Ghost of a budgie?!

Just woke up from a very weird dream. I can't quite remember the narritive but here are the elements I remember, Adam Savage and Matt Smith were living with us along the numerous cats, a puppy, a tiger cub and the ghost of a budgie that kept tapping on the bathroom door. A young professional footballer murdered another footballer then killed himself and for some reason everyone thought I should be made aware of the fact. Emo Phillips (but much MUCH taller) was wandering round and when challenged he just muttered "I'm a friend of your father's". Mum and Dad's house was full to the ceilings with brooms .I left to go next door and see the silvers but bumped into a talking buddist rabbit monk. I though he would know why I kept seeing these strange things and when asked he replied "well this is the year of the rabbit so these things would get stronger" but then wouldn't answer any more questions. Bizarre!

Tiger, tiger, burning bright...

Well, it has been commented that I'm not updating like I used to so I thought I would start with today and maybe go back and fill in the blanks as and when I have time/can be bothered.

The day started well - Nate has been going through a period of not sleeping through the night for the last couple of weeks and we finally seem to have broken that pattern as he slept right through until 8.30! I was so pleased I let him have a well done sticker. We decided to have pancakes for breakfast but were almost out of milk so John dashed out to the shop to get some and also some chocolate chips to try choc chip pancakes that he had had in the US before. While he did that, Nate and I weighed out the flour, beat the egg and unpacked/repacked the dishwasher.

Once he got back I started making pancakes (once Nate had acted as a taster to make sure the chocolate chips were good), and very quickly I had a whole plate of... mess. John had neglected to mention that the choc chips weren't put into the batter but added when the pancake was part cooked so they just disintegrated when I tried to turn them. I only managed to get one good pancake out of the batch (we still ate the rubbish ones - they tasted just as good). Regardless they were a HUGE hit with the little boy of chocolatey doooooom...

2011-05-28 - Choc chip Pancakes for brekkie (link to album)

John then had some work to finish off for next week so pottered off to his study to get on with it and Nate and I decided to have a shower (no mere flannel was gonna get all that chocolate off). Once we were done and dressed, Nate decided he wanted to practice with his scissors so I gave him some coloured paper and he set to it while I folded up the playpen ready for it go in the loft. Once he was done with cutting we then decided to glue the paper bits to some paper to make a picture and also to use some of the coloured rice from playgroup (the ladies from playgroup will be gratified that I will be finding rice for months to come!). Nate worked hard and produced four pictures, only one shown below.

John then realised that it was nearly 2 and we wanted to go to the local Fire fighters charity day (organised by the owner of the Golden Retriever as thanks for their help with the recent Swinley Forest fire) as they had stuff for kids and there would be a nee-nah (translate from Natish to English : any emergency services vehicle, in this case a fire engine) there, and Nate would never forgive us if he missed it!

The place was fairly busy when we got there but no nee-nah had got there yet so we settled down for a drink in the garden while Nate played, mostly with the see-saws but there was also circus stuff for the older kids.

The nee-nahs weren't too long coming then one turned up - Nate was very excited, particularly as he got to go in one AND get a sticker too!

Walking back to our drinks we spotted some girls were doing face painting for donations. Now I was more excited than Nate about this but he played a bit while we waited for one to be free and he was very good about sitting still for all that time...

He actually wanted a lion but they only had a tiger and that was deemed acceptable. We then asked him to roar for the pictures and he was happy to oblige us but a bit over enthusiastic at first...

He then declared that tigers eat pizza so we bought a cup cake for his dessert, had a final look at the neee-nahs and then headed off to Pizza hut.



He wouldn't roar at first for his favourite waitress (Karen is in Glee with me) but eventually, with pizza in his belly, finally warmed up. We headed home and he devoured his cup cake while Daddy went to sleep off his cider's.

Then we hosed Nate down before doing my favorite thing, snuggled up under my blanket on the sofa and read books and watched tv. He went to bed a very tired but happy tiger...

(fingers crossed for another sleep filled night)

Valentines Weekend

We don't really do Valentines - John says its a silly holiday and that he tells me he loves me everyday anyway (sounds like a good excuse) but we did have a lazyish weekend. John went to his filming club on Saturday morning so , once we were finally ready

Nate and I walked to the supermarket, him pushing the buggy all the way, and then, after a stop off at the park, we headed back again to meet up with daddy at home.

Having worn Nate out he had a loooong nap so he would be ready for the evening then got up and had a quicknap to tide him over while Daddy snored too...

We then headed into the dark to Ian's 30th birthday bar-be-que.

Ian was very lucky with the weather, no rain and clear skies but not so cold as to make it uncomfortable to be outside. Nate ate his own body weight in bread and camembert

and took a liking to his Nannies hat

We grabbed some bits from the bbq and then took our very sleepy boy home to bed...

We were allowed to get up luxuriously late on Sunday, Nate and I headed downstairs around 9 for a quick plate of cooked mushrooms on toast and John joined us around 11. I hadn't really looked at the weather so just assumed it was as good as the night before and suggested a walk to Lilly Hill park to let nate get some exercise before lunch. It wa however gently drizzling in quite a persistant manner so we wrapped up and set off

Nate soon found a field with lots of molehills to stamp on



The only way to drag him away from this pursuit, was to offer to race to the little "housh", a shelter that has been added to the grounds since last time I was there





After some climbing there was some hiding (Daddy hid behind a tree and Nate stood beside it with his hands over his eyes)

By now Nate was getting tired and hungry so Daddy had to use silly walks to prompt him onwards
Once we got home, we jumped in the car and headed for the pub but then decided to go to the supermaret instead and to get the bits for a second breakfast and fishfingers for Nathan. While at the supermarket, we got Nathan a red nose for Red Nose Day:


To my shock, John decided to do the cooking himself and a damn fine job he did too

Having gorged ourselves, it was time for Nate to have a nap so John and I hada cuppa and some chocolate rich tea biscuits on the sofa while we watched Prince of Persia (a dire film but enjoyable if you disengage the brain) and basically vegged for the rest of the day...