January 2015 Archives – Mummascribbles
You may or may not have noticed that there has been an increase to my blog posting this month. This is because I’ve been taking part in a blog challenge in which I have to write a new blog post every day throughout January.
I’m half way through.
It’s tough!
I’ve managed to find something to write about every day which I am impressed with. The tough thing has been finding the time to not only write it but to publicise it. And through publicising it, finding the time to respond to the lovely comments, to connect with my lovely twitter/facebook followers and to visit fellow blogs. Because that’s what blogging is about. It’s not just about writing a blog post and leaving it there. I want people to read what I’ve written and I want people to enjoy it and comment on it. I want to connect with other bloggers because every day I read amazing posts and take part in some quite frankly fun twitter discussions. Slotting this all in between work and being a mum is hard and challenging myself to post every day for a month was questionable!
When I first started this blog, I genuinely didn’t know what would happen. I didn’t know if I’d have enough to write about; I didn’t know if what I did write would be any good and I didn’t know if I’d manage to keep it up.
Seven months in and I’m writing my 103rd post! I have found myself a hobby that I love. Something that isn’t work and isn’t parenting. Something just for me and whoever else enjoys reading it. Somewhere I can document my parenting, where I can let it all out and somewhere that might help others in their own parenting journeys.
Blogging has opened up this whole new world to me and I am so glad I have found it.
Bring on the next 15 days of the challenge!
Zach spends three days a week with my mum and for those three days a week, I have to give her food to give him for dinner and tea. It has gotten incredibly hard because he has started getting fussy and where I used to give them pies and quiches from the deli counter, he has decided he doesn’t like pastry; where I used to give them breaded fish, he has decided he doesn’t like breadcrumbs. For tea, I used to supply scones and hot cross buns and he’s decided he no longer likes raisins and sultanas!
They both eat their dinner at lunchtime and I try to give them something they both like and also stuff that is easy for my mum to make with a two year old running around. I’d happily make some food for them at the weekend, for her to heat up and use but I’m really rubbish at finding time to find decent recipes that are nice and healthy for a 2 year old.
So, lovely people, I come to you.
Please inspire me.
Please leave links in the comments to some amazing, easy concoctions that I can supply. They can be simple oven food, or something I can cook up at the weekend and freeze for them.
Anything!
I am completely lacking in inspiration and time!
Also, ideas for tea that doesn’t involve jam sandwiches (his favourite!)
I thank you
I’ve been sitting thinking today about how much I miss maternity leave. I’ve been back at work for a long time now but I still think back to those wonderful days when Zach and I were at home or when I was part time and had one or two days with him per week, just he and I. I’m always jealous of everyone who goes off to have a baby and experience such a special time!
Things I miss:
Walks
We used to go out all the time. I often put him in his pram and walked anywhere between 5-10km depending on how fit I was feeling! The regular fresh air for both of us was wonderful and I’d get us home, he’d be asleep and I’d very quietly make a cup of tea and treat myself to a slice of cake while he finished his nap!
Parks
We went to the park a lot. There was one not far from our then flat and the other half would always get sent photos of Zach developing his swing and slide skills. It was a good base to find out how quickly he developed, one minute he couldn’t climb the steps up to the slide and suddenly he could!
Classes
We didn’t do a whole bundle of classes but we did go to baby sensory regularly and we loved it so much. It was wonderful to see him develop there, to start exploring the sensory world and see him using new skills. Even when I went back work, I still had baby sensory days off! He goes to a weekly music class now but my mum takes him and so I just get the report from her as to what he has done, what songs he’s sung and what instruments he played! I’ve managed to go a couple of times when I’ve been on annual leave and it always brings fond memories back of being able to take him regularly.
Playgroups
There was a morning playgroup that I discovered not long before I went back to work and we went a few times. I loved watching him play alongside the other children while mummy had a chat with some of the other mummies.
Appointments
Bit of a weird one but I miss being the one to take him to appointments. Twice I have had to ask my mum to take him to the doctors about his eczema (this morning being one of them), but I always feel like it should be me taking him to the appointments. Even though they were a pain in the bum some of the time, I miss the regular visits to the health visitors to get him weighed! It helped that they always gave me good news because he was a greedy little bubba!
Mummy friends
One of the biggest things I miss is my fellow mummy friends. My antenatal girls who used to meet regularly either at someone’s house or in the John Lewis café at Westfield, Stratford and those that I met through Baby Sensory. They are all still there, I just see them a lot, lot less than I did back then and I miss them and their beautiful children.
Sleep cuddles
Oh I miss those sleep cuddles. When Zach used to fall asleep on me and rather than try and put him down, I would simply sit there and enjoy my boy snuggling into me.
Counting down
I miss counting down the hours until the other half came home. Sometimes because I was tearing my hair out but mostly because it was so lovely having him walk through the door, home to his family and the mess! Nowadays, he beats me and Zach home most of the time!
Maternity leave was the best!!
Getting Zach back into the routine of nursery is always tough when we’ve had any extended time together and after our break over Christmas, we are struggling again. He doesn’t seem to have a problem with going to my mum’s the three days a week she has him; it’s instant happiness of seeing nannie and the dogs and he waves me off, smiling and laughing. Nursery on the other hand is completely different and for the past two weeks when I’ve dropped him off he has come running after me crying out, mummy, mummy, mummy cuddle. It’s heartbreaking and today when I left, I handed him over to one of the girls so he couldn’t come running after me and instead he absolutely broke down. He did one of those silent cries where you know there is an impending wail coming along and I just had to run and leave him else I’d make him even worse. I usually wait outside until he’s stopped crying so I know that he is happy again but I had to dash as the door had remained open and I didn’t want him to see me out there hovering. I know that once he has calmed down he has the best day and that when I pick him up he is so happy to see me but right now it is so hard dealing with that drop off.
It was shortly before Christmas that he’d only just got re-settled as he’d moved into the big boy room and we went through the whole clingy phase. It had just got better, he had just started walking into the room rather than me carrying him and had started to happily sit down for breakfast without me having to put him on the chair and now we are back at square one again, no doubt, another few weeks of tears when I drop him off. I know that if he went more than two days a week, he’d settle back into it a lot quicker and that he really is fine once I’m gone but it’s harrowing having your child run after you as if you’ve just left him in the worst place ever!!
Do your children take a while to settle again after any lengthy period at home with you? It’s one of the hardest things I find to have to deal with and fills me with so much guilt even though I know he has a fab day!
As some of you know, on Saturday we changed Zach’s cot into a bed, gave him his big boy duvet and his big boy pillow and hoped for the best. You can see the previous post here but I thought I’d give a little update as a couple of people mentioned they’d be keeping an eye to see how we get on.
Of course, it is still early days but I am pleased to report that it has so far been a success. I won’t say that getting him to sleep has been a huge amount easier – we have managed to get him asleep by about 8pm for the last two nights and it did just take me until 8.30 tonight but we are also trying to work out his daytime nap which could be affecting things! He still takes a while to stop turning over, asking us to do this and that and asking to see the book we are reading to him, basically anything to try and stay awake! Eventually, he settles and falls asleep. The good news is that he has pretty much stayed where he is when he is asleep. He did do an amazing roll out on Saturday night; he slid down onto his hands, almost into a handstand and slowly made it fully onto the floor. By the time I got upstairs to assist him, he was already snuggling to get comfy on the carpet! And so far, that is the only roll out of bed! He has kept the covers on him for the majority of the time and is pretty much sleeping through the night (he woke up early this morning but that’s not unusual!). He looks so snug under his duvet and he seems to really like his ‘new’ bed – he especially likes being able to get in all by himself and get himself under the covers.
The only downside of this transition is that while he is still sleeping brilliantly, I have been waking in the middle of the night paranoid that I’m going to find him on the floor! I have a monitor in our room and when I wake in the pitch black, I quickly plug it in so I can take a peek at him and as usual, he is fine! Hopefully I’ll start sleeping through again once I am comfortable with him being a lot more free at night! I’m turning into a bit of a zombie again!
At the moment, I can say that we definitely made the right decision but there is still time for it to all go wrong. It’s looking positive right now though and hopefully sometime soon, he won’t need us in his room to get him to sleep!
My name is Lisa and I have been blogging here at Mummascribbles since June 2014. I am a full time working mummy to one devilishly handsome two year old boy and on my blog you will find me talking about a multitude of subjects surrounding parenting, toddlers, tantrums, working and lots, lots more. I currently have a rating of 1046 out of 8000 blogs on Tots100, 400+ Twitter followers and 125 Facebook followers. I am also a member of the Mumsnet and Netmums blogger networks.
I am here today to flutter my eyelashes; ask you nicely; beg on my knees to find it in your good hearts to sponsor me to attend BritMums Live 2015. I have never been to a blogging conference before but I have read all about Britmums 2014 and I ever so much want to go this year. As a now regular blogger, I believe that it would give me the platform to develop my blog, my writing skills and my contacts whilst also promoting your fine selves.
BritMums Live 2015 is taking place on 19-20 June and is the UK’s biggest, two-day social media conference and blogger event, where hundreds of lifestyle bloggers and social influencers gather to meet and socialise, network with brands, improve their skills, and fire their creativity.
I am keen to be sponsored by a family friendly company, someone relevant to the subject of my blog and who would be as proud of me as I am of them. A brand that I would continue to be pleased to represent, who thinks mine and all other little munchkins in this world are of the utmost importance and a brand that I believe in.
In return for sponsoring me for BritMums Live I would love to offer:
- A badge / advert on the homepage of my blog for a period of at least 12 months with a direct link to your website.
- A post introducing you as my BritMums Live Sponsor for 2015.
- Your brand name mentioned in all my posts, tweets and mentions of BritMums Live 2015 (including any posts made throughout the conference).
- To review any products or services that you feel would benefit from a blogger review.
- To host competitions or giveaways for your brand on this blog.
- To represent your brand at BritMums Live 2015, wearing any branded merchandise (within the allowed parameters….unfortunately no chicken suits are allowed!)
- I can also hand out business cards at BritMums Live mentioning you as my sponsor clearly on the cards (I’d need the cost of this to be covered in the sponsorship).
I am happy to discuss any other ideas a company or brand may have about ways that we could work together as part of the sponsorship deal and beyond.
And what would I need in return?
Ideally the cost of the conference ticket which currently stands at £95 + £3.03 booking fee and one night’s hotel accommodation following the first day’s conference (remember this is a two-day event) This should cost no more than £150.00 depending on prices at the time of booking. I would also need to cover the cost of the business cards which is approximately £50 however if you’d rather an alternative then I’m happy to discuss. I already live in London so I wouldn’t require any travel costs. This brings the total sponsorship to approximately £300.
Interested?
If you would be interested in sponsoring my blog for this event, reaching out to over 4000 influential bloggers then I would love the chance to talk to you.
You can contact me by email at [email protected] or through Twitter @mummascribbles.
Zach’s speech came out of nowhere. He was a boy that focussed on learning to run around creating havoc and wasn’t too bothered about talking. His vocabulary started coming on slowly but his first words weren’t your usual first words like dog or teddy, they were water and highchair! All of the books, emails and fellow parents were making me worry that he didn’t know enough but I always knew it would come out at some point, and boy did it.
As soon as he moved up to the toddler room at nursery, I realised that most of the children in his previous class had been younger than him, and it was mixing with the older ones when all of these new words started coming out of nowhere. Soon after, he was forming small sentences and soon after that he was shocking me with what he knew. A few weeks back we’d gotten up to five word sentences (airplane up in the sky) and today I got a seven word one but I can’t for the life of me remember what it was. He can give us simple instructions, tell us what he wants and explain simple things to us (rocket go blast off) – do you see an aviation fan here?!
Sometimes he comes out with the cutest things that are pronounced wrong. He pronounces Wednesday, Wesnesday and Furchester (from the tv programme), Furschester and it’s so blimmin cute!
Today however, there was something a little worrying. I knew he didn’t mean what he was actually saying but I couldn’t figure out what he was trying to say. His words were, want a dead man. Yep, I didn’t hear wrong, he was asking for a dead man and I just didn’t understand. I initially thought that maybe he’d remembered the you dead man from Cool Runnings but surely he couldn’t be that clever! Me and the other half looked at each other funny and laughed it off as whatever it was, it didn’t seem overly important. A few minutes later he said it again but this time pointing at the kitchen cupboard. It was then that I clicked – he wasn’t asking for a dead man but a gingerbread man!! I had to laugh at the misunderstanding and was secretly relieved that he didn’t somehow know about dead men at the age of two!
What funny things have your little ones come out with that have taken you a while to decipher? I’d love to hear!
Well today has been another big day in our house…today we changed Zach’s cot into a bed!! I don’t know if it’s the right thing to have done but he was really starting to dislike being trapped behind the bars of the cot and bedtime has been a nightmare for a few weeks now so it made sense to give it a go.
Last week I spent hours trawling the Internet trying to find a duvet and pillow, and trying to find suitable bedding. You wouldn’t believe how hard it is finding non expensive 100% cotton bedding sets. Most I came across were a good £50-60 which considering it’s a toddler bed set is gross! I don’t even pay that amount for our kingsize! Because Zach suffers with eczema I try and keep everything to pure cotton as it’s more breathable for his little skin.
I eventually found a nice set in mothercare and another nice set from a company called Baroo for not too much money. I also managed to find a duvet and pillow from Asda that was 100% cotton and was really chuffed with that little find as I’d convinced myself that was not going to be completely cotton!
All deliveries arrived by Thursday so I got them all washed and dried for today’s transition!
He was upstairs with us while we were changing his bed around and was very excited about it. He had a little tester and kept saying Zach go to bed, turn the light out, turn the stars on but it wasn’t bedtime then! It was actually dinner time!
And so this evening he had his bath, got in his pyjamas and went to his big boy bed with his big boy duvet and his big boy pillow. He fidgeted just as much as he did in his cot, and bearing in mind he’s had no nap today, he still fought sleep – not for quite as long as he has been but he fought it.
At the moment, we seem to just have a toddler who doesn’t want to fall asleep and miss out on anything, and who equally needs at least one parent there until he’s asleep!
What is easier for us now that he doesn’t have bars up is that we can lean on his bed and read him a story and we don’t get our arms stuck while we are stroking his hand!
As I write, he did cave into sleep and I can see he is fast asleep. Let’s just hope he doesn’t roll out or kick the covers off! At least we got a decent lie in this morning if that is the case!
Wish us luck with our latest development, I’m sure I’ll be back in a few days with an update!! In the meantime, feel free to pass on your cot to bed stories and any advice you have for getting a not wanting to go to sleep toddler, to sleep!!
Here’s the little munchkin testing out his bed earlier!!
Friday nights used to be exciting for lots of cocktails, some dancing and some late night food.
This Friday finds me excited for a very different reason. Tonight, we are expecting delivery of our first ever internet food shop!
Why, you may ask, is she so excited?
I shall explain!
I am not a fan of shopping. I am especially not a fan of shopping whilst navigating a trolley round a busy supermarket on a Saturday morning, trying to keep a toddler amused for at least an hour, trying to keep him from having a tantrum over the scanner when he keeps pressing the wrong button, trying to whip past the amusement train that is regularly situated outside, getting home, unpacking the shopping, either putting said toddler straight down for his nap or shovelling some lunch down him before putting him down for his nap and then by the time he wakes up, it being 2pm and basically our whole Saturday has gone.
I have been going on for so long about us trying internet shopping. No more busy supermarkets, and no more using one of our precious days with Zach on un-fun things! The other half has always been less keen, seemingly enjoying perusing the shelves. I do understand that you have less control over internet shopping however it seemed that my argument was starting to change his mind, especially now shopping eats into so much of our time.
And so, on Tuesday evening we sat down and did our first online shop. There were a couple of things that didn’t seem to be online that we pick up in store but mostly, it was successful. And tonight we are expecting our delivery between 9-10pm. We can unload, pack up the cupboards, go to bed and spend Saturday having fun with our little man rather than fighting our way through the supermarket.
Being full time working parents, our weekends are so precious to us and so I really hope everything goes to plan and we make this a regular thing!
Do you do your shopping in store or online? It’s so much easier to sit down at a computer than it is pushing a wailing toddler around the shop!!
I love doing educational stuff at home with Zach. I am always trying to test him on his alphabet, counting, naming animals etc., and I think it’s incredibly important that we as parents support our children’s learning at home alongside any nursery or school. So when the people at Twinkl were asking bloggers to get in touch to review their site, I couldn’t not contact them.
About Twinkl
Twinkl was started in 2010 by a husband and wife team, who also happened to be a primary school teacher. It was initially started as a resource system for their fellow teacher colleagues and has since gone on to be a resource for parents who want to support their children through the curriculum at home.
“Twinkl Resources is your first choice for easy to use, trusted and high quality teaching materials for educators and parents worldwide – professionally crafted materials with a personal touch.”
Twinkl offers three subscription levels to users:
Free membership is available and allows access to the majority of their resources. Gold membership is their high quality, low cost option at £29.95 a year
Platinum membership allows access to all resources and is priced at £44.95 per year.
Whilst the free membership is wonderful, obviously without users subscribing to this service, they would sadly not be able to continue supplying resources and paying people to make them!
What we think of Twinkl
Twinkl is like a minefield – a fantastic minefield where you just keep finding new things! Upon opening the website, I was a bit overwhelmed with the amount of resources on there but it’s quite simple to navigate as it’s broken down by the stages of curriculum that the child is at. There are sections for early years, key stage one, key stage two, special educational needs, English as an additional language, parents, the International Primary Curriculum and a special section called create where you can create your own resources using a selection of templates (note that this is available to platinum subscribers only). They also have a forum where you can go and discuss learning, resources and lots of other topics.
With a two year old son, I have obviously focused on the early years stage of the curriculum and I have been enjoying printing lots of resources out for us to use at home. I particularly like the colouring pages available (they had some lovely Christmassy ones), and we have used the word cards to try and get Zach practicing, recognising and using three letter words like tap and mat.
We have also used the numbers flashcards, trying to get Zach to recognise his numbers.
One other thing that we have been using is the reward charts they have and these are fantastic. We were struggling to get Zach to brush his teeth properly and we now use a chart which gets him a sticker every time he brushes properly. It is situated on the fridge door and it has helped us get him to brush his teeth much better than he was!
We are also using the toilet training chart which awards him a smiley face if he successfully goes on the potty. This is also a massive winner at the moment although sometimes he wants a whole smiley face for a very tiny wee! Can you see all those Sunday smiley’s?!!
Overall, I think this website is fantastic. It has everything you could require to sit down with your child and help them to learn. It would be especially fantastic for home-schoolers! There is so much more that I need to explore and sneakily print out at work!
Is there anything we don’t like?
There isn’t really anything not to like about this website. I think it has a varied mix of parent/teacher resources. Some of the stuff is clearly for the classroom and if you don’t use your printer options wisely then you could end up with a lot of individual pages but it does guide you in how to get multiple pages shrunk down to one page when you do print which was pretty handy. I could have ended up with a lot of paper coming out the work printer! I feel like I need to find something negative for this section to be worth writing but I can’t find anything!
Disclaimer
I was given access to the Twinkl platinum service for the purpose of this review but all opinions and words are my own.