Author Archive: Robyn

So, The Movers Are Booked

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And the Great Clear Out of 2011 is well on it’s way.

We are having the pros pack for us so all I’m doing is going through stuff, that I’ve been meaning to go through for, oh, 4 years and dumping a lot of crap.

Some of that crap included boxes of undies from before Adam was born. As my tummy got bigger and I had to move from sexy matching bras and pants to un-sexy maternity bras and pants I bought some storage boxes from Ikea and packed all of my sexy ones away for the duration.

Yesterday those boxes were hauled out of the top of the closet, only 2 years after the birth of my son, and inspected. The pants, fab. Size 14. That’s my size! The bras…um…well…

You see, I could, theoretically go back to the 38s. I have some 38s now that fit me. I am, more or less, the same weight I was when I conceived.

What I will never be again is a B cup.

Even without ever having my milk come in more than drips and drops my breasts increased by a full cup size. I am, most definitely, now a C.

Forever and ever.

Amen.

So bye bye old, lovely sexy pants and bras.

Guess I need to go shopping and get some that fit! 😉

Insert Witty and/or Profound Title Here

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Not sure what to write about today. Hence the title.

There are some things I’d like to write about, but they are controversial and will get me in trouble, and I’m not in the mood. Maybe tomorrow.

I will present one question, however, stemming from a thread on MN about allergies. I understand trying like hell to protect your child. I do. I have a child I protect. So I understand banning peanuts or other allergens from school lunches if a child in the school is severely allergic.

What I don’t understand is how that child lives in the world. In the world peanuts are not banned. Or anything other food. So if a person is so allergic that a speck of peanut dust is going to kill them, how do they even walk down the street? Take a bus? The train? I really would like to know, if any of my readers has such a child or is severely allergic to something themselves.

In a related note, if a teacher, once Adam is at school, takes away his treat from his packed lunch while his classmate is eating school dinner provided cake and custard, I will be storming the place. I can’t believe how many parents don’t want to be ‘that’ parent. What parent? The parent who stands up and says ‘This is really stupid. And I’m going to say so!’?

But I am also the person who can’t stand stupidity. And that, my friends, is stupid!

Hey, look…I had something to say after all…and they may get me into trouble……..

How Much Tech is Too Much Tech?

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Adam is home ill, again, today and I am sitting on the sofa as he stands watching TV and playing a game on my iPhone.

There seems to be 1000 studies with 1000 different answers as to how much ‘screen time’ is too much. And I can’t decide which way to go.

The actual issue is that Simon and I spend our lives in front of screens. He teaches computers and I’m a graphic artist which, these days, means Adobe Creative Suite and drawing with a mouse. Oh, I occasionally sketch in a book, but final drafts to finished drawings are done on a computer.

We have in this house 4 working computers, two TV based game consoles, three hand held games consoles and 2 iPhones. Hell, Simon and I met through the computer!

So how do we tell our son he can only watch TV or play on the Xbox ‘X hours a day’? Granted, I can pull the ‘Mummies and Daddies are adults and have different rules’ card, but I always hated that when I was a kid. Why do they get different rules for things like this?

Okay, so some studies have shown TV/computer time can hurt brain development. But they can’t prove it 100%. And he is learning as he watches or plays games on my iPhone. He’s learning numbers and shapes and colours on the one he’s playing right now. He learns things from CBeeBies and DVDs. So does it matter that he’s learning them from a screen?

He hardly spends all day every day in front of one. We go out at least once a day for a walk, sometimes twice. He is at nursery 3 days a week when he doesn’t see a screen from 9 am to 430 pm. He does watch some TV when he gets home, but that’s not for long before it’s time for dinner and bath and bed.

And we do other things, even when he’s home sick like today. In a bit we’re going to break out the crayons and do some colouring. We might still get out for a walk as his fever seems to be going away.

So I don’t have the final answer. He’s a long way away from using any of these items on his own, anyway. He sits with me or Simon to play games on CBeeBies website or on our iPhones. He doesn’t know how to turn on the TV. So Simon and I have some time to consider our position.

What’s your position on your kids and screen time and why?

My Victorian Gentleman…

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For some reason I cannot figure out, Adam has taken to objecting to Mummy showing certain parts of her body, namely her knees and below.

If I, for whatever reason pull up my trouser legs, he comes over and pulls them down. And looks at me disapprovingly.

The other day I came out of our bedroom wearing just my PJ top and some undies, as I was about to take a shower. Adam ran into the bedroom and grabbed my PJ bottoms from the back of the chair and brought them to me. He was very insistent that I put them on until I finally went into the bathroom and turned on the shower. Then he ‘got’ it.

I have no idea why he does this. Or where he got the idea that Mummies are not to show their legs!

I guess I should be grateful that it was never hot enough this past summer to wear shorts. Who knows what he might have done!

What odd things do your toddlers do that have no rhyme, reason or origin you can figure out?

Bucket List

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So there’s a meme, started by @Ellen27, about bucket lists. She was inspired by the film of the same name which starred Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman. A bucket list is a list of things you want to do before you kick the bucket.

So I’ve been thinking about what to put on my bucket list. And I can’t think of a single thing.

Sure, there are things I want; more money, more time, more clients. But nothing that I feel I have to or need to do before I die.

Sure there are places I want to visit; Paris springs to mind. But, again, not something I feel I absolutely need to do before I die.

I’ve seen lists of things like ‘be a kinder person every day’ and ‘spend more time with my family’. That’s not what I call a ‘do it before you die’ thing.

So I guess it means I’m content. I have the big things I want: a husband I love, a son who is becoming more wonderful every day, I am my own boss. My health could be better but there isn’t much I can do about that.

So I guess my Bucket List is to just…live.

And I’m okay with that.

Another Busy Day

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Today’s Schedule: –

0809 Chugging coffee before Simon leaves for the day

0930ish Off to the shops. Adam needs his feet measured for new shoes, we’re out of milk again and I could use a glass of wine tonight. You’ll see why in a minute.

1100ish Back home. Hopefully Adam is asleep in his pram and will continue to be so until about 1300ish.

1200ish Lunch for Mummy

1230ish Laundry folding begins

1300ish Adam up from his nap and has some lunch, milk and a cuddle.

1400 – 1600 At some point in those two hours a removal company is coming to poke around and give me a quote for our move. This will be our third quote and then I’ll make a decision and book movers.

1500 Estate Agent to show up with people to view flat. I will also, at this point, have laundry half folded and be in the middle of putting together a Sheppard’s Pie for dinner.

1600 Still folding laundry. Sheppard’s Pie slow cooking in the oven.

1700 Simon home from work. Put away laundry and cook the rest of dinner.

1800 Eat

1830 Start getting a small boy ready for bed

1930ish Adam asleep.

1935 Wine. And chocolate.

Haven’t Had Much Time To Write

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as my afternoons on Adam’s nursery days are now taken up with the Clear Out of 2011. Even though the new house has a ton of storage space, I am doing my best to not move a lot of junk from one place to the other!

I’m also totally organizing the move for us, contacting removal companies, making lists of utility companies and others to notify of the change of address, along with, of course, the graphic work my clients are expecting me to do and pay me for!

So busy is a good way to describe life right now and, as usual, this blog is the last thing on the list.

But I am Tweeting regularly, so feel free to follow that (@tee2072) and I’m on MN, so look for me there!

I’ll try to keep y’all up to date with move info, but it may have to wait until after the move!

What Yesterday Was All About

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I have decided to do something new with this blog, on Sundays. I started yesterday with no announcement and no fan fair.

I was inspired, a bit, from the Silent Sunday Meme, in that I do think Sundays should be special in some way. I never did Silent Sunday and now the person who started it has ended it, but it did get me thinking about starting a meme of my own.

So now, on Sundays, I am going to post Special Link Sunday. It will be nothing but a link to something that is important to me. Might be a charity. Might be an event. Might just be a funny cartoon.

I have no idea if anyone else will do this but please join in, if you wish. Let’s spread a bit of knowledge, a bit of caring, a bit of fun.

On Special Link Sunday.