A Mother's Ramblings

Sometimes my idea of having fun is a little out there. I have in the past let Top Ender clean my kitchen floor, by wearing her swimming costume and then sliding up and down the tiled floor on a wet and soapy bath sheet. Drying it is as just as fun as she then slides up and down on a dry bath sheet... like I said a little out there.

Top Ender is going to be an architect when she grows up, I have decided. Okay, so maybe I have decided a little prematurely because she is still adamant that she is going to be a Fashion Model/Designer/Sweet Shop Owner, but she joined construction club at school!

There is one book that I always buy Daddy for Christmas. It isn't the Guinness Book of Records (he only likes that every couple of years as not that many records change year on year apparently!) but The Rupert Annual. I always try to buy a couple of annuals for each of us (and make sure to use the buy two get one free offer that is always on before Christmas) and a little jokey book for Daddy and I.

Baby Boy had been jumping in puddles as we walked to school to pick up Top Ender. I had given up trying to stop him as it was pouring with rain and one way or another we were going to be soaking by the time we got back to the house.

Top Ender wasn't feeling very well, but she had a friend in the form or a Fur Real Snuggimal Puppy who cuddled her, because we wouldn't as we didn't want her germs... (Video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szu98TYF6JM )  Although the puppy is a bit noisy when it wags its tail, it is very cuddly! The RRP is £7.99 and I think it is cute enough for the price!

Baby Boy loves to pretend to cook, he has a huge selection of play food, play pots and pans and plates and cutlery. He normally makes some quite good and balanced dishes, although I am always worried by the plastic Strawberry in a glass that he gives me to drink! Baby Boy had been asking to do some real cooking with me, not baking cakes, but real cooking like making dinner. We had made Pizzas a few nights earlier, but that didn't count as real cooking according to Baby Boy so we decided that we were going to have Casserole with Dumplings for dinner.

As you know we love baking in our house, and as we also love Halloween so when Silver Spoon asked if we would like some cake decorations we jumped at the chance and got sent quite a selection of goodies to bake some cakes with. The plan was that I was going to make cakes every few days using one colour so that you could get some ideas of some Halloween cakes to make too. In reality only Baby Boy and I were eating the cakes and I was sick of cake.

Baby Boy sometimes is always really cute when he is sleepy and seeing as he has learnt the ironic phrase "Shut up! Your so funny!" he likes to use it when ever he can... The thing I really want to know is when he is sleepy why is it Naked Bubble Gum that comes to mind?!

In September our beloved Disney Store in Milton Keynes shut it doors. Top Ender and Baby Boy (and me!) love The Disney Store and we have quite often been found wandering around, mouths hanging open at the new Stock. I liked our old store as I was able to recognise most of the staff and they knew me as the "Crazy lady who knew all the songs that they played and who once danced and sang with her children to the Phineas and Ferb video". See its not just you who knows me as the Crazy Lady .

With the clocks going back this weekend, it really makes me realise that it isn't that long to Christmas. In fact in just eight weeks we will all be getting ready to sit down to a special meal and wondering how Christmas came round so quickly, as weren't we all just sitting down to Christmas Dinner?!

I am born of hardy stock. My Mum is Scottish and as such can survive all winter on just a bowl of porridge and some wool socks. With my half Scottish blood coursing through my veins and me wanting to keep my penny pinching ways secure I try to make sure that the heating in our house stays off until November 1st. Baby Boy looking to see how long until the heatings is turned on!

One thing that seems to be in all stockings are Drawing and Colouring Sets. For me its a great chance to go through prior to Christmas all of the colouring pads, and crayons that we have accumulated over the year. I use the broken crayons to make new crayons  (and to then give as a gift to others) and to really make sure that the colouring pads have been fully used and which themes would go down well again!

Sometimes I have dreams that freak me out a little. I don't like eating a lot of meat because of a particularly odd dream I had about a giant chicken chasing me because I ate one of its eggs. I don't like reading a lot of Stephen King stories because of the nightmares I had after reading Cell and right now I am going through our First Aid Kit and making sure I have one for the car after having a very vivid dream about having an accident in our home... at least it wasn't a Polar bear in the Garden !

I love food, and if I am invited out to dinner then nine times out of ten I won't say No . I will check with the host that they know that I don't drink alcohol and prefer to not eat food cooked with alcohol, but other than that you can pretty much take me anywhere and feed me anything.  When I received an invitation to a special dinner party where all the dishes would be made to include one secret ingredient I couldn't say No and so I found my way into Central London one evening promising Top Ender, Daddy and Baby Boy that I would tell them what the secret ingredient was as soon as I got home.

After the giggles that we had from Top Ender answering Blockbusters to Daddy after he had been singing the Ghostbusters theme tune we started to sing the tune to the popular game show Blockbusters, and do the naff jokes that come with Blockbusters such as; "I'll have a P please Bob!"

A few days back, Daddy, Top Ender, Baby Boy and I were walking past a rather large pile of crisp autumn leaves. We knew that this was an opportunity too good to miss and so Top Ender and Baby Boy had a jump and kick and run in the leaves, whilst I fished about in my handbag for my camera.

One of the fantastic things about family is that sometimes they send you fantastic links to websites that you haven't visited before. This is what happened the other week when Lesley (My SMIL) sent me a link to the Nature Detectives website. It is one of those sites that you don't realise is being educational as it is just so much fun!

The other week Daddy made a Shepherds Pie for dinner. It was really lovely to have the night off from cooking, and for it not being something like Steak, Beefburgers or Pasta! It isn't that Daddy doesn't cook tradition meals, its just that normally when he does it's something that is quick and easy. If a meal needs ingredients that need peeling, chopping or a pan that needs de-glazing then its normally me that is in charge.

Top Ender was a little worried when she found out that she had nits . To explain to her that things weren't as bad as she thought they were (as in lots of people get them) I told her all about Head Lice and about how they are just little creatures doing what they were born to do. Spiders in the hair...

After my blog post, Helping your Children learn to read and learn to love to read  it was suggested on Twitter and in the comments that I should also write up my tips on helping develop math skills in children. I'm not a child development expert and these suggestions aren't ground breaking new methods, but the way that you were probably taught Maths without even realising it!

When I used to work at the weekends, it made more sense for Daddy to take Top Ender and Baby Boy out of the house and leave me in relative peace and quiet, than it did for him to try and stop them jumping on me or to cause each other bodily harm in a bid to get my attention. They went to lots of different places, towns near and far, Farmers Markets in order to get Gluten and Wheat Free Cupcakes (that tasted fantastic), swimming, and to local and some not so local parks.

Daddy and I were going to watch Ghostbusters on Sunday night as Daddy had never seen it before (yeah I know) and during dinner we were being a little silly and Daddy had started to sing the theme tune...

I hoped never to write this blog post. Seriously, when a PR asked me ages ago if they could send me some products, I said at the time "By all means send it, but I don't think I will ever be able to write a blog post on it" and then on Friday night when I was sitting on the Sofa with Top Ender, I realised that not only was I going to use the products that the PR had sent me, but that I was going to write this here blog post. Daddy has said that if anyone from Bang & Olufsen wants to send me products that I might never write a blog post about that is fine too. He is perfectly happy for people to do that, and he won't complain that I am cluttering up the house!

As I have mentioned several times before, Christmas is a big deal in our house. We have lots of traditions which Daddy and I have brought from our own childhoods and one of the biggest and most similar to each other are what we found in our Christmas Stockings on Christmas Morning. When I was young our stockings, were always from Father Christmas and held many treasures ranging from Chocolate coins and Oranges to Fortune Fish and Small Electronic Toys. Daddy remembers there always being a Colouring Book and new Colours, some form or fruit and at least one toy car.

I was talking with a playground Mum who was complaining that there weren't enough hours in the day, for her to do everything that she wanted to do and to still be a good Mum. It made me think just what I do with the 24 hours I am given every day, as sometimes when I go to bed at night I am convinced that I haven't done anything during the day and yet I am strangely tired. So I took a look at everything that I do...

The last time I was asked to choose a photo that I love for Tara was before she had the gallery and I chose a photo that was my work desk photo, a photo that shows a happy and carefree me. I love that photo still, but I thought that it was about time that I updated my photo. It was quite funny timing though as just a couple of weeks ago for my Wordless Wednesday post, I posted a photo that I love.

Top Ender had gone to bed, we had gone through the bedtime routine and she had been tucked in, kissed and told to go to sleep. Five minutes had past and Daddy (sitting on the sofa working on his laptop) and I (working on the PC) heard her on the stairs, coming downstairs to go to the toilet.

Hello, Daddy here! Another not-particularly-wordy post, just wanted to show some pictures from a great trip we had at the start of the month to the extremely posh One Aldwych Hotel in London's Covent Garden at the invitation of Tesco. The event was for Halloween - yes, we know that's not for another month but the real reason was to show us the wide range of Tesco Halloween Costumes and attend a special screening of Monsters vs Aliens: Mutant Pumpkins from Outer Space , which has just been released on DVD.

I was talking on Twitter asking for suggestions of films from the Eighties to add to a list of films that Daddy should watch with me on Date Night, when I came up with an idea for a meme from something that Home Front Anna said. One that I don't think has been done, but even if it has deserves to be made popular again! So I am proud to announce the My Life (If It Were A Film) Meme! 

The other week I was supposed to be going to go to the Miele event in London, but Baby Boy was unfortunately ill so I stayed at home cuddling my poorly boy, drinking Dr Pepper and watching Friday night TV. At least I think that's what I did, I can't really remember all the nights seem to blur into one when TV is included. So the lovely ladies that got to attend, were able to see the new Miele steam oven in action. I would of liked to have seen that, and then I would have attempted to smuggle it home. Then again my range master probably would of got upset with me so its a good job that I didn't go as I can't covet it and my range master will still love me...  

Over the last few of weekends we have had some of the best family weekends ever. We have had fun as a family, some of the most fun we have ever had as a family and it was all because of our schedule. Our normally busy schedule, full of trips out and things to do was derisively empty. Other than going food shopping we had nothing to do and so that is exactly what we did.

On Saturday I was lucky enough to go and see Emma for her birthday. I had read a tweet from  Jon (her other half) about a gigantic spider, but didn't really think anything of it. I'm not really that scared of spiders, I mean that urban myth about you eating spiders whilst your asleep wasn't ever something that thrilled me to know, but little money spiders aren't going to do me any harm. I'm not a fan of Scary Spiders though, you know the sort they are often found on street corners drinking cider that they have convinced someone to buy for them... oh wait that's yobs... Oh yes Scary Spiders, like Tarantulas or ones the size of dinner plates, but we don't get them in the UK unless they are someones pet, and if you know me and you have a dinner plate sized spider DO NOT TELL ME. I will bring bug spray and kill it, I don't care if it is gentle.

When we opened the latest TRU Toyologist box, Top Ender found a Littlest Pet Shop Pet Vehicle. This toy in particular took her eye, and she asked if she could open this first. Being the kind mother that I am I agreed that she could.

Hello, Daddy here for another guest post - I promise to keep the words to a minimum, other than to say the Fun To Grow "Head Start" Cress kit that Top Ender and I have grown was only 62p from Tesco. Not bad for a self-grow salad vegetable, that teaches about seed germination and the conditions needed for plant growth. The kit is made by Suttons Seeds