Weekend with Vera

This weekend Matt biked down to Nottingham for a weekend translator's do.  I contacted Vera to see if she wanted to come up - which she did.  So on Friday evening Tom and I went to Oxenholme to pick her up (she managed it without getting on the wrong train this time - well done her)

Tom had had a busy day - including a long afternoon on the beach at Hest Bank - digging shells, playing cricket and tennis and going for quite a long walk - all in the heat (yes heat! - we had to put suncream on to stop burning).  I gave him his dinner, dressed him in his pyjamas and then put him in the car to the train station, fully expecting him to go to sleep.  He didn't - he was all fired up for seeing some trains.  He didn't fall asleep on the way home either.  Then he didn't go to sleep immediately after getting home (I checked after half an hour and he was still awake).  This means he didn't go to sleep until around 9pm - not good.

Anyhow, once in bed, Vera and I had dinner and then stayed up chatting until past midnight (very very late for me).

The next morning wasn't good - Tom can not cope with lack of sleep and it showed.  He refused to eat breakfast and we had one of his worse ever displays over refusing to eat it.  It got to the point where I really didn't know what to do.  There was no reasoning with him.  He wanted to have lemon squash to drink and I refused him saying either milk, hot chocolate or water.  This apparently was the worse thing I could have done and caused him to scream and cry uncontrollably.  I took him upstairs until he calmed down and then we tried again.  He was better and in the end ate a huge breakfast of bacon and egg and 2 slices of bread and butter and jam!  He cheered up after this, phew.

As it was such a lovely day I decided that we would go for a short walk and gave Vera some options - she decided on Ribblehead circuit with lunch afterwards at the Wensleydale Creamery in Hawes.  It took quite a while to get round the Ribblehead circuit as Tom stopped every few meters - he wasn't overly naughty but was quite stubborn in wanting to do what he wanted to do and stopping constantly. I think it took a good 2 hours in the end to do it - but it was a lovely day and the scenery there is good, so its not a hardship.  We only saw one train which was disappointing, but at least we saw one.

Tom and Vera in Hawes

We got to Hawes at 3pm - yes 3pm!  Our usual schedule had been blown right out of the window - due to the late night and early morning hysterics and constant stopping during the walk.  Luckily the creamery were still serving lunch so we sat outside in the burning sunshine (yep - more suncream and sun hats all round) and ate.  Jam sandwich for Tom (I wasn't going to force him to eat anything healthy in his fragile state), cheese ploughmans for me (diet starts again tomorrow) and a salad for Vera.  It was really good, but then we have never had a bad lunch there.  Tom was even brave enough to play with another little girl and her parents - which was a nice surprise - he is getting better.

This time the cheese room was empty, so Vera and I indulged ourselves, and helped ourselves to samples of everything and then both managed to spend a fortune on the cheese (they really have done a good job here to make sure you spend loads!)

Tom fell asleep as soon as we got in the car and slept all the way home.  Unfortunately when we got home it was 5pm, so I had to wake him up.  I gave him a plate of fruit for dinner as it was only 1.5 hours since he had lunch and then bath and bed.

As I was lowering Tom's blind I noticed Vera outside holding a rag to her head.  I called out if she was ok and she said that she had fallen over.  She removed the rag and I saw an horrific bump on her head (and that was from Tom's room).  We quickly went down to see her - she had the biggest bump I had ever seen and was also complaining of her wrist and nose hurting.  However, she hadn't blacked out and wasn't feeling queasy so she thought she would be ok.  I quickly put Tom to bed and then saw to her.  I gave her some peas and then went round to the ambulance station next door to see if I could find anyone to help.  The station was completely closed up (typical - although it was 3 peaks day today so they were probably busy up in the Ribblehead area).  I then called the out of hours Drs and registered her for a call.  A Dr called us back within an hour and spoke to Vera who put her mind at rest that she hadn't done anything too bad to herself.  It was a shock though.  Apparently she was on her way to the field at the back of the house to admire the buttercups and didn't notice the step and fell head first onto the paving slabs.  Ouch.

Is this usual breakfast attire?

We retired inside and I made her go to bed at 10pm - which is the middle of the day for her!

The next morning we were all a little late starting.  Vera had slept well and was feeling ok - although her hand was giving her gip.  Today we had been invited to little Fergus's party.  It's the first 'village' party we've been invited to, so thought we should go along, Vera didn't seem to mind.  It was a "no presents but please bring some food along" party - I whole heartedly approved.  However, it did mean than I needed some food to take along.  I had decided to make some quiches.  Unfortunately I had run out of eggs, so had to get some, which took longer than expected due to our local Co-op being closed for a technical fault, anyhow, eventually I got them and got the quiches in the oven and relaxed.  Once they were cooked we went for a wander around the village: usual circuit - play park, swimming pool, Neptis where we met Matt (he had got back from Nottingham early) and had drinks and a piece of naughty cake.

They were having fun - honest!

We then headed out to Clapham for Fergus's party - there were surprisingly few there and a HUGE amount of food.  I felt a little sorry for Fiona and Stuart as they had obviously been working really hard.     Anyway we had a good time and Tom got stuck in playing (there was a ride on dump truck so that was him sorted) and it had a really good atmosphere about it - no manic-ness at all around it.  We had a nice relax.  Fiona had made a brilliant cake for Fergus as well - I'll have to be careful - it wasn't far off professional!  After the party we went for a quick walk around the village - it is very pretty so thought Vera would appreciate it.   Tom had a play in the park and then we came home.  Once again this evening Tom had to eat dinner by himself as we weren't even close to hungry around 5pm.

Monday Vera came down to breakfast and I had the shock of my life - her eye had changed colour to bright purple - I have never seen anything like it.  Once again I offered her a visit to a Dr, but she said she was ok.

Have you ever seen such a purple eye?

We did our usual Monday thing of Enjoy-a-Ball (the last ever :0( ), then a quick trip into Kendal for Vera to buy some luggage and straight to Settle for swimming.  Tom slept the whole way from Kendal to Settle and I thought we were going to have trouble waking him up, but he came too and I bought him a kit kat to give him a sugar rush and he seemed pretty happy and took a good part in his lesson.  We then came home and once again he had dinner by himself (that's 4 nights in a row poor thing).  He then went next door to Sam and Ben's for a bath and play so that Matt and I could go to the new parent's evening at the school (thought we should give Vera a break).  So we met Mrs Pickard - Tom's new teacher and learnt about what Reception pupils do at school - lots of play and fun as far as I can see.

Tom was then straight to bed after having a great time at Sam and Ben's and we had dinner.

Tuesday Vera and I took Tom to school and then we went for a walk round the village before heading back to Oxenholme.  I put Vera on the train and then got back just in time for Tom coming home from school.

As is usual we all had a good time with Vera - fantastic company - plenty of laughter, plenty of chat, plenty of debate.  It was a shame she decided to beat herself up, but apart from that it was great - let's hope she isn't put off coming back up for a visit.  Thanks Vera for the company x