The past few days have been hellishly hard work. At the beginning of the week Vonnie went to see the doctor who told her among other things she had a viral ear infection which was causing her headaches and sore throats. On Wednesday night Vonnie had trouble breathing and collapsed meaning she ended up with the paramedics out and a trip to A&E in the back of an ambulance. It turns out she has a really bad case of tonsillitis and has been put on a pile of drugs to get her better.

This morning we woke up and for the first time in about a week Vonnie actually felt positive about the day and was able to get up and not be in that much pain. Our respective parents were popping in to see the kids so we planned a relatively quiet day once we’d tidied the living room up a bit. Then the parents arrived and our son turned from a happy wee boy into this.

He’s excitable. He’s noisey. He won’t do a damn thing he’s told. And that’s before he even gets anywhere near the sweets. Even when he’s not fighting for his grandparents attention he is loud without an off switch. He talks to himself or when he’s alone he’ll just whitter random noises but there certainly isn’t an off switch. He becomes that hard work that Vonnie was completely and utterly shattered by the time our parents left to go home and it’s been a constant battle with him for the rest of the evening.

His speech therapy assessment went really well. Apparently problem cases are flagged if they have something like more than three percent of their normal chat being effected by stutters, stammers or repetition. I think Nairn comes in at just over two percent so they don’t see it as a major problem but he’s to go back in five months for a check. He’s got so many things going on that check of boxes for autism, ADHD and dyslexia that I don’t know if it’s just my parental desire for there to be nothing wrong that makes me think it’s just a kid thing. From getting my own ‘diagnosis’ with regards to dyslexia last year I know that if any of them do turn out to be a problem for him none of them are severe enough to really cause him much bother but it would allow us to target those problems to help him and ourselves.

I guess time will tell.

Tags: ADHD, autism, dyslexia, Nairn, tonsilitis, Vonnie

You know those moments when your kids do something and all you can do is stay stuck to your seat and think, “oh god no…please don’t do that” well my son is the master at that.

Yesterday we spent our morning at the church in Carmunnock at christening of my wife’s friends child. We sat through the first hymn and the ceremony before I took the kids across the road to the ‘creche’ so that the rest of the service could go by without to many interruptions. The kids loved it but as we had left in such a hurry we had left everyone’s jackets and toys sitting on the pew which meant Vonnie was going to have some trouble lifting it all out whilst holding onto Greer as well. With this in mind I brought Nairn and Erica back over to the church a little early so that we would be on hand to carry everything but when we got there we found Vonnie feeding Greer whilst talking to the photographer outside.

We got talking about camera equipment and how amazing the Canon 5D mkII was with it’s ability to shoot video as well as stills. It was just about now that Nairn had a twinkle in his eye and decided that no he wasn’t going to listen when I told him he couldn’t run around the back of the church into the graveyard. With the service still going on I was reluctant to shout after him but he turned with a cheeky smile and promptly started climbing up the gravestones and onto the crypts. He’s three years old and apart from goodies killing baddies in some of his older brothers games that’s about all he knows about death. He didn’t understand why I was getting angry at his attempts to scale the largest gravestone in the cemetery.

The look of horror on Vonnie’s face when I told her what he was doing was only beaten by the sheer joy in Nairn’s smile and the laughter on the photographers face.

Tags: cemetary, christianing, church, crypt, Nairn

I sometimes wonder if everyone else can see the same kids I see when I look at my family.

This past weekend we were at a wedding in London where, apart from the bride and groom, we had never met a single person.Our kids went into the crèche during the ceremony and at the dinner and reception afterwards we basically let them run riot around the place. When you’ve got one or two you can keep on top of them but once you hit that magical number of three they learn that in order to get to do what they want they just scatter in random directions. By the time you as the adult and authority figure work out which ne to go after they are all long gone.

Anyway I barely seen our kids for most of the night what with them spending a lot of time at the craft table or on the dance floor. But when they were not doing that they were doing what all young kids do and that’s just run wild. Findlay managed to fashion together a DIY fishing rod and was managing to get the end in the Thames from the decking of the boathouse we were in. At one point he came round the tables looking for something to use as bait.

Nairn just turned into a thief. As the boathouse wasn’t really designed to have a couple of hundred people stamping their feet during the speeches everyone was given a squeaky rubber duck instead and so after our dinner was finished he went around every table lifting the ducks people had left behind. We had over 20 of them at one point.

I think it was Erica that managed to let them get away with it. She was running interference by being as cute as she could be on the dancefloor or talking to anyone and everyone. As soon as Nairn had all the ducks back at our table though her true colours came to the fore and pretty soon they were having a heated discussion over who could have the largest mound of rubber ducks.

It wasn’t until the end of the night however as everyone started to leave that we started getting comments on our kids. I couldn’t believe it. Apparently our children are a credit to us and were simply wonderful. Erica had a few huge goth blokes wrapped around her finger and Nairn was getting on well with the ladies. Someone even commented on how they had never seen a bunch of kids get on so well together and not end up falling out with anyone by the end of the night. Everyone else’s kids were fantastic so maybe mine actually lived up to the hype?

Tags: Erica, Findlay, Greer, kids, Nairn, wedding

I’ve neglected you for a while but I’ll be back and give you a spring clean soon enough

The reason why I’m here is that I noticed something last night that depressed me slightly. My son is no longer a baby. It’s quite obvious to see that when you look at him but you know what I mean. He’s the biggest in his nursery class despite being the youngest but he’s always been a baby. that was until last night. He’s came on in leaps and bounds since starting nursery but last night was the first time I looked at him and seen a wee boy staring back at me. You could see the intelligence working overtime behind those eyes of his.

Tags: growing, Nairn

Well christmas and new year sort of faded into one as per usual. Call me Scrooge but I normally cant get that excited about Christmas but historically I’ve always found a way to enjoy Hogmanay.

On Christmas Eve we went down to an italian restaurant in Cambuslang for Dinner with Vonnie’s mums side of the family. Was very nice but I think the food didnt agree with me as I felt a bit dodgy on Christmas day despite not eating anything else by then. Funniest moment was Davie accusing folk of drinking his wine despite noone else touching it. He’d been constantly topping up his glass and didnt realise how much he’d actually drank by the time the meal was finished!

Christmas day was nice but very stressful. Managed to make it down to the parentals in the morning but by the time we made it back home I was struggling to make dinner in time for Finn going to his Dad’s. In the end Finn spat carrot soup over the table and Vonnie was that worked up about alot of things she could barely eat anything. The food was nice though

Boxing day meant the annual family get together which this year was at my Uncle’s in Hamilton. We made it down there for about half 5 and had a very nice night. Its a complete change these days now that the kids have all grown up and don’t really come along and now they’ve built a conservatory theres space for everyone for a change.

With my week off the idea was to get the house completely sorted but between Christmas and New Year my sleeping patterns been completely off and although Vonnie’s only worked a few days we’ve really had very little time to get anything done. Made a start on our bedroom the other day but we got half way through it and had to leave it for the next day. The problem with this is that we never managed to do it the next day. The house gradually got worse until I had to redo the kitchen a wee bit in order to get my work surfaces back. This meant the living room wasnt tidied though for New Year. We werent expecting anyone over though as our plans were changing right up until the last minute. First off we had to go see family and then round to Daves to see the bells in but at first we didnt have a baby sitter. Then Dave’s party was cancelled just as we got a sitter so we decided to go into Glasgow and see our friends band play in Rockers for the Bells. It came to 7pm and Vonnie was feeling ill and I could barely stay awake so we cancelled everything and decided to chill in front of the TV. That was until Heather came in to say that Georges parents had an open house and wanted to know if we wanted to go over. Finn got his shoes and jacket on and dissappeared with Heather and Kylie over there until 1am while we stayed at home. At was at this point that Vonnie started to Worry about first footers. We spent the 45 minutes before the bell cracking up trying to tide the house. We managed it though but there was several fallings out before collapsing on the couch knackered. And no bugger first footed us!

New years day was round at my mums for dinner where Sasha snarled at Nairn. Shes snapped at him once already so we really need to get something sorted.

Now that christmas is over and done with its back to sorting the house out properly. First up this year is the kitchen. Ours is currently crap and we have no storage space or work surfaces. This has to change so we got the designer guy round from Vonnie’s work to see what he could do. Has he put it there wasn’t much he could really change but he’s fitted in a few extra bits a pieces so it should be all good. Hopefully we’re ordering it within the next day or two so we can get it in the sale. The only problem with this is we can’t afford to get someone to fit it for us. Thats just giving money away so hopefully between Vonnie’s dad and a few folk we know we should be able to get folk willing to help us out for beer hopefully. I’d intended on trying to get some leave to help out over the next couple of weeks but Jenna in work has broke her foot and has a sick line for the next 3 weeks. This means Im by myself until then as Ians got a line until then as well for his broken ankle. I’ll need to talk to my bosses about this as soon as we start thinking about delivery and installation dates

And now onto the bit nicked from Dave Hogg…

Favourite Moment of 2006 - No hesitation its got to be Nairn’s birth. Was a very strange and long few days runing up to the moment but walking out the front door to phone my parents to tell them the news was the first time I can honestly say my face hurt from smiling.

Favourite Book of 2006 - Fatherhood: The Truth by Marcus Berkmann. I can honestly say that without this book I think I would have cracked up. Its a no holds barred look at kids right through from conception to thier first birthday. All the bad bits he actually manages to make you laugh and when they happen to you you end up with a smile on your face. If it wasn’t an audiobook I’d have chosen Bob Brier’s History of Ancient Egypt thats speard over 48 lectures. I need to have another go at that btw as I’ve yet to read/hear anything thats so well done on the subject without getting too technical.

Favourite Gig of 2006 - I went to a gig in 2006? Actually now I think about it I did manage to one gig. The Bloodhound Gang at The Garage was fantastic. Seen them before but theyre support Electric Eel Shock made my night!

Favourite Website of 2006 - I struggled with this one. It shows just how much time I spend on thte internet these days when I pick Alternative Nation for this. Its not that its my favouite its just that thats where I spend most of my time when I am online. Hell I even gave up my supermoderator status in there and I still put it as my favourite. Someone shoot me

Favourite Country of 2006 - Would have to be New Zealand. Looking to the future and emigration is a definate possibility in the coming years with NZ and Canada being the front runners with Cananda edging it in the doability stakes. New Zealand has stolen my heart though in regards to my choice.

I’d originally intended on adding a few more categories but it’s taken me about an hour to type this up so far and i’m fecking knackered. And besides I’m supposed to be dong work

Tags: Bob Brier, Boxing day, Canada, christmas, Christmas day, christmas eve, Dave Hogg, food, food didnt, Glasgow, Heather, Kylie, Marcus Berkmann, Nairn, New Year's Day, New Zealand, the Bells, Then Dave's party, thte internet