Shouting and banging

I have a banging headache at the moment, after an exhausting couple of days at work. I have spent much of the time continuing to edit this thesis, which is proving really hard work. There is a fine balance to be found between editing it so that it is good, well written science, and remaining the students own work. It is a balance that I have in the past found quite hard because I want my students to do well. This student is bright and should get a first, but his writing style and the fact that he has left things to the last minute are letting him down severely. I am currently wading through the materials and methods which are all over the place…too much detail in ‘baby talk’ in some places (I did this, then I walked across the room to do that – OK so I exaggerate, but not much!) and not enough detail in others. The photo is of my desk at work, half way through editing Chapter 2. I have to say that come 4pm today I gave up and decided that I needed the weekend off and will tackle it fresh on Monday morning. It is definitely time for some Alex therapy!
Alex has been so funny in the past few days. For some reason he has started to shout a lot, not upset shouting particularly, just loud shouting because he wants to! Then he will alternate the shouts with blowing very sloppy raspberries and growling. The growls are part of why he still has the nickname ‘Monster’, and a very cute little Monster he is too! I have had such fun playing with him in the evenings, doing all sorts of different little games to entertain him, including rolling on the floor with him, tickling his tummy, trying to sit him up and then catching him when he falls over (this makes him giggle more than anything else), pulling funny faces, making animal noises (this either puzzles him or makes him giggle), blowing bubbles for him, playing the bouncing game and reading to him. It is great therapy for when I come back home tired after a days work. He has started to get himself onto all fours and rock backwards and forwards on his hands and knees so I don't think it will be too long before he is crawling properly. I wish he would learn to sleep though…he now sleeps from 6.30pm-10.30pm when he wakes for a feed and then sleeps from 11.30pm until 5.30am at which point he decides it is morning. Totally exhausting as during the week I can’t go back to sleep again after feeding him at 5.30 as there is no time. Oh well, I hope he will grow out of it eventually.
I have spent my crafting times either investigating Alcohol inks, as Tim is going to give me some for my Christmas pressie, or making Christmas cards. The running total is now 32, which isn’t bad. I did give myself a bit of a break from them though to make these two ATCs! This uses the blue and silver caught in crystal background from before and layered it over blue card with green edging and then added Hologram stickers of dolphins which look like they are actually swimming, and some other fun stickers. Have a nice weekend everyone. More soon,
Love,
Caro
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