Tuesday 14th October 2008


Wonderful day.....not! First of all, its all GREY and OVERCAST, but not actually raining. And this being market day in town, naturally Nell has stuff to get (really!...some of this shit is only available at the market!). Soo..the plan is, I drive her down there, drop her and Thomas off, and continue on to the park with Daniel and the dogs..........meeting up again later. RIGHT! I get to the park, get the dogs out of car, get Daniel out, get the bag of bottles out (did i mention that i am a frequent bottle banker? )...........and no sooner have I done all this, but the damn heavens open. It POURS down! Have you ever tried walking two dogs, one kid, and one large umbrella, in the pouring rain? Its not a fun thing to do. Plus...the park is well endowed with chestnut trees, and Daniel is INTO hunting chestnuts (even though games with chestnuts is beyond him.......its the discovery thing). So there we are....rain POURING down, me trying to keep a 2 yr old dry, while at the same time pandering to him hunting chestnuts........you just HAVE to know we were the only people in the damn park, because everyone else with sense departed for home STAT!

It had a good side though.......he just about passed out when we got home (for his nap). I love his naps

Dinner.........

Dinner was beef curry, in the slow cooker (God, that thing is marvellous!). While Daniel is napping, I get it all going. Takes a while, and while I SORTA follow the recipes I find on the internet, I kinda extemporise a bit ). Usual afternoon ...fetch Rebeckah from school....entertain Thomas and Daniel once he wakes up....collect Nathan once HE gets home from school....collect David once he gets home from work (home being the train station )

And NOW its time to take the dogs out. So I do. Only thing is, while I am out walking dogs, those two hungry hounds, David and Nathan, are having dinner..........MY dinner!! Now bear with me here....there is 2lbs of meat in that bloody slow cooker..........enough to feed 4 over two days, right? I get home from walking dogs.........to discover they have eaten...........as in eaten just about everything!! How did I ever manage to raise people with hollow legs??? When *I* finally get MY curry....its nothing but plain rice and sauce....of meat there was very little sign :) I really GOTTA put my rates up

Moving on...and continuing with the 'leave a legacy' thing... I have been taping Thomas in little short episodes all through his (short) life. So now its time to start transferring to disk. RIGHT! Only senility is setting in.......I gotta learn all over again how to DO that. (my vid cam is old and analogue....needs capture to disk then converting to digital for consumption) Parallel to this, and talking to David, we have a kinda solution. David has a web site, with oodles of room. I (shortly) will have vids of his son. Sooo........the idea is to upload the vids to his site so that anyone can get them (sure, there's gonna be a stampede to get them )

OK...so tis a pointless little exercise...but it serves two purposes. It keeps my brain busy and active...and it creates a record. Who knows...when Thomas comes of age, he can be as embarrassed as hell :)

Which all glosses over Thomas's presence, and how special he is to us, and how much time we devote to him. Really, we are surrogate parents. Not through choice, but through circumstances. Nell has taken to the role like a duck to water, and I'd be blind not to see how those two have bonded. We have a saying here, for babies who like the comfort zone, that they are 'strange'....meaning the child is not HAPPY with things (or faces) that are not familiar. I guess everyone who has dealt with children knows just what I mean. Ya lift them, yer not on the recognised list, BAWWWWWLLLLL. Well...he don't bawl much in this house.....which I guess means he even recognises MY ugly mug and feels safe :)

I look at him........

...and how can ya weep and smile at the same time?

He's such a GOOD little boy....he's almost the blueprint of how you expect kiddies to behave. He eats...he naps...he smiles in his own little world...hell, he even experiments with the one single tooth he's managed to get so far :)

I love him to bits. Him and me do a LOTTA male bonding :)

Daniel, now....well, I got a problem. Because Daniel is exhibiting JEALOUS big time. I pick up Thomas....Daniel is right there. I talk to Thomas...Daniel is right there. I go to entertain Thomas ...Daniel is right there. How do you explain to a 2 yr old that he is loved just as much?

OK...this is NOT stuff you can explain real well, and I ain't good at explaining anyway........

such is life