‘…a pixie, the faeries, a grumpy troll and the witch’

So, the bleeding turned out to be the start of a complete miscarriage.

Not much to say really, having lost baby no 2 (Kaitlin), I don’t see this as being ‘quite as bad’ as that experience. I sound so blasé about it but I’m not - inside I really am not - but I’m sitting here at the other end of the past week having survived - so on with life. We’ll try again - soon - and pray (something I don’t often do but really should start!) that we can have a healthy 3rd addition to our family.

Over the past week we have:

• Visited S&G (you didn’t see that one coming did you?) - (((hugs))) to S&G for looking after the girls and putting up with us. Their butterfly’s have hatched (10/10 sothat’s not bad!) and have been released. We acquired a home for our chrysalis’ and they are still waiting to hatch. We have also gained what looks like a Cabbage Looper Caterpillar - found him in the garden when I was pulling weeds (and supposed to be resting yes I know…) out of the back garden (which over the past weeks has transformed into the back garden from hell!), he is in a lovely little jar (with airholes!!) munching on cabbages and getting very fat! Their loft is all finished now so I’m all jealous about the fact they now have a house twice as big as us! :mrgreen:

• Natalie had her last Brownie session for the term at Queen Elizabeth Country Park on Thursday 20th - she also got enrolled - so now she’s a fully fledged Brownie with lot’s of badges for me to attempt to sew on her sash over the break. She managed to remember the Promise word-for-word and had a lovely time with all her Brownie & Rainbow friends. :mrgreen:

• Natalie, Alex & I went to see Twelfth Night at the Chichester Festival Theatre on Thursday 19th (Hermionie stayed with Nan&GDad P for some Nanny-Time!) - not as good as Midsummer Night’s Dream (I think that’s just because I studied Midsummer Night’s Dream a bit more at school so was more familiar with it) but seeing Patrick Stewart rolling on the floor in cross-gartered in yellow stockings ‘meowing’ was not a sight to be missed. Poor Natalie - I wanted to introduce her to the theatre & Shakespeare - don’t think Twelfth Night was the best way to do it! - a bit heavy for her I think but still, she coped fantastically with having to sit relatively still and quiet (and not be able to ask questions every 2 seconds!) for 2 1/2 hours - think the huge cup of sweeties after the interval helped! :lol:

• Visited the hospital on Friday 20th for a check-up & scan to see if my body managed to cope with miscarriage itself and not need a d&c (which I probably would have refused anyway!), which it has so Yay for that I suppose … anyway… took the girls with us and while we were waiting Natalie was purusing through the leaflets and turned to me and said ‘Mummy….what’s an STD?’ :roll:  made the others ladies in the waiting room laugh and left me with an awkward silence whilst trying to figure out how to answer.

• Saturday 21st found us at Ford Cumberland for English Heritage’s National Archaeology Event there. We went last and it was fantastic, this year was just as good - although there were a few bits missing that they had last year - we missed the blacksmith and bronze man, the old fashioned scuba-diver in the tank and the cave-painting but this year there was still enough to keep us busy. Natalie had a go at an archaeological dig and processed her finds afterwards, spent ages looking through very powerful microscopes at pollen and seeds and cave-man poo to see what we can learn about our surrounding area and about what cave-men ate, knocked a couple of stained glass paintings (ok, they were only glass-paints on acetate!), spent alot of time watching the alchemist perform his experiments - creating fire, making blood, making posion - turning something red into something yellow, making it froth and then made it fizz a bit! (I kept asking him what he was using but he kept referring to the ingredients in old language and never broke character so no go there then - will have to Google it - there was definitely vinegar involved though!) He also had a baby dragon in a jar - which Natalie kindly informed him that it was indeed a Large Prickly Stick-Insect that he had pulled 2 legs off! :mrgreen: - These experiments were not as groos (and dangerous!) as they sound and they kept a huge crowd of kids quite entertained for a long time! Natalie also felted a pebble. Hermionie & I ground grains into flour on rocks. We all had a go at making some clay pots. We wtached the Roman Gladiators fighting for a while - Natalie joined in and slayed a few! We all spent ages in the tents there looking at animal bones, sorting pigs jaws & teeth, tring to assemble a fox’ skeleton, determining the ages of trees, looking at aerial survey photos that appear to stand up through a device whose name escapes me right now - it’s a-something-oscope I think! There was just so much educational content for all of us (with the possible exception of Hermionie, who bless her, at only 2 years old - she could only really grind flour and play with clay!) and everyone around was very enthusiastic about helping the kids discover something new and pass on their knowledge…and did I mention it was free!! Excellent.

• Sunday 22nd found us back at Fort Cumberland for the 2nd day of English Heritage’s National Archaeology Event there. It was so good, we went back with S,G,K&J. Repeat of yesterday with a good dose of kids larking around on the grass!

Add in doses of DS’ing, drawing, DVD-watching, Education-City & playing with J&K.

and so to Today - Monday. Spent a quiet morning with the kids playing My Little Pony’s, I took the girls out for a MacDonalds and a look around MFI, Homebase and Town for some ideas on the soon-to-overhauled-bedrooms. We picked up some bargains in Primark and I spent some of my gift certificates in Boots. More Education City for Natalie in the evening.

Bored now. Bye!