Friday? Fri-YAY!!

Weekend is almost upon us. It will go as follows:

School pick-up

Auntie and Niece arriving

Niece screaming at dog

Dog being insulted and licking her all the more to 'make nice'

Movie night

Fishcakes and beans

Wine for Mama (woo!!)

Niece fighting bedtime with all her might!

Auntie and Uncle off to wedding

Nana arriving with two extra dogs

Busy day trying to convince Niece that life with no sort of routine of any kind is a life of hell and as such she should subscribe to the Mama way and nap/eat/play when I suggest and we'll all instantly be a lot happier

A peaceful bedtime where no-one shouts or cries or gets upset!!

Followed by an unbroken 12 hours sleep!!

Posh Mama's huge blow-out birthday bash that she's throwing for her almost FIVE year old (how are we old enough to have FIVE year olds??? Insanity!)

Possibly more wine??

Have a good one, everyone. Share your plans in the comments below, bet none of them are as exciting and thrilling as mine ;-)

Things that make me go GRRRR!!

Boy is doing so well at swimming, looked into a 'Crash Course' at local pool where he will swim with school come Easter. It's held every morning over half term and there are two sessions, one for under 5s and one for children over 5 who are level 1 or 2 swimmers. Checked with his swimming teacher and she confirmed he is a solid level 1 already...so he will definitely need to be in the second class. Pool will only enrol him in the under 5 class because he is, in fact, 4. I asked what they will be doing in that class, her answer was less than satisfactory. GRRRR!!

Spoke to two people at stonemasons today about my father's memorial stone. I don't really like the computer generated design they sent over (estimate for work: £439) so had asked for a hand carved, personal, bespoke design. Expected something hand-drawn?? Next email arrives and it is a computer generated design (estimate for work: £789!!) Had to ring and enquire about the confusion. Turns out they thought I simply wanted someone to carve it by hand, not design anything unique. Well yes, of course, because I have money to burn and just thought I'd be awkward for fun. Pfft. Idiots. Needless to say, thanks to the exorbitant difference in price, we have gone back to the computer generated design, just in a more appropriate font. This process has already taken 6 weeks. Let's see how much longer it can go on for...GRRRR!!

Parent at school this morning blocked the drive because she had been planning on reversing into a space but was too slow and subsequent cars had assumed she was in the drop-off queue so had just pulled up behind her. Did she drive back around the one-way system and try again? Did she just accept her fate and let the teacher take her children out of the car? No, she sat there in her car fuming and expected 5 other people to all telepathically know what she was aiming to do and reverse back onto a main road (that currently has road works on!) I smugly watched the whole incident from inside my parked car because I am a smart person who knows that if there are only 4 parent parking spaces and you wish to park in one then you need to get to school early! It didn't effect me personally but, man, crappy drivers!! GRRRR!!

Auntie (of boys) and Niece are coming down to stay tomorrow afternoon and then Auntie is zipping off to Devon for a wedding and leaving non-sleeping, non-eating, dog-hating Niece with us for the weekend. Nana has insisted on coming to help (with her two dogs, sigh) because apparently there is no way I can manage three small humans on my own (Lord knows what she'll think if we have another child??) and Husband has absconded under the guise of decorating a friend-in-need's house. I am quite excited about looking after my tiny love bug, I adore her and so do the boys, but I fear I may have more 'help' than needed and am not sure two extra Labradors are going to ease my burden either. Combine all this with the stupid self-imposed alcohol ban and GRRRR!!

Our TV box has upped and died which means we have BBC iPlayer or DVDs. This is pretty inconsequential to me as I don't watch a lot of TV but if the boys ask me for Jake and the Never Land Pirates one more time I may scream. GRRRR!!

And finally, Husband hasn't made it home to see the boys before bed once this week. Last night he walked through the door at 10.30pm and he is what you might call rather stressed. This is all fine, he likes his challenging job and I am used to doing bedtime alone, but tonight I have had to miss Pilates because he is not here and I was really looking forward to going. GRRRR!!

Here's to Friday, hope it's a lot less growl-inducing than Thursday!

On purchases...

Let's sweep a tiny fact under the carpet before we get started this morning:
1. I am not meant to be shopping
That's it. Let's just put a pin in it for the moment (pop) and have a look at this month's purchases. Some of these aren't even for me, I know, I'm growing up!!

Inspired by this image below, the fabulous Esther from The Spike, I have gone ahead and invested in some 'girlfriend' jeans and a new jumper.

Obviously, because I am boring and nothing if not a creature of boring habit, I bought mine from Boden. And because the only grey jumper they had was light grey (gak) I went with black.

Since there was 20% off with the code G7B5 I went all maverick and impulsive and bought a new long line Breton too BUT I bought it in CHARCOAL (I know, sit down!!)

(This Mama is crazy and likes to mix it up!)

Boy is going to be a tiger in next week's class assembly so, of course, this had to be bought immediately...

(It is currently being held hostage at the local sorting office, a situation we hope to rectify this morning. FFS...)

Now that the boys have their own room at Nana's house, I am getting somewhat sick of hoiking a cotbed duvet and pillow to Lichfield every other weekend (it's ruining the novelty factor of them actually having somewhere to sleep, let me tell you!) So I invested in a second set...

(Duvets are currently 20% off on Mothercare's website)

Obviously, since I had bought a new duvet I now needed to invest in a new duvet cover BUT this was not a frivolous purchase (hear me out) because at our house the boys share a space themed bedroom and Baby was still sleeping under a boat themed duvet cover (I know, call Childline!) So, bought a cute star duvet cover for home and will send the boat duvet cover to Nana's!

(The set we bought is now sold out but there a few beautiful sets left on sale)

Today's item of lust is the ever-cool white trainer. I already have a pair of white Converse but am after something a bit more like these...

(You know, the exact same trainers you had and hated for Games lessons at high school...?)

So once Baby is in bed, and once I've packed the swim bags/loaded the dishwasher I shall be scouring the internet for some I adore! We can't leave the house due to aforementioned tiger suit being redelivered at some point... Hump day has to have some perks, right?!

Have a fun Wednesday, everyone x

Ouchy Ouchy Ouch!

Am officially old. Threw my back out and have spent entire child-free weekend hobbling around like an idiot. And the worst bit? I managed to injure myself SLEEPING ON A MATTRESS THAT WAS TOO SOFT! I'm fucking Goldilocks.

Busy weekend started off fine. I managed to load everything into the car without Baby or Dog running out the front door and throwing themselves in front of a car which was impressive. Then I managed to get a space on the school drive at collection time. Even better. We made it to Lichfield in plenty of time for the boys to have tea and a bubble bath before bed at a normal time, everything was going to plan and on schedule and I may have, looking back, been a bit too smug about it. I should have known.

The first hiccup was when my darling mother served Husband and me our dinner after the boys were in bed. After a busy day packing 396 bags, I was starving and ready to eat my own arm so the sight of steaming hot lasagne that someone else had lovingly prepared almost made me weep happy tears. It was full of mushrooms. Mushrooms give me instant diarrhoea, not really something I'm ever interested in but am even LESS interested in at the start of my first child-free weekend in 5 years. Fucks' sake. I wound up eating some hula hoops and a hot cross bun for my dinner. Yay!

And that was it. It all unravelled from there, really. I slept on a mattress that felt like a fluffy cloud and woke up on Saturday feeling like I couldn't really stand up straight without saying things like 'oof' and 'urgh'. Paracetamol managed to take the edge off so we waved our babies goodbye and I celebrated by sitting in the car for 90 minutes, a sure fire fix for a bad back. Groan.

By the time we arrived in Bristol I had to hold onto the dashboard to swivel my legs out of the passenger seat. I officially felt 90. We walked along the waterfront to lunch with my university besties, which was delicious and fun and nostalgic and wonderful, and the movement loosened all the muscles in my back so for a few hours I was fine. High heels for that night's party reminded me that I was, in fact, a little bit fucked, so I nailed some more drugs and went to see the birthday girl.

Party was hilarious. Lots of old work colleagues, Husband on fine form making everyone laugh and looking terribly good-looking (he does this every so often and I spend the entire evening gazing at him and being immensely proud that he's mine, all mine!) and the birthday girl is such a dear friend of mine, I'd have done anything to be there and celebrate her mere existence.

I then compounded the back issue by sitting in the car for the 90mins drive home. Aargh!!

I must interject here and clarify that, every time we visit Bristol I become ridiculously emotional and homesick and spend the entire stretch of the M5 northbound grumping at my stupid, wanky, Shropshire-loving Husband. The incredible back pain on this particular journey home did nothing to ease this anger. I may, at one point, have been contemplating divorce, purely on geographical grounds! His handsome face and sexy demeanour from an hour previously was totally forgotten, poor chap!

Anyhoo, Sunday was great because the boys were still at Nana's and we didn't wake up until 8.30am. You have to understand, for people with kids, 8.30am is AMAZING! It felt like we were at a spa!! I managed to cane some co-codamol, hobble into the shower, Husband went for a run, we read the papers in bed, no-one demanded to be fed or watch Bing or go downstairs and play Lego...it was such a luxurious treat but also quite surreal? We were at Nana's to collect them by lunchtime!!

This morning I woke to find my back much better but we walked down to school as I couldn't face the thought of driving (twisting hurts). We have raided Waitrose, been to playgroup with a friend and are about to have lunch. I may lie down when Baby goes for his nap, although this is always a dangerous habit as I won't be sleepy tonight and will then feel like shit and need to nap tomorrow...the curse of the SAHM!

Tomorrow is hair-bobble-gate. If you're in the Shropshire area listen out for screaming around 1.45pm. I'll let you know how it goes...! Have a good week, everyone, hope it passes quickly!

Friday Favourites

Here are 5 of my favourite things, most of which are connected to things going on this weekend:

1. Bristol. Heading over to Lichfield straight after the school run this evening, staying there tonight altogether and then first thing in the morning Husband and I are OFF. Granted, the romantic overnight stay in Cheltenham has been scrapped but hey, it's still 16 hours in my beloved city seeing two of my most favourite girls followed by a looooong lie-in in my own bed. I'll take it!!

2. Nana! God bless Nanas. My mother hasn't been on top form for the last four years, for obvious reasons, but the start of 2016 sees her in such a good, positive place. I'm hoping this is the start of a whole new Nana. Am so grateful that she's having the boys this weekend, they are delirious with excitement (Nana says 'yes' to a lot of questions Mama normally says 'no' to, such as 'Can we use all the sofa cushions to make a fort?' and 'Can we have pancakes covered in syrup for breakfast?'!!) and apart from one or two lovely ladies, she's the only person in the world I'll hand them over to so... she's a star.

3. M&S jeggings. They stretch, they fit perfectly, they're cheap, they go with everything, they're high waisted!!, they come in 42 different colours and lengths...what's not to love?! Treated myself to a new pair this morning (old pair had a hole, which I discovered after I'd walked the whole length of the High Street, the shame!!)

4. Talking of M&S, they're one of the only places where I can find 'baby' vests with poppers at the bottom in age 2-3yrs. Now, I accept that most 2/3 year olds might be wearing 'big boy vests' but this little 21 month old is loooong in the body and frankly, his 18-24m vests were causing him to stoop, so short were they in the body. Poor kid. So I whizzed up there this morning, grabbed some jeggings for myself!, and also found these in the right size. Days of the week vests. Hurrah. They are in the wash right now and then I'll throw them in his suitcase for the weekend. This will be the last size of baby vests he wears...must. not. cry!!

5. Trunki. I must admit, the first time I packed Boy's Trunki I thought, well this is feckin' useless, I can't fit shit in here. But that was when I was a new mother and felt the need to pack nearly every item of clothing he owned for an overnight stay. Now, with two busy boys, I'm a massive fan of 'one emergency change of clothes and if necessary we'll buy new / do a quick wash'. Hence, everything now fits in said Trunki and I adore them!! The boys have the Gruffalo and blue dinosaur versions below and love them. Just the right size for a weekend trip, IF you pack correctly. And sit on the lid to get it to lock!

And there you have it. 5 random things that make me smile today.

If you popped by yesterday, you'll be pleased to know that Boy skipped into school much happier this morning, glove-gate doesn't appear to have had any lasting therapy-requiring effects (which is always a relief!)

Enjoy your weekend, everyone. I shall be in my element tomorrow, uni friends, a long lunch out without children in my favourite city followed by a 30th birthday bash for a bestie. I shall probably cry on the M5 when Husband finally drags me back home, but I don't think that will ever change. 

Disclaimer: Due to timing issues, Nana has agreed to cook this Sunday's roast dinner. I tell ya, she's a keeper!