More about Golby

This weekend was scorchio! and Nani was up so we went to Kew Gardens to melt. Jasmine told me more about Golby.

Golby's mum is a chicken. Called La-lu (or it might be Lu-la - I can't remember). Golby's dad is also a chicken called Da-na. Golby, however, isn't a chicken. Golby, says Jasmine, is a Golby. I think Golby must be quite small because she slipped down a crack in a rock today and had to be rushed to hospital.

I heart Kew Gardens

So, despite the fact my interior landscape is feeling more than a little flat there are still many many things to keep me going. None better than the city in Springtime, and the healing magic that is Kew Gardens.

Aaahhhh

Felix is really into kissing, which he does (as Jambeans also did) with mouth wide open and normally when he's got a torrent of snot dripping down his nose too. Anybody else = yeuch but with the Squealycops I give him a big smacker back every time. Just another babymomma sacrifice I guess...

Our darling baby girl looks so grown up...

They really have most excellent trees

And yet more Kew

Work is just totally manic. And when I get home it's straight into picking up the kids. My evenings are mainly taken up with work, and since none of us have been sleeping too brilliantly these last few weeks, we're all completely shattered and there's simply no time to write. Not a total disaster since there's not too much to write about: I'm too busy running just to stand still and the world at large is totally fucked (economy's trashed, we're in recession, doom & gloom yadda yadda)

BUT... in the short 6 days since Felix first crawled 2 inches, he's now making his way across thresholds, into other rooms, over to boxes and buckets and tables and everywhere. It's amazing. He's totally amazing. And teeth number 3 and 4 are beginning to poke through. And he's getting more and more handsome each day.

Jambeans is currently in 7th Heaven this weekend as Granma is up and she's the best thing since sliced bread.

And as for me, I love Autumn, and there's nothing more invigorating than Kew on a fresh, windy Autumn day.

To Queue or Kew?

When we stayed at Fowey we took the opportunity to visit the much vaunted Eden Project, along with, let me think, oh, only the whole of the rest of Cornwall and Devon. The queues started in the car, before we even got to the front gates, rendering our "20 minute drive" into a 40-minute piss take. From the car parks they bus you to the entrance gate. Come again? You have to queue for a bus? (I know, I know, the irony of The Eden Project bussing everyone in - two words spring to mind: Carbon. Footprint.) So instead we walked the path for 15 minutes to... the back of the queue leading to the entrance gate. Felix was cool. Jambeans was entertaining the masses by singing 'Horsey Horsey' quite tunelessly at the top of her voice. Unsurprisingly Babymomma and Poppa were getting antsy.

Another 15 minutes later we were farmed into the entrance hall where we were fooled by the 14 ticket desks into thinking this would be a breeze, but didn't account for the incompetent laziness of the 14 stupid Janners manning the ticket desks. Which is why, when there were only 2 people ahead of us, it took us yet another 15 minutes to get to the front of the queue. Where we were informed by the cashier that her till had broken and we would have to go to the back of another queue. AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHH. So boyfried harrumphed off to queue in a silent, manly strop, and I harrumphed forward with Felix with a huffy, about-to-have-a-London-style-hissy-fit scowl on my face. Which was fortunate because from my vantage point I could see that the cashier fixed her till in about 3 seconds and dully went on issuing tickets without even trying to call us back. So we barged back in and, finally, paid our £30 dues to enter...

The Eden (Queueing) Project.

We've arrived. Thirty quid poorer, totally pissed off and we've only just got inside the front door. The Eden Project had better blow us away to make up for that. So we look around, and all I can see is people. Where are the Biomes? Oh, you have to walk another 10 minutes to enter.

Stop. Sigh. Try to Think Positive.

So off we trot, and as we get closer, the throng gets thicker and thicker, till finally we're in the cafe-canteen-lunchy-type-area that acts as entranceway to the Biomes and we muscle our way forward and finally we're in the Rainforest Biome and are being herded around a one way system Ikea style and it's hot and humid and there are simply billions of people everywhere and to top it all off Felix starts whining his hungry whine so we have to turn around: we've barely been inside 5 minutes.

Around we turn, fight our way back to the cafe-canteen-lunchy-type-area, queue to find a seat (and curiously, get to witness some people queueing to see how a pasty is made), feed the bub, get lunch, have the privilege of eating it with a spoon and fork because all the knives have run out and then decide to forgo our £30 entrance and GET THE HELL OUT.

So we're trying to get the hell out, and guess what? We even have to queue to exit the goddam Eden Queueing Project.

We've been there 2 hours, spent about £50 and haven't seen a single decent plant. Thankfully, we laugh. And resolve never to go back.

By contrast, yesterday was the most perfectly sunny day so we went to Kew and it was total bliss. Our very own Eden, right here in London.

Am I okay?

This week my propensity to swing from totally fed up to perfectly happy has been more acute than normal, which is making me wonder if I'm okay, or really not very okay at all. Like on Monday - woke up and was a total, shouty cow for about an hour, but was serenely happy the minute we arrived at Kew and for the whole of the rest of the day (probably something to do with the fact that Kew is enchanted). Today - woke up just dandy but a mere 2 hours later I was seriously fantasising about walking out the front door and just keeping going, leaving kids, bf, home and the comfort of the burbs behind me forever. And I don't think it's because the bubs are being more bub-like and toddler-like than usual. I think it's because my willingness to tolerate it has just dissipated completely.

Having said that, right now Jasmine is painting the dining room table with yoghurt and I'm actually pretty cool with that. So I think I must be okay after all.

Gorgeous

Herding Geese

It's a long weekend, hurrah, and the sun has come out again. It's T-Shirt weather - the first of the year. Went to Kew Gardens yesterday. The idea was to get a decent walk in, but we didn't cover much ground as Jambeans kept veering off all over the place. Her favourite activity was herding geese which she did determinedly for what seemed like hours whilst bf and I laughed at her. The F-bub was having a hungry day so I spent most of it with him attached to my boobs, but that was cool. The we met up with Nicki and her clan for tea and cake. Kew worked it's magic on us and we left all blissed out.

Today we took the bairns swimming. Jasmine got very excited at the prospect. She has learned both "Yaaaaay" and "Wheeeee" and she alternated shouting both out all morning till we got to the pool. Felix was very chilled in the pool and had a good time just looking around and soaking up the atmos. Both kids completely conked out afterwards. We put Jambeans on a rug on the floor where she rolled over and just lay on her face half on it half off it. For some reason it was bloody funny and bf and I laughed so hard it hurt and the noise of our guffaws woke Jambeans up and she was totally grumpy about that.

2 days of hell followed by 2 days of heaven

Had to take Jambeans to hospital just over a week ago. She caught a virus that went to her chest and couldn't breathe easily, and was slipping in and out of consciousness at one point. Mum was with me - we'd arranged for her to come and visit on my day off so I could have a hand - which was a real blessing, though I was a bit mean to her because Jambeans had been so difficult since the morning and I was sooo tired and emotional and finding it hard to cope that when she did turn up after a pretty long commute she had to contend with a very grumpy and snappy babymomma. But thank god she was there because it helped me make the decision to take the bub to hospital.

When we got there it wasn't too busy and they took one look at the bub and fast-tracked her right through triage. Then they gave her oxygen and a course of nebulizers over the next few hours that seemed to help enormously, plus a bit of paracetamol and ibuprofen for the temperature. Jambeans behaved enormously well, given that she was confined to a single bed for hours, but she was so poorly she didn't feel much like scrumbling around until much much later, when we were all knackered and she was perking up.

They discharged us around 11pm - we had got there at 4pm and bf had joined us straight after work - so we were all beginning to find it a bit of an ordeal.

Next day was uber tough too as we were so knackered. It was my first Friday working since going up to 4 days a week but I didn't go in and stayed home to help Bf look after the bub.

Steve and Jessica (la Gitane) were coming for dinner so we had an italian picnic (ie - no cooking involved) in the garden and it very chilled and wonderful and set the tone for two glorious days of sunshine and happy baby ahead, so we went back to Kew gardens and got totally blissed out again.

Spring has sprung

Beautiful spring day. Went to Kew Gardens. Held hands with the bf as we walked past daffodils and magnolia trees in filtered sunlight. The bub babbling away gently to herself. Feel totally blissed out.