Move Over David Beckham

On Eli's Birthday we ended up taking Thomas out to buy him his very first pair of football boots.

A monumental occasion in any boys life.

(But with the knack we have for matching the XY chromosomes over here this was the first pair of many many many pairs I am sure.)

The kiddo adores football and every other sport for that matter, (he SOOO didn't get that from me!) and due to his constant insistence that we play I have even become a pretty decent player myself (well if managing to consistently kick the ball in a straight line qualifies me as such, which to be fair I think it should, it required a lot of practice).

He could not get his shiny Nike's on fast enough and straight away was requesting Rob put his 'football pants' (we assume he meant shorts but who really knows?) on so they could go play outside.Obviously we had to record this milestone, (even though you can't even see his boots in this particular footballer stance) you know just in case, should he need it for his biography when he's a world famous player earning bazillions of pounds.

How to Traumatise a Two Year Old

So as you may well have gathered Eli loves his Gee-Gee (for an explanation of what that actually is click right here). We have 5 of them and over time they all tend to need a bit of a clean, all that Eli love really takes its toll. Two of them were desperate for a wash after being given a little paddle in the remaining milk in Eli's breakfast bowl. Seeming as I was just about to start a load of laundry (Which makes me wonder when I am actually not about to start a load of laundry?) I picked up the two milk soaked Gee-Gee's and put them in the washing machine and pressed start.

Then the hysterics commenced!

You'd have thought it was the end of the world but I guess he must never have noticed Gee-Gee going for a refreshing clean in the washing machine before.

This was the outcome!

I did try to console him with the remaining three Gee-Gee's that had managed to avoid the washing machine trauma but he just would not be comforted. So he pretty much stood, wailed and waited for them to come back out.

Which incidentally I now refer to as the longest hour of my life!

Water Slide of Death

I have a gift.

My gift it is to be able to look at any scenario and immediately see the worst possible outcome. Now others may call this gift negativity or even being overly dramatic but I'm sticking to my guns (whatever that means), it's a gift.

Like for instance I can picture if my child walks too close to the road that he is obviously gonna unexpectedly stumble and fall into the path of an oncoming vehicle, so to be safe I keep him as far away from the road as possible.

It is a very useful gift!

So while we were celebrating having sunshine a few weeks ago we took up residence outside for as many daylight hours as possible to soak up every second of sun we could. (Thank Heavens we did because who even knows if it is ever coming back!)

Now it crossed my mind while playing outside that it would be really fun to put the paddling pool (which may possibly be the smallest paddling pool ever made, not sure what my mum was thinking with that purchase) at the bottom of the slide and let the boys slide down into the water. But then my gift kicked in (thank goodness!) and I realised that our 'garden' is pure concrete and that water+children+slide=Emergency trip to the hospital. So I put the thought of smashed opened heads and broken limbs out of my head and continued to let them play safely and responsibly in the garden.

Well, at least until Rob came home. He is a sceptic of my 'gift' and was quickly chucking the boys down the slide into the water (with me ageing several years with every slide). Of course they loved it and Thomas even tried it head first, which was one of the funniest things I have ever seen.

Rob is always keen to take things a little bit further and suggested putting washing up liquid on the slide to make it extra speedy, fortunately my gift was able to even persuade him otherwise. So both of our children are still completely intact.

My gift saves the day again!

Tagged Again (May must be international tag month or something!)

So, I got tagged again, this time by my friend Allison. So here I go...................

1. What was I doing 10 years ago?
Ten years ago I was coming to the end of my 18 month mission for my Church, based in of all the incredibly lovely places on Earth...... Birmingham, England. My assigned companion/co-worker at the time was Amy Knight, we were living in one of the three (yes, three!) houses we had in the 4.5 months we worked together. Life was far from dull and despite the incredible fatigue from working 12 hour days, 6 days a week for going on 16 months it was one of the happiest times of my life.

Amy (affectionately named AJ, short for Amy-Jo even though her middle name is Dawn) was a joy to work with, one of the most patient and sweetest people I have ever come across. She hailed from Thatcher, Arizona (if you're thinking, WHERE??? That is the correct response!) She was incredibly easy to tease/mock being that she was a) from a small town, b) she was a cheerleader in high school (Go Eagles!) and c) she had dated her own cousin but I guess that goes hand in hand with point a. (OK so she didn't realise he was her cousin at the time I'll give her that). Also she introduced me to Mexican food before it ever took off here and for that I'll be eternally thankful!

Here we are on a rare day off in Stratford-Upon-Avon dressed up in clothes at the Shakespeare Museum. (If you're wondering what I am doing, this is when the Spice Girls were at their peak and I am not ashamed to say I loved to imitate them in almost every photo opportunity. Ten years ago that didn't seem so pathetic I promise!)

Oh and lastly ten years ago I was excitedly looking forward to the beginning of the World Cup in France (I even owned France 98 Monopoly) as usual the excitement quickly turned to disappointment thanks to Argentina and David Beckham, but alas who could stay mad with David for long though? Definitely not me!

2. What are 5 things on my to-do list for today?

It is a holiday weekend so I wish I could say nothing,

Sadly I have to go to work just for two hours,

I have to do laundry (which is on my to-do list every day)

I have to eat chocolate (also on my list everyday)

I have to shower (I am not fit to go out in public otherwise)

I have to have a nap (I wish!)

3. Snacks I enjoy

Anything containing sugar or fat pretty much without exception.

4. Things I would do if I were a billionaire

Travel lots,

Pay someone to do my laundry,ironing and cleaning,

Take care of my family,

Contribute to charity.

5. Places I have lived

London, Essex, Coventry, Nottingham, Bedford, Birmingham, Boston, Leicester, York and Huddersfield. All in England.

I was supposed to tag a bunch of people but instead I am gonna say if you wanna do this, consider yourself tagged and go for it!

Happy Birthday Eli!

It just doesn't seem possible that Eli just turned 2! When Thomas turned two we already had an 8 month old Eli on the scene (by choice may I hastily add, I think the happy hormones after I had Thomas sent me temporarily delirious or something). Seeming as Eli generally gets a bad report on this blog I figured I'd dedicate this post to our second born child. Here he is a day or two old, all 6 pounds 9 ounces of him.
A few months older
Happy 1st Birthday
Crazy haired naked happy boy!
An incredibly handsome two year old!

I love Eli because he chooses to call a spider a 'bee-bubb-er' even though he can clearly say spider, I love that Spiderman therefore translates to 'bee-bubb-er-man'.

I love that he loves his Gee-Gee's, each and everyone of them. I really wanted Thomas to have an attachment to something and he never did. Then Eli met Gee-Gee and the rest is history.

I love that nobody in our extended family says penguin....ever! Gee-Gee is an accepted term for penguin through both sides of our families.

I love that when he cuddles me he has to tuck his arms snuggly inside mine so he can be as close as possible.

I love his boundless confidence, he knows he's funny and he's more than happy to entertain.

I love that he is arguably the best sleeper ever. Since birth we have just laid him down at night awake and he'll fall asleep in the very position we leave him in without a single complaint. (Naps are another story but I'm focusing on the positive, right?)

I love that he can read 'Fix it Duck' a trillion times without ever getting bored.

I love his new found adoration for babies and how he'll just sit next to a baby and happily rub his gee-gee on them or give them gee-gee to play with. (Under his close supervision of course!)

I love that he watches 'Cars' with the same enthusiasm the 2354th time as he did the 1st time.

I love that he says 'that's munny' instead of that's funny.

But most of all I love how cute he is when he says 'I luf yoo mummy'.

Can I keep him this size forever?