Mr G is 3

I love that one day you're a pirate and the next you're a rock star.
I love that you really believe the other pirates may come and steal the treasure you buried in the sandpit.
I love that some days you wake up and believe you are a puppy.
I love that you think you are a knight and I am your horse.
I love your 7am daring sea rescues, saving your sister from the sharks on the stairs.
I love hiding under a blanket with you, from monsters, on a wet weekday afternoon.
I love that if I say 'You're gorgeous' you say 'No Mummy, I G!'
I love that you're spirited, rebellious, determined.
I love that you say bumpits for crumpets.

Happy 3rd Birthday Mr G!

Dear Diary Little Legacy 19

Wednesday 16th November 2011
I awoke to voices shouting 'Shark'.  I stumbled out of bed and down the landing to find L and G performing daring sea rescues up the stairs, using the sheets that were drying over the banister. We scrambled through the school run, making it by seconds.  I worked at home in the day and after school we picked Daddy and his friend A up from the train station. Kids were very tired but excited to see them.

Wednesday 16th November 1983
Ill again? We went to the Doctors who gave you some medicine.  You and your brother made a library, went to Gran's, made a bookmark, decided to collect stamps and generally didn't stop.


The first entry is mine, the second my mum's.  My mum was a great diarist, I am a lapsed one, although perhaps my blog has filled that space.  When I was 5, the same age as my daughter is now, my mum wrote a diary just for me.  My brother was also exactly the same age as my son is now.

I'm enjoying in dipping in, seeing the world from a 5 year old's perspective, sympathising with the frustrations my mum clearly felt at managing two small children, and relishing as she did, the milestones and the magical stuff children do.  It's comforting to know even though she's not here to ask about those times, that I have a connection to them.

Do you have diaries of people in your family?  Do you keep a diary?

Little legacy is a remembrance project , a positive and creative space, to celebrate small things handed down by predecessors.  Feel free to link up a little legacy you've been thinking about this week, or to leave one in the comments.  Here's the code and here's more on Little Legacy

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We love Pyjama days for Children in Need

There's an art to making the most of a charity Pyjama day, in this case a nursery fundraiser for Children in Need, sneaked in a few days before the actual event.  Any opportunity not to dress or undress a two year old must be seized with relish. Purses open, donations a plenty.


Mr G wore his from the night before to the morning after. A full 36 hours without wardrobe related arguments.  Everyone's a winner.  


Are you doing anything for Children in Need? We're going to a teddy bear's picnic party on Friday.  

Quality Time

I have been reflecting on how to achieve quality time with both my children. They are 2 and 5 and not given to respecting each other's space or need for quality one-on-one time. I took my son on a train to a blogging event and it really sank in how magical that time together, away from the normal routine was. He totally relished it, look at these smiles:

I made him this photo collage for his nursery show and tell, his keyworker said he wouldn't stop talking about it. Which made me feel I had hit on something very important. But then my daughter saw it and caught onto the fact that she had been at school and missed out. So over half term, while her brother was at nursery, I took time out to take her on a bus and a train to the local nature reserve.

Except my son saw the pictures we took at the nature reserve and he wants to go on a boat now. And my daughter is still bitter my son got to ride in a taxi on his day out and see London. I've started something big here I can see.

Which reminds me that Tamsin from Looking for Dragons  (a great blog about adventuring with children) told me about a lovely idea for giving individual children quality time.  A couple she knows take it in turns to take  one of their children out somewhere on the date of that child's birthday every month, while the other parent takes the other child on the date of their birthday.  The next month the parent takes the other child.  Great system.

How do you get quality time with all of your children?  Or even just with one child and one parent?  Any tips?

Tantrum Taming Little Legacy 16

8pm. I am sitting with my back to the inside of his bedroom door. He shouts. He pulls at me then tries to clamber over me. He yanks at the handle. He tries to hit me.  I pick him up and put him on his bed kicking and screaming.  I start reading a book to him.  He starts to lob things off his bed. Which is when Monkey hits me in the face.

I'm furious, but something catches me in time, makes me see the funny side.

'Hey monkey, I didn't know you could fly' I say.

My boy laughs.  A delicious little chuckle.

I carry on, 'Hey monkey, what's wrong with Mr G?' I make the monkey toy edge towards him. 'Hey Mr G why are you cross?' I say in my best monkey voice.

'Hmmmphh,' says my son, but there is a flicker of a smile in the corner of his mouth.

'Hummph?' I say as monkey,  'What's humphh?'

He laughs some more and pulls his duvet back on the bed.

I lay monkey down on the pillow next to him and make his paw tickle his cheek and his head cock to one side as Monkey asks 'Can I sleep in your bed?'

He pulls the duvet over his head, hugs Monkey and accepts my kiss on the cheek.


Distraction is the name of the game. Puppets are an amazing bridge when emotions are running high.  Naming emotions helps children to cope with them. Things I know thanks to my mum, who was a fabulous mum, gran and playtherapist.

Little legacy is a remembrance project , a positive and creative space, to celebrate small things handed down by inspirational people. Feel free to link up a little legacy you've been thinking about this week, or to leave one in the comments. Here's the code and here's more on Little Legacy
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Play Therapy Little Legacy 14/The Gallery

My mum worked as a playtherapist for the NHS. This month the British Association of Playtherapists sent a copy of her obituary, which they published in their magazine.  It was beautifully written and I am so grateful for it, but it wasn't easy to read. I don't know if you have ever read an obituary of someone you know. I hadn't. Obituaries are a glorious celebration of life and achievement, but as a document they feel so black and white, so final.

I am only just realising the impact mum had on the lives of so many families and children. Mum tended to play down her work, (just noticed the pun there, ridiculous but I'm keeping it). Through play, mum guided hundreds of children and families through difficult times.

My mum played tirelessly. It seemed to be effortless for her to get down to a child's level and be led by them. I've met few people so childcentred in their approach.  After teaching for many years she found her true vocation in play therapy.

This week I tried to take my son to pre school gymnastics. He took one look and ran out the door. At first I tried to pull him back, listening to some seriously dodgy, old school parenting voices in my head, saying I mustn't let him give up and that it was wrong to let him get away without trying.

And then I heard my mum's voice saying 'childcentred'.  So I followed him outside and let him swing in the railings. It wasn't gymnastics, but it was an impressive kind of parkour.  In fact I think he could be the next pre school parkour champion. Before long he had started digging and found a worm. Then a ladybird crawled across my bag and we sat together passing it back and forth between us giggling as it tickled us.

The sort of activities my mum absolutely relished. It is so easy to get lost in the sea of parenting voices, but this week I found my anchor.

Mum teaching L to search for insects

Little legacy is a remembrance project , a positive and creative space, to celebrate small things handed down by predecessors. Feel free to link up a little legacy you've been thinking about this week, or to leave one in the comments. Here's the code and here's more on Little Legacy.

<a href="http://www.aresidence.co.uk/p/little-small-thing-handed-down-by.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1204.photobucket.com/albums/bb402/aresidence/acorn2.jpg" border="0" alt="@AResidence "></a>

Pop over to the The Gallery at Sticky Fingers where the theme is inspirational people.

Surviving the school run with a toddler

'Mummy pull!',  'I do it my own', helping sis home from school, nice belt.

How free range should a 2/3 year old be?  I ask myself that a lot.  I read something recently that suggested not as much as my boy is, but I think once you leave the buggy behind it's hard to go back.

We have done the school run, with Miss L for a whole six days now.  The main problem is keeping nearly 3yo Mr G happy.  I see lots of kids his age sat in buggies, but having glimpsed the freedom to roam offered to his big sister, he will not be restrained. The trusty old McLaren buggy was retired some months back, after an afternoon of triumphant escape acts in the city centre.  My boy would give Houdini a run for his money.

He loves the balance bike and scooter, and he will go a long way on them.  But he sometimes runs out of steam part way home and I end up carrying him, the scooter, Miss L's book bag, a pile of coats...as I wrote last week, I am my mother's child, fully capable of producing school run scenes resembling Quentin Blake illustrations.

I found a great solution to this recently, the Scoot'nPull.  I threatened to invent one a few years ago, but I didn't, and another mum did, look, here she is:

It's a funky strap in a range of great colours, that attaches to the scooter so you can pull it.  It was surprisingly effortless to pull him along.  The hand loop also fits round the back wheel to make a carry strap, great to free up a hand or hang over the edge of a pushchair.

We also found it really useful for stopping the boy wonder from scooting off too fast and to keep him close by on busy roads or in crowded areas where his need for speed terrifies me.  I feel some parents let their kids go way too fast, too young, next to major roads on these things.  I can't bear it.  But this way he can scoot or balance bike along while I talk to Miss L about her day.

How free range are your kids? When did your say goodbye to the buggy? Any tips for keeping little ones in check through the school run?

Giveaway

If you have a boy or girl wonder that needs tethering, or yanking home, I have some Scoot n' Pull's to give away.  UK entries only.  Please leave a comment below and make sure you leave your twitter or blog contact details.  Or you can buy one at the bargain price of £6.99 here.

Just So Festival in pictures

 

Just so festival... is perfect for little ones.  We went along for the day on Sunday, to Barnswood, Staffordshire.  The site is a Scout camp which lends itself perfectly to the event.  Rather than a series of big fields as you would perhaps expect from a festival, there was a collection of small, themed forest clearings.  Each one was a fantastical journey into the imagination drawing on different art forms.  So many spaces to explore, plenty of shelter and lots of gentle stimuli to encourage creativity.

Out favourite area was Tall Trees wood where, after dressing up at the Junior Magazine tent, the kids got to facepaint themselves or their grown ups, to bang drums, play on an old piano and most exciting of all, to take part in outlaw training, a bootcamp for wannabe merry men and women to Robin Hood which entailed stealth walking, hiding in the forest, shooting imaginary arrows and stalking parents.  The stuff of proper childhood.

Wonderland caught our imagination, and reeled us in.  Before we knew it the children were following Alice through the edges of the clearing, twirling ribbons and looking for the caterpillar.  It was magic to see the ease with which they slipped into playing and problem solving alongside the adult actors.

When the caterpillar appeared, perched, with help from some stilts, on a mushroom, Mr G's face was pure wonder.

Whereas Miss L engaged the caterpillar in conversation...

We had a rather lovely half hour in a craft tent, helping to sew and stick buttons and flowers onto a piece of art created especially at the event by and for its participants.

The beach area was fun, Mr G loved the boat and some more pirate role play.

Miss L loved making her own LUSH bath bomb.

It was a wonderfully unspoilt adventure.  I was unbelievably grateful for the complete lack of plastic tat and sweets on sale.  There were no additional charges apart from for food and drink, which was yummy.  The brands involved were low key and very special. The Weleda goody bags were amazing. We had a chat with the just fruit smoothie and no sugar ice lolly seller, a Dad who got fed up of buying sugary lollies for his son, and enjoyed lots of good old fashioned homemade cake.

Fruit Freezies were a hit

We just couldn't do it in a day, definitely going for the weekend next year, making more effort to fancy dress up (although I think the little girls in ballerina skirts, hoodies and wellies look may have been well and truly done in 2011) and definitely spending more time planning what we want to see/do beforehand.  For example we stumbled upon a stop motion animation workshop you needed to book ahead, and we missed the pirate training and the stories round the campfire.

There were moments initially - rather like at Christmas, when they prefer the box to the contents - sometimes all my two wanted to do was the stuff we do all the time at home, swings, jumping in muddy puddles, climbing trees, while I wanted them to take advantage of all the stuff on offer - musicians, storytellers, performers, workshops.  But as the day went on, and the invitations to play pulled us in, suddenly those everyday moments blended into the adventure.

Just so... lovely.  How wonderful to find a children's event with children's play firmly at it's core.

This is not a sponsored post. 

The boy and his mummy went to sea

The boy and his mummy went to sea in a battered boat shaped sandpit. They took golf clubs and spades (for oars), binoculars and toilet rolls (for telescopes) and the attachment to the Hoover (a sea snake).

They battled with sea serpents, whales, crocodiles and spiders.

They escaped to bouncy island (the trampoline)

They performed a daring sea rescue of smelly bear, who had been kidnapped by pirates.

They were back in time for tea (sausage, chips and peas).

Silent Sunday

To find out what the substance of other people's weeks looks like, do visit the lovely Mocha Beanie Mummy

Silent *ahem* Sunday

Sorry it's late Mrs Mocha Beanie, the two year old ate my homework.  The linky is closed :(

Maybe next week...