Letter to my Son – Adam – Four Years Old*

Dear Adam

Four. Years. Old.

Holy. Cow.

Where is the time going? Just yesterday you needed me all the time. To eat, to dress, to sleep.

Now, every day, you need me a little less.

Oh you still need me. For one thing, you are not getting the potty very well yet. So you need a lot of cleaning.

And you can’t exactly cook. But you certainly feed yourself.

And you’re starting school. In preschool right now, but gearing up for P1 in September. And you are rapidly learning your numbers and letters.

We had your ‘meet and greet our new friends and teacher’ day at school last week. You headed right in without a backwards glance. Not even a wave.

I expect you’ll do the same in September.

There have been some issues with you and social interaction and communication. The word autism has been used. But we have decided to not get your diagnosed yet. You are being assessed for extra help in the classroom, which hopefully you’ll get.

You have two best friends at school now, who you do everything with, L and C. They will both be in P1 with you, so that’ll be fun!

Your very first birthday party was this past Saturday. It was so much fun watching you with your friends in our back garden. Maybe we’ll do it again next year.

Keep growing my son.

Love

Mummy

*I did say there would be an occasional personal post. 😀

I Am So Proud Of My Son

There’s been some stuff going on with him that I’ve not been blogging about and I’m not going to get into details yet. He’s fine, just having some challenges at school and in life that we’re working on.

One of his challenges has been letting the dentist look at his teeth. Not clean them, or anything, just look at them.

Yesterday, my son conquered his fear and let the dentist look.

I nearly cried. It was such a huge step for him.

All his teeth are there, they look in fairly decent position and as clean as can be expected.

And my son let the dentist look at them.

I’ve never been prouder.

Fever – Day 5

Yes, you read that right. Adam has had a fever of various levels since Monday. As has most of his class and after school care. Simon wants to know why it’s not on the news. I said because it’s so common as to be un-newsworthy.

Now I’m having a fibro flare, a cold, a cough and perhaps a touch of D&V, at least the D part.

I also did over 10 hours of work this week. With Adam at home and then dragged to my client’s office to transfer files.

Simon said he’d be home around 2 today. I’ll be going to bed at the point.

I may get up in time for the school run on Monday.

 

My God, Where Have I Been?

I have no idea. Just not writing, I guess. Sorry.

So, what’s the craic…we had snow and ice. Adam managed to go to school for an entire week after missing at least one day a week since Christmas. Some illness, some weather related.

My family, except us, got together to celebrate my step dad’s 80th birthday, which is actually next Thursday. A good time was, apparently, had by all.

I’m 44 this coming Tuesday. Adam thinks my birthday cake should be blue. We are going out to dinner tonight to celebrate said birthday.

And Adam has started insisted he’s not a baby. He’s Adam.

Indeed.

After Slipping And Sliding To Adam’s School Today

I headed to City Centre to run some errands.

I have what is know as Mummy’s Never Ending Shopping List. It gets added to all the time and never completely goes away. Today it included stuff we needed from Boots and some groceries along with a handbag, a sauce pan, a train, modelling glue, wine glasses and an ice cream maker.

Interesting list, no?

The handbag has been on my list since The Great Banana Incident of 2012. You see, one day on the way home from school Adam handed me his half eaten banana. Which I stashed in my handbag. And found four days later. I had been using my Fossil Cross Body bag, as I usually do, which is 100% fabric with leather trim. I contacted Fossil to see if it could be cleaned and their answer was yes, but no. In other words, sure, try it, but they sure as heck don’t recommend it!

So I turned it inside out, put it in a pillow case and washed it in the machine while spinning my prayer wheel and praying.

It actually came out usable, but hardly in the best shape and the seams started to wear away. So the hunt for a handbag began.

It should be noted that I am picky picky picky about my handbags. For one thing, I won’t spend more than about £60 on one. For another it has to be a cross body bag as I hate shoulder bags. It has to have at least one inner zipped pocket for my passports (yes, plural) and these days my Kindle Fire HD must fit into it. It has to zip closed. And it would be nice if it was water resistant, if not waterproof.

So The Great Banana Incident of 2012 was in October, I think it was. My mom came to visit not long after it and she gave me my birthday money (even though my birthday isn’t until two weeks from now) and I knew I would spend it on a new handbag.

So I started looking. And looking. And looking. Too small, no pocket, only a snap closure. Handbag after handbag.

Well today I bit the bullet and headed to House of Fraser (no relation) and Handbag Mecca. And lo and behold it’s their Blue Cross Sale and up to 75% off.

So I’m wandering Handbag Mecca and looking and peering and feeling and zipping and get to Radley.

Now anyone who knows me knows I couldn’t give two figs about brands, fashion or otherwise. I buy what I like that I can afford. But it did occur to me that I bought a Radley purse about a year ago because I loved the way it was designed. So I started to look at their sale rack. And found it:

New Handbag

My new handbag, by Radley. Ya know, the ones with the dog? Them.

It is perfect, cross body, inner zipped compartment, holds my Kindle (of course I had it with me, don’t ask silly questions) and water resistant. I’m also pleased because it’s not obviously a Radley as the dogs are just a part of the fabric pattern and it has no hanging dog that needed to be removed.

So what else did I get from my list?

A train – Adam’s reward for going without his dummy during the day for 10 days. It’s Percy from the Mega Blocks Rail Road and also has a piece of track.

Wine glasses – Simon keeps breaking ours. It’s either a ploy to get out of doing the washing up (which isn’t going to work) or we had very fragile glasses. The new ones have titanium in them. No joke. They are also huge.

I did not get a sauce pan (because I forgot to put on the list what size I wanted) an ice cream maker (we aren’t exactly sure we want one) or modelling glue (the girl at the shop said the stuff we already had should fix the broken Lightening McQueen).

Also?

A haircut:

My haircut

I’ll be 44 in just about two weeks. I think the grey suits me.

My Week In Review:

Monday: Usual day, Adam off to school, Simon off to work. I started to design the new Designed To A Tee Website.

Tuesday: Adam woke up with a horrible rash all over his face and a fever. Off to GP. Not impetigo, thank god, but not sure what. Put this cream on and send him back to school if fine on Wednesday.

Wednesday: Adam back to school as perfectly fine. I clean the house from top to bottom. It *so* needed it.

Thursday: I’m about 10 minutes from Adam’s school after dropping him off, heading for coffee and minor surgery when school calls. He’s pooed himself. I turn around and go clean him up. I then head straight to GP’s office to have the mole on my neck removed. Simon took the day to work from home so he could sort Adam after my procedure. Wasn’t too bad, but my neck ached and it wore me out.

Friday: Horrible weather. For the first time ever Adam and I take a taxi to school and it waits and brings me back. I had a horrid nights sleep thanks to my neck and my brain being stupid again. I spend the entire day doing *nothing*. Simon goes to get Adam, in the middle of a snowstorm!

By bedtime our back garden looks like this:

Saturday: Wake up to slightly melted snow. Get text from Adam’s coach that the physical education centre is closed because it’s flooded. YAYAY!

So we’re spending the day at home.

And that was my week.

One Day At A New DayCare

and Adam is feverish and vomiting. So much for hitting the ground running today getting things checked off my to do list.

I’m getting some bits and bobs done, but mostly giving cuddles and soothing cool clothes on forehead.

I’m hoping for a good nap time so I can make some phone calls.

And if they don’t make some new Fireman Sam episodes soon I will not be responsible for my actions…

Christmas!

This post is part of Belfast Bloggers over on Tumblr. Twelve Belfast Bloggers. Twelve topics for 2013.

If you’re on my Facebook or Twitter you’ve probably seen the pictures already, but I thought I’d add some text here for context.

Very busy, he was.

See? Helpful!

We started, as most people do, with decorating our tree about 3 weeks ago, I think it was. Adam was, for the first year, helpful in this!

TA DA!!!

Done!

And he seemed to have fun as well. I managed to let go of my ‘it must look like *this*’ tendencies and just let him (and, I admit, Simon) hang the ornaments wherever they like. I usually like to make sure they are well spread out and that the lights are on better and the branches more spread out, but everyone was impatient to get to the decorations part so I dealt with it. Barely. Next year maybe I’ll put the tree up myself, add the lights and *then* invite them to come help. Me? Control freak? Nah!

I’m also still very annoyed with the top strand that claims to allow you to set it to *not* blink, but we’ve never been able to figure out how to do that, so just the upper third of the tree flashes. Again, have had to just live with it. New lights next year, I swear!

So we enjoyed our tree for a few weeks and started getting excited because Granny and Grandad (Simon’s parents) were coming down to spend Christmas with us. Until Grandad got ill. Nothing serious, but it hung around for a bit and he just didn’t feel up to travelling or staying in someone else’s house and who can blame him? So it wound up being just the three of us. Not nearly as much fun, but we had a nice time anyway.

We started, as many do, with our stockings:

Snake!

Snake and chocolate coins!

Where to start?

Where to start?

And then Adam moved on it his actual presents. We don’t exchange gifts among the adults in my family, just from us to the various kids and we get things from Simon’s parents. My mom sends money (which she actually gave us when they were here earlier in the year) and my dad sends a cheque for me to spend on Adam. Simon’s parents get us things but since they didn’t make it down, we’ll have to wait. What this meant is that everything under the tree was for Adam!

He had quite a haul with a lot of train track, some DVDs, an easel and some Mega-Blocks. All in all, a very good Christmas for a small boy.

Adam and Simon started setting things up right away while I went to work cooking Christmas dinner.

Thomas Mega Blocks

Playing with daddy

Our Christmas dinner was all the traditional things: turkey, sprouts, stuffing, sausages, bacon, roasted potatoes and cranberry sauce. It was yummy, if I do say so myself!

So it was a good Christmas, if quiet. Perhaps some excitement next year?

Why I Don’t Work Full Time

1 trip to school

1 walk to the bus

1 bus ride

1 shopping trip

1 bus ride

1 monitor setup

1 ride in the car

1 meeting over coffee with a client

1 meeting/networking event with strangers

Means I’m out of spoons at 3pm

Still have to do:

1 pick up of a small boy from child minder

1 dinner cooked

1 boy into bed, with no help as Simon works late on Wednesdays

So I’m about 3 spoons short…