Friday Quicktakes

1. I'm absolutely loving 'In the Club' on Tuesday nights. I know its corny and unrealistic - the sheets stay discreetly over the mammy's knees while giving birth, and the babies all come out perfectly clean -but all the twists and turns in the tangled relationships have me hooked.

Loverboy's into it too - he won't admit it, but I've totally clocked him watching while pretending to read the BBC news website. Actually, now I think about it, he's had a wee thing for Hermione Norris since her Cold Feet days.....


2.  I must admit - the last few weeks in August were loooong-  boredom had set in, the bickering had escalated, and to top it off the weather turned a bit crap - I was SO ready for the schools to go back.

 What I wasn't so sure about was the wee man starting P1 - it's a whole new phase for both of us, and I'm ready..mostly.....far more importantly though- HE is. Spread your wings and fly, baby.





3.  We're into another new stage with our girly too. No deets, except that there's a boy on the scene and a whole lot of  hand holding going on. (No, nothing else....Loverboy has a shotgun).

But now, suddenly, there're requests for a social life to deal with, and boundaries being pushed and even more messaging on her phone.We're learning as we go along to walk that very fine line of  freedom with restrictions, trust with strings attached.

And now I'm remembering long ago discos in St Gerard's and an 11 o'clock curfew with Daddy waiting patiently outside in the car....Oh, the embarrassment of it all.

Now tonight HER Daddy will be waiting outside, and it's all come full circle.

4. Boogie in the booster -  this ones for you, big girl. Uncle Robbie says all I want to...only in a much cooler way.
My lovely, listen carefully, keep it in mind, and  you'll be grand.

Friday Quicktakes

1. Loverboy treated himself to a new toy recently. Its a radio controlled quadcopter, which flies around and takes aerial photos and video and he is LOVING it. To be honest, it IS pretty cool,  seeing aerial views of your house and surrounding countryside, especially as I have such awful bearings.

He brought it with us to the caravilla and got some gorgeous footage of the coastline. Turned out it was a great talking point too, because every single time he had it on the beach, somebody came over to see what it was and to ask him questions about it. Which I suspect gets old pretty quickly because it's essentially the same conversation over and over, but as I told him, that's the price of owning such a cutting edge toy.....Which incidentally cost about the same as 10, maybe even 15 pairs of shoes......just sayin'!



 2. The following words actually emerged from my mouth the other day (and in a suitably outraged tone as well!)
'You know what I'm going to do ? I'm going to go down those stairs this minute and ring 1800 TOOTH FAIRY because this just ISN'T ON !'

This was in response to the tooth fairy not turning up.... 10 days after the tooth first came out. Shocking service, I know. In her defence though, we were all away over Easter and the dentally challenged boy only went and left the tooth at home, and then there was the added distraction of chocolate and Easter and more chocolate, and hell, somehow it was all forgotten about... until we came home that is.

And just between you and me, as this boy is now ten, I strongly suspect that he's adopting a 'don't ask, don't tell' policy where the tooth fairy is concerned,  thus making an easy few quid while he still can. Or maybe I've got it all wrong and he's actually weeping with disappointment  into his pillow at this moment.... Oh crapola.

 Update- The Tooth Fairy just made a highly unusual daytime delivery, sent her apologies for the delay and even stuck in a bit extra for the inconvenience.....one classy chick if you ask me!

Further Update-He SO knows. I cunningly made him check under his pillow for jammies that needed washing., and down he came without a word about cash or tooth fairies, but his all knowing smirk told me all I needed to know. Cormac 1, Tooth Fairy 0. 

3. Holy Communion prep is now into its final stages and I must admit, occasionally at times like this I long for a small, polite family, who would celebrate by going  for a perfectly affordable, delicious meal in which table manners would be observed at all times, and then returning to a impeccably tidy house where I'd put my feet up and catch up on the latest Grazia.

NEVER GONNA HAPPEN. Not with forty people and a bouncy castle coming.  A new barbeque has been ordered especially for the event. An industrial sized Tesco delivery will arrive midweek. Thankfully it includes lots of prosecco.

The most untidy boy in the entire world will be coereced into a suit for his big day, and then bribed to keep it on for the photos. I give it an hour til the crocs go on. There'll be babies crying and kids bouncing and money being indiscreetly counted in the corner by Communion boy and his brothers.

 There'll be grandparents and cousins and brothers and sisters, and godparents and aunties and uncles and friends.  There'll be noise and laughter and mess, and shouting over each other and joking around because that's the way we do Communions...and Christenings and birthdays and Christmas around here.

And honestly? I wouldn't have it any other way, because they are ALL my tribe and I suppose that this is what love looks like in a loud, messy, bigger family than most kinda way.
As Yoda would say, Blessed am I.

4.I'm back on the 5:2 program because I've put on half a stone since last summer. But here's the thing-I never actually stopped it....except for holidays obvs, so I may, in fact, be the only person on the planet to put on weight on while doing it.

I blame my (barely)over forty metabolism. That, and the fact that on reflection, I may have more than slightly ripped the arse outta the non fast days, in a caramel square, wine and chocolate sort of way.
So me and My Fitness Pal are keeping a close eye on the portion sizes and a ban on all caramel squares is in force until my 'just checking' dress zips up without cutting off the circulation to my head.
 Oh and wouldn't you know-here's the book our Rory  just happens to be reading right now-bad karma or what?


5. Speaking of  fast days, I've discovered zero noodles- Nigella loves them- apparently they've almost no calories, are very filling, and are good in stir fries.  I ordered them online but when they arrived and I showed them to Loverboy, he just raised his eyebrows, then tore a bit of cardboard off the packaging, handed it to me and said "Look toast! no calories and for you only 3 quid a slice!" Cheeky sod....I'll show him...and give you my honest verdict next week, peeps.







6. Boogie in the Car Seat. A great song with an important message....and it also makes me hold my head just that little bit higher!
Enjoy and have a good weekend my lovelies, Emma xx

Friday Quicktakes

1. Oh my goodness- I'd forgotten how disruptive and messy home improvement is! It's been a week of making tea and small talk, peeling off wallpaper, washing curtains  and cleaning up dust. There's been no space for homeworks,  the tv remote and phone have gone AWOL and we've eaten breakfast for dinner.  Midweek my kitchen looked like this and I wondered if we were mad in the head to pull down perfectly serviceable wallpaper & replace it with utter chaos. But just a few days later and we're definitely coming out the other side. There's still loads to be done but its now it feels brighter, fresher..and mine! Who knew a lick of paint could be so therapeutic AND the effects last longer than a facial and massage!


2. The paint will barely be dry when we host our first party this afternoon. Talk about up to the wire! Luke's birthday party has long been scheduled for today, and I'll admit to being a teensy bit concerned earlier in the week as to how I could possibly throw a party for 20 kids amid such chaos. Now, let's just say I'm quietly confident we'll be able to pull it out of the bag-if 'Sleeping Bunnies' doesn't cut it, 'Gangnam Style' surely will and with a Percy Pig cake and sweets thrown in (thank you M&S!), sure we'll be grand!




3. On that very same note- my baby is three!! Three! A babe no more, he's now a fully fledged, potty trained (this never gets old) chatty little toddler-man. Even though we have our power struggles from time to time-he believes he's the boss of me and vice versa- he's my shadow and constant companion.

Tired out!

This week alone, I've been dragging him from one carpet warehouse to another, and still he turned to me and said 'Mammy, I just LOVE carpets!'.... which is just as well because we hit another two places in the afternoon.

The little gent

I really love this age, more than the baby phase if I'm honest...the problem is it flies by far too quickly! You turn around and suddenly they're big boys who run outside to play without a cuddle or even a backward glance, and I know that someday he will too...but not just yet. Happy 3rd birthday to my funny, stubborn, beautiful, brown eyed boy xx


4. This week's Booster Seat Boogie has to be a song which will always remind me of our Lukey, most especially the words at the very beginning. Unlike our first four, we decided to find out we were having a boy on a wet day late in 2009...then this song came on the radio on our way home. Enjoy and happy Friday my lovelies, Emmaxx

Friday Quick Takes

• Remember my iPhone? The one that had the broken screen that then SOMEHOW, (ahem), ended up with everything except the screen broken? Well, the saga continues because apparently, the new screen was, (as luck would have it!), faulty and that's what's been causing all these problems... but now a new screen is winging its way here as we speak, so by the end of this weekend all should be tickety boo on the old iphone front. At least that's what my resident repairer of iPhone screens confidently assures me, and as I don't actually have a plan B at this point, I'm running with the 'faulty screen theory' as well.... Stay tuned for a (hopefully positive) update.

• November is traditionally the season of parent teacher meetings around here. A few years ago with four in the primary school, I had to run frantically from one ten minute slot to the next, with six month old Luke in tow, and I'm not sure that I heard very much at all. So this year, with just the two middle boys at primary, and a more manageable toddler, it was easy peasy. It would be fair to say that I was a teensy bit more apprehensive about what I'd hear about one boy in particular-his approach to the whole school thing in general is 'Less is more', but I needn't have worried, it all went swimmingly. Next up are the older two at the big school and that's a whole different kettle of fish. Gone are the laid back chats of primary school -this is an endless wait in a winding queue for 1 minute of teacher facetime, x10. The only possible way is to divide and conquer, and here's a tip-watch out for the opportunistic queue jumping that goes on among some of the parents-totally shameless!

• Staying on the school theme for a moment, I overheard six year old Rory asking this question about Jude's head teacher- 'Is Mrs Animal Tin a very strict teacher, Jude?'  To which Jude spluttered 'It's Mrs Hamilton, Rory!' 'Yes, I know,' says Himself surprised, 'that's what I said!'

• Finally, here's a picture. It's an escaped cow on the road to school this morning and it caused quite a bit of drama-The steady stream of cars (relatively speaking, you city folk!), slowed down and gave her a wide berth on their way past. Presumably though, the farmer was eventually notified and Daisy returned to her field to chew some cud with her buddies again.                                           

• Finally finally, I thought I'd let you know that I'll probably not be around here as much over the next few weeks. The truth is, the Christmas preparations are SERIOUSLY getting in the way of shooting the breeze with you, and I don't want blogging to become a chore or something that I HAVE to do, because then it all starts to feel a little stale. And who am I kidding, you'll probably be so busy yourselves, that you'll not even notice, but I just thought I'd mention it anyway. Have a good weekend, my lovelies, Em xxx