A Mother's Ramblings

Top Ender started school this past September so technically she is now a school girl not a top ender, but I think that Top Ender sounds a whole lot cuter so we will stick with that! Baby Boy is now able to sit up on his own and I think he is going to skip the crawling stage. At the moment he is busy trying to stand and he seems to prefer being in a semi standing position to anything else. Which is fine as it means my arm muscles are being built up! Top Ender has been reading everything and anything in sight (pleased I made all those word cards now!) since she realised that recognising words is all that reading is about! I was really pleased with her as it means that she is reading at the same age as Daddy and I (we both read before we went to school, which if this was the 80's Top Ender wouldn't be in full time school for another half term or so!) and she has so much more confidence in herself now.

Last night I took Baby Boy up to have his last feed of the night (well before I went to sleep!) and for me to get ready for bed too. Top Ender was downstairs with Daddy watching a cartoon before it was time for her to go to bed. Suddenly she appeared in the bedroom to announce; "You should do something that you don't do" Thinking that she meant something like not tell her off I half heartedly said "Whats that?" "Dye your hair... It would make it glossy and shiny!"

So Baby Boy made his entrance to the world on the 15 th May, and quite honestly I don't know who is prouder out of Daddy, Top Ender and me. Already he is three weeks old, has given all of us a smile and a coo and has driven all other thoughts from our minds! Daddy is having an hour alone with Baby Boy every morning after he wakes up for his first feed of the day he likes to look around so Daddy takes him downstairs so I can have an hours uninterrupted sleep. Top Ender keeps helping (of which I am so proud) and tells everyone that he doesn't wake her in the night (which I am even prouder of!) and keeps looking in catalogues to see what she can buy for them to share (at the moment it is swing sets) so I think I have worked out her angle!

Last night Daddy remembered where the bolts were for Top Enders swing. Top Ender was getting dry as she had just got out the bath and so I was helping put the swing together. Top Ender suddenly appeared at the back door wearing her towel (the ones which go over your child's head) and her shoes and asked; "Is it okay if I have just one quick swing?" I didn't really want to say Yes but she looked so cute, and had put shoes on so I did say Yes. She ran out got on the swing and had one quick swing before coming back in. This morning before eating breakfast she was out again, in her PJ's and shoes swinging on the swing. It appears that absence really does make the heart really does grow fonder!

Top Ender came in to mine and Daddy's room this morning as Daddy had already wished me a Happy Birthday we figured that Top Ender was going to do the same as all of yesterday (Granny's Birthday) she wanted it to be today so she could eat the chocolate cake we made together for me. Instead she gave me a hug and said; "It is a very early gift for your Birthday Mummy" "What makes it an early gift?!" "Because it is only just past night time!" Well I suppose technically she was right!

Yesterday Top Ender didn't really want to spend anytime with me. Every time I tired to find her to play with her or try to involve her in something I was doing she was busy doing something else that she didn't want me to do too! It got so bad that she even took her lunch upstairs to eat instead of sitting with me! Today however she hasn't left my side. I have been sitting on the PC doing my emails, listening to my podcast and getting ready to make some chicken pies and a couple of Quiches and she keeps coming up to me and hugging me or just passing comment! I love that Top Ender has independence, but that she still comes back to me for the love and reassurance that she needs!

Top Ender is so much fun. This morning I dressed her in dungarees shorts, pink T-shirt, pink socks and her pink Barbie baseball sneakers. She looked so darned so cute that when she came downstairs Daddy had to take a few pictures. After a visit from Granny and Sister and Cousin she decided that perhaps being a ballerina fairy was the look to go for. We had to go out and Daddy unusually said she could keep her outfit on... wings and all. Top Ender went to find the appropriate footwear (pink flip flops) and off we went. Walking from where we parked the car to the shop we were delighted when nearly all of the young children we passed and those of the "older generation" (Eg what I think a Granny should look like, you know with white hair) smiled or passed comment on what a beautiful fairy she was. Daddy and I looked on proudly realising that our baby is growing up (well she is a Top Ender now!) and we are so very lucky. I just hope that Baby Boy doesn't dress in a tutu and wa...

Top Ender is becoming morbid again. I thought we had managed to stop all of this a couple of years ago a few months after my Grandfather had died and I told her that talking about dying all the time made me sad. Last night she and her Daddy drove past a cemetery. "What's that?" she asked "A cemetery" replied Daddy "Where they bury dead people?" "Yes" "Can we go there?" "Why?" "So you can read the names to me!" "There would be a lot, it would take a long time" said Daddy trying to get out of it "That is okay, there will be a bench half way down that you can rest on and then when you are ready you can read the rest to me." As long as she doesn't start wearing all black and start wanting us to call her a goth type name we should be fine!

Top Ender now has her own blog. She wanted to know what I did on the computer, and she wanted a diary so I thought we should combine the two! Top Ender thinks it is great, as I have linked her flickr account to her blog, and so there is a slide show of her pictures at the bottom of her blog! At the moment she is trying to poke me to get me of the computer so that she can go on her log on... Starting to wonder why we taught her to talk!

Top Ender and I are spending a lot of time together at the moment as I am on maternity leave. This has meant that with my nesting and a willing pair of hands we have been able to complete a lot of little jobs around the home. We have baked, scrubbed, sorted, mowed the lawn and done a lot of weeding, cleared out the garage and threw away a lot of rubbish, put most of our new arrivals room together, washed and ironed all the old unisex clothing, sorted the non unisex clothing in to age categories to be passed to my sister or sold on the Internet, gone through Top Enders clothes and underware, gone through Top Enders toys and books and done an awful lot of art and craft projects that have previously sat in the games box waiting for someone to create them! I am so amazed at her skills, her conversation starters and her stamina! She has told me that she is learning good life skills (who taught her that!) and that together we can make out house beautiful!

Top Ender is getting excited about Baby Boy nearly being here. She very kindly suggested we use her old baby things for her baby brother (amazing when subtle comments work!) and has even helped sort through all the old clothes that I kept to pull out all the gender neutral things! I was amazed to see how much she has grown, obviously I remember that she was once a baby but I forgot how small she was! She was more obsessed with the fact that she had more clothes as a baby than she does now until I explained that babies sometimes need changing several times a day!

Today we got a letter from the local council confirming that Top Ender has a place at our first choice school for her (the local primary at the end of the road). I have suddenly realised that my little baby is growing up and is no longer the little baby that I think of her as! Feeling Baby kicking inside of me makes me realise how fleeting time is and how I will miss my babies when they are no longer babies!

The other day My Sister taught Top Ender a rhyme about baked beans; "Beans, Beans Good for the Heart, The more you eat the more you...Fart". Being the good little girl that Top Ender is, she told me later that night that my sister had told her a rhyme, but that she couldn't quite remember it... I knew that wasn't strictly true as you can tell Top Ender anything once and it will be stored for use at a later date. Last night my side of the family were all having dinner together and the meal had beans. With an evil glint in her eye my sister asked; "Top Ender, do you remember that rhyme I told you about beans?" "No" said Top Ender "Yes, Top Ender does" I sighed Top Ender looked at me and realised that I wasn't really that mad about her knowing this "rude" rhyme. "Which one was it again?" Top Ender pondered "Oh yes that's it - Beans, Beans Good for the Heart, The more you eat the more you.....

Top Ender is being very good at the moment, and I am sure I know why and it's something I did! She has been helping me each week do my chores; On a Saturday whilst she watches the TV for an hour I am found hovering the house, dusting, cleaning the bathroom and Kitchen you know what it involves I am sure, because like me you do all the same chores! Then together we follow the Flylady Missions for a room and spend some time cuddling and reading on the sofa. She understands that in the afternoons at the weekends and the evenings during the week I need to have a rest as Baby Boy is making me tired and she will often sit with me and listen to some music or tell me a story or read to herself if I nap or have a quick read. And I think that this is all happening because of our written down routines. I spent some time and created for both Top Ender and I,  a folder which contain our daily routines. Her folder is a High School Musical folder and has lots of stickers inside; min...