Annual photo 2009

I got the idea to do an annual photo of us all from a blog by an Argentinian man who did this every year of him and his wife and kids and it is just amazing to watch the kids faces change as the years go on. When I find the link to this blog will put it on here. Anyway, I thought it was a
wonderful ideal so we've decided we'll take a photo of all of us on July 1st every year. I also thought that if we do end up home-schooling then we will not get the habitual annual school photos so it will be nice to re-create this ourselves.

Tots Tennis

Tot is doing a tennis course with two of his friends, Jake and India. It is more running around and being silly than actual tennis but he loves it! He is getting quite good at volleying and is just starting to do forehand. I always loved tennis and so I thought I would try and get the boys into it to, and so far he seems to like it! I have a photo of him with his racket and will post this too when I find it.

Tumble Tots

Tot has been doing Tumble Tots for 3 weeks now and he absolutely loves it! That may be helped by the fact that one of his best friend's, India, goes too. She has done it since she could walk and her mum would go around the apparatus with her. From the age of 3 they do it on their own and parents wait in the bar area of the football clubhouse where it is held. I was a bit nervous about this to begin with as I have never left him at a nursery or anything like this before (he used to be looked after by his Nana and then his Grandma for two or three days a week when I worked but I have never been worried about leaving him with family). Anyway, even on the first week he ran in and didn't give me a second glance! And I've noticed a difference in his physical development already: he is more confident at climbing things already! We are still waiting for postman pat to bring him his Tumble Tots T-shirt but when it arrives I will post a photo of him wearing it!

Playgroup

Just got back from playgroup - and for once we didn't have an episode that ended in tot getting hurt and crying. When I say hurt - not real hurt - just knocked over, although one week he did have a slight bruise on his arm. I'm not the kind of mother who wraps their kids up in cotton wool (well, if I did then they wouldn't go to the play group in the first place I suppose) but I always keep an eye out for them when they go to these baby and toddler get-togethers. The problem is that there are two boys who are a year older than tot (which is quite a lot when you are only 3!) and they are deliberately picking on him. It makes me feel so angry but because it is a parent-organised group it is difficult for me to say or do anything to change the way these terrors are: all I can do is protect my boys by being there to keep an eye that no harm comes to them. A few weeks ago I voluteered to do the teas and coffees as the mum that used to do it left as her son was starting school. So the problem started then. These boys are devious little monsters that look around to see if an adult is watching before racing around with a trike and deliberately ploughing into another child. They go to the pre-school (but still go to the playgroup too) and apparently they are completely different kids there: they behave because they know they have to. A few of tot's friends have stopped coming as they now go to pre-school so it seems like he has lost his comrades and these boys really are picking on him. When they see him one of them will say, "there he is" and they will go after him. One week I told tot that they were naughty boys and that he should ignore them - however, he is at the age where he is getting very chatty yet no inhibition and so he goes along to the playgroup saying to them, " You are the naughty boys"! As children do at that age they then started to call him a naughty boy, so that now when they see him they say "there he is, the naughty boy" which gets tot all upset. Last week one of their mums saw them hurt tot and she came and told me in the kitchen and apologised and got the boy to say sorry to tot. I was contemplating not going back but then I thought why should we when if it wasn't for those two both my boys would have a lovely time. Anyway, today I got tot sitting down at the craft table colouring in while I did the tea and coffees. He was happy to sit there until I had finished and came to join him. Only when I took him and the baby into the main play area would he venture into it though and he is normally so confident. But today we had no tears and they seemed to enjoy themselves. I just felt nervous the whole time though always having to watch out so we shall have to see how things turn out as to whether we carry on going there.

My baby is 1 and my tot is 3!

This week my baby turned 1! He is now nearly a toddler rather than a baby and this makes me sad :( I'm thinking more and more about baby number 3 now but it doesn't seem to be happening at the moment despite me cutting their feeds down to bedtime only. Anyway, baby turned one this week and tot turned 3 last week and to celebrate we had a party with all their family and friends in our garden at the weekend. We had a ball pit and their aunty and uncle kindly bought them a slide as a joint present. There was party food and Thomas the Tank Engine cake for baby and Henry Tank Engine for tot (which I made - had been stressing over them for weeks but they turned out okay - not perfect - but good enough for the tots to be happy with them!). It was a lovely day but I am only regretful of one thing: that I didn't try and enjoy more of it. I guess this is difficult to do if you want to be the perfect hostess! I was in the kitchen practically all day preparing food, getting drinks (coffee orders were high due to my nice new Gaggia!) and tidying up. At the end of the day I had to ask my husband if tot had played well with his friends and he had to fill me in on what happened for most of the afternoon out in the garden as I was so pre-occupied doing things. I wish I could have spent more time enjoying the moment with everyone. So I will have to come up with a better plan for next year! At least everyone else had a good time though and the two stars of the show had a ball so that's the main thing!

The little sweet shop

There is a little unit just up from the High Street where we live that had intrigued me for a while - ever since we moved here three years ago I suppose. When you walk past it you can see big bags and boxs of sweets. The sort of sweets that I remember as "penny sweets" from my childhood, or "pick'n'mix" as my son would call them. I presumed that it was a wholesale warehouse that supplied shops etc. The windows have shutters up and there is no sign across the building or "open" sign on the door: nothing to suggest that it is the sort of place that the public could just walk in off the street into. Anyway, one day I was passing it as we were on a late-afternoon walk - boys both in the buggy as they were tired but refusing to nap. As I approached the building I noticed children running in and coming out with little paper bags of sweets. So I got the boys out of the buggy and in we went. I have just finished reading Roald Dahl's "The Giraffe, The Pelly and Me" to tot and it sort of reminded me of a Dahl novel. Tot's eyes lit up as he saw the vast array of penny sweets sitting there in little tubs. There were shrimps; white mice; fizzy bubblegum bottles; fish n chips; cola bottles; jelly babies; flying saucers; beer bottles; midget gems; wine gums; cherry cola bottles; fried eggs to name a few! There was an old man with a long grey beard and bizarely a baseball cap who was very friendly and helped tot pick out "50 pence worth of sweeties". It took me back to my childhood when our Dad used to take us to the corner shop in the next village (as our village shop didn't open on a sunday in those days) and he would let us get 20 pence worth - which meant 20 sweets, I think it was the highlight of our week! It has made me realise that it is the little things that matter as a child: the fun things that they do as a routine - weekly trip to the sweet shop; weekly swimming session; afternoon in the park; playing with friends in the back garden; a trip to McDonald's; stories at bedtime, it is these little things that I remember from childhood more so than big events such as birthdays or summer holidays. So even though I don't really want to encourage my boys to eat lots of sweets I just love the sentiment behind this little "sweet shop"!

Another virus for my poor baby

Today we went to the GPs with baby - again. He had a high temperature the last day of our holiday and for a few days after that. He also had a runny nose and was off his food. I was not overly concerned about this but last night he started to develop a rash all over his torso. By now his temperature had returned to normal and I did the glass test with the spots - so wasn't worried it was meningitis. Anyway, this morning the rash looked worse as it had creeped up to his neck and forehead, so I took him to the doctors. The diagnosis was that it is just a virus and therefore they cannot prescribe anything. She said she had seen another baby this week with exactly the same symptoms, so it is obviously doing the rounds whatever it is. It is very frustrating when they say this because it's like you just want them to give you some magic cream to make it all better again! But at least I got peace of mind that it is nothing serious.