(no subject)
I swear, I have the dumbest cat ever. Sid was asking to go out, so I let him out the kitchen door. Five minutes later I went upstairs and found him perched outside the study window. I don't even want to know how he got there.
I've had a nice little six day weekend home from work. Home sick on Friday, then the weekend followed by the three days I took off over half-term. D isn't teaching tomorrow or Friday, so he'll stay home and I'll work.
B's birthday party was fabulous. I can honestly say that this is the first party we've had at home where I haven't run out of what to do with the kids. It probably helps that only five of the ten kids we invited actually made it. Three couldn't come and it seems that two (well, three, but I sent her mother email when I didn't hear back from them) never actually made it home with their invitations. It was an "indoor campfire party" and everything we did kind of went with the theme.
To start with, the kids decorated their party bags. I discovered last year that this is a really nice useful trick for getting them to sit down calmly at the table (yes, I know I'm a control freak). I get these plain brown bags with handles and put out pens and colored pencils and sticky things and get them to personalize their own bags. Some of them - especially the girls - really get into it. Then we made paper lanterns and decorated them too. By then, we were already 45 minutes into a two hour party. We moved into the living room where D and I made a fire in the fireplace and explained to these little British children what smores are. And then we made the smores. They loved them. We played "campfire challenge pass the parcel" which was like normal pass the parcel, except without chocolate but with instructions to tell a funny joke, or a story about camping, or something similar. There was no prize in the middle, only a potato which they then used to play Hot Potato. Then I brought the food into the living room and they ate around the fire. And then we had cake. And in the middle of that, parents started arriving to pick up their kids.
L's son stayed over, and despite the fact that the lights were out by 8:30, all three boys were very much awake until ten. That was also the night that the shower broke - I'm so happy I washed my hair that morning! - and we had to turn the hot water off for the whole house. Grrr. Still haven't had a shower, thought the kids and I had a very mediocre tepid bath last night from cold water in the tub and boiling water from the kitchen. Of course, D has been showering at the gym, but since my membership ended in January it's not an option for me :-( We actually did buy a new shower on Monday night, but once we removed the old (discontinued) shower that came with the house, we discovered that 99 percent of showers are made to fit pipes with a standard distance of 15 cm and that the distance between our pipes is 14 cm. The kids and I returned the shower yesterday morning but were unable to find one that would fit our pipes. So I spent most of yesterday in front of the computer and on the phone until I found one that would fit. A plumbing shop not far from where I work was able to order us one and I did get a call from them today to say it had arrived, but D is busy all day and can't get down there to pick it up. So he'll pick it up tomorrow - and pick me up at work afterwards. I guess I can wait another night for a shower. Though I do feel pretty gritty. The bath last night helped, and I know there are people who can go for a day (or two or three) without bathing or showering - but I'm not one of them! I told D that the sooner we get the new shower fitted, the sooner he'll get some :-P
The baby is still breech, which is fine at this stage, but the movements are completely different to how they are when s/he is head down and being at home gives me too much time to brood over this. I'm going to buckle down and actually spend time trying to get the baby to turn.