I try and listen to the boy read at least twice a week. I love reading, I spent a lot of my childhood with my head buried in books and really want the children to absorb this live of mine.
Sometimes it’s hard to find the time and sometimes it’s hard to find uninterrupted time sometimes I’ll do what ever just to keep the peace
Gracie’s favourite day of the week is defiantly a Monday. We scoot to school (Gracie’s new favourite way to get around)
Then we rush home to have a snack before jumping on the bike and cycling over the bridge to the pub for ‘Tots that Rock’. It’s G’s favourite toddler group – there’s singing, dancing, bubbles, toy animals and the song from Frozen at the very end. It takes a while for her to warm up and leave my lap but she’s getting more corageous every week.
Then we come home, have lunch, a nap take Baxter for a walk before picking Max up from school. Usually he has a friend over to play and Gracie follows them round like a shadow trying to join in their games. Sometimes they come with a little brother or sister to play with too!
As I type this I’m watching pancakes slowly bubble in the pan while Grace, with her mussed up bed hair, slowly stirs the batter in the bowl while chattering about chocolate syrup. It’s 05.10am I haven’t turned into some supermum we just forgot to get bread yesterday so now there’s no vehicle for the kids Nutella obsession other than pancakes. I do have some early morning supermum skills though that I’ve honed to perfection over the past few years. The ability to fast forward Frozen to exactly 29min & 45 seconds for the opening notes of “Let it go”, sleeping through the dog barking but not Grace shouting “MUMMY WHERE ARE YOU?”. Extreme multitasking – which is trying to drink a cup of tea while under going a medical examination by a toddler armed with one of these.
It’s actually kiddy tortue kit if you buy one of these be prepared to have bits of plastic rammed into your ears & eyes over and over again.
And best of all the super ability of being able to go straight back to sleep as soon as Mr B gets up and taps me out!
This week is the busiest I’ve been in a long time, I’m currently working full time hours due to the Mobile World Congress. But Max has been at home with me so unfortunately he’s been watching a lot of old school Tom & Jerry on TV while I speedily try and clear my inbox with my laptop perched on the kitchen table where I can keep an eye on him.
Still I tried to take a break every 30 minutes or so to chat, play or offer him snacks.
He’s such a great diffuser to all the stress I’m feeling at the moment. Mostly we laughed a lot at his newly acquired skill of ‘Pig Face’.
Also his insistence that he had to carry (drag) the bread home from the shop and renditions of Baa baa black sheep on his miniature guitar.
wish I’d found this early. Both my children were/are/will always be obsessed with buckles and clips.
No buggy or bag or carrier is safe from little meddling hands trying to push the parts together. I was going to try and Make something for Gracie to fiddle with while in the car until I found this on Amazon Buzzy Buckle toy.
She loves it, of course she still manages to nip her own fingers in the buckles (she has a gift for mild self harm). I’m
Buying this for all friends with babies now!
We’ve kept lots of Maxs old clothes for G to grow into. PJ’s , cute tshirts and crocs seem to be the most abundant in my giant ‘I can’t let these little kid clothes go just yet’ box. And today I made the discovery that Max’s tshirts from last year make excellent nighties for Gracie. This is a favourite shirt that’s been worn for 2 years by the boy and has now found a new owner
Im a fair weather parent who doesn’t drive. There I’ve said it. Don’t judge me. This means if there is a hint of rain all plans are cancelled and we stay home. This leads to epic melt downs from a certain 5 year old who likes to stick to schedules and is not a fan of change (probably to do with that year we lived in America and he stayed in a different bed every weekend 😁) .
So Monday it was monsooning and our plans to cycle to Art Buzz after school were scuppered so I placated those who can’t be pleased with the promise of crafts at home.
Drawing faces on rocks, no idea where that idea came from – maybe some Mister Maker seeped into my subconscious any hoo this was our project.
We chose some rocks from the outside rock pile (all houses should have one – ours come directly from the beach and serve no purpose other than being a big pile of rocks that came with the house)
After suitable rocks were chosen Max gave them a bath (this prolonged the ‘craft session’ by at least 10 minutes) and I dumped out the pens and craft tat on the table. Due to Gracie’s love of Googley eyes & my penchant for buying them whenever I go near a Pound store we have hundreds of them and they feature heavily in our day to day life (I’m forever picking them off the bottom of my slippers or that rubbery bit in the washing machine).
And viola the rock monster family were born. Featuring glitter glue, Googley eyes and other craft tat.
Zippos Circus rolled into town and erected its Big Top tent on Hove Lawns where it was viewed by Max almost everyday. He asked what it was and we filled him in with our circus knowledge (well mostly we looked at the pictures on the Zippos website and watched YouTube vids of clowns & acrobats as I’d actually never been before then!)
So I booked the tickets and we headed over on a rainy Saturday afternoon.
It was fantastic, Max was a bit weary of the dark & loud music when the show started but he soon got into it. I scoffed candyfloss & Max’s unwanted popcorn & enjoyed the entertainment
Max’s favourite part was the strongman. He juggled tyres, pulled a minivan with his teeth and then let it drive over his chest!
Since then Max, or Max Stronghold as he likes to be called now, has been working on his strength and telling everyone we see about the trip.
The past few weeks have proved to be quiet exhausting for me. I’m now 37 weeks pregnant and lumbering around like giant land mammal. Getting down on the floor to play playmobil or build space ships is pretty uncomfortable. Max has been getting frustrated & shouty and unfortunately watching a lot of cartoons. Our bed time and morning routine hasn’t changed but it still doesn’t stop the boy from freaking out everytime we have to get PJ’s on before bed or get dressed in the morning. We’ve tried a lot of different ways that don’t involve shouting at each other and shoving arms in arm holes while acting like an angry octopus. This morning everything went smoothly! What did I do? Let the little tinker climb up on a stool opened the wardrobe doors and he chose his own clothes! He happily picked out a tshirt & got dressed. There was no screaming or arguing. I feel like a good mum. Might just be a random occurrence but I get to feel smug for the day. Well at least until bedtime tonight when we fight over the wearing of PJ’s to bed!
Tales from inside 