But I want PINK dancing shoes Mummy.......

I forgot to mention the other day that BB went to his first dancing lesson at the weekend. I have been determined to get him started for a while now - so was pleased when we finally turned up to the local Dancing School on saturday morning all excited about his new venture. However, I must admit that even I had some apprehension when we were sat in the changing room waiting for the class to start surrounded by a sea of pink! He was the only boy in the class, which was made up of the most adorable little collection of stereotypical 'little girl does ballet' types that you've ever seen. net skirts included. I even asked a friend out loud 'if it was a bit gay for BB to join in?' but she quickly poo-pooed my growing doubt that I'd done the right thing.
He hung back until his little friend Izzy stomped her way through the door - then he gleefully followed after. We waited until the music started to confirm that no bawling children would re-appear before sneaking off to do some shopping and catch up over a cuppa!

I have to emphasise that this is NOT a ballet class which he is attending (although they do do some of that too) but everything is covered from Tap to Highland and poise and posture. Basically to a 3 year old I think it means you get to run around on your tippytoes to music for an hour!!! He loved it and was full of babble about his dancing school and the dancing teacher all the way home.

Because it was his first time - he went in his socks, so today we went to get some proper dancing shoes (black pumps - I'll wait and see if he's still interested in a few weeks before buying tap shoes!) He was all psyched up about getting his new dancing shoes, but after about the 20th time of repeating it in the car I could have sworn that he'd added an extra word to the phrase 'we're going to get my new dancing shoes Mummy' on most occassions the addition of extra words would be overlooked - if in fact even registered - but on this occassion the word in question was PINK!
Yup you heard me right (as did I him) he started telling me we were 'going to get his new PINK dancing shoes'! (His Dad's gonna shoot me.....)
I quickly told him that girls wear pink dancing shoes and boys wear black ones. That was it - the world was going to end.......BUT I WANT PINK DANCING SHOES MUMMY!!!!!
(on repeat with loud wails.)
Oh - god how do I deal with this one???? I told him that the shop might not have any pink boys shoes left, but we'd wait and see what they had when we got there - it stalled him briefly!
Luckily I managed to inform the lady quickly in code about them only stocking black boys shoes and her response (along with the very clever distraction of lots of toys to play with in the shop) seemed to appease him. I don't think he even paid attention whilst she tried them on his feet! Phew.

On leaving the shop we crossed the road to visit what was now our 5th pharmacy of the day, because believe it or not after all that trauma BB probably won't even be able to attend his class on saturday. He has once again developed conjunctivitus. It was tough to register the very obviously mounds of green gloop which were present in the corners of his eyes when I picked him up from nursery today. The teacher informed me that, if it was indeed the aforementioned, he had to be clear for 24hrs before he could go back. After what we went through last year with him I set myself on a mission to get something to treat it and nip it in the bud before it got worse. Here's where the drawbacks of staying in the sticks near a small village come in. I didn't realise that both the Doctors surgery and the local Pharmacist were closed on Thursday afternoons! Handy huh? (Only discovered once we'd driven through!) so we went to the local town only to discover that apparently eye ointment is in short supply (they do have drops but they weren't suitable for BB) and they'd been informed they wouldn't get any more until February!!! We then went to Boots - now surely......NOPE!
So it was off to the next town which is substantially bigger (and also happens to be where the dance shoe shop is!) and tried a couple there. Success at last - in the third one I went into they had some. He's been great at letting me clean his eyes (about every 5 mins) and letting me put in the cream - as he really wants to go to nursery tomorrow (aparently they're getting the train track out). I'm all prepped for the devastation when he realises that he can't go. I have a feeling he won't be so receptive to treatment in the morning....



LL's skin however is much better. He's loving his nightly 'bath in the sink!'

Am I a bad person???

I sent my son, who had just landed on his head to the naughty step today!

That makes me sound really bad, but I'll rewind and explain my reasons for doing so and you may understand (it probably won't stop me from being a bad person though....)

After a fairly straight forward morning spent dropping of BB at nursery, then (finally) posting my friends daughter's christmas present and blethering to a few mums at toddlers whilst LL wiled away the hour and half (during which I took the decisive step of deciding to start BB at swimming lessons that very afternoon -one mum is a swimming teacher - well done me!) I picked up BB from nursery and got him psyched up about said swimming lessons and the fact that we were heading for a playdate with his wee pal at the local soft play place.

All was going well.

Then I got both boys sat at the table and started to prep lunch. I turned at one point to see BB up on the table on his knees. He got told sternly to sit back down on his chair and I turned back to what I was doing. That's when I heard the - THUD *split second silence* SCREAM - combination that caused me to whisk round, expecting to see the toppled chair which had caused the thud. However I was faced with only BB on the tiled floor, a very upright chair and the cold realisation that the thud was in fact caused by his head as he chose it as the item he'd like to cushion his fall to the very hard floor. 'Hmmm - that's not very good!' I thought to myself (or something similar) as I picked up the very distressed loon.

A subsequent 20mins of frantic crying and clinging followed (escalated by his now starving, crying little brother who's only concern was why his food wasn't prepped and in front of him)I tried to continue lunch service one handedly whilst trying to humph a (bloody heavy) 3 year old on one hip. I tried 'Mr. Bump' I dutifully supplied him with the cream which he requested (a pretend rub on his head with savlon) but nothing was working. He complained of a sore head and a sore cheek (or as I was corrected TWO sore cheeks!) He was obviously making the headache worse with the pressure he would have been exerting on it with the excessive screaming, so finally I told him he was going to have to 'time out' for a while and took him out to what he knows as the naughty step. Now the reasoning for this is that he normally chills out whilst sat there and, in fact, tells you to go away and come back later when you come to let him off of said step - but not today. He just followed me back into the kitchen and told me I had to look after him. (guilts, guilts, guilts!!!)
He then fell asleep stood up hugging me.

That's never good.

I awoke him and sat him on my lap and tried to get him to eat something (or at least drink his milk) but I just couldn't keep him awake. He'd respond with a grunt then just pass out again.

That's never good either!

I called the docs and not surprisingly they were in fact eating their lunch - so no reply there. I then resorted to calling NHS 24. We went over a few checks and stuff and they got me to poke and prod him whilst they were on the phone. A conclusion was drawn to have him checked by his GP and for me to watch out for mood swings (like I'd be able to tell - haha), vomiting, or severe drowsiness and unresponsiveness (best keep him away from the box then!) I asked if we should stay in, but was told to keep him active - so we opted for still going to soft play! (I think that salvates my previous naughty step hiccup?)
I was questioning my choice when he vomited as soon as we got out of the car - but boldly we still went in!
To (finally) cut the story short - we had the check at the docs, he's fine apart from being a grumpy little sod and my peaceful day wasn't so peaceful after all!

Oh and as for the swimming - I thought that would be a step too far, so as far as he's concerned they closed the pool for the afternoon and we'll start next week instead!

A rush zone....

Phew what a busy (past few) days!

This morning started early as BFS was getting ready to head back to work. Once up with LL it was get brekkie on the go, get his big brother up and organised for nursery, tidy up the playroom (which we're trying to reclaim back from the kids) for the imminent arrival of a new sofa for the room, then get BB back from nursery, await the Sky HD man to install our swanky new box, then jump in the car to head to ABZ where the window people were finishing off installing new windows into our old home, dinner at Grandma's, have a quick natter (without even a cuppa may I add - must brush up your hospitality skills Mum!!!) then back in the car for the hour drive back home then get the boys into bed. Crazy stuff!

We had two birthday parties this weekend past and SS up visiting too. I've spent what's left of my evening finalising a little treat I've organised for BFS so hopefully will get some editing done tomorrow and post something up on here.

The New Year has started all in a fluster - let's hope it calms somewhat from here!!!

I Heart Faces - (cheeky chappie!)

Ignoring the fact that his curly bedhead makes him look like a girl - just how irresistible is LL in this pic????

It's been a while since I posted a pic in the I Heart Faces website, but since this weeks theme is Best Face Photo and it had to be a recent pic, since this little charmer was already posted I thought I'd update the post to make it an entry.

Check out the other entries at the website www.iheartfaces.com

The Santa Clause...

Here's the moment that my very patient son had been waiting for, for what seemed to be an eternity -coming face to face with Santa to be given a present.

Today was his little brothers Christmas party at the local Toddlers group, but since Nursery closed it's doors for the hols yesterday he tagged along too.

The list of names appeared to be endless as one after the other little boys and girls came forward to collect their pressie from the Big Man in the Red Suit. My boy seemed a bit stunned when it was finally his turn. He turned to look at me when his name was read out, as though he couldn't believe it was actually him that Santa was asking for! Bless him - he'd been sitting near the front cautiously eyeing him up the whole time, but boy he was pleased as punch when he strutted away with his very own gift.

As for his brother - well he spent most of the time Mr. Claus was in the room howling and clung to his mummy! (Hence no pics!) in fact the only thing that stopped his tears was his pressie - which he paraded around with proudly! (If only he'd been first in the queue......)

About a boy!

Pure and simple this is BB. Not edited - just as he is. Beautiful.

Who can resist those chops? And those lips....



It's very seldom I get to take pictures of him now. He either doesn't stop still for long enough or just simply hides as he's sick of having the camera pointed in his face.



But when it's a face as gorgoeus as this who could blame me?

I am biased I suppose - I am his mother!

p.s I decided after the first set of pics he needed a haircut - so I sat him down and gave him one!

Christmas has arrived at Station House!

Okay, okay, so it's been a while since I wrote. I've been concentrating my time on my boys (all three of them) and work. However I did manage to sneak in a trip to the garden centre at the start of the month one day whilst BFS was on a training course to pick out a xmas tree with the boys (all two of them!)
BB kept informing me as we wandered around the collection of spruces that he liked 'little trees' but mum had the overriding vote in the end and purchased a suitable 'big' tree. Warning bells should have rung when the tiny lady who was there to assist couldn't actually get it to fit through the netting wrapping thing (?) We Piled it into the back of the pick-up and back home I got to work with the saw as it was too thick for the stand - doh! Once suitably trimmed I (with great difficulty) dragged it into the house and erected it in it's new home for the next few weeks. Eeeek - it's slightly rotund! I knew the height was fine (the nice lady measured it with a stick) but I didn't really take into account the diameter.

I think BFS's reaction when he came home sums it up......'F**king H*ll it's HUGE!!!!'

But I like it ;0)

BB helped decorate. His favourite phrase right now is 'I have a big xmas tree and it's all the way up to the ceiling and has a star on top!' He tells everyone!



I love Christmas!



On Saturday BB, BFS and I spent a day in the capital. Me shopping and the boys playing on the rides.



Helter Skelter, Big Wheel and Ice Rink included. I believe both had a ball. I did (well, apart from the aching arms!!!)

Both boys have had a vomiting bug in the past couple of days - but both are fine now. The appetites are a bit suppressed, and I called BB's bluff tonight when he informed me he was too tired to eat by sending him to bed at 5:30. I wonder if he'll call the same line tomorrow? I have already been up to a crying loon twice since, the second time for the most random reason. You really do have to be a talented whine interpreter to settle a frustrated teary boy who is asking for - wait for it- (the most likely thing you'd be thinking of in the middle of the evening.....) A fishing rod!!!!! Huh? did I hear him correct - after about 10 more and more agitated attempts in his crying whiny voice (which may I add was getting higher pitched and harder to understand the more often his request was put to me) I finally thought I'd heard him correctly and asked if he was asking for a fishing rod. Indeed he was!

Just when you think you have them sussed - they move the goalposts! The number one lesson in parenting.



btw this one's for BFS - taken today x