Better than a kick in the knickers with a winklepicker

Hello! Long time no postie - apart from the occasional OMGLost ramble - so I thought I'd do a little Life Catch-up.

I wish my business lately had been down to anything more interesting than the sheer pressure of time a 3 year old who doesn't nap and a baby who doesn't sleep well in general cause, but alas I can't. The kids are a delight, though - Alex is a very cheerful little chap who finds pretty much everything hilarious and Vi's becoming a proper little girl now. She's going through a Princess Phase and spends most days in dressing up outfits, pretending to dance at the ball, or defeating witches and dragons. We made Rice Krispie cakes together on Good Friday (and by Gumbo, I'd forgotten quite how tasty those things are. Wasted on kids!) and I took her swimming yesterday - she's still very nervous in a pool but by the end she was happy just being held under the arms while she kicked her legs - a far cry from freaking out every time she couldn't find the floor with her feet.

Getting addicted to The Sims 3 AGAIN, too. Have gone back to my original game which got really hard after Dollis ended up a single mum with barely a penny to her name. It's all right now, though - she wooed a slightly feckless, lonely young man who turned out to be the sole heir of a massive fortune. Ker-ching! They're now married with another baby (the lovely Tulse Hill). I have tired of their remote waterfall retreat and am making them a Beach House. I am thirty years old.

Writing-wise, I still haven't got round to working on any of my original ideas. Rollercoaster is playing too hard on my brain - it's getting so close to the end. There should be a new chapter soon, Rollercoaster Fans - just waiting on my Beta. Don't worry, though - this isn't the final one. We've still got a handful of stories to go before 'Orpheus'. (*looks mysterious*)

Haven't posted here in a while - been mega mega uber busy - have had time to read stuff OL and do little comments & Tweets but little else.

The kids seem to have finally stopped passing that bloody cold to one another, although Alex still has a bit of a cough that keeps waking him up at night = bad sleep for all of us.

Bit manic with the run-up to Christmas - did the dry-run of baking for my extended family at the weekend - Christmas biscuits and the Nigella Chocolate & Pistachio fudge recipe that ladybracknell very kindly put on her LJ. Thought the biscuits were a bit rubbish at first, but now they're iced they're super. The fudge is amazing.

Christmassy things have continued a-go-go this week with us all going to Bluewater yesterday to do some last bits of shopping & take Vi to see Father Christmas in his Grotto. Unfortunately, Vi was just frightened of him. She also wanted to go on several fairground rides (a kiddies railway, a big wheel and the dodgems) which she decided half way through every time she didn't like any more. Oh well. And then there was the Toddler Group Chrimbo party today, which was lovely. Vi managed about 2 minutes of parachute play and then gave up on any semblance of organised fun and scampered off to chase her friend Henry (also disinclined to join in with the main events) round on a trike. Party food lunch for both of us. God, kids' party food is tasty. Why can't we always live off buffets of cocktail sausages, skips and jammie dodgers, eh? Answer me that, if you're so smart.

Fuck a Jesus, I'm tired. It's possible that Alex's very gradually emerging 1st tooth is giving him gip again - whatever it was, I was awake with him at 12.30 (before I'd got any sleep at all), 3 (when I brought him into bed with me so as to avoid giving him another feed) and 5 (when I actually managed to nod off in the middle of feeding him) and then was up at 7.30 for Vi, shortly after which, Alex was awake & crying and soaking wet. He waited til his nappy was off to poo and wee simultaneously. He then cried pretty much solidly until after 11. Vi has been watching a lot of cartoons today in lieu of a mummy with the energy to actually take her out or do something with her.

Mental dreams as a result of all the waking and spending two hours of the night with a baby in my arms though. Fairly certain at one point Da Schneid was wearing a tutu - which frankly I wouldn't put past him - and later on La Reynolds was playing a character trying to pick up women at his wife's funeral. He seemed to be relying on pity shags, and was coming on a bit strong. i recall that he was wearing leggings with 90s style stirrups on the foot under jeans. Weird. But nice to have a random Reynolds dream again. It'd been too long!

Flipping knackered at the moment - Alex has snuck back to 2 night feeds now - managed to technically make it just one by waking him for a feed at 10.30 last night, but I still didn't get to sleep til midnight-ish, then had to get up to feed him again at 2.20, got back to sleep at 3-ish then had to take both kids at ten to 7. This is after about 5 hours broken sleep the night before, as well. And it doesn't really stop in the day now with the 2 of them - once Vi's napping and the washing up's done, Alex is awake again for another feed - so no opportunity to nap. Considering this week's only 4 days, it's going on forever! All writing has ceased at present - it's taken me about twice as long as it usually does just to write this!

Reposting the photo meme - need more suggestions to make it worth breaking out the camera!

List up to three (3) things you would like me to take pictures of. Once I've gathered up all the requests, I'll make a post with the pictures I managed to take.

Oooh, I forgot to mention, Alex had his hearing re-tested earlier in the week, and, while he ended up having to have a third test that involved scanners being put ON HIS BRAIN so that he looked like a coma patient in Star Trek he eventually passed. His hearing's fine, he just has a really gunky ear still.

He's eating a phenomenal amount, and has piled on shedloads of weight. He's still having two night feeds at the mo, annoyingly, and extra-annoyingly, wakes up wanting milk at 6 every morning no matter what time the last night feed was (finished feeding him at quarter past 5 last night, and he was still awake before Hubs' alarm, then had 40ml and didn't want any more!) Sure Vi was only having 1 night feed by the time she was 4 weeks - come on, Alex, catch up!

We're currently waking about once every 2 hours with Alex - extra annoyingly, it's not always for food - this kid poos more often than you'd believe, and sometimes wees so much that it escapes his nappy even after two or three hours. If he wakes up dirty or wet he often won't want much milk and so wakes up hungry a couple of hours later again... I'm sure if we didn't keep having all the poo calamities he'd be waking after closer to four hours. Anyway, the long & the short of it is that Hubs & I are both very tired and irritable. Plus I've had a touch of Da Baby Bloos - nowhere near as bad as it was with Vi, but still enough to make me feel even less like my usual self. We still have Nana Help at the moment but after the weekend it'll just be the four of us for a bit, and we'll have to amuse Vi ourselves as well as catering for Captain Poopy. Dreading Hubs going back to work, although that's not for another fortnight yet.

I do keep managing to take small consolations during these Zombie Weeks, though. Firstly, night feeds aren't for *too* long - we should be able to get Alex into a less exhausting 4-hour routine if not this week then hopefully by the time Hubs is back at work, and Vi was giving us around 6 hours straight at night by 6 weeks, I seem to remember. And after that's over we'll never have to do the Newborn Night Feeds crap ever again.

Another consolation is that I am now done with pregnancy for good. I may not be allowed to sleep for more than 2 hours at a time, but at least I can lie on my front again for the first time in about half a year. I'd missed that - I love sleeping on my front.

Also, I'm back to my old dress size! I don't feel beyond heavy whenever I walk any more, and have been out for a few walks by myself while the kids have been napping over the last few days, enjoying my new weight and the re-emergence of my waist. Plus I bought some nice Normal Person Size clothes today - Yellow Top, combats (on sale - woo!) plus 2 New Look TShirts that I can't find on their website, but they're pretty and probably too young for me but shit to it!

I have a son! Alex was born on Friday night after a relatively short & uncomplicated (but still very painful & knackering) labour. I have strained muscles I didn't even know I had (and no, I don't just mean 'down there' - I feel like I've just got back from a marathon Yoga session with Satan himself instructing).

Back home now, but V busy catching up as well as juggling the needs of both kiddies. Shall post more/reply when I get the chance.

Scribbles xxxx