This photo is of the 5 year old at Easter.  Our Scottish friends were staying with us and we spent Easter weekend surrounded by friends and family having fun. The 5 year old had just fallen over and had hurt himself.  A minute before it was taken he was crying, he’d fallen over, but our Scottish friend who is out of the shot was pulling faces.

Today the 5 year old will have his third … yes THIRD ear operation.  He’s having grommets fitted again and having his adenoids taken out.

In a few hours I will stand in the white room, holding my apprehensive boy’s hand, as the anesthesiologist tells him to count to ten.  I know that he’ll only get to four, that he will be fast asleep before he gets the chance to say “five”, clutching Lulu and I know that he will be safe and well looked after.  As I look at him on that bed being wheeled through to the operating theatre my eyes will prick and my heart will cry out to hold my little boy and keep him close.  I’ll pace up and down outside the operating theatre thinking of that day in Easter … my little boy with his happy face and his big spirit and I’ll know that everything will be OK.

Peanut, the dog, is 9 this month, which is 63 in human years.

In the last year she’s started showing her age;  She has white beard, not a good look on a lady; She gets up slowly; Her breath smells as if she is decomposing from the inside out; She sleeps for longer and oh my god the farts … they are getting worse, if that’s possible.  Funnily enough in human years she’s the same age as my Dad, Gramps.  I must ask him if he’s experiencing similar problems.

I felt so sad about her OAP status that I googled ‘how long do labradors live for?’ . I know, I know, SIT ON YOUR HANDS … but I couldn’t. So facts are facts … and Google is never wrong.  She has a maximum of 4 years left.  That sliding noise?  That’s me on the slipping into denial.

The same day I  went to the supermarket with the children.  There was a Dog’s Trust stand outside the entrance.  Both children took great interest in the stand until I ushered them on. The 7 year old asked if we could get a puppy.  I explained that one dog was enough, but that when Peanut died, a long long long long time from now (did I tell you that I’m in denial?), we would probably get another dog. Later at home the 5 year old was snuggling up to the dog, using her as a pillow.  He stroked her,  “It’s OK, Peanut, we’ll get a puppy when you die” he said … lovingly.

She’s a bloody pain sometimes.  The moulting drives The Husband to distraction and whatever you are trying to do in the house she is there in the way, asleep, like a giant log, but I know that our house will be a very sad place without her.

I wonder how much it costs to stuff a large labrador?

This weekend I travelled to London for Cybermummy 2011, the biggest parent blogging conference in the UK.  The weekend started at about 9.30 on Friday morning when I was picked up and didn’t end until 8pm on Sunday when I rolled out of the car slightly worse for wear.  I can safely say that I won’t be mixing pear cider, gin-in-a-tin, mojitos, champagne and wine, again,  any time soon.

This picture was taken at approximately ten to two on Sunday morning.  We are in the lift, just leaving the bar to go to bed, in the Travelodge.  The Travelodge lift has created a new temperature.   We have Freezing, Cold, Normal, Warm, Hot, Sahara and Travelodge Lift. Sweaty Betty.

We’re all laughing … I can’t even remember what about, but that doesn’t matter.  This picture sums up, for me, a weekend where I chased/stalked/loved/kissed/hugged/prodded friends old and new and laughed until I could laugh no more.  That last bit is actually a lie. There is always room for more laughter which was proved on our journey home.

From left to right: Rachael (who is a better gurner than me), Mel, Me, Erica (crying) and Ellie. Thank you to Tara Lara who took the picture.

My daughter will turn seven in just over a week.  Oh my god.

Seven, it’s another year closer to eight, nine and ten. Ten is only three years away from thirteen.

I think I need a lie down.

Every day I see more flashes of the big girl she’s going to be. It makes me feel panicky sometimes. I can still remember holding her for the first time as if it were yesterday and now I’m performing tooth fairy duties and discussing the finer points of telephone etiquette when ringing her friend down the road to talk about Club Penguin.

She’s a little girl who loves to eat her body weight in cherries, dangle upside down, write lists, read and read and read. She worries about things, things she shouldn’t worry about. She likes to play hide and seek and look after others.  She’s a sensitive, thoughtful soul with the biggest twinkle in her eye and she does a wicked Sid James laugh.

Here are my favourite pictures of her this year. Seven … oh my god.

It’s been a funny old month.  With a mix of bank holidays, school holidays, weddings, celebrations and general gatherings.

The children returned to school today after another extended bank holiday weekend, full of confusion about what day it is.  In three weeks they break up again and in four weeks we go on our long awaited holiday.

I can’t remember the last time we had such a fun packed month.  I look back on April and feel all warm and fuzzy. We are so very blessed when it comes to friends and family.

I wanted to try and sum up April in one photograph.  I wanted something which included each and every person who made this month awesome but that was impossible.  I kept coming back to this photograph.

The laughter in my boys eyes sums up April perfectly.

When my Mum died I lost a huge chunk of my childhood along with her.  In grief and pain I erased a huge portion of my life.

When my children were born panic set in. I was terrified that I would forget things about their childhood, that should something happen to me they would lose some of our precious memories.

Now I don’t worry about that, because we have my blog. My children have a way back.  They have a little path charting the ups and downs and seemingly insignificant details of our lives. (Click the image to see it larger!)

That means everything to me.

On Saturday it was our turn to host a get-together with our old neighbours.  What was supposed to be a civilised meal turned into a full blown party with four other couples and four teenagers.

On Sunday, at 8.30am, my Facebook update read something like this;

Judging by the photos of last night; My husband’s arse above a sleeping guest’s head, handbag bottom dancing in our conservatory, a guest with his entire head wrapped in toilet paper it’s a miracle that I am even sat here typing this and feeling so ‘bright’.

For reasons of common decency I can only show a select few of those photos. To protect the guilty they are wearing rather fetching black rectangles/circles and in one particularly guilty member’s case an entire roll of toilet paper.

I give you ‘Party’ …

My daughter has a face like The Husband. It never stops moving.

After our first date I remember telling My Sister “He has a face like Jim Carey, he never stops pulling faces”.  As he’s aged his face pulling has eased off a touch, but he still has his moments. Luckily he also looks a bit like a Vince Vaughn crossed with Ray Liotta. He’s handsome … ask @LizJarvisUK *cough*, she can vouch for him.

Anyway, this is about the 6 year old and her ‘face of rubber’ not me fawning over my husband’s features …

If I leave my phone unattended the 6 year old sneaks onto Pocketbooth and I find little treasures hidden away. They make her look like she’s been at my gin.

She chooses where we go. nearly always somewhere different.  Straight after school we went to The Mill.

We mooched in the bookshop, she bought a book. We went to the busy café and ate French lemon tart.

Perfect girlie time.

… and the 5 year old?  Well he’s made a mental note that I owe him some Mum & Boy time and our trip will involve a skate park and chocolate.

This post is for Tara Lara’s Gallery. This week the theme is ‘Togetherness’.

My 24 hours started in an amazing restaurant at Slaley Hall Hotel in Northumberland where the Husband and I had already spent one night without the children. There was a game of snooker, breakfast in bed, amazing food, some ‘bottom’, travelling home, being reunited with the children, decorating buns with ‘blood’ and sweets, going out to a gig with old friends, the best curry I’ve had in a long time and then bed.

It was just what we needed, an amazing 24 hours, a treasured pocket of time.