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!

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. 

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?

Do you believe in fairies?

How do you play? 
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.

I'm designing a little obstacle course which I plan to build..... sometime!  I want there to be space for her to grow her own flowers and take pride in planting them herself, whilst also being able to climb and wriggle and hide and do rolly-pollys there.  We're lucky to have such a good sized garden  & I was greatly inspired by The Forgotten Island and hoping to source some tyres for free, build some grass ledges and add texture and colour to the garden with ribbons and crafts that we can make together.

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?



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!

Oooooo - edible finger paint recipe

I have just found this recipe for edible finger paint which should be ba-da-bing perfect for TT this afternoon and had to share it with you right away.  Trust me to only discover safe painting stuff on the very last day of my holidays! Boo hiss.

If you look closely it does indeed clearly state opening hours....

We also spent this morning in the rain at The Forgotten Island - at last! Hurrah this was our third attempt to get there. First time we discovered it didn't open on Wednesdays & Thursdays and were pretty gutted.  So details to come on how fab it was later in the week!

I'm off to iron my work wardrobe and cry while TT repaints her bedroom in whatever colour of food colouring I manage to use for the finger paints.....

Glasgow Riverside Museum, in pictures

Seriously great morning out.  If you haven't been yet, get your shoes on and go now. 

In fact, better still wait and go first thing in the morning, preferably not on a weekend as the place is jumping.  We arrived at 10am and had a blissful hour and a half of space and quiet before literally coach loads of people, mostly children emptied into the museum.  The ratio of children to adults is pretty frightening!  But hey, that's because we're bang in the middle of summer holidays, and this is Glasgow's newest free attraction. 

I've heard that a lot of people have been complaining that the car park is too small, and there are signs everywhere naming the overspill car parks nearby to deal with this.  But I don't believe that the museum will continue to attract such huge crowds once the initial buzz of interest calms down.  Also, the museum is well serviced by buses and ferries, so there's no need to drive there.

As well as being a stunning piece of architecture, by the wonderful Zaha Hadid, the museum is really cleverly put together and truly caters for everyone whatever their age and taste.  Even TT with her minuscule attention span was enthralled by some of the features.  We split up so that Daddy Wild could enjoy some of the displays in peace and quiet whilst I zipped around the place with TT.  The hour and a half we spent inside, and half hour playing outside was not long enough at all.  However we just know that we'll be back many times, probably more so when the weather changes and we are desperate to get out and about on wet afternoons later in the year!

There are two cafes inside the museum and three vans outside selling hot dogs, coffee, sweeties, sandwiches etc so there's good choice whatever the weather and the age of your party.  We were so lucky to be there on a hot sunny day so sat in the sun outside watching TT build sandcastles and silently stalk other children.

 I loved how interactive most of the displays are.  With games for children & adults to play with whilst learning more about some of the engineering and history of transport in Scotland.  Best of all, all of the interactive displays are voiced by locals with great big broad Glaswegian accents.

 We couldn't agree on our favourite parts on the journey home.  I can't decide between Arnold Clark's Wall of Cars, or the cinema documentary showing in one of the stalls.  Daddy Wild had to be torn away from Colin Macrae's rally car, and lingered by both the motorbike corner and the model ships.  I think making a display of model boats interesting is a pretty impressive feat! If TT could answer I more coherently I think she would be split between the model street and the old subway.

 Baby Wild was beside herself with so many cars. She's mad into cars at the moment, in particular tractors for some bizarre reason!  So maybe that was the one minor downfall - there were no tractors!

Inside, you are still aware of the stunning design & architecture of the building.  Everything is streamline and sleek & modern, with great attention to detail and is typical of Hadid's genuis.  The layout is clever and busy, so that I reckon every time we return we'll find something we missed before.  I paid a quick snoop around the small shop and saw things I would have liked to buy for a lot of friends and got plenty of inspiration for some upcoming birthdays!

Lots of toilets, baby changing, cafes, seats, easy access, tall ships, boat rides, interactive displays and things for toddlers to climb on and ride in, making it possibly the most perfect day out around Glasgow.  And it's FREE!

 Amazing!

Logistics / 10 baby friendly            10

toddler friendly         10

adult friendly             20

educational               10

toilets/changing         10
accessibilty               10
car parking              get there early or get a bus/ferry. Cheap parking though.

cost                         Free!! So do please leave a donation.

Carry on Camping?

Things I have learnt this holiday....

• don't let small boys climb trees.
• do not set foot outside in the Scottish Highlands without Skin So Soft.
• consider buying shares in Skin So Soft.
• consider buying shares in Sudocreme as you'll need heaps to deal with the midge massacre.
• do not move when covered in Sudocreme as it stains like a bitch.

Still fancy going camping?  We're lucky in Scotland with the roaming rights, which means it is possible to camp almost anywhere and can avoid being forced into camp sites.  So thought we'd make the most of this and go wild camping on the way home after visiting friends in Inverness.

We borrowed a huge 8 person tent. I know, I know - there are only 3 of us so that was a bit daft. We pretty much agreed that next time (next time?!! Ha!) we'd take 2 Two person pop up tents. Daddy Wild in one with all the stuff, and TT & I cuddled up in the other. That was possibly the only highlight of the one night camping trip - I got to sleep with TT. She's so adorable when she's asleep!  If only she were so calm and peaceful during daylight hours.

So if you aren't put off, make sure you make it as easy as possible and are prepared for full on vigilance over the children.  We're the most laid back parents in the world apparently, so found the constant vigilance exhausting.  Maybe camp in the middle of a field out of harms way, definitely not on the edge of a fecking highland loch surrounded by trees.

The view was stunning though.

And I heard an owl hooting, which was nice.

Work Life Balance vs Parenthood

Why are we so nervous to discuss how we balance our busy lives and parenting I wonder?  I was thinking about this following a truly inspired series of musings and interviews on my most favourite blog A Cup of Jo.  Do read it, it was for once refreshingly honest about how Jo, and seven other mothers she spoke to, balance raising a family with working, busy lives and time with loved ones.  I have a similar set up as Jo, in that I often work from home and squeeze in hours to suit TT's routine. But I have to admit that hours devoted to play time, and only play time are few and far between. And almost only at weekends when we go out exploring.  However TT gets so excited when Daddy Wild comes home and adores playing with him in the evenings, so it's not all deprivation of attention!

Oh how I wish I could afford to only work part time and spend more time playing with TT outdoors.  What are your thoughts on the juggling and balancing acts of parenting?

Going to Edinburgh with a toddler.. Part 2

Gorgie City Farm

After lunch we headed to Gorgie City Farm as an additional quick treat for TT before we headed home.  Fabulous. PERFECT for toddlers. Besides the obvious attractions, it's free, small, has toilets (no baby changing again) , a play park, and a small cafe. There is virtually no parking, but if you're lucky you might manage to get one of the 5 or 6 spaces available on the farm for a donation of £2.  We actually parked at the front entrance to Tynecastle stadium for free and walked the few minutes along Gorgie Rd to the farm.

I've read poor reviews of this place on other forums, saying that it is a bit run down etc. It costs £900 a day to run the farm, and as entry is free the farm really does rely on grants and donations.  Please bear this in mind and leave a donation when you visit because they do an outstanding job and provide a hugely important space in the city for kids to connect with nature and animals.  Whilst we were there we had great fun watching a class of teenagers, each with a special need, try to catch the chickens to take them for check ups.  They were so happy and getting so much from the day.  Sure, a few of the chickens have been fighting and are a bit scraggly looking, but I loved the genuine and unapologetic mess of some of the corners because this place is hard work to look after! There are loads of animal who take a small army to feed and clean out I imagine.  There are fantastic raised beds growing every vegetable you'd imagine and flowers dotted around everywhere they can squeeze in.  There's a stall selling this produce too for great prices to help sustain the farm.  And they offer pet sitting services too.

TT certainly loved it, and all I had to do was follow her running with squeals of delight from one animal enclosure to another, occasionally stepping in to save her fingers being pecked off by the chickens.

In short, don't leave Edinburgh with small kids without paying it a short visit.

Logistics / 10
baby friendly            05
toddler friendly         100
toilets/changing         07 (no babychange)
accessibilty               06
car parking              £2 but only 5 spaces - get the bus!

cost                         Free!!  So please leave a kind and much needed donation

Going to Edinburgh with a toddler... Part 1

I have to admit something here, at home we actually refer to Baby Wild as "The Terrorist", due to the tantrums as mentioned previously.  So from now on, or at least until she matures into a more mature and calm child again, I shall abbreviate this to TT for blogging here.

I wanted to meet up for lunch with one of my bestest friends in Edinburgh.  As said 'Terrorist' can be a bit of a handful if things aren't going her way I played it safe by driving us through rather than getting the train.  So entailed the beginning of the usual military precision planning for such a major feat......

First off where would we go for lunch? Where was toddler friendly? Lets be clear here- this is completely different from child friendly.  Babies tend to keep themselves to themselves, and children above the age of 3 should be well enough behaved to be allowed in public places occasionally.  But who and where is happy to put up with a tiny tearaway who is referred to by her parents as the terrorist?

A google search pretty much came up with soft plays, pubs with soft plays (Like Brewers Fayre etc), really expensive tourist attractions.  The websites such as Tripadvisor and Babycentre etc only had ideas for babies or older children.  Yawn.  What about us?!  After some furry at the uselessness of babyfriendly.com and many facebook messages with my friend, we decided to have a picnic.  Is this a gap in the market?

Anyway, so ever hopeful of the weather we arranged to meet at the Meadows, so should the sun be in our favour we could let TT run riot whilst we were suitable close to coffee/toilets/toys/shelter all available at The Pavillion Cafe.  The sun wasn't shining, and the ground was soaking, so we abandoned the picnic to the car and ordered lunch in the cafe.  Totally recommend it for kids of all ages, maybe not babies though as there's no baby changing and it is tiny inside.  Only downside for toddlers is that there is no lock on the toilet door - so I spent lunch concerned that TT could storm any poor punter whilst on the loo! The staff were really friendly, trying to get TT to dance with them.  There are toy trucks and scooters outside and jigsaws & books inside for kids to help themselves to.  Now, I wouldn't recommend this to you unless like us you went to art college, or have a quiet hippy living inside your heart.  It's not a conventional cafe, it's independent and a spin off from the former successful Scott's Deli near Morningside.  So TT's generous slab of homemade pizza was amazing, with a wholemeal and cheese base.  I think TT's favourite part though, was charging through the puddles outside, destroying everything she was wearing!  What can you do, puddles are the bomb!