1. The independence from my parents.
2. The opportunity to live with other girls - something I’d never experienced as an only child!
3. How diverse the community I lived in was. I have lived with other Scots, people from Barbados, China, Japan, Australia, Holland, Dubai, Saudi, South Africa, Ireland; people of very different backgrounds… I’ve even lived with a princess!!
4. Having so many friends close by!
5. There was a pool we could use in the mornings
6. Having a set ‘prep’ time of 2 hours every weekday evening when we had to sit at our desks to study. I really needed that, otherwise I would never have got the grades I did! How do I know this? When I went to uni it all went down hill >_<
7. MSN! I discovered the internet while I was a boarder - if I’d stayed at home we’d have been without internet till I was almost at uni.
8. There was a gym we could use in the evenings after prep.
9. The food wasn’t *too* bad.
10. School was right across the road from us - although I was frequently late to registration… whoops!
11. I got to stay at friends more often to go to parties because it was the only way I could go to them at all!
12. Work hard play hard works well, but when it’s not forced it’s even better!
13. It meant that when I did go to uni I was used to being away from home so wasn’t homesick at all!

I could just as easily write a 13 things I disliked about boarding school (the packed lunches… YUCK!!), but I suppose, like most people, I’ve kinda glossed over the bits I didn’t like. All in all being a boarding pupil rocked! I would definitely recommend it to any family who can’t get adequate schooling in their own area. Mind you… every school is different, as is every person who goes there!

I get so paranoid about the boys, specifically about Max at night. Whenever he sleeps well (i.e. when I’m not woken by his crying in the morning) I can’t seem to shake the overwhelming urge to check that he’s still breathing. I’m paranoid about cot death.

Realistically I know that he’ll be fine and is most likely past the possibility of leaving us through cot death, but I still worry about it. I did with Zack too, but no where near as much as I do this time around. I’ll have visions of me having to tell people, like the neighbours, my friends, family obviously, and how on earth would I break such a thing to my bloggy friends?

It doesn’t matter how much I try to talk myself out of it, knowing full well that he’ll wake up soon and I’ll wish I could have just slept instead of worrying about him, I just cannot shake the whole idea.

I know I’m not the only one… I’m sure most of us worry about these things don’t we? It scares me to think how easily I could lose one of my little ones through something I couldn’t possibly foresee, something that I couldn’t do anything to prevent.

I should be happy that I am so lucky to have my two boys. Both happy, both healthy and both fun to be with (most of the time!), but instead I find myself worrying about them all too much. There are so many things that could still hurt them, or take them away from me, and it scares me. The thought of my little ones not being here with me, not watching them grow up - or worse, see them grow up to then have them taken away, still too young though…

I guess I just have to keep putting these thoughts to the back of my mind and enjoy the time I have with them, because let’s face it… we never know when our time is up.

1. Freshly cut grass. Especially at this time of year - it always makes me think of spring.
2. Freshly made bread - who DOESN’T like that smell!
3. Baby head smell. Any mother knows exactly what I’m talking about.
4. Petrol. I have no idea, I just love the smell of petrol when we’re in a gas station.
5. J after he’s had a shower and shave.
6. A sunday roast cooking.
7. Salt sea air. I miss living by the sea in Dunoon.
8. Freshly baked cookies.
9. Fish and chips - YUM!!
10. Hyacinths.
11. Sweat peas.
12. melted chocolate.
13. Curry being made.

You can blame J for this one, he thought it up!

P.S. Does anyone know how I could increase the spacing between my bullet points? Random I know…

I was browsing an old forum I was a part of while pregnant with Max and the question came up of whether or not you kiss your little ones on the lips, and I thought that would be some great blogging material so here it is!

I kissed my mum and dad on the lips till I was in my late teens, I never thought anything of it, but then I just kind of stopped doing it… no particular reason. I guess now I feel like I have my own little family for those kisses if that makes sense? When it comes to Zack and Max I kiss them any chance I get - practically anywhere I get! I mean who could resist those cheeks? That slobbery mouth and baby breath? And never quite knowing if you’re going to get a kiss or someone trying to bite your nose just makes it even more fun, especially now there are TEETH involved!

So what about the other half? Well, J loves the hugs, and is happy to accept the kisses, but he really prefers the rough and tumble play with Zack compared to snuggling up together. I think that’s just dads and sons in general really though isn’t it? When it comes to Max though, he really loves the quiet cuddles with him. The look on his face when he’s with Max without realizing I’m watching - oh he is SO in love with those boys

Do you kiss your kids on the lips? Just the cheeks? Do you or did you kiss your parents on the mouth and do you still do it? I know, random but there you have it… that’s what’s been going round my head today, most of it while I was zoned out cleaning up the highchair for Max… you don’t want to know how dirty it was before I got started on it! *hangs head in shame* There are (of course!) some pics of him in the chair, but I’ll save them for the weekend since I can’t be bothered having to transfer the pics from the camera, to my laptop, to a flash drive, to the Mac. Yes I know… I’m a lazy sod. Deal with it!

1. To be a famous horse-rider with a stud-farm. I knew EVERYTHING about horses even though I never had a lesson.
2. To be a vet. Same as above for pretty much most animals!
3. I wanted to be a singer. I loved singing in the school choir, unfortunately my lack of any sort of singing in the past 5 years has left my voice to be slightly lacking now to say the least.
4. An artist. I was pretty good in art class at school, top of the class in fact. I decided that I’d rather keep it as a hobby than try to do it for a day job. Alas, just like the singing, I’m out of practice.
5. A movie star - who wouldn’t want to get into cut-scenes with the cute kid from Free Willy (ok I was only like 10 there right? leave me alone!)?
6. I wanted to be an interior designer. I still think I’m pretty good at that sort of thing - I’d so love to be able to design my own house, if money was no object then wow I’d be in heaven!
7. The love of animals led to me wanting to become a marine biologist.
8. Then I realized I’d end up looking at plankton for the rest of my life so I thought biomedical sciences would be more fun - I was always fascinated by the things going on in my body every second just to keep me alive.
9. Then I went off at a tangent and wanted to be a psychologist.
10. After being at Uni for a while I decided that I still wanted to do science rather than psychology, so I switched degrees to Pharmacology and Physiology deciding that I wanted to go into research.
11. Once J had proposed to me I wanted to be a good wife for him, something I still struggle with today. Lets face it, we can’t be perfect ALL the time!
12. Once I had Zack all I wanted was to be a good mum to him, and I actually think I’m doing a pretty good job on that one, yay me!
13. Once I had Max all I wanted was to get some sleep again. We’re still working on that one…

… and that pretty much brings us up to date with things I want to be or do as I grow up, I’m sure there will be more to add to this list as the years go by!