Fools, fish and families

Happy April Fools Day.

I wasn't very impressed with BBC News' attempt this year - that teenagers attention spans were too short to play board games now, so all the traditional games were launching quick versions, playable in less than 20 mins. It was so easy to spot:-(

Although Aggie found a funnier one online here:-)

My mother's been visiting this weekend. It mostly went OK. She arrived (late) on Friday evening, so by the time we'd fed her, then put the kids to bed, there was only a couple of hours to chat. She mosty talked about my sister and whether her ex would actually leave on his deadline of th end of the month, and what sister S should do if he didn't. I diplomatically pointed ut that it was sister S's decision what to do, when to do it, and how to carry it out, which she kind of accepted. I think.

I had a horrendous night, as LMB was ill, and woke up coughing and wheezing at about 11am. I stayed with her till midnight, when her temperature had stabilised a bit, but I was still up and down with her every few hours. LMD happily interpersed those brief moments of sleep with her "Grandma's staying i need some attention" crying, and combined with my mother's midnight maraunderings around the house (I wake whenever I hear someone on the stairs), I doubt I actually hit REM sleep at any point during the night:-(

Still, Saturday was booked for shopping, as my mother swore that there was "nowhere" selling decent clothes for her to wear to my sisters wedding in June. We all emailed suggesting the major stores, which she said were either unsuitable or overpriced, and i said she MUST be able to find something - there were dozens of places down here that sold the right stuff, and we're just a small town. She lives in London! Taking me at my word, she booked th eday to find something! I sent Aggie and the kids off to Nanny A's for the day, and spent a fun morning traipsing round middle-aged dress shops. I had 6 shops on my list, she found at least one outfit in each, and finally bought the second one we'd seen.

Success achieved, we mooched around some of the show homes locally. She regularly talks about moving down here "one day", but i don't expect it to actually happen really. The homes were hopeless! We say a 4 bed house, obviously deigned for a family my size, which had a kitchen with ONE cupbord in it, and a living room which could just about squeeze a double sofa and a TV in. And that was it. You'd be hard pushed to find room to make a sandwich there, let alone a full meal for a family. No wonder no-one cooks properly any more!

I didn't get tons of sleep last night either. Although LMD had settled down, LMB was still ill, so I was pretty knackered this morning. We had promised to go out and get all the stuff for Mstr A's big fish tank which we got off freecycle as his fish had grown out of the little one. My other said she would get herself dressed and sorted out when we went out, which I thought meant she wanted a bit of peace and quiet. We were out for an hour, and when we got back, she packed up and left - without even waiting to say goodbye, which really pissed me off.

Then, to rub salt in the wound, when I came to make lunch (which for the kids was pasta, and for the grown ups was the left overs of last nights chinese, which she had shared with us, and watched me put the left overs into two bowls saying "there's lunch tomorrow sorted out") just to discover that she had sneaked half the food out of one of the bowls and eaten it already, leaving me with half a lunch:-( I don't begrudge her the food, but she knew that was lunch! grrrr Families - who'd have them?