[advert:mpu]Before we left for Germany, we promised ds1 a London birthday as well as a German birthday. He has been obsessed with turning five for, well, about a year I guess. So last week we skipped on the plane (the irony of this statement will only ring true if you too travel a lot on Ryanair with two small kids) and back to the old house. Charmed to see, by the way, that now there’s an extra kiddie tax when you fly these people – you now pay for the privilege of airport check-in, compulsory when travelling with infants. Smile and nod, parents, and open your bottomless wallets.
ANYWAY. I’d talked it through with ds1 and had suggested a few birthday options to him. He wanted a day out rather than a party, and there must be a God, because in the end he didn’t choose the ‘Lazytown Live’ stage show and opted instead for the London Ducktours. Got to admit, I was slightly dubious about the feasibility of this, but when a couple of the other parents said they’d like to come too it sounded a bit more manageable.
And it was great! You do spend quite a long time chipping around the sites but not so long that the novelty of riding high in a large, yellow tank-boat has time to wear off. Then it’s straight into the Thames for a bit of a paddle. Smashing. Then cake in the park afterwards. Ds1 and all his buddies loved it, especially since he got to wear his new Spiderman suit all day. Seriously, my kinda birthday party because look – no dishes!
Now, how to go about a German birthday party, I wonder...?
Bullying doesn’t just happen to other kids, it’s not always easy to spot and we need to give kids the confidence and the strategies to recognise and combat threatening behaviour.
Dp & I are getting married, 8 years and two kids down the line. It's less than a week away, we've got 100 people coming and we've yet to buy the rings - I haven't even found a dress - but here's ...
We've all been there - when your child makes an innocent remark (usually at the top of her voice) which turns out to be a horribly personal insult to someone within direct earshot... or worse...
Come on, I challenge you not to smile...
Watch out bugs, baby's about! Wiggle your tasty little abdomen in front of him and you're dead meat, honey!
The first person to wish me happy mother's day on Sunday was my mother in law, on my mobile, in the toilet, about 5pm. Can't get much more depressing than that...
Anyone else’s kids into this? It's like SecondLife but with penguins and for kids...
We're now halls supervisors, living in a quiet block and eating in the canteen with 230 students where every night is a potential party. It's great fun, but a bit out of the ordinary... how can the ...
After being pretty much indifferent to who gives him his presents, this year it seems that ds1 is DESPERATE to believe in Santa Claus, and the man’s lifestyle, generosity and ‘big brother’ ...
Of course in hindsight I see it's a little naive of me to trot around searching for rubber knickers, but you see we have this Poo Emergency on our hands (literally, as it goes)...
Yay! Ds2’s started to crawl at 8 & ½ months! He has been doing this thing for a while where he goes on all fours, sticks his bum in the air and then pumps up and down in a very wobbly and ...
It may take a while to settle my four-year-old and six-month-old into their new, German nursery.
So here we all are – we’re in our wee flat in Germany with just a few boxes, some raincoats and wellies and a couple of sleeping bags. Like Glastonbury without the mud, drugs or music....
Stagger, the ugly superhero who only comes out at night, is my son's new alter-ego...
So, the baby starts nursery on 28th August... and hasn't yet taken more than a mouthful from a cup or bottle. It's an uphill battle.
It's started: huge clumps of hair coming out when I brush my fingers through it. Plug hole totally bunged up when I have a shower. The old postpartum hair loss begins again...
So I think the happy hormones must be finally wearing off (fun while it lasted) and the incessant tiredness beginning to kick in. Or perhaps those are just my excuses for leaving the baby in the car ...
Paranoia was only made worse by horror stories from other mums: one who walked in on her older son standing in front of the new baby wielding a pair of scissors...
Son no.1 couldn't have been more pleased with his new baby brother. He picks out the cutest nappy for him to wear, and seems charmed when the baby does a poo whilst sitting on him!
We're pox-free, hooray! But a few days later ds broke out in hive-like red lumps - turns out that their wee bodies can have an allergic reaction to the chickenpox virus which causes its own rash. ...
We don’t go out trick or treating. We lie in wait for them to come to us. This year, ds dressed in his skeleton outfit and accosted passers by with sweets... All was fine until he stuck an eyeball up ...
Poor old ds really isn't looking forward to 'Big School'. “They won’t like me” he sobbed, “I’ll be in the corner of the playground on my own because I won’t have any friends of my own!” He thinks ...