Tag Archives: Joshua

Cycling and sleeping

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Sign beside road saying: deer for 2 miles

The B940 somewhere north-east of Anstruther

After a week off from cycling (to get over a tummy bug and to attend the IWMW 2012 conference in Edinburgh) I went back out on my bike again this morning just before 06:00.

I’ve done something to my right shoulder. Probably a combination of sleeping badly on it, and being jumped on by Reuben; I’ve started calling Reuben ‘Cato‘ because he attacks me at the most inconvenient moments!

It was good to get out again. Here’s to a slowly developing discipline of early morning cycles and to getting fit again.

Afternoon

When Jane and the boys returned from church at lunchtime (I’d been to All Saints, St Andrews for the 08:00, then retired to bed) Joshua was still asleep in the car, Reuben was asleep in the living room, and Isaac asleep in his pram in the front garden.

Joshua woke first so I brought him through into the study… where he promptly fell asleep again using his cuddly dog (Copper from Disney’s The Fox and the Hound) as a pillow.

He looked so lovely and peaceful.

Joshua asleep on a chair, his head resting on a cuddly dog

Everyone needs a Copper for a pillow.

A day of highs and lows

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Isaac

Isaac

Today has been quite remarkable, emotional, upsetting, beautiful and mysterious.

Isaac

Jane and I walked into the living room this morning to witness Isaac taking, what we now suspect may have been a petit mal, an absence seizure. Isaac was lying on the floor, staring into space, quite floppy, quite unresponsive but still breathing. We cuddled him until he came round after about 20-30 seconds.

He’s been fine for the rest of the day, kindly and carefully looked after by his grandparents.

At the time we’d simply assumed that was zoned out and heading off to sleep because he’d been up really early and it was around the time he would be going off to sleep anyway. Not to mention that his two older brothers were notorious for falling asleep on the living room carpet.

It was only in conversation with my Mum (retired nursing sister and midwife) on the phone this evening that she wondered whether it might be a petit mal. We’ll keep an eye on him and get him checked out at the GP on Monday morning.

Edinburgh

I then drove Jane down to the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh to allow her to visit her maternal Grandma, who is really very unwell. It turned out to be a most upsetting visit. Lots of prayers and lovely, caring thoughts for Jane, her family, and wee grandma please.

Meanwhile Reuben, Joshua and I had a lovely visit to Homebase at Straiton to buy an indoor broom, which Reuben chose (it was the red one). We were there for AGES while R+J asked “What’s that?… What’s that?… We’ve got one of those, haven’t we!… Can we go upstairs now… I need the toilet!”

Thank goodness for Sainsbury’s next door. After team wees we bought a few essentials (sausage rolls, pasta, strawberries, raspberries and two LEGO Ninjago warriors for two lovely boys who were just an absolute delight to be with all day. I love them all so much.

And now the boys are in bed, although Reuben has been sick (just as Joshua was last night), and I was feeling ready to sit and weep when I wandered through to the living room to watch Andy Murray beat Marcos Baghdatis at Wimbledon. Wimble-well-done Andy! A good ending to an unusual day.

I pray that tomorrow is less dramatic but equally full of cuddles.

Lazing on a Sunday afternoon

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Room 106 at The Bonham, Edinburgh

Room 106 at The Bonham, Edinburgh

On Sunday afternoon Jane and I drove to The Bonham hotel in Edinburgh and enjoyed a blissfully quiet afternoon, evening and morning in the company of one another. It was our first night away together without any children since, I think, May 2010.

The Bonham is a gorgeous hotel on Drumsheugh Gardens, a stone’s throw from St Mary’s Cathedral on Palmerston Place and overlooking the Dean Bridge. It fuses traditional with modern quite effortlessly.

We got a fabulous deal through itison.com: dinner, bed and breakfast, with unlimited movies for a bargain £140 (for one night). To give you an idea of how much we might have been saving, a Scottish cooked breakfast costs £14.00.

After booking in we climbed the stairs to the first floor, unlocked the door to room 106 and were welcomed with a bottle of champagne (or whatever the Italian equivalent is) and the TV was on showing… F1 Grand Prix. Now that’s my kind of hotel room. None of this patronising “Welcome to room 106 Mr and Mrs Saunders” nonsense message on the screen.

Dinner was utterly fabulous in the critically acclaimed Restaurant at The Bonham. I would happily eat there every night!

All in all, a wonderfully relaxing 24 hours in the company of my favourite wife, reading, watching telly and enjoying the silence.

We drove back to Anstruther yesterday afternoon just in time to pick up Reuben and Joshua from nursery, having first bought the boys a present (Star Wars lightsabers for Reuben and Joshua, and an Ikea chair for Isaac) and treated ourselves to a new kingsize mattress. (Hopefully that will help my back mend.)

Coming home to Reuben and Joshua

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20110823-reubenoncarroof

When I arrived home this evening Reuben wanted ‘up’. Initially ‘up’ into my arms but then ‘up’ onto the car roof. Who was I to deny his wishes?

I think every car needs a Reuben Roof Accessory™. It would certainly prevent you from speeding!

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Fast forward twenty minutes and both Reuben and Joshua were on my desk with a camera each. Thank goodness for digital cameras: I hate to think how many 35mm films we’d have gone through by now!

They love taking photos, and I love taking photos of them taking photos.

I love coming home in the evenings to Reuben, Joshua and Isaac (who was already in bed when we were messing about with the cameras).

Planning ‘big boy beds’ for Reuben and Joshua

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20110622-planningbedroom

Rough sketch of how Reuben and Joshua’s room might be laid out with single beds.

This evening (Tuesday) Jane and I sat down to plan buying “big boy beds” for Reuben and Joshua. How can they be that old already?!

The bed rails are now ordered from Amazon and we’re planning a late-in-the-day trip to Ikea this week to pick up a couple of Malm single beds. Then they’ll need new duvets and duvet covers. Fireman Sam, anyone?

It’s all part of a cunning plan to get them used to sleeping in single beds before we go away on holiday next month.

Washing 3 dogs, a chute and a car

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On Thursday I booked the day off work to look after Reuben and Joshua while Jane enjoyed the day at a local hotel spa. It was a birthday present from her family… last year!

Jane’s mum took Isaac, in case you were wondering.

This is a brief insight into what the boys got up to at home…

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The first thing we did was to wash Copper, the dog from the Disney film The Fox and the Hound. He was filthy!

And of course we couldn’t just wash Copper: Tod the fox plus Blue Dog and Blue Dog also got washed.

(Why do we have two blue dogs? Because we’ve got twins and sometimes you just can’t get away with buying one of something! So we have the Thomson and Thompson of cuddly dogs.)

And of course we couldn’t just wash Copper, Tod, Blue Dog and Blue Dog. I turned round from having squeezed out the last drops of water from Blue Dog and discovered…

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Reuben and Joshua were busy scrubbing down the chute in the garden! (And just in case you’re wondering, that’s not an iron that Joshua is using—it’s a scrubbing brush.)

Of course we couldn’t just wash Copper, Tod, Blue Dog, Blue Dog and the chute. The car also got washed. With Reuben in it. While it was moving.

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And then the shed got washed too.

And the fence.

And remarkably neither of them got soaked! I was wetter than they were by the time we went in for lunch.