The Croup!

Any mothers out there will know the horror of croup.

Why I hate the croup?

• Listening to your child bark like a seal... totally unnatural & places doubt as to where your or more likely his genes came from!
• Holding their exhausted limp sweaty body to comfort them as you feel so helpless.
• Spending hours in the bathroom.... you know how a slug feels continually damp & moist due to living in the shower.
• You are in the shower for so long you discover how filthy your bathroom really is, why do you never wipe the paintwork, all the cups they play with are dirty.. how can that be they are in the bath?

The most worst part is that as soon as it has stopped you put them back to bed, climb into your own bed & just as you have dried off & are about to nod off .....then the barking starts again! Then it is back to the beginning again. Shower, steam sleep. After multiple hours of the same routine it is morning.

Your child gets up , you drag yourself through the motions of waking the household & getting on with the day. The barking seal of the night before is a normal child in the daytime..rosy cheeked, eats & drinks well maybe only a little tired.

Was it all a dream????

Oh no the proof is looking at the parent. You have red veiny eyes, limp hair from the continuous steam sessions, your pimples have been popping beautifully... but you forget to clean your face due to other priorities so now you are looking like a hormonal teenager called Spot.

Exhaustion is just not a strong enough word for how you feel.

It is going to take more than a glass of wine & English chocolate to get me through today!

Let's hope that tonight is not a repeat as my whole face may explode with zits!

Foreign Foods

I took number 2 child shopping for winter boots today. As a treat we went to a Thai restaurant and ordered a Poo Poo platter. It came with the usual crab rangoon's, spring rolls & other fried stuff......one of which was fried tofu.

Personally I detest tofu as the texture makes my knees tremble! Number 2 had never had eaten it before so not wanting to ruin his appetite I let him be the guinea pig & sample the big T. He had a bite and said "Emmm." I asked him what it tasted like... his response " like fried chicken fat!"

That just about sums it up for me too!

The last of the leaves...after Noel!

So here is what remains of the leaves on the tress after hurricane Noel.....not very much especially if you were hoping to have a family portrait with the fall colors! C'est la vie!

Last night I took a spinning class. I have to take a photo of the view as it is all mountains. As I am pedalling along in class I am Lance Armstrong at the top of the mountain even the one with snow on....Mount Washington! Here is today's happy moment ..I really am lucky to be able to live here as how boring would it be to look at roofs, chimneys & pollution pouring out of factories... all grey & gloomy whilst sweating & spinning away! I know I am a spoilt brat!

Well enough of Pollyanna! What shall we all do today as Sir L is still in Italy on business. I could bring in all the summer clutter... chairs, tables, swing seat, football net, numerous bikes, scooters, balls etc that my kids cannot seem to live without yet are unable to part with! Or even rake the 500 hundred, billion, trillion leaves that are all over the grass.....out of stubbornness ( who knew that there were 2 n's in this word?) I cannot do it! Raking leaves after all I wanted was a family photo with them on the trees. It feel s like the trees have had the last word!!!

Anyway I still have 4 bags of leaves in the garden left over from last year that are probably ready for my compost heap! I have to expand a little here.....we live on 5 acres so even though we do have a little bit of what we call "the woods" we have a lot of grass to cut (2 hour job) or hours worth of leaf raking to do! Any volunteers?

Other alternatives I may take (drag) the kids hiking as there is a frost in the air and these days are numbered with the winter about to pounce in. The last hike to the fire tower is still memorable for my 4 year old....every mountain we see he says "I see the tower on the climb that we did." Please bear in mind that we live in New England & are surrounded by the White Mountains! So I hear this statement on average 5 million times a day & do not forget that he is in school most days.

Or I could do all the mundane stuff...laundry, cleaning, wash the car blah blah blah!

I guess it is decision time.......let me have one more coffee to think on it!

Jack Frost is out!

Today I woke up to a crisp frost covering the ground. My heart sank & my shoulders scrunched as I could feel the iciness chilling my bones. I went to advise my kids... "dress warmly!"

As I told each one of them they jumped out of bed all excited......to my utter shock!

They then had breakfast, got dressed & ran outside to play in the frost! My crazy genes have come into play at last!

It made me think about how we all respond differently to life. Here I was all miserable & feeling chilly as all I could think of was after the ice we get the dumps of snow! The children were all excited as they wanted snow!

I have to admit that I am now going to change my outlook on life & try to look for something positive each day. Knowing that Sir L. is in Italy this week on business is a little sickening however on the bright side the weather over there is the same as here at the moment!

I am not sure that I could handle him coming home with a tan!

The weather is against me yet again!

So here I am about to celebrate Guy Fawkes night tomorrow.. OK I know it is a day late!

For those non Brits this is an English celebration where we have bonfires, fireworks, treacle toffee, toffee apples & all huddle together to keep warm. It is all in honour of a man who tried to blow up the houses of Parliament many many years ago!

Strange really, but as my gran always said " there's nowt as strange as folk!"

Back to my original statement. We have planned a big fire, food, fireworks etc. & today the weather is glorious! Tomorrow we are expecting the winds & rains from hurricane Noel!

There is definetly an issue with the weather & our Saturday plans.....is this a coincidence or is life just against us????

Who cares anyway right????

The morning after!

Continuing on from the last post.....I was still awake at 3am on Saturday morning.....guilt is a hard emotion to sleep on!

I was awoken by my forgiving 4 year old. As I opened my eyes, there he was with a sticker in hand saying "this one is for you mummy." I guess that was my award!

I promise to be the best mother ever from here onwards.......just as well it is not his birthday coming up as I would be tempted to take him & his pals to Disneyland for a week!

I have just won the "worst mother of the year award!"

I have had a terrible week which has just ended on me shamingly earning the above award.

First of all let me make my excuses otherwise you will all think that I am being a drama queen!

This week has entailed being stabbed viciously in the back by a best friend which set me back, working all week, car issues, PC issues, kids off half a day for conferences, husband travelling away, one of the kids was & still is sick to name just a few issues.

We are having a family portrait taken tomorrow and as the photographer had not contacted me I called in to his office. I wanted a photo of the lake & trees (with leaves on) he asked me to find a tree or spot to take the photo! Bearing in mind it is 1pm & I am on my way to an appointment, then school & daycare pick up, ending with traipsing off to the mall to buy my daughter (who is at the age of being very opinionated on even a pair of socks) a sweater to wear for the clan photo! I have not one minute to look for a leafy tree...is that not his job???So I was in mission mode!

I pick up the kids at school & then head to the daycare. When I arrived there were cars everywhere that lead into the road. My first thought was "a gunman had been on the rampage".. being dramatic & all! So I ran into daycare to find all the little sweethearts dressed up in Halloween costumes!! Of course my little one was dressed in the day cares "dress up" fire fighter outfit.. as wonderful mother had totally forgotten all about it! He came right over & told me so in front of all the other doting parents! Bless him.

Next problem, how am I going to tear him away from the party... all the tables were set with plates, party favours etc! I had a sick son waiting outside in the car so we could not all come in!

So I did what every desperate mother does.. I told him we had to leave & that there was a surprise in the car for him! He willingly came with me, jumped into his car seat & gobbled down a Popsicle. Then he said "thank you so much mummy!" I could have cried!

Feeling less guilty we arrived at the mall. After a couple of stores one of the store keepers tells me that at 5pm all hell will break loose. I asked "why?" It was only trick or treat night! Bang on 4.55pm hundreds of kids were running around in costumes! Needless to say we had to get out of there pretty quickly too. Talk about adding insult to injury!

We get home & I cannot sleep hence posting a blog at 1.38am! Why can I not sleep?

My husband arrived home an hour ago, the kids are all asleep......guess what?

"It is raining!"

So after all of this, the family portrait will probably be cancelled!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!