JuniperBlue

Hello blog, it’s been too long.  My days have been filled with teaching Beepbeep new words, going to playgroup and playing more World of Warcraft than is sensible.  I’ve also signed up for an Open University course, just a twelve week toe-in-the-water introductory thing starting in October.  I’ll need to dig out my non-parenty brain and try to work out how to learn again…

This song is on repeat all day -

On a totally unrelated note, Alex Wotherspoon’s lips are enchanting.

Busy busy busy. I’m in one of my moods where everything needs to be done now, including this blog post. Beepbeep has a huge pile of new toys; well, not so much new as a bunch of toys he got at Christmas but had been left at his grandparents until the other day. The joy on his face as we pulled out a toy tool bench (with spinning plastic saw and colourful “nails” to hit), a Bob The Builder steering wheel, a big wooden xylophone (my ears!) as well as a heap of other multicoloured bits and bobs was brilliant. He’s spent the morning using his tool set and occasionally driving away somewhere, pretending to be Bob The Builder.

Last night, when he listened to me asking him to help to put his toys away, and every time I asked “could you pass me your ball/Iggle Piggle/trucks?” he went over to each toy and passed it to me with no fuss. He knew exactly what I was asking him to do, and whilst he might not have a lot of words yet (his new words are “brush”, “ball” and “shoes”), I know it won’t be long before he does. He’s amazing.

So, whilst he played I was busy stripping the bed, putting on washing, tidying up the cupboard/alcove/wardrobe (it’s basically a deep alcove down one wall in our room, deep enough to hang clothes and have a chest of drawers, but we removed the mirrored doors because mirrored doors are horrible -

These aren’t our doors or our room, just a helpful google image search to illustrate the point that mirrored doors = yuck). I also went into crazy mum-mode when we got up and made us all pancakes for breakfast. Sometimes I am too domesticated for my own good.

Another mum at playgroup and I made a plan yesterday to dump our kids with our partners and go off to see a local band play one night. She and her husband set up the kitchens in two of the city’s most well-known and well-loved vegan restaurants/pubs/gig venues, so she’s pretty clued up on the newer local bands and where they now all play. It has been… *counts on fingers*… almost five years since I went within a two mile radius of any local bands, so it would be both long overdue and a little intimidating to go. That is nothing to do with the bands playing and more to do with my own paranoia issues, but hey ho! I’d really like to go out though, it’d be nice to feel like me again, and not just “mummy”.

In yoga news, yesterday I managed to get my forehead to touch my knee, and for the first time since I was twelve I managed wheel pose -

I wish this was me - I’m a long way off being this slim, but still, I did this! And held it!

*exhales*

There’s nothing quite as nice as the peace I feel when the house is quiet. Beepbeep is upstairs, tucked up underneath his blankets after dozing on me after dinner. He’s had a restless day, as if nothing went right for him, tears coming at least once an hour. Tears I can cope with, but I hate how fed up he seems sometimes, as if his little world has ended. Admittedly this has only happened a few times and usually after a big trauma like losing a toy behind the couch, or tripping over a toy and landing flat on his face. We have playgroup tomorrow morning so he’ll be much happier then once he’s surrounded by other tiny people.

Anyway. Peace.

*exhales once more*

In a few minutes I’ll be out on the road, having yet another driving lesson. I love them, but I’m impatient to take my test (and pass it, obviously), if only to make my own day-to-day life easier. I hate constantly asking for lifts here and there, and not being able to even do the shopping during the day due to not being able to carry it all home and living too close to a supermarket to justify taking a taxi. I have a self-imposed deadline of 18th April to sit my test, for a few reasons… Thirteen weeks… Hmm.

I spent last night watching Louis Theroux do a ten stay hitch in San Quentin prison, for his lastest documentary. I’m a old fan of Theroux from his TV Nation days right through to Weird Weekends so I was keen to see his latest show. However, as intriguing as the concept was, something just didn’t click for me in the viewing. On a forum that I contribute to regularly someone made a comment earlier that in his other shows there always seemed to be a point, something he wanted his “subjects” to admit to, or something he wanted to expose but in last night’s show there was no such point, it felt a little aimless, vague almost. Theroux gave us a glimpse into the lives of some of America’s most feared (and longest serving - one inmate was on a 500+ year sentence for home invasion and assault/torture plus eleven life sentences on top of that) criminals, yet at just an hour long the surface was barely scratched. I look forward to his next show though, whenever or whatever it may be.

I’m a member of WoYoPracMo but I haven’t found two seconds to squeeze in a bit of yoga today, nevermind the ten minute minimum. Do you think all the bending and stretching I did whilst cleaning the bathroom this morning counts…?

Beepbeep on his trusty steed, ready for whatever the playground frontier may throw at him.

Ah weekend, I can almost sniff you on the air of this damp and freezing Friday afternoon. Why I still get so excited about the weekend I don’t know since each day pretty much blends into another, the only difference being that for two great days Mr Fox is home with us.

(Tied to his laptop, admittedly, but home nonetheless.)

We’re planning on getting a nice old-looking wooden floor to replace the horrible laminate that we have in the livingroom and hallway. Someone from the flooring company visited yesterday to measure up which took a lot less time than I expected. Don’t get me wrong, our house isn’t huge, but it can’t be easy to measure a floor when there’s an inquisitive almost-16 month old toddler whose latest obsession is anything resembling a tape measure. Thankfully it all went quickly and smoothly, so we may end up going to the shop at some point in the next two days to choose what timber we want. Then it’s a four week wait for the timber to be cut, and only a day for it to be laid, et voila! Nice new hardwearing, beautiful flooring. I can’t wait.

I’m going through a houseproud phase at the moment, I don’t understand why. When I lived with friends I always did my share of the work but I was never really OTT about it. Even since we moved here (over a year ago) I’ve kept the place clean and tidy, but since New Year I’ve really been trying to sort the whole place out. I hung two pictures today, one a gift Mr Fox was given at Christmas, and one that I bought at a market near the Sacre Coeur too many years ago.  I’d go back to Paris in a heartbeat, and have hinted at such to Mr Fox often, but as yet we haven’t made the trip.  Maybe I should save some cash and surprise him, instead of waiting to be surprised myself?