the adlards

now in the gallery.

Today was Sophie’s birthday. After present-opening we headed for the beach where Soph feasted on sand, Jo dug pools and Mum and Dad tried some resting.

Josie is very excited that we can go to the beach a lot. When Granny Gill rang to wish Sophie happy birthday she told her all about it. It took her a few days to establish that we were staying here for a while – on day one she refused to leave the beach because she thought we were going home. Now the house in Abersoch is “our shower house” (on account of it not having a bath), as distinct from “our house”. She’s happy as a pig in mud.

Birhday cake and ice creams and a long walk rounded off a great birthday. We’ve borrowed a second baby carrier to carry Soph in and she absolutely loves it.

We finished the day with an ill-fated attempt to get the kids to sleep in the tent. Far too exciting for sleep evidently. Still, I can attest to the fact that one’s body will effectively strip the alcohol from most-of-a-bottle of champagne such that peeing on a fire to put it out in the dead of night does not lead to general conflagration.

Birthday pics to follow when an agonisingly slow upload is complete …

… pics in the gallery.

We accepted an offer on our house yesterday so the toys can come back out, Josie can fingerpaint the walls and we can allow more than a day’s laundry to accumulate before washing. It’s a greater relief than we’d anticipated.

We don’t want to move into rented and move twice, so the hunt is on for somewhere to live!

Josie has slept through the last two nights without having nightmares. It’s made an enormous difference to her energy in the mornings and her temperament on waking: “Daddy, I wasn’t scared again!”

We’re all off to Wales for a week’s break soon hoping for a chance to unwind.

at lunch today i sat while both my girls fed themselves blueberries and cheese slices. now for tea its blue berries veggie sausage rolls (jo) and marmite toast (for soph) . and now sophie is smacking her little lips as she eats.

we have had a huge improvement in soph since we started bottle feeding her on mon – she is down to just 2 breastfeeds a day and is thriving, slept through 3 out of 4 nights (only about 10 times in her life!) and is so much more energetic. even her head seems to have changed shape and filled out -the poor child seems to have been hungry and thirsty for along time – thank god for miracles.

gill you will be pleased to know she even stayed in a crawl position for a little while on her own 8)

goggles + glasses = gogglessessessessess

On the subject of laughing you have got to check out Koos Kombuis. His Eskom song (link at top) rendered me helpless and his blog had me crying with laughter.

Appreciation of South Africa and knowledge of Afrikaans required. Put the kids to bed, skink vir jouself ‘n glasie wyn – of liewer iets bietjie sterker – and prepare to be transported.

Finding his site has completely cured me of my childhood resentment at having to learn Afrikaans. Thanks, Piet, for the pointer …

The weather this morning reminds me of a ‘real-life story that landed you in hospital’ that was told on Nick Ferrari (LBC radio presenter)’s show a while back:
A man and his father were working an allotment. The son had got mud caked thickly in the tread of his right boot making work uncomfortable, so looked about for something to lean against while he shook the mud off. There was an electricity pylon close by, so he leaned against it, lifted his right foot and began shaking the mud off. His father turned around and seeing his son clearly in the spasms of electrocution beat him off the pylon with a spade.

New pics in the gallery.

… at first we thought a cat must have brought it in. Turns out somebody was trying out her new teeth. Yeuuurrrgggh. It was a while before we could contemplate dinner so, of course, I feel obliged to pass it on.