New Words Every Day

I just love the stage that our baby boy is at right now. Actually I should probably stop calling him a baby, he is more of a toddler at this point. But he is our youngest and last and I want to have a baby for just a bit longer!

Anyway back to the point, Daniel is 21 months old and chattering like a monkey! I love watching the joy on his face when I understand what he is saying, and more often than not what he wants to eat.

Many of Daniels first words have been food or drink related. Unsurprising, considering thats all he ever wants to do. He is now constantly asking for bananas, toast, biscuits, chocolate (I know, I’m a bad mother), grapes, milk or juice. When he asks for whatever it is he wants and I understand him he immediately yells “Hooray!!”, it’s just so cute.

I can see Daniels temper starting to lessen as he is able to communicate more. I am so looking forward to the day that he can say, “mummy, I am hungry and would love to have my dinner now.” But for now, “bye bye” and “banana” are more fine by me.

The Run Up To Christmas Begins!

Normally by this time of year I am at least half organised for christmas. I know how boring that sounds but the thought of buying all my presents in December terrifies me and I could never afford to do it all in one month anyway.

This year however I seem to be lagging behind. I have a few things in for Jake and a few dress up costumes for Rachel, but other than that the attic is bare.

I hadn’t even begun to worry about it until we went sofa shopping today. After visiting numerous furniture stores and finally deciding on our perfect sofas we were informed that we would have to wait 14 weeks for delivery. The sales assistant specifically pointed out that we will be receiving the set about a week before christmas. The panic then set in……14 weeks, thats only 3 months, thats three wages, thats not enough!

To make things worse after a visit to the toy store next door the children have now dictated their entire christmas list, and guess what, they won’t be getting the half of it! Jake, our wily three year old, informed me that if I let him get a big drum kit for christmas he would be my best friend again. i didn’t know that he had ever stopped the wee imp!

So the christmas countdown has officially begun. I had better start to stockpile very soon, or it will be homemade gifts and cards for family and friends!

When Gender Becomes An Issue

Up until recently there was very little differentiation in our home between the toys Rachel played with, and the toys that Jake chose.

If Rachel wanted to play with Barbies or My Little Ponies, then Jake was happy to join in. But in the last few weeks our wee boy has started to emerge. It all started with a Batman figure that my sister bought for him last month, and from then we have seen his interest in boys toys grow and grow.

I thought it was time to bring down all Gerard’s old He-Man and Ghostbuster toys from the attic yesterday, and honestly you would have though that it was christmas in our house. Jake has played with the toys ever since, and its funny to imagine that 25 years ago his dad was playing with the same toys.

I can see Jakes gender really beginning to make a difference in other areas too. He is no longer content to watch Barbie Mermadia repeatedly, but is now asking for Power Rangers and Thunderbirds. When playing with other children he naturally gravitates towards the boys, and instead of playing on the swings, or see saws, Jake now wants to play sword fights.

Rachel is such a girly girl, who loves to pretend to be me in every way. Its nice to see Jake no longer following her every move, but beginning to make choices of his own.

Dads Prefer The Simple Things On Fathers Day

I just came across a great post on the Digito Society blog, that references a study carried out to determine what dads like to receive on fathers day.

One third of fathers said that their number one gift preference would be a greeting card, and 14% would like a home cooked meal.

Thank God for that! Gerard has nothing to complain about then. He received not one but two cards. One store bought, one the children made themselves. His breakfast in bed was home cooked, it may have only been fruit and porridge, but it still counts.

In lieu of a huge gift, I would like instead to publicly (and belatedly)thank my husband for being the best dad I know. I appreciate you so much, our kids are going to grow up to be better people because you are so active in their life. One day they will realise how lucky they are!

Apparently I'm Ruining Her Life!

Following on from my post on outside influences on children, Rachel came off with another cracker this week.

On Friday morning I was trying to coax her into eating her fruit salad before going to school. She was digging her heels in and refusing to do so. She wanted a biscuit and juice, I tried to have the junk food chat but she just wasn’t listening. So I told her that she would be getting nothing else to eat until the fruit was finished.

She then stood up, kicked the table and exclaimed “mother, you are ruining my life!”

I had to turn away so she wouldn’t see me laugh! I said “Rachel, you don’t even know what that means” she replied “yes I do, it means you are making me very unhappy”.

It turns out that a nine year old girl that lives in our street had said the same thing to her sister while Rachel listened last week. It obviously stuck, and now it is her phrase of choice when we are not pleasing her.

If this is what she is like at 4, how will we cope with a teenage version?

One Pregnancy Scare Too Many!

It is coming up to that time, when Rachel and Jake where 9 months old, my periods returned. Within another 3-4 months I was pregnant again. Daniel is now 9 months old and the feelings of panic are beginning to rise.

I have already explained my feelings on birth control and contraception, so at the minute we are relying on good old condoms. However we used them religiously after Jake, and I still got pregnant, so I don’t have a hig level of faith in our chosen method.

Two weeks ago I began to get period cramps. I had been expecting them for a while, so i stocked up on sanitary products and waited for the inevitavble. But it didn’t come.

Five days of cramps and mood swings later I began to panic. For the first few weeks of all my pregnancies I have suffered with cramps of this kind, so I began to suspect that I was pregnant once more.

At first I was relatively calm. “It must be meant to be” I thought, I was nervous when I was first pregnant with Daniel, but I wouldn’t change him for the world, and after all didn’t I want a sister for Rachel? However as the hours began to pass and I pondered the future I began to get frantic. Daniel wouldn’t even be 18 months old when the baby was born. I would be bound to get severe SPD again, how would I cope without being able to walk and still look after 3 young children? I missed a whole nights sleep just worrying and worrying.

First thing last Monday I went to the pharmacy and got a pregnancy test, though I was sure what the result would be……Guess what, I was wrong. The test was negative.

I am still getting the cramps, but I am hoping that it is just my body’s way of getting itself into gear once again. After all I haven’t had a period since before I was pregnant a year and a half ago.

Gerard has been ordered to the GPs in a bid to get his vastectomy moved forward. I couldn’t cope with this panic every month!

What Makes You Happy?

Mind Hacks? are producing a programme for BBC2 beginning this week called ‘The Happiness Formula’.

In a bid to find out what makes people happy, the BBC have put up their own Happy Tips webpage. It is well worth a look. Suggestions for finding happiness include

* Practicing Forgiveness
* Being Grateful For The Good Things In Life
* Being a Little Crazy Now and Again
* Don’t Make Money Your God
* Stop Reading The Newspapers

I have to say there’s not much there that I would disagree with!

What makes me happy……thats an easy one: my friends and my family. I try to avoid negative people wherever possible, avoid needless worrying, avoid debt (that’s a big one!)and try to concentrate on the positive things in my day and my life. It works for me!

Salary Of A Mum

Dana pointed me towards Salary.com who have developed a great tool called the Mom Salary Wizard. It basically works out what a mums salary should be based on the amount of children they have, whether they are a stay at home mum or working mum and where they live.

As I don’t live in the USA I couldn’t personalise it, but a general analysis showed that I should be getting paid ?72,000 or $134,000.

If only!

Vomiting Baby, Pee Stained Toddler, My Washing Machine Is About To Die!

I haven’t had much of a chance to post this week, things have been a bit hectic.

Daniel started the week a bit off colour and not his usual chirpy self. I put it down to teething but on Wednesday he started vomiting every hour at least and didn’t seem to be able to keep any food down at all.

Rachel did this a lot when she was a baby. She seemed to catch some sort of vomiting bug every month. We were so worried that we brought her to the doctor quite a few times. We have since worked out that she gets like this any time she has the slightest temperature, so it was probably all teething related. It appears that Daniel is going to follow in her footsteps.

Jake on the other hand has decided to use his pee as a weapon against us!

Jake has been dry during the day for 4-5 months with very little accidents. We have been lazily putting off training him at night despite the fact that most mornings his Huggies Pull Up Pants were dry or almost dry.

Well they were up until this week! This week Jake has not only begun to wake up with his nappy soaked right through to his pyjamas, but he is also having accidents at each nap time and has had a few while outside playing with Rachel.

He used to get really upset every time he had an accident, now he thinks it is funny. We decided to take the plunge and put him to bed without the pull ups tonight and he stood at the stair gate and called us repeatedly to take him to the toilet, even though he didn’t need to go. But the little tinker just knew that we wouldn’t take the risk of him wetting himself again.

I think that he is either using his toilet habits as a way of getting attention, or he has just gotten lazy. Maybe both.

Hopefully if we perservere for a few nights (or weeks) we can remedy this. But with all the wet bed clothes, vomit covered blankets, babygros, soiled trousers etc my washing machine has been on continuosly. I thank the lord that I was not a mother 50 years ago with no washing machine and no tumble drier. That would be hell on earth!

I Got A Job Offer

What makes this story even more strange is the fact that I’m not even looking for a job!

A few years ago I was asked to sit on the Advisory Group for our local Parenting Forum. I gladly accepted and up until I had Baby D I attented almost all of the meetings and enjoyed being part of such a proactive organisation who tirelessly worked to give parents a voice in our community.

However with the birth of baby number three and with Ray starting preschool I have found it almost impossible to attend any of the meetings this year as it is so akward to get the three children looked after and get Ray ferried back and forward to school.

I was surprised to receive a phone call last week from the Regional Manager of the forum. She is currently carrying out some research on parents views towards physical punishment and wanted me to complete a questionairre for her. I agreed and on Wednesday she arrived at my door bearing gifts in the shape of delicious chocolate buns.

The questionairre took a mere 10 minutes, and we spent the rest of the hour catching up and gossiping. During this time she revealed that her current administrator is due to go on maternity leave during the summer, and she asked if I would like to step into the role for 3 months. I was so chuffed to be asked and told her I would think it over and get back to her.

After weighing it up in my mind and discussing it with Gerard I have decided not to accept the offer. Jay will hopefully be starting playschool next year and Ray will begin Primary One. I don’t know anyone that could look after all three kids and also do the school runs, and the cost of private childcare would be too high to justify me working.

However it really did my self esteem the world of good even to be considered for the position. Its nice to know that someone thinks that I am capable of stepping into a role like this and that someone sees me as more than a mum.