Each year I put something totally ridiculous on the birthday list, something that I’ll never expect to receive unless someone’s lottery numbers come up. It’s been a pony, then a car or a house. This year it’s a visit to Cosmoprof. I’ll happily buy my own ticket and take my own spending money but if someone wants to spend £1,150.00 on flights and a hotel room I’d be over the moon.

Then there’s nail polish. I suggested this to Beth and she said she didn’t want to buy something that would hide away in the Helmer amongst 200 other bottles. I also asked Dad (bit of a running joke as it’s all he can do to get presents for Mum on her birthday and Christmas). He said he’d happily buy me nail polish. I’m going to give him my wishlist. Mum’s usually pretty good with polish, if I give her links to individual bottles. I’m going to suggest Butter London Disco Biscuit, Slapper and Knackered, the Nfu Oh Jelly Syrups and some of the Nubar Jellybeans.

One thing I do need is a new car adaptor for my iPhone, the FM transmitter variety. I’ve had one for years and it’s done good but it’s finally on its last legs. Sure, it still works but only reliably from the left speaker. The right speaker cuts in and out in a way that makes your eyes want to dart from side to side to see where the noise is coming from.

And there’s one last thing. I want someone to come and clean my house. From top to bottom. And maybe even throw in some decluttering as well. Surely that’s not too much to ask for?

Is there anything I’m missing? If you were me what would you ask for?

I had a rather tearful moment last night: I was sorting through TB and Li’l Mister’s old baby clothes. I’d promised them to Emma for her new bubs and as she’ll likely pop any day now I figured I better get to it.

Although I wanted to keep a few pieces I realised that it’s likely they’ll never be worn by another baby. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve made my peace with being single and my life doesn’t have space for another man or much smaller addition to my family but it’s a sad moment when you realise that you’re done. There will be no more babies.

As I folded clothes and sorted them by size I remembered my boys when they were small enough to wear those tiny t-shirts. It’s been clear for a while that TB’s growing up (seven going on moody teenager) but Li’l Mister’s still been my baby. As much as I wanted to cling to that idea it’s no longer true. He walks, he talks, he’s opinionated, stubborn yet loving. Although he’s still a toddler he’s a small person now with only a few lingering rolls of fat to remind me of the baby he once was.

It’s time to let go of those babies. I’ve packed up all but a small box of clothes to send to Emma and the ones I’ve kept have real sentimental value. I’ve kept the baby blankets that my Nan knitted before TB was born but the remaining bedding is gone too. I’m a mum to boys now and these baby clothes have no place in our house. We’re all growing up.

Miraculously we made it as far as Manchester before we needed to stop and probably could’ve managed the rest of the journey in one go from there. C wasn’t due back from work until 18:30 so we stretched things out a little by stopping  in the lakes for ice cream. I never knew it could take a toddler 40 minutes to eat a calippo! We timed it pretty perfectly as she’d just gotten in when we arrived.

Li’l Mister was dead impressed with Scotland. Seeing as most of our drive to the house was through farmland he saw plenty of cows!, sheep!, horsies! and tractors!

After a relatively sedate Monday we braved Tuesday’s blizzards to visit Vikingar! in Largs. I’d visited the attraction around 10 years ago and K had also visited whilst she was at school but neither of us could remember much. TB was fascinated by the recreation of a Viking long house and Li’l Mister was capitvated by a video of one of the Viking gods.

Once we were done both boys had a thorough trawl through the gift shop and insisted on buying plastic axes. They spent the entire journey home attempting to take each other out with them. It didn’t keep them quiet but at least they were playing nicely.

That evening we went into Ayr to eat at Mr Basrai’s and Li’l Mister met my younger cousin R for the first time. There was definitely a little hero worship at our table. For an all you can eat the food was pretty good and they had plenty of ice cream for desert. Simple things please this simple mind.

On Wednesday we dragged my uncle up to Glasgow to visit the Riverside Museum of Transport and Travel. We parked over the river in Govan and got the Govan Ferry across to the museum. Li’l Mister decided his new best friend was his great uncle and for the entire trip they were virtually inseparable.

The Riverside Museum of Transport and Travel is a fabulous place. Unlike the London Transport Museum’s exorbitant £13.50 adult entrance fee, the Glasgow version is free to enter. Li’l Mister ran around the place not knowing what to look at. All those trains, cars and nee naws!

After the excitement of the previous two days Thursday was rather sedate. We lazed around the house in the morning and went for a late lunch, stopping at Renaldo’s for ice cream afterwards and then heading to the park. The wind was bitter and the only thing that made it bearable for C and I was a bad cup of tea from the kiosk. The kids didn’t seem to mind though and managed to return home with bags of sand in their shoes.

That evening was the highlight of Li’l Mister’s week. R is a farmer and his housemate volunteered to take the boys out on his tractor. We had a bit of a look around the farm first and saw some baby cows. TB was not impressed with the smell and after protesting loudly Li’l Mister started parroting the word. Way to sound grateful!

The look on Li’l Mister’s face when he saw the tractor was well worth enduring the scent of cow. TB took a ride and then we asked Li’l Mister who he’d like to go with him. K and I were completely ignored in favour of R, the new hero. He chattered about the tractor all the way back home.

I apologise to all you West Scotland girlies who I didn’t get to see this time around. Four days isn’t a long time and I’d already earmarked it for family. We’re hoping to be up again in the summer and will do the bloggie rounds then cos I miss you all!

For his birthday I bought Li’l Mister a potty. Since the novelty of wearing it as a hat wore off it’s been sitting around the living room waiting for use. Not wanting to push the whole potty training thing I’ve been encouraging him to sit on it and see what happens. For the most part nothing does but he’ll happily sit on it for ages and read books. I hate to think what he’ll be like in 20 years time!

The other night after having a bath Li’l Mister was lounging around on the floor wrapped in a towel when he started shouting ‘Toilet! Toilet!’ we rushed downstairs and found the potty but by the time he’d dithered around looking at it and deciding whether he wanted to sit down he’d peed on the floor.

The poor boy was distraught at all the ‘water’ on the floor and required lots of cuddles before he calmed down.

I think I’ll be buying an extra potty for upstairs.

Yesterday I asked TB to tidy his room. At the best of times it resembles that of a very messy teenager. After lots of screaming, shouting and ‘I hate you’s’ all eventually went quiet upstairs. When he called me up to check I was rather surprised to see that he’d actually managed to clear the mess. Until, that is, I looked in the wardrobe. It’s safe to say that the contents cascaded down upon me.

TB doesn’t particularly like bugs. Sure, if he can examine them like a scientist then that’s ok, but if they come near him otherwise then he has a tendency to squeal like a girl. Which is exactly what he did when a spider came down the bathroom wall whilst he was in the bath. Until that moment Li’l Mister hadn’t paid the spider any attention but the moment TB screeched and jumped out of the bath Li’l Mister followed suit. He howled with absolute fear.

I had hoped that was the end of it but the other day he kicked something on my bedroom floor and a spider came running out. Cue crying and jumping up at me to pick him up from the floor. Later on we saw another spider and he jumped up on the sofa. He got cuddles and I explained how he was bigger than the spider and he shouldn’t worry. Another spider on the ceiling later and I’d convinced him to name the poor critter Boris. The rest of the afternoon was spent shouting ‘spider’ and pointing to it. I’d call that improvement. Still, we need to work on the whole hero worship thing.

Friday morning I was woken up much earlier than expected. By the pitter patter of toddler footsteps. Normally it’s screeching, singing or banging the cot against the wall. Never footsteps. Next thing there’s a small child trying to climb all over me. We went to TB’s room but he was as good as asleep and promised that he hadn’t lifted his brother out of the cot. In the interests of science I dumped Li’l Mister back in the cot and it took him all of three seconds to get out. I bought a new stair gate that day. Good thing too as he did the same thing again this morning. Next step: proper bed for the boy.

Arco Aris is a blue/green flakie with a smaller flakes of orange thrown in for good measure. as long as you wipe the excess off of the brush before you apply, it goes on like a dream however the flakes are a quite sparse and they definitely could’ve packed more in.

Indoors, no flash

The picture above and the one directly below are two coats on bare nails, no top or base. Arco Aris has quite a shiny finish which I suppose it to be expected from what is essentially a clear polish.

Outdoors, no flash

To get the flakes to really show up you need to layer it over a good, solid colour. I chose Models Own Black Magic because what could be better for layering a flake than black?

Indoors, no flash

As you can see from the difference between flash and no flash, Arco Aris needs a good bit of light to really make an impact.

Indoors, flash

If you take a good look at the layered pics you’ll see what I mean about the flakes being quite sparse. To get a really good finish with this one I’d use at least four coats over a darker colour.

Outdoors, flash

And if you look really carefully you can even see the red toned flakes. I can count three on my nails.

Outdoors, no flash

Arco Aris isn’t a bad effort from Ludurana but if I’m honest I did expect more out of it. I suppose at the end of the day this bottle of polish did only cost £4.00 – not even lunch money – so I can’t complain really.

Unless you’ve found a good Brazilian store in a back street of London, Ludurana polishes are really difficult to get hold of in the UK. I gave up and went to blogger favourite llarowe. Of course it made sense that I’d have to buy a few other polishes while I was there…