Everydaystranger

Seriously not fit for human consumption today.
Will be back in a few days. I know I use this space to sort my head out but there’s only so much bitching and whinging I can take, let alone that I can subject people to.
I’m all banshee like and need to step away from the keyboard.
-H.
PS [...]

I’ve blogged about In The Night Garden before. The characters on that show are mental, man. Seriously.
Yet the babies love them.
And we have a set of 5 board books and 2 paperback books that the babies – particularly Nora – adore. And they’re at the stage where they don’t want you to [...]

Yesterday I went to the doctor, ostensibly for just an ultrasound. No, not one of those ultrasounds. This one was on my wrist.
Surprise, surprise – doctor pulls out needles. Decides to activate the procedure they’ve been planning to do in situ. Anesthetics applied, big needles plied with steroids, and a ganglion cyst [...]

I had a procedure on my wrist today and have been told to take it easy. As a result this week posting will consist of short posts, photos, and other drivel.
Nora took two steps on Friday. Four steps on Saturday and Sunday.
This evening she took nine.
And, not to be outdone, Nick got off [...]

OK, stop reading now if you’ve recently suffered a loss. Or have been trying to have a family without success so far. Or you hate children. Or you hate mothers. Maybe you hate children with mothers. If any of those sound like you, then I would advise you stop reading [...]

It’s been almost two years.
Two years since I got on the trains and tubes and walked my way through leafy London neighborhoods, passing that large imposing church, passing a few homes which I knew were covert women’s shelters. I knew this because I would see the women come and go from them, looking over [...]

And you’ll have that song in your head for the rest of the day.
Motherhood is this club. A great, big, huge club that you get handed a laminated card to on the day you deliver a baby and for which the dues are paid in callouses, bags under the eyes, and stacks of printed [...]

OK, first off for anyone in the UK who hasn’t heard (and how is that possible, I ask?) today is Red Nose Day, which is Comic Relief benefitting the children of Africa. Yesterday I took my kit off and took a photo of me with my Red Nose. I watched a prelude to [...]

You get a lot of comments when you have twins, as I’ve said before. Most of the time the comments are stunningly unoriginal and lame – You must have your hands full! Double trouble! Better you than me! The one I get the most is something that I’ve thought long and [...]

No really, we’re not.
Funny title, though, and I wonder how many people freaked out reading that in Bloglines.
I recently wrote a post about what toys babies hate and love (particularly my babies). The first 6 months in Land ‘O Baby are a maze, though, particularly if you are a new mom like I was. [...]

On Tuesday last week I trooped into London to have dinner with a friend.
In the middle of the night that night, I woke up feeling really shit.
By Wednesday it was clear that I was ill.
Flu symptoms exploded on me – lymph nodes in my neck the size of goose eggs. Fever. Runny nose. [...]

I’m working from home, ill.
Again.
So I give you the Poor Man’s Blog Post, aka videos.
I’ve mentioned before how massively fascinated Nick is by lights, and I really mean it. We learned just how intense this love is this weekend when we went to IKEA in Southampton. When we took the babies in – [...]

I’m going through one of those cycles again where I don’t really have much to say, but don’t want to do the blog stereotype whereby I dramatically announce my retirement, all the while clutching my cape to my weeping eyes and begging all of you to leave me, just leave me!, and then sobbing upon [...]

I finally got a follow up with the joint specialist this week. I last saw her in December, when they took X-Rays and promised to get back to me in a week about the wrist pain. I kept calling and calling for an appointment and getting nowhere, until two weeks ago when I [...]

I took my Life in the UK test yesterday. I showed up at the test centre desperately sleep deprived, as the insomnia is hitting new lows, and was joined by a number of others like myself – Kiwis, Americans, Algerians, Fillipinas – all needing to pass this damn test. After parting with

The babies are really coming along. They’re becoming actual people now! – it’s amazing! No longer are they just squidgy balls of yeasty dough who smell like baby! Now they’re toddling balls of sticky hands that still smell like baby!
Nick and Nora are 17 months old today. They’re moving right along [...]