A Tale of Two Birthdays

Isn't it amazing that sometimes the smallest things, perhaps things that we take for granted can bring us the most happiness. It was my birthday on Sunday and I was delighted to be able to spend the day with my family. We didn't do anything other than enjoy each other's company. We all went and watched Matthew participate in Little Kickers, I marvelled at how much he has improved since starting in September.

Then we went for a picnic at a local park, the children had great fun playing on the bits and bobs and running about enjoying the facilities. There were the sounds of people having fun, the day was warm and bright and as I watched Lucy endeavouring to crawl up a grassy bank, grass staining her new shoes I realised that this was what life was all about. My best birthday present this year (other than the new iphone of course) was spending time with the family.

We topped the picnic off with a visit to the garden centre where we all chose new plants for the border in the front of the house. This perhaps was made all the more pertinent when Mr T had to work through his birthday. The children spent time on Monday making him a cake;
I served breakfast in bed and then the cards and presents followed. As he left for work we all felt a little deflated and as we sang Happy Birthday to him as loudly as possible in the vain hope that our out of tune singing was penetrating the office windows. Sometimes we take it all for granted and perhaps the two contrasting birthdays have helped to sharpen the mind.

School holidays, so far so good!

Usually I dread the school holidays, screaming, shouting and blood pressure that could go through the roof,and that's just me! So last Friday when the school broke up I made a resolution. This holiday I would take charge and ensure that the children are not allowed to get bored - so far so good.

Monday dawned bright and sunny, luckily Mr T has a birthday approaching and so we were able to write cards and wrap presents to the our heart's delight, we were then able to enjoy the sunshine as we strolled down to the postbox to post cards for other birthdays happening. Then we threw open the doors and enjoyed the garden.

Tuesday is the worst day of the week in some ways, the weekly Gymbabes session. Gymbabes is great for Lucy, it encourages walking, climbing and ,movement skills. That is all great, except she spends the majority of the time watching everyone else and the rest giggling as she goes through tunnels and pulls herself up on soft boxes. Matthew, on the other hand has to be confined to a buggy otherwise he spends the entire time racing around the hall and risking injury to the little ones participating. Thus confined he spends the entire time moaning and yelling 'I want a biscuit...' over and over again like a stuck record. Even Heather's attempts to distract him failed, perhaps her choice of reading him Cinderella was not so inspired.

Anyway today was a fresh day and we were off to visit Grandma and Uncle C, in the lovely seven seat Chrysler we voyaged to Wimpole Hall Farm! What a lovely time we had. The day was sunny, bright and so warm no coats were required, we even enjoyed our first al fresco meal. It is lambing season and we were lucky enough to see lambs only fifteen minutes old, piglets suckling only weeks old.


The shire horses were lovely and the goats very friendly. Matthews favourite however was the chickens, he loved them and was convinced that they were cock a doodle doodling especially for him;
'They're looking at me Mummy'


What made me smile the most was that both of the older children armed with their v-tech kid safe cameras were snapping away, Matthew was polite enough to ask them to smile and even showed the subject their picture afterwards. Topped off with a birthday cake in honour of Uncle C back at Grandma's and a quick game of hide and seek and it was time to pile back in the car for a quick(ish) spin down the M11.

Tomorrow we are making rockets and moon bases from the packaging and wrapping rolls of Mr T's presents. Wish me luck...

The enigma of Matthew...

Matthew is now more than halfway through the terrible twos, I now realise how good Heather was! As I look back to last June how unprepared I was for the mayhem I was. After all I was a mother of two and therefore knew what to expect, we were even just about to find out that we were expecting Lucy...

Part of the changes in Matthew was the arrival of Lucy, although he was used to the competition from his elder sister this new pink bundle of strange noises suddenly arrives and takes up a lot of Mummies time.

Jealousy was of course a natural response, when Heather was confronted with Matthew she went from anger, to wanting to do everything for him to indifference. Now he can walk and talk they are in the main friends, their fights however often seem to turn physical.

One big difference between them has been the level of aggression. As a parent I have tried to respond to them both in the same way. We have allowed them to express their own interests and it is amazing how at two he is already into consumer culture. Heather, being at school is now immersed in the world of pink, fairies, princesses and the latest film release merchandise.

Still we are now seeing the seeds of our hard work, he is a very sociable little boy and when he chooses to be is affectionate. his initial jealousy concerning Lucy has begun to abate as he sees that now she can move about he can play with her, although should she dare touch his train tracks then consequences will follow.



He is desperate to copy his sister and be as grown up as she is and the frustration that follows when he can't. Still at three months before his birthday he can dress himself, hold a conversation, is dry during the day and despite the tantrums is turning out to be lovely. I worry about him being the 'middle child' of three and the only boy, and if anyone has any idea on how to prevent him arriving in my bed at 530am demanding Thomas the Tank engine etc on. Still he has invented two new characters Coastman Pat and God the builder - not sure where they came from as he can pronounce his P's when it comes to Peppa Pig, although Please sometimes escapes him...

Lucy is 1

Where did the last year go? That was what I was asking myself as Friday the 13th dawned and I had in my mind the whirl of blood tests, consultant appointments and endless juggling for pound coins that had heralded in Lucy's birth. It doesn't seem possible that a whole year has gone by since that day, but as I watch her crawling, eating and pulling herself up on various pieces of furniture it seems like another world from the one we had a year ago, when as a baby she seemed so small and fragile.
When I see other babies now I wonder at how small they are and how helpless.

So how did we mark such an auspicious event? Well being as it was Red nose day school events took over to some extent as Heather had to wear something funny on her head, luckily we had made a hat the previous weekend.

Matthew had his weekly visit to Tumble Tots and so Lucy opened her presents in the morning, helped by Heather and Matthew. She did seem to like them and has spent time tasting each of her birthday cards.

The chocolate caterpillar cake may have been ill advised on mess grounds;


but seemed to satisfy all on taste grounds and there was the obligatory loud, out of tune rendition of Happy Birthday, and to her credit Lucy managed not to cry. She was rather bemused by the idea of blowing out a candle although Heather and Matthew both took turns afterwards!

The weekend was filled with visitors and as I had cautioned Heather that she would not be receiving presents and that people would be coming to see Heather she greeted every visitor with the words; 'Is that for Lucy?'

I have to admit I am getting a little excited, next month should herald the arrival of my first ever royalty cheque and while it will not be life changing in terms of the numbers printed on it, it will be life changing in the sense that it will confirm me as a paid writer, able to earn some money through what I have written.

Eyes and doors = ouch

So three eye injuries in a month, each to a different person of the household.
First it was Lucy, Matthew attempted to colour her in, unsuccessfully. Second was me and my scratched cornea, funnily enough that one was down to Matthew as well.
Yesterday Matthew managed to injure himself, luckily not too badly but enough to notice that he was on the losing side of a battle with a door. We are trying time-outs as demonstrated by various child rearing gurus. This dictates that you have a place where the child goes when they have committed an act so heinous that they must be separated from the rest of the family. We cannot use the stairs as both the older children find it hilarious to race off of them and Lucy attempts to climb them to get to the older children.
We felt that the safest place for them was therefore to sit on their beds in their bedrooms, but it has transpired that the children had other ideas. Rather than sit out their time with the door open they find it more productive to escape. WE decided to shut the doors but this has resulted in us have to hold on to the door as they try to rip it from its hinges. The reason being that time-out is an effective punishment in that they hate being made to leave the rest of the family. Yesterday though we had to consider whether it really is worth the fuss as Matthew in his desire to open the door was sent flying by the door he was yanking taking the full force of it in his face. After we calmed him down he was back to his normal self racing around the house, making odd noises.
I wish I could say we had learnt anything but if today is anything to go by, Matthew is still playing with doors and we will probably still try time out although maybe we will to search for another location - again!