06 Thursday Jun 2013
Posted in Behaviour, Motherhood
Tags
The other day, my nearly-three year old put on her dad’s flip-flops, wobbled into the garden and promptly fell over. And I laughed so hard I almost wet myself.
“You NOT laugh Mummy!” Scolded my child. “It NOT funny!”
That’s when I realised I was about to teach her a big lesson. One that’s right up there with being kind to people and remembering to say “please” and “thank you”. Continue reading »
21 Tuesday May 2013
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We’re going to our first festival together next weekend. It will either be a tremendous success or a huge failure. I am a little scared.
We’re heading to The Sunrise Festival near Frome, to grab our first taste of family festival fun. It looks amazing. But I am also a little scared. (Did I mention that I’m a little scared?)
Set against the backdrop of the stunning Thoulstone Park, The Sunrise Festival is billed as, “Another world”, incorporating a “micronation” of different spaces. Continue reading »
13 Monday May 2013
Posted in Motherhood
It’s funny how it’s so easy to fall into a default setting of “glum”. When the weather’s a bit rubbish and you’re tired and the dishes are piling up and you can’t afford that new dress, it can sometimes feel like the world is against you. Or is that just me?
We’re going through a bit of a stressful time in our household at the moment. Lots of change is afoot, which means a huge amount of juggling, not much sleep and more than the odd tense moment.
Although I relish change and get excited about new things, it’s difficult to let yourself get too carried away when you don’t know exactly how things will pan out. That lack of security has had me and The (self-proclaimed) Northern Love Machine doing that thing of, “Once this month is over, it’ll all be OK”. Basically, we’re wishing our lives away past this challenge, counting down the seconds of each day until things are more settled.
That is A Bad Thing. Continue reading »
09 Thursday May 2013
Posted in Baby and toddler products, Fashion
The last month has been somewhat of a revelation in the parenting stakes. Have you ever noticed how just as you think you’ve got it sorted, a new curveball comes to challenge you? The challenge of the moment is… clothing. Or, rather, toddler clothing.
Despite not yet turning three, my daughter has developed incredibly strong opinions about what she will and will not wear.
Her fashionista choices deem wellies to be firmly IN and dresses firmly OUT. That’s fine, except for when she wants to wear her yellow wellies with a (completely inappropriate, bought by my sister as a joke) belly dancer outfit. To nursery. Not ideal. Continue reading »
29 Monday Apr 2013
Posted in Baby and toddler products
Review
Having a baby is better than Christmas, in present terms. You get showered with all sorts of new items that you never knew existed, many of which you won’t even get to take out of the wrapping. Having been the new mum with a million and one cuddly toys, there are a couple of items I look out for now when I buy a present to welcome a new baby into the world. I’ll always try to find unique gifts for a newborn, rather than something they may already have, no matter how cute it is.
Last Saturday I got to test my baby present giving skills to the maximum, as I met (and cuddled and got broody over) our lovely friends’ new baby girl. There was a moment when my two year old gave her “new baby friend” a cuddle, when I thought my heart might actually burst in two, leaving me with nothing but a mushy puddle on the floor. Luckily my heart is actually made of stone and I’ve lived to tell the tale.
So, new unique baby gifts… Continue reading »
27 Saturday Apr 2013
Posted in Motherhood
Tags
I’ve lost count of how many pieces of advice I was given when I was pregnant. Eat this, don’t eat that, do this exercise, you shouldn’t over-exert yourself, have a birth like this, definitely don’t do labour like that… the pearls of wisdom came at a constant trickle, refusing to ebb.
And then I had my baby and that stream turned into a tidal wave.
From sleep positions to breastfeeding positions, the merits of the bottle to the best babygrows, my head was left spinning from the barrage of well-meant opinions sent my way. Whether it was an old lady in the street or the person taking my cash at the supermarket, everyone seemed to have something to offer me. It was like I was walking round with a huge placard above my head saying, “I AM A NEW MUM AND I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I AM DOING, PLEASE HELP ME”. Continue reading »
05 Friday Apr 2013
Posted in Motherhood, Work
Tags
Guilt wine
What is it about parenthood and guilt?
My life seems to revolve around a continual cycle of guilt at the moment; guilt at working too hard, guilt at not working hard enough, guilt at spending too little time with my toddler, guilt at worrying about spending too little time with my toddler, guilt at eating too much, guilt at eating too little, the list goes on and on and on.
Guilt, guilt, guilt.
It’s exhausting. And also, totally pointless. Continue reading »
27 Wednesday Mar 2013
Posted in Walking
Walking. It’s such a simple activity, something so many of us take for granted. A nice walk on a summer’s day, a gentle stroll along a beach, a hurried run up a flight of stairs.
The pace that we travel through the world is set by how we walk, changing as we age. Those first bumpy steps that mark a baby’s transition to toddlerhood. The slowed shuffle of an elderly person wandering down a supermarket aisle. That gentle placing of each foot in front of the other is an action we don’t even think about. We just do it.
Unless we can’t. Continue reading »
26 Tuesday Mar 2013
Posted in Behaviour
Today has been a day of battles. It has also been the reminder that, before becoming a mother, I had no idea of what REAL, nail-biting, tear-inducing, vomit-making stress feels like.
The lunchtime nursery pick-up started as normal. As I drove the usual route I planned an afternoon of painting and snuggles watching CBeebies with my two year old. Rushing into the nursery, I was greeted with positive indifference.
My shining diva child did not want to be collected. She wanted to carry on playing with her friends and didn’t much like the idea of going back to her boring home with her boring mummy.
Stung but undeterred, I shrugged. One battle down, telling myself she’d be fine once we got outside, I kept up the smile and cheerfully ignored my tot’s angry grumbles. Continue reading »
25 Monday Mar 2013
Posted in Play
Tags
If a house could have its own soundtrack, ours would be full of Five Little Monkeys, Wind The Bobbin Up and The Wheels On The Bus, interspersed with a few One Direction and Olly Murs hits.
My two year old has always loved music, from the newborn days when she’d stop and turn her head towards the direction of my (mostly awful) singing, to now, when she tends to do most of the singing herself.
Singing at bedtime
As a baby, we did a singing session at a local church hall, involving lots of plastic instruments and bells. Then, at around 9 months, we switched to a different club that didn’t clash with sleep patterns, and we’ve been going there ever since. But, due to changes in lifestyle and childcare patterns, this Thursday will be Frog’s last ever session at that group. Continue reading »