the adlards

The “heat wave” continues and Jo spent most of the afternoon paddling at Sebastien’s house. Unfortunately Mum had forgotten her swim nappy (Josie’s I mean) so she went in in just in her sun suit. Isn’t it crazy what kids have to wear in the sun these days?

Michelle had a great afternoon socialising in between catching poops in the pool. It’s worth noting that feeding your child fruit snacks before letting them spend the afternoon swimming without a swim nappy on is not a recipe for a relaxing afternoon. Apparently they’re sneaky little blighters too, lurking in the legs until they’re least expected then making a mad dash for the nearest floating toy offering some cover. Real test of dexterity …

Of course I spent the afternoon in meetings. The air conditioning in my corner of London was working moderately well but chocolate still melted on my desk. The thermometers in the girls’ rooms read 27 when we put them to bed tonight.

You’ll be tremendously relieved to hear that I’m feeling much better about the Away Day. The forecast says it’ll be sunny and the organiser-person-in-chief says there’ll be plenty of time to play in the sun or fall asleep under a tree. I could probably extent the time available for these pursuits by skipping meals or claiming the onset of sudden acute claustrophobia or a fit of fainting, depending on my position at the time. I’m beginning to look forward to it.

Josie’s been asking to visit the airport for a few days now because she knows her Nan is coming to visit. We’re getting the girls up early tomorrow and heading to Heathrow to fetch her before work. So looking forward to having her around, and Josie’s going to go ballistic. Almost a pity that I’ll be leaving them at Heathrow to commute into work …

Arne Brachhold has released Google Sitemap Generator for WordPress 2.5. This adds functionality to handle external urls and pinging Google automatically when your sitemap is updated. Works a treat.

Apologies to those of you who’ve had problems getting an RSS feed off this site. There was a bug in the WP version I was using that returned a 304 error. Now patched and apparently working properly.

Aah, the night before the morning after a thoroughly engrossing holiday. I enjoy my work, mostly, and am looking forward to it, but would far rather be doing it from my quiet corner of the sitting room. Quite why I’m required to work in an office every day, breathing tepid second-hand air and trying desperately to concentrate through the gradual onset of annoxia is beyond me.

This week promises to be extra special – not only do I have work to look forward to, but Thursday and Friday will be consumed by the Company Away Day. Very nice hotel, very nice company. Do you read dooce.com? You’d also be careful if you did. I’d really rather not have to be away for a piss up at this particular stage of my family’s development. I hope it’s sunny and there’s lots of time to run around outside or sleep under a tree – that’s my kind of away day.

It’s been a brilliant couple of weeks. The trick is going to be maintaining some sort of balance and keeping writing …

Hope you both have a wonderful day …

Oh dear, where to begin …
The beeb upgraded their estimate to 30 degrees today and 29 tomorrow. The car said it was 37 today, the truth is probably somewhere in between.

Josie and I set out early to the market to get stuff from the fishmongers to barbeque. He had live crabs and lobster, which we had a good look at and picked up (but didn’t have the heart to take home and eat). We bought sea bass and prawns. This was probably my first mistake of the day.
Hot tip: if your wife is absolutely knackered and feeding and changing a baby every couple of hours, concentrate on simple meals with good nutritional value and lots of protein. Heinz does a great line of spaghetti in tomato sauce in the shape of Pooh bears that she could eat through a straw if she wanted to. Chargrilled sea bass and marinated prawns are not simple. Also, although eating fish just like Pingu sounds exciting and gets you running about demanding “fish, fish”, the act might not live up to the expectation. Michelle had cereal for dinner and Josie tried a little bit of everything and then ate a bread roll.

We spent most of the day outdoors, although I did manage to turn the living room into a bomb site by dismantling the table ready to take it away to make space for the sofa Michelle wants me to move in. Turns out she wanted both (and of course has neither). And just one day left before I return to work …

Jo had a great time in her paddling pool and Sophie enjoyed the dappled shade at the bottom of the garden. I let Josie run around in her costume until she piddled on Sophie’s blanket, at which point I put her back in her nappy. She started to pull the velcro; “Josie, don’t touch. Josie! Josie, look at me. [Sharp clap of the hands to generate eye contact]. Josie look at me [vigorous two-fingered ‘I’ve got my eyes on you’ motion a la Meet the Parents to keep attention]. Don’t touch your nappy darling, do you understand?”
“Yes.”
She brought it to me five minutes later carrying it carefully in both hands: “poo, daddy?” Yes, darling it is. Thanks.

I thought it’d do her bum good to run around naked outside in the evening sunshine so left her without a nappy. After a while she disappeared into the shed and I saw her moving things about so wandered down to make sure the pointy things and poisons were out of reach. She’d tipped a bag of charcoal out on the floor and was raking it around with a wire brush. She looked like a chimney sweep so I helped her rake for a bit then sent her to show Mum 😀

The next logical step was to put her on the potty, where she widdled and was rewarded then didn’t want to get off because she was sure she was going to do another one. I coaxed her off to have a special “wipe bath” – wipe down with baby wipes instead of a bath because I’d let her play far too late to have a bath but she was absolutely filthy. I turned to help her off the potty and she was holding a suspiciously damp-looking pencil. “AIOU, dad?” which is what she says when she wants to practice writing. “Just put the pencil down carefully on the table darling.”

My, what fun we’ve had.

Pics of Jo in the pool in the gallery.

We’re still decided about the conservatory.

It’s been a balmy 28 degrees C today. It’ll be down to 26 tomorrow and then up at 28 for Sunday, so the beeb tells me. That makes it a barbeque weekend, which means there won’t be an organic lamb chop to be had for love or money in any supermarket by 10am tomorrow. I knew the weather was going to be good when I was shopping at Morrisons this morning and some poor sod was dragging a towering pallet of “easy light real lumpwood charcoal” to a specially cleared shelf in the middle of the store. Reminiscent of the famous air conditioner shortage of the summer of ’03.

Josie was at Sebastien’s house for the day and had a great time at the park, in the paddling pool and generally tearing about. Michelle and I, as a result, had a quiet day together (with sporadic interruptions from Sophie). These days come around once every six to eight months. We painted the new bathroom at last, and had lunch together at Wagamamas. Sophie very politely slept through lunch.

We found a brilliant play school for Josie today. She can’t start until early next year because they start at 2yrs 9mnths, so we’ll keep looking for something for an afternoon a week in the interim. This little school was terrific. The children were all relaxed, happy and, most importantly, having fun (except for one who was very calmly having an ice pack applied to his eye, which I particularly appreciated). The staff were all confident and looked me in the eye while showing me around and explaining what they do. Basically they let the children play and learn stuff as they go along, which makes sense to me. They’ve also paid obvious attention to detail in helping kids build confidence and identity – everything from having aprons little kids can put on by themselves to having clearly delimited, but accessible, themed play areas. I liked it – and I’m enormously relieved.

I think we decided today to take the plunge and have a conservatory built onto the house – a decision we’ve put off for a couple of months waiting for Sophie and to ensure we don’t rush in. Far from rushing in, we’ve waited long enough for the salesmen we got quotes from to stop phoning us. I say, “I think we decided” because any decision at the moment is at least as much emotional as it is rational. The alternate plan for a deck with a hot tub holds some appeal, but doesn’t make as useful a kids’ play area. I’ll let you know tomorrow whether we’re still decided.

“We’re going to go and wake up baby, Josie, would you like to help?”
“Yes, wake up baby.” [running upstairs]
“Now Josie, listen to daddy, look at me. [Holding her gently by the shoulders] We’re going to wake up baby very quietly – look at me please – we’re going to go into baby’s room very quietly and quietly wake her up. No-one’s going to shout ‘Wake up, baby!’, okay?”
[Mum and Dad roll around helplessly shrieking with laughter]

I think we might be slightly sleep-deprived.

Yesterday Josie gave Sophie a cracking double-handed ‘high five’. Unfortunately Sophie was fast asleep at the time – she likes to sleep on her back with her hands up on either side of her face. It’s an easy mistake to make.

We popped in to the little school down the road for an hour or so today, and Josie had a lot of fun painting and playing in the water-play tank. She even sat with everyone in a circle at the beginning of the day to practice the names of fruit and veg (?!) and sing songs, which she told Mum all about when we got home. She also tried to drink the water in the play tank but was stopped in very short order by a lady who told her it was “uraaaagh”. All the way home I was told “Josie drink water uraaaagh”. I tried to find more positive things to talk about.

For all its charm, the minders very clearly feel a burden to teach the kids stuff (unless that’s just put on for visiting parents), so I decided it’s worth visiting the competition, starting tomorrow.

We’ve put some new pics of Sophie in the bath in the gallery.

There is much confusion in the English speaking world on the subject of pancakes. As with snow, we’re limited to a single word to describe something which, if you actually get close enough for it to matter, displays startling variety. I did nothing to alleviate this confusion today, and have no doubt that having run around the house yelling, “Pancakes! Pancakes!” for half an hour Josie is none the wiser about what she should actually have been expecting.

I’ve been craving pancakes for a few days, those thick ones they have for breakfast on the other side of the pond, not the thin ones we have on Shrove Tuesday, or the tiny little ones some people call pancakes. What I produced differed substantially from the mental image associated with my craving, so I ate ten of them drenched in maple syrup and moved on.

On the family front, Michelle and Sophie were discharged by the community midwife today. All’s well. Health visits start tomorrow. Sophie has moved into her own room today and seems to have taken to it well. It’s certainly snugger, darker and quieter than what she’s been used to for the past week (but not, of course, what she was used to before that). Also Kerry noticed that Ben and Anna (aforementioned brother and sister-in-law), have the same names as the junior Schonkens. There are so many things I could say about taste and originality, but as Kerry says, they’re clearly a great pair of names.

Josie’s going to visit a pre-school tomorrow. Whenever she and I have gone walking in the past ten days, we’ve passed a little school about a block away and Josie’s wanted to go and play with the children inside. On Monday she and I went and copied down all the contact numbers from the gate and we’re going to go and visit them tomorrow. Should be fun! I hope they let her stay if she wants to and not just take a five minute tour; she’d be most disappointed not to be able to run around with the others … we shall see.

I’m looking forward to seeing how the place feels, and understanding their approach to managing the children. I think the behavioural and enculturating influence of organised education is deeply flawed, so am bound to enjoy taking my precious daughter to visit a playschool tomorrow. 😐 I think it’s just childcare on a bigger scale really, so they probably will let her climb and explore and do dangerous things … I must remember to make it clear that Josie’s favourite thing is to climb up onto the window sills and traverse them using the window-handles for support while gazing out into the garden searching for squirrels, birds, cats, basically anything that moves. I think they’ve got burglar guards on the windows there, so it should be easy.

Congratulations to Kerry and Gareth vH who are expecting their third li’l critter in September! Great to hear from you today Kerry. Kerry’s blog is at vanharm.blogspot.com

Today has been arresting. No I didn’t get around to clearing the drains, painting the bathroom or re-arranging the nursery, but the day managed to fill up anyway. Oh bloody hell; our deaf neighbour’s just turned the telly on. For some reason she prefers watching without her hearing aid in. I’m sure I’ll understand if I reach 90, but whereas 15 seconds ago I was slouched comfortably in my own quiet corner of the living room, I now have Bill Oddy blaring in my left ear about “truly ferocious slugs”. I kid you not. Oh come on …
“They are, of course, particularly partial to hostas (cue pre-school, hoppy-type music no doubt while the ferocious slugs do their thing in time-lapse)”. If I had a decent recorder I’d post a sound-byte just so you’d know what I have to contend with. Come to think of it, if I do make it to 90 I’ll be able to sit in my own quiet corner of the room even if there’s someone else in the room using a hammer drill. There’s always an upside, just not always necessarily for you.

Sophie Mai was registered today at the St Albans registry office, which has moved and is in a beautiful building with huge cannon outside (no mere shotgun weddings here) and a sign saying “please do not throw confetti”. I’m sure with time they’ll extend it to include rice, petals and those little plastic champagne-bottle shaped canisters of bubbles that seem to be so popular but must really hurt. Josie and I told a very nice gentleman all about Sophie while Josie gave the loose bits on his desk a thorough inspection for nothing. Lucky man. At least he had the good sense to store all his books behind glass.

We had a long wait at the doctor’s, a little later on, in a room without any air and with facilities that had a hyperactive automatic deodoriser. I hate those things with a passion and this one had a particularly cheap and nasty scent, a bit like school urinals crossed with that very sweet perfume you sometimes have to stand near on the train that makes your sinuses hurt immediately. I locked the door from the outside with a 20p coin but Michelle made me open it again. I also tried opening a nearby external door to get some fresh air in, but we must have been on the wrong side of the building because there was a steady outward wash of tepid, disease-laden air. You could almost hear it moan. I closed the door in the interests of health and sanity.

There was a gentleman waiting when we arrived at the doctor’s, who was still waiting when we left. He stood the entire time, leaning heavily on a pair of crutches. There were seats available, for the avoidance of doubt, but he’d chosen to snuggle into a gap with a rather verdant ficus. I was impressed by his stamina at the time, but later in the car Michelle said she’d seen him there last week doing exactly the same thing. I suggested he might be one of those new installation artists one hears about. Michelle thinks it’s haemorrhoids. Aaargh. The man needs crutches. Shudder. Can ‘roids be terminal? Does he sleep in gravity boots? Not sure I’m going to sleep well tonight, and I’m certainly going to drink more water.

In other news Ben and Anna (heretofore unmentioned brother and sister-in-law) bought a dog and are looking for a name, and Josie has taken looking after Sophie to the next level, allowing her to suck her thumb until she can figure out how to suck her own. Pics in the gallery.