Happy Mother's Day to all the mums out there. I know its a little late but I didn't forget the two most important mothers in my life - my mum and DW (dear wife - used to be dearest wife but someone suggested that sounded like I had more than one - which I don't). In order to fully dedicate myself to DW on Mothers Day (she will be chuckling now if she is reading this), we decided to visit my mum the day before. As several of my siblings would be visiting her on the actual day, this seemed reasonable. I bought mum a box of chocolates (which Princess ate most of) and I thought it was a pretty good present. DW made my mum a wheat bag and trivet, both scented and made in the hour before we left. Talk about trumped. Anyway, I made lunch for everyone and we had fun. I'm very fortunate the DW and my parents get along very well.

Anyway, having spent a bit longer at my parents place than intended, I had now left myself a little short on time to prepare for Sunday. However, DW had already organized a few things "by chance" so all I had to do was not stuff it up. That was my mission, should I choose to accept it (read: choose to live) and I was ready to do the impossible. Tom Cruise has nothing on me - this is my FOURTH time!

I explained to DW the night before that she had only one job the next day. After a few guesses of "Relax", "enjoy myself", "eat chocolate" and the like, she was less than impressed when I said, "Feed the baby." I quite literally had four seconds to explain myself and I said "He'sbreastfedWhatcanIdoIfyoudothatIwilldoeverything
elseandchangeallthenappiesandeverything
pleasedontbeupsetIwantyoutohave awonderfuldayIloveyou."

DW didn't understand what I said but it was obviously clear that I was trying to communicate something and so she gave me a chance to explain with punctuation. Anyway, she wasn't really upset with me but she does like to give a look that says "You have just said the wrong thing." She knows that I try and make Mother's Day and her birthday special days but apparently takes some pleasure from seeing me hop up and down. Fortunately, I know this and so I hop up and down with great vigour.

The day went pretty well and DW got the perfect breakfast in bed, as well as the morning paper and a magazine (Princess and I went out especially). Princess also hade made a very cute key ring at Kinder which said something very Princess-like that made DW cry. I got her a new CD which earned me a pat and a look that said "Thanks for trying so hard." And she meant it, I could tell.

Things didn't go so well in the afternoon because the Little Man isn't feeling well and I was trying to help Princess build something in the garage. DW ended up looking after him until Princess hurt herself and went screaming for "MMMMUUUUUUMMMMMMMMYYYYY!!"

By this stage, I had to go and get the groceries for the special dinner i had planned - beef strogonoff. None of this packet crap - this was the real deal. only, I had run out of time the day before so I had to go and get it before dinner. I had "planned" to take Princess with me but she was too upset and wanted to stay with DW. Little Man normally sleeps for an hour or two in the afternoon but he decided that wasn't what he wanted to do. He has just started crawling and is cutting his first tooth. So I had to leave both unhappy kids with DW while I did the shopping. Hey, quality time with the kids on Mother's Day - what more could a mother want? I had half an hour grace in which to get things done or... Well, let's just say I got things done. I did forget to buy milk.

I started cooking and DW gave me some valuable and frequent advice and I fed the Little Man his solid meal (didn't go down too well - came up easier) and bathed both kids and stirred the pot and said "good idea - I'll do that right away" and got the kids dressed and set the table and agreed to something else and prepared the wine and put the Little Man to bed and nodded several times and lit the candles and put on some music and called DW and Princess to dinner. And took a breath.

Princess hated the meal and refused to eat it so she had plain rice for dinner. Fortunately, she loves plain rice. DW had some of her tea and thanked me for the effort but couldn't eat all that much. She also thought the rice was pretty good. I had made a few changes to the recipe and as we didn't have sour cream I just used normal cream and lemon juice which actually produces as slightly strange texture when mixed with red wine and beef stock.

Dessert was a little bit of a let down because I had forgotten that the pies I bought were the ones I like, not the ones DW likes. DW said I often make that mistake, but I don't see how. We settled down for a quiet evening only to have Little Man decide to test his lungs and scream the house down. That first tooth is a difficult one at the best of times and he is cutting a molar instead of a front one. That put paid to the idea of DW having a relaxing bath but to be honest, she was just as happy cross-stitching and watching Buffy. And eating chocolate.

Little Man managed a couple of hours sleep and then woke up for his night feed. DW said she hope Little Man slept through the night and I said I hope he sleeps at least until midnight, and all my chances were gone. Even the one I had earned by cleaning up the kitchen after my cooking attempt. Still, its not all bad. Having documented the events of Mother's Day 2006, I can look back and not make the same mistakes next year. I'm sure they will be all new ones.

Ciao!

No thought for today. My brain is like an... empty... thing.