I Am A Failure!

It came to my attention on Saturday morning that Child Number Two, who is 9 years old, cannot ties her own laces! I thought she was joking at first until she insisted that she really couldnt do them and that "I always ask people to teach me, but no one does". Poor thing!

Now that I sit and think about it in the last few years when learning to tie laces is high on any child's 'list' she has always had slip on shoes, boots with zippers and sneakers with elastic.

Am I really too busy that I cant spare her a few minutes to teach her a 'life lesson'? Now I feel bad. However, she can straighten her own hair and do her nails as well as any nail technician within a fifty mile radius! So maybe in 2010 life lessons are different to the ones I learnt when I was her age. I am off now to loop and swoop.

Baby Blues: A Letter to My Baby

The baby is about to turn a year old in a few days time. Where did the year go? How did this happen so fast?

......................

I adore each new step, the toothy smiles, the army commando crawl when you are 'on a mission', the way you dance at anything with even the remotest hint of a beat.

But I would happily go back to the day you arrived and do it all again, and again and again! Those first few minutes when I saw your face for the first time, the "ahah, it was you kicking me all the time" moment! The very first second we met you it was love at first sight and we haven't fallen out yet!

So, if I try very (VERY) hard I can get excited at the prospect of your first birthday, but secretly I will still be working on an 'everlasting babyhood' potion..... x

The Revenge Of The Overly 'Loved' Insect

Other Title: The Crying Ant and Other Traumatized Insects

Our three year old has the ability to drive non-biting, peace loving insects to go against their most basic instinct and take their first bit of human flesh. Any ant that dares cross into 'our territory' risks being the focus of all of Child Number 3's attention and affection. His first run in with insects that turn was a memorable one, I'll leave the details to your imagination, but it ends with an ant attached to the very tip of his tongue and me trying to pull it off!

There was also the time that a caterpillar was loved and looked after until he seemed to 'fall asleep', Child Number 3 then made a tiny caterpillar sized bed and came back inside to report that he was "safe now".

They say that love hurts, but apparently so does curiosity!

Gorillacam

I love Gorillacam on the iPhone, the only draw back is that my three years old loves it too. So after five minutes of being left alone (actually, taking the phone and hiding) i have to spend the next half an hour deleting 21 close ups of his nose, 8 blurred pictures of the wall, 12 pictures of his PJ's on the floor and 6 very, very close ups of his baby brothers ear, at least I think that's what it was??

I thought I was being very 'modern mum' when I installed a few preschool games so that he could play too, but now he has moved apps from page to page, deleted other ones and tried to send an email (with a picture of his baby brothers ear attached) to our bank manager!

So he is banned from using the iPhone, but has free reign on his older brother and sisters Nintendo DS'. But don't tell them that!

Children & Culture

Just over a year ago, when I was pregnant with Child Number 4, we took the other three children to the Children's Museum in Boston, MA. There were lots of 'hands on' activities, giant bubbles you could stand up in, lots of water to play in, dancing mats, ball games, etc. One of the exhibits at the end of our trip was the Japanese House. It was an original house that was 100 years old and had been a gift to the City of Boston from the City of Kyoto. It was very precious as there were very few even left in Japan of this age and quality.

As it was a 'shoes off' exhibit I stood outside guarding the stinky sneakers, holding onto the stroller and watching the various electrical equipment! And as Child Number 2 had worn flip flops she had to 'borrow' my socks!!

So I was happily sitting outside, watching the various people come and go, for about ten minutes, then the family re-emerged. Everyone seemed fairly happy with their experience, except my husband, who had a very amused look on his face.

It turned out that our two year old had disappeared and was found in the ancient, rice-paper lined bathroom walking up and down in a pair of ancient, ornamental Japanese slippers!

Luckily he has been quite happy at home ever since walking around in Child Number 2's old party slip ons and hasn't demanded anything older or more fragile!

So all in all we all enjoyed our trip to the Boston Children's museum, but we havent been back, just in case. Could they have had CCTV cameras mounted to the paper walls??

Rule Change!!

Our house has new rules for Child Number 1 and Child Number 2, hopefully Child Number 3 follows by example- I'll let you know how that works out.

After several disasters involving no clean pants and mouldy lunchboxes, we decided that things were due for a change.

We came up with a cunning plan- all set out on the always handy whiteboard. We had daily chores, pocket money amounts, time frames, our expectations, their expectations, projected earnings etc.....

When we had the 'big talk' the children a) talked themselves into 50% less pocket money (they thought we were offering too much) and b) they provided us with an additional list of chores. WHAT?

Well, I think everyone came out a winner. From now on I will no longer need the use of a GPS just to locate dirty laundry, but also us parents get a great, big, satisfying thumbs up, we must be doing something right! On the other side, the children get regular pocket money, happier parents and no more mouldy pants.

Urban Decay Makeup

I found Urban Decay ages ago in the UK, i still have a couple of eye shadows that must be over five years old (!) but still look brand new and still have lots of life in them! They are really strong colors and last like no other eyeshadow I've used.

I got the Sustainable Shadow Box for my birthday and have used it everyday since. Admittedly I had to take a bit of a step back and chill out as I ended up looking like a kid who had raided their mums makeup box the first few times I used it. So many pretty colors!!

But now I manage to keep it subtle and still enjoy playing and experimenting with it. I decided to check out YouTube for some more ideas and found some brilliant tutorials by Kayleigh using the shadows. I have just spent the last hour doing nothing but vegging out and watching all her different tutorials. I thought I would share this goldmine and then go and play! I am off to try the Brown Smokey Eyes With A Twist!

Click here to see her videos.
Click here for the Urban Decay Sustainable Shadow Box