my clean little man........

I guess I should be happy that my little boy is hygienic ...but why is the only body part Jadon will respond to when I ask him to wash in the bath is his 'little man'? Is this a man thing? He loves nothing more than to sit and play with his bits, pulling and twiddling his little life away merrily. You would have thought that maybe he has no toys, no, Jadon's mummy owns a kids catalogue and as our main tester Jadon is allowed to sample all our bath toys before they go online.
At the tender age of 1 year and 1 week Jadon has already learnt that the best toy in the world is one that mummy can't take away from him at the end of bath time. What is making it worse is that Joshua is now mimicking his behaviour and thinks its hysterical to tell his teacher that him and his brother share their 'toys' in the bath. Talk about want to curl up and die...
I believe that kids should be allowed to explore their own bodies and shouldn’t be made to feel guilty but at what point do I draw the line? I tried to explain to Josh that he shouldn’t copy Jadon and play with his 'bits' but I didn't want to tell him off. Joshua replied and asked me why boys has boy bits and girls don't. He is 4 - So I told him to continue playing...:)

Baby Club Dread...Scary mummies...

I am what I consider to be a confident person but I hate going to new baby clubs, there is always that cliche of mothers who sit around gossiping together and glancing in your direction.

Am I the only that feels this way?

Today I went along to a new group near to Joshua's school and being a brave and confident mother I grabbed my friend with me for some support with her 3 year old... Seriously, walking into this room was like I was walking into a death sentence. The room went silent as everyone stared at the newcomers, no one made a sound for what seemed like an eternity. I took my seat in the corner and parked the buggy away and took Jadon out to play.

Watching the interaction with the children made me realise how children's behaviour is learnt from their parents especially in environments like this. No child came up to Jadon to play, each kept to their own group of friends until I decided to take matters into my own hands...

Big brave mummy here, I started to talk to a little boy that was playing near Jadon, gradually he smiled and 'oh my G'd' the mother smiled too and eventually began talking. Of course now I had passed the initiation everything else went swimmingly, the other mothers began to talk to us, OK nothing more than a few words, but the ice had certainly melted.

From now on my approach to baby clubs will differ...First conquer the kid then worry about the mother...

Why are mummies always proud of their monkeys?

Joshua has always been a character from the day he was born, his passion is to make people laugh and ensure everyone is happy. To encourage his confidence and help maintain his sense of belonging we enrolled him into drama classes at Stagecoach. I loved performing as a youngster and I wanted Josh to feel at ease in a crowd too and its working.

Well, after missing 3 lessons Joshua returned from holiday straight into his end of term play and to my surprise he remembered all his lines (all 3 of them!) and all the words of the songs too, so he didnt quite get the actions right, but hey, he was away for 3 weeks and they hadnt yet learnt them so I am the proudest mummy around right now. Don't us mummies always find an excuse as to why their child wasn't quite perfect!

It always seems, no matter how bad the performance really is, every parent only sees perfection. Joshua grinned and giggled his way through the show today, he forgot almost every action to all the songs, but who cares, he had fun and did what he does best, make everyone laugh. For me, Josh's play is now a treasured memory and for Josh it will always be a fond part of his childhood...

What a great day.....

My brain is still asleep

These are the words I heard from my 4 year old Joshua this morning, 'Mummy I can't wake up, by brain is still asleep'. I often wonder where he gets his imagination from, it must be his father!

Getting the kids to bed is something I speak to my friends about frequently, some of them are traditionalists; dinner, bath, story and bed, others are more open minded and let their kids determine when they are tired so they forego the evening drama of attempting to get them into bed. Me, well I am stuck in the middle. Joshua is nearly 5 and Jadon turned 1 last week and they both have the same bed time routine; dinner, bath, DVD and bed. Well Jadon doesnt watch a DVD he has a cuddle in bed with mummy and a bottle.

My mother hates my approach but it works for us. Josh is asleep most nights by his 8pm bedtime and Jadon loves his cuddles and falls to sleep right at the end of his bottle, so, why should I change my routine to fit within the boundaries of being a good mother?

I believe bedtime should be fun, I want Josh and Jadon to enjoy their mummy (and daddy) time, afterall they will soon be dreaded teenagers and hate hugs and kisses. I encourage my boys to want to go to bed and look forward to our cuddles and fun at bedtime. The only thing I don't do is read a bedtime story and the reason for that is that Joshua gets excited by books and will not relax, this puts sleep into a distant memory, so I will stick to DVDs for now...How do you put your babies to bed?

Help Harley

Have my little insignifiant worries and problems been put into perspective this morning after reading about Harvey Slack's fight with meningitis, suddenly it seems irrelevant which side of the bed Joshua and Jadon wake up on!

I know that many times I have worried that I wouldn't see the signs of meningitis in either of my kids and each time they have had a slight fever I panic. But like most parents I also think, it can't happen to my kids, I cant keep running to the doctor with every little fever just beciuase I am a typically paranoid Jewish mother. However, after reading today about brave Harley Slack's incredible feat against the deadly disease I myself vow never to take another chance and check every fever, spot and runny nose.

Mother Nature always seems to throw multiple problems at us, having survived meningitis 4 year old Harley's limbs were affected when septicaemia set in and his parents and Doctors were forced to take the decision to amputate all 4 of his limbs. How can a mother feel watching their child go through such pain and fearing for the future. I guess in the short term the parents have yet to grieve for the future Harley has lost and are embracing the fact their precious little boy is still alive and has a future at all. My heart is with them.

I am sure that with the determination Harley has shown, to have fought such a deadly disease and survived against the odds, he will continue to have a successful future ahead of him and I wish him and his family only the best.

I know I will be giving Joshua and Jadon extra hugs to embrace and saviour their innocence while praying that I will never have to witness firsthand what little Harley and his parents have had to endure.

Please let us help Harley to continue to thrieve by donating to his fund: harleyslackfund.giving.officelive.com

Upside down

Why is it that you always find the kids sleeping upside down? It doesnt matter how many times they do it I still get freaked when I go to wake them up in the morning and I cant see them...
Joshua is nearly 5 now and must be the World's best gymnastic, the positions that he gets in during the night and Jadon who onl turned one last Tuesday is slowly following suit!
I found the baby sleep supports fantastic when Jadon was tiny to stop him rolling, now he just throws them at me. Oh well, it could be worse...for now I need to continue to get freaked out by seeing empty beds in the morning, you would have thought I would learn by now to look at the other end of the bed first. :)

my first blog

So, here I am now in the world of blogging. I am looking forward to the fun times we are going to have here sharing our mummy experiences