Introduction

Seems like this posting is well overdue. Sometimes I feel like there are a dozen people in this house... but really, there are only 5.

Himself (sometimes labelled DH, other half or Daddy) is a florist. And before you ask, no I don't often get flowers. If I do, they tend to be of the "this is a new variety and we're testing them out to see how long they last", or "I might need to take these back into the shop in a couple of days for funeral work", etc. He works 10 hours days, leaves at 7am and is never back before 6pm. And subsequently, he's the girls' favourite parent. Daddy's girls, without a doubt.

Eldest daughter is 5. Can't decide whether to use her proper name, a pseudonym or just an initial. I've noticed very few people refer to their children by their real names in blogs... make an executive decision, for goodness sakes... D it is.

D was de-registered on Monday - had been in Class One at the local primary school, but enough was enough and I decided I wanted my little girl back, not the moody, nasty, bad tempered, smart mouthed, 5-going-on-15 brat that school turned her into. And remarkably enough, having not been to school for 13 days as of today, she's already almost back to her old self. I'm nervously waiting for the catch in the situation, but fingers crossed...

T is my middle one. She'll be 3 in December and inhabits a planet somewhat different to the rest of us. There's an expression that goes "the light in her eyes is the sun shining in through the hole in the back of her head". That's my T. The lights are on, but nobody's home. To be honest, she's scary smart - can count to 20, sing the ABC's song, write a couple of letters even. But her speech is dreadful - she has a great vocabulary, but little grasp of grammar or pronunciation. And add to that the time she spends in her own little world... well, to be honest I was worrying about autism and the like around her second birthday.

However, all is well. I've relaxed, stopped worrying and am just letting her get on with things. And that seems to be the best way with T. Autonomous should be her middle name I think, not Bronwyn. :)

And then there's little F. Damn, I knew it was a mistake to use initials. Oh well. Blue eyes, curly locks, cutest little 17 month old you ever did see. And she can shatter glass at 100 yards with her scream when thwarted. She's an adorable angel with a temper like I've never seen. D was a placid baby, and T was only mildly assertive, when compared with F. Ye gods... do not deny the baby anything. And she ruddy knows it. She seems to be picking up words rapidly - she knows more words now than T did at 2 years old, but then, F is a Gemini. I have a feeling we won't be able to shut her up in a year or two.

However, I have no cause for complaint really. All my girls sleep 12 hours at night. They are all healthy, no medical problems *touch wood* (F's infantile eczema has cleared up, and we tend to forget about the menningitis at 10 days old, no side effects or repercussions there, thank the gods) and to be honest, I feel like one of the luckiest moms in the world. :) Yeah, yeah, mushy, but it's late, and I get that way after a glass of wine.

To round the family out we have Merlin the dog, a 6 year old mongrel (bit of collie, bit of lurcher, lots of whippet), Moose the guinea pig and the truck. It's DH's pride and joy, a Land Rover Discovery and we do lots of muddy things with it, go off-roading, green laning, tow the van, do rallies/shows/events etc, and its part of the family really. There's not that many vehicles that can take three kids, both parents, half a ton of gear, pushchair, picnic and dog up the side of a mountain along a 2000 year old Roman road in comfort, and then back home down the motorway at 80mph with little more than a polishing of the brake lights.

And now, I shall stop rambling and post this. With a little luck, I may even find myself on the MP blogring, when Jax works her esoteric stuff with codes. :)