Well for those of you following me on Twitter, you'll know I was hoping to take part in some of Scotland's Food & Drink Fortnite. In particular I was thinking how lovely it would be to take a little trip to EatBute as I've never been there before and it sounds ace. Mount Stuart looks stunning and a splendid way to spend a Saturday with my girl, and if I'm lucky Daddy Wild might be able to accompany us too.
And then I got distracted by the many, many events on in Dumfries & Galloway for the Food & Drink Fortnight. Which actually just prompted me into a big sulk, as it's simply too far away for a day trip, and purely underlined the fact that there is simply nothing similar happening near where we happen to live. Sometimes North Ayrshire sucks. Sigh.
Then there's Doors Open Days all September, to which I haven't managed to make a single location. Some nice places to seduce you this weekend, including some of Glasgow's museums.
If you've ever read my other my blog you'll know I'm well into my foraging. So I'm also torn to go along to Finlaystone Country Estate's Food For Free foraging walk.
If I were in Edinburgh, I'd head to the Edinburgh Mela with an empty tummy so I could eat my way around the day!
Closer to home, I'm probably most excited about taking part in River Cottage's Seven Mushroom Challenge! I say this because we've had a mammoth amount of rain this week and all of a sudden today the temperature rose again, which I think makes it pretty ideal for a lot of mushrooms?! I guess there's only one way to find out....
In reality and complete honesty..... if Daddy Wild is off work this weekend, then we'll be making the most of that by finally building the greenhouse I bought about 2 months ago.
Oh joy of joys.
Thursday, 8 September 2011
Wednesday, 7 September 2011
Triple P Parenting
Whilst doing some research for the real day job earlier this afternoon, I came across some NHS advice for parents in the Greater Glasgow Area. It's called Triple P Parenting, which stands for Positive Parenting Program. It sounds a bit American, in fact it was developed at the University of Queensland in Australia and describes itself as "a system of easy to implement, proven parenting solutions that helps solve current parenting problems and prevents future problems before they arise" according to the 1990's styled website. It's a user friendly approach, to help parents who are struggling with any aspect of raising a family. Whether you just need a simple solution to a particular problem, or are having serious problems and have no idea where to start to look for help, Triple P is being suggested as the place to go. Advice can come in free group sessions, or in regular organised seminars or podcasts.
I thought I'd share this post as this is all news to me. I'm not sure whether it's something I'd use myself, but it may be a saviour for many struggling parents out there. I probably would have run to the nearest seminar on Tantrums a few weeks ago when TT was at her worst! I just read these tips on toddler taming, nothing new or revolutionary, but maybe just what the doctor ordered on a tired and frazzled day when you just want to run away. But can't, obviously. If you want more detail follow any of the links above or see this outrageously outdated leaflet.
Me, I preferred Super Nanny US. Taught me everything I needed to know whilst simultaneously making me feel like the best mother on earth in comparison to some of the families on the show! Nasty? But true.
I thought I'd share this post as this is all news to me. I'm not sure whether it's something I'd use myself, but it may be a saviour for many struggling parents out there. I probably would have run to the nearest seminar on Tantrums a few weeks ago when TT was at her worst! I just read these tips on toddler taming, nothing new or revolutionary, but maybe just what the doctor ordered on a tired and frazzled day when you just want to run away. But can't, obviously. If you want more detail follow any of the links above or see this outrageously outdated leaflet.
Me, I preferred Super Nanny US. Taught me everything I needed to know whilst simultaneously making me feel like the best mother on earth in comparison to some of the families on the show! Nasty? But true.
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| TT's best friend and neighbour dancing on her birthday - cute! But entirely unrelated to this post! |
Friday, 2 September 2011
The Naughty Step
Three cheers for the naughty step!!
I have moaned on here over the past few months about Baby Wild being renamed The Terrorist due to her propensity for throwing earsplitting tantrums at will. They truly were just awful, emotionally charged, anger fuelled and exhausting for both of us. But as most things are with young children, they were mostly a phase. I hate when folk offer advice saying "don't worry - it's just a phase". Agh! I know that thanks very much, what I'm asking you to help me with though is dealing with this part of the phase please! God and it was so much worse in public, I didn't take her out in public for a month or so if it could be helped for fear of the mortification of people observing that I couldn't control such a wild child.
So we started using the naughty step, which in our house is just the door mat at the front door. And it worked! Almost immediately! I realise that it isn't going to work for every kid, but it is worth a try. As long as you stick to the basic rules and follow through to completion every time as it's all about consistency.
It starts with a warning that if the child continues to misbehave they will go to the step (wherever that may be in your house). Explain why their behaviour is unacceptable, and make sure that there are no other issues at play here which could easily solve the problem immediately such as hunger, pain or sickness, tiredness etc. If they still continue to act up, take them to the step, get down to their height & explain again why they are there, and how long they will have to wait it out there. Amazingly, Baby Wild has always obeyed and stayed put on the step, despite a few violent kicking and wailing tantrums on the step in the early days! We only make her stay there for one or two minutes as she's so little, but despite her age she understands why she's there and our reasoning. After the time is up, and the child has calmed down, repeat the type of behavior you would prefer and again explain why she was there before offering hugs and kisses to show there's no bad feeling and all is well. Oh, and try to get them to apologize - easier said than done with a child as stubborn as mine! For more on the naughty step technique see Super Nanny's advice.
After employing the step for about 2 months now, we need to use it less and less. There are days where TT just seems to be in a foul mood, and I'm too busy to take us both out and about as a distraction and the naughty step looms more threateningly on such days! But mostly, when she starts to act up now, I ask her if she would like to go to the naughty step, for if not she must change her behavior instantly. Cue a moment of sulking, but mostly she understands and stops the misbehaviour. Makes life a hell of a lot easier for all of us, and we're all much happier as a result.
Of course, I also have to factor in that every day she is learning new words and starting to build bigger sentances so the sheer frustration of not being able to communicate what she wants is dissipating and which is a huge contributing factor to toddler tantrums. You could argue that she's just growing out of 'the phase', but I know that cheeky mischievous gleam in her eye when she knows that what she's scheming might get her into trouble, and I know that the step will sort it out!
Does the naughty step work in your house? I'd love to hear if you have any other tricks!
I have moaned on here over the past few months about Baby Wild being renamed The Terrorist due to her propensity for throwing earsplitting tantrums at will. They truly were just awful, emotionally charged, anger fuelled and exhausting for both of us. But as most things are with young children, they were mostly a phase. I hate when folk offer advice saying "don't worry - it's just a phase". Agh! I know that thanks very much, what I'm asking you to help me with though is dealing with this part of the phase please! God and it was so much worse in public, I didn't take her out in public for a month or so if it could be helped for fear of the mortification of people observing that I couldn't control such a wild child.
So we started using the naughty step, which in our house is just the door mat at the front door. And it worked! Almost immediately! I realise that it isn't going to work for every kid, but it is worth a try. As long as you stick to the basic rules and follow through to completion every time as it's all about consistency.
It starts with a warning that if the child continues to misbehave they will go to the step (wherever that may be in your house). Explain why their behaviour is unacceptable, and make sure that there are no other issues at play here which could easily solve the problem immediately such as hunger, pain or sickness, tiredness etc. If they still continue to act up, take them to the step, get down to their height & explain again why they are there, and how long they will have to wait it out there. Amazingly, Baby Wild has always obeyed and stayed put on the step, despite a few violent kicking and wailing tantrums on the step in the early days! We only make her stay there for one or two minutes as she's so little, but despite her age she understands why she's there and our reasoning. After the time is up, and the child has calmed down, repeat the type of behavior you would prefer and again explain why she was there before offering hugs and kisses to show there's no bad feeling and all is well. Oh, and try to get them to apologize - easier said than done with a child as stubborn as mine! For more on the naughty step technique see Super Nanny's advice.
After employing the step for about 2 months now, we need to use it less and less. There are days where TT just seems to be in a foul mood, and I'm too busy to take us both out and about as a distraction and the naughty step looms more threateningly on such days! But mostly, when she starts to act up now, I ask her if she would like to go to the naughty step, for if not she must change her behavior instantly. Cue a moment of sulking, but mostly she understands and stops the misbehaviour. Makes life a hell of a lot easier for all of us, and we're all much happier as a result.
Of course, I also have to factor in that every day she is learning new words and starting to build bigger sentances so the sheer frustration of not being able to communicate what she wants is dissipating and which is a huge contributing factor to toddler tantrums. You could argue that she's just growing out of 'the phase', but I know that cheeky mischievous gleam in her eye when she knows that what she's scheming might get her into trouble, and I know that the step will sort it out!
Does the naughty step work in your house? I'd love to hear if you have any other tricks!
Sunday, 28 August 2011
The vikings have landed!
We made it to Kelburn and we weren't disappointed! The Vikings were battling and the weather was kind. We spent a long time wandering through the Walled Garden, playing in the play fort and walking beside the waterfalls before we spent some time with the Vikings. If you're interested in the gardens, I'll be posting on that on my other blog when I find a chance tomorrow.
Why the Vikings, you ask? Well the Largs Viking Festival has just kicked off this weekend... Didn't you know?
They were really rather good, and nearly succeeded in frightening TT. Nearly. She's made of sterner stuff however.
My favourite shots are these though - modern day Viking checking his Tweets on his mobile? (Shame I ruin the shot in my haste by appearing in the background!)
Anyways, we had a ball as ever at Kelburn. TT loved her special treat of lunch out and told everyone in the cafe just how good her sausage, beans & ships were. Definitely deserved on a Viking battle ground on the first days on Autumn.
Well done yet again Kelburn folk, and well done to the Vikings for their spirit and entertainment! See you next weekend at The Pencil!
Friday, 26 August 2011
What are you doing this weekend?
There's so much to choose from this weekend. Daddy Native has a Saturday off for once, so we shall be sticking close to home & working on projects in the garden then. Mostly I shall probably be avoiding the heavy lifting by playing with my new D90 so look out for some stunning photography to follow! No pressure here then!
Then we are torn on Sunday between Largs & Glasgow. Kelburn Castle is awash with Vikings this weekend so we'll be paying them a visit at some stage. I can't work out whether it'll just be TT & I, or whether we'll borrow some cousins to join us too for the added exhaustion.
Sunday is also my chance to see if any of the items on my wish list at The Forgotten Island are leftover and available to the public. I am desperately seeking tyres and some of the wooden items for my new garden plans, so fingers crossed!
Other options this weekend...
boring truth get in the way of a good story - read this for similar. Happy weekend! x
Then we are torn on Sunday between Largs & Glasgow. Kelburn Castle is awash with Vikings this weekend so we'll be paying them a visit at some stage. I can't work out whether it'll just be TT & I, or whether we'll borrow some cousins to join us too for the added exhaustion.
Sunday is also my chance to see if any of the items on my wish list at The Forgotten Island are leftover and available to the public. I am desperately seeking tyres and some of the wooden items for my new garden plans, so fingers crossed!
Other options this weekend...
- If you're in need of new baby bits and bobs, the Glasgow Baby Booty Sale is on this weekend at Kelvin Hall International Sports Arena from 10.30am.
- If I were in Glasgow's West End I would like to go to Byres Road Makers Market and sample some beautiful crafts.
- If TT were a tiny bit older I'd be galloping to the free Saturday Art Club on Saturday morning in GOMA, perfect way to spend a wet morning!
Tuesday, 23 August 2011
Shopping!
Used to be such a joyful experience. Now I get a thrill out of walking around Tesco's on my own, like I used to once upon a time when I bought clothes. Those days are gone my friends. As many of you can vouch for, shopping now means undertaking military precision planning with decoys planted in every pocket and snacks stashed for each till visited.
My pitiful attempt last weekend, which ran foul of nap time and thus was ear piercingly cut short denying the most major items on my list, got me thinking of where I'd recommend to any of my new-parent friends. So here's my summary of the major shopping malls/shops in West of Scotland....
For me, the best option now is Braehead Shopping Centre, between Paisley and Glasgow off the M8. It's nothing exciting, but then I would say that about most malls! I spent manyfun filled spontaneous child free years avoiding the repetition of shopping malls. They are however a god send to parents & babysitting grandparents alike. Apart from the obvious fact that the weather is one less thing to have to plan for, they do house most of the places that we need to visit every now and then for new kids clothes / yet more stuff from Boots / a nosy at all the clothes I can no longer fit into. Braehead is the most child friendly round these parts, by an Irish mile. I spent many happy afternoons of my mat-leave happily quaffing lattes (what calories?) and smiling at the new gurgling person glued to my boobs. It's got fantastic baby changing and best of all adult toilets that you can fit a pram into for when you're alone with bubba. Why don't more places have this?!!
To my mind Silverburn is the posher version of Braehead. It's got way more restaurants to cafes and fancier shops to swoon over such as Kurt Keiger. The aisles are also wider, making it easier to navigate if you have more than one child. But the baby changing facilities are shite in comparison to Braehead, tiny, poky wee rooms and no adult + baby loos together for when you're out alone (with the baby that is). Like Braehead they do also have a great Child Safe scheme, but I'm not quite at that age with TT yet, so am only speaking from my own experience here.
Seeing as we are heading towards Glasgow, lets go into the city centre. Glasgow city centre is NOT baby friendly. We have actually been kicked out of places for the audacity of taking a pram anywhere near the premises once whilst looking to meet family for lunch (avoid the extraordinarily rude Lab Bar at all costs if you have a child with you). I don't want to go to Macky D's or Burger King or KFC thank you very bloody much. I want real food and some easy finger food we can share with the tiny terrorist please! Moreover I want wine! Alas, it's just easier to leave the scramblers at home if you fancy imbibing any alcohol at all. There are a tiny few wonderful places you can take kids (mainly West Brewery, but shhhhhhhhhhh it's a secret) but mostly just accept that you shall never wonder far from Debenhams or John Lewis. John Lewis preferably, for it's extremely child friendly cafes on 2 floors and excellent breastfeeding and baby changing facilities.
Besides this is the realisation that shopping locally for local seasonal foods is a temporarily lost treat under the toddler years. It's major chain stores all the way for the time being. Let's face it, time is tight now, budgets even tighter (UNDERSTATEMENT) and I now need to be armed with babywipes and cheap foods to bribe TT with for each aisle. My top tip - bags of carrots are super cheap and make great teething toys and crunchies for getting a noisy toddler out of Tesco/Asda/Sainsburies/wherever with any degree of sanity, patience and dignity intact. Looks saintlier than crisps, costs less than a bag of grapes!
GROAN. How boring parenthood can be! Never mind the carrots, thank god for the wine aisle.....
My pitiful attempt last weekend, which ran foul of nap time and thus was ear piercingly cut short denying the most major items on my list, got me thinking of where I'd recommend to any of my new-parent friends. So here's my summary of the major shopping malls/shops in West of Scotland....
For me, the best option now is Braehead Shopping Centre, between Paisley and Glasgow off the M8. It's nothing exciting, but then I would say that about most malls! I spent many
To my mind Silverburn is the posher version of Braehead. It's got way more restaurants to cafes and fancier shops to swoon over such as Kurt Keiger. The aisles are also wider, making it easier to navigate if you have more than one child. But the baby changing facilities are shite in comparison to Braehead, tiny, poky wee rooms and no adult + baby loos together for when you're out alone (with the baby that is). Like Braehead they do also have a great Child Safe scheme, but I'm not quite at that age with TT yet, so am only speaking from my own experience here.
Seeing as we are heading towards Glasgow, lets go into the city centre. Glasgow city centre is NOT baby friendly. We have actually been kicked out of places for the audacity of taking a pram anywhere near the premises once whilst looking to meet family for lunch (avoid the extraordinarily rude Lab Bar at all costs if you have a child with you). I don't want to go to Macky D's or Burger King or KFC thank you very bloody much. I want real food and some easy finger food we can share with the tiny terrorist please! Moreover I want wine! Alas, it's just easier to leave the scramblers at home if you fancy imbibing any alcohol at all. There are a tiny few wonderful places you can take kids (mainly West Brewery, but shhhhhhhhhhh it's a secret) but mostly just accept that you shall never wonder far from Debenhams or John Lewis. John Lewis preferably, for it's extremely child friendly cafes on 2 floors and excellent breastfeeding and baby changing facilities.
Besides this is the realisation that shopping locally for local seasonal foods is a temporarily lost treat under the toddler years. It's major chain stores all the way for the time being. Let's face it, time is tight now, budgets even tighter (UNDERSTATEMENT) and I now need to be armed with babywipes and cheap foods to bribe TT with for each aisle. My top tip - bags of carrots are super cheap and make great teething toys and crunchies for getting a noisy toddler out of Tesco/Asda/Sainsburies/wherever with any degree of sanity, patience and dignity intact. Looks saintlier than crisps, costs less than a bag of grapes!
GROAN. How boring parenthood can be! Never mind the carrots, thank god for the wine aisle.....
Tuesday, 16 August 2011
Aging disgracefully?
"Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Oh, never mind. You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they've faded. But trust me, in 20 years, you'll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked. You are not as fat as you imagine." - Mary Schmich as published in the Chicago Tribune as a column in 1997 (not, as urban legend would have it by Kurt Vonnegut for the 1997 MIT graduation ceremony)
How I wish I had listened better to those words when I first heard them in Baz Luhrmann's 'Sunscreen' song in 1998! But I didn't, and true to those words I do now look back at photos and think "holy shit but you wasted that body girl!". Because lets face it, I'm never going to look like that again following the leap I made into motherhood. It's not so much the childbirth, or the pregnancy, with time and/or money these can be easily overcome through diet and exercise.
But without time and money..... well I'm done for! There is just no way I can work full time, be an adequate mother to a demanding and noisy toddler, almost wife to my man, runner of house, shopper of food, blogger of nonsense, wannabe Master Chef and painter of nails and still find time to do enough exercise to shrink the thighs and mummy tummy. And I love good food far too much to stop eating - oh how I wish it were that simple! But I'm afraid I agree with John Mortimer when he said "There is no pleasure worth forgoing just for an extra three years in the geriatric ward." Sigh.
So my make do answer for now is to hurl myself around the living room to various DVD workouts. I seem to rotate between Davina and some floozy I've do this idea no idea of called Vicky Binns (possibly in Coronation St or something similar?). Davina does great when I'm short of time, which is lets face it most evenings. Vicky is the luxury of having an hour and the energy to go through with it. Davina makes me feel virtuous and I can choose which work out I'm going to do - boxercise if feeling aggressive or pump if worried about the bingo wings. Vicky is tougher, so much tougher that I definitely warrant coffee and cake the following day.
I only manage to do either about 3 times a week, which I realise is only ever going to slow down the getting fatter process, and little to reverse it! Try as I might the weekends go too fast and I'm too hungover. Thursday, if I'm lucky enough not to be travelling I'm far too tired. So I am trying to eat less carbs, and trying to avoid them after 6pm on most days.
My favourite thing of all though is drinking too much white wine on a Friday night and then going mental to this song in the kitchen. I challenge you not to feel amazing after just looking at this video, never mind inspired to move that butt of yours.
What works for you? Tell me please how you do it!
In case you're remotely interested, these are the Davina & Vicky Binns DVDs I'm talking about and bought following the best reviews I trawled through. Not cheap these things so if anyone is interested in swapping and trying out new routines I'm all up for it!
How I wish I had listened better to those words when I first heard them in Baz Luhrmann's 'Sunscreen' song in 1998! But I didn't, and true to those words I do now look back at photos and think "holy shit but you wasted that body girl!". Because lets face it, I'm never going to look like that again following the leap I made into motherhood. It's not so much the childbirth, or the pregnancy, with time and/or money these can be easily overcome through diet and exercise.
But without time and money..... well I'm done for! There is just no way I can work full time, be an adequate mother to a demanding and noisy toddler, almost wife to my man, runner of house, shopper of food, blogger of nonsense, wannabe Master Chef and painter of nails and still find time to do enough exercise to shrink the thighs and mummy tummy. And I love good food far too much to stop eating - oh how I wish it were that simple! But I'm afraid I agree with John Mortimer when he said "There is no pleasure worth forgoing just for an extra three years in the geriatric ward." Sigh.
So my make do answer for now is to hurl myself around the living room to various DVD workouts. I seem to rotate between Davina and some floozy I've do this idea no idea of called Vicky Binns (possibly in Coronation St or something similar?). Davina does great when I'm short of time, which is lets face it most evenings. Vicky is the luxury of having an hour and the energy to go through with it. Davina makes me feel virtuous and I can choose which work out I'm going to do - boxercise if feeling aggressive or pump if worried about the bingo wings. Vicky is tougher, so much tougher that I definitely warrant coffee and cake the following day.
I only manage to do either about 3 times a week, which I realise is only ever going to slow down the getting fatter process, and little to reverse it! Try as I might the weekends go too fast and I'm too hungover. Thursday, if I'm lucky enough not to be travelling I'm far too tired. So I am trying to eat less carbs, and trying to avoid them after 6pm on most days.
My favourite thing of all though is drinking too much white wine on a Friday night and then going mental to this song in the kitchen. I challenge you not to feel amazing after just looking at this video, never mind inspired to move that butt of yours.
What works for you? Tell me please how you do it!
In case you're remotely interested, these are the Davina & Vicky Binns DVDs I'm talking about and bought following the best reviews I trawled through. Not cheap these things so if anyone is interested in swapping and trying out new routines I'm all up for it!
Saturday, 13 August 2011
Please stay Forgotten Island!
If you haven't been to the Forgotten Island yet, I must insist that you go this weekend. Because for some god awful reason it's disappearing much earlier than planned on Monday. Boo hiss! We actually went ages ago, but I've been so busy the past while I didn't get round to post this before now.
The Forgotten Island is the latest project by Glasgow art organisation, Giant. Giant is an amazing company, whose company vision is rather wonderfully "to create inspiring, curious and unexpected arts experiences for children under 12 and their families" and what's not to love about that!
Not content with turning a piece of wasteland beside the new Transport Museum at Riverside into an inspirational place for children to play and explore, Giant also designed the space to evolve and grow with visiting children's interactions. Everywhere you look there are delightful creations on display from previous explorers, like hundreds of mini-installations.
Visiting explorers can take part in activities teaching them to grow plants, create plastercine sculptures, draw posters, design their own postcards to leave messages for the Secret Gardener... the list goes on impressively.
The island has been designed by artists working in collaboration with local children who requested that their dream island could have tropical beaches and rainbows.
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| The Rainbow maker - I'm not going to ruin the fun, I'll leave you to discover this yourself! |
There are so many things to do and play with here, it made me even more depressed that I am supposed to be a grown up! I thought the sound forest, where you have to peddle like crazy to generate the sounds of children playing, was a stroke of genius; and spent ages trying to see the image in the camera obscura.
TT was a little young to totally take everything in and get as excited as her loopy mother did, but man did she love discovering plastercine! I'm not sure whether she spent so long in the Museum of Curiosities because of the little plastercine sculptures donated by previous explorers or because of the rain that was trying failing to ruin our visit. I tell you what though, she was terrified of the monkeys!
My absolutely favourite bit, and it was a difficult choice, was seeing the fantastic things kids had chosen to grow vegetables and sweet peas in.
The idea is that visiting explorers can make their own 'pots' by recycling anything and everything, decorate it, adopt a plant to carefully add to your 'pot', put it on display with a little stick with your name and then come back before the 15th August to proudly take it home.
What a wonderful, and simple idea!
I spoke to the lovely man who sells snacks and coffee from his Smoothie Van on the island and he said that the land is rumoured to be redeveloped into a cinema complex after this summer. I'd rather have The Forgotten Island as a permanent feature please!
I got tons of ideas for my own garden, as well as activites to do with TT when she's a little older. I'll be blogging about that on my other blog later.
I hear the weather's to be better and drier tomorrow so I'm borrowing TT's youngest cousins and taking them along before the island disappears- see you there?
Saturday, 6 August 2011
Do you believe in fairies?
We have very distinct playing roles in this house. Mama's good for cuddles and kisses and going on adventures. Daddy's best for playing though - indoors or outside he'll happily roll around, tickle, play catch, hid in the den, allow himself to be thumped over the head with various toy tractors. I guess he's the patient one! I can't help but feel a little jealous of all the shrieks of laughter coming from TT's room after bathtime, but the truth is I'm just not as good at messing around for anything more than 10 minutes or so. I could argue that I'm too busy however - after all I'm cooking dinner and sorting out the house while Daddy Native does bathtime & tries to find clean PJs.
So I'm drawing plans to make the garden more TT friendly. Sure there's loads of space to run around, but I'm forever working in the garden, tending lovingly to the veggies and flowers and taking photos for my other blog. So far, we've cut back a bush in the garden and carved out space for a den and put her play wig-wam in there to show her it's her space. We've been lucky to receive lots of toys and a slide/climbing frame from neighbours & family who's kids no longer need them.
Mostly however I'm super excited by the fact that she's started believing in and understanding what fairies are! I had a funny conversation with a friend this week about how his fairies are very different from mine! It had never occurred to me that everyone has their own idea of what a fairy might look like! I'm going to wallow in reliving my own child hood here and put up some fairy doors on the tree trunk, and create plenty of evidence for TT to nourish her fairy imagination!
What do you think makes the best play space in gardens for toddlers to grow & explore in?
Tuesday, 2 August 2011
TWINTASTIC news!
I am so excited!! My friend has just given birth to twin baby boys! They came a little over 5 weeks early, and so are tiny little things at just over 3lbs each, and are spending their first few days being well looked after and developing in intensive care. Mum & Dad are both well and very proud of themselves - particularly Mum who managed to give birth without a C-Section, despite one of the twins being breach!! Yikes!
It's going to be a few days before I manage to visit, and I'm wondering - what gifts should I take? So as this blog is all about making the first few months of parenting a bit easier I'm hoping you can help me with your ideas here. I've added a few more comments to an earlier post that might help also.
What did you most appreciate during your first week and month with your first born? So far all that's been requested is nail varnish remover!
It's going to be a few days before I manage to visit, and I'm wondering - what gifts should I take? So as this blog is all about making the first few months of parenting a bit easier I'm hoping you can help me with your ideas here. I've added a few more comments to an earlier post that might help also.
What did you most appreciate during your first week and month with your first born? So far all that's been requested is nail varnish remover!
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