Yep. Its been a while. Much has happened. Little will be revealed because much has also been forgotten. Today's post will not be in Pirate-Speak.

DW's parents have recently returned from a tour of the North and so DW was very keen to visit them. They live far enough away that it is better to stay overnight and its a nice little weekend away. The trip isn't as much fun as it used to be. Princess can talk the legs of a horse, as our pony, Stumps McWhinny will attest. Most kids will enjoy a long, warm car ride by dozing quietly or, like Little Man, slipping into a temporary coma. Princess unfortunately takes two hours to fall asleep and the trip is two hours and five minutes long. And she always says the same thing when she wakes up; "I was alseep." Anyway, the long-absent grandparents were greeted at first by a sort of fake coyness, followed by strangling hugs. Princess expresses affection by wrapping her arms around a person's neck and squeezing until the gasping stops. If love hurts, unconditional love can be lethal. DW and I watch and giggle to ourselves for a while before prising her away from her victim. Fortunately, with both grandparents attending, one recovers while the other is choked. Throw in a favourite uncle and his partner and there were choking blue people everywhere. We had arrived.

We usually have a nice, quiet time at the grandparents place and this visit was no exception. They live in a small country town and have a big garden surrounding the house which makes it feel even more isolated. The quiet serenity is punctured all too frequently by someone yelling at Princess to get off something, off someone, don't give the baby that, where are your clothes, put your boots on if you're going outside, take your boots off if you're coming inside, are these you muddy footprints all over the clean carpet, you can't be still hungry, sit down while you're eating, I thought I told you to take those boots off, just the boots not all your clothes, I know your hungry, get off the baby, don't eat that and aren't you cold without your clothes on.

This time, Little Man made his presence felt because he is up and running and occasionally falling down. He babbles in baby speak though occasionally he will say "Dadadadad". He answers most questions with a determined ignoring but if he feels up to providing an answer it is always "No!" with a quick shake of the head and a big smile. I amuse myself by asking questions to which the answer "No" will be funny, like "Are you a big man?", "Can you ride a horse?" and "Does E = MC squared?". He always says "No" and I crack up. He also thinks its funny but I don't think he really understands the "ride a horse" question.

He did manage to momentarily draw our attention away from Princess the other day when he had a pronounced allergic reaction to something. It wasn't serious in so far as his respoitory system wasn't compromised and he didn't have to stop eating while his skin went red and his face swelled up. He did notice his great big lips made it a little awkward to get food in but that didn't stop Little Man. He kept on shovelling whatever he could get his hands on straight in. DW quickly took him to the local GP who was able to control the reaction but unfortunately we were not able to come to a reasonable conclusion as to what the cause might be. DW had given him egg earlier that day but he has had egg in other foods before. We had also had a delivery of pea straw as mulch for our new backyard. And we had a bit of a gale the day before which has meant lots of dust and stuff had gotten in the house. And Little Man eats anything he picks up. So we are left with a bottle of Phenergan and his name on a waiting list a month long to see an allergy specialist. At least it didn't upset him.

Anyway, that's all I have time for at the moment.

Ciao!

Thought for the Day: Why are chips not counted as "vegetables"