Party, Party, Party

So, we got invited to a party. Friends of ours are going to Thailand for 6 months and will miss Christmas and Halloween, so they are going out with a bang. The invitation said children welcome so we took along Little Miss. It was a Friday night so we asked the Angel to try and get her to nap in the afternoon; fat chance. She didn't sleep in the car on the way over and ran around the house in her Halloween costume until 9pm. Then she curled up on a sofa with us and fell asleep! Yay! Then we could enjoy ourselves until it was time to pick up the bundle and got back into the car.

It was really nice to catch up with friends, and spend some grown up time with Goth Dad, I also did some singing of Christmas Carols and general Haloween chanting.

New glasses for Goth Mum

I’ve just found a new way to buy a new pair of glasses. Previously I have had to get rid of the small person for an hour or so to enable me to get into town and pick a new pair of glasses, then trog into town all over again to pick them up. Now I have found Zenni Optical who has excellent value eyeglassesto any prescription MAIL ORDER!

I particularly like these glasses which will cost me $35 and with the exchange rate as it is that is less than £22!!!! I have never seen glasses that cheap in any store.

I think they are very quirky, the detail on the arms is lovely and nothing like the ones I had a choice of last time I needed to change my prescription.

The range is huge from $8 to some really funky cutting edge stuff up to around $45.

Their edge is that they manufacture their own frames and only sell direct to us. They do all the usual extras that you would expect; bifocal, tinted, photochromic and anti reflection. Anti scratch and UV coating are free and they ship worldwide.

I also found this article from the Chicago tribune, it’s, obviously, a bit US-centric but the sentiment holds.

Happy Birthday Goth Dad - Pt 2 The present

This is an RC Vamp. It is very cool and Goth Dad has been flying it around the green outside the house. He has been dive bombing Little Miss who has been screaming with laughter and running away, fast enough not to get hit but slow enough to let Daddy keep up. It was so funny to watch.

There is an eternal question about what to get Goth Dad as a gift. Luckily he keeps a list of things that take his fancy. I love Amazon wish lists.

Happy Birthday Goth Dad - Pt 1 The Party

Goth Dad got a little bit older this weekend and we had a bit of a do. We had a 'Dracula' menu'd dinner party (vegetarian of course)

We started with Champagne cocktails - E=MC2. 2 measures of Southern COmfort, 1 measure of lemon juice, 1/2 measure of maple syrup. Shaken with ice, strained into a Champagne flute then topped up with Champagne. It went down very easily and didn't taste a potent as it was. I lethal combination.

Then hadPaprika Hendl - with Quorn not chicken. Robber Steak - kebabs with fake bacon & veg and something with Aubergine - bit as that is the devil's vegetable I won't bring myself to mention it. We washed this down with some lovely Red Wine - which didn't last long enough for me to see what it was.

Goth Dad had made an EMOURMOUS baked cheesecake, baked means no glycerine, with a Blueberry glaze. It was fantasticly yummy. Then there was more champage, coffee and sleepy walks to the train station for the last train back to town for our guests.

It was great to see friends and get a little bit tipsy but Oh My GOSH there was a lot of washing up to do the next morning!

A quick piece of topical parenting news

I picked up this article about "Elimination communication" on an RSS feed that I watch and it has touched a bit of a nerve for me.

We have had a lovely weekend together; it has been Goth Dad's birthday - much posting about all of that tomorrow - but I have spent the weekend wishing we had more time together. There is so much that I want to do with Little Miss, swimming, making Christmas Cards, reading books, playing hide and seek. I seem to spend half of my time saying we can do that later, next weekend, tomorrow; knowing that I normally have aprox 1 hr in the day with her that isn't getting up or going to bed, and we have to have tea in that time. At half term She has a Daddy week, and already there is a list of things Daddy wants to do with her.

Unfortunately, if we don't want to be living in a 2 bedroomed council flat in a sink estate (after living in B&B for 6 months) then both Goth Mum and Goth Dad have to go to work. I have been working full time now for nearly 6 months and as much as I love my job, I really wish I could do it in 3 or 4 days instead of 5.

EC doesn't really have anything to do with our parenting right now as she has been dry for months now, but it was the whole attachment parenting they talk about that tugged at my working mum guilt. Hmmmmm, I guess I will have to just make the best of what we have together and be thankful that we have a roof over our heads and no burnt out cars on the street corner.

/Edit: Goth Dad has just pointed out, as is his gift, that Little Miss gets lots of love and attention from both of us and from The Angel that is our Childminder. She knows and values us as parents and primary carers and does not loose out. If I want to share my time with her then that is good and proper, but I shouldn't feel guilty for either wanting to spend time with her or for not spending time with her. There, that told me. I can be as selfish as I want about wanting to not work, but I mustn't feel guilty about it.