This post is to link up with the other wonderful mummy bloggers, who have come together to wish a very bright shining star Matilda Mae a 1st year’s birthday.
We are all thinking of you Jennie and David as you take this day to remember, and take Matilda Mae on her journey to the night sky.
I have put together a little poem for Jennie and family.
Happy 1st Birthday Matilda Mae, your family have balloons, banners and lots of presents of love for you here.
x
{Wednesday, 17th to Friday, 19th April}
The Weather Report
Wednesday afternoon was lovely, I got home from work, picked the kid up from school and baby from his childminder. It was so warm, so windows were opened when we got in and the garden was invaded by the kid, with the baby wanting to go after him. We hovered in the conservatory (or more like the hot house) and before long we were boiling, so cue trying to find a shaded area.
Then that lasted ooooh all of five minutes, and the Thursday, although mild brought together overcast clouds and at one point started to spit with rain when I picked the baby up from nursery. When we got home, the kid and granddad was at home where R got plenty of kisses and cuddles. As well as getting into all sorts of mischief, grabbing DVD’s from the shelf and putting things under the sofa, and anywhere there was a gap.
Today’s weather is pretty poor, although relatively mild the sky’s are grey and no hope of finding the sun wanting to come out to play…although I do hear that we are somewhat going to have a lovely weekend (fingers crossed), watch this space…
{Thursday, 11th to Tuesday, 16th April
Walk that walk, talk that talk – it has been very much the beginning of new and not so new challenges this week.
The kid has been really interested in books of late, which pleases me greatly. To cut a long story short he has been ‘banned’ from the xBox until further notice, and in these few short days with him not playing on it, I have seen such an amazing transformation. He is more socialable, interacts with us all, has been playing out in the garden after school, using his imagination, and of course reading his books. It has been a lot quieter in the household, he’s not hyperactive and talks more to us (he talks nine to the dozen anyway) but it is the meaningful conversations that are flourishing so far.
This has prompted me to question the usage of his xBox. He will be allowed back on it eventually, but I will be very, very strict with supervising his playtime on it. More time will be spent doing more play with us as a family, painting canvasses as we did during the half-term, going swimming more and making more imaginary play. Kids are growing up too fast these days, they want to grow up, I can understand that (I was a kid once before too), but they need to stay young for their sake, but this is lost on them these days, which they fail to grasp. I want my children to stay kids for as long as I can muster. They need to enjoy their childhood, not intend to get to kidadulthood too soon.
There is a lot to be said on how media and these online games influence young children. Even though with age restrictions, young children are too obsessed with what they are allowed to engage in on these systems such as the xBox, Playstation, etc.
Anyway, the rest of the days were consumed by the baby climbing on up everything, hovering, cruising round furniture, anything he can get his hands on to maneouvre he’ll have it. Should your leg be in the way, he’ll have that too to position himself upright with a wonderful toothful grin if as to say ‘ello up there, see what I can do?’ it is wonderful that he is beginning to find his feet (‘scuse the pun), but he now is interested in everything that is around him, pulling at DVD’s, at the dog, food. These are the times that when you turn your back for five seconds he’s somewhere else completely.
The joys of growing up!
{Wednesday, 10th April}
The countdown has begun, no not counting down to when the kid goes back to school, (I haven’t got to that stage this time, surprisingly), but the kid has started to countdown on how many days left he has until his birthday (23 to be exact), he say’s he can’t wait. Oh god.
Hmmm, this is where I come unstuck as I just haven’t a clue what to get him, and I have asked. His response was a laptop, yes a laptop. Why? And no, he’s not having one before you ask.
Kids are growing up way too fast these days, they know how to operate the iPhone, iPad, television, anything gadgetery they can lay claim to, and they know the insides of a duck’s arse about it, and will explain it in full to you whether you care to listen or not. Arrrrrrrghhhh!!!! I just want to scream ‘WHY CAN’T YOU ACT YOUR AGE’ and not in a stupified manner, but literally act your age, and live the life of how a youngster should act. I swear I was still playing with My Little Pony at 7-8 and anything near to having a computer game was PacMan, and I wouldn’t have been interested in that anyway. I loved books, was a certifiable bookwarm at his age, I loved anything creative, so that was another easy one for me, but we’re not talking about me here.
So yes, he won’t appreciate books (his argument is he gets them from his school library, fair enough), anything creative lasts ooh all of 5 minutes. Arrrrrgghhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
I’m seemingly lost, no kidding. But I have 23 days to find something. Wish me luck…I’m going to need it.
Oh how can you resist that face?
A laptop he asks…
No, no, no, okeeeey, no, NO. A defiant, definitely not.
Keep saying this, my mantra for the next 23 days.
End of.
[I’ll update you with what I end up with]
My mother always sang the same lullaby to me as a young girl. The Doris Day ‘Que Sera Sera’ was what she would sing to me. I loved listening to her sing it, it somehow brought me comfort, as she would have me huddled up close in her arms and would continuously stroke my hair and face. The feeling of security and knowing how much you are loved unconditionally, there is no greater bond like it.
“Que Sera, Sera”
{Tuesday, 9th April}
I bought a couple of canvasses, acrylic paints and a shedload of brushes the other day intent on making our creative masterpiece. This morning we set about creating whatever came to mind. Colours were flowing everywhere and we were really enjoying getting stuck into it. I must commend the kid, he didn’t make a mess whatsoever, but me on the other made a bit of a mess, I had the clever idea of splodging bits of paint here and there and flicking a couple of times on the brush, it went everywhere (no surprise) although I thought I was being careful, thank goodness acrylics come off easily with water (had they’d been oils would have been awful), I will be putting them up on a wall in the near future, but we may just try another one to see how we go with those, as we had fun! And that’s what it’s all about.
So what do you think of our masterpieces? It’s called Abstract art (if you were wondering) not anything specific, we need more practice!!
First we got our creative juices flowing – basically putting any colour we fancied on the canvas.
Next up, the kid’s wonderful finished creation, cool huh?!
Mummy’s little creation. Needs more work…
{Monday, 8th April}
Today, we had to go and get new shoes for the kid, my mother insisted that he needs new shoes. Yes, she INSISTED?! Now was the time she decided that it was time to get SHOES…today. The kid is borderline shopaphobic, but is getting quite a shoe collection which nearly equals the size of mine – and I possess a lot of shoes, but to be fair his feet are still growing, so he has some justification in this. Grandma was paying, so I wasn’t arguing.
Since I bought him a pair of school shoes a few days ago, he was after some ‘normal’ shoes…so in Clarks we go, feet get measured and after umming and aaahing over which pair he likes, he decided on a nice brown pair (to hide the dirt I guess he’s going to scuff on soon), as we waited for the lady to box them up and take them to the till I looked around to see every other parent doing the same thing, the city centre was busy anyway due to the half-term, but we all were more or less having to go through the same task of getting kids kitted out just before school starts, or trying to occupy them as much as we could – ok, shopping is the most boring thing a child can be put through, but I very rarely shop with the kid, as its something I know he doesn’t want to endure (unless he gets something out of it).
I must admit I just like to get to the city centre, get to where I need to go, and get out of there. End of. My mum on the other hand can shop for hourssssszzzzzz – so yes I’m not a ‘shopper’ (Christmas shopping…don’t even go there), although I couldn’t resist looking at some shoes for myself, I was only in the shop two seconds and this is the look I got from the kid…
Say’s it all really…
And the baby in all of this, well he was just content sitting in his buggy taking the sights around him in, giving me smiles here and there, bless him.
{Sunday, 7th April}
Today, was much like any other Sunday. We get up early, (the baby tends to wake before 6am), my frazzled brain tries to function and I get out of bed half asleep and head downstairs with the baby.
Baby starts crawling and climbing all over the place, and whilst the hubby and I try between us to get the breakfast cereal done, teas and coffees made, the baby’s breakfast and bottle ready, it’s all in a very automated stumbling stance. (Btw, the other kid is still in bed…jammy.)
It is very much groundhog day, and I don’t mind this, I know what my day consists of. Do I wish it were any different? In all honesty, no. And I mean that, although a nice lie-in once in a while would be nice, but I know that won’t happen for a long while, and anyway, when you’re up, you’re up.
This all sounds very boring – c’mon I know you’re thinking it. Or you may actually know what ‘this’ feels like.
Don’t get me wrong, I still have my goals, my wishful thinkings, my innate sense of I want to do for what’s best for our family, I’m just now more relaxed about it, although I really feel like I do need a kick up the arse about certain goals in my life, and I’m definitely on the cusp of doing just that.
Playtime starts after brekkie, hubby gets kitted out in his cycling gear and head’s out on the road for his 2-3 hour cycle. ‘Sunday Kitchen Best Bites’ on television is usually on in the background, and then occasionally flicking over to CBeebies to entertain the baby at some points.
Then the hubby comes home, baby crawls after daddy with a smile on his face and we all set back to try and relax for the rest of the day. Which always ends up nigh on impossible, but that’s our life and I’m very content (albeit tired) but really, this is how much of us live, and I don’t wish for nights on the town, shopping for clothes, ironing my hair, or pub lunching. (I would however like to sit down and read the paper though…in peace).
So…hello, let me introduce myself, I’m Sheree and I’m a homebody…
This is one of the faces that I get to come home to everyday, and he is just one of the delights of my home, wouldn’t want it any other way.
Right, I’m in desperate need of a cuppa, fancy one?
{Saturday, 6th April}
My eyes, my eyes, what is that bright yellow circle in the sky? The sun you say? WHAT! That’s impossible, we’ve been deprived of the sunshine for the past six months! But oh yes, the sun has got his hat on and it is definitely out to shine.
The hubster decided this was the day he was going to get the lawnmower out and chop our apple tree right back (sob). The kid of course wanted in on this and set about busily getting in daddy’s way as much as possible, still he was quite helpful but moaned consistently that his arm ached and he got a scratch off one of the branches. He ended up giving up on helping out and kicked a ball around instead.
Baby R was much amused with the bright sunshine (yes, he has seen snow for much of the previous few months, more than I’ve seen in the previous 35 years of mine), and when put on the grass, his sensory mind overloaded, and his little fingers tenderly touched the small green stems, and was trying to figure what all this outdoors marlarky was all about.
And for me, when I relished in the fresh air and Vitamin C and took as much photo opportunities as I could…in black and white…and one in colour of course 😉
{Friday, 5th April}
The week has flown by so quickly, as they always do. Time just seems to fly by, and all those cliché sayings, but it is true.
Much of the time hours turn into days, days turn into weeks and so on and so forth. It almost seems one big blur.
This week I turned the grand (old) age of 35. I think (for me) when birthday’s come round you start to reflect on what you have done, achieved, learnt and still need to learn. This spurs me to readdress certain areas in my life that needs to change. I don’t normally plan outright, tending just to go with the flow, but I feel as though I want to make some solid decisions in the next few months.
Don’t go through life, grown through life ~ Eric Butterworth
Time goes so quickly when you do have children. No more so than the baby, who is growing up way too fast, he is consistently pulling himself up on furniture, cruising around and getting his hands on everything. I turn around for 2 seconds and zoom he is off. I know soon he’ll be walking and talking and not needing me so much. So I won’t wish the day’s away, and just try to hold on to these wonderful growing-up stages and take it all in as much as I can.
So, watch this space as I try to evolve and make those solid plans, it could be interesting (or not!)
I love this quote from Bob Marley…[aah how I miss those green pastures of Ochos Rios in Jamaica, nine years ago the hubby and I had our honeymoon…great memories.]
Life is one big road with lots of signs. So when you riding through the ruts, don’t complicate your mind. Flee from hate, mischief and jealousy. Don’t bury your thoughts, put your vision to reality. Wake up and live! ~ Bob Marley
The baby showing his standing up skills and sensory skills…love him.
Mum's the Word 