Sunday 24 May 2009

RESILIENCE

Laurens first tooth started to come through black and crooked. I pointed it out to the health visitor the minute I saw it and she said it'll be fine wait and see. It wasn't and we had numerous trips to the dentist for it to be monitored every millimetre it protruded through her gum.

Chris and I were traumatised at the time, children's teeth are so precious, and it was her very first one; our poor gorgeous little girl.

Eventually we were told it was a malformed tooth; why this happens is still a mystery but it was suggested that said tooth be removed.

OK, but how to remove a tooth from a tiny child was the next hurdle. No one wants their child to be in pain for any reason, and as I have a dreadful fear of dentists it worried me more than most.

In the end it was decided, well I decided, that Chris should take her. We were booked into the Leeds General Infirmary dental department early one morning. We dropped Benjy off at the child minder and drove down to the hospital.

I sat outside in the waiting room while Chris took Lauren in to sit in the dentists chair,on his knee. She had no idea what was about to happen to her, which we figured was a good thing.

I paced around for what seemed like hours, listening for the screaming to start. But it never did. All was quiet, and eventually daddy and daughter emerged. Chris looked shattered and rather pale and was covered it blood splatters; Lauren looked her gorgeous normal self, minus her little black tooth.

She'd been amazing all the way through apparently, very brave and perhaps because she wasn't anticipating anything nasty happening took it all in her stride.

We took her back to the car where we'd got a Marks and Spencer picnic waiting - more for us than her, but she wolfed it down no problem.

The moral of the story is :it's easy to forget just how resilient our children really are!

Sunday 17 May 2009

INNOCENCE

Nat talking to Ben and Lauren the other day " I got a six pound note from Auntie Nise for Easter".

" You can't get a six pound note" replied Lauren.

"You can in his world" quipped Ben!

And...........

Our neighbour, Maurice, very sadly died a few weeks ago. He was over eighty and had a fantastic life, however his widow Rosa is now alone. Nat and I were talking about it, and I said Maurice had gone to be a star in the sky with our cat Biscuit, who also very sadly died two years ago.

Nat said " I know why Maurice died mummy, he ate too many sweeteners. Sweeteners are bad for you, aren't they mummy". Oh dear, think I may have banged on about them abit too much (won't let the kids have Fruitshoots because they're full of them). His little view, in all its innocence would have really amused Maurice.
RX

Saturday 16 May 2009

DETERMINATION

I decided Nathaniel, who is 5, should learn to ride his bike without stabilisers yesterday. He agreed, amazing, so we set to work.

He went into the garage, found his dads tool kit and located the correct spanner to remove them, and even had a go at doing it himself.So far I was well impressed.

We took one off - disaster! He rode round in circles.

We took the other one off, and he climbed aboard. I held tight to the back of the seat with one hand and off we went, up and down the paving at the side of the house.

Whilst concentrating so hard on riding he was unable to use the brakes at the same time (he is in training to be a man after all!) and so the fence and the gate were crashed into each time we turned around. But it didn't deter him.

He insisted I let go of the seat and promptly put his feet down saying he couldn't do it. He had a temper tantrum, picked up the bike and threw it down saying he'd never be able to do it. Luckily, the bike is made of sturdy stuff, and so is he because two mintues later he'd climbed back on and we went backwards and forwards another dozen times.

Each time I held on to the seat with less of a grip until eventually just one finger stopped him doing it on his own. His dad came back from doing the shopping (very domesticated) just in time to see Nat ride without me or stabilisers.

I ran for the camera. He was off, back and forth with the biggest grin on his face. What a fantastic sight and what a fantastic achievement in his little life.

I asked him how he felt and he said " I feel very happy mummy". Bless him, he's gorgeous.

I've added that to be one of my happy thoughts, along with him laughing, which is one of the best things ever, and the way we say we goodnight : " Love you little", I say, "Hate you big" ,he replies.

Children are so prescious, really ,and they grow up so quickly. This blog will serve as great memories for me. Rx

Friday 15 May 2009

CHEESE

Ben was just two years old and Lauren was just two months old. It was a Friday and Grandad was with us.

He still visits every Friday, and the kids get very excited partly because Grandad's coming and partly because it's treat day and he buys them sweets!

Anyway, on this particular Friday to give me a rest while Lauren had her lunchtime nap, Grandad said he'd take Ben out for a little drive and go up to Leeds/Bradford airport to watch the planes for a while.

I got him ready and he was dead excited. It was only his second time out on his own with Grandad.

When they'd gone I put Lauren to bed and had a lovely time pottering about the house, I read a magazine, tidied up abit and Lauren slept for hours; bliss.

Ben unfortunately didn't have quite such a nice time as we found out when they got back.

Grandad and he watched some planes at the airport, and he really enjoyed it, and concentrated for as long as can be expected from a two year old (not that long!).

They then set off back. Ben said he was thirsty and not wanting to stop Grandad looked around his car and found a drinks bottle. Assuming it contained water he passed it back to Ben who was strapped into his child seat. Ben apparently took a great big glug from the bottle and..........spat the contents back all over the car, and the back of Grandad, and screamed and cried for the rest of the way home.

The drinks bottle as it turned out contained milk, from their previous trip out A WHOLE WEEK before - so you can imagine how revolting and sour the milk was; it was almost cheese! Poor kid got the shock of his life when he tasted it.

Unfortunately Grandad has never been allowed to forget his dreadful error, I think it's scarred Ben for life!

THANKYOU

I'd like to say a big thankyou to FAMILIES magazine, both Leeds and York for mentioning me and my blog in their latest issues.

FAMILIES magazine is a great free local magazine featuring lots of really interesting stuff for mums and dads with kids. I love the pages that detail what's happening in and around the area. Very useful for filling those long holiday days! Wild West Week at Royal Armouries is top of my list for half term!

So thankyou to Sarah Butters (Leeds) and to Belinda (York) for their kind words.

Pick up your local copy - I get mine from Wetherby library, have also seen them in Starbucks on Street Lane, Leeds.
RX

HANNAH MONTANA

Lauren is totally and utterly addicted to Hannah Montana. It's on in our house every day for as long as she can get away with it. If I'm busy (bad mum) it's a little too long!

The other day I decided to see what all the fuss was about, as the boys were getting 'sucked in' to what I believed was a trashy American soap as well. We all sat down in our snug and watched one episode from start to finish. I challenged them at the beginning by saying " OK guys, at the end of this show I'd like you to tell me what you've learnt from this programme".

Twenty minutes later I have to admit, I'd really enjoyed it. Yep OK it was full of cheap 'gags' and Billy Ray Cyrus is not the best actor in the world, but it was harmless and Dolly Parton made a guest appearance which made my day. Always been a fan of hers!

"So", I said as the credits came on the screen. " What did you learn from that, anything?" Immediately Benj piped up with "Yes mummy, I learnt that you should always give people a second chance - and that we should turn anger into love". Wow, wow and wow - I was bowled over. That was exactly what I took from it too!

So, next time you think your kids have glazed over, and are getting nothing out of the TV other than square eyes (my mum used to say it to me and my sister all the time, and now I say it to my kids!) why not ask them some questions. You may be pleasantly surprised.


On the strength of that,I took Lauren to see the Hannah Montana movie on Saturday too, and that was well entertaining. Really lively, colourful, full of messages! and some great songs. Mostly girls in the audience, and they actually clapped and cheered when it finished - and I joined in too!
RX

Tuesday 12 May 2009

SHARKS

I planned it meticulously with my mother. She was to have Lauren, aged nearly one, for the day, while Chris and I took Ben, aged just three to the cinema for the first time, and then out for tea.

The film was Finding Nemo. He'd seen pictures in a magazine, we'd talked about it alot, and we'd read all the reviews. It all seemed perfect for our first borns initial cinema experience.

Lauren resisted being left with Gran that day, (kids have such a sixth sense don't they?), and so we were a little late arriving in Leeds. We parked at the Light and Ben was fascinated by the lifts. We bought the tickets, bought him some sweeties and headed for Screen 1, the biggest.

He was so excited he could hardly contain himself.We opened the doors, and his face changed a little. It was dark inside, and neither of us had thought to tell him this. I lifted him up and reassured him and we walked towards the seats. By this time we were really quite late and the cinema was heaving.

We walked down the centre aisle and could just see row after row of full seats.We walked up and down a while and thought we were going to be out of luck when Chris spotted three seats on the front row.

Not ideal, as the screen was huge, and we were just about three feet away, but beggars can't be choosers and we so desperately didn't want to upset our little boy. So we sat down, opened the sweets and made ourselves comfortable.

But not for long! The trailers ended, and Finding Nemo was next up. The music came first; deafening music, and Bens face fell. And it was very loud. He jumped on my knee - ok, I thought not the end of the world if he sits on my knee for two hours. Then the film started. Lots of lovely, colourful little fishes swimming around was what I had imagined and what we'd talked about - certainly not what came next.

The opening credits had just finished when - WHAM - a gi-normous shark came tearing towards us, filling the entire screen with its pointed teeth and flaring nostrils.

Ben screamed, and screamed and screamed and we left the cinema. That was it, his first cinema experience over in five minutes.

Note to film producers - is there really any need to scare the life out of your target audience, when most of them are under eight years old?!

Not that he's been scarred for life but it took us a good few years before Ben would return to the cinema. When he did, I took him to see Jungle Book. And yes, it was full of colourful little creatures and a friendly happy jungle boy who sang nice songs. Perfect.

Friday 8 May 2009

FADS

We have a new 'fad' in our house, or at least the children do. It just happens to be my favourite one of all time though, so I'm happy to give them my time to play with these little plastic things called GOGOS.

They come in packs of three, in case you're not aware and they cost 99p - you get stickers too though, which makes the price quite reasonable, according to my kids!

Lauren saved up, or conned her Gran, I'm not sure which, and today we had a delivery of thirty packets.Yes, thirty packets! My Dad, who is seperated from my mum was horrified and declared that she spoils Lauren. Err, I have to agree having seen the Gogos all over the floor of our snug after she'd emptied them out.

I had lots of fun sorting these pleasing little plastic 'creatures' into colours though, which my dad labelled obsessive and my husband agreed (charming, I just think I have an organised mind).

Lauren took one look at them when I'd spent the best part of half an hour lining them all up, and exclaimed at the cute ones, and declared that even with one hundred plus (she had some already) the one she REALLY wanted wasn't there!

Some people are never satisified, can't imagine where she gets it from.............