Nursery Rhymes (or not)

My darling son loves me singing nursery rhymes (the baby one - not one of the others).
He smiles and looks at me with adoration (husband says pain), but what does he know?
Anyhow my Mum sings this "rhyme" to babies that I've never heard anyone else ever sing (probably just as well when you hear it).
It goes like this:-

There was a man
And he was mad
And he ran up a steeple
He cut off his tiddlywag
And threw it to the people
There was a lady passing by
Who thought it very funny
She picked it up and wiped it
And sold it for some money

Lovely huh??

p.s spell checker says I've spelt tiddlywag wrong!! How do you spell it then? ;-)

There's No Sun Here

Wow we have very heavy snow at the moment.

The BBC weather forecast on line is trying to pretend that it isn't snowing. It says "sunny intervals" but there's no sun. Just lots of snow (you're not fooling me).

So *sigh* it looks like another day stuck in the house. It's a shame Baby B isn't big enough for a sledge yet :-)

Oh well, at least I have no excuse for not getting the tree up and decorating the house.

Aaargh

Still panicking here.
Still no decorations or tree up.
We did go to Toys R Us and buy Baby B some presents though. We weren't going to spend a lot because he already has loads of toys, but we somehow still managed to spend over £100. I remember my first son's first Christmas in 1991. We spent £50 in Woolworths and he had tons of things. £100 doesn't seem to go very far on  baby toys these days (I sound like my Mother).
I wrote some cards for husband's work last night, but that's only because he finishes today for Christmas.
Now I've discovered I need way more cards :-( . The list of "Things to Do" isn't getting any shorter!!
Oh but on a brighter note. Did you notice I said my hubby finishes today? Everyone finishes today. I'll have all my boys at home with me.
Hoorah. Tis the season to be jolly.

Time

Why does time always go so quickly when you don't want it to?

I'm usually a very organised Virgo (well most of the time), but this year Christmas has just crept upon me.

It's now December14th and I haven't yet got a tree or a decoration up. 

I'm sure the neighbours will be pleased about that. 

There are no tasteful white lights here. Our outdoor lights are multi-coloured flashing snowflakes.We have a blue snowman in the porch that's bright enough to give you a suntan, and just to add to the tastefulness we have a Shepherd that opens and closes his coat, like he's flashing (jealous aren't you??).

I've got a million cards to write (including my Mother's), and presents to buy, which will then need wrapping.

But in spite of all I've got to do, plus the house still looking like a bomb site (I thought that would be one word, but spell checker says it isn't), I'm really really looking forward to Christmas.

I've always loved Christmas anyway, but this year it's extra special because we get to share it with our little Baby B.

I just need a fairy to sort everything out for me. That's all :-)

Or a Time Machine.

Immunisations & Proud Mum

Baby B had his last set of immunisations today (until he's 12 months). I hate taking him (who does?), so I'm really glad that's it for a while. They didn't have so many when the other two were small. He's had 3, just today. It's scary letting him have them, but the consequences of him not having them are even scarier. That's just my opinion obviously, I know a lot of people that wouldn't agree.

In other news my eldest son did very well on Saturday. As part of his degree at Uni he had to manage an event, promote etc and make a profit (proceeds to charity). The Friday night before there was a leak at the Uni and it was touch and go whether the event could go on. They were kept waiting until around an hour before they were due to go and set up. Fortunately everything was ok. We were worried for a while though. His group had spent so much time and money on the project. They had professional posters and invitations printed. T-shirts made and Viral videos for the internet and worked very very hard.
In the end everything went smoothly. They made over £900 profit and the bar stayed open until 3.20am for them, when it usually closes at 2am.
They just have to decide which charity to give the proceeds to now :-)

Middle son got a 100% and a distinction in his assignment last week.

And Baby B has learnt to roll over :-)

I wonder what next week will bring?

p.s. Eldest son is a Musician and middle son is a Forensic Scientist. B is a baby ;-)

Spoilt Baby

Wow I thought Baby B was spoilt, until I read this today Britain's Most Spoilt Baby .
My eldest two boys always had everything they wanted, but we didn't go over the top and we didn't really have much money back then. However, the boys came first and we spent money on them rather than ourselves.
These days we are much older and have much better jobs, so we are in a different position, but there is no way I would spend unnecessary money on B. He certainly doesn't need designer sleepsuits and a really expensive travel system.
His nursery was semi finished yesterday. He's had new carpet and wallpaper, but he's had middle son's old furniture. There's absolutely nothing wrong with it and I couldn't justify buying him new furniture just for the sake of it. I joked on Twitter about feeling guilty, but I don't really. I'm all for recycling.
We decorated the room around the furniture. It's green so we have gone for a plain pale green wallpaper (reduced to £2.99 a roll) and have accessorised with Babies R Us "Loved & Adored" range. We have the uplighter, border, rug (teddy shape) and stickers for the furniture. We already had the changing mat and sleeping bag and we've also got the cot set for when he's in there.
Mother in Law is buying him a cot for Christmas, but it definitely won't be a hand-made, gold-plated designer affair ;-)

Chocolate

Hotel Chocolat are trying to tempt me.
They send me a pamphlet every week with pictures of all the lovely chocolates.
But they wouldn't send me one if they knew how bad I am for business. Oh no they wouldn't.
Last time I went in the shop I dropped one of the Caramellow slabs on the floor, which then smashed into pieces. I picked a couple of other things to buy and then sent hubby off with them and the broken one to pay (because I don't want them to think I do stupid things like dropping chocolate on the floor!).

Cashier:- Oh dear Sir this one is broken. Oh it's very broken - we'll have to do a discount for that one.

Darling husband gave me a look that could kill as I casually wandered off out of the shop. Laughing - just a little bit.

Blinds

Well the house is finally starting to resemble some sort of normality.
I hurt my hip on Friday, so I didn't do much on Saturday. I sat around willing it to be better by today so that I could look after the baby. I'm still having a couple of twinges, but it's nowhere near as bad as the pain I was in Friday. I even had to sleep sitting up because I couldn't lie down.
So due to my hip I played a supervisory role in sorting things out and putting things back. This involved me sitting down whilst my husband held up things and asked whether they were for the bin, charity or to keep :-)
The Conservatory is almost clear of "rubbish" now, but then we didn't really have any choice, as the blinds are being fitted today. Fortunately we aren't overlooked at the back so we've never had any blinds or curtains up since we moved in, 13 years ago, but the boys were having new blinds for their bedrooms so we decided to have some for the conservatory as well. It might help to keep it warmer in winter and cooler in summer (well I can hope).
In other news (as if I haven't given you enough excitement) Baby B is trying to roll from his back to his front.
Well that just about sums up my weekend.
Hope yours was good :-)
p.s I will soon shut up about my house renovations. The last of the carpets are coming tomorrow.

What a Fright!!

Yesterday I had one of the biggest frights of my life.

I decided that I would wash my hair while Baby B was asleep in his crib. The longest I've ever left him on his own before that was to make a cup of coffee or put some washing in.

After I'd washed my hair I went downstairs and could smell smoke. None of the electric smoke alarms that we've got in every room (on a circuit) had gone off, so I thought perhaps someone had a fire outside. Yes it was a stupid thought - who would have a fire in the snow?? 

Anyway I walked into the living room (where the crib is) and I could see black smoke lying on the floor. I grabbed the baby (fortunately the smoke hadn't risen) and gave him to my middle son to look after. I assumed it was something electrical, as it seemed to be coming from by the TV somewhere. I had a look but couldn't see anything, so I did what any girl does and rang my Dad. 

My husband had obviously got his bloody phone switched off!!! My Dad told me to switch off the electric and came round. He checked all the electrical things and everything was ok. Nothing was even hot.

As we were all standing round (eldest son was back by now) trying to figure out what it was, the room suddenly started filling full of smoke again. It was coming from under our fire!! Middle son went round next door to see if it was coming from there (we never use our fire).  The mystery was solved. The builders who've been working there for 2 years had got cold and lit a coal fire, which was somehow coming into our living room. They said they would put it out, so I opened all the windows and camped out upstairs with the baby until the smoke cleared.

Fortunately the baby was perfectly ok. The smoke hadn't risen and there wasn't a fire, but it scared me so much I felt sick thinking what could have happened.

As if I wasn't enough of an over-protective mother!! It will be a long time before I wash my hair again without Baby B in my sight.

Alone

Well mostly alone. Just me Baby B and sometimes one of the older boys.
And we are loving it.
For the first time since the beginning of June we are actually builder, plumber, carpenter,decorator, project manager etc. etc. free. Whooo hoooo. I feel like throwing a party.
I've discovered that Baby B actually likes to sleep after 7am. He woke up at 9.30 yesterday and just after 9 today. He doesn't go to sleep until 1.30/2 am ish, but that's still a good sleep with no interruptions :-)
I think I'm going to save thousands of pounds in Coffee, tea, milk and sugar as well, so that's a lovely bonus ;-)
The Project Manager is coming to bring the last of the paperwork for us to sign tonight and collect the remainder of the money, which we had held back until we were satisfied that they had actually finished and there were no more problems.
I've just realised though, that after the carpet is fitted next week I have no excuse not to get everything tidy and put back in place.
At least we'll have a lovely home for Christmas :-)