Cheery Danny
Things aren't all doom and gloom. That said, I would have had this post up within an hour of my previous one, except for both kids taking turns at being demanding.
MaybeZoe's progressing well, and should be crawling any day now. She's at that sweet age where she's only unhappy when something's actually wrong, and so spends most of her time being cute and cheerful.
Lex is getting frustrated and upset at everything that doesn't go his way, and his favourite phrase at the mo' is "Lex want it." It gets used for everything, even if he doesn't know what it is. All it needs to do is catch his eye and the magic phase is uttered.
However he's doing lots of dancing, and can now count to 39. Oh and most mornings he will cuddle up and give me a kiss good morning.
I'm watching a lot of films, mostly through sheer bloody-mindedness. I am doggedly watching a movie a night. I'm doing this for a lot of reasons. One is that I really love films, and I just haven't been seeing anywhere near as many as I'd like for a long, long time. Another is I'd like to have seen more films than angriest by the end of the year, for no other reason than last year I was seriously in awe of how many films he got through, so it's less about competition, and more about having a goal. I expect to fall massively behind some point soon.
One of the helpful things is occasionally watching a kids film with Lex while MaybeZoe's asleep. It gets me a film during the day, and another that night. Another is, instead of waiting to see what Sharon wants to do for the evening (Shaz is notoriously indecisive, so often by the time she'd decided what she was doing it was too late to watch a flick), I tell her I'm about to watch a film and if she wants to watch something else, talk, play a game, eat ice cream, practice her pole dancing - to just say at any point and I'll happily stop the film. This has made the biggest difference to me getting to watch movies.
Another helpful thing is we've gotten a Quickflix account. They have a pretty big range of old and hard to find films, and they're delivered to our door. Given that so many video libraries only stock the blockbusters, it gives me a good chance to check out some odd movies to see if I actually want to own them at some point. It also plays on my not-wasting-money urge - pretty much any film that arrives gets watched that night. We have a mailbox one house over, so posting them back is really easy. If I start not getting to the films within a couple of days, well, that's when I cancel my account.
Mum gave me money for Christmas, so I bought a bunch of Dark Horse Omnibus editions of comics that I own. Aliens, Predator, Terminator, and Aliens VS Predator. It's nice to have a bunch in a volume, though some of their decisions, such as not presenting the individual issues so that you just get a giant chunk of story, and actually changing some of the text, takes a bit of the shine off. But they've been lovely to read again, and it's helped fill some gaps.
Also been watching the occasional episode of Fraggle Rock and Phineas and Ferb. Bought the complete set of Fraggle Rock in the great pre-mortgage DVD buy-up, and it's been nice to start viewing again. Phineas and Ferb Christmas special was a gift to Lex from one of MaybeZoe's godparents. Both shows have something that can't help but appeal to me - at least one new song every episode, in a variety of styles. Marvellous. Oh and a small part of every episode of Phineas and Ferb is their pet platypus, Perry - who is, unbeknownst to them, also a secret agent.
My front car seat has been reupholstered, and looks magnificent. We have one of those spikey Christmas spiders just outside our toilet window. The veggie garden is coming along. My wife is awesome. And I'm the prettiest person you know.
So, apart from the tiredness and illness, life is actually rather good.
MaybeZoe's progressing well, and should be crawling any day now. She's at that sweet age where she's only unhappy when something's actually wrong, and so spends most of her time being cute and cheerful.
Lex is getting frustrated and upset at everything that doesn't go his way, and his favourite phrase at the mo' is "Lex want it." It gets used for everything, even if he doesn't know what it is. All it needs to do is catch his eye and the magic phase is uttered.
However he's doing lots of dancing, and can now count to 39. Oh and most mornings he will cuddle up and give me a kiss good morning.
I'm watching a lot of films, mostly through sheer bloody-mindedness. I am doggedly watching a movie a night. I'm doing this for a lot of reasons. One is that I really love films, and I just haven't been seeing anywhere near as many as I'd like for a long, long time. Another is I'd like to have seen more films than angriest by the end of the year, for no other reason than last year I was seriously in awe of how many films he got through, so it's less about competition, and more about having a goal. I expect to fall massively behind some point soon.
One of the helpful things is occasionally watching a kids film with Lex while MaybeZoe's asleep. It gets me a film during the day, and another that night. Another is, instead of waiting to see what Sharon wants to do for the evening (Shaz is notoriously indecisive, so often by the time she'd decided what she was doing it was too late to watch a flick), I tell her I'm about to watch a film and if she wants to watch something else, talk, play a game, eat ice cream, practice her pole dancing - to just say at any point and I'll happily stop the film. This has made the biggest difference to me getting to watch movies.
Another helpful thing is we've gotten a Quickflix account. They have a pretty big range of old and hard to find films, and they're delivered to our door. Given that so many video libraries only stock the blockbusters, it gives me a good chance to check out some odd movies to see if I actually want to own them at some point. It also plays on my not-wasting-money urge - pretty much any film that arrives gets watched that night. We have a mailbox one house over, so posting them back is really easy. If I start not getting to the films within a couple of days, well, that's when I cancel my account.
Mum gave me money for Christmas, so I bought a bunch of Dark Horse Omnibus editions of comics that I own. Aliens, Predator, Terminator, and Aliens VS Predator. It's nice to have a bunch in a volume, though some of their decisions, such as not presenting the individual issues so that you just get a giant chunk of story, and actually changing some of the text, takes a bit of the shine off. But they've been lovely to read again, and it's helped fill some gaps.
Also been watching the occasional episode of Fraggle Rock and Phineas and Ferb. Bought the complete set of Fraggle Rock in the great pre-mortgage DVD buy-up, and it's been nice to start viewing again. Phineas and Ferb Christmas special was a gift to Lex from one of MaybeZoe's godparents. Both shows have something that can't help but appeal to me - at least one new song every episode, in a variety of styles. Marvellous. Oh and a small part of every episode of Phineas and Ferb is their pet platypus, Perry - who is, unbeknownst to them, also a secret agent.
My front car seat has been reupholstered, and looks magnificent. We have one of those spikey Christmas spiders just outside our toilet window. The veggie garden is coming along. My wife is awesome. And I'm the prettiest person you know.
So, apart from the tiredness and illness, life is actually rather good.