Tuesday 29 January 2013

New Years resolution

Last week our eldest boy came home with some work he had completed at school.

I have a few issues with the below picture...

1. Actually it is not your ipad, it's mine. Childish I know but am I not allowed anything to myself in this house!!

2. You are four years old. You should be worrying about taking the stabilisers off your bike, not improving your computer skills.

3. I am quite concerned that by the age of seven you will have a far more advanced knowledge of technology than your Dad and me. Feel free to slow down.

Monday 28 January 2013

Never work with children or animals...

This weekend we have mostly been...

Attempting to decorate the living room on an average of four hours sleep a night, with two very loud and demanding young boys and one naughty cat.

It is a work in progress.

Sunday afternoon we were quite pleased with how much painting we had managed to get done.
We were foolish enough for probably about two minutes to think that all was going to plan.

Enter the cat.

I do not know who let the cat in but whoever it was has much to answer for.
Tink (the cat) ran in the room and realised something out of the ordinary was going on. She had a bit of a meltdown about the furniture being in different positions to normal and then not knowing what to do with herself decided to jump into the tray of paint.

By this point I was screeching, the kids were laughing and the husband looked ready to throw the cat out of the window.
He pounced on the cat in some sort of rugby tackle move unlike any I have seen before just as she reached the stairs.
The carpet was saved, the footprints on the laminate were cleaned off.
All was not lost.

I expect the decorating of our small living room to be completed by 2014.





Sunday 27 January 2013

The power of love...

Our snowman did not take rejection at the John Lewis audition too well...

We love you anyway snowy.

Monday 14 January 2013

Sleepless in The East Midlands

I was wondering the other day whether pre-children I had the energy levels of some kind of superhuman Wonder Woman?

I curse myself for ever having complained about being tired before the sproglets arrived...

"That dog barking woke me up last night I'm shattered."

"I had a funny dream last night I don't think I slept very well."

"You were snoring."

Screw you pre-children self!
You didn't even know the meaning of the word tired.

I'm sure you have realised from my rantings that we have not been having the most settled nights of late.

If it hasn't been the littlest little man's coughs and colds keeping him and us up, it has been the big little man deciding to wake up every hour for very random reasons.

Last nights reasons include:

My feet have come out the do do ( our strange word for quilt)

My leg hurts, oh no actually my arm hurts.

I can't remember what I wanted.


All of the above are invalid reasons for waking mummy and daddy up.
I have tried to explain that the only reason the boy has to get up in the night is if he needs the toilet.
The other night he called my bluff and claimed to need a wee five times throughout the night.

I am going about my daily chores looking like a character from The Walking Dead (not one of the good looking good guys either!).

I have decided the reason for lack of sleep could be one of several things..

1. Both boys have got into a bad habit of pouncing on their daddy just before bed time to give him his daily beating ritual. This makes them hyper and I'm thinking not in the best frame of mind for going to bed.

2. The biggest boy knows that the littlest boy often gets up in the night and gets attention. Maybe subconsciously he is waking for attention.

3. As with most things it is probably a phase!


The night that they both sleep no doubt I will wake up anyway thinking there is something wrong!




Sunday 6 January 2013

The Impossible

Friday night I subjected my mum, pregnant sister in law and a mate to a rather traumatic cinema experience.

"Oh yes, why don't we go and see The Impossible. It is the story about the strength of a family and about hope."

Obviously I realised this film was based on one family's recollection of the overwhelming and tragic disaster that was the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004.

I expected it to be an emotional film but was completely taken aback by the terror that ensued.

All credit to director Juan Antonio Bayona. You spend the entire film thinking how impossible it is that the family that are the focus of the film are surviving their ordeal.

Naomi Watts is Maria Belon, wife to Henry (Ewan Mcgregor) and mother to three boys. The family are portrayed as being British despite the family the film is based on actually being Spanish.

The family are enjoying a Christmas holiday in Thailand when the tsunami hits on Boxing Day.

The main focus of the film is on Maria and her eldest son Lucas.
It is very difficult to watch as the mother and son fight for their lives through the water and the debris. They see each other but cannot reach one another at first which is heart wrenching.

The injuries that Maria sustain are horrendous and the film shows them in graphic detail. Focusing on Lucas's perspective of seeing his Mum so badly hurt.
I have to say I struggled at this point.
I like action films with their blood and guts. I can tolerate the gore because I perceive it as being completely ficticious.
This was different.
The injuries shown were based on those sustained by Maria in real life.
The film very cleverly shows the overwhelming force that is water. Maria's body gets thrown about in the water like she is in an enormous washing machine.
She gets her injuries when she is smashed uncontrollably against debris that is being swept with the wave.
It is very upsetting.

Sniffles and sobs could be heard throughout the film in the cinema (mostly coming from me).

The moment the brothers see each other after not knowing whether each other had survived is so emotional and well acted. You need a heart of stone to not find the desperation in the little boys voice when he is shouting his Dad extremely moving.

I wouldn't recommend this film to anyone with a weak stomach or any slight fear of the ocean (you will never go to the seaside again!)

It's well made and well acted but I question whether or not it is entertainment?

Films have and will always continue to be made about real life tragedies, wars, desperate times.

Maybe the memories of seeing this horrific event unfold on the news are still to fresh to enjoy seeing a film about it.
Maybe as a parent these scenes were too nerve wracking and heart breaking to endure.