An unexpected summer activity…

I know, I know, it’s been ages since I’ve been here. I think about the blog everyday, ideas for posts pop into my head regularly, but sitting down and writing them seems to be too difficult. I guess you could say I am blocked. I am hoping that this one helps me write others, so I will be back soon, but today I wanted to share something important with you.

There are many moments, as a parent, that make you feel proud of your children: a good school report, going into pre-school without crying, watching them be kind to a friend or a sibling, watching them play football. I’m not sure, that so far, anything has topped the moment, a few weeks ago, when MM announced that he’d like to raise some money for charity.  Maybe it was motivated by seeing others do similar, maybe by that nice feeling we get when we do something nice, who knows?

We chatted about what kind of charity he’d like to support and he was keen to do something that would help children. We had recently finished the amazing book, The Light Jar by Lisa Thompson, which centres around a boy and his mother who have fled an abusive partner. (I know this sounds like a grim book for a nine year old, but I promise it isn’t. I’m going to do a round up of some of the books we’ve read to MM recently, but for now, trust me) We talked about how the boy in the book had to leave with virtually nothing, in a night-time flit and I told him about a local charity that runs refuges and offers support to families fleeing domestic violence. MM was really interested in helping a smaller charity, rather than one of the big national charities, as he felt that they already had lots of support, so we settled on Leeway Domestic Violence and Abuse Services.

Next we had to think about what he wanted to do. I did suggest getting school involved for a collection of things the charity needs, but he was reluctant. My boy doesn’t like the spotlight, especially at school and so this was a step too far for him, so we settled on a sponsored project for the summer holidays. He is going to run the distance of a marathon, starting at the beginning of August and finishing before he goes back to school. He felt that this was something he’d enjoy and was achievable, but that he would still need to show  commitment, as he’s going to have to run nearly every day, including when we go away on holiday, with his plan to run a mile a day.

Having said he doesn’t like the spotlight, he is happy to ask people on the Internet to sponsor him and gave his full consent for me to write about his challenge. I get that and I hope you do to. Sometimes I find it easier to share things via a screen, than I do when a person is in front of me and I think the attention from friends and teachers just felt a little overwhelming.

So, if you can spare a couple of pounds to help motivate him and help a really fantastic charity, doing great work to help adults and children in the most dire of circumstances then we would be so grateful. You can find his sponsorship page here. It really doesn’t have to be much, the price of a takeaway coffee would be brilliant.

I’ve been thinking a lot about privilege recently and how fortunate we are. Our home is secure, we live a settled, comfortable life, where we don’t face prejudice or abuse and I often wonder if as a result, my children are growing up in a vacuum. As I’ve said before, I talk about the wider world and try to open them up to it, but children can often seem like selfish creatures, cross because you won’t buy them a thing that everyone else has, or let them stay up and watch a film that is too old for them. To have a child who not only realises that others are not in as fortunate as he is, but also wants to do something to help, however small his contribution, gives me hope for the future and makes me beyond proud.

So, come on Internet, do your thing, so he knows that others will do something to help him on his journey. Let’s make his first fundraising experience a good one!

Thank you and I promise I will be back in this space very soon.

Five

13th April

 

Five. A messy jumble of words, ideas and questions that tumble out one after the other. Filling the eldest brother shoes with ease. Funny, caring, loud, challenging, unbending and loving. Needs to run. A Lego loving, imagination explosion. Amazing company.

In other words, everything a five year old should be.

Thanks to Heather for the last photo. I hope she doesn’t sue me for putting up a slightly blurred one, but I just love it so much

Review: An overnight stay

Not only are we going to an open evening for Mini Mck’s possible new school tonight, but this week has seen another big milestone befall the Limited household. At three and a half Mini Mck stayed away from the house and away from Mckdaddy and I for the first time.

Having my children stay away overnight has never been something I’ve hankered after. I have had weekends away and Mckdaddy has looked after them alone and vice versa and we have all been away as a family, but there has never been a reason for them to stay away from home for the night.

A few weeks ago while we were at my Dad’s for lunch Mini Mck started staying that he didn’t want to come home and that he’d like to stay the night at Nanny and Grandad’s and so I decided that if he was asking for it, then I wanted him to do it. He is starting to want independence, starting to want to do things without his parents around.

His little mini-break also gave us a chance to test out the Skoot Ride-on suitcase that we had been sent to review, that unfortunately didn’t arrive in time for our half-term break.

I already loved the look of the Skoot, as it looks like a cool, zippy, retro mo-ped and Mini Mck had enjoyed scooting around the house and parking his ‘motorbike’, but I was interested to know if we would fit all his things in it and whether it would pass the ‘Grandparent Test’. For those of you that don’t know, the ‘Grandparent Test’ is whether they can easily use a child related product. Both my parents and my Stepmother seem unable to easily use car seats, highchairs, pushchairs or re-usable nappies and so I wasn’t convinced that they’d be able to open or close the Skoot, seeing as it took me a little while to master it, when we first got it.

We managed to fit all Mini Mcks belongings for his overnight stay in and it returned today neatly packed and correctly closed. It is really easy to pull along and I can imagine that kids using it on shiny airport floors would have a blast. Mini Mck loves anything where he can be involved, so having his own case that he can help to pack is perfect for him. It gets a big thumbs up from us.

How did I fare after his first night away? Well. much like the new suitcase, I managed to hold it all together. It was strange to see his bedroom door open and no-one in there last night, but it was worth it for the glorious (OK, only 6:45am, but still…) lie in that we all had this morning.

As far as Mini Mck was concerned the main problem is going to be convincing him that this isn’t going to happen every Wednesday night and apparently neither Mckdaddy or myself got a mention the whole time he was there.

I could be offended by this, but instead I find that it makes me very, very happy.

This is a post about an overnight stay, which includes a review, for which we were sent a Skoot ride-on suitcase free of charge. 

Sun

It’s amazing what a difference some sun on your face makes. Your arms, legs and toes can finally feel the air and warmth. The tantrums seem less, the TV is off and even my house looks tidier and happier. I am a little sad that we seem to have bypassed Spring this year. I like Spring, the freshness in the air even though the sun is shining and the fact that you still need a cardi when you go out. We appear to have gone straight from a grey, wet and cold winter to full on sweltering summer. A shame, but I can live with it.

It feels as if we have been cooped up for months and both myself and the children were becoming a little stir crazy and we weren’t the only ones. So yesterday we broke free and it was wonderful.

I’m not someone who craves a strict routine for my children, Gina Ford would not stand a chance in our house. I am grateful that I don’t, it has made this first year of having two children easier. However, we do seem to have fallen into a routine of sorts, resisting my instinct to get out and about early and instead waiting for Nano to have his first nap. This gives us a nice chunk of time to go on an adventure and even the possibility of getting them to nap at the same time when we get home.

Yesterday our adventure involved sun hats and lotion, a picnic in the park, some football, swings and the first ice cream of the year on the way home. Chalk railway lines and roads drawn on the patio kept Mini entertained, as did picking herbs and watering pots. Washing got pegged out and dry and the lawn was cut.

It was a good day.

Just in case you hadn’t heard me mention in before *cough* I am a finalist in The MADS Best Baby Blog and if you haven’t voted already would love it if you considered casting a vote for Mummy Limited. Thank you x

Long time, no see

Hello little blog, I’ve missed you. Unfortunately, not only have I not had the brain space to get posts onto the page, I haven’t even had the actual time. With Nano’s Baptism on Saturday most evenings have been taken up with lists and little jobs and most days have been used to shop and bring together food for fifty people. Of course I got very caught up in the little details, but honestly I like the details. I like to put thought into what the tables would look like and what music would be the best choice, but all of that can be time consuming and just a little bit exhausting.

It was all worth it though and the details plus lots of lovely food, many cups of tea and lots of bottles of sparkly stuff helped make Saturday a really special day with most of our most important people there to share it with us. Nano charmed everyone, as I expected. He was more than happy to be passed around, smiling and twinkling at all the right moments.

It was a lovely finish to a month that has been a little too busy and a little too stressful, where the unfortunate casualty was this little space and the people that visit it.

We have also had a birthday in the family with the obligatory over iced cake and of course a party. This was quickly followed by the start of nursery, which has been far more stressful for me than it has for Mini Mck, exactly as it should be.

All of this has been done while the rain has continued to fall, almost every day and another week of rain is forecast this week. When I had a career that involved every bit of me to be there for too many hours a week I never noticed the weather and now I live by it. I know that June is the best month of the summer and that April is when I start wearing my Birkinstocks and we go to the park without our coats. Not this year though. As I stare at the rainy window I do try to remember that it is good for the growing, but I really am over it now and long for warmth and sunshine or frankly even one of those things would do right now.

Gosh, I think I’ve just managed to write a rambling, general update blog post. I hope so, I love reading them on other blogs, but have never been able to get the hang of them. Insightful, meaningful service will be resumed shortly……maybe.

The things they say and do – The special friend edition

It took a long time for Mini Mck to become attached to a particular toy for bedtime, preferring instead a person of the parent variety to cuddle until he was asleep, but gradually he began to focus on a velvety blue rabbit, especially when we attached a dummy to his ear. The dummy has gone now, but the rabbit has remained.

This rabbit was bought for him when he was born and Mckdaddy and I named him Blue Bob, but Mini Mck had other ideas and he is now know as Momo. Sometimes Mini Mck doesn’t seem bothered if Momo is with him at night, but he is always around somewhere, often joined by various cars, planes, lorries and based on this earlier conversation he is clearly quite close to his cuddly rabbit.

Mini Mck: Momo is a blue rabbit, Mummy. He’s got byack whiskers

Me: Yes, he is. Actually he could do with a wash, he’s quite grubby don’t you think.

Mini Mck: Yes, he does need a wash

Me: I’ll pop him in the washing machine later

Mini Mck: NO Mummy, don’t put him in the washing machine

Mini Mck frowns and looks at Momo. then in his best Momo squeaky voice


Mini Mck: How bout you wash me under the tap, Mummy?

So, whilst Mini Mck was at the allotment this morning I lovingly chucked him in the washing machine washed him under the tap *cough*

I am linking this post up to Thinly Spread’s Things they say and do post. Do visit Chris for some lovely stories from this week.

A short list of things I wish to tell my pre-child self

1) You will know tiredness that you never imagined possible, but you will get through it and in surprising good humour, most of the time, especially for someone who likes a good solid eight hours sleep. Oh, and you will consider 7:30am to be a lie in

2) The thing you will miss most will not be nights out, the ability to stay awake beyond 11pm or fantastic holidays, it will be, being in your house completely and utterly alone, without even a sleeping child in it. It will happen rarely so enjoy it while you can.

3) After children you will be able to achieve a phenomenal amount in a short space of time when someone takes them off you hands. Whereas it used to take you all morning to clean the house, you will be able to achieve the same thing in and hour and a half, with a coffee break. It will highlight how much you could have achieved while you still had the time and freedom to do so. So, get up and DO STUFF NOW.

4) You desire to shop does not disappear once you have kids. In fact, if anything it gets worse, because not only will you still covert handbags and shoes for yourself, but you head will be turned by children’s clothes, children’s shoes and children’s bedroom furniture and decor. You will even find yourself hankering after children’s desks before they can even write. Start saving now.

5) Despite what you think now, you will have babies and they will be perfect.

6) People will buy your kids too much stuff, too many toys and books that you will not want to read over and over again, but will be required to. Be strict, be ruthless and start de-cluttering your stuff now, there will be no room for it once they arrive.

7) Nursing bras are horrid, even the nice ones. Enjoy your lingerie now.

8) You have never experienced unconditional love before and it is a rather odd feeling. It is totally different to anything you have known before. The knowledge that no matter what they do you will always love them totally and utterly. At first it really is quite scary.

9)  Learn to never go anywhere empty handed. Once you have children, nothing will be in the room that it is supposed to be and once they are toddlers you will constantly find random items of clothing discarded all over the place. On the other hand you will never keep up with it all, so you may as well get used to it quickly.

10) Sometimes it will be hard and awful, but most of the time it will be amazing and brilliant. It will always be too quick, so enjoy it.

With thanks to Victoria for her ‘Short list of things…’ series.

This post contains sponsored links, but the words are all mine.

The things they say and do: The caring edition

It is a theme that I seem to be returning a lot lately; the idea that days spent with small children is made up of hundreds of tiny moments, stitched together. It occurred to me again this week as I found myself amidst two crying children, one of which had a very smelly nappy. Only a few moments earlier I had been thinking how harmonious everything was, both my boys playing happily, on their own while I pottered about in the kitchen. It was fleeting, but it happened.

Doing their own thing

Mini Mck is a boisterous bull of a child and this is often taken out on his younger, almost infinitely patient brother. He pushes and squashes and grabs. Some days all I seem to do is tell him to get off or leave Nano alone. Once again though, stitched into this are moments of caring and gentleness that make my heart flip and I wanted to remember some from last week.

Doing our shopping in the ‘new improved’ Morrisons, which translates as smaller aisles, more rubbish on the shelves that I don’t need and less of the stuff I do need. I am exasperated.


Me: Ack, grrrr

Mini: What’s up Mummy, are you alright?

Me: I’m fine poppet, I just don’t like new Morrisons

Mini: I yove new Morrisons. You yove new Morrisons too, Mummy. Mummy, you got to be happy. Be happy Mummy

Me: I am happy *melts*

On waking from his nap Nano is grizzling. Mini Mck insists on accompanying me to get him.


Mini: Let me see him Mummy, let me see him. It’s OK Nano, it’s alright, we’re here. We’re here to look after you. *kisses him, cuddles him and strokes his arm*

It’s Friday afternoon and I am strapping Mini Mck into his car seat after being at Mini Monkey Gym


Mini: Mum, I yove you so much.

He puts his arms up and gives me a kiss on the cheek. I melt again.


I am linking this post up to the delightful ‘Things they say and do’ over at Thinly Spread. Click to read more heart-warming and funny stories about the little people.

The strangeness of time and trains

Someone once told me that life with small children can be summed up by saying that the days are long and the years are short. I often think of this, as I look at my nearly three year old I gasp at how big he seems and and for Nano, I am permanently in shock that he is now eight months old, always asking, how did that happen?

I read the most brilliant piece on motherhood this week, if you have five minutes please give it a read. I promise it will lift your day and will stay with you long after the laptop has been shut down. The upshot of it was, that there are two kinds of time when you are parenting. Chronos time, which is real, often laborious, seemingly never-ending child wrangling time and the other is Kairos time. This is those moments that are outside of normal time, that stand out and are fleeting, but precious. It resonated with me and I have begun to notice those Kairos moments ever since, but they are easily forgotten again and at the end of the day I am more likely to survey the chaos or relay to Mckdaddy tales of tantrums and shouting.

That’s sad, don’t you think?

I am going to try harder to remember those moments, the things that make me stop and smile. The things about my children that are so in the now, they will be lost as they grow and change and I have the perfect place to record these moments. So, here is one from this week.

I am in the dining room, doing something with Nano. I can’t remember what it is, even though it was only days ago, but it involved kneeling on the floor. Mini Mck is bumbling about around us.

Suddenly I hear “Look, Mummy! Look, Nano! I made a train with yots (lots) of cad-geez (carriages)”

Yes, my darling boy, you certainly did.

A train of flotsom & jetsom

I am linking this post to Chris’s ‘Things they say’ feature. An opportunity to cherish those little things. Click the link for some more joyful moments.

Review: A little bit of half-term DIY

Mckdaddy has been embarking on some DIY recently and so when Mini Mck had the opportunity to try out the BigJigs Carpenter Set, we jumped at the chance.

At two and a half Mini Mck’s play often takes the form of copying and role play, which is not a problem when he is ‘helping’ to clean the bathroom or wash the floor, but when heavy lump hammers and large screwdrivers are being picked up as soon as you put them down it can be rather dangerous, both for him and the furniture.

The tool kit hadn’t arrived for the first day of our current project, which involved knocking a brick fireplace off the wall, taking up a hearth and re-plastering and his constant attempts to help with ‘hammanming’ became a bit wearing on Mckdaddy’s patience.

However by day two, Woodentoyshop.co.uk, had sent us this fantastic wooden tool set, consisting of twelve lovely wooden tools in a carry case, which has already been on several outings with us, including the supermarket.

I only have two very tiny complaints about this lovely set. The first is that the opening catches on the box are a little fiddly and not very robust, even for me, let alone a toddler and that it is impossible to remember how everything goes back into the box. It’s like a nice, little puzzle for adults to grapple with at the end of the day!

However, Mini Mck has no complaints at all and absolutely loves this set, not only to help Mckdaddy, but also when playing many of his other imaginative games, which tend to involve broken down trucks, cars, lorries…..you get the picture, I’m sure.

I often have him run through to me from his game shouting “Mummy, I need my tools, I need my tools”.

Thank you to Woodentoyshop.co.uk for providing us with the toolset to review. All the words and opinions are my own (and Mini Mck’s, of course)