Lathany

Or so my baby books tell me.

Nail cutting. Why ? Because most mothers are terrified that they are about to cut off more than the nail inflicting a future of nine fingers (or seven if you count thumbs separately) on their beloved offspring.

I didn't find it particularly nerve-racking, but then I never got the "over-protective" thing right anyway. It was pretty difficult, though. Bea was reasonably patient whilst I trimmed her toe nails, but when she realised I was going to do fingers as well she rebelled. She howled. She screamed. She dribbled (actually the most effective tactic). Eventually I let her go and she started smiling (pretty instantly).

I personally regard nappy-changing as a worse job.

Well, I felt that both episodes were a little on the slow side. Not a bad evening, though.

( Buffy - Potential, Angel - Soulless )

Today will be spent sorting out the last few things before my mother-in-law arrives tomorrow (clean bedding - check, floor space - check, twins - check, etc.) Also I have been printing maps of Oxford and Stratford for my plan to see As You Like It with Frances before returning for a meal with triskellian and smiorgan and then zandev's thirtieth birthday party at Templars.

Plus I have a couple more Friends Reunited emails to respond to. It appears that my friends all left the country after I last saw them. Hong Kong, Maryland and Germany - and one of the other who I might email is in San Francisco. Perhaps it was something I said.

I now have two A4-sized bound copies of Mourn's Gift.

Yesterday was my birthday. Family arrived with presents, then my parents babysat so that bateleur and I could go out for a meal with chrestomancy and Frances.

The babies were, as always, overjoyed to see grandparents. bateleur finished making their double swing in the back garden, so much time was spent playing on it. Beatrice loved it - the higher and faster the better - whilst Ryan wanted us to turn the sun off and spent the afternoon facing away from it.

Presents included Princess Mononoke, Settlers of the Stone Age, a number of picture frames and some Yu-Gi-Oh! cards.

( Yu-Gi-Oh! card details )

The meal was at Yun Kim's - a Thai restaurant near chrestomancy and Warlock's flat. It had one of the most extensive vegetarian selections I have ever seen. They served us too much food, lots of red wine and the bill came with fortune cookies.

My cookie said "Your business with assume vast proportions". As my current work is being a housewife and child-minder, this is not a good thing.

And being thirty-three ? Feels much like thirty-two really.

I have broken my vow to never buy Beatrice any really girly clothing. Today I succumbed and chose two pairs of frilly purple and blue socks. Ryan got a large pair of lion socks and a large pair of hippo socks (the reason for the buying) for his own gigantic paws.

Tesco was full of people buying flowers and chocolates (Mothers Day tomorrow) and children staring wistfully at the Easter egg selection. Also, they've started stocking some new spring/Easter foods including white chocolate mousses (quisalan take note).

Finally, bateleur took pity on my moanings that the printer paper hadn't arrived, so went out and bought some himself. This means that Mourn's Gift will be heading off to the bookbinders on Monday (with luck).

Only seven weeks left to twin-dumping and BadgerCon...

One good episode, one poor one. Something of a habit now.

( Buffy - Showtime, Angel - Awakening )

In other news, the snail is re-batteried, the birthday week is half-way through and a large amount of printer paper is due to arrive (along with Icewind Dale 2 and Maxie's Demon). Ryan keeps trying to discard his trousers, so I've rolled the bottoms up further and Beatrice is perfecting the "giving" game ("Book, Mummy", "Red Brick, Mummy", "Snail, Mummy", "Beatrice... I can't hold anything else !").

Oh, and the cold finally moved out.

On Friday evening, condign came round for dinner. This meant that he was subject to the scrutiny of two curious twins ("didn't he have a beard last time, Mummy ?") whilst I cooked roast and quietly (or perhaps not so quietly) worried about the fact that bateleur (and hence some of the dinner ingredients) was late. This panicking meant that I missed a golden opportunity to photograph Beatrice sitting solemnly on condign's knee.

We discussed roleplaying games, house-sharing and whether salaries should be secret. We did not discuss the war. We drank red wine (which condign brought - bateleur took one look at the bottle and promptly chose it over the white in the fridge) and B52s. It was a very pleasant evening.

Saturday I finished formatting Mourn's Gift and we looked up nearby bookbinders to bind it. With luck it might be finished before the middle of April (about nine months after I first completed it).

Today, I finally kept my promise to add a fourth gallery of photographs to the twins webpages.

The New Twins Gallery

On a more depressing note, I still have the cold. And it seems to have put in roots.

I took the twins to be weighed, for the first time in a couple of months.

Ryan : 22lb 2oz (10.06kg)
Beatrice : 23lb 8oz (10.68kg)

Both are considered to be in the "normal weight" range.

Also, my latest film arrived back today and it is all baby pictures. OK, there are a couple of Rhi & Jon and a couple of Emily, but the rest are all twins. I blame bateleur, as I am pretty certain he took over half of them. On the plus side, there are a few cute friend-holding-twin photos. Namely verlaine with Ryan, onebyone with Ryan and quisalan with Beatrice. Also on the plus side, some of them could count as "before" shots of the lounge radiator (perhaps I should just get over the whole radiator saga, though...). I must get around to updating the twins picture page on the web, it is about six months out of date.

Finally, my cold is starting to fade. Certainly, the "bunged up" feeling is going. With luck it should have more or less disappeared by the weekend.

Some parents provide sweets and chocolates when they want to indulge their offspring. All I have to do is re-battery the snail - and the twins are happy. Well, happy apart from occasionally standing on each other, shutting each other's fingers in drawers (Bea still has a mark on her middle finger), etc. etc. I'm less happy, I can no longer play the Final Fantasy VIII CDs that chrisvenus lent me, but overall this is better than listening to the miserable wails which were coming from the playpen earlier.

Emily Marle is also happy. I finally let her back in the house on the grounds that the brown, furry mass she was carrying in earlier is nowhere in sight and her breakfast was way overdue. She would be happier still if I let her into the twins' cot to sleep, but she will just have to put up with this continual disappointment (although I suspect that Ryan, at least, would have been delighted).

I am still waiting for my word processing package to arrive, so Mourn's Gift is still on hold. I have started Starcraft, but I am not enjoying it much. Firstly, it is another of those games which you win or lose in a few turns, then spend the next few hours actually finishing the level (I found it even worse than Warcraft II for this, much to my horror). Secondly, it does not seem to work well with the twins. They were happier watching me playing other things.

Finally, I need to come up with a plan for my birthday. It is not going to be an important number and I don't want a party. However, that still leaves a number of options open; particularly if my parents agree to babysit.

Anyone who has been within five miles of my LJ recently will know that bateleur and I are currently twinless. This has resulted in a week off.

<Sound of trumpets>

Theoretically.

In practice I have been working on The Big Household Project - the repainting of the lounge radiator.

( Radiators - only for the bored or unbelieving reader )

( Enough on radiators and Baldur's Gate already, let's talk Swordsmaster )

( The week hasn't all been DIY and roleplaying )

After several days of (mainly) enjoyment (in part due to the consumption of many, many thousands of calories), bateleur and I rang the grannies to find out how they were coping. Fortunately, both appeared to be surviving although Ryan was proving a little too fast a crawler for their liking (Granny Jo took the pushchair out and came back to find him in the garden). Much to my surprise, I actually missed the twins a bit. Not enough to want them back early. But enough that I should escape instant depression when they return at the weekend.

What else have I planned for the rest of the week ? Well, even more food on Friday evening (yummy Thai stuff this time - plus great company), preceded by a shopping trip in the afternoon. Also, possibly a cinema visit either tonight or Saturday to see Solaris. Then there is the Buffy and Angel double bill (and the inevitable LJ write up). Plus, I have this hope that I will suddenly be hit with some wonderful game ideas for May (one-off stuff wished for).

But, best of all, a couple more twin-free days !

<Sound of trumpets>

OK. Done now.