Reblog: I am incapable of getting an early night (and four other mum truths)

Here are some facts about me. 1) I am always tired Nowadays, we are fortunate that on at least some nights we have the luxury of the kids sleeping through. Not last night, or the night before that, or in fact the night before that… but when both children are feeling well then 4 or…

via I am incapable of getting an early night (and four other mum truths) — Whinge Whinge Wine

This week, I’m reblogging Fran from Whinge Whinge Wine. In this post, she talks about universal mum truths. I’ve definitely experienced all of these. Just to prove a point, I’m reblogging a day late again.

According to Fran’s bio, she is the creator/owner of two small people; a Freelance Writer; sleep deprived; a wine enthusiast; drinker of tea; a biscuit fan; winner of the Mumsnet Best Comic Writer award in 2016; and loser of other stuff, too numerous to list! I really like her writing style and recommend checking out her blog.

#Reblog: Katinka’s Tail by Judith Kerr

Read More The post ** Katinka’s Tail by Judith Kerr Review ** appeared first on Our Fairytale Adventure.

via ** Katinka’s Tail by Judith Kerr Review ** — Our Fairytale Adventure

I picked this post to reblog because I like Judith Kerr’s writing but haven’t read this particular story to Munchkin. We’re fans of Mog and The Tiger Who Came to Tea – which we saw on stage last summer. When I read on, I realised that this post on Our Fairytale Adventure is actually a competition. So if you like Judith Kerr as much as we do, enter their competition via Rafflecopter.

Our Fairytale Adventure is a parenting, lifestyle and travel blog written by Emma. It’s a good read, so do take a look.

Not quite Katinka, but we love Mog!

Photo by WAVE:Galleries, Museums, Archives of Wolverhampton on Foter.com / CC BY-NC-SA

Turning into Your Mother

I’ve thought I’ve been turning into my mother for some time. By the same token, my daughter is following in my footsteps. She enjoys doing the things that I did at her age, particularly art.

When I was five, my class entered a painting competition, which I believe was run by the Brighton Book Fayre. We had to paint pictures of space creatures. I painted K9 from Doctor Who, and was then informed that we weren’t allowed to paint existing characters so I renamed him Cane Chops.

Cane Chops won the Age 5 category. The Age 6 category was also won by a girl at my school – who later became a close friend. We had to go to the book fayre at The Corn Exchange to receive our prizes. The prizes were due to be presented by a celebrity artist and we were rather disappointed to hear that he was running late and would only have a photo taken with us after someone else had presented the prizes. I think I have the photo somewhere but I won’t post it since it was the 1970s and he was subsequently jailed for indecent assault!

A year later, I won another painting competition. This one was to paint an Alice in Wonderland picture, in connection with our school fayre. My mum was on the PTA and involved with judging, though she refused to judge my age group.

I’m following in my mum’s footsteps by being involved with the Parents Association at Munchkin’s school, and Munchkin has started following in mine by winning her first drawing competition. Writer Jennifer Acton recently published her first children’s book, The Giant Kangaroo in the Colourful Hat. She ran a competition for children to draw pictures of the giant kangaroo to appear in her book. Munchkin was one of the winners. She went along to Jennifer’s book launch, where the winners were presented with a signed copy.

Meeting Jennifer Acton

Munchkin now has a taste for winning competitions and wants to enter everything. She intends to design a snowman Christmas card, write a Christmas poem and design a new logo for the school Parents Association. The thing is, she’ll be a little disappointed if she doesn’t win.

The Giant Kangaroo in the Colourful Hat

#ThrowbackThursday: Letters to Father Christmas

I’m trying to get back into my regular blogging schedule. It’s getting to the time of year when small people write to Father Christmas, so here is a throwback to Munchkin’s first letter to him.

For the first time ever, we’ve written to Santa on Munchkin’s behalf.  It’s her third Christmas and she understands what’s going on now.  I wrote a letter, asking her what she wanted to say.  Having already decided to send a reply via santa.co.uk, I included things in her letter that I knew would be reflected in Santa’s reply.

Letter to Father Christmas

There were five letters aimed at Munchkin’s age group, so I chose one with the story that I liked best.  The only thing that could have been better is the way the best friend’s name is used.  In some letters, the friend is referred to as “they”.  Surely it wouldn’t have been difficult to add one extra field to indicate if the friend is a boy or a girl?  The best friend thing was difficult for us in any case.  Munchkin’s closest friends are twins so it was tricky choosing which one to name.

Letter from Father Christmas

We really liked the letter from Santa.  I’m not sure Munchkin was quite as impressed as the grown ups in the family, but she did like it.  Perhaps she’ll be more interested next year.

Halloween Fortnight! 🎃 👻

This post is a little late as I’ve been writing it on and off for a week. My daughter seemed to spend two whole weeks doing things with a Halloween theme. The days when All Hallows’ Eve was a religious festival celebrated on 31st October are long gone. To all the children that I know, Halloween is a time for partying and chocolate. Munchkin asked me to buy her a cat costume and it’s had a lot of use.

Our Halloween started on Friday 13th October with a Halloween fancy dress party at school. This was my first experience of helping with a children’s event there. I feel as if I’m turning into my mother, who was an active member of the PTA when I was little. The children partook in party games, dancing and biscuit decorating. I think a good time was had by all.

The cat costume came out again for the launch of The Giant Kangaroo in the Colourful Hat by Jennifer Acton. Children were invited to wear Halloween fancy dress. I was at work that day and haven’t got round to reading the book yet, but Munchkin enjoyed it. She entered a competition for drawings of the kangaroo to appear in the book and was one of the lucky winners. I won a painting competition when I was her age – though that’s a whole other story – so it feels as if she’s following in my footsteps.

Halloween celebrations continued the weekend before 31st October. We went to Warwickshire to spend the weekend with my husband’s family. Munchkin and her cousin did a Halloween Hunt and decorated spooky cupcakes. The Halloween Hunt has evolved from Easter Egg Hunts. The girls enjoyed hunting for eggs so much that they now do two hunts a year. Treats are left by the Halloween Fairy because Munchkin found the idea of a witch too scary when we first started doing this a year or two ago.

On the Saturday evening, they went to a fancy dress roller disco. Munchkin’s cousin is a much better skater than her so they spent quite a lot of doing their own things.

Finally, 31st October arrived. Last year, my husband promised Munchkin she could go trick or treating. He seemed to have forgotten but she hadn’t. Up until this year, we’ve tried to avoid trick or treaters. This year, I decided, if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em. We put a pumpkin out and I bought two buckets of sweets.

At this point, I should mention that trick or treating is massive where we live. I’ve never experienced an American Halloween but I imagine it would be fairly similar. Our housing estate becomes overrun with families from the surrounding area. It gets a little manic and someone has suggested that we set up a means of making charity donations next year, to make up for all the people who are getting sweets from local residents but not providing sweets for children on the estate.

The Rotary gives a cup to the best decorated house. My favourite was the Harry Potter house with the Hogwarts Express next to it but the judges had other ideas.

Next year, we’ll be buying more sweets and going out earlier. Our 2kg of sweets lasted about an hour, and several people had run out of goodies by the time we went out at about 5:15pm.

#ThrowbackThursday: Bargain Birthing and Baptism

This week’s throwback is to my pregnancy blog. I love the title, even if I say so myself! Some things never change, I’m still blogging late and having trouble finding the time for writing.

I was right about one thing, my daughter did become a gymnast. My thoughts about active birth went out the window when I was in labour. I just wanted to lie there, and the midwives told me to try and move. I also pushed like mad, despite what the ladies at yoga told me. I did tell my friend Michelle that I was expecting, though sadly we seem to have lost touch now.

I’m blogging a bit late this week because I’ve been so tired.  The so called “honeymoon period” of pregnancy, when energy levels are meant to be highest is coming to an end.  Last week I had trouble sleeping and had to leave work early one day as I was no use to anyone!  My daughter is kicking like mad as I write this – I still think she’ll be a gymnast.

When I haven’t been catching up on sleep, I’ve been trying to get baby and pregnancy bargains.  We got a lovely cot mobile half price in the Mamas and Papas sale and some bargains in Boots.  On Saturday, we went to a NCT Nearly New Sale.  I’d assumed it would be a table top sale and my husband thought it would be a sale of quality seconds!  We were both wrong (not surprising in his case), the clothes, baby equipment, toys and books were arranged according to item type and size, and you had to queue at the tills once you’d finished.  When we joined the queue, it went half way round the hall.  By the time we’d got to the front, it was snaking out of sight.  So Baby now has some cute clothes to go with the sack of stuff she got from her baby cousin.

We went to our first ante natal class last night.  It was an Active Birth Workshop followed by a tour of the maternity unit.  Active Birth is about moving around during labour, which is meant to be better for mother and baby, and encourages a speedier delivery.  It goes hand in hand with yoga (which I’m already doing) and hypnobirth (which I have mixed feelings about).  I’ve just ordered a book by Michel Odent, who advocates that kind of birth.  The ladies at yoga tell me it’s possible to give birth without pushing…I had no idea!  I always thought the baby needed a push to get things moving!  Daddy now understands how he can help during labour, rather than just offering words of “encouragement”.  The maternity unit tour was useful.  At least I know what “Triage” is now!  I didn’t have a clue, I thought you just turned up on the ward when you were in labour, but no, you phone Triage for advice on whether to come in straight away.  The labour rooms are really nice, but the post natal ward is rather clinical and unpleasant – I hope I’m not there for too long.

In a couple of weeks, we become parents of the God variety; a new experience for both of us and something I’m not entirely comfortable about.  We don’t go to church, so it doesn’t seem quite right somehow.  On the other hand, the baby’s parents know this, and they still want us to do the job.  I’m more than happy to care for her and offer moral guidance, but I’m not so sure about the religion thing, even less so because it’s at a Methodist church and my only exposure to religion has been C of E.  I’m just hoping no-one at the church asks when we’re having our baby christened.  Or worse still, they might find out I was never christened and decide I’m not allowed in the church!  Perhaps I’ll have to be christened at the same time as my God Child!

We’ve actually got a weekend with no social commitments coming up, so I’ll see if I can blog on time this coming week.  I might even manage to do some creative writing for my course and catch up with those poor friends that I’ve inadvertently forgotten since I’ve been pregnant.  I’m not even sure my friend Michelle knows I’m expecting!

#Reblog: Which Teacher Would You Thank?

A few weeks ago I was marking a set of essays and feeling a bit sorry for myself with the amount of work I was doing for what seemed like,… The post Which Teacher Would You Thank? appeared first on Mission: Mindfulness – the blog.

via Which Teacher Would You Thank? — Mission: Mindfulness – the blog

This is the post that inspired my blog post about Miss Vain. Hayley from Mission: Mindfulness has put together a crowd sourced post where a selection of parent bloggers say which teacher from their childhood they’d most like to thank.

Do check out the rest of Hayley’s blog. She is a teacher, parent and blogger, and describes herself as a busy person trying to embrace mindful living, and also someone who is qualified to help others to embrace mindfulness.