Yet another 5am start :D

Readers, followers, visitors and friends, welcome.

This has been a weekend of much fun and a source of great joy. I am, as ever, overly organised with Xmas pressies. But I shall come to that in good time.

Let’s start with Friday. Halloween. All Hallows’ eve. Not going into its Pagan and spiritual realities, it’s a day when kids out on scary (or not) costumes and go from door to door asking for treats. Many adults embrace the spirit of Halloween dishing out treats, dressing up in costume or hosting parties. This year was no exception to the latter in our family. It’s becoming an annual event in my Nans house, to decorate from top to bottom and invite everyone round. Here’s The Boy in full glory…

You do NOT understand the fight I had with this outfit… Unless you’ve been there in which Case, you do. I asked which baddy he wanted to be (he’s a little batman obsessed at the moment). Joker. No hesitating, no thought. I was glad really – it’s probably the easiest costume to get hold of for children from the Batman baddy range. Then my cousin turned up in a batman suit. The Boy was not impressed. ‘I wanted to be Batman, mummy, not Joker’ it went on for hours… But as you can see I won (conned out of green hair spray but worth it) and he had great fun being told how good he looked. There isn’t much more to report here, it was a good night. Home at 11pm – I was shocked at that and bed.

Saturday was nice. The Boy and I went to work with Husband for the ten mins he was there, then called to see my in-laws. MIL was at work, and FIL was mithering about crap as usual. As much as I don’t enjoy going more than once a month, if I didn’t suggest it, they would never see us (or more importantly, their Grandson). They don’t make the effort to come to us, they don’t phone and invite us (unless they want something) but I can’t bring myself to not take The Boy. I think that’s mean.

After this H went to bed for an hour and we went to my mums (who we see at least twice a week – usually more). I ended up going shopping with my mum and Nan, and The Boy stayed with my dad and sister, who he adores. Mum and Nan had received their Tesco Club card points, so we went to a HUGE Tesco. They bought a lot of Xmas pressies for various children ion the family, and even a few birthday pressies to put away as they work out at half price (or free really if you think about it. For those who don’t know, it’s like a loyalty card. You receive the points for shopping at Tesco and various other places then points mean ££s at Xmas or whenever you choose to use them. Usually if you have 30points that’s £30 and they tend to double them at the beginning of Nov so £30 becomes £60. That’s basically free money because if you don’t shop in Tesco, you don’t earn them. Simple.) I bought a couple of bits, but I have £500 vouchers to spend at Xmas, and they don’t spend in Tesco.

Saturday night, after The Boy was in bed, we FINALLY finished watching 24. That’s it now. All seasons finished and we’re at a massive loss (suggestions welcome) it has definitely been wrapped up with no real loose ends, but one that’s loose enough that if tugged it could allow a next season.

Sunday, we got up, I made breakfast then we went out for a treat coffee. I was very proud of myself. I chose the skinny latte with sugar free syrup, and avoided a cake even through The Boy and Husband both had one. We then did a bit of clothes shopping and a bit of Xmas shopping. I have now bought 10 Xmas pressies, and planned a few more. The reason I start this early, is I don’t like shopping, and the closer it gets to Xmas, the more I hate it. It’s too busy, people are grumpy and things are limiting fast. Start in November and things are on offer that won’t be closer to Xmas. It’s not quite as busy, it’s less stressful and once I’ve bought everything I need, if I have vouchers left I still have time to spend them or save them.

Today, I am doing more shopping. I’m buying birthday presents for The Boy. His birthday is in 10 days. His main present is ordered and waiting delivery (between weds and fri) so I just need the accessories for it to pad it out. He’s having a toy kitchen. He loves pretending to cook and brew up, so he may as well have something to do it on. Do you know how hard it is, to find a reasonably priced, non tacky looking kitchen, that’s not overly girly. Don’t get me wrong, if he wants to play with a pink kitchen – fine. BUT on saying that, he’s getting very, very picky. If he thinks it’s for a girl, he won’t have it. He’s at THAT stage now.

I also need some ‘proper’ shopping for food, so that’s on the agenda today. I was up before 5am again today, made soup for Husbands dinner and cleaned the living room and Kitchen. That means I can potter upstairs, go food shopping and be ready to go shopping when The Boy goes to nursery without any fuss.

The Boy has just woken up, so it’s time for Breakfast and getting dressed. May even do Asda early 🙂

Laters

So here we are again.

Well today started off beautifully. Woken up to breakfast in bed by my wonderful husband, who was grovelling for sleeping from 2.30pm yesterday afternoon til 4.30am this morning. If The Boy hadn’t gotten in our bed (sideways) while Husband nipped for a wee he’d have carried on sleeping. I didn’t need grovelling to – he obviously needed it – but I enjoyed my breakfast non the less.

The Boy and his daddy had a nice bath (again saving me a job as I didn’t need to run it or supervise) then watched telly while I showered. This lead on to shopping time. The two men in my life needed trainers – yet there was only one suitable pair for the boy and they weren’t the right size 😞 so he got a Mickey Mouse teddy instead. We sat and people watched with a coffee each (Hot Choc for the Boy) and just enjoyed being together as a family. No rushing, no stress, just us.

After the shoe shopping failure, we headed to “The Abyss” a fish livestockist for Tropical and Marine fish. We let The Boy choose some fish (which we were actually unable to have due to the fish that already reside in our tank) and ended up buying 6 Elephant Nose fish (which are happier as a school) and 3 Halloween Lyretail Mollys.

We came home and put them in the tank (properly for anyone worried) before going out for a late lunch.

It was from this point that my day went a little downhill. As it is a school night, we follow a routine. This includes a bath (so even though he’d had one this morning, The Boy got a bath). Once I got him out of the bath, my mood plummeted. I couldn’t put my finger on why, I had no reason not to be in a good mood after such a lovely day, but I was grumpy, irritable and snappy. I even uttered the words ‘I’d be better off topping myself’. Anyone who’s knows me at all knows how much this isn’t like me. Every time I said something The Boy found a reason to argue or cry. I couldn’t do right for doing wrong. I ended up throwing The Boys pjs at Husband and sitting on the stairs. In tears.

After a few mins I calmed down and entered my bedroom to find my guys sat nice, drinking hot chocolate and watching the bed time cartoon (it goes off at the perfect time for teeth cleaning before bed and it’s calm down and cuddle time at this point). I was vaguely (and strangely) angry. Why? Why was he being a terror for me, but got pjs on and settled down with no fuss and no noise/arguing for daddy? Think the meds have a lot to do with these sudden mood swings, but God only knows if that’s true or whether I’m just a moody cow.

Bed time came around non too soon, and after 15 mins off “mummy Mickey Mouse is pushing Charlie Bear off my pillow!” And “Mummy my polar bear wants a drink, can I have some too?” We finally managed to settle him down to sleep. Me and Husband have had a nice chilled night, no TV, some soft music (Michael Bolton) and each other’s company… Trying to choose the right Kitchen set for The Boys birthday (which is in 4 weeks but I need to be organised) so far I’ve liked the look of 3, and my least fave is the most practical for our house/’spare’ space. This guts me a little especially as my fave is the cheapest (and it’s not for that reason it’s my fave either)

So for the most part, today has been wonderful. Idyllic even. But there was that brief moment of madness that could have spoiled it completely. I need to get a grip on myself.

Much love, laters

Oh and a PS, I’ve started my Xmas shopping too. I refuse to be wrapping at midnight Xmas eve this year like I was last year!