I've just been made redundant

by my son!

I always take him up to bed. Tim puts Big to bed, and I put Small to bed. He’s only very recently stopped feeding to sleep, so it was just the routine that grew out of that. So before we go up, Small always kisses Daddy goodnight, and then I take him up. Tonight I said “bedtime Small, give Daddy a kiss” and instead of that he walked over and gave me a kiss, stepped back and waved, and then headed for the door with Daddy in tow.

I don’t know what to feel right now – bit odd not to be wanted by my baby, but lovely that he wants his daddy too.

Otherwise it’s been a long day. Put another parcel in the post. Tim fetched my car, which needed a little welding, but other than that walked the MOT. Bloke at garage says he’s now got another Fiesta with the same problem gearbox wise, so beginning to wonder if this is something they are prone to.

Popped out to do some shopping and Big mutinied, wanted to be brought home. Luckily, Tim had got back from the garage so I could drop her off with him. As I just had the one child I risked Meadowhall, wanting to go into M & S and get some food for Christmas lunch. Just as well I called Tim to check my choice though, as I was told that spaghetti carbonara didn’t sound very Christmassy. Maybe not, but he likes it and the children would have eaten it, so it sounded OK to me, but no. So I’ve delegated – he can go get whatever, or we’ll just eat whatever we’ve got in the cupboards!

Did make me wonder why, when neither of us are in the slightest bit religious, we’re doing the whole Chrimble celebration bit. But probably one to discuss more rationally at a different point in the year instead of a few days before the event.

Popped in to Hobbycraft as part of my search for size 10 crochet cotton (did you know if you follow the pattern for a barbie dress, and use the wrong size wool it doesn’t work? No? I didn’t used to either. 😉 ). I’m coming to the conclusion that Hobbycraft is in the same category as sports shops – it carries the fashion stuff loosely based on the originals, but is of no use to a serious practitioner. In other words, they only had one ball of size 10 crochet cotton, and that was in white. They only had one very small basket of crochet cotton at all, and all but one ball were white – there was one ecru. Pathetic. I’m going to end up buying online from some strange ppl who expect you to send them £2 for a catalogue and don’t actually have a shopping cart system. Wonder if they want one?

Did the weekly shopping at Aldi, and came home to find that Big, when I’d dropped her off, had just dropped her coat on the sofa, her shoes under the table and not really completed her use of the bathroom. So yelled at her, and got the response “I have to do everything around here…” which was the second time today I’ve had that (the first time being when I asked her to pick some of her toys up) so she got sent upstairs while I fumed my way through unpacking the shopping and making their tea.

Brought her back down as I put the (hot) bowl on the table, and said “careful, it’s hot”. Was highly amused to hear “ouch. You’re right” as I walked away. And then she wanted to make the drinks, but there wasn’t anywhere for her to do it, so I said I would do it, and she stropped at me for that, so I told her that I was trying to make it so that she didn’t have to do everything, and there was a pause, and in a quiet voice I got “I don’t really have to do everything round here.” Which was also quite funny.

She recovered nicely after her meal to career around madly again – I’m thinking next year I’ll ban television throughout December, as they’ve been building up, and building up and the excitement is just getting too much for her. Plus it’s so irritating! I mean, the tweenies. They are supposed to be just pre-school, and yet not one of them has ever bought a present for someone and discovered that it works better if you get them what they want, not what you would like? So a nursery teacher has to teach them that, rather than their parents? Yeuch…Big has known about that for ages. In fact, the best example was when she was 3 1/2 and Small was born and she went out to get a present for him. She’s scared of Monsters Inc, but in this case apparently she headed straight for a display stand of them, because “he’s a boy, and he’ll like them”.

Talking of Big and television, another interesting discussion about reality and fiction today, when she wanted to know if Miss Hoolie is a real person. So we got into the idea of characters, scripts, actors and actresses, which was interesting.

Right, now shall I do more programming? Or go and excavate the kitchen? Or continue my search for a barbie pattern that’s going to look good in white? Decisions, decisions…