ChunkyMonkey

Wading through the blog

Crikey. Much has happened and it daunts me to blog about it. I need to summarize:

Thursday was Mum's night out. It was much fun, and we managed to wangle staying in a bar until 2 am. This was a good idea at the time. Not such a cunning plan when I woke up fully clothed on the sofa at 6.50 am. I have felt better in my life. Thank god for 'Finding Nemo' on DVD.

Friday = hangover and my birthday. Lunch out. Lovely presents. Children around here in the afternoon. Not a wise move. They could sense the state of their mothers and got up to much mischief. See Harvey and Mabel turning out my kitchen cupboard and eating flour and sugar.  Grrr.

Late afternoon heralded the arrival of the Mollychicken gang which pleased Harvey and me no end. Still hungover at bedtime. Mental note to self to drink less.

Saturday was bananas. Davin had a good idea a while back. The idea was to get all of the children together for a photo shoot at Venture. At 10 am on Saturday Harvey, Sophie, Ben, Mabel, Adam, Alex, Tom, Millie, Joe and Emily all pitched up, dressed in gladrags for their 1 hour session. I have no idea how the photos will come out. It was bedlam in there. At 12 noon I swished off to have a dress fitting as my wedding dress is being altered and turned into a cocktail dress - all in aid of a forthcoming Ball. Finally, 3 pm saw the beginning of the children's joint 2nd birthday party.

Bedlam mark II. Somewhere in the middle of all that I booked the New York Trip. There are 8 of us going. This puts me in my very happy place.

Sunday saw the arrival of Mother's Day. This meant more nice presents for me, not to mention a slap-up meal. Fabbo.

Monday was Alex and Adam's 2nd birthday, and there was yet another party at Alex's house. Hoorah. Also on Monday, Lucy delivered the painting of Harvey that Davin and I commissioned for ourselves. Here it is

Weigh-in Wednesday

WeightWatchers is a marvelous thing. I have lost 3 pounds this week. SPLENDID. Only 7 more to go. I have little hope for the same success next week as it is my birthday on Friday (I am 35), my sister is visiting this weekend, I am out to lunch with MadDonna and Lelo on Friday, we have the children's joint birthday party on Saturday, followed by Mother's day on Sunday. And, somewhere in the middle of all that, it is Mum's night out. Hmm. The alcohol consumption will be the enemy here methinks. Heyho! Helen has also been good and lost 2 pounds. She suggested saving points on food in order to make up for the wine scoffing. Sadly I had not thought of this. Too late now.  Will run like the wind tonight to try and stave off the return of lard on the thighs. It is quite motivating, this blogging about trying to lose weight. I know no-one else cares. I'd suggest you avoid 'Weigh-in Wednesday' for fear of dying of boredom. I will carry on with it as it seems to be keeping me on the straight and narrow.

Fun on Fridays

I have always loved Fridays with a passion. There is something about them. When I worked full-time, I loved them because they were the gateway to the weekend. Now I love them because the whole world is in a good mood on a Friday, and even the children seem to sense it.

This Friday, the gang came around to our house for play and tea. They played for a couple of hours reasonably nicely, with only the odd shove and snatching incident. Then they became fractious, which is Mum's cue for making tea.  I say 'Mum's' cue, but Harvey has taken to calling me 'Kay'. This is most upsetting as a new-age hippy type parent I am not, and I want to be know as 'Mummy'. This is the conversation that has been going on at our house for the past 2 days:

Harvey: Kay!.....Kay!....Get..car/cracker/noddy

Kay: It's 'Mummy' Harv, and say 'please'

Harvey: Nooooo...Kay!

Kay: Nooooo...it's Mummy!

Harvey: Nooo...Kay!

Kay: Nooooo...IT'S MUMMY!

Harvey: Nooooo......KAY!!!!

and so on. Sigh.

After tea, more play was required. Out came the craft box. Out came the glitter. When I say out, I mean it went everywhere.  In Alex's hair, all over the floor, on Alex's socks (hopefully Alex's Mum will blog about those), on my socks..just everywhere. I was rather pleased. I love glitter.

Some very beautiful pictures were made though

Harvey did eat a lot of dried pasta/risotto rice and red lentils, so I am not looking forward to the nappies tomorrow. I digress, more pictures:

Sophie was very fond of the blue glitter indeed, and went ape when any of the boys tried to remove it from her. Fools.

Davin has just walked in to the kitchen and said "There is bloody glitter in the loo". Ah. Yes. Let me explain.

Whilst Sophie carried on glittering, Alex and Harv decided to go off and play in the downstairs loo. This is not an uncommon thing for Harvey to do as he likes to wash his hands (really he likes to be left alone to splash about with water, but I humour him). This time, however, Alex was involved and this meant trouble.

only god knows what they were up to. All I can say is when Jo and I tried to investigate we were greeted with a "BYE!!!!!!!!!!!!" and Alex shut the door in our faces.

Boys...bad to the bone.

Weigh-in Wednesday

I lost one measly pound.

What's in the bag?

I have always taken some pride in the contents of my handbag. This is because if I have my bag, I can pretty much say I am ready for anything.  Today, however, as I lifted my bag, I almost dislocated my shoulder. It was time to see what, or who, was in there.

I found:

1 cheque book

I make-up compact

1 glittery lip gloss

3 lip balms

2 nail files

1 baking potato (raw)

1 small child's drinking cup

1 miniature first aid kit (containing anadin extra, plasters, antiseptic wipe, Teetha)

£3.41 in change

1 mobile phone

1 'Bob the builder' mobile phone

That strange man

1 calculator

2 purses (1 black, 1 pink)

2 hair bands

15 receipts for petrol, food, unnecessary purchases

2 pens

4 used tissues (containing a mixture of snot and substances encountered by toddlers)

2 flyers re: new child activities

1 train ticket

As I said, ready for anything.

Kill the birds

Today has been a most vile rainy grey day.  The up side of this was that Harvey didn't wake up until 7:10 am. This is a vast improvement on his more usual 6:20 am. I lay in bed on Monday trying to work out why he was waking at that time.  It wasn't the light. It was the bloody dawn chorus. CHEEP, CHEEP, CHEEP. Can I shoot song birds? I don't have gun, but I could scrape together a home-made pea-shooter or something.  The really bad news is we are (hopefully) moving to somewhere more rural in 5 weeks or so. That means even more birds. Humph. I need my sleep.

Lack of sleep may explain why I have spent the last 3 days saying the following to Harvey:

"No!"

" Do not draw on the table/sofa/floor/me!"

"Do you want me to take away your digger/ambulance/car/bricks? THEN DON'T BANG THEM ON THE WINDOW!!!!!!!!!!"

"Share!"

"Stop that right now"

"No, you cannot have crisps for breakfast"

"Leave Charlie alone"

"In a minute"

"Get down"

"There is no chocolate"

I must try harder to be a more positive parent. As random as this may seem, being in control of things in my life, tends to make me more positive about many things.  So, I am back on the WeightWatchers trail.  Helen has inspired me to stop drinking in the week, and start slimming.  I am going to be very brave, and tell you all how much I weigh, and I am going to post weekly internet weigh-ins.  Ok, here goes: I currently weigh 10 stone 4 Ilbs, or 144 Ilbs.  I want to weigh 9 stone 7 Ilbs by the time I do my Race for Life in June. Wish me luck, I am going to need it.

In, out, and shake it all about

The outlaws are here. England are not winning the footie. It is very cold here. JAYSUS it is cold. There has been snow, or, if you are Harvey, there has been "SNOOOOOOOWWWWWWWW!!!!!!". I went running with MadDonna for the first time today. She even runs like a lunatic. That is all. Skype me. SKYPE ME.

Skype me

I Love Skype. I spend hours chatting about rubbish.  Not so keen on the 'calling' aspect, largely because the headphones and mic live in the dining room, whilst I lounge in the lounge.  Oh yes. You know you want to. Just identify yourself as a ChunkyMonkey reader so that I don't ignore you. There are nutters out there, living amoungst you, oh internet.