Well, it's not even 9 o'clock and so far Anya has been a cat, a mouse, a crab and a 'mine bird' (a sea gull - ever seen Finding Nemo?) who made a nest out of a cardboard box and a pillow and gave birth. She asked if sea gulls gave birth to live babies. When I said they didn't and that they laid eggs she announced that she was a Godmother-mine-bird cos they're special. I think she's getting better! Not quite sure where I'm going to find the crabs and fish she wants for breakfast, though...

Naughty spacebugs

Well, Anya was a tiger at breakfast so even though she only ate one mouth full of porridge before declaring she was going to lie on the sofa, we know she is on the up!

And the good news is that she has decided that she knows where her poorly ear has came from. "You see," she explained, "when I fell off the planet and got my swollen finger [which, incidentally, was a water balloon that she tied to her thumb with string on Sunday] and was rescued by the alien in the space rocket, well, some of the naughty space bugs must have sneaked into my ear and now they're making it bad." Of course, I should have realised. I must stop these falling off the planet episodes, they're just far too risky...

"It's ok though, Mam, I can fight aliens. My ear's getting better every day. My body can heal things really super quick. Just a blink of your eye and it's gone." And then she fell asleep.

My ear just feels completely shut

Well, after a weekend of bike riding, diver-spotting (a remarkably popular activity amongst our offspring), park playing and pretending to be Nan by drinking tea whilst having a picnic (note that I apparently don't achieve full Nan status as I refused to buy them chips to eat with their sandwiches...), the bubble burst rather spectacularly last night with Anya developing what seemed to be an ear infection.

They'd both been a bit snotty for a while and Ian has had a mega cold but I was quite taken aback by poor Anya screaming in pain through the night - the girl is never ill, bar the odd cold and chicken pox, and has never had anything serious other than one bad cough as a baby. She barely slept (me neither for that matter) from midnight until this morning so was exhausted on top of it all, and was getting progressively worse. Spoke to the angel that is Wendy (our homeopath) first thing and she prescribed a remedy for her, which, within 5 minutes of taking, sent Anya into a much needed deep sleep for over 2 hours. Whilst she was sleeping I made an appointment at the doctors to check that we really were dealing with an ear infection and to get an idea of what we can expect. She responded really well to the remedy and was actually singing to herself in the doctors but the docs confirmed that her inner ear is red and inflamed but there is no leakage of fluid or damage to any part of her ear. She therefore falls into the category of 'we don't know what will happen; 50% of cases will clear up by themselves, the rest will get worse and require treatment'. So, at least we know what we're playing with.

He's given antibiotics (her first ever prescription) and has given us a couple of days during which we can see how she is - if she improves, leave alone, if she gets worse, give the nasties.

So, she's had another Wendy remedy tonight and I'll review with her in the morning how she feels Anya is progressing. I'm just hoping she gets a good night's sleep (or rather I'm hoping that I get a good night's sleep!). The way she's going I don't reckon we'll need the nasties, hope not anyway.

I was almost amused that the doctor went into a slight panic as he thought that some of Anya's notes were missing on the computer. I had to explain that they weren't, she really had only been to the doctor's once before (at 6 months to double check that what I thought was chicken pox actually was). He said he'd never known another kid make it to her age with so few doctor's visits and no prescriptions. Reckon it's all that dirt we let her eat....

Interestingly, as a measure of how off-colour she has been, the girl who could best be described as a pure mixture of imagination and dynamite, has been no-one other than herself all day. I don't think I can remember that ever happening before since she was verbal.

The weekend's adventures

This one's for Grandma Piggy

A weekend of no rain is always a good thing so lots of fun was had. Sonny completed his first off road bike adventure on Saturday. We had intended on going for a walk but he insisted on taking his bike - I honestly thought that I'd have to carry it a lot of the way as we were going exploring, but no, the boy said he would ride and ride he did:

And then they found a nice hill and both let loose...

Anya letting go...

Sonny going for it...

Worryingly, they have now arranged with Matt that they can go along to a cyclo-cross race.... hmmm.

The children's victims

I sometimes feel sorry for the visitors to this house. Not the majority, who know what they are getting themselves into, but those few poor, unsuspecting souls who visit and end up being the children's new best friend for the duration of their stay. Not through any fault of their own, except perhaps that they are a little too keen to play, but more a combination of the time of day, the wildness of the children and the visitor's inability to realise that once you start something vaguely fun with kids it is usually very hard to stop until someone is crying.

Last week's victim was Giles who called in for a cup of tea and ended up spending a good few hours as a human climbing frame, an artist's assistant and chief train track engineer to name but a few. He was rewarded with endless cuddles from both Anya and Sonny and a very obvious reluctance to let him go home but it certainly wasn't the brew and chat he'd called in for.

Tonight's victim was Terry, aka Andy if you are Anya who after meeting him properly for the first time last year couldn't get it out of her head that he wasn't called Andy and, even after not seeing him since that first meeting until tonight, immediately started calling him Andy again!

Terry was splashed by otters in the bath, breathed on and raah-ed at by two fire-breathing dragons over tea and then also used as a human climbing frame (this was entirely his fault, mind you, anyone who picks up small, giggly children and throws them over their shoulder is asking for it really). It was when I left the room and returned to find Anya sitting on his knee, jumping up and down and sticking multi-coloured feathers in his hair that I wondered if he might ask them to stop. But no, the mayhem continued until he had a child clinging on each leg whilst trying to walk around the house, begging him not to go - he was only going to pick Ian up from Llanberis. Again, Terry was also rewarded with lovely cuddles before they went to bed, but he did leave looking rather more dishevelled than when he came.

I think kids are a bit like cats, only where cats can spot someone who doesn't like them from a mile off, kids can spot a sucker from the same distance.

Pics, no words... used up my word quota

My pixie princess

It's Friday, I'm tired so not many words left in me I'm afraid. Here's some of Ian's pics from his adventures with the children today. I was with them for some of it but none of it was overly photogenic (lunch!), although very nice nonetheless.

Glad it's the weekend...

Swinging girlie...

My lovely family

Riding on Bangor Pier

Woodland pixies in their den

Anya down by the stone circle

'I'm telling you, Anya, there was a crocodile'

Outlaw request

As requested by the outlaws... a picture of Pip, the baby in the bump.

Was taken last week and as I am growing faster than my clothes can keep up, I'm actually bigger than this now but it gives you an idea.

While Pip and I slaved away in the lab today chasing run-away spittle bugs (oh, I love my job), the children, Ian and Ash seem to have had the most wonderful day in Cwm Idwal. The kids apparently pretty much bounced, ran and jumped all the way up to the lake, climbed on the boulders on the lakeside, then bounced, ran and jumped all the way down. Ash, of course, was in his most favourite of all places so thoroughly enjoyed himself. A good Daddy day all round.

For the second time this week Sonny didn't manage to make it to bedtime awake and ended up in bed at about 5.30pm. The crazy thing is, when this happened earlier in the week, he didn't get up until after 7am - let's hope the same will be true of tomorrow morning! He's in that awkward stage of not needing his daytime nap every day but not quite being able to make it until bedtime... bit like me actually!

A couple of pics from the last couple of days:

My 'office' - told you I had the best job in the world

Feet up and 'weeeee' - like-a-bikes are just the best things ever

Our village skate park - reckon the kids will really appreciate this when they are bigger, actually, they do now!

And this isn't from the last couple of days, it's from Anya's pre-pedal days but I came across it and she looks so happy I thought I'd put it on...