Thursday 30 December 2010

ahhhhh christmas is over!!

as if i didnt have enough to do, I have a 4 (soon to be 5) year old diosaur obsessed little girl.
3 days before xmas sophie started talking more and more about something she'd put on her santa list, something i'd glossed over and practically ignored because i thought she was kidding. She outgrew her dinosaur dressing up outfit LAST year and wanted a new one. turns out she wasn't joking and she REALLY did want a new dinosaur outfit. Please. Now. Please ask santa... etc.

Being more normal that I ever thought, I looked at pre made ones. But in the UK it turns out you're not allowed to dress as a dinosaur if you're over 2 years old according to the major supermarkets and ebay.

I gave up. Dejected and trying to work out a decent lie for the child to explain why santa couldn't follow through, then when i was in the 99p store getting tut (essex colloquial profanity meaning collective poo), i saw *THE* rug. cotton, stripey and a really disgusting shade of green.

i combined the rug, three fleece scarves and a lot of mental to complete this in time for xmas day. she was impressed!


now for the science bit.

being a shoddily made pound shop rug, it began to fray as soon as i put scissors near it. So, I machine sewed the seams first, and then encased all seams in fleece offcuts. the encasing was done by hand. at midnight the night before xmas eve.



 Yes, that's midnight. on 23rd dec. Yes, I am mad.

i added fringe to, you know, pretty up the dinosaur a little. and some 1960s buttons obtained from my mother in law. i was sure i would never use them because of the shade!


here's the tail.


i did machine embroidery on all the spines. i know, overkill? it was really to stiffen the fleece a little and make it stand to attention a bit better. Seriously, I thought of everything.


here's the back.



 and the front laid flat





That dinosaur looks like she's on the prowl, quick! stay still! they can only see you if you move!





oh noes! she found her prey!!!





one day I hope my daughter will appreciate everything i went through to give her a magical childhood lol.

Thursday 4 November 2010

aid me thanks!

does anyone have a hand they can give me regarding fixing the wrong direction "d" key as it has almost totally ceased to function on my black mobile digital data management device...

i have tried blowing under it, can't remove it as that's bad for mobile digital data management devices like mine (Lenovo t400s) and I am now at a loss and having to think of ways to say things which don't involve using that letter.

thanks!!!

i'd rather not have to give £7 for a can of air from a well known electronics store which begins with M, but will if i have to. it's not that it doesnt work, it's just that it needs jabbing hard and i dont want to break it.

Sunday 31 October 2010

Merry Samhain!

so, this weekend I have carved a pumkin and made a futurama brain slug. Win all round.


Thursday 28 October 2010

Brainless

Do actions speak louder than words? Well yes, with regards to a kiss instead of "I love you", a hug instead of "missed you", a longing look instead of "fancy a bit of this?"...

Obviously this wisdom does not apply when you try to help out your Hairyman and inadvertantly lose his keys so he ends up leaving late for work...

Last night, he carried the sleeping child inside. To help I took his keys, emptied the boot of the car, locked it, locked the back gate, came inside the house, put the stuff down and set about getting the ice cream in the freezer and the dinner on the cooker. I'd not realised that in order to get myself, two shoping bags and a curver box full of Lego through the back door without droping anything, I had stuck Hairyman's keys in the Lego box and forgotten about them.

Let's fast forward to 5:45am thursday. Hairyman woke me gently, wearing his coat and hat and said "Em, where are my keys?". Can you imagine my answer at 5:45am? I believe it was something along the lines of "thrwrghhthppprp?"

I got out of bed to aid the search. 20 mins of solid searching later, being snapped at by the husband for not hanging his keys up and I had a stroke of genius. FREEZER! damn. not in the freezer. keep thinking.

In the end I sat down to contemplate my fate. would I have a day of being snapped at by Hairyman? would he go to work by train and therefore be more annoyed with me because of the journey and because of not having his work keys? would he sit Playing with Lego while giving me the silent treatmen......LEGO? LEGO!!

I peered into the pink plastic box. There glistening in the multicoloured lums of plastic were the Man's keys. Car key. House key. Locker key. Tool locker key.....

I didn't get a kiss. I didn't get a hug. I got a glare as he left, but he did phone me when he got to work and told me he loves me.

He needs a whistly thing for his keys.

Tuesday 26 October 2010

Don't Own a Toilet if You're Not Prepared To Clean it.

today I noticed that the toilet fairy has yet again failed to pick up the slack for me, and so it fell to me to clean the bog. let's just say I love Asda limescale remover. Why does nobody else in my house know how to use it?! Ok one person has an excuse. she is 4, but the 32 year old man? humpf.

As well as cleaning the loo, I have cleaned the kitchen, done two loads of washing and made a checkerboard cake. I'll exlain in pictures later lol.

Why all this activity? well first and foremost I am sick of living in what looks like a squat, and secondly I have a friend coming over later.

Monday 25 October 2010

Now resuming normal transmission

Sophie's temperatures and the rest of the crap stopped on saturday evening.

Sunday was a day of fun for sophie and boredom for mummy and daddy, but at least she got some quality time with her aunties and uncles.

I wish I was on holiday. The concrete jungle of Basildon isn't really inspiring me to write funny things. Pah.

Friday 22 October 2010

What a difference a night's sleep makes

Last night the Hairyman slept in the Big Bed with tinyperson. He was on medication duty for sophie. I slept on the sofa.

Just me, hello kitty duvet and a brushed cotton pillow. mmmmmm.

I helped out with the midnight medicine, and he was 1/2 an hour over time giving her the 8am meds so her temperature shot skyhigh and didn't drop for over an hour. scary, but we're used to it.

she's currently dressed in jammies, watching ghostbusters on dvd and eating dairy free cupcakes. Hairyman is tinkering with stuff, and so I have time to do a bit of this......







ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Thursday 21 October 2010

Midnight Snacks

Well last night my little darling did this at 6:30pm. She just managed to watch the Simpsons before passing out.





So she was transplanted to my bed by her daddy because she's now pretty much too heavy for me to carry when she's a sleeping dead weight.

All was well until I checked her at 10:45pm. axial temperature was 39.9 which means her internal temperature was at action stations. she was fairly incoherant and red as a lobster. I think I need to buy a baby monitor because I'd not noticed. I was downstairs.

Medicine was administered and I had to do one of the things I hate the most. I had to put her in a blood temperature bath. I got in with her to calm her; as soon as she heard the taps she screamed like I was going to murder her. I suppose it's routine to her now, we've been doing it every 4 weeks since she was 15 months old.

one hour in the bath was spent calming the Squidge by singing pretty much every song I know (a smattering of country from Nanci Griffith and Dolly Parton, some SClub7, and i think the Fairground Attraction's whole back catalogue). A few top-ups of warm water just so it didn't become unbearable and i checked her axial temp again. I'm checking axial righ now because she's got a blocked nose and thereofre keeps breathing on the oral thermometer. so, yeah. checked her temp again and it had dropped 0.3 of a degree centigrade. not much, but down is always good.

we lay in my bed chatting as she was now coherant again and after a while she said she was hungry. When her illness hits, we have a few days of her eating like a horse while she has the beginning symptoms, and then she has almost no appetite while she's suffering so her asking for food was wonderful. I made her a peanut butter sandwich and a glass of milk which she ate in my bed whilst chatting. Midnight snacks are always fun.

I checked her temperature again, it was now nearly 2 hours since the medicines were administered. temperature down to 37.1 axial, so i knew it was on its way.

I snuggled her up in her duvet next on Daddy's side of the Big Bed (Hairyman is currently on night shift) and turned off the light to sleep.

4:30am alarm went off, lights went on, sophie was given more medicine and was very good about it. Sleep followed again quickly.

8:30am alarm went off and she had more medicine, and decided it was time to get up. I phoned school while she was "bathrooming heself" and we came downstairs to find half naked Hairyman asleep on the sofa.

And so the day begins.

Tuesday 19 October 2010

Mmmmmm Bandwaggony

Well  here I am. I've finally climbed up on the Blogger Bandwaggon. Honestly,  it's a pretty nice bandwaggon to be on, comfortable, lots of blankets and cushions etc. someone has painted it purple. nice.

The weather is...*takes a look out of the nearest window*..... cold as far as I can tell. I'm not honestly sure because I'm sat on my sofa, wearing a fleece nightgown. mmmmmm. Primarni goodness.

Sophie's temperature is currently 38.6 (axial so about 39.3-39.6 internal) and falling finally. The poor little poppet is snuggled up on the other sofa with a glass of water and the Milkshake show on channel 5. She's been displaying the warning signs since monday afternoon. The sunken eyes, whineyness, wierdly increased appetite, joint pain, headache, eye pain, light sensitivity, general malaise....the joint paint and inflamations are controlled with NSAIDs and i am up every 3 hours over night to check on her. This goes on until the fever finally hits. it's then controlled with more NSAIDs, paracetamol and we ride it out until it goes away for another 4 weeks. 

Yet again her disorder means missed school. I hate this. I wish I could remove her pain, even if I had to suffer it myself if it meant she didn't have to, I'd do it in a heartbeat. that's what being  a mum is about isn't it?

I mean it's all well and good but I wish it'd hit when Hairyman is off work for once!

Every 4 weeks I lose my social and (voluntary) working life, I'm sure people who don't know sophie think I'm making excuses about having to remake appointments, cancel playdates, cancel socal event for myself at short notice.  I must seem like the most unreliable person on the planet, but I AM reliable; I just have a terrible memory. I need to start remembering to chart soph's symptoms as well as Hairyman's shift pattern when arranging things!!!I used to worry that peoplewould think I've got munchausen's or something. Seriously! The husband is working so I need the child to be at home and therefore make her ill intentionally you know? But no. For one thing you can't fake a temperature this high, blood results or family heritage.

Thankfully the GP, hospital and school all know about her disorder, and I feel less like a total mentalist. I wish I could have business cards made though... "Id like to be friendly with you, but my daughter has FMF and so you need to understand she'll be ill and I'll have to cancel things at short notice" and perhaps some information on FMF? hmmmmmmmmmmm........ this could be an idea!

Well, I am hungry. And it's time for me to veg out and watch some internet telly. Anything is better than flipping Noddy.

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