familytastic!

Do you ever wonder what your children are thinking at any given time? I bet you do.

I had one of those moments at the weekend - I took Dan and Jake into Belfast to take the bus home for a change. You know, have a little adventure on the bus with the boys.

But we had about an hour to wait for the next bus home, so I took them across the road to Subway for a quickie snack and a drink of juice. The Subway in Great Victoria Street is a busy place. There's a lot of pedestrian traffic, and people coming and going from the shop itself.

Of all our children, Jake is a wiry young fellow. Something about him is wildly energetic, and I've always felt that when he becomes grumpy at home, it's because he's bored and needs to stretch his legs.

Last night, after his friend had gone home for the evening, I noticed Jake looking grumpy and lost. Rather than allow him to wallow in his bad mood, I told him to put on his coat and we'd go for a walk. We live on the edge of town, and as we leave our street, there's a little loop road that leads us out of town and back in again. A short walk of about an hour in total.

After finally, after wrestling the reluctant youngster into his coat, we left the house. There was a moment of near-mutiny when he realised we weren't taking the car, but Jake's generally quite pliable and we started off on our walk.

After I walked out of my parents' house on Saturday, I proceeded to do exactly what I'd promised the boys. I took them out and we had an excellent day together.

I had taken Daniel to a little harbour round the coast called Portbradden earlier in the week. While the weather wasn't wonderful, we managed quite a lengthy walk that revealed some interesting little places along the coast. It was then that I resolved to come back at the weekend for further adventures.

This blog, as usual is poorly updated at the best of times. Whenever something nice or cute happens at home, you make a mental note to blog it later. Then by bedtime, it's gone.

Aha, but not today! Today's escapade involves a fat dad (me) and two short-arses trying to amuse themselves while the women folk (Lisa and Rachel) went off to dance class for an hour.

Hell, it's been a mad few months in our house.

Our websites are getting more and more popular. My day job is getting busier and more stressful. I don't update this blog as often as I'd like to, because I want to record some of our lives for the kids.

As a family, good things are happening, and not-so-good things too. Rachel and Jake are going through a great time. Both are being real sweethearts, conversational, witty and creative.

There's a couple of wee moments with the kids recently that I want to write down so that we can remember them in the future. That's what blogs are for, after all...

Just flew back in from London yesterday to discover Jake had taken a nasty fall earlier that morning on the way to school.

While running with Rachel and some of their friends, he tripped over somebody's feet and landed face-first on the ground. He didn't even have time to raise his hands to protect himself.

Right now, he's got a glowing red cut on his forehead and his cheekbone and nose are scraped and raw-looking. Poor little fella.

Unlike his sister, Jake doesn't do drama. Apparently he was quite upset after the fall, but as he was getting cleaned off he calmed down and got over it very quickly. Even talking to me about it later, he was very matter of fact - yes his face was sore, but no it wasn't worth getting upset over.

Compare and contrast with big sister who just the other day cried for half an hour because I accidentally bumped her with a football!

So for the moment, Jake looks like the Terminator with half his face off. I keep expecting to see slivers of metal glinting in the light. And all either Lisa or I can say at the moment is "Poor little fella."

Jake's been in funny form this evening, unsettled in his bed and crying out loud. Nothing we can do seems to console him and whenever I try to deal with him he kicks and screams. Just wants his mum at the moment.

Anyway, a bit earlier on, I realised that he might be hungry and Lisa thought he might have stomach cramps. Well, he didn't bother to eat his dinner, did he? Could be trapped wind or something, so we brought him downstairs for a drink of milk and a piece of toast.

While I slaved over a hot toaster, Lisa sat on the dining room sofa, tentatively asking Jake what was wrong.

"Are you hungry?" (nods head)

"Are you thirsty?" (nods head) 

"Are you sick?" (nods head)

"Are you sore?" (nods head - are you detecting a pattern here?)

"Is your head sore? Your belly? Your bum?" The line of questioning looked like it was going to last forever. I said to Lisa, "You're leading the witness. Ask him what's wrong, but don't put ideas in his head." And just to prove my point - because we're both irritating like that - I asked him "Jake. Do you have leprosy?"

(nods head)

Where have my children gone....I haven't seen them in days!

That is a bit of an exaggeration, but since the sun started shining earlier this week, I haven't been able to keep Rachel and Jake indoors for more than 15 minutes at a time.