At the moment

*neither of the boys is particularly well;

*Conor is recovering from cutting his 13th tooth - that's the 6th in a month!

*I'm off work because I'm so blooming exhausted;

*the boys are sporting v cool haircuts - sorry, no photo evidence - you'll have to trust me!

*I have about 300 photos to proof;

*I'm preparing to eat the 3 pieces of Lindt Cointreau chocolate Michael has just set down in front of me:)

*I should be in bed, but am going to upload just a few photos of my friend Hannah's baby girl - sweet!

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Possibly my favourite shot for a while (that I can show you, since I'm still proofing a certain Miss Addie's photos!)

Welcome to Camp Crazy!

It's gone from being all good to being all crazy around here this past few days. Seriously, Patrick has too much energy for his own good, Conor has definite kamikaze tendencies and I'm going to need medicated pretty soon!

Take yesterday for starters. All was (generally) well in the morning, with the exception of Conor hurling himself from my bed, only to be caught by his ankle about 1" from the floor. He was altogether unperturbed! Patrick went to nursery as usual and Conor and I mooched around Bangor for a while. However, while making lunch a mere hour or two later I did my best to slice my thumb off with the cheese slicer. Obviously my first reaction was to swear - loudly - I'm sure that will be coming back to haunt me before long! Then I had to direct Patrick to the clean tea towels, thinking only that I had to stop the bleeding and also act like nothing was wrong. I wish I'd been able to see my face because it can only have been deranged, as those of you who know me well enough will be aware that I don't do blood. At all!! Anyway, the drama all passed in a few moments once I realised it was only a knick and that a diget transplant was probably going to be unlikely!

So the day trundled on. Conor was so grumpy after lunch that I gave him Medised before his sleep. Normally we reserve that for the middle of the night croup episodes, but he was GRUMPY. He continued to grump after his sleep, and all through tea. I'd even made a special Annabel Karmel pasta sauce to try and make myself feel better about the number of jars he gets. But he spat that out. (That woman has a lot to answer for if you ask me. I bet there are hate sites for her, run by women who have picky eaters for kids and not gourmet angels!)

However, the list of catastrophes continued with Patrick's spectacular skid and fall in the hall, in response to the man from Bangor fuels who obviously gets a high from the number of times he rings the bell and knocks the door. Poor Patrick went on his rear end and cracked his head off the skirting board.

After tea, I noticed that Conor had settled himself on the bottom stair, where it was obvious from looking at the way he was kneeling that it was only a matter of time before he also had dealings with the hall floor. Which he promptly did as I went to lift him down. Strike 1!

I decided there was nothing for it but to put them both in the bath early. All smashing fun and giggles until suddenly (and I don't know how he actually managed to do this) Conor sort of threw himself face down in the water, then flailed around for a bit and rolled over onto his back, coughing and breathing water in what seemed to be rather large amounts for a 1 year old. Cue me, deranged look on face again and another loud dose of swearing as I lunged to get him up from under the water! This all seems hilarious now, but it was terrifying at the time. Even Patrick was crying, although, thinking about it that was probably more to do with my odd looking face and profanities! Anyway, crisis averted, Conor was fine in just a few minutes. Strike 2!

The final stages of single handed bathing is always a bit of a risk, now that Conor is well and truly mobile. So this one really came as not much of a shock. Just as I was lifting Patrick out of the bath, there was a decidedly plastic clunk followed by crying from the bedroom. I couldn't really even see the wee man when I went in, because he'd pulled Patrick's ELC firehouse off the shelf and onto his head and was lying trapped between the toy unit and the plastic table and chairs. Strike 3! He didn't even need Medised to go to sleep! He had basically tortured himself to the point of unconsciousness!

And today I got to do it all again! Who says motherhood isn't the most rewarding job in the world? Bring on Daddy's day off on Saturday - surely no one is going to deny me a trip to the new scrap shop in Newtownards after the couple of days I've just had?!

Family

So for my mum's birthday in November I promised her a really nice photo of her with the boys to have enlarged for the wall. STUPID!! It is so difficult to get my own kids to behave for the camera. We went to Mountstewart to take the pictures yesterday, and despite the freezing cold, it was gorgeous weather. Perfect setting for lovely family pictures. You would think! Perhaps I just wasn't trying hard enough, either that or the boys were moving too fast. It was nigh on impossible to get a good shot. These are a few of the better ones. I have a feeling we could be doing this again!!

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Define fun...

Answer:

Spend two days with a crazy, funny, gorgeous, creative, open, warmhearted girl (aka Annie Hafermann) and her equally amazing family. Add to that your camera, some great food, courtesy of the lovely Candace next door, a few glasses of wine and a shocking amount of photo shoots of the beautiful and perfect baby Addie. This seriously is how I'm defining fun today!

When Annie and her family invited me to spend a few days with them to photograph baby Addie I jumped at the chance. Little did I know what an impact this new friendship was about to have on my life. It really isn't everyone who would invite a teacher/wannabe photographer from Northern Ireland to stay with them without ever having met them before, and that's what makes this family so special. They could NOT have made me any more welcome. Who says blogs are a waste of time??

So Janine, what where the highlights of your visit?

1. Just meeting these folks! It's quite possible Annie and I are actually estranged twins (ok, so I'm way shorter and she has better hair!), but for never having actually met in person, it felt like we'd always known each other. So totally cool!

2. Getting to take photographs all the time. I think my camera may need serviced after this!

3. 2 nights of beautiful, uninterrupted sleep!

4. Seeing that in the grand scheme of things, my stash does NOT take over the whole study!

5. The crochet hat shots ha ha ha!!!

6. Sucking someone else in to the wonder of Fat Face online shopping. Spike must love me for that!

7. Coming home to my fab boys:)

Thank you lovely Hafermanns for making me so welcome and for letting me snap a little of your gorgeous family just being who you are. Miss you xx

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(One of the better shots of me and said wonderful Annie - thanks Spike! Will post the rest anon!)

A whole 1 today

It's the little lad's birthday today :) I can hardly believe how quickly this past year has gone. I've spent all day today thinking "This time last year...." and hating that I had to be in school with the nasty teenagers. Thought about phoning in sick and having a fun day with Conor but couldn't bring myself to do it. What a chicken! Anyway, due to being at work today we had a family party for him on Saturday - see pics below. He was totally oblivious, but Patrick loved it, especially the cake! The candle was blown out about 4 times! We hadn't too many presents - it seems such a waste when he'll play with all Patrick's toys, but Patrick did choose some little aeroplanes I think he rather fancied for himself! And daddy chose a fab red fire engine with LOTS of noises! So everyone was happy. And of course I baked the obligatory cake, complete with pink icing (Patrick's choice) and sprinkles. Can't wait to watch him grow more this year.

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Do they look like trouble in years to come or what?!!

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Michael will kill me for putting this in! Or he would if he ever logged on here to see it! But I thought I better prove we exist as a family! Right, off for an episode of the West Wing and then to finish packing for my very exciting trip to Annie's tomorrow. Am positively giddy at the prospect!

A little phrase

"I wish...." This is a phrase we've been hearing a LOT from Patrick lately. It doesn't seem to matter exactly what it is that he sees, it's more to do with the fact that he isn't doing it or doesn't have it! Although the lines about the aeroplanes and trains are pretty much standard issue. These things he really does wish for all the time! If only I didn't have a real job to do I'd take him on the blue train to the airport to see the planes every day!

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Little man! He's growing up too fast to keep track of :( I am totally going to miss both of my boys when nasty school starts again.

Concentration

Nanny and Grandpa bought Patrick the most amazing Lego knights' castle for Christmas. I actually think on Christmas Day it was Michael who had the most fun building the castle, but since the rush of Christmas has passed, Patrick has played with this so meticulously. Maybe I'm wrong, but I would never have expected a 3 year old to talk to me so intently about the good knights and bad knights, making sure they're wearing the right armour and holding the right flags. Nor did I expect such a vivid imagination - he instigates little fights between them all, including the horses, who have a much more vital role in medieval battles than I had previously thought!! Shows what I know!

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I could watch him play this for hours. He gets so totally engrossed in his own little world, and I can hardly think this amazing little boy was my tiny baby just a few years ago. He is just a total joy (most of the time!) and I'm so thankful we get to keep him:)

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As for the other one, he wants to feed himself!

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'Nuff said!

Mischief!

This boy is going to be a hoot! Already we can see the glint of trouble in his eyes. You know, the one that means he's about to be up to no good. There will be tears a-plenty (mostly from me, I'm sure, but no doubt a fair few from the older brother too). I'm sure there will be trips to A&E once he gets going on his very cute feet. And I know already I wouldn't have it any other way. Little finger, round and wrapped are the words that spring to mind when I look at that cheeky face :)

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(And before the grandmother berates me again for not taking enough pictures of Patrick, I would advise her to check back here tomorrow!)