Rain on me

Rain Drops, Heavy Rainfall, Edinburgh Photographer

My wife has been ill recently so I have been working from home. Consequently I haven’t been on the bike as much as I would have liked.

We are coming to the end of April and thank god the rain is coming to an end. It has been raining pretty much every day for the whole month. I’m not talking about the usual English rain. No sir, I’m talking about full-on monsoon rain but without the warm weather. You could say it’s been pretty grim. Yesterday our bedroom ceiling sprouted a leak. I ran upstairs and looked in the under eaves storage to find rain dripping down onto the water tanks. That’s another expense that we can do without!

Worse than the rain though has been Amy’s terrible throat infection and subsequent ruptured eardrum. She was ill for nearly three weeks. It was horrible for her, poor lamb. Worse thing was she had to go into her work placement otherwise she would have to make up the days. In the end through she got a Doctors note, gave in, and had a week of rest. The sensible thing to do I think.

While Amy was ill I was working from home so I haven’t been on the bike as much as I would have liked. Last Wednesday though I returned to office-based duties and decided to cycle to Waterloo then catch the train to Staines. It rained lightly on the way there. On the way home I thought my luck would continue. The sun was out and I could just about discern a patch of blue sky. My luck soon ran out because halfway down O.K.R the sky turned ominously dark. Then a few fat blobs of rain fell, followed quickly by their fatter and angrier cousins. I was wearing normal trousers and they were soaked within seconds. I had to stop to stow my glasses because by now I couldn’t actually see where I was going.

Luckily I was wearing my Foska Tangent jacket which did a valiant job of keeping the water out. I decided to get off the O.K.R because the weather was somehow making motorists drive even worse then ever. I was pootling down Pomeroy Road when the wind picked up and an array hailstones started to ping straight into my face. I struggled on and half an hour later was standing in our hallway dripping onto the floor, a large puddle forming around me.

The ride post-mortem is as follows. Feet: dry-ish thanks to my gore-tex shoes. Legs: soaked, upper body: torso dry but arms wet(sorry Foska, the Tangent couldn’t handle the deluge!), head: obviously, drenched!

Time has flown

Jake is now 6 and has been for a while. We had a joint Hogwarts party with Charlotte and Ben because Antonia too is a great fan of Harry Potter. The venue was great, a church hall a stones throw away from Crofton Park station. The best thing though was the entertainer. She came dressed as Professor McGonagall and had the children rapt the whole time with magic tricks and party games. Never again will we attempt to provide the entertainment ourselves. too much like hard work and not nearly as good! Jake was sick yesterday, actually properly sick. Poor lamb.

This was okay because I had the half day off. Colin was meant to arrive at midday but due to delays didn’t get here until 4ish. This was fine because on Monday night I put in a mammoth 4 hours extra work in the evening(cue pat on the back).

On Monday I had the whole day off to look after Mia. We had a fun time walking though Greenwich Park in the glorious sunshine watching the Olympic preparations. Apparently there is to be an anti-aircraft missile launcher stationed on Blackheath. Who would have thought? We took the DLR from Lewisham and then bought lunch at M&S. We had a quick look at the almost complete Cutty Sark and then walked over to the park. Unfortunately after lunch, somewhere between the park and Starbucks in Blackheath we misplaced Mia’s taggie blanket. Panic-stricken I rushed back and retraced our steps but to no avail. Mia was fine about this and has been borrowing Jake’s taggie. Taggie number 3 arrived today courtesy of Amazon. And it’s a big one!

Dodgy burgers and prolonged illness

It’s the tail end of February and I’ve just realised that this years photo February project has passed me by. Photo March has a nice ring and the days will be longer and hopefully a little warmer. It’s been an odd sort of month. I was off sick for a week. Amy was ill at the same time too which is unheard of in our family. Amy had tonsilitus. I had tonsilitus and later on in the same week a campylobacter infection caused most likely by eating a raw burger in the Tav. Ben went down with the same thing so it’s pretty much a dead cert that this is where we got it.

To add insult to injury last weekend after a long ride out to Biggin Hill I succumbed to another painful stomach bug. Fingers-crossed I am over the worst now. We can thank our lucky stars that during our bouts of illness the children were fine and dandy.

The last couple of weeks have been freezing cold. I haven’t been out on the bike even though I swore to myself that I would keep going through the vagaries of a British winter. As previously mentioned I went for an early(6.30am eek!) ride with Ben and James last Saturday. I suffered a partial bonk and parts of my body were hurting that I never knew could hurt. This ride should stand me in good stead for my 30 mile commute into work tomorrow. Thankfully the weather has warmed up to!

I was looking after Mia last week during the ‘official’ half-term break. She is such a little poppet but with quite a diva streak! Her latest sayings are
“I don’t like it” while shaking her head.
“Yummy, I like it!”.
“Binish” when her milk has finished at which point she gives me the empty bottle.
“Gok!” when she wants to go for a walk.

Jake is off this week because his school have their half-term a week after everybody else. DK has come down to look after him for a couple of days. Yesterday he went to see Journey 2 and then to Pizza Express. Today he has been to the Greenwich Observatory and then to see The Muppets. What a lucky boy!

Jake has started to actually read to himself. And not just any old story a proper book, namely, Harry Potter and The Order of The Phoenix! Talking of Harry Potter, Jake is having a joint party with Antonia with a Harry Potter theme. Jake’s robe and tie arrived yesterday which he was very excited about.

Mia is Two!

Little Mia was two on Wednesday! I took the day off to tidy up and generally help get everything ready. For lunch Amy and I took ourselves over to Blackheath to Giraffe. I had a tasty burger and fries and Amy had a Vietnamese salad which was new that day, and according to Ames extremely tasty.

We had planned to have Xanthe and Bea over for Mia’s party. Unfortunately Xanthe was poorly so she couldn’t make it. So in the end it was just Mia, Bea, Charlotte and Antonia. Amy made a nice sponge cake which was decorated with some sparklers. We sang ‘happy birthday’ while Amy brought over the cake. Mia was unsure about the sparklers so she nuzzled into my shoulder while looking warily at the cake. Then all the children had their tea in the kitchen on paper party plates.

Mia loved her new birthday scooter and has been rolling around the house on it. She also loves her new baby doll and paraphernalia. She likes to place the nappy on top of the baby and then picks up the nappy, puts it to her nose and says “smelly!” or “poo!”. Very cute.

She has just started to say “I like it” or “I don’t like it”. The latter is quite amusing. With a great flourish and shaking of the head she states that she doesn’t like something with a very earnest expression. Again very cute 🙂

At the weekend I took Mia and Jake to the park to go scootering. Mia would not let me help her push the scooter even up the hill or when she went careering off the path and into the grass. She is adamant about doing it all herself. Such a difference to young Jake :-). I think Greenwich would be better, Hilly Fields is a little too, well, hilly! It was stressful to try and slow her down when she didn’t want me to touch her or the scooter. She ended up getting a little cross when I picked her and the scooter up to cross the road at the park entrance.

All the Wollny’s have been ill recently. Amy has had an awful throat/tonsil infection and was put on heavy-duty antibiotics. Jake has had his usual hacking cough and cold. Mia who is usually quite resilient when it comes to colds also has had a very runny nose and cough to go with it. Last week I too succumbed to the lerg but as I write this I am truly on the mend. Just a little sniffly.

Today is an auspicious day. As well as being the Chinese New Year, Amy started her work placement in Grove Park. She has been tasked with writing a welcome pack for the company to inform customers what they should expect from their service. I think it is a charity which helps elderly people after they have come out of hospital. I’ll know more tonight when she comes home.

New year and all that

Well, I’ve kind of succeeded in keeping up the cycling over the winter. Of course the run up to Christmas was a non-starter. So far this year I have done the mega 30 mile commute twice, the other times I have succumbed to the 10k ride to Waterloo station. Every time I do this it is costing me £12.30(plus cappuccino at the station!) so I have a financial incentive to cycle all the way. I don’t mind too much the dark mornings or even the cold. Not that it has been very cold recently, winter is yet to kick in. What I do not like is the rain. Two and a half hours of cycling in the wind and rain is no fun I can tell you!

Mia has settled back in her routine with Sara. She had a bit of a wobble for a few days last week. Jake is back at school too. He has been struggling to wake in the morning even though he has been having plenty of sleep. I think his system is still shocked at having to work hard at school after a nice long holiday. Mia has gone from being a Daddy’s girl back to wanting Mummy all the time. She’s a fickle little soul :-).

Last night she woke crying at midnight. I waited for a while to see if she would settle but alas no. In the end I got up and gave her 4 oz of milk. I think she may be going through a growth spurt at the moment. Amy and I have been taking turns doing Mia and Jake in the evening. When I have Mia I get her milk ready. Mia tells me if she would like it warmed up or not. We then go upstairs or ‘dares’ as Mia says and she has her stories. We then brush our teeth and go in to the loft room to look at the ‘pretty lights’ and Canary Wharf ‘worp’. If the moon is visible she gets very excited and says ‘mood!’. She then says goodbye to the lights and I put her in her sleeping back and take her into her room and lay her down in her cot. At this point if she is nice and tired she nuzzles into her taggie.

When I have Jake he brushes his teeth(after which he usually asks for a ‘bapple’!) and we settle down to read Harry Potter. Jake will read his school book to me. When I switch the light out there is usually a degree of procrastination. Jake will say things like “will you rest with me for a little while?” or “can I have an apple?” or “I’m hungry”. The other day none of this happened. Jake simply said “goodnight!” followed by “have a nice evening”. Immediately I was suspicious. I asked Amy where the Nintendo DS was. “In his room”, she replied. He had been sneakily having a quick game of Lego Batman under the covers 🙂

Christmas 2011

With a heavy heart I went back to work today. I say ‘back to work’ but no travelling was actually involved. Instead I trudged grudgingly to the loft where my home office is. I had a great Christmas and so did Jake and Mia. On Christmas day the lounge floor was awash with scattered present. Mia got a little freaked out with all the detritus around here so we made an effort to clear some space. Jake was extremely excited by the whole affair.

This is the present list as far as I can remember.

Jake’s presents
  • two Hero Factory figures that can be combined into one
  • jigsaw puzzle
  • tights
  • red r/c car
  • glow globe
  • magic glow in the dark tablet and pen
  • books
  • ninjago temple and fire dragon
  • harry potter lego
Mia’s presents
  • keyboard
  • baby pushchair
  • doodle bear
  • little baby
  • jigsaw puzzles
  • that’s not my reindeer and other books

We had a quiet Christmas Day with the four of us. Jake and Mia didn’t really enjoy the dinner. I think they just wanted to charge around and play with their new toys.

Jake lost a tooth this week, his second no less. This time he managed to keep hold of it long enough for the tooth fairy to collect it :-).

Mia has been funny recently. She was pointing to her nose and saying ‘Nodis!’. What she meant was ‘Bogies!’

Toothy grin

It’s official, the tooth has gone. Jake and I were sitting in the lounge on Saturday night. Jake was eating his favourite fruit, namely a bapple(a Miaism there). Suddenly he exclaimed “Daddy! My tooth has gone!”. And yes, it had gone, where we do not know. We checked the lounge and could find no sign of it. The only explanation was that Jake had swallowed it. Over the next few days I did something, not once but twice that proves I love my son. Yes, I rooted through his poo for the errant tooth. Unfortunately it is still missing in action.

Jake is fine about this. He still got his shiny £1 coin from the tooth fairy :-). I am a little sad that we do not have his first tooth to put in his keepsake box :-(.

Wobbly tooth

One of Jake’s bottom teeth is on the verge of coming out. Jake plays a game where he sucks the tooth back and pings it forward. It can move about 45 degrees so I imagine it will only be a few more days before the peg pops out.

Jake said yesterday that a boy lost his tooth in assembly and was crying because it was sore :-(. Jake thought it would be cool to lose a tooth at school :-). Jake has been learning songs for the school choir and in particular for the Christmas concert. He was singing a song to me last night and then started giggling and became embarrassed saying “I don’t like the next bit!”. I asked him what the next line was and after some prompting he sang “she is beautiful, I think of her everyday”. I wonder is he thinks of Isabella when he sings it ;-).

Mia waking up

Mia woke tonight at around 11.30. I went in to her room and she was sitting up. Her cheeks were very red. I asked her if her teeth were sore and she pointed to her mouth and nodded. She then said she wanted some ‘dortor’ or water. We had a little chat and then I popped her in her crib. I thought she was settling but she has started crying again. This could be a long night!

The Wollny Family

An update is overdue I think. Today is the last day for Jake before half-term and it cannot come too soon. He has succumbed to the end of term mania and exhaustion. This hasn’t been helped by a hacking cough and viral infection last week. This moved from his chest to his tongue. Poor Jake was in a lot of pain and quite beside himself. This has had an effect on his sleeping pattern. He keeps waking in the night and taking a long time to get himself to sleep.

This morning his behaviour was off the scale(for Jake that is) and both Amy and myself were left feeling quite ragged.

Mia is quite delightful but too has her moments! This morning maybe she picked up the general stress but went into a meltdown when Amy tried to put her socks on. She has taken to riding my shoulders on the way to Sara’s. When I park I turn round in the seat and she points at my head and says “shoulders!” or “there!”. I then say, “Shoulders?” at which point she nods and says “yes!”

We went to Jake’s first year 1 parents evening and were both pleased to hear how well he is getting on. His comprehension and reading are excellent and he is very good at maths. Miss Dickson have the class a ‘surprise’ test which consisted on the first 115 most common words that they will learn by the end of year 2. Jake got 113 out of 115. An amazing 98%!