Sleepy Bus

It's July already and I'm terrible at keeping up my blog.

I've been keeping busy, having had much to do with an application involving my immigration that has taken up a lot more time than I had expected. It's caused a lot of stress but I'm trying to breathe. Paul has had great news, he's been promoted already to the Customer Service desk which is a contracted permanent position, and in the Union to boot. No payraise yet, unfortunately, but it does imply some degree of stability which we've been looking for a long time. I am so proud of him!

We've been on more adventures lately-the little one had grown a lot and was in desperate need for new shoes, so we headed to Bodmin to meet his Nana who helped him with that-he also got a new outfit from the charity shops because he'd gotten soaked with rain. We also headed to the pond to see the ducks, and O.O. had a laugh running in circles in the health food shoppe. 

This week saw us travelling to Newquay-no good reason other than to get a break in scenery for Paul's day off. The cliffs and beaches are so beautiful that I was ashamed that my camera had ran out of battery. I didn't feel very well as my fibromyalgia decided to flare randomly, and Ozzy slept through both bus rides, but it was still beautiful and we've got some good ideas for future outings. 

We've had such a lovely break in the weather the past couple of days with some sunshine-I have been enjoying it as much as I can, taking Ozzy to the park and playing ball in our teeny backyard. O.O. has such a wonderfully silly sense of humour and giggles when the ball hits his head. 

Little spiders have made cobwebs all over the laundry that I hung up, what, two months ago? I love them and their little webs so much that I've not dared to take the washing in. They can borrow my linens, for now!

My Little Guy is 1!

I cannot believe it-officially a toddler.
We had a lovely day yesterday. Osrid Olov opened presents-he got so much stuff! A new outfit, new cloth nappies, a DJ station toy (he is REALLY into making music) with like 80 gazillion sound effects, a cuddly colourful spider with a mirror on the belly, new slippers, and a swim spider (octopus) that he picked out at a shoppe window from Mum & Dad, Grandparents on Dad's side gave him a wooden Xylophone (more music stuff, cool!) and toy cars, uncle Matthew got him a stacking animal toy set, Grandad on my side sent some $ (which no doubt he will blow at the casino when we are asleep), and great grandparents on my side seem to have sent a bit of that too-and we also got some nice cards from everyone. Thanks everybody!

It was raining, as it always seems to in North Cornwall (seriously. EVERY. DAY.), so instead of going to the Newquay aquarium like we had planned we decided to just bundle O.O. up and take him for a walk downtown. It is the first time we have been down there because it is a little bit of a walk away, but it is quite nice. Lots of ships on the quay. The people are very friendly here, which is nice. We all got quite winded at the end of the walk but fortunately some nice people at a seafood restaurant (ironic) called a cab for us.

We did a hand and foot print of Osrid's with carob powder and water-I forgot to buy paint but it is just as well, less of a carbon footprint this way I suppose. Totally nontoxic and Ozzie liked making a mess with it.

I can't help being a bit emotional...it is hard for a mother watching her babe grow. I sort of wish he could stay small forever, he is so sweet and cute and special. <3 Aww, my little boy! Just don't grow up too fast...

A Spot Of Tea & A Foot Detox?

We spent a lovely evening over at the Althouse-Heale's. We drank lots of ginger & lime tea and visited with Steph, Tom, Anne, and Finnley when he could poke his head out-and I got my feet detoxed. Ooooh, what a treat that is! Osrid loves being in my lap when I have it done, too-he gets very happy and cuddly and playful. I think he must be sensitive to the vibrations from the footbath coming through my body and he must enjoy them. It has been far too long since I had that done-I wish I could do it every day.

Tom and O.O. really had a blast playing together-Tom brought out his drumsticks and they made some fun beats together. Osrid Olov also got to have a 'swordfight' with everyone there (as well as make me a bit nervous of being bashed in the eye, ;P) I think everyone had a lot of fun seeing O.O., but especially Tom (some paternal instincts coming out, perhaps? :)) who was so kind as to let him play with his toys and even let him keep a little red car that he likes ever so much.

I also had some great conversations! For instance, talking to the lovely Anne about one of my all time favourite subjects, SPIDERS. Also, learning that Tom, Max (his & Finn's brother, who was not present) and Finn grew up vaccine-free. If you know me, you know how strongly against vaccines I am. As they seem to be some of the healthiest people I know, this makes me very happy. It also absolutely tickled me when we were discussing various aspects of parenting ---I'm not exactly sure how this came up, but Anne and Tom were asking Paul & I about various things about what it is like ect and somehow I came onto the subject of disciplining and how we don't even use time-outs beca-"what are time outs?" "yeah, what are time-outs?" Neither of them had ever heard of them! When I explained (using such things as being sent to ones room and put on a naughty step I.E. supernanny shows), they agreed they sounded horrible and can't see why people would do that to their children (it only makes them lash out more, anyway). It makes me happy to talk about gentle parenting practices even to people who arent' parents yet-it gives me hope yet for others to come. :)

I can't believe all this junk was in my body!!!!!!! Yuck!

Bink And Plue, Mum!

The most adorable things have been chiming out of this sweet little boys' mouth...he is now saying "Mum" "Mommy" "Mama" ect. to me/when he wants me as much as he is saying "Dad" "Daddy" "Dadda" to/about his old man. Also, he repeated "Bink and Plue"----the names of our spiders, Pink and Blue!
Cuuuuuuuuuuuuuuute!

Good Daddy!

Tuesday, 27 September: A special shoutout to wish a happy belated birthday to Osrid Olov's uncle Dodo, who turned 27 yesterday!

& Now the news: our little one has broken his record thus far and has made 7 tinkles on his potty today. Go Osrid! What a clever little tinkler. He said what had to be the cutest thing I think I have heard him say, when Paul praised him post tinkle with a "Good Ozzie!" he replied with a smile and said "Good Daddy!" "aww, why thank you 'Srid!" Doesn't that make your heart melt? It makes my heart melt.

We have been walking around quite a bit, which is really wearing and tearing my poor fibromyte (read: vax-injured) body, but I want to be better about getting O.O. out in the fresh air now that the sun is majoratively gone (sun allergies). All I want to do lately is sleep. It can so hard sometimes to do the right thing when you're ill, but Osrid Olov comes first and foremost in my life above all others, even myself, and it will always be so! I sure do love my kid, and I sure do feel lucky. It keeps raining when we go out though, which is frustrating as, well, as much as I love the cold I am not much for cold water. Drat.

A footnote, I had to add: I managed to catch one of the nasty gnats and tossed it into the web one of the spiders who lives in our bathroom. She ran out and wrapped it up right away and looked very happy, which sure made me happy too :D I love feeding spiders!

Our pretty little bathroom door spider

2 1/2 New Friends :) (or should I say 6?!)

I haven't posted in a couple of days!

Sunday was a nice day spent lazing around at home-well, somewhat-Osrid Olov wasn't lazing-when is he ever? He was playing and chattering and standing as always. He was LOVING his Danish computer games that we play at www.emu.dk and didn't want to do anything else for ages, which made me very happy. I love that he is so interested in it too. Pottying went well-we got another 4 tinkles, no plops though.

Yesterday was so lovely...what fun we had! Osrid had a shower and got to play his Dansk lessons and we went out in the afternoon to visit our lovely friends Mr. & Mrs. Sands which have just now moved over to the West side of town, which is wonderful as we can walk to their house in about 15 minutes. We saw some BEAUTIFUL spiders on the walk over! One was almost as big as my fist, I have never seen one so big in Cornwall before. I don't know what type she was but fortunately I managed to snap a photo(above) there was also a very cute little one adjacent to it that I had to photograph, too.

We were really glad to get to go and visit James and Sam especially as they have announced a couple of weeks ago that they are pregnant!!! Which means Osrid will have a new friend along shortly. It made us SO happy to have someone nearby to talk to about parenting and kid stuff and them too. This was Osrid's first time meeting them; he just loves them, and I am just elated that they share our views on gentle parenting. I worry when I have friends who get pregnant that they will be the type of parents who religiously follow the advice from the likes of Gina Ford & Tizzie Hall and leave them to cry & scream themselves to sleep until they are internally silenced. I have lost friends over some of my extreme views but despite that I respect people handling things differently I could never condone the sad and blatant neglectfulness that the majority of the western world seems to practice these days-which just makes me so feel so warm and fuzzy when I meet other people who are actually truly happy to have their children. A huge congratulations to James & Sam!

Paul went to see the doc & tell her we are not seeing Osrid's HV (nasty wench...) anymore. She was fine with that but was insistent we wean Osrid...this is the 3rd time I've heard a health professional mention weaning at a year or earlier, it doesn't surprise me the breastfeeding rates are so low in this country with such unsupportive doctors and "health" visitors. It must be illegal to give that kind of advice since it goes against World Health Organisation recommendations!! It seems insane...thankfully I know better than to listen. She wants to see O. but, unless he breaks a leg or something *touches wood* we don't plan on it. I'm glad Paul sees eye to eye with me with pretty much everything regarding our little one. I am so lucky. <3

We also had a nice little walk on the quay-I always love looking at the sailboats on the sea side, but I can't help that they make me nostalgic missing my dear old Dad. Heck.

We didn't get to bed until midnight which has been very late considering we've been falling asleep at dusk recently (strange, right-but we fall asleep whenever Osrid happens to.) This morning we got 2 tinkles on the potty so far, yesterday we only managed to get 3 for the whole day but that was probably because we were out. He also made a bit of a pooey gooey mess, augh, the joys of being a parent (Paul is at a seminar)...so it was shower time for BOTH of us again...my goodness. I am so tired, but I really do have the cutest time eater in all the land. Oh, and we have another spider that Paul found crawling across the floor of the bathroom this morning- she appears to be carrying a little egg sac of her own!! Aww!