It’s About That Time Isn’t It?

Image via Wikipedia

We’re about 6 weeks into the new year, the middle of February. Most of us are back at work or whatever our usual daily grind routine is. Long behind us now are thoughts of presents & stockings*, jolly fat bearded men dressed in red**, tinsel, baubles, decorated trees, reindeer, wall-to-wall chocolate, competing with the neighbours to be the first house to simultaneously drain the National Grid & be seen from Space, fighting with drunk Aunties who insist of cheating at Cluedo (I mean really: who cheats at Cluedo?!)***, & dreams of a White Christmas.

Life for most of us has pretty much returned to normal after the mad excitement (or otherwise) of the holiday season.  Plenty of time.

When / if we think about it some of us may be pleased & annoying, others of us disappointed & annoyed.

What am I on about? New years’ resolutions!

By now I reckon those of us who made any will have figured out if we’ve been able to keep them or not.

I, as I often do, found myself doing it backwards****. I didn’t resolve to do anything differently, but found myself doing things differently anyway & kind of realised I was acting out my non-resolutions. I then wrote about them, as you do.

So how am I doing?, I hear you cry.

I’m still not active on twitter, apart from posting links to blogs (yes, mostly mine). TICK

I’m using facebook more. Although not much more. And the main family members I have who are there just don’t use it that much! HALF TICK

Blogging. Most of any spare time I’ve had to myself this year has been spent blogging. I’ve found, read  & subscribed to loads of great blogs.  I’ve taken part, both in posting & reading / commenting, in great linky blog-hops like The Gallery & Silent Sunday. I’ve Gok Wanned my blog, & learnt a few tricks of the trade. Although the main reason I blog is for my own enjoyment, it’s nice to know that others appear to enjoy it too, & my posts have had many more views & comments than last year, & more subscribers. (Thank you). I managed nearly a post a day in January, although I wasn’t aiming for that. I think then that that’s a TICK

I’ve realised though that I simply can’t maintain this pace! I’m pretty sure that in 1 weekend I read & commented on every single post in that week’s Gallery & Silent Sunday. Some of you may have noticed that I’ve been commenting on blog posts from a week ago & longer: that’s because I’ve fallen behind in the blogs that I subscribe to, & I do like to read every one. And that’s just the email subs, I’ve hardly looked at my Yahoo Reader! (I vastly prefer subs by email, by the way; if the option is there I take it. I find RSS annoying by comparison). Also: I’m tired. And there are some signs of writer’s block. And I have a sore arm. And… (internal censor: Shut Up!)

The upshot: something’s gotta give. I can’t stand to be anywhere near my TV in case I glimpse its “Why are you neglecting me; I thought you were my friend?!” accusatory stare. And I miss playing Guild Wars.

I will definitely Carry On Blogging though, just maybe not as fervently.

So, all in all, I reckon I get a ‘B’ for my early-year non-resolution-keeping exam.

And you, dear reader…?

* Well, except it was Valentine’s day yesterday…

** ditto…

*** Sorry, getting a bit too personalised there

**** Well, it was – oh, never mind

Related Articles

• Guild Wars 2 trailer goes to the home of the humans (news.bigdownload.com)

Viva La Difference: I Get Around

Back in November I did a ‘What’s Been Happening Over the Last 6 Months While I Haven’t Been Making Proper Posts’ post called “This Blog is Pointless“.  It was about how much the twins had changed in that time, with lots of pictures of course.

I said there “It just goes to show that babies, even twins, develop at very different rates & in different ways. In fact, that’s probably a subject for another post…”. And I always meant to do it, just haven’t had/made the opportunity.

Well, as I will probably have inscribed on my tombstone, “better late then never”. So this, dear reader, is that post.

For the first 3-4 months of their lives they couldn’t do much else but lie on their backs. In July, at about 4 months,  they started rolling onto their fronts. After that they gradually found themselves able to lie on their sides, then move around by rolling.

Then things changed. Around late October, at about 7 1/2 months, Ellie started sitting up by herself. Jake would stay sitting if plonked on his bum but couldn’t do it himself.

Then Ellie started crawling.

Then, on November 4th, she stood up. She managed to pull herself up in her cot to a standing position by leaning on the rail. I still remember how shocked I was.

Poor little Jake,  (I say ‘little’; he weighs a ton compared to Ellie),  was still lying on his belly, kicking his little legs, arms outstretched,  & rocking vigourously while hyperventilating. He then seemed to get a bit confused as to why he wasn’t moving! He seemed quite happy about it, & to be honest, it was really funny to watch – so none of us minded.

Well it works in the swimming pool doesn't it?!

Ellie then, quite frankly, just started showing off. She started trying to climb, bear-walking style:

If the Daddy won't move to Eleanor, Eleanor will move to the Daddy

Every time she spotted an open door she would zoom towards it with incredible acceleration, with a determination that would flatter an Olympic athlete:

Held back from the Abyss by the Hand of Mum

She could support herself with 1 hand while trying to take a step:

"Look, Ma - one hand!"

She even tried to climb into the TV (& it looks like rugby presenter Simon Lazenby has a new fan…):

"Don't go towards the light!"

This is how it was at the time: at a music / play group while Jake was rolling around noisily trying to nick other babies’ toys, Ellie was sitting quietly on a cushion, looking like ‘butter wouldn’t melt’. Then the leader turned off the music;  she straight away jumped up & crawled right across the room at top speed to yell at the tape player. I guess she was enjoying the music! Afterwards, by the way, just as the music stopped again Jake – right on cue – blew a huge raspberry. Not such a fan then, I guess.

Then, just before Christmas, Something Changed. Maybe Ellie went just that little bit too far with her Gangsta-stylee pants exposing taunt

"These young people! Why do they have to wear their trousers so low? How do they even walk?!"

Whatever it was Jake just suddenly seemed to get fed up with Ellie getting around so quickly & easily while he could only twist & roll. So he started to sit himself up:

See: The World's Youngest Strongman!

crawl:

"Oh no you don't - this toy's mine!"

And finally (“Anything you can do I can do better!”) pull himself up to a standing position:

Howdy neighbour!

It seems amazing to me that twin babies born only 2 minutes apart can develop at such different rates.

After being behind for so long Jake has now clearly pulled ahead. He’s now very good at opening doors that aren’t properly shut: which lead to The Great Escape. But that’s for another post & another time, I think 🙂

Title courtesy of The Beach Boys. And France

Related Articles

• Their First Noël (whiskeyforaftershave.wordpress.com)

Their First Noël

Travelling with the twins to be with family at Christmas: for many reasons, the main one of course being the weather, it seemed the Christmas destined not to be.

Through thick & thin however we made it happen! Timing our journey so that it fell between blizzard & big freeze, we actually made pretty good time & found that there wasn’t too much traffic on the roads. A cunning detour to avoid a potential huge delay helped.

The only other time we made a long journey Ellie cried nearly all the way. It was awful. Being older we were hoping she’d be more tolerant, but I sat in the back between them anyway. They slept for the first hour or so but when they woke up they cried, so we stopped at the nearest services & had a coffee. Why these places don’t have facilities for children I don’t know! There were enough of them there to justify it.

Back on the road they were still unhappy. I had a few toys to hand, but when even they didn’t work I had to resort to feeding them the muffin – toffee & fudge muffin no less – that I’d brought as an adult snack. All that sugar, normally a huge no-no! But desperate times call for…

Anyway they couldn’t get enough of it, & I hope I was able to feed them just enough to keep them happy, but not so much as give them a taste for unhealthy food. I don’t think they’ll need my help for that in years to come…

When we got there they were excited! They seemed really happy at being reunited with more of their loving family & all the new & exciting things to see & explore. Or maybe it was a sugar-rush! Probably both…

The first thing they did? Made a bee-line straight for the largest present & starting ripping off the wrapping as quickly as possible. It’s almost as if they knew what it was: these kids scare me sometimes…

After we managed to pull them away from there they had a great time crawling around & socialising, then we were able to settle them without much trouble into the padded playpen we’d brought with us. They did however both end up in bed with us when they woke up overnight, as they often do now.

Then it was Christmas Day! We of course had to dress them up as little Santas! Ellie especially seemed really excited:

Then: Presents! This time they were allowed to rip away at the wrapping to their hearts’ content. But of course, babies being babies, they now seemed less enthusiastic than the day before when they weren’t allowed to!

It was a very generous gift from our hosts. But it ‘required some assembly’. A bit of prodding, head-scratching, hammering, & – as a last resort – reading of instructions & we had a horsey!  OK: technically, a Zebra. It can be wheeled,

Ride 'em cowboy!

You must figure I'm a reeaal dangerous man

 

Yee-hah!

and rocked:

Cool-hand Jake

Next up, & thankfully needing slightly less assembly, a spinning car arena!

 

It's a serious business, this car-racing

Um, I'm pretty sure it's cars you're meant to put in there, Ellie. But sure: we could try the big squeezy ball!

A lot of smaller toys later – including an alien robot – & Jallie were as happy as kids in a toy shop! Which they pretty much were.

Then of course there was the inevitable ‘playing with the packaging’…

Not surprisingly, they wore themselves out with all this & had a nap before Christmas lunch.

They woke up while we adults were eating though, & were very happy to be with us; first Ellie

Cheeky!

Yes, I do think that was funny!

Right, I've had enough of this silly hat!

and then Jake:

 

Jus' like that!

A cracker? Don't mind if I do!

I won!

After a great lunch & a bit of resting & TV, the twins again settled without much trouble – but again both ended up in bed with us.

In the morning we packed up, somehow managing to fit everything into the car despite it seeming full when we’d left home. Unfortunately Ellie didn’t get the memo, & decided to have a sleep after I’d packed the playpen / bed!

We set off after lunch, not forgetting to feed the babies of course:

Feed me!

Oi! What do I have to do to get some service around here?!

Going back we were very well prepared. I sat in the back again, & we had a bottle each for them, some rice cake snacks to chew on & plenty of toys. After a slurp & a chomp, they were soon asleep & slept right through ’til we arrived home – to a very cold house.

It was a terrific Christmas, one which we all I think thoroughly enjoyed. For Jallie’s first one I couldn’t have asked for much more; they had a really happy time, & you can’t ask for better than that. Our hosts were just fantastic 😀

Whatever the future may hold we’ll all always be able to look back on Christmas 2010 as a happy time.

So a very merry Christmas to you & yours!

Silent Sunday: It’s Cold Outside

click to enlarge

 

click to enlarge

 

Have a look at all the other Silent Sunday photos at the amazing Mocha Beanie Mummy‘s blog: