http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon.aspx A toddler, a six-year-old and a husband who's ditched MTV to become 'a nautical man'. Ugh. And all between the UK and Germany... it'll start to make sense soon, right? en-gb http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/Inappropriate-laughter-and-a-bit-of-a-moan.aspx I caught myself doing it again this morning – poised at the mouse, ready to click on ‘pay now’ for the gorgeous, black turtleneck maternity dress I am obsessed with…19/09/2006 http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/Inappropriate-laughter-and-a-bit-of-a-moan.aspx http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/Preparing-for-Big-School.aspx Poor old ds really isn't looking forward to 'Big School'. “They won’t like me” he sobbed, “I’ll be in the corner of the playground on my own because I won’t have any friends of my own!” He thinks he's got trouble - we've got Kim & Aggie coming round...07/09/2006 http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/Preparing-for-Big-School.aspx http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/Big-School,-big-kid,-big-baby.aspx After a very successful first day at preschool, my ds has settled into his routine, and I learn more about the baby...16/09/2006 http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/Big-School,-big-kid,-big-baby.aspx http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/Is-that-an-eyeball-up-your-nose.aspx We don’t go out trick or treating. We lie in wait for them to come to us. This year, ds dressed in his skeleton outfit and accosted passers by with sweets... All was fine until he stuck an eyeball up his nose...02/11/2006 http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/Is-that-an-eyeball-up-your-nose.aspx http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/Mum-wheres-dad-gone-Wheres-Germany.aspx As dp picks up a last minute PhD in Germany, Leto and I suddenly become a single parent family...17/11/2006 http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/Mum-wheres-dad-gone-Wheres-Germany.aspx http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/The-Christmas-Burglar.aspx Thinking I could tell the policeman which way the guy went, I popped my head out of the back door... but didn't get a word out before he shouted, "GET BACK IN THE HOUSE, LOCK THE DOOR AND CLOSE THE CURTAINS!" Thanks, Mr Christmas burglar!15/12/2006 http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/The-Christmas-Burglar.aspx http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/Bye-bye,-fat-lass!-.aspx Finally got my first seat on the Tube on Wednesday – 6 weeks to go and I officially look pregnant, not just a bit post-Christmas chubby! Didn’t get one the next day though… 15/01/2007 http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/Bye-bye,-fat-lass!-.aspx http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/Curse-of-the-Pox.aspx The Pox has arrived and I'm getting spottier by the day. So, I'm off to see my lovely GP again tomorrow to see if I can be one of those 'rare' cases who gets The Pox twice... poor old baby! I just hope he hasn't grown nails yet so he can't scratch himself to bits!29/01/2007 http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/Curse-of-the-Pox.aspx http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/Pox-free-and-moving-house!.aspx We're pox-free, hooray! But a few days later ds broke out in hive-like red lumps - turns out that their wee bodies can have an allergic reaction to the chickenpox virus which causes its own rash. Poor thing! 12/02/2007 http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/Pox-free-and-moving-house!.aspx http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/Baby-arrives!-Not-for-the-faint-hearted.aspx Unfortunately, the baby was slightly blue, floppy and grunting instead of crying. The concern was obvious in the room and people appeared from everywhere, red buttons were pushed and things happened quickly... 26/02/2007 http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/Baby-arrives!-Not-for-the-faint-hearted.aspx http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/Bringing-baby-home.aspx Son no.1 couldn't have been more pleased with his new baby brother. He picks out the cutest nappy for him to wear, and seems charmed when the baby does a poo whilst sitting on him! 02/03/2007 http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/Bringing-baby-home.aspx http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/Revenge-of-the-pox.aspx So you can't get it twice eh? Ha! Another one in the eye for 21st century medical science - ds1* came down with dreadful, dreadful chicken pox again this week.22/03/2007 http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/Revenge-of-the-pox.aspx http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/The-merry~go~round.aspx Paranoia was only made worse by horror stories from other mums: one who walked in on her older son standing in front of the new baby wielding a pair of scissors...03/04/2007 http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/The-merry~go~round.aspx http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/Human-Sheep-Dip-~-why-we-need-it.aspx What is it with us? I might as well rub all our food in the mud and forget the baths - we haven’t gone a week without infection since the birth! 23/04/2007 http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/Human-Sheep-Dip-~-why-we-need-it.aspx http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/Oh-baby-where-art-thou.aspx So I think the happy hormones must be finally wearing off (fun while it lasted) and the incessant tiredness beginning to kick in. Or perhaps those are just my excuses for leaving the baby in the car seat at the end of the checkout at Sainsburys with someone chasing after me saying, ‘excuse me! EXCUSE ME! You’ve forgotten your baby!’ 03/06/2007 http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/Oh-baby-where-art-thou.aspx http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/Here-we-go-again.aspx It's started: huge clumps of hair coming out when I brush my fingers through it. Plug hole totally bunged up when I have a shower. The old postpartum hair loss begins again...07/06/2007 http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/Here-we-go-again.aspx http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/Another-rainy-day.aspx School holidays have just begun and already I can see ds looking more than a little dissappointed with being off school... and I've run out of fun things to do already!22/07/2007 http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/Another-rainy-day.aspx http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/Amazon-trebled-profits-in-June.aspx Ha, I was right - June was a good month for sitting your kids in front of a DVD!25/07/2007 http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/Amazon-trebled-profits-in-June.aspx http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/On-the-bottle.aspx So, the baby starts nursery on 28th August... and hasn't yet taken more than a mouthful from a cup or bottle. It's an uphill battle.01/08/2007 http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/On-the-bottle.aspx http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/Stagger.aspx Stagger, the ugly superhero who only comes out at night, is my son's new alter-ego...07/08/2007 http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/Stagger.aspx http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/Snakes-on-a-plane.aspx My God if you’d told me the flight was going to be like that, I would have run screaming to the nearest Eurotunnel...30/08/2007 http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/Snakes-on-a-plane.aspx http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/Cocoon.aspx So here we all are – we’re in our wee flat in Germany with just a few boxes, some raincoats and wellies and a couple of sleeping bags. Like Glastonbury without the mud, drugs or music....04/09/2007 http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/Cocoon.aspx http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/Back-to-Kindergarten.aspx It may take a while to settle my four-year-old and six-month-old into their new, German nursery.08/09/2007 http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/Back-to-Kindergarten.aspx http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/Personal-Hell-whats-yours.aspx Ds1 used to think this whole 'they don't understand English' thing was a big joke, until he spent a few weeks ostracized in the spielplatz...26/09/2007 http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/Personal-Hell-whats-yours.aspx http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/quack-quack.aspx An hour on an amphibious car round the sights of London with 5 four year olds yelling ‘quack quack!’ to passers by: more fun than it sounds!08/10/2007 http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/quack-quack.aspx http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/mummys-little-helper.aspx The kids are both ill (so's their Dad, and who do you reckon is the more vocal about it?) but do I jump to the Calpol too quickly?22/10/2007 http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/mummys-little-helper.aspx http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/daylight-saving-.aspx I knew I'd seen a tip on this somewhere...29/10/2007 http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/daylight-saving-.aspx http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/Making-Friends-101.aspx We' ve moved somewhere new and we - I - need some buddies. So how do you meet mothers you'd be glad to hang out with anyway, kids or no kids? It's all a bit of an effort for someone like me...19/11/2007 http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/Making-Friends-101.aspx http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/We-have-locomotion.aspx Yay! Ds2’s started to crawl at 8 & ½ months! He has been doing this thing for a while where he goes on all fours, sticks his bum in the air and then pumps up and down in a very wobbly and treacherous fashion. He was happily doing so on the rug last night with ds1 and I in and out of the room getting dinner ready when lo! He wasn’t there anymore!04/12/2007 http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/We-have-locomotion.aspx http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/Rubber-Knickers.aspx Of course in hindsight I see it's a little naive of me to trot around searching for rubber knickers, but you see we have this Poo Emergency on our hands...05/12/2007 http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/Rubber-Knickers.aspx http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/Santa-Fixations.aspx After being pretty much indifferent to who gives him his presents, this year it seems that ds1 is DESPERATE to believe in Santa Claus, and the man’s lifestyle, generosity and ‘big brother’ watchfulness are now daily discussion topics needing the kind of quick-thinking answers I can only hope to stumble through. 11/12/2007 http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/Santa-Fixations.aspx http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/Am-I-too-late.aspx Hello, my name is Rhianon. I'm thirty five years old. It's been a month since my last blog...16/01/2008 http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/Am-I-too-late.aspx http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/Batman-wouldn't-wear-an-old-curtain.aspx I try to get it right, I really do, but ds1's a total perfectionist and there are only so many attempts at batman wings a girl can make (before she resorts to buying the bloody Batman wings online...)21/01/2008 http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/Batman-wouldn't-wear-an-old-curtain.aspx http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/Institutionalised-family-life.aspx We're now halls supervisors, living in a quiet block and eating in the canteen with 230 students where every night is a potential party. It's great fun, but a bit out of the ordinary... how can the kids keep a grip on the real world?05/02/2008 http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/Institutionalised-family-life.aspx http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/Club-Penguin.aspx Anyone else’s kids into clubpenguin.com? Like SecondLife but with penguins and for kids... 12/02/2008 http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/Club-Penguin.aspx http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/Functional-Female-Unit-Day-.aspx The first person to wish me happy mother's day on Sunday was my mother in law, on my mobile, in the toilet, about 5pm. Can't get much more depressing than that...04/03/2008 http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/Functional-Female-Unit-Day-.aspx http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/Like-riding-a-bike-.aspx What else do you do on a wet, stormy day but find a long, preferably super-slippery hallway and teach your kids to ride bikes?! I can't believe I didn't think of it before! 25/03/2008 http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/Like-riding-a-bike-.aspx http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/Thinking-ahead.aspx During a lecture from one of the visiting profs we learnt that among British teens/young adults, 21% are likely to use cannabis recreationally, compared to just 11% of Germans of the same age.15/04/2008 http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/Thinking-ahead.aspx http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/Freedom.aspx First he doesn't want to be left with a babysitter, then he'd rather hang out with the babysitter than with us... so it is to be 5 years old, I guess!29/04/2008 http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/Freedom.aspx http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/The-omnivore-vegetarian.aspx Watch out bugs, baby's about! Wiggle your tasty little abdomen in front of him and you're dead meat, honey!07/05/2008 http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/The-omnivore-vegetarian.aspx http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/Hell-Air.aspx I’m no rooky: flights with kids require precision planning at which I was arrogantly coming to consider myself a pass master. So my eternal gratitude goes out to Ryanair for my recent, humbling experience.18/06/2008 http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/Hell-Air.aspx http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/Dance.aspx Come on, I challenge you not to smile...02/07/2008 http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/Dance.aspx http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/Top-three-embarrassing-moments.aspx We've all been there - when your child makes an innocent remark (usually at the top of her voice) which turns out to be a horribly personal insult to someone within direct earshot... or worse...11/09/2008 http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/Top-three-embarrassing-moments.aspx http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/Making-an-honest-woman-out-of-me.aspx Dp & I are getting married, 8 years and two kids down the line. It's less than a week away, we've got 100 people coming and we've yet to buy the rings - I haven't even found a dress - but here's 5 reasons why it'll be a great day anyway...06/10/2008 http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/Making-an-honest-woman-out-of-me.aspx http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/Things-I'm-avoiding-doing.aspx My top five points of serious procrasination, some with malicious intent...26/11/2008 http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/Things-I'm-avoiding-doing.aspx http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/Santa-whos-he.aspx It’s our second Christmas in northern Germany and we’re balancing precariously between British and German myths and legends.18/12/2008 http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/Santa-whos-he.aspx http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/Im-not-making-any-friends-here.aspx Ouch. If it was frosty when we went in to the parent's meeting, we're reaching for the arctic body armour by the time we leave.21/01/2009 http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/Im-not-making-any-friends-here.aspx http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/6-things-I-like-about-being-a-mum.aspx ... and 6 I could do without. 18/03/2009 http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/6-things-I-like-about-being-a-mum.aspx http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/Beating-bullying.aspx Bullying doesn’t just happen to other kids, it’s not always easy to spot and we need to give kids the confidence and the strategies to recognise and combat threatening behaviour.10/11/2009 http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Community/Blogs/Rhianon/Beating-bullying.aspx