A is for ahhh

Image from izyanadiah.blogspot.com

I've been tagged again by the lovely Charlotte at The crumby mummy blog. This time to do an alphabet meme. Sounded like fun so I thought why not? I won't be tagging other bloggers this time, but if you want to take part feel free to do so.

Here are the rules. I think I've broken them. Ooops:

Using each letter of the alphabet you have to give one word that describes you.  Pretty straightforward right?


A is for ahhhh which is the sound I often make when I've put all three of my children to bed for the night.

B is for best. I try and be the best at whatever I turn my hand to.

C is for custard. I love it out of the tin with some cherry pie or apple crumble. I really want to make my own custard one day. Just to find the time and motivation...it's easy enough to make.

D is for ducks. I love to take a stale loaf of bread and feed the ducks with my kids. So simple but so much fun.

E is for entertainment. I enjoy going to music gigs and hearing a live performance.

F  is for family. So precious.

G is for grateful, for what I have.

H is for happy to be me.

I is for independent. Yep that's me.

J is for joker, one of my most used words.

K is for kind an important trait to have.

L is for laughing. Nothing is better than a side aching, breath catching, tears falling, good old chuckle.

M is for mummy the most important role I've ever had the honour to have.

N is for nonsense. I don't enjoy people who speaks lots of it.

O is for organised. At work yes. At home not so much, although I do try.

P is for prayer. Which I must do more of. Prayer lifts my spirits always.

Q is for quiet. I like it when all is silent and I can hear my own thoughts for a while. Very rare these days.

R is romantic. I love a bit of romance and I'm lucky my fiancé always surprises me with a healthy serving of it every now and then.....

S is for smile. I often get told that I have a great one *blush*

T is for teeth. I have a thing about teeth and I love mine. *modest*

U is for understanding. I always try and empathise with others.

V is for victorious. There have been times I've been so stuck in a rut I've felt there was no way out, but the good Lord always makes a way and in the end I am victorious.

W is for wedding. I hope to have mine in 2013. (Come on already.)

X is for xtravagent which I am not, but sometimes, only sometimes I wish I was.

Y is for yes. I want to say YES a bit more to my children. But I'm a bit scared. Lol

Z is for zzzzz. I wish I could get more sleep....*sob*


So that's it. If you want to take part then please go ahead. It's really quite fun.

Silent Sunday

Nappy bag woes

I need a big bag like this methinks.
Image from dinodirect.com

No matter how hard I try my nappy bag is always a disorganised mess. It is filled to the brim with things I really don't need, but I've convinced myself that I do.
 
Of course it should contain the essentials I need to survive when I'm out with my three small children. But items just get thrown in, often in a mad rush. So everything shambles together making it impossible to find ANYTHING, EVER!!

This morning I was rooting around the bag for vaseline to put on my middle child's chaffed nose. Could I find it? Of course not, despite seeing it yesterday.

So I end up doing the inevitable. Emptying out the dreaded bag and this is the list of the contents that were found:

2 head scarves for me???
1 pair of leather gloves mine
A bundle of tissues
My purse
2 muslin cloths
1 odd sock
7 bibs
2 burp clothes
1 pair mittens
A sandwich bag containing two crackers
2 virtually empty tubes of nappy cream without the lids
A box of bickiepegs for my teething son which contained two bickies
A pair of my eldest daughter's dirty socks
2 pairs of scratch mittens
Numerous odd/single scratch mittens???
1 pot of fruit purée
3 baby spoons
4 medicine syringes (so that's where they've all be hiding)
1 empty packet of chocolate buttons
6 pens (no wonder I can never find one when I need one)
A bottle of calpol
1 new born hat. (Why? My baby is nearly nine months)
A mini etch a sketch. (Don't ask)
2 sanitary towels (sorry if tmi. They of course were wrapped in their little package)
1 pack of painkillers for me
A selection of hair bands and hair clips
Sellotape???
2 pots of vapour rub???
1 nappy (the one thing the bag is actually designed for conatins the least of...)
 

After all of that, of course I didn't find the vaseline. Typical. But at least now I know why I can never close the pesky thing, too much useless toot. I will have a thorough declutter today and will return with a lean, mean nappy bag which only contains items of use.


Yeah right!!

Tiny talker

Think 'll need to buy this for a certain
somebody.
Image from englishchinashop.com

Please someone tell me. How on earth do you cope with a child who asks a million questions a day and just doesn't stop talking?

My eldest daughter is four, and already, at this tender age she could talk the hind legs off a donkey and it's driving me a little bit potty.

Of course she is my daughter and the apple of my eye, but I'm certain her constant chattering is on another level. Not to mention rubbing off onto her little sis, who has started to gain momentum in the chatterbox stakes too.

As soon as she wakes she's nattering away, asking endless questions, it doesn't seem to stop. I know inquisitiveness is the way children learn, but my daughter asks question upon question upon question and I'm getting to the point where I don't have any more answers. I don't remember my siblings or I being this chatty when we were kids.

Maybe I'm just being a meanie, but I'm sure others are starting to notice how much she has to say and how many questions she asks. It's like a Spanish inquisition and I've noticed eyes beginning to glaze over once she gets going.

Take a conversation she had with her daddy this morning;

Tiny talker: 'Daddy why do you never have breakfast at home?'

Daddy: 'Because I'm always in a rush.'

Tiny talker: 'Why are you always in a rush?'

Daddy: 'Because I'm a busy bee.'

Tiny talker: 'Why are you a busy bee?'

Daddy: 'Because bees are busy making honey and they go bzzz, and I'm busy working too.'

Tiny talker: 'Why do bees make honey and why are they busy...?'

Daddy: 'Because that's what God made them to do.'

Tiny talker: 'Why did God do that?'

Daddy at this point is probably at a complete loss and trying to think of ways he can leave the house without having to give another answer.

As you can see these conversations tend to go on and on and when you're a busy parent who has a million and one things to do, it's hard to keep your concentration long enough to indulge in the great 'Why' debate.

My sister has decided that if there are too many 'Why's', she'll just reply 'Z'.

This has my daughter in fits of giggles and satisfies her curiosity for a short while. I think

I'm going to start using this approach too. It has to be better than; 'I don't know' or a pained sigh lol...

Do you have a super talkative child? What do you do to keep sane?

Lego Duplo creative cakes

My girls were complaining they were bored. Luckily for them I have just been invited by LEGO DUPLO to sit on their 2012 blogger panel. Very exciting! So when the new LEGO DUPLO creative cakes set arrived it was greeted with whoops of delight and great big smiles.

'Yay! Lego for girls.' My youngest exclaimed. 'Exciting!' beamed my eldest.

I opened the box and immediately they got stuck in. A silence descended over the house as they began sorting the pieces into little piles. The colours are gorgeous. The pretty yellows, pinks, greens and browns compliment each other nicely and mimic the lush cakey treats that children (and most adults) love so much.

My daughters immediately began building towers stacking each colourful brick on top of another, finishing off with candles, meringue and cake toppers. I got involved after leaving them to play for a little bit on their own and together we began to make the cute little cake creations as illustrated on the box. Their excitement and amazement at all the bright pieces was infectious.

The following day we revisited the set and the girls got more creative. 'Mummy look at this an aeroplane' my eldest daughter exclaimed. And it certainly looked like one by the way she had arranged the pieces. I was impressed with her creativity and imagination. 'Look Mummy there is fire under the plane' as she pointed at the red blocks she had stacked the 'aeroplane' on.

My youngest built colourful towers. Counting the bricks and naming the colours as she went I've even gained an insight into her exacting ways, as every thing she made was beautifully symmetrical.

This set is providing my girls with hours of fun and it is super durable, as LEGO DUPLO always is. They are loving making and breaking their creations then making them up again. It most definitely brings out their creative side and encouraged their imaginations to run wild. Their concentration as they co-ordinated the different colours and added the pretty, cakey extras was a pleasure to watch.

I've often thought LEGO DUPLO sets to be more aimed towards boys, what with the blues and greens and male orientated figurines, but this cake set, along with all the beautiful colours completely took me by surprise and my girls absolutely loved it. I also found out that LEGO and DUPLO are completely interchangeable and fix together perfectly with eachother.

This set is definitely an all round winner, even my eight year old nephew got involved and enjoyed himself when he came over to play. You can even store the pieces in the box provided (although I do wish it was plastic rather than cardboard, because our box has been sat on a few times and no longer resembles a box lol). My girls and I really enjoyed this set and as a matter of fact we're off right now to build some more wonderful towery, cakey, areoplaney, creations.....

To find out more about this great set and more LEGO DUPLO products just click here

This is a review post. All opinions expressed are my own.

Silent Sunday

Sshhh

Image from connortomas.com 

I have a confession. I'm not proud about it but I am the type of mum who Sshhh's her children quite a lot. 

It's not that I don't like them to play and make noise, it's just that there is only so much screaming, shouting, singing and banging I can handle before I start to feel like I am losing my mind. I often try to nip noise making in the bud because all too often it goes from happy and playful to crying and squabbling. It can be highly frustrating. 

I am finding that when we go out people seem to fall into two camps. Those that look on with disdain if your children are being loud, tantruming and generally running amok and those who embrace it as just kids being kids. I had an experience of the latter yesterday.

I was out with the children and my soon to be mum in law. We visited a lovely little church tea room and sat down for tea and cupcakes. When we arrived it was empty but slowly it began to fill with lovely old aged pensioners, no doubt meeting up to enjoy a quiet cuppa and a natter. It was at this moment my baby decides to practice his babbling skills. "Baba dada dada mama", he garbled at the top of his voice. Quickly my daughters joined in, adding a extra layer of volume to the ever increasing din.

"Ssshhh, sssh, sssh" I hissed, worried what the room of people mostly in their 80's must have been thinking. Then out of nowhere an elderly lady stopped me in my tracks and set about telling me; "Leave them, their singing". "They've got voices, let them sing" she turned to the children "Go on use your voices." 

I felt ashamed, because what the lovely old lady said was true. They really weren't doing any harm and kids will be kids.I think there is a fine line between letting your children express themselves and letting them run wild, but sometimes I think I am forever trying to keep my children in line because I don't want anyone else to do it for me. I don't want anyone to think badly of my children or their dad and I so I try to raise them to be mindful of others and be well behaved in public. Maybe I've been taking it a bit too far and need to relax a little, after all they don't stay small for long and if a couple of 80 year olds can put up with a bit of a din then I'm sure I can. 

Have you learnt anything about yourself lately through someone else's actions?