Mike's musings

Duck tour birthday

(backposting) Today's birthday girl was Miri, who turned 3. And the big treat was to London, where we went on the excellent London Duck Tours. This takes you on a tour around the main sites of London on the roads, followed by taking the vehicle - which is amphibious - onto the Thames for a trip past Lambeth Palace and the Houses of Parliament. Both girls loved it, and Miri even managed despite getting a soaking from a wave while we were on the river.

Neither Moo nor I was feeling very well, but we all had a good day. Now we don't have a 2 year old any more. :-(

Labels: birthday, miri

Chickenpox - everywhere

Poor Miri; she's really suffering. As of this afternoon, she's got spots in her mouth and throat, too. I don't really expect her to last the night - by which I mean sleep through, of course! - but that's fine. If she's poorly, she can sleep with one of us.

Labels: illness, miri

Chickenpox

Well, it's probably been coming for a while: Miri has chickenpox. It does explain her being off colour recently.

Oh, and this morning, the girls were awake a bit early, but stayed in their room. And when I went in, I found Jo reading to Miri. And she was reading a proper book, on her own, for the first time. What we've been calling a "chapter book": one of these. Not great literature, but well done her.

Labels: books, illness, Jo, miri

Poor Miri

The little one's very, very tired today (not that Jo hasn't been, but she's been at school), and we've had lots of tears and clinginess. It's a sign of exactly how tired she really is that she went straight to sleep this evening after two separate naps during the day. I suspect she's got a little bug of some type, and hopefully she'll be better soon. But I'm going to take all the cuddles I can while she's like this!

Labels: illness, miri, sleep

Buffy Fest

(backposting) Oh, we love Buffy. The Vampire Slayer, of course. We're watching the entire set of seasons on DVD, one after the other, and we got to the one in Season 2 where Cordy and Xander first get it together. What quality!

In completely unrelated news, I Miri was absolutely gutted to discover that she wouldn't be going to pre-school till tomorrow. She's too young, really, to have much concept of time, and she loves it so much that I think we're going to have to increase the number of sessions she does pretty soon.

Labels: miri, television

Theology, prayer and wider life

I'm finding it quite hard to be reflective and theological in the midst of trying to work out where my professional life is going at the moment. There's still a possibility of a job via Certicom, at RIM, but I'm having to work out what other opportunities will present themselves, particularly as a job I was hoping might come together in the next couple of months has disappeared - for now, at least. So, I'm reading around moving into contracting, which is one option, and following up other leads, too. Time to get back in touch with those friends I've not spoken to a while, and do some good old networking.

Having said the above about theology, I've come up with a plan for what to preach about when I'm over in Bocking for Pentecost, as guest preacher(!). "Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees" - Isaiah 35.

And, to crown it all, we had to take Miri to Colchester Hospital A & E because her elbow ligament popped out again. My fault this time. "Strengthen ye the weak elbows" is more like it...

Labels: job, miri, prayer, theology

Miri's not well

Poor little thing. Ended up taking her to the out-of-hours doctor, and hopefully she'll be better soon. I took her for a walk today - in a backpack - and she was much quieter than usual, though she did like seeing the cows. I enjoyed seeing some sparrows mobbing a sparrowhawk - it's a while since I've seen one around here.

Labels: illness, miri

Two barbecues - and back home

(backposting) The weather was so good today that Mac barbecued twice (sausages first time, chicken the second). As always, the girls had a great time, and (as often) I snuck a little sleep in the morning: justified, I felt, as I would be driving back in the evening. In the event, we had a good drive back, and Jojo settled well back in bed. Miri, on the other hand, didn't, so Moo had to go to bed a little early with Miri in the bed with her. Moo didn't complain _that_ much...

Labels: family, miri

The first show

(backposting) Today was Jojo's first dance show: it was lovely. I cried at the end of her first appearance, I was so proud. I cried during the middle one, as I was nearly wetting myself with laughter. It was only a dress rehearsal, and was great. Jo didn't really get the fact that she should have been concentrating on remembering what to do, rather than (for instance) chatting to her friends or waving at me and Miri (or mouthing "where's Miri?" as she peered past the stage lights).

Moo managed to see all of Jojo's four routines, I'm pleased to say. I even managed to get one of them on video on my phone. Everyone who sees it laughs, despite the fact that it was one of the less, um, shambolic routines.

Miri managed the entire 2 and a half hours, and was a star.

Oh - and in the morning, we watched Monsters vs Aliens in 3D, which was excellent. Miri slept through some of it, of course, but Jojo enjoyed, as did we. I'd strongly recommend it: it was very funny, and had enough adult bits to be diverting.

Labels: films, jojo, miri

Crying

Jojo is just fantastic when she's good, but can be a real nightmare when she's not. This morning, I was trying to convince her to come upstairs to get dressed so that she could go to ballet with Moo. She wanted to say downstairs and watch TV, so I came downstairs and calmly asked her to come upstairs, at length. In the end, I had to pick her up (gently, gently), and carried her upstairs.

When we got there, she turned round to me, screamed in absolute rage, and pushed me away. She's never done that before, to me or Catherine. It was the rage, and the open-mouthed scream. And the rejection.

I was tired (in fact, I was about to go back to bed, as I'd been low on sleep _before_ Jo had us up at 0515), and that's part of the reason I cried, but it was horrible. Moo comforted Jo, and Miri came straight over to me and gave me a lovely cuddle. She's a real Daddy's girl at the moment, and it was lovely that she came over. But it was hard.

Labels: family, jojo, miri, sadness

A trip to A and E (again)

So, went to church with the girls, and they were pretty well-behaved for most of it. They're really getting to be pretty good, and I even managed to hear almost of all of James' sermon. Afterwards, we went to the back of the church for some squash for Jo. Jo was sitting down on a pew, and Miri tried to get up. And her elbow went again. I could tell immediately what it was - and she knew, too. So, I phoned Moo, got our stuff put together, and headed off home, where I dropped Jo. Miri was already asleep, but I tried raising her arm above her head briefly. She half-woke up, and was a bit sad, so I set off for Addenbrooke's A & E.

She woke up when I parked, and it was immediately clear that her arm was 100% better. It must have sorted itself when I raised above her head (which is the trick the nurse in A & E managed last time) or while she was asleep. Either way, it saved us a trip, as I headed home, just paying £3.00 for parking, but we'll try to get her referred to someone to look into it.

Labels: hospital, miri

Crying children and comedy

No, not connected. Miri, last night, woke up just as I was just about to go up to bed. I calmed her down, and as I got ready to go to bed, Moo looked after her. When I went back in (Miri was already in our bed), Miri lost it: she really, really wanted Moo there, and cried - _really_ cried - for 30 minutes. I've never known anything like it. She was really sad, and in the end, I went downstairs, where Moo had luckily just finished the work she'd needed to do, and, after a while, Miri calmed down. Poor little thing.

And today I've been finding out more about Tim Minchin, mainly by watching him on YouTube. He's very funny. As I put it on Facebook: you know how, if you're going to be entirely orthodox, certain people _are_ going to hell, but you hope you'll be there to enjoy it with them? Tim Minchin.

Labels: humour, miri

Annual trip to A & E

We last visited an A & E on Jo's birthday in February last year, so it was clearly time for another trip. This time, it was Miri's turn, which makes a refreshing change. Moo was away late, and I was just about to take the girls upstairs to bed, as they were both very, very tired, and was sitting on the sofa. Miri was clambering around behind me, and suddenly she started to cry loudly. I was pretty sure, within seconds, that it was the same problem that Jo's had a couple of times: the ligament in the elbow pops out. It's easy to put back in, but I've never managed to do it myself: partly because you don't want to upset the poor child any more than they already are.

So, I called Moo for ideas, and ended up calling the (fantastic) Kristi and Paul, parents of Jo and Miri's friends Louie and Poppy, and Kristi soon came around to take care Jo back to their house, and to lend me a car seat (Moo had both of our ones in her car, of course). Moo suggested I call the out-of-hours doctors' service, and I wasted 15 minutes or so waiting for them to call back before heading off for Addenbrooke's A & E. When they did get back to me, they advised me to do that anyway, so that was fine.

I'd given Miri some Calpol, and she'd calmed down pretty quickly, and slept all the way to Cambridge. And then we were seen pretty quickly, and the nurse's examination actually put the ligament back in place (in fact, just taking her top off did it, which is a good trick to know for next time). This avoided an hour or more wait, and we got back home around 2030. Mel had got a text from Kristi, and had phoned them, and when she'd spoken to Jo, Jo had clearly been a bit upset, so Mel had come over and picked her up. Jo was asleep by the time I got back, and Mel's just a complete star. In fact, Jo had a been a complete star, too, and had got herself changed really quickly and without any hassle when I asked her. And she went off with Kristi without any complaint, too, so I'm going to find a really nice treat for her tomorrow morning.

And, for extra excitement, we're expecting more snow tonight...

Labels: hospital, illness, Jo, miri

Two little girls

Miri's going all 2-year-old tantrum practice at the moment. She's tired, and when she's tired, she has problems expressing herself. Unlike Jo, who was talking quite well by this stage, she can't express what she wants, and is getting rather frustrated by this. If you give her time, and give her options, she can usually explain, as she understands lots and lots. Pretty much everything, these days, but if you haven't got a _clue_ what she wants, trying to get on her wavelength can be very difficult.

Jo, on the other hand, has recently got reading. She's spelling out words for herself, and she's now at the stage where you can tell her to pick something (a menu option on a computer, for instance), based on what it says, as she can have a good go at idnetifying the relevant word. We also took her swimming today, and, well, she can swim. On her front and on her back. It's still a little frantic except that she's now worked out that if she kicks more slowly, it works better and she gets less tired.

About 20 minutes ago, Moo heard something outside the sitting room, and went out. She called me, and said it was Jo. I thought she'd discovered Jo dead or severely ill at the bottom of the stairs. She'd made her way through the stairgate (she's never been known to do this before, though she's said she could), and come downstairs. She was fine, and said that she'd been woken up by the bangs (fireworks). Moo put her back to bed. We think that maybe she'd been sleepwalking, or nearly so.

Labels: Jo, miri

Zoo time

27/09/2008
Originally uploaded by MikeCamel

We had a lovely, lovely time at Colchester Zoo today: just Miri, Jojo and me. I took the girls to give Moo a day off, as I'm off on work travel for nearly 2 weeks tomorrow.

Jo was considerate, patient, obedient, sharing, kind, sensible and generally a joy to be with, and Miri toddled around happily. One of the things that Jo wanted to do was to take some pictures, and this is one of them. She still hasn't got the whole "framing" thing yet, but she _is_ little.

Labels: girls, Jo, miri, zoo

You can't get seasick on the Norfolk Broads

Moo and I decided that as we'd booked a holiday near the Norfolk Broads, it was only sensible to take a boat out. The weather looked half decent this morning, so we went off to Waveney Water Centre and hired a putta-putta boat for half a day. Life jackets all round, five minutes' instruction: you get the picture. And off we set.

And so did the kids. Zeugma there, in that we set off, and the kids did, too. I let Jo help steer a bit, sitting on my knee. And then she tried to steer into the reeds, so I had to steer the other way, and she hurt her wrist. Not badly: just enough to cry. Miri wouldn't sit still, or keep quiet. And after a while, when I asked Moo how she was feeling, she told me that she was feeling seasick. I know that she sometimes gets carsick, but seasick - on the Norfolk Broads? No swell. Seriously: nothing. We made it to Oulton Broad, and decided to tie up. Stern first, as per instructions. I had difficulty getting us backing in straight, so was hoping that Moo would leap personfully onto the bank, and she was hoping (against hope) that neither of the kids would attempt to follow her (and end up in the water, between the propellor and the wooden mooring posts).

We gave up, and motored back to the hiring place, phoning ahead so that they could jump aboard and tie up for us. They were very nice about it, and it was the right decision, and I hardly feel emasculated at all. It stopped raining once we tied up (or were tied up, to be more honest) - it had started about 5 minutes into the trip. Good work. The only positive outcome of this trip was the realisation that our decision _not_ to hire a boat for the week, but to stay in a cottage instead, was generally a good one.

We went to a pub for lunch, and I cried because they had a lovely Newfy who was very like Buster.

Not the best day, and Jo's going through "a phase". Luckily, Miri doesn't seem to have concussed herself when she fell off the dining room table and hit the back of her head on the chair behind her. So, the day ended on a good note.

Labels: holiday, illness, Jo, miri

Miri and the phone

(backposting) Miri loves phones. She'll pick them up, talk to them, hand them to you, take them back, talk some more, all of that. But when there's actually someone there, she seems entirely freaked by the whole business, and will just look at it in a slightly bemused fashion.

Today, she talked back. She seemed to realise it was me, and even responded to "kiss, kiss" (and a kissing noise from my end) by kissing the phone. In fact, she pretty much slobbered all over it, and Moo had to clean it afterwards, but it was really sweet. I remember when Jo suddenly seemed to get it, and it makes phoning home so much more rewarding.

A really busy day in Mississauga (my company's HQ) today, which is excellent, but tiring. I popped to a Mall in the evening, bought some books and some clothes (so cheap over here), some of which are presents for Moo and the girls. On the way back, witnessed an amazing thunderstorm in the distance, with ragged lightning across the sky: God works in truly fantastic ways.

Labels: god, miri, travel, weather

Toyboys - or Tomboys?

I went to my first deanery chapter meeting today. I should probably explain. The deanery chapter is where all the priests and the deacons from the deanery get together to chat, discuss issues, and generally bring up whatever they want. There are 13 clergy in our deanery (Hinckford), though only 6 of us made it. We went to a pub (The Lion) in Earls Colne, and ate outside. I met Margaret and Janet, who'd I'd not met before, and although we spent some important time discussing some pastoral issues - personal and parish - it was the downtime together that was just as important.

Lots of laughter and joking, teasing and fun. There was the discussion about whether Viv would like a tomboy. I meant toyboy - but it was particularly funny in light of the earlier chat about homosexuality in the Church of England.

It was a good, light-hearted lunch - I don't know how it would have been with more people (and different people) - and I must make sure I make it to these meetings as often as possible.

Miri's at the "no!" stage, but it's mainly aimed at the dog. Oh, and "shh!", with her index finger right up the side of her nose: again, mainly to the dog.

She's a lovely thing, and I wish she'd not taken about an hour and a half to go to sleep when she came into my bed in the middle of last night.

But Moo's home today.

Labels: clergy, miri

Picnic

(backposting) What do about having a picnic you'd planned when it turns out to be raining? You lay something on the sitting room floor and sit down and have it there. This turns out to be almost as much a treat for a 3 year old as a real picnic, so we were fine there. Earlier, Moo had taken Jo to ballet (which she loves), and I'd looked after Miri, cleared the kitchen (not cleaned it - don't be silly) and groomed part of the dog (with a bit of help from a 14 month old). We then had to go to Clare, as I needed to get a refill for the barbecue gas canister. It turns out that if you leave the valve on the canister open, and one the controls "on" (even unlit), all of the gas goes out of the canister. This is a useful lesson to learn.

A bit about Miri and Jo. Jo has recently taken to lots of imaginative play, making houses and dens in her and Miri's bedrooms, being a big sister (and forcing me or Moo to be younger siblings or cousins), etc.. The best thing about this is that she will include Miri: in fact, Miri doesn't have much of a choice about this. And Jo now has enough awareness of other people to know what she needs to do to keep Miri happy, so they're both enjoying themselves. Miri, as well as playing along a little, has developed her linguistic skills immensely of late. Not only is she beginning to parrot words back at you, particularly if you repeat them several times, but she really knows what's going on. You can give her fairly complex commands ("Miri, please go to Mummy and take the toothbrush"), which she'll carry out flawlessly (if she can be bothered). She loves books, and can identify and point to a variety of different objects and animals if asked. Lots more than you might expect. We're just waiting for her to decide to speak properly, but she's pretty good at telling you what she wants or needs, from holding a spoon to feed herself to wanting her shoes and socks taken off (and promptly put back on).

Labels: Jo, miri, play

A veritable wee!

Miri managed her first wee in a potty before her bath today. Yay! We've been sitting her on it from time to time, but she's never performed, so we made a big thing of it today. She's young for potty training, but has been patting loos quite often (and patting, for her, means that she wants to sit somewhere), so we thought we'd give it a go.

The other big news for the girls was Jo's first big-girl book. She's really enjoyed Charlie and the Chocolate Factory on DVD, so we thought we'd try her on the book. It's the first non-picture-dominated book she's had, and she loved it. The chapters are a good length, so I read one to her before the bath, and Moo read her one as she went to bed. Go Jo!

I had lunch with Viv, and talked about my first month as a deacon - which really isn't far away now. Things are really getting close.

Despite the upcoming excitement, I've got lots of work done today, and I'm quite pleased with it.

Labels: books, Jo, miri, ordination, work