Kell

Yes, I've decided just to go with whatever rhythms Xander dictates - he knows when he needs to sleep. I figure he'll eventually work out that he doesn't need to wake up quite so often in his own good time. There's no point in fighting it!

I'm making a big pot of one if my favourite soups - roasted tomato and red pepper: Cut up a load of cherry tomatoes, red peppers, red onions and a couple of garlic cloves. Brush the onion and garlic with a little chilli-infused olive oil, and whack into the oven for half an hour on 180C. Pop the whole lot in the food processor and whizz smooth. Pour into a pan and add an equal amount of stock (veg or chicken both work well). Add some basil and oregano, a little salt and lashings of black pepper with a touch of cayenne pepper. Simmer a while then serve with crusty bread. The best thing is it's great for dieting as it has very few calories, and it's versatile - leave out the stock and you have a great pasta sauce!

I shall stand with you - I don't understand why everyone seems to be going gaga over RP either - he's decidedly average looking and actually a little odd-looking IMO.

I'm not hugely into poetry, but I've always loved The Curse Sequence from Lord Byron's poem The Giaour: But first on earth, as Vampyre sent, Thy corpse shall from its tomb be rent; Then ghastly haunt thy native place, And suck the blood of all thy race; There from thy daughter, sister, wife, At midnight drain the stream of life; Yet loathe the banquet, which perforce Must feed thy livid living corpse, Thy victims, ere they yet expire, Shall know the demon for their sire; As cursing thee, thou cursing them, Thy flowers are witherd on the stem. But one that for thy crime must fall, The youngest, best beloved of all, Shall bless thee with a farther's name - That word shall wrap thy heart in flame! Yet thou must end thy task and mark Her cheek's last tinge - her eye's last spark. And the last glassy glance must view Which freezes o'er its lifeless blue; Then with unhallowed hand shall tear The tresses of her yellow hair, Of which, in life a lock when shorn Affection's fondest pledge was worn- But now is born away by thee Memorial to thine agony! Yet with thine own best blood shall drip Thy gnashing tooth, and haggard lip; Then stalking to thy sullen grave Go - and with Ghouls and Afrits rave, Till theses in horror shrink away From spectre more accursed than they.. ---------- The other poem I've always loved and know by heart is Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll from Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There: `Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe: All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe. "Beware the Jabberwock, my son! The jaws that bite, the claws that catch! Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun The frumious Bandersnatch!" He took his vorpal sword in hand: Long time the manxome foe he sought -- So rested he by the Tumtum tree, And stood awhile in thought. And, as in uffish thought he stood, The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame, Came whiffling through the tulgey wood, And burbled as it came! One, two! One, two! And through and through The vorpal blade went snicker-snack! He left it dead, and with its head He went galumphing back. "And, has thou slain the Jabberwock? Come to my arms, my beamish boy! O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!' He chortled in his joy. `Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe; All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe.

I hated it - the writing and the story were both terrible on every level. On of the most highly over-rated books of the last 20 years IMO!

Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles - I trawled through the first 5 books in the series and couldn't bring myself to continue with the series. She has some really great story ideas, but I can't stand her writing style. As a fan of vampire books, I was recommended this series time and time again by people who raved about them. To say I was underwhelmed is a major over-statement!

The No Cry Sleep Solution: Gentle Ways to Help Your Baby Sleep Through the Night Synopsis: A breakthrough approach for a good night's sleep - with no tears.There are two schools of thought for encouraging babies to sleep through the night: the hotly debated Ferber technique of letting the baby "cry it out," or the grin-and-bear-it solution of getting up from dusk to dawn as often as necessary. If you don't believe in letting your baby cry it out, but desperately want to sleep, there is now a third option, presented in Elizabeth Pantley's sanity-saving book The No-Cry Sleep Solution. Pantley's successful solution has been tested and proven effective by scores of mothers and their babies from across the United States, Canada, and Europe. Based on her research, Pantley's guide provides you with effective strategies to overcoming naptime and nighttime problems. The No-Cry Sleep Solution offers clearly explained, step-by-step ideas that steer your little ones toward a good night's sleep - all with no crying. Tips from The No-Cry Sleep Solution: - Uncover the stumbling blocks that prevent baby from sleeping through the night - Determine - and work with - baby's biological sleep rhythms - Create a customized, step-by-step plan to get baby to sleep through the night - Use the Persistent Gentle Removal System to teach baby to fall asleep without breastfeeding, bottlefeeding, or using a pacifier My thoughts: There are some really nice ideas in this book, but I can't help wishing that my own baby could read the book himself, understand it, and act upon it, because I have to say, it didn't work for me. As it turned out, we had already tried / were already trying many of the ideas in this book and to no avail. The only thing we hadn't already done was keeping a sleep log, which, in the end, served only one purpose - to frustrate and stress me out, which I did not need! I've now been following the book since the beginning of the year and two and a half months in there is little to no improvement. Some nights our baby sleeps in three-and-a-half-hour stints, which is all good and well, but more often than not, he still wakes every one-and-a-half to two hours on average. We've come to the conclusion that he's a very light sleeper (not unlike his Mum!). I'm sure these techniques will work for some families, unfortunately it didn't work for us and I'm now left feeling that I've wasted time and energy stressing over completing sleep logs and trying various techniques when I should just be enjoying my baby and letting him get on with sleeping how he wants - he'll eventually sleep through the night in his own time - all babies are different. The book is well enough written, with a friendly tone, but the chatty little anecdotes from Mums extolling the virtues of the Pantley method that are supposed to encourage and reassure Mums have the opposite effect when the system isn't working for you and your little one. Rating: 5/10 Other titles by this author: The No-Cry Sleep Solution for Toddlers and Preschoolers The No-Cry Nap Solution Hidden Messages: What Our Words and Actions Are Really Telling Our Children

I never understood the attraction to Colin Firth until VERY recently. I'd seen the wet shirt scene in question countless times out of context and it did nothing for me. Then I watched the series all the way through. By the time it got to the wet shirt scene I was already going "hubba hubba!" and that scene pretty much sent me over the edge into full-on Firth-worship! Somehow, in context the scene is far more effective. I think I'm in love with Mr Darcy just a little bit, but only when it's Colin playing him!

I gave Xander carrot, cauliflower and potato with smoked haddock mixed into it and he ate almost all of it! Fair enough I had to intersperse it with egg custard in order to trick him into opening his mouth half the time, but he did so well that I broke into spontaneous applause when he'd had enough! Dale and I are having smoked haddock too, but Dale's having his with pasta and cheese, whereas I'm having mine with polenta, fine beans and spinach - yummy!

The Twilight Saga - they're decidedly average. In particular, the most recent one isn't up to par. The way people rave about them, I expected a bit more. Don't get me wrong, they're fun enough to read, but they're not great.

I watched it. Very well deserved win. When he went through in the first heat, I had a feeling he had it in the bag - he was brilliant!

Dale is having spicy chicken breasts and waffles, Xander just had baked potato with cheese followed by egg custard, and I'm making a HUGE pot of vegetarian chilli for me to have some tonight and freeze the rest in portions - should be enough for 5 or 6 decent sized portions in that pot! Tonight I'll be having it on polenta - yummy!

I was browsing the internet and just HAD to treat myself to four cross stitch books from Amazon Marketplace: Four Seasons in Cross Stitch (Cross Stitch Collection) by Gail Bussi Fairy Tales in Cross Stitch by Christina Marsh Donna Kooler's 555 Fabulous Cross Stitch Patterns by Donna Kooler Cross-stitch Book by Mary Gostelow There'll be no stopping me now!

Who won the dancing thing then? I missed it all...

Up until recently I'd never seen or heard of any guys cross stitching and perhaps because of this, (probably slightly sexist of me - oops!), I'd always thought of it as a particularly female passtime, although I don't know why because I know that my Dad can both knit and sew (he learned when he was in the RAF, although he doesn't tend to use those skills!). When I first heard of guys cross stitching too, my reaction was, "That's wonderful!" It's something that can and should be enjoyed by anyone. I've been working out a simple design to make Xander a biscornu-style toy with his initials on it and a bell inside so it makes a nice, tinkly sound. He seems to like bells. You can probably tell that, although I've yet to make one, I'm becoming slightly obsessed with biscornu! I just think they look so lovely.

I was out buying stuffing, variagated flosses and buttons today so I can have a go at doing some biscornu (I think I'll make them into Xmas tree decorations). I thought I'd do each of them in one colour, or two colours (one each side) in lovely variagated floss colours so they'd have different tones through them - hopefully they'll turn out lovely! I've been wanred that biscornu can become addictive as they're lovely little projects that don't take up too much time to do...

I'm conflicted - I loved the mini series, and would compare any film version with it. Then again, I'd love to see it done on the big screen. Argh!

My introduction to proper, full-on fantasy was probably The Chronicles of Narnia, which I first read when I was 7 or 8 years old. My first horror was around the same time - I read abridged versions of Dracula and Frankenstein when I was about 8 or 9.

I actually thought the Renesmee bits were the worst parts of the book - one she appeared, the book went downhill, fast, for me. I also really, really HATED the name and cringed every time I saw it on the page.

I've read the first two books in this series too and actually preferred them to the Twilight books! 1. Bloodlust 2. Initiation

Funny thing about that is that it's set in France - LOL!

I recently read this series and enjoyed it as a nice bit of predictabe fluff that didn't take too much concentration (which was exactly what I needed since I don't have much reading time!). Twilight New Moon Eclipse Breaking Dawn I thought Eclipse was the best of the bunch.

I found Slumdog very dull in comparison to the book and rather a disappointment, but I'm very excited about Watchmen - it looks great!