Good morning. She growled.

We've been up for a couple of hours - Linnea woke yelling and that woke everyone else. She also kicked things a lot. She is ok now but refuses to say what upset her, if she even knows.

I have that kind of PMS nausea which is very like morning sickness, in that it goes away if you stay very still and eat something. Well, that, or swine flu.

I'm kind of dreading swine flu. I don't like Emer getting colds; they go to her chest and make her really ill. Flu would be worse. And if we get it either just before or just after I have two wisdom teeth out, recovery will be a barrel of laughs.

Now I'm waiting for Tip Top Tap to come, so that I can tell him And Another Thing he needs to change about his carpentry. Poor guy. He's doing his best but babyproofing a bathroom as you build it is hard when you've never lived with active toddlers.

Lemon and ginger and honey

And a headache.

What I need is to go out, buy meat, ibuprofen, and envelopes, go to the post office, maybe get some cake decorations. What I'm doing is feeling grotty and fretting about whether the plumber thinks I'm lazy, which is sufficiently crazy that I think I might not be well. I don't want to take my temperature because I don't want to find out I'm feverish really.

Managing Money

Some people are good at it, some people are ok as long as there's plenty of money, and some people are dreadful at it. I have never really worked out what makes people so. I know people from poor backgrounds and wealthy backgrounds in all categories, as well as people from varying degrees of comfortable backgrounds.

Some people seem to learn to manage money by living in fear of poverty (raises hand) and some people seem to learn by good example (raises hand) and some people seem to learn by being involved in the financial planning and management of their families as they grow up (like good example but more hands-on) (raises hand again) and most people probably have some combination of all three going on.

But the part I can't work out is what makes people who know what bad management does, up to a point (a point between stress and hunger, say) nonetheless continue to manage badly. What do Groups A, B and C learn which group D can't seem to? Let's not assume that group D are delusional, or want to rely on other people in their lives to pick up the pieces - let's assume that their desire and intention is to be able to spend only 252 pence in the guinea and not forever hanker after the half-a-crown that isn't there.

New Knitting And Stuff Blog

String Revolution is a new knitting blog by the woman who made Linnea's best cardi (most versatile, most forgiving, and unless it's high summer, smartest).

I don't knit, but I like knitting in others.

Oink

I ache, am knackered, and have had a headache for a few days. Linnea woke crying and yelling at 6 am (very early for her) and was listless all day, ending up cranky and unpleasant. Emer is ok. No-one has a fever at all and we could all, eg, go to work and be crap and stupid all day and irritate people ("work through it").

Linnea and I are responding well to paracetamol, and Emer agreed to try some but didn't like it. I wonder if we can find the real-sugar version anywhere because she hates artificial sweeteners and that might help.

I napped in the front room while they watched telly and climbed on me. When Rob came home I went to bed. I am so tired.

Toddler Exercises In Boundary Setting

Mister Tip Top Tap has been here, grievously disrupting Emer's life and making me and Rob very very happy. We are getting a new bathroom, and he's doing exactly what we ask, except when he goes one further because it just looks better that way. Emer didn't like him taking our old bath away or making a mess in our house.

But she also took a few days to come to terms with his place in our lives.

I said, on Monday, "I need a hug!" and Emer said no, and Linnea said no, and Emer said "I know, a fixing man can gib you a cubble." I said no, he wasn't someone we knew well enough to hug, and she said "But him in my HOUSE."

Which leads me to ask, originally in IM with Miche but also here: anyway, why would you have someone in our house you weren't willing to cuddle? hmm?