We sneakily took ds out of school for two weeks before the end of term to hang out in Wales... who wouldn't believe in karma after that holiday, though, as it was two of the wettest weeks ever in Wales (you know the kind, gales howling and rain lashing so hard you can only just open the door...) and that's saying something, right?
Stiff upper lip and all that, we visited all the local indoor Fun Things To Do - the chocolate factory, the waterfront museum - but it was pretty disasterous, and not at all relaxing for us oldies (even my mum, the most positive person on the planet, said it was an endurance test). So I was actually looking forward to ds finishing school so we could have some fun just hanging around home & in the park. But it looks like it isn't to be. Poor old kids, I saw loads of them running out of school on their last day under umbrellas, dashing into cars, all set for 6 weeks in front of the telly. Bet Amazon's doing well on the kids DVD front, eh?
I know, I know, we're not the worst off. People have lost their homes and their livelihoods in these recent floods, and I'm grateful that's not us. But I've got an idea that I think might just catch on this summer: www.thingstodowiththekidswhileitsrainingapartfromsittheminfrontoftheTV.com Catchy, eh? Pop your activity on and get other parents to rate it. Don't bother, I'm off to register it now...
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.
... and 6 I could do without.
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.
It’s our second Christmas in northern Germany and we’re balancing precariously between British and German myths and legends.
My top five points of serious procrasination, some with malicious intent...
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 ...
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...
Come on, I challenge you not to smile...
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.
Watch out bugs, baby's about! Wiggle your tasty little abdomen in front of him and you're dead meat, honey!
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!
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.
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!
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...
Anyone else’s kids into this? It's like SecondLife but with penguins and for kids...
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 ...
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 goddamed things online...)
Hello, my name is Rhianon. I'm thirty five years old. It's been a month since my last blog...
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’ ...
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 (literally, as it goes)...
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 ...
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...
I knew I'd seen a tip about getting them into this new sleep routine somewhere...
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?
An hour on an amphibious car round the sights of London with five four year olds yelling ‘quack quack!’ to passers by: more fun than it sounds!
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...
It may take a while to settle my four-year-old and six-month-old into their new, German nursery.
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....
My God if you’d told me the flight was going to be like that, I would have run screaming to the nearest Eurotunnel...
Stagger, the ugly superhero who only comes out at night, is my son's new alter-ego...
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.
Ha, I was right - June was a good month for sitting your kids in front of a DVD!
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...
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 ...
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!
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...
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.
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!
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 ...
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. ...
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 ...
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…
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 ...
As dp picks up a last minute PhD in Germany, Leto and I suddenly become a single parent family...
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 ...
After a very successful first day at preschool, my ds has settled into his routine, and I learn more about the baby...
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 ...
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…
