Askamum love my blog, ooo-errr how exciting!

Writing this particular post is sticking in my throat a bit as currently I’m having a bit of a ‘set to’ with my husband and it’s all about how great he is! I have to give him some brownie points, despite him having annoyed me, as this week I have kind of realised quite how much Jonny does around the house…

So… We came away this week to stay with my Mum and usually while I’m here she does loads for us and it’s a bit of a holiday for me. No wonder I really enjoy coming eh! She cooks, picks the clothes up off the bathroom floor and then the next time I see them they’re clean (AND ironed – something I never do), entertains the children while I have an afternoon nap, takes Florence to the park and the library… I basically get to revert to my teenage lifestyle and it’s great… Unfortunately, this time my poor Mum has been really poorly as we passed on our germs and she hasn’t been able to do much of anything really the poor thing!

This has meant that where I would usually be getting more help than usual, I have actually had none at all! For a whole week now I have had to do everything for myself and the children and of course look after my Mum a bit too. Now I’m not complaining, not at all! I’d do anything for my Mum and of course would do everything and anything for the children without blinking too but it has made me realise that where I usually think Jonny has a bit of an easy ride, he does actually do quite a lot!

This week I have had to cook ALL the meals, do ALL the entertaining, get everyone bathed and ready for bed then up again in the morning and dressed. I have had to do the entertaining and game playing, tidying up etc and it’s been quite exhausting doing that 24/7 without a break! I totally haven’t appreciated Jonny doing the bits he does at all and I feel a little bit bad really…

So, I usually complain that as soon as Jonny comes home he disappears into the bathroom for half an hour WITH the newspaper! Seriously, I don’t know any woman who would want to do this but men seem to use it as ‘me time’! I have failed to notice however, that as soon as he comes out he plays with the children and keeps them giggling until we all have tea where he will then feed Jimmy so that I can eat my own – sometimes he even makes the tea too!

I am also often annoyed that Jonny will NEVER get up in the morning! We have this thing where I say to him ‘If you get up now I’ll be able to go back to sleep, please don’t talk or I won’t be able to and then I may as well get up anyway’. He usually responds with ‘But if you’re gonna wake up anyway, you may as well’ and argues the point until, well, I may as well. It really irritates me… But… I think I sometimes fail to notice that what Jonny DOES do is stay up late with Jimmy when he just WON’T go to sleep… I have this thing where I can (although I may not want to) get up early but I find the extra late nights especially hard to take. He never expects me to stay up on those days and will always do it so I think I might have to start giving credit for that too!

He also does the bath straight after tea, mostly does the bed time story and does the washing up on occasions. (As well of course, as doing the things I call the ‘manly jobs’, fixing, replacing batteries, loft duties, new light bulbs, sorting out the TV and computer problems and the like…) When the children have gone to bed he ideally would use the time to play guitar but he now mostly has to do uni work as he’s doing a degree on top of full-time work. In fact, I’m starting to wonder what it is I do, do?! (obviously I am joking!)

So, despite the fact he has majorly annoyed me right now I am going to try to remember he does DO his bit and more! Much more than lots of my friend’s husband’s in fact and he doesn’t often complain about it either! He has annoyed me today because this week he’s been having a bit of a ball and frankly I have been working really hard with no help. He’s been playing his guitar, listening to music, having a few beers, playing guitar a bit more, watching football and having a few more pints in the pub. He’s been to band practice, slept all night long with no interruptions and had loads of time to read… I obviously haven’t and never do which is fine but I asked him, the other day, to not go out with his mates when he gets up here Friday night and asked if WE could perhaps go out on a date on Saturday. He rang me up and said ‘I’m not going out Friday, don’t worry, I’ll be there to help’. Great I thought then he hit me with the fact he’s changed his ‘mate date’ to Saturday night instead… he’d forgotten I wanted to go out for a drink with him myself… Well, I’m afraid I’ve put him very firmly in the dog house but writing this post has actually made me feel a little thawing towards him so perhaps by the time he gets up here he’ll be half out of it again… (And if he DOES take me out Saturday night and ditch the boys then he can have a little halo to shine I think)!

My Jonny: Bit of a helpful husband actually, brilliant Daddy, funny, kind, sometimes a bit thoughtless but can be forgiven and an amazing musician – We’re very lucky to have him!

MY LIFE WITH 2!

We’ve all been a bit poorly for what seems like ages now. First the children had a sickness bug, then we got the same but WITH flu (and when I say flu, I really mean it)! Next I got sinusitis and now Florence and I have ear infections while Jimmy has conjunctivitis. I guess it’s just that time of year so boy are we looking forward to some sunshine!

It should (fingers crossed) be sunny by Jimmy’s birthday and I’ve booked his party venue, a lovely hall in Epping that has a garden so I do hope the sun shines by then! We’re going to have a mad hatter’s tea party for him and I’ve lots of plans around the theme from what finger sandwiches we’ll have to the cake stands (I’m going to make them with old plates) we shall put them on. I know he won’t remember it at only one year old but it’s important to me that we throw him a proper party. We had a lovely one for Florence jointly with one of her little pals and I love looking back at the photos, she had a ladybird cake with little ladybird cup cakes around it and Jimmy’s will be the same but with bumblebees – perhaps with hats on!

The party will be the weekend after his birthday because for the actual day we shall be in Camber Sands staying at Pontins! This could quite possibly be awful judging by the reviews I’ve read on Trip Advisor or, as we’re hoping, absolutely lovely… We shall see! We got it through ‘The Sun Holidays’ so it’s only cost us £9.50 per person, if it’s truly terrible then we shall just come home again I guess and if it is actually really nice then I’ll have to write my own review – there’s not a lot of love on Trip Advisor that’s for sure so they could do with a good one! I didn’t check views before I chose… Silly me!

We have also been planning other holidays and Haven have invited us to come and stay for a review trip in late June which we are all tremendously excited about! There just seems to be so much to do for Florence’s age range and we’ll all LOVE the swimming as the pools at Haven look fab on the website! Jimmy will be walking by then and able to join in some of the activities and hopefully by June at least the sun will have to be out?? But then this is England I guess. Still, even if it tips it down there’s so many things to do there that I know we won’t get bored! My Mum’s coming with us too so Jonny and I might even be able to go for late drinks after the children go to bed as she says she’ll babysit for us!

We love going away with my Mum as we all get on very well. An extra pair of hands is always handy and it just kind of works for all of us. We have frequently been to Portugal together, even before the children came along Jonny and I spent a fortnight on the Algarve with my Mum and this year, fingers crossed we’ll go again and the children will love it! My Mum makes it her treat to us which is amazing as otherwise we’d never be able to afford it and she says she definitely wants to go again this year because Jimmy will still be under two and travel for free, who am I to argue?!

All this bitterly cold weather is making me dream of last year’s holiday which my Mum took us on!

Despite the cold weather and the sickness we have still be having some fun. For half term we have come up to Norfolk and Florence has been very busy getting crafty and playing games! We’ve not done much but we went swimming with my sister-in-law and nephew and have been to play in the park a few times. The ear ache and snotty-ness haven’t managed to completely hinder us thankfully!

Just before we left, a week ago, Jimmy had started to sort of stand on his own for a tiny bit. He would tentatively let go for half a second then fall down! He’s come on leaps and bounds this week and is now letting go for 3 or 4 seconds before he holds on again or bumps on his bottom down! How can you be proud of someone learning to stand? I don’t know but I am! Ridiculously so! It’s very hard to catch on my camera because I didn’t pack my super-duper Nikon D3200 (Jonny’s bringing it up this weekend as he is driving up tonight and we’ll all go back together on Sunday) and my phone has some sort of delay with pictures! By the time he’s doing it, I’ve got my phone on camera mode and taken the picture he’s down again!! But… I did manage to get one of him on his way to his bottom again!!

A very determined baby boy!

Despite, the bitter cold outside and the feeling under the weather-ness for us, we’ve had a lovely time in Norfolk! Florence said one day, ‘It’s a good day to do nothing’ and that’s kind of how the week has been. Swimming with their cousin Arthur, a bit of park time and lots of cuddles and fun at my Mum’s!

Well, that’s it from me this week, see you next week but in the mean time follow me on Twitter @rocknrollerbaby