Fluttering Butterflies

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Party preparations...
2007-11-22 21:41:00
-The cake has been ordered, but we weren't able to sample it beforehand, so I'm hoping it'll taste nice as well as look nice.-Balloons have been blown up and enough seating has been laid out.-The house has had a major tidy, which it desperately needed.-Elliot has a new cute outfit to wear, fitting for his likes and interests.-Presents are all bought, but not yet wrapped.-One banner has been put up, still others need to be bought and hung.-Party food has been agreed upon, still needs to be bought.-Goodie bags have been sorted and organised.-WHAT AM I FORGETTING?! It's the day after tomorrow!
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A little early...
2007-11-21 22:10:00
N sent me a fun Happy Thanksgiving message, and I thought I'd share the site with all of you, mostly because I have nothing better to write about, but also it's cute. So go send your own holiday greetings... even to me, if you like :)
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..
2007-11-20 21:51:00
N's sister had a baby boy, born naturally yesterday afternoon. Both baby and mum are fine - no name for the baby as yet. My dad arrived this afternoon and has had a wonderful day playing with Little Boy.The electricity company were doing work outside of our house during Elliot's naptime today, therefore *I* wasn't able to nap as well. Which means that by now I'm thoroughly exhausted and will now head for bed.

A short one
2007-11-19 17:42:00
N's working late and I might not get the time to post this later. I feel like I'm shortchanging my blog readers somehow by not sticking to plan of interesting blog ideas, but I just can't do it right now. We went to our weekly coffee afternoon today even though it was pouring down with rain. There was a 4 month old baby there, and I've never seen Elliot be so affectionate before. He's usually quite cuddly and likes to give kisses, but today he couldn't stop petting this little boy on the head and trying to give him toys to play with. It really melted my heart and I hope this is a good indication of what Elliot will be like with his future sibling. (Ha! See how I didn't give the sex of the baby away there?)N's sister update: She was induced yesterday and has gone into labour. No other news.
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This is what I haven't been telling you...
2007-11-18 22:12:00
Next weekend, along with Elliot's second birthday party, I'll also be baptised, confirmed and given first communion. I'm not sure why I haven't spoken about it before, but I feel weird about it. Only because I don't know any one else who's gone through a similar experience. It feels strange to be baptised at the age of 25. It's something I'd been thinking about doing for awhile, so I'm not regretting my decision. I'm just feeling a little awkward about standing in church in front of a bunch of strangers. When I decided to take tutorials with my local priest, I honestly thought the process would be a lot longer. I thought I'd have to study, prepare a bit more. I'm still feeling as if there are things about the Catholic faith that I don't fully understand or appreciate at the moment. The last time I spoke to the priest he said I'd need to find a sponsor, someone to stand up with me. I've asked my mother-in-law and I do feel slightly better knowing I won't be ...

Saturday
2007-11-17 21:56:00
Here's a photo of Elliot taken about a month ago. Hopefully it'll bring a smile to your faces. We had a telephone call this evening to say that N's sister has developed further complications and at only 35 weeks, will be delivering her baby very soon. It's unclear as yet if this will happen by inducement of natural birth or by caesarean on Monday. Either way, my thoughts and prayers are with her and her husband.
More About: Saturday

What a great day...and many more to come?
2007-11-16 21:17:00
...but I can't really share it, because I can't figure out how the scanner works, and thus cannot yet post my gorgeous scan photo of my new baby. So until I can, I won't answer those much-loved questions 'is it a boy? is it a girl?' So no asking as it will be futile. Both grandparents know, and so does my brother. N's sister is still in hospital with no change. But best of all, Elliot knows what the sex of the new baby is, and when asked 'are you going to be a great big brother?' he replied with a very firm 'NO!' I guess only time will tell. Tomorrow, my lovely new bookcases arrive. Tomorrow means 3 days until my dad arrives. Tomorrow means 7 days until Elliot's second birthday party. Tomorrow means 8 days until a major ... as yet unmentioned event taking place in my life. Full explanations and questions answered soon. And I'm sorry I haven't yet managed a belly shot. Would you believe me if I promised one for this weekend? No? I wouldn't either.
More About: Great , T A G

Sigh.
2007-11-15 21:56:00
Yesterday was a very bad day for me. I'd had a terrible dream the night before which made me worry about the safety of my unborn baby. That's never a great way to start a day. I dropped Elliot off to his grandma's as usual on a Wednesday, came home, and decided to switch on the TV for a little while. I ended up on this programme which was discussing ways to help children cope with death. I don't know why I watched it, I found myself getting more and more upset listening to mothers with terminal cancer and of a woman who had to tell her child who is younger than Elliot that daddy wasn't coming back. Even without my pregnancy hormones swirling around I would have cried. But I was upset the entire day and I gave Elliot far too many hugs and cuddles that he ended up pushing me away by the time dinnertime came around. I just don't know what would happen if something happened to N and I. What would happen to my children? Who would look after them? My father and brother ar...
More About: Sigh

My new favourite pasttime..
2007-11-14 19:49:00
...Sitting in bed with N, after Elliot has gone to sleep, flicking through Christmas catalogues and guessing which things we'd both like on each page... I recommend it.

Not usually my sort of thing...
2007-11-13 23:50:00
Your Celebrity Boob Twin:Lucy LawlessWho's Your Celebrity Boob Twin?But I thought I'd shake things up around here. I saw this blogthing ages ago and thought it was a laugh. In no way whatsoever do my boobs look anything at all like this. In fact, in my head, I'm still a gawky, flat teenager who's overly conscious of her lack of cleavage. It was only post-Elliot that I could ever really justify giving the girls some support. It's funny how over the years things become less important.
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I can't remember
2007-11-12 21:28:00
...if I've shared this photo of the lovely book box that N made for Elliot awhile back? I really love it. It fits all his picture books nicely, and Elliot gets quite excited to choose which story to read. N wanted to make something so that Elliot could say later 'my dad made that for me' which really is pretty special. I wish my parents had done that for me. Do you have anything similar? Something you look back on fondly with some special memory?
More About: Books

I heart Disney
2007-11-11 18:05:00
In case I haven't mentioned it before, I collect character Eeyore beanies. It started the first time N came to visit and it hasn't stopped over the years. I've never really had a proper count of the Eeyore-related merchandise but in our old home we had an entire dedicated to Eeyore with loads of shelves entirely filled up. We have yet to have a place for the donkeys in our current house (so they linger in our packing boxes, completely neglected and unloved), but I'm dying to put them up! We did just buy some shelves at Ikea this afternoon, perhaps they'll see the light of day before the end of the year. Here are the two we bought last weekend. Aren't they cute? And of course we couldn't resist buying Elliot yet more Christmas presents. He loves cars, so what better to get him than this Cars jigsaw and slippers. He's going to be so spoiled rotten soon... but let's hear it from you, any interesting collections?
More About: Disney , I heart , Heart

Halfway there!
2007-11-10 22:32:00
As of tomorrow, I am 20 weeks pregnant! It feels a little exciting, and at the moment there doesn't seem to be an end in sight, but at least we're getting to the more interesting bits. I felt the baby moving around inside me a few days back - not exactly kicking, but maybe somersaulting :) I remember the first time I felt Elliot kick, and it was so emotional and moving that I burst into tears and thought about it for days. Everything with this second child seems all a little less new and a bit anticlimatic, and I don't know what to do about that. We have our scan this Friday and I really am looking forward to it. We're finding out the sex of the baby this time around and absolutely everybody wants to know. My feelings about the sex of the baby keep changing. Somedays I feel terrified to have a daughter, other days it's all I can think about and yet I know that if I end up with two boys then I will be over the moon. I'm all over the place with this pregnancy - I'm sti...

..
2007-11-09 22:06:00
It's finally the weekend and N bought me home a new book from the library so I'll be off snuggled in bed reading instead of posting anything more than this! Have a nice weekend!

Ah, Christmas
2007-11-08 21:20:00
Because Elliot's birthday is just short of a month before Christmas , N and I tend to do Elliot's birthday and Christmas shopping all at once. So a few weeks ago we set out to all the toystores in the area, picked out some stuff and said 'right, that's Elliot's presents finished.' And the thing with buying presents early, is there is also some good sale, or we'll see something else that we think 'Little Boy would LOVE that' and being the parents we are (the spoiling kind), Elliot gets heaps more presents anyway. Such a thing happened today. I recieve an email from N to say that he's just bought this and considering buying this for Boy. So how does it work in your family? Shop early buy twice as much stuff, stick with a list, a maximum number of gifts? How to manage to not go completely overboard?!

Out of the mouths of babes
2007-11-07 21:40:00
A few weeks ago, Elliot had this vocabulary explosion, where he seemed to pick up everything said around him. I could hardly keep up. One morning, still half-asleep, I was getting ready for the day and Elliot was playing on the floor with some cars. Suddenly he looks up, points to me and starts shouting what sounds like, 'WHORE! WHORE! WHORE!' I could not believe it. I was thinking 'what on earth did he just say to me?!' and 'who said 'whore' in front of my child?!' starting to get a little worked up, when I glance down and realise what shirt I'm wearing. Yep, this green one with a HORSE on the front.
More About: Babes

18 Days and counting
2007-11-06 22:43:00
So, the invitations have gone out, it's official. We're having a birthday party for Elliot's second birthday, and you know what? I haven't organised anything else. We don't have food, we don't have cake, we don't have any plans, party bags, nothing. And it's 18 days away, which is what? 2 and a half weeks? Methinks this will end in disaster. Or at least cause an extreme level of stress. So I need some simple and quick ideas. Any thoughts?
More About: Days , Counting

Here's your task, should you choose to accept it...
2007-11-05 18:52:00
I'm on the hunt for baby names for SecondChild. I've posted a message on my myspace page and one on my facebook page, but I keep getting very strange suggestions (from my brother and from N)(and then N went and enlisted some friends of his to also leave weird names). Here's the list so far, feel free to add to it as you wish:Boys: Pepper, Primus, Lucky, Geraldo, Paddington, Smithy, DangerMouse, Rick, Flameboy, Romper, Bartholomew, Arnold, Derek, Proctor, Planstrom, Chuckie, Bing, Zippy, Anthony, Bosco, Sandford, Fievel, Jean-Pierre, Jean-Phillippe, The ICE man, Hayden, Edward, Oliver, Harry, James, Michael, Alexander, Levi, Scott.Girls: Rain, Cinnamon, Elliota, Peachy, Maribelle, Amelia, Elena, Elana, Jing-mae, Cate, Lily, Indria, Anuradha, Kate, Amelia, Megan, Madison, Elizabeth, Cadence, Isabelle, Crysta, Lynn.Other: Disney's 'The Kid', BPP, Bluetooth, Amber, Boston, Le Poo, Shimmy, DYMO, Symphonic-Harmonium-Composium, UnoDosTres, Baby Chuckles, Pumpoo, ChingChing, SuperFi...
More About: Choose , Accept , Task

FIREWORKS
2007-11-04 22:59:00
In a few week's time, my husband and I will celebrate Thanksgiving, as we have done together for the past 7 years. And every year we do something for the 4th of July. But what holiday do we never celebrate? Guy Fawkes Night. But everyone in our neighbourhood seems to have been celebrating for the past week or so. And I'm such a grumpy bitch that it really annoys me. Not so much that they're setting off the fireworks, but that I can't see them when I look out the window. Until tonight, that is. Tonight, we had a great view out the window... and when we sat Elliot in front of the window to see the pretty lights too, he burst into tears. Apparently fireworks are very scary to the poor little boy. Love that kid.
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A New Book Challenge
2007-11-03 21:48:00
(that I probably won't complete!) I've given myself a new challenge from now until whenever I get bored of it... which is to not go to the library or buy new books until I've read the books I already own and read them. Here's my list of paperback books that I have lying about the house for at least 6 months to a year, if not longer which I have not yet read. Here's hoping I get somewhere with this challenge and don't give up too quickly. If anyone has read any of the following books, please let me know what you think!The Child In Time by Ian McEwanThe DaVinci Code by Dan BrownConfessions of an Ugly Stepsister by Gregory MaguireFathers and Sons by Ivan TurgenevWild Swans by Jung ChangSchindler's Ark by Thomas KeneallyYes Man by Danny WallaceCloud Atlas by David MitchellBad Kitty by Michele JaffeShadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz ZafonCaptain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de BernieresMiddlemarch by George EliotThe Famished Road by Ben OkriThe Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon by Stephen ...
More About: Books , Book , Challenge , Halle

NaBloPoMo Groups
2007-11-02 12:44:00
When I first decided to join NaBloPoMo for the second year running, I immediately starting writing down ideas for blog posts in my little notebook. I'm big on making lists and planning. It's soothing. There's no real strategy or common theme among the post ideas, but I do have more than 30 ideas almost ready to go. I did the same thing last year and managed everything fairly well. But this year is different. It's on that social networking site, and I must admit I am addicted to both myspace (to a smaller extent) and to facebook. I like social networking sites. It makes me feel like I belong. Especially this year's addition of blogging groups. All my life, I've sort of felt left out. I'm a mixed race child of a broken home. We moved around constantly, I never had long-term friends until high school. I never connected with people my own age. At 18, I moved to another country, married young into a family of a different culture and religion. I don't seem to fit in...
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How did we get here so quickly?
2007-11-01 12:55:00
I can't believe it's already November, and therefore the start of NaBloPoMo. Sigh. It's going to be a busy month. Elliot's birthday, which means a party to organise, Thanksgiving, my dad arriving for a 3 week visit, Christmas shopping, plus another possible event which I don't want to discuss until nearer the time in case it doesn't actually happen. I'll have my 20 week scan and possibly find out the sex of our new baby. Exciting times, which surprises me, as I always thought of November as the most dreary and depressing month of all. It's going to be tight, but I promise you 30 days of posts. In a row. I'm regretting my decision already...You know what I just remembered though? I did NaBloPoMo last year, and I was one of those lucky people who was awarded a prize (yay for me!). It was for a free tarot card reading via email... and I forgot to send the nice lady an email with my questions and so never got my prize! Funny how it's taken me a whole year to remembe...

Happy Halloween!
2007-10-30 13:55:00
Did I mention that I was throwing a mini-Halloween party for a bunch of toddlers? It happened yesterday and went incredibly well. I was expecting 7 children and ended up with 11, and all of them were dressed up in cute little costumes! I was disappointed that my camera battery died just before everyone started arriving, but here are some photos of the decorations, and of course, my gorgeous Elliot dressed (again) as a pumpkin.
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I must be crazy
2007-10-24 13:09:00
I've gone and done it again.... who's with me? View my profile on NaBloPoMo
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Bugging me
2007-10-22 21:45:00
I don't generally like to discuss N's family on this, but something has really bugged me recently. Actually, it seems to be an ongoing problem but its reached a head recently. Let me know if you think I'm being unreasonable. -N's sister is pregnant and expecting her first child around Christmas. Exciting news, no? N and I wanted to send a present for the newborn baby and asked what can we get you guys? N's sister L, quickly says 'oh, don't bother, we have everything we need' We insist, really. 'I can't think of anything, but I'll let you know' SIGH. Finally, she gets back to us and says 'oh maybe just some vouchers' No, but really we'd like to buy SOMETHING for the child, vouchers seem a bit impersonal. She gets all snippy with us and explains in a bullet-pointed email how vouchers are the only possible choice because of delivery charges (N and I aren't so cheap that we're going to quibble over £5 here or there on delivery charges for our niece of nephew), ...

Babies abound
2007-10-18 14:24:00
I swear there must be some sort of baby boom happening in and around my town. Pregnant women are popping out of every corner of my life! I attend this coffee group with local women and there are 7 of us who meet on a regular basis. Currently 5 out of the 7 are pregnant. I know three more women at Elliot's toddler groups who are pregnant, two women who are my email buddies (but live in the same town) who are expecting. Two friends from back home are pregnant, and my sister in law is pregnant. How many is that? 13 women. And that's just the women I know. Everytime I tell someone new that I'm pregnant, I'll hear of a sister or a neighbour or cousin or someone else who's pregnant as well. That's a lot of babies. I was beginning to worry though. I've had conversations with other mothers recently regarding their views on having more than one child. I was suprised to hear quite a few of my friends have decided to only have one child and have contemplated the idea of addi...
More About: Babies , Babi

Hey bump - you're wrecking my wardrobe
2007-10-15 22:04:00
So the other week I woke up and suddenly I have a bump. And sorry, I don't have a suitable photo. The problem is, I pulled out my maternity clothes last weekend from the attic, and it turns out I have very little suitable maternity clothes for winter, and I'm not sure what to do. It seems pointless buying NEW m-clothes when this will more than likely be my only other pregnancy, I don't have close enough friends to borrow their winter-y fat clothes, and I don't know of any good, local charity shops or whatever that stock maternity clothes. What would you do? In whichever case, I need a new pair of jeans. I'm the type of girl that lives in her jeans, and thus the jeans are badly treated. My current jeans I bought for maybe 10 pounds at Tesco, and they've lasted me awhile... but now the trouser legs are all frayed, the seams are coming apart, there's a paint stain on one leg, a blood stain on the other from when I cut my finger, there's a big white patch in the pocket whe...
More About: Bump , Robe , Wrecking , Wreck

Happy 500th Post!
2007-10-09 12:55:00
And to celebrate, I give you ... photos of Elliot!
More About: Post , Happy

Happy birthday...
2007-10-05 21:36:00
Today is my mom's birthday. All week I've been trying to write a post about her life in some way, but everytime I tried I couldn't get it right. I realised this week that most of the things that I know about her, I've learned through my father. And as much as I love my father, I know that he is not the most reliable source, especially on matters concening my mother. I wonder which bits of information I know about her are actually true and if I'll ever get straight answers from either of my parents. I know that for years now my father, in his own twisted way, has tried to poison any good memories I have of my mom, and I have to admit that in a lot of ways it's worked. Not entirely because of him, but because over the years she has shown me enough of her own poison for the things my dad tells me to sound true. Does that make sense? But I always feel bad that I feel that way, and as October comes around and it's another year that's gone past where I haven't been in conta...
More About: Happy , Birthday , Therapy , Happy Birthday

Reading, Listening to, Watching...
2007-10-04 12:27:00
It seems these days that infrequent blog posts are the norm for me. I'm not sure what's going on, to be honest. I keep writing down ideas for posts and then never get around to them, my laziness is going into overdrive. Here's what I've been doing lately:Reading : Currently, The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. It's one of those books that I'd wanted to read for ages and have heard good things about, but never got around to reading it. I'm liking it so far, but have only managed the first few chapters. Also on my bedside table are Atonement and Saturday by Ian McEwan, which are both 1001 books... I haven't been using the library because of my enormous fines, but I'm finding that I don't have the same motivation in finishing books when I own the books I'm reading. I did go into the library the other day though, to kill an hour and managed to read the first 30 or so pages of The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro. Too many books to read, not enough time. Listening t...
More About: Books , Watching