which I do every week.

*Sigh* It's been a long day.

'Igglepiggle's Blanket' (a piece of red flannel approx 7cm squre with a tiny pice of velco on it for fixing onto Vi's Igglepiggle doll's hand) has been mislaid. It's a tiny object in a very messy house inhabited by a toddler who likes to 'tidy things' into strange places.

I was not aware that the blanket had been lost until I tried to put Vi down for her nap. The first thing that she did was to 'read' the story of Igglepiggle's lost blanket to herself, which was impossibly cute. Unfortunately, it caused her to notice that her Igglepiggle doesn't have his blanket and that when the Igglepiggle in the book looses his blanket, he becomes quite frantic to find it again. I can't find it and I'm not about to turn the house upside down looking for it when I have things to do. Unfortunately, telling your 2 year old that you don't know where the blanket is is never good enough. I have just had the following conversation about 20 times:

Vi (from her bed): Mummy? Mummy. Mummy! MU-MMY! MU-MMY!
Me (from the laundry and/or downstairs): Yes?
Vi: Where's Igglepiggle's blanket gone?
Me: I don't know.
Vi: Don't know. (at this point it sounds very much as if she's relaying my message to Igglepiggle)
Me: Lie down. Go to sleep.
Vi: Lie down. Sleep.

*Pause - about ten seconds.*

Vi: Mummy? MUMMY! MU-MMY!
Me: *sigh* what is it, sweetheart?
Vi: Where's Igglepiggle's blanket gone now?

And so on. She's still clonking around up there, but at least she's stopped asking me about that blessed little rag!

New school term = the tots get to rule the roost at Playgym again instead of being pushed around by the bigger kids. Vi was able to have a really good scamper about this morning, and we saw our friends who moved away! These are the twins who are pretty much the same age as Vi - their mum told me the sweetest thing as they were playing... not only do the twins share Vi's current favourite book ('Night Pirates' - I really recommend it BTW, mums of little 'uns) but they call the Pirate Captain 'Violet' because she's got loads of curly hair. How cute is that?!? Then Vi and the twins did some Pirate Noises for us. It was ace. We hope to meet up with them on Fri for lunch before they head back.

Violet looks fantastic today, BTW. I put her in a bright flowery summer dress that I've been waiting for it to be warm enough to warrant putting her in for ages. we don't really have any tights that go with it, however, so she's ended up in red-and-pink striped tights. I thought if she was going to clash she might as well just go the whole hog.

Oh, and I dreamt about Rerun last night/this morning! I'd given birth to him at Sacred Heart hospital (and why yes, we had watched four episodes in a row the evening before). He looked like a boy version of Violet, and was wonderful. He could already hold his head up, which I remember dreaming probably wasn't that likely for a newborn. I was in love the second I saw him. We named him Elliot. It's made me feel really positive about his upcoming arrival today.

In even duller domestic type news, we're finally getting someone in to poke our outside drain. It's yucky and keeps overflowing. All of Hubs' attempts to clear it have failed. Very annoying going through several pages of Yellow Pages ads for companies with absolutely no idea of who to go for or what to expect. Getting a big national company to give us a quote because a, I've heard of them and b, they don't charge per 1/2 hour - I know how that game works! Still, I think it's going to be pricey. Got to do it, though - it's in our letting contract as one of the things we've got to sort out if it goes wrong.

*Sigh*

Today has been SUCH a Thursday. Arthur Dent would be proud. And it's not necessarily over despite Vi having gone to bed some time ago. She's already woken up, very upset, with a pooey bum once tonight.

I have done a lot of laundry. I am very tired. Vi has pretty much put herself on nil by mouth since this morning, bar half a piece of pitta and a few slurps of very diluted juice. I can tell that she's thirsty, but I think she's too frightened of throwing up again to drink anything now. I hate it when she's ill so very much - she's usually such a cheerful little girl, it's horrible to see her so miserable.

A few things have made me smile today, though. One was 'OMFG Magazine' (*points to earlier post*) and the other is the preview of the Family Guy TNG episode as posted by Mrs P and little Willy Wheaton, and as seen here. If any TNG fans haven't seen it yet, I advise that you do. It's brilliant. 'I'll have a hamburger. No! A cheeseburger. And a...' 'YOU'LL HAVE NOTHING AND YOU'LL LIKE IT!!!'

Vi-Vi seems to be over whatever was ailing her! She was drinking more and more juice throughout the afternoon, then had a proper tea and enjoyed a cup of milk at storytime. A weight off my mind, although I still really want to avoid the same thing happening on our Wales trip.

Thanks to all of you who posted Cheering Youtube Clips. I shall respond with the song I've been singing every time I've seen articles about Barbie turning 50 today.



I remember this video from when I was a kid, BTW. The 'does anybody know where the toilets are' bit cracked me and my little sister up, because we didn't usually hear people talking about going to the toilet on the telly, least of all in the middle of a song.

I ought really to be working on this ere short film script application since the deadline's coming up, but I'm back here again instead. Tra-la-la-la-laaa.

There have been many things to cheer me over the last couple of days since I was in a pregno-funk earlier this week.

Firstly, when looking for the Sledgehammer video on the youtubes I also found this:



The video to Officially The Most Cheerfulest Song Evar.

Secondly, I have fabbo new Tardos banners to share -






Particularly love the Zombie Dad one! This zombie's a wee bit riper than Charlie, mind... I may scribble a little jot of the image I have in my mind of Zombie Charles someday.

Thirdly, Vi's language is continuing to simply explode. She's coming out with new phrases constantly, and can now count up to ten and tell you the names of basic shapes. I think the latter is thanks to her new favourite programme, 'Mister Maker', which she insists on calling 'Makey Makey'... which has, of course, stuck and will forever be the name of both the programme and the presenter as far as I'm concerned.

Fourthly, I'm really starting to properly bump now. It still largely depends on what clothes I wear, but generally I do look properly pregnant rather than just fat. Bought a new maternity top today since H&M were giving out 20% off vouchers and I have a gift card for it anyway. Tis pretty and springy - there are colours in the maternity ranges once more - rejoice!

Oh yes, and it was sunny all day when it was forecast to pelt down with more snow. BONUS!

1 - Today has been a good day for presents! I received a very late birthday card and pressie (The Orphanage, which I've wanted to see but we didn't get from Bafta) from my friends Kev & Leah, which was a nice surprise. Also, thanks to my mysterious benefactor I have been able to watch the first two episodes of Lost. ( spoilerish thoughts )

2 - My daughter can now say 'cucumber', 'pitta bread' and, of all the lengthy words to learn, 'gazebo'. She also enjoys repeatedly reminding me that aeroplanes are fast.

3 - Today is DaddyDeath Anniversary mark five, as my mother decided to remind me with an early morning text. Doing my usual trick of keeping too busy to dwell on it.

4 - I still have a cold and a vague, lingering headache. Boo.

Woo-hoo! So far, today is being an anti-yesterday!

We all slept well, Vi and me still have colds but are much cheerier about it, Vi's being very laid back today and went down for her nap of her own accord - very different to yesterday's behaviour - plus a secret benefactor has gifted me with Lost - just watched the first eppie and, verily, it rocked. The more complicated it gets, the more I like it... that's just the way I am!

So Vi-Vi didn't fall out again, but rather nervously slept squidged up at the wall side of her bed instead. She's still a little anxious about the prospect of sleeping in it, and had a cry when it was nap time today, but she didn't get out and is now fast asleep. She's not in the best of moods today anyway, since she has a streaming cold.

We ordered a bed rail for her to minimise night time tumbles and have realised that we won't need to buy a single duvet since we still have ours from our student days, back when we perfected the art of fitting two slightly overweight adults comfortably into a bed approximately three inches wide, and hiding one of said adults (albeit shoddily) from the cleaner who came in at about half seven every Wednesday. But that's another story. Anyhoo, once we've given my lighter duvet a good wash, we'll be attempting a move away from the sleeping bags. We gave her a pillow for this nap since she likes snuggling into ours whenever she gets into our bed, and she seems to have appreciated it, so that'll stay now, too.

Those of you who are friends with me on Faceachebook might already be aware of my ongoing struggle recently to find maternity wear suitable for my cousin's wedding in March. My main problem with this was that, if pretty much all the major Maternity wear retailers in the country are to be believed, pregnant women only ever want to wear black, charcoal grey, navy blue or a hideous paisley tent. The only dashes of colour I could find were in tops that were far too casual. Absolutely every formal top or dress I saw would have made me look like an obese waitress or a whale at a funeral. However, I eventually found this, which is still mostly grey but is at least a little bit pretty and weddingy. Also bought a pair of smart black trousers, which are never not useful. Wearing them now, and they are without a doubt the comfiest trews I have ever worn. That's one of the few benefits of pregnancy, along with being able to pretend that your Toast Belly is all part of your Bump - the clothes are just. So. Monstrously. Comfortable. Seriously, next time you're in a shop that does maternity clothes, just try some of the trousers on. They're brill.