In the dark

Yesterday, we had a 21-hour power cut.

It got very dark, and very cold, very early, so we all went to bed at about 8pm. Babymomma, bf and 2 ridiculously excited children in one enormous Superking bed.

Tis the season to be jolly

All in all, a most excellent Christmas.

Harmony reigned, driven mainly by the fact that Granma finally realised that Felix (a) exists and (b) is a fantastic little boy, so she shared her time with the kids (not sure Felix gave her much choice) and that made Babymomma relax her clenched jaw and put the gritted teeth away.

The kids simply love being at home with Mummy, Daddy and the Grandmothers so they are both on good form. Felix is doing holiday rules, which basically means refusing to go to bed until about 9pm. Jasmine is demonstrating she can ride a bicycle, on the flat, with stabilisers, for about 1 minute before she stops pedalling. But it's a great start and she loves it. Babymomma and the bf are simply grateful for the babysitting time which allows us to cook, surf the interweb, have the occasional lie in and see Avatar during the break.

Only thing that has made it slightly less than perfect is that I woke up on Christmas Eve with an acute wry neck which still hasn't gone away and is making me occasionally grumpy but I'll live.

A day off! Hurrah!

A DAY OFF!!! At last. Not that it's really a day "off" what with all the shopping and cleaning and cooking to do. Anyways, dropped kids off, braved the ice death trap that is the road outside nursery, pootled along to the collection office to pick up a "mystery thing" for Felix that turned out to be an enormous card that Grama had sent. Only postage was underpaid by 8p so I had to pay the balance AND a £1 handling charge. Grumble grumble. Grama, incidentally, is arriving today, so lordy knows why she couldn't have just brought it with her. It's not like we've got anything better to do.

Anywayz, got to the supermarket at 8.05am and the car park was jampacked already. Who'da thought? Christmas, in the main, was delivered last night (love Ocado) so I whizzed round doing top up shop and picked up our joint for tomorrow (love Waitrose) just in time to see a lady do a strop because her two turkeys she ordered hadn't been delivered. And whilst she wasn't shouting she was clearly very cross - and who could blame her - and I couldn't help but feel relieved that it hadn't happened to me.

Feeling all Christmas ho ho ho now. Hurrah!

In which babymomma goes out 4 times in a week

Christmas must truly be upon us, as a few opportunities for a knees up came my way. Bf, being fantastic as he is, gave me not one, but two pink passes last week. So I went to Hakkasan for a sophisticated work do and Jongleurs for a work do at the other end of the spectrum in the same week.

Most exciting of all, at the weekend, Nani came up to babysit and bf and I went to a dinner party hosted by my amazing friend Mat. So not only was the food amazing, the company amazing, the conversation amazing, but the news that he is soon to be a daddy simply topped the amazing stakes.

And the next day we went to Alex' 2nd birthday party - 5 kids, 7 grown ups, a whole lot of mess and a totally chilled afternoon.

Bringing the total outings to 4. Oh yes, that's 4 parties in a week.

Which means I probably won't be going out again until I'm, ahem, about 40.

How could I forget about the terrible twos?

Last weekend Felix flipped a switch. And not in a good way.

First of all, we are convinced his molars are beginning to come through, and whilst we can't see any evidence of enamel rupturing through gum yet, that's the only reasonable explanation we have for his inconsolable tantrums.

That, and the famed "terrible twos." What we understand now, but didn't quite grasp last weekend, was that Felix is frustrated. He can't express himself. He can't assert his independence. He's always being told what to do. He's learning it's a tough little world out there. So he coped by, erm, banging his head against the floor; banging his head against my chest, banging his head against my jaw; banging his head against my head; repeat over for Daddy; ad infinitum.

It was terribly distressing but we've done all the positive parenting things like giving him choices, and letting him do things his way and on his own and all that. Thankfully we're all fine now and he's a happy smiley boy again.

Bah humbug

Christmas tree purchase, scrumbling at the Arts Depot, lunch with Nick & Jessica aside, I can't shake the feeling that this weekend has been quite shit.

Trial by media

Mildly obsessed and scandalised by the Meredith Kercher trial / result.

Amanda Knox facing 26 years. Sympathy towards her entirely driven by her youth and beauty, and the disbelief anyone that young and beautiful could have committed such a horrendous crime.

Amendment: realise this makes it sound like I think she's innocent. Clearly, the jury found her guilty - who am I to judge? What I really meant was 'Any' sympathy towards her... ie the case is fascinating because the accused happens to be young&beautiful.