Mother's Day 2009

You would think that on Mothering Sunday of all days Hayley would have had a nice long lie-in. In fact when I got up, she got up too for a while, watching TV in bed with Lucy until Oliver woke, and then helping me dress them. Then when I took them downstairs she read the paper and watched TV. Only then did she finally decide to have a nap.

Meanwhile Lucy, Oliver and I wrote her Mother's Day cards and drew pictures to put in with them.



I then set to work cooking her breakfast. I confess this was a somewhat wasteful enterprise, mostly because several times I had to leave the cooker to resolve disputes over toys. The loud shouting of Lucy usually indicated that despite her best efforts to take something from Oliver he was not letting go without a fight. At one point I entered to see her repeatedly hitting him over the head as he hung on to a toy car. I quickly intervened and reprimanded her, even getting her to say sorry to him. But by the time peace had broken out and I returned to the cooker to find there were some very burned tomatoes awaiting me.

Eventually the meal was assembled and the three of us hiked eagerly up the stairs to deliver breakfast-in-bed complete with cards and flowers. Hayley was delighted. She tucked in eagerly (once I had gone back for the ketchup) but pretty soon found that her offspring were ready for a second breakfast. Lucy in particular would happily have eaten all her quorn sausages if I hadn't distracted her with our final task of the morning.



Unable to find the right wrapping paper, I happily wrapped Hayley's presents with pink Happy Birthday paper, eagerly assisted by Lucy. She then started to unwrap them again but I managed to stop her before all our good work was undone. I won't tell you what her presents were, but if you see Hayley out and about, feel free to tell her she smells nice and to comment on how she is carrying something more stylish than her usual giant changing bag.

After all this we drove up to my Mum's house for a fun afternoon before heading back home in time to bath the kids and put them to bed on time.

As the day closed, Hayley told me several times how much she had enjoyed her special day. And from the glint in her eye, I reckon she's already looking forward to next year's breakfast-in-bed!

Mothering Sunday - a happy end to a mixed week

Today has been Mothering Sunday. Hayley had a little lie-in (with Oliver!). When she got up I helped Oliver give his card and presents to his Mummy, then Hayley and Oliver went to church while I stayed home and did a few jobs.

Afterwards we all went for a coffee (well, Oliver had his milk) and then lunch at the Heaton's Tandoori. It's the first time we've been there for a sit-down meal since before Oliver was born. The last time we went Hayley ate the spiciest offering on the menu in an attempt to encourage her "bump" to emerge into the world. Today she ordered the same house speciality but this time just for her dining pleasure.



It also gave us a chance to let Oliver try a piece of poppadum (pictured above) and also a mango lassi drink (pictured below). He sucked then played with the poppadum, but he loved the lassi drink. This didn't susprise us as he loves yoghurts. In fact some days that's the only "solid" food he will eat. That's been a slight cause for concern, but other days (including today) he will eat well, so we are trying to be patient and not fret too much about it, not least as we don't want to transmit our anxiety to him.



Today was a very enjoyable end to what has been a mixed week. Hayley took Oliver down to Wiltshire for a few days this week to visit family and friends, but this was partially prompted by the fact I was ill again. Thankfully I'm recovered now but it wasn't much fun being parted from them let alone being "under the weather" to boot.

But the real bad news came from Hayley's work, where there are going to be redundancies. It looks like about 25% of the workforce in her area will be put "at risk" in the next couple of weeks. Regardless of the rights and wrongs of our childcare decisions, being under threat of redundancy is never a welcome experience. All we can do for now is wait and see what happens. This comes almost precisely a year after my own company underwent a restructuring and several colleagues in my own department were made redundant. Job insecurity seems to be an unavoidable symptom of
the so-called "competitive" British economy.

Oliver is shaking off a sniffly cold. Bless him, he has been coughing in the night, but then goes straight back to sleep most of the time, even though we can hear on the baby monitor that he is quite "snotty".

He does seem to have started to wake and need his dummy a bit earlier recently. From as early as 4.30am (or even 3.30am this morning) he can be wide awake and need his dummy to go back to sleep. Then he may drop it several times and not find it for himself, resulting in one of us making several trips to his room. Eventually he seems to go off for a good spell, but often by this point I am wide awake and unable to get back to sleep myself. If we can just crack this sleep business life will be so much easier as I really enjoy my time with him when I've had just a few hours uninterrupted sleep. Without it I have to admit I struggle, unlike Hayley who miraculously manages to keep going! Although, even she had to succumb to a slight cold this week when she got back from Wiltshire.

The clocks went forward last night, so it's time I got back on my bike to commute to work. Here's hoping for a healthy summer!