Surviving the Easter holidays

Day 2 of the Easter holidays, and we're surviving so far. In fact, Isabel and I are both quite enjoying it I think. We've done a few useful jobs (Sainsbury's, visit to the library, buying new shoes) and also some fun things (introducing her to all the pregnant NCT ladies, playdates at various friends' houses). Tomorrow it's haircuts and swimming lessons. It's difficult to book things in when you're 38 weeks pregnant though, since I'm very much aware that Pumpkin could decide to make her appearance at any time. The other difficult thing is that my natural inclination is to book lots of things to do, but I'm aware that I shouldn't be pushing myself too hard, so it's a delicate balance at the moment between doing enough to keep Isabel entertained while also not exhausting myself. Plenty of time for being exhausted after the baby's born, as people keep reminding me!

What it's got me wondering though, is what people do about holiday childcare when they're working. I have a reasonably standard holiday allowance (well, standard in the UK, not in the US - sorry about that, US colleagues) but even then five weeks off in a year isn't enough to cover school hols, which in total add up to 13 weeks. Even if Husbandio never took any days off at the same time we'd never be able to cover that. This year, holiday cover is a moot point since I'm on maternity leave for the Easter and summer holidays, and will have enough left to cover half term in October and then Christmas. But in future years this will all become more complex. High prices of going on holiday during the school holidays is one annoying thing, but simply covering all those weeks is going to be hard enough. I guess I'll be investigating holiday clubs and the like, but it seems kind of unfair - kids need some relaxing time as well as more activities. But I certainly won't be able to work with them in the house, that's already been proven beyond doubt. Mind have to call on the grandparents as well I guess, that'll help - they'll be demanding a salary before I know it, and rightly so! My neighbour's got it right - her contract with her job is only for term-time. Now why didn't I think of that?

It's a Dog's Life

I've come into contact with four dogs in the last three days, and it's got me to thinking about how I'd really like us to get a dog. Having said that, I wouldn't want any of the dogs I've come across, although they do all have their good points. So this getting a dog business will take some serious thinking about. I thought I'd use this blog to make a list of pros and cons that I can then look back on once this whole having a baby lark is done and dusted (that's #1 on the list of reasons to get a dog, but not just now!).

Pros:

• Good companion while I'm working at home
• Loves its owner unconditionally, in theory (unlike cats, definitely not a pet for me)
• Would make me, Husbandio and the kids get out in the fresh air and do some walking
• Improves security of the house (depending on the character of the dog!)
• Good for kids to take a share of responsibility in looking after it
• Hoovers up stray food dropped by clumsy children (and Husbandio!)

Cons:

• Expensive (food, vets bills, pet insurance)
• Can be smelly
• Drop hair, so would increase the amount of cleaning needed
• A big responsibility - can't give it back if it turns out to have major character flaws
• Difficult to go away on holiday, need to make arrangements to look after the dog
• Needs a lot of walking even when the weather is grim

These look like pretty balanced lists, but they ignore the fact that I really WANT a dog. I always have really, but since I grew up living in flats in central London that was never really practical. And, until now, both Husbandio and I have always had jobs which required us to be out of the house from 8am - 6pm as a minimum, which just isn't fair on a dog, it'd get too lonely. But now I'll be working from home, which makes the whole thing much more feasible. So, any suggestions on breeds welcomed, although I'm pretty tempted to get a rescue dog from a home, especially after seeing that report last year about what too much inter-breeding has done to some breeds. Criteria for any dog would include:

• Good with kids
• Doesn't shed too much
• Not too enormous (smaller = cheaper, and a bit less walking!)
• Not too yappy - while I don't want a massive dog, I don't want a tiny ankle biter either

That's about it - am I asking too much? At the moment I'm liking the idea of a miniature Schnauzer since I have a friend whose mum had two and they were just lovely. But since I think it'll take us at least a year to make a decision as to whether this is definitely something we want to do I may well change my mind.

Artistic tendencies (or should that be autistic?)

We had a lovely relaxing day today - well, tiring, yet relaxing, if you know what I mean. It was another day filled with family - eleven of us went to the pub near my dad's house for lunch. My aunt drove up from Bristol with my cousin, who lives in Australia and hasn't visited for almost three years, plus my cousin's son and another cousin's son. There's loads of kids in our family which makes get togethers really fun, but can be confusing for new family members - Husbandio still sometimes leans over and whispers "what's so-and-so's kid called?" or "whose child is that?" and he's now been part of this family for coming up to twelve years! We need colour-coded badges really. After the pub the boys (a ten year old, two fourteen year olds, and Husbandio, who held his own very well!) played footie on the sports field for a while which my sister and I made daisy chains for Isabel, then we all came back to our house (in a three car convoy!) for afternoon tea.

The morning was the quiet relaxing part though - Isabel decided she wanted to do some painting, and I was brave enough to allow her to do it, even in the new kitchen. Full parenting points to me, I think. Course, the table was covered in an old shower curtain and she had a large painting overall on, but nonetheless! Husbandio got up as we were getting into our artistic stride and we all ended up doing our own version of a queen (or king, in Husbandio's case). To be honest, artistic talent is not something either of us are renowned for, as you see from the pics below. Can you guess which picture belongs to each of us? I wouldn't be surprised if the answer was no.


Isabel then proceeded to demonstrate that she is definitely the best artist of the three of us, with her interpretation of the weeping cherry tree outside our house which is just starting to blossom. Almost impossible to tell the difference between her picture and the real thing, if you ask me!

Good times with the family

We had a very nice day with family members from both sides of the family today - aunt, uncle, cousin and grandmother from Husbandio's side, plus dad, dad's partner and brother from my side. And a very jolly crowd we were, scoffing down portions of the largest lasagne known to man, and then following up, after a few of the assembled had taken the dogs for a walk, with a round of afternoon tea and cakes. The weather was lovely, glorious sunshine all afternoon, and everyone got on famously - it was the first time the two sides had met, and it was great to see everyone chatting away like old friends.

It made me sad in one way though, because today would have been my grandmother's birthday - she died a couple of years ago, and I still miss her. My whole family does, she was a real lynchpin (or gossip hub, from a different perspective!). I put up one of her plates on the wall in the kitchen today and made the lasagne in the Spode dish (VAST dish!) she gave Husbandio and I as a wedding present.

The relationship I had with her was really the ideal grandparent/grandchild relationship - I used to spend lots of time down on the farm that she and my grandfather lived on in Gloucestershire, weeks at a time during the school holidays, and spent every Christmas there for many years. Those times seem to me now like a real golden age even though we didn't used go out and do exciting things every day. She just fitted me into her regular routine as if I were one of her own children - I even used to go and help her clean the local church (and me such a nice Jewish girl!), and to this day the smell of furniture polish transports me back to those days. To me she was always loving, firm and fair and of course, like all grandmothers, she dished out the occasional treat. Anyway, before I write my way into a maudlin heap of hormonal tears I shall sign off - Happy Birthday Nanny, I miss you. I hope Isabel and Pumpkin enjoy the same closeness with their grandmothers as I did with mine, and for as long.

Possibly the last outing to the movies for many months....

One of the things which Husbandio and I promised we'd do in our week off together before Pumpkin's arrival was go to the movies. We did lots of jobs earlier in the week but today managed to squeeze a movie in during school hours - I've never been to a movie at 11am before, but it was kind of cool. And we even managed a trip to Sainsbury's first, to stock up in preparation for several family visits over the weekend.

The movie we chose was The Boat That Rocked, the new Richard Curtis film. It's about a pirate radio station operating off a ship in the North Sea during the 1960s, which on the face of it is not very promising for a sitcom-type of movie. But, as with all Richard Curtis movies, the ensemble case was very good and really carried the film - Bill Nighy was fantastic, as was Phillip Seymour Hoffman. For me, Nick Frost was kind of weak (sorry, not a sex symbol in my book, and never will be....), and the effects were poor. The blue screen work at the end and the rocky camera work at the beginning (to demonstrate that we were on a boat - yes, thanks, I got that....) were, respectively, very obvious and very seasick-making. But the plot was fun, if stretched out a little bit (could have been 20 minutes shorter), and just the act of going to the movies is always a treat for me. Especially on this occasion, since I'm not sure when we'll get to go again, plus we bought the tickets using the points on the Nectar card, so it was essentially a free outing. And we all know how I feel about free....!

Catching up with old friends

I spent most of today with a friend that I met through a baby group I used to go to with Isabel years ago. After the group ended, a handful of us used to meet up every Friday afternoon, ostensibly to do some singing with the babies, but in reality to get the singing out of the way so that we could drink tea and eat choccie biscuits. We met regularly for more than three years, and it became a really important part of my week, and an opportunity to get together with mums and nannies who had kids almost exactly the same age as Isabel.

There was a two month age spread amongst the kids, who were all born between the middle of July and the beginning of September 2004, and it was fascinating to see how different they were in some ways, and how similar in others. For example, there was a very big range in ages of when they all walked for the first time - one walked at 8 1/2 months, and another not until almost 18 months i.e. a span of nearly a year. But the one who walked early didn't speak many words until he was at least two, whereas the late walker was waving and saying "bye bye" before he was a year. I guess the brain at that age can focus on getting a few tasks right at a time, and for one it was walking, while for the other it was talking! Isabel was in the middle - walked at 13 months, and talked reasonably early - I remember her answering "not keen on mushrooms" to the question "do you like mushrooms?" well before she was two. Chatting has never been difficult for her!

It was really sad when the group started to break up. Most of us have moved house - one to Suffolk, one to Athens, one to Barnes, one to Golders Green, one to Putney, and us to Bucks. I think only two of the group haven't moved house, come to that. And of course all the kids have started school, and that in combination with the whole house moving issue makes it really hard to meet up. I saw all of them at Hallowe'en, but missed the Christmas party because Isabel was sick. And I'm meant to be seeing all of them at the end of the Easter holidays, but I don't think that the timing will work with the arrival of the mother-in-law's flight from Spain. And the meeting date is also four days before Pumpkin's due date, so events in the meantime may prevent me from attending anyway - will have to wait til the summer holidays instead. And rely on Facebook! Or maybe a reunion in Athens is an idea worth considering....hmm, now there's a nice thought!

The jobs just keep on coming

There seems to be a lot to do to get ready for Pumpkin's arrival, and every time I think I'm nearing the end of the list I seem to add a few more tasks on to the bottom. I think actually it's new baby jobs plus new kitchen-related jobs - today we spent some thrilling times taking things back to Homebase and Topps Tiles which we hadn't used. Well, seems a shame to throw money down the drain by not returning things like tile adhesive, can't see us having a family tiling afternoon! But there seems to be light at the end of the tunnel - Pumpkin's room looks pretty much ready (not that she'll be in it for six months or so!), the garage is clear-ish and looks tidy at any rate, and the kitchen is now in tip top shape. Apart from the oven door of course!

I think that means it must be time for a couple of quieter days - I was going to suggest a trip to IKEA to check out curtains for the kitchen, but just can't be bothered. We did have some chilling out time today while waiting in for the cooker engineer to verify that the door had indeed exploded ("ooh, never seen that happen before etc") but more of the same would be nice. We watched Quantum of Solace after lunch which I'd been keen to see for months, and of course I managed to sleep through a good 45 minutes of it - curses! Having slept through two other films in the last few days (Wanted and Iron Man), it's starting to get aggravating. I'll have to do more ironing while watching movies - sleeping while standing up is beyond even me!