Family Update April 2012

HI!!!!!!

Oh hello, yes, I still exist, I am just uber busy these days.

I don't need to tell you how full my days are, you just get the idea.

So..... It's been a good old week.

A few things of development to report.

1) Liam is potty training.

My BABY is giving it all a go. How can this be? So SOON? He's my BABY of the 3. Eek.

On Saturday I took off his nappy in the morning to change him and James had left his potty out in the front room. James will always use the toilet when he can but he is far more comfortable doing number 2's in the potty so we keep it to hand in case we need it. Liam has been showing a slight interest for a little while so he goes over and sits on it. The tiniest little trickle was heard, he stood up and looked so proud of himself as he realised what he had done. So I asked if he needed more wee-wee and he sat back down and did a fair bit more. As if that wasn't clever in itself, he then picked up the potty and tipped it down the downstairs toilet and flushed it. Someone really has been taking tips from his big brother!

The same day we let him choose his own special potty for this new little challenge in child development.

Since then, it's been less than successful. 2 puddles on the floor for a couple of days and nothing new in the potty just yet.

As they say, Rome wasn't built in a day and it took James months to master the art of potty/toilet training but we are on our way. Liam just needs to learn how it feels when he needs to go.

2) James now dresses himself.

 He is at that point now where he LOVES to be independent. This week the newest stage of this is insisting on dressing himself. He does not accept any help offered and to be honest, he does a great job of it. Only once has he had something on back to front  and when I pointed it out, he very quickly managed to fix the problem himself.

3) I sacked my driving instructor!

Last Friday I went on a two hour drive with hubby for practice in the car. I did REALLY well in comparison to the first time I did this. It gave me a lot of encouragement and hubby was great. It did pinpoint to him how much I was NOT learning with my instructor. I admit, that the last few lessons with him has been crap. I don't feel like I am learning anything and at times it even feels like I am going backwards. Hubby explained WHY we do certain things when driving rather than just telling me to do it. I felt I learnt more in 2 hours with hubby than I did in 2 months with Driving Instructor. My DI was really annoying me. In the past 3 months he has changed 4 lessons because he has had something else come up and it was really beginning to grate on me that his priorities tended to lie elsewhere. He knew I had to work round hubby's shift work so changing my lessons often meant I could go 3 to 4 weeks between lessons which is no good for anyone. He has 2 other jobs, one as a school bus driver, the other as a van driver. He's made it clear that his driving school has seen better days and that he makes more money with the van work. It started ringing alarm bells. His attention is slipping from driving and I feel like it's being dragged out. I am incredibly fed up of his attitude and feeling that this was the last thing he wanted to be doing so decided it would be better for me to part company. Afterwards I discovered he is actually the most expensive instructor in the area. Another reason to quit the habit with him. I am now looking to book a new instructor. I am not quitting, I am making a change.

4) Liam has a new date for his operation.

Liam's operation has been rescheduled for May 18th. That's 3 weeks today! They will look to see if his inguinal hernia has returned and fix it if that is the case. The more I see it, the more and more I believe I am right on this. I have no doubt in my mind that this is the problem, so hopefully this time in 3 weeks, all will be resolved and we will have some answers.

5) Hubbys job is going from strength to strength.

As well as the annual payrise of 3% hubby got a further 5% for his extra training he's done, for his new levels of expertise and for generally doing well at his job. He is currently doing a home learning University course helping him to progress with work. He also worked with a boss who is high up in the company (2 bosses above his boss) who recommended that he looks out for jobs in middle management as oppertunities arise. Hubby said this boss is looking for a sort of apprentice to back on the move up the career ladder. Money would be VERY good if this sort of oppertunity arose. It's good to be in a career where you can progress and hubby needs a job that is challenging so this is perfect for him.

6)  Matthew no longer has a girlfriend. They broke up because he wanted to play football all the time apparently.

7)  James had a big day at school on Tuesday.

He stayed for lunch club and had his first school dinner. I had to pick him up at 1pm instead of the usual 11.45 but he loved every minute. He spent his time playing with a girl called Keira, she is now his girlfriend.

Kids are just too cute at this age!

I am sure there are other things I have missed out on but I need to update more often and I need to jot down all the funny little anecdotes my children give out daily. They are such funny little people!

Legoland - The Photos

ELEVEN days since my last post. Oh wow. I think that's a new blog record!

My only defense is it was school holidays and I had tonsilitus from Easter Friday until this weekend. It's a horrible horrible complaint and I did suffer. Eugh. Hubby was off  the second week of the school holidays and we ARE  a rather active family.

Last Wednesday we were away for the night. Matthew stayed at my nans and we took the two boys to Legoland. The ticket was valid for 2 days so we spent the night near to London's Heathrow airport. The kids LOVED Legoland. It's more of a theme park than I ever imagined it would be.

I got nearly 300 photo's but I know Blogger won't cope with that, so here's a few of my favourites and the story behind the pictures.

 At 88-89cm tall, Liam was just under the 90cm limit for alot of the rides. However, my baby did not miss out on much. Many of the rides were suitable for toddlers as long as they were accompanied.

 One ride he loved was a moving boat ride. The boat had a full Lego look and he even got a go at steering.

 James' favourite ride was the Little Learners Driving school. It was aimed at 3-5 year olds. There was also one for bigger kids but James loved driving.

Little James was one of the smallest kids on the ride both times he went for a drive and found steering difficult but he was so proud of himself for doing it. James got a Lego driving license at the end of the session. So my 3 yr old has beaten me to become an official licensed driver! ;)

 James and daddy in the queue for a mini rollercoaster. I especially love this picture as it is VERY rare James will pose properly for the camera and in this smile, you can just see how magical he found the theme park experience. And yes, that is a Lego Star Wars jumper.

On the Dragon Coaster, James looked terrified the first time round but by the time he came round the second time, he was smiling and joining in with the fun.

We do love our trips to London. Here is the London Eye.  Look closely and you will see, it is made of Lego. All the surrrounding buildings are made of Lego. The WHOLE sightseeing places of London was made into a big London cityscape. It was amazing.

 Lego Big Ben!

Lego London Cityscape. From front left clockwise, The Tower Of London, London Eye, Westminster (Big Ben and Parliament), The BT tower, St Pauls Cathedral.

Liam and I went on this ride when we were alone and James and daddy were queuing for another ride. This was great, even for someone like me who hates heights. Yes, I am a big wuss!

James Loved the mini helicopter ride.

When Liam couldn't go on a ride he was so patient and loved watching as much as taking part. He is such a little cherub!

There are plenty more photos to see if you are friends with me on faceboook that you are welcome to look through but these are the ones I like most.

This trip did us all good. Matthew had the oppertunity to come but he's not into Lego and opted to visit Manchester Uniteds Stadium - Old Trafford - later in the year for his special day out. Liam got back into the habit of sleeping in his own bed and it's been improving since we got home. He wants someone to sit with him until he falls asleep then he's fine. He had started off waking 3-4 times in the night for the first couple of days but last night we were down to waking up just the once.

Friday, we left the boys with my mother in law and went off to that grand old Grown Ups "theme park" they call Ikea. We've needed a new matress since we moved house and last weekend we finally got it. MIL stayed for dinner and looked after the kids in the evening so hubby and I could go out for a couple of drinks. We ended up joining up with a few other friends and had a very nice night out indeed.

A Lesson in iPhone and Blogger Combined.

I learnt a valuable lesson yesterday evening regarding my iPhone.

Be very careful when looking at blogger in this format.

It is very easy to accidentally change the language.........

..........To Arabic.

It's incredibly HARD to get out of it since it's not the letters you and I are used to.

In the end after 40 minutes and a bit of help from googling "Blogger change language" they gave me a link directly into the personalise settings.

Good work, I think to myself.

But it wasn't over then.

Most of the options are STILL written in arabic.

Thankfully there was an option to translate to French - It was the only recognisable word.

I then had to repeat the google process to get the "anglais" option (luckily I remember a touch of French from my school days to get Blogger back to how it should be.

Oh and of course, hubby was on the pc, not that the characters would have been any different as it's a linked account and I'd have still been clicking blind so to speak.

The moral of this story???

It's very easy on touchscreen to press the wrong thing in comparison to a click or two of the mouse.I think I'll stick to blogger via PC from now on.

Thinking About Religion.

If you have strong views on Religion in any form, feel free to skip this post. It's more a thinking out loud post. It's not intended to cause offence to any person of any faith but this is where I am with religion and why. Religion and politics are always the things people will disagree on in life

I know I have said it many times before but I am far from what you would call a religious woman. My parents and maternal grandparents are non believers and as for my paternal grandparents, I think my nan was but not my grandad so much. However, I find the whole idea of Religion and Faith very humbling. All the religions have such basic and decent morals behind them.

Different upbringings bring in very many different ideas but the general idea is that we should all treat others as we wish to be treated. To live well, to treat others fairly, to love one another, to not commit crimes, to respect others beliefs and wishes.

Last Friday was Matthews Easter church service and I went along with the boys. They are both at an age where they can begin to sit through something like this. James has been ready for a while but Liam is just getting there. The Church, as I have explained repeatedly, is a beautiful church. The above photo was taken at the entrance for the Harvest Festival last year, Liam would not have sat through that at the time but the entrance hall is stunning on close inspection.

Inside is just as stunning. I sat on the other side of the pillars on the left with the two boys (there's another 2 rowed aisle hidden from this picture) and they were really good.

The school kids told the Easter story with a mixture of readings, prayers and songs. It was beautiful and incredibly moving.

Whether you follow this religion, the story is a devestating tale of hurt, betrayal, despair and loss. I know proper Christians rejoice more in the Ressurrection but the story to that is very sad. It really did make me think and for quite some time afterwards. (Obviously as I am still thinking about it as I write one week on)

Other religions have similar grounds to their stories, of a certain person as a religious figure who became martyrs of their faith and the "second in command" figure to the chosen "God" that religion focusses on.

Belief is something I wish I had more of.

Faith is something I find in other ways. Science creates and explains so much more than it ever did as we discover more and more and understand it all that little bit more but I loved the whole church thing.

I know I sound a hypocrite being a non practicing Christian (I was Christened as a baby by the way - it was still quite a popular thing to do in the UK in the 80's) to love the church environment, the atmosphere, the radiance and glow it creates as it draws together a whole community.

I am looking forward to the Christmas service now and I believe that all kids should grow up knowing the real reasons behind our religious holidays. It's an important part of life whatever your religious background.

As more and more religions are becoming a bigger part of British Society we are seeing more Temples,  Synagogues and Mosques than ever. In certain areas of London and Birmingham Christianity is the lesser
practiced religion as the British become less and less religious. The minority religions total up more than the Christianity followers which is sad and whilst I accept all religions and their tales I also think that the local kids should be bought up knowing about British heritage and that DOES include religion. We were always a Christian country.

I am not blaming the immigrants who come over and continue their traditions on foreign soil, but those of us who are not doing enough to keep the religions, history, heritage and traditions circulating. It's no good blaming others.

So, whilst my kids are going to be eating FAR too much chocolate this Easter weekend, I have that traditional story in my mind as it does create a whole range of emotion through such a simple story that has been told for hundreds and hundreds of years.

The ONLY real argument I have against religion (besides believing that in the early years of religion they looked for answers and Science wasn't as advanced as it is now) is that if a modern day person came along saying they were a messanger of any "God" or  "Supreme Being/Energy" from any religion were to come along now then they would be branded a cult leader. People in the olden times before Science looked for answers, they believed what they were told (and yes, I do believe we are just as bad now but in a different way - it's human nature) and were given a path in life to follow.

However, why did only a set number of religions survive?

Why do different denominations of a larger religion vary so much on practices? (ie Catholics are much stricter than other practicing Christians)

The Romans had separate Gods for separate purposes. Then alot of the Roman Empire was taken over by Christianity. How many years did it really take for the belief of all those Gods to die out.

What other religions were out there but not documented as well as the ones we recognise and see today?

Ya know, I REALLY want to believe more, I really want to find the answers to the worlds age old questions but I don't think I will see it in my lifetime.

If there is an afterlife whether it be Heaven, Paradise, Reincarnation or simply death being it for us mere mortals, I just hope it shows that I did my best in this life to give love, be a good person and did what I could to be kind to others and went through life with an open mind and an open heart and a lot of respect for Holy tales. They do teach us so much in their own way.

So to all blog friends, whatever your beliefs, I wish you all a special weekend whatever you do.