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That Monday Feeling!

08 May 2017 77 Comments

by Ritu in Thoughts Opinions & Memories Tags: Blog, Blog Post, Blogger, Blogging, Family, kids, No Sleep, School, tired

I know where I’d rather be right now!

After another night with barely 4 hours sleep, I definitely don’t feel ready to face the day!

And I wasn’t stressing over anything, honestly…or rather I was worrying about Lil Man.

Poor guy is suffering from a migraine since yesterday, and a high temperature.

He wanted to sleep near me so we agreed that once he fell asleep, I would take him to his bed.

Of course the drama queen in our house (not me, cheeky! I know you were thinking that!), Lil Princess decided that it wasn’t fair, him being with me. She went to bed then until 11pm kept coming into my room to say she was unable to sleep.

Finally when Lil Man was asleep soundly, I carried him into his bed. Li Princess appeared to be asleep. Hubby Dearest was still watching TV downstairs, unaware of any Musical Beds being played so far!

But come half an hour later, he came back, “I can’t sleep mummy, it hurts too much!” So the duvet got pulled to one side, and he climbed in.

We all fell asleep… until at 1 am the pitter patter of smallish feet woke me. “Mummy, I can’t sleep, honestly!” Lil Princess had arrived!

Now this should have been the time I marched her back to bed, but in all honesty, I didn’t have the energy! The duvet was pulled up and here I was, sandwiched between two little people!

Then Hubby Dearest showed up.

I instructed him to go take the girl, and sleep with her on the pull out bed in her room! At least this way she wasn’t feeling ‘excluded from this sickness pyjama party!

So off they went. All I could hear was giggling, so had to go and remind him that his daughter had to be up in around 5 hours! then after 20 minutes, more noise as the pull out bed went back.. because Sonu Singh, who had been peacefully sleeping on my bed, thought he would join their party, and went under Lil Princess’s bed, and had started scratching the wood there, disturbing all!

So, after she was settled, Hubby Dearest took the couch, and all was well… until around 2.30 am, when Lil Princess appeared again, at my door.

Too tired, I beckoned her over, and spent the next three and a half hours tossing and turning between these two, getting hotter and hotter!

The alarm went off to soon!

And I had two kids and the cat wedged around me!

Oh Jeez! How am I going to manage today?

Lil Man still hasn’t shaken the temperature or headache so he will be at home with his Daddy. I don’t know quite how I am going to wake my Lil Drama Queen Princess up now…

Wish me luck!

And have a good day Peeps! I hope your night was better than mine!

Snow Fun! (It Didn’t Last Long Though!)

13 Jan 2017 42 Comments

by Ritu in Family, Thoughts Opinions & Memories Tags: Blog, Blog Post, Blogger, Blogging, kids, Nursery, Snow, Snow Angels, Snowman

Well, you know how excited I was yesterday, about the snow fall that we had.

It was cold. We got around 3 cm.. not much, but enough for the kids to want to go wild out there! (Well, as wild as 3cm lets you get!)

Initially, I was like, “No kids, you need to get to bed. We’ll see tomorrow.” But then I got to thinking. I was fully aware that the snow was not due to continue falling overnight, but the temperatures were going to be low. This meant that whatever snow we had would still be there, but in ice form, rather than lovely soft snow.

So I crumbled, and all four of us got wrapped u, ready to go and ‘play’ in the snow!

It would have been five, but Sonu went out and ran straight back in. Strangely, he doesn’t like cold, wet things falling on his fur!

And they attempted to make snow angels, snow balls and snowmen!

It meant that the pristine, snow-covered garden was now a mushy mess, but at least they had fun!

This morning, it was indeed icy. I needed a pickaxe to get through the ‘snow’ on the windscreen, and the road, in places, where the area was mostly residential, was treacherous. There were ice rinks where puddles once were!

Getting to school was no better. The carpark was a giant lawsuit waiting to happen, with iced-over surfaces! The caretaker was trying his hardest to salt and grit over the playgrounds before the children arrived, and there were three of them for him to deal with! One is on an incline, and the main path is at the bottom of the slope. As he scraped the path, the ice from the top of the playground was melting, and rolling down slowly, refreezing where he was trying to clear!

Poor guy!

It was almost a pointless exercise!

Morning play outside for the whole school was cancelled as all three playgrounds were far too dangerous, except in our nursery. We were lucky! Our little area still had some ~~ice~~ snow for the kids to enjoy, and clear paths for them to move around!

It was a joy to see these children, some of whom hadn’t even been allowed to touch the snow, play in this wonderful cold stuff that they hadn’t ever experienced before! (Unless they were from Poland, in which case they had seen much, much more!)

And we even made a snowman!!!!

Alas… it’s all gone now!!!

Oh Brother!

10 Dec 2016 26 Comments

by Ritu in Family Tags: Brother, Family, kids, Memories

One from the Archives

Image from Google

Some days, I sit here, wanting to tear my hair out, watching the little people squabble with each other. “Mummy!!!!! He changed the channel!” “Mummy! she touched my light sabers!” “Mummy!! He said a bad word!”( usually something REALLY bad, like… Stupid!) I often tell them I’ve changed my name, mummy isn’t here, sort it out yourselves. Many times I have screamed like a banshee (not that it works), and am on the point of pulling my hair out, when I remember…

*dream sequence/flashback*
Many years ago, it was my poor, long suffering mother in the same position, being the referee between my Darling Brother and I!

Oh my! The feelings were sometimes bordering on pure hatred between us, well, with the limited emotional experience at the tender ages of 6 and 9, this was as strong a hatred as we probably knew (for our sibling, oh and also for things like vegetables)!

The fighting over the best seat in the living room, the last chocolate… Actually, scrap that. Do you know what? Thinking back, I know that we had that all typical big sister/little brother relationship, full of petty squabbles, pushes and shoves, but I really can’t remember any one time that made my blood boil! Ask the 15 year old me that same question, and I’d probably have a list a mile long!

The things I remember, are how cute he actually was, even in anger! His obsession with being a policeman, carrying a toy gun everywhere. In fact we were at the airport, about to board a flight to visit family in Kenya and he sparked an alert! So said ‘toy’ gun got confiscated, and he never got it back!

And when my Big Sister love and protective instinct really kicked in! Those who know me, know I am a pretty chilled person, not argumentative, or confrontational at all, but one day, at a cousin’s house, I was chatting with my girl cousins and he was outside with the boyz. I overheard someone saying something to him, and honestly, I can’t remember what, but the feeling of ‘ how dare you say that to MY brother!’ kicked in. I rushed outside, and squared up to said cousin, and said “how dare you say…(whatever) to my brother?” And promptly punched him in the mouth! So now I can say, not with great pride, that I gave someone a bloody mouth with one punch! This lovely cousin and I reminisce and laugh over it now! He’s a dad of 2 now and so calm, and peaceful, but then, he was like a whirlwind, a Tasmanian Devil, always getting up to mischief!

My brother and I grew up, he went to boarding school, I was at home then went off to university. This was when our relationship really started to change. He started asking my opinion, and, sometimes, valuing my advice. And I realized that this little brother was not so little anymore. He sometimes even talked sense!!! Slowly my brother was becoming a young man. Interested in girls, going out with the lads, and he’d tell me about things going on in his life.

We started to share our little secrets with each other, and we weren’t judging one another, we were being each other’s support. And this has continued. He’s been living abroad for a while now. He travelled around after I got married, did things I didn’t get a chance to do… Lived in Dubai, met his would-be wife, and now is settled in Finland.

We don’t get to chat as often as I’d like, and seeing each other face to face… hardly! But, as I posted before, Skype is a great thing! I love him to bits, and my wonderful sister-in-law too. Wouldn’t change them for anything… However, if I could change anything, it would be their location! Nearer us, with my beautiful nephew would be great, but that’s not in my hands!

So thinking back to the start of this post, I know the monkeys are always at each others throats, at the moment, but if they have a relationship anything like me and my brother’s, it will be the most sacred, beautiful relationship around! Siblings… No one else can appreciate your family foibles like your siblings! And accept you for who you are.

Love you Darling Brother! 💞💕

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

10 Dec 2016 59 Comments

by Ritu in Children, Family, Thoughts Opinions & Memories Tags: Blog, Blog Post, Blogger, Blogging, Christmas, Christmas tree, Concussion, Family, kids, Sonu Singh

It’s taken a while, but we are finally with tree! 20161209_183837

What with Lil Man’s concussion, and a week of school, and oh so much ‘mum stress’ and worry, the Christmas tree, I’m afraid, took a back seat.

But yesterday evening, I came home to find a different child at home. Previously during the week, he had been really suffering from bad headaches, and was unable to get up, or do anything. Last night, however, he was so happy, helping me with housework, and even doing his homework!

The week was filled with hospital visits as his headache was no better, and he was waking each morning, conscious of missing school, but standing with silent tears falling due to the pain.

There were tears from me too… It is far too hard to see your child in pain, and not being able to do anything about it. We were lucky that Hubby Dearest works from home so he was at home with Lil Man, but it meant that I would come into work, and if anyone showed concern, I was a blubbering mess!

It didn’t help when the Locum Doctor at our surgery refused to acknowledge the concussion diagnosis by TWO hospital Dr’s and dismissed the whole thing as a headache because of the weather! And then he sent Hubby Dearest and Lil Man away saying he didn’t want them to waste anymore of his time! Seriously? This is a child with a diagnosed head injury??? We had been asked to go to our surgery to discuss next steps if the pain worsened. I wanted to hit someone (the doctor!) but I just cried instead!

Still, that is all a stress of the past now, and he seems so much more himself finally!

And Sonu Singh has been getting involved too, as usual!

He loves sitting under the tree and then sneakily trying to climb it! But the best is him getting acquainted with my giant Nutcracker!

And yes, I admit, I attempted some dressing up… but he was not compliant with me this time! See below for the Snowman and Elf attempt… FAIL!

He made himself feel better by sitting in our KFC bag instead!

20161209_195605

Reiki Nanu!

04 Dec 2016 61 Comments

by Ritu in Family, Thoughts Opinions & Memories Tags: Blog, Blog Post, Blogger, Blogging, Children, Concussion, Haldi Milk, Humour, kids, Lil Man, Lil Princess, Reiki, Turmeric

This last week, amongst other things, My dear Lil Man decided that it would be a good idea to get concussed by a stray football!

On Thursday I got a call from his friend’s mum (He goes there after school and I pick him up from there) to say he was in a bad way, crying and headachey because of a hit to the head.

Obviously I left work ASAP and rushed to get him. A couple of years ago he got hit on the nose quite hard by another ball, and was concussed then too.

The boy was a mess. Tears flowing from a severe headache, but he was not compliant about getting checked out.

We agreed that if he woke in the morning with a headache, then Daddy would take him to the hospital to get checked.

Obviously, that was what had to happen. His temperature was up, and he was still suffering from a severe headache.

The Dr said he needed to refrain from any contact sport for a minimum of 3 weeks.

So, no football on Saturdays this side of Christmas, and PE at school would need t be limited. His only concern was that he wanted to be able to play badminton! Luckily the Dr said that should be ok!

We have been lucky enough to have my Precious Pops and Mum here for the weekend, and Pops is a Reiki healer, amongst other things.

So he worked his magic on Lil Man this morning too!

He said he thought it was funny when Nanu tickled him. Pops had to explain that he only touched his forehead once… the rest was the energy from the Reiki!

Not to be left out, Lil Princess also had a session as she has this lingering cough…

She said she could really feel the warmth in her chest as he performed the Reiki!

And talking of Lil Princess and her cough… Nanu/Pops always has remedies for things, but you know kids, they don’t like these natural, strange tasting concoctions. I said he could try and convince her, and I would be happy to make it if she agreed!

Their conversation went a little like this…

Sitting here listening to Pops trying to convince my daughter about drinking warm milk with turmeric and honey… good luck Pops!

Pops:”You know sometimes the things that taste good aren’t good for you and the things that taste bad are good for you.”
Sim:”Sweets are yummy and good for you. I eat them”!
Pops:”We’ll they aren’t really good for you…”
Sim: shrugs shoulders and continues playing games Robloks!

Hmmm… I wonder what the answer will be when I ask her to drink some later???