Space Saver.

The parental units have gone on a jolly to Spain and Spike is with his Dad for the weekend.  I'm taking the opportunity to get on top of some organising of the kiddos stuff.  Even though my folks place is pretty roomy kids have a wonderful ability to fill every square inch with their stuff.

I got some great Curver storage baskets from Morrisons. Four fit perfectly side by side in the bottom of the Welsh dresser in the conservatory, the end of which had kind of been designated kids stuff space.

 My next job was to organise the stuff in and on the dresser to try create a less cluttered look and some room in the drawers for more kids stuff.

I've got a kid size table and chairs coming for the boys so I needed somewhere for the paper, pens, crayons and the various other materials needed for kid type crap art making.  

I then gave the whole dresser a good rub over with some wood polish/balm type stuff and started my paint pump dispenser type things.  I've been collecting hand soap bottles, washed them out, got the labels off (thanks Cath) and filled them up with paint yay!

Much less waste and mess, HOORAY!

Well, in theory.

Spud and I had a great day today, I had planned to take him swimming but the rain was so absurdly heavy I didn't even want to drive in it, let alone drag a child through a car park in it. 

Luckily Spud loves hanging out. 

I broke out the new blocks I got him from Morrisons the other day.  He had loads of fun with them, we built towers and did some counting.  He gets the concept of counting although every number is "Tee".  

We also sang nursery rhymes, hilariously he continues his approach to counting with singing.  So "Baa Baa Black Sheep" is "Baa Baa Baa Baa Baa Baa WOOOOOOL!"  And "Row Row Row The Boat" is "Row Row Row Row Row Row STEEEEEEAM, Row Row Row AHHHHH!"

And of course we did painting using our new paint pumps..

I save the really long lengths of paper that come in Amazon parcels for painting and colouring type activities.

Concentration.

"Look Spud you did an awesome tree!"
"Nuh, quack quack!"

"righto"

Both of the boys are over their Dad's house tomorrow.  Don't know what I'm going to do with myself, how strange.  I've got about a thousand sewing projects started that need finishing, might have a bash at getting on top of some of those.

xoxo

Lamination nation.

Mountain Mumma heights has been turned into a wipe clean paradise thanks to....

THIS...

Huzzah, I have now been able to level up our morning message literacy activity.

  

As well as being able to help him identify words by sight, select and stick the words himself, I also 

write out what our main plans are for the day underneath with a whiteboard marker. 

I'm also in the process of making some activities

Here he can use a white board marker to write over my words and then also select the corresponding letter cards to spell out the words.

In other news Spike's teacher has put in a bid for some of the educational psychologists time next time he/she is at the school to get the ball rolling with him being formally assessed. She was at pains to point out that assessments at nursery don't often happen as at that age they are pretty low priority; the suggestion seemed to be that ed psych have a set amount of time to spend in the school and start with referrals in the top year and work down. If they run out of time before they get to Spike then 

Pthere will be no assessment. If this is the case I may have to see if there are other avenues other than the educational one for me to get him a referral/assessment. 

With the rising threes staring in January his class size has almost doubled and it has got a lot more 

noisy and disruptive. He has started saying things like he "doesn't like nursery" and "nursery is boring" which is a massive shift from before Christmas where he would ask every single day when he was going to nursery next and call a register of his toys using his class mates names. His teacher has said that he is evermore  withdrawing  into his little rituals  in class as the younger children's behaviour and play seems to be overwhelming him.

The nursery have been fantastic on keeping me updated on his progress in class 

A drawing of the three little pigs, I think "Miss" did the first pig to get him started. 

Self portrait.

The school uses the seesaw app to upload pictures of the children's work and activities during their sessions. It's fantastic, they also just type the homework for the weekend up there so there's no loosing it in school bag - house transfer etc. I just love seeing the photos of what he and his classmates get up to in class.

Spud has been a bit snotty and teethy of late. He is still doing THAT SCREAM. I don't know how to discourage him. It's like acknowledging he has done it just feeds the attention seeking nature of him 

doing it in the first place. However, it really is THAT BAD it is almost impossible not to acknowledge it has happened on some level. It's hard to ignore blood coming from the ears.

It's a good job he is my super cute cuddly spuddly or we would be having problems. He's getting super chatty now. We have...

Peeeach = please/ give it to me quicker

Nuh = sod off

Kich = cuddle/kiss

Uh? = what do you want?

Whas thaaa? = what is this thing I am pointing at and can I put it in my mouth?

Ahhh gan = all gone

Key! = spike/ pops/ milk/ drink

Iya = salutations

Car

Bye bye

Night night and various animal noises and names. 

After picking up Spikey from nursery today I took the boys through the car wash. I kind of wish I had just had the cheapest one done. My theory was that it was so bad that it needed the most thorough one but with automated car washes the reality seems to be the worse the car is the less effective the wash is. Anyway, Spike  thought it was the coolest thing in the world but Spud is yet to be convinced. There was no out and out crying but there was a bit of "the f*ck is this?" Face pulling. 

Spike is spending Friday night to Sunday night at his Dad's so I may take Sam swimming on Saturday as he has never been before. Looking forward to it as it has been ages since I last went and Spud and I seldom get quality time together.

Xoxo

Stay at home mum to single mum.

End of an Era.

A seven year relationship has come to end. It had ups and downs, laughter and tears and produced two beautiful little boys. I became a stay at home mum which definitely appealed to the suppressed recluse in me. Also, having that time with the boys was fantastic. We would go for long rambling woodland walks, have picnics by the river and have brilliant messy play sessions. Of course we are still going to do all those things but the upheaval of having the parameters of our existence totally shifted has been overwhelming at times. The boys and me are now living with my parents whilst I get myself back into work.  Thank goodness for family who have all been completely wonderful. Getting back into employment is massively daunting and at first I was floundering. I HAVEN'T WORKED FOR 5 YEARS WHAT THE HELL AM I GOING TO PUT ON A CV?!?!

Luckily I was able to compose myself and gather my thoughts. My ex-partner and I started a business. As he is completely phobic to anything technology related, whatever fell into the category of requiring the slightest knowledge of how to turn a computer on became my domain. Thankfully as we started the business 5 years ago not 500 years ago this meant quite a lot of stuff became my responsibility. Turns out I have picked up life skills despite being ONLY a stay at home mum. Yay go me!

I am already incandescent at the assumption that because I have happened to blast a couple of kiddos out of my hips it necessarily follows that my brain has turned to jam and I am going to have to perform messianic miracles during an interview process to get an employer to look twice at me. Seriously?! "Work" is going to be a breeze. Granted I was doing kids and small holding and joint ex-partner business venture... But the child/house thing alone is insane. My house perpetually looked like it had been robbed, they hadn't found anything worth nicking and so they trashed it a bit more in spite. Either that or I was failing spectacularly at a game of Jumanji. Actually that's just kids isn't it?

As for the kids. Spike (eldest, 4yrs old, carries slugs in his mouth and lines up small plastic animals) and Spud (18months, enormous, likes quavers and dancing) are adjusting to recent life changes well. I'm eager to make the transition as smooth as possible. Spike has started in the local nursery and seems to be settling in well. Apparently the first day he growled at everyone but now he is giving everyone a hug before he leaves so that's progress in anyone's book, says I!  Spud is Spud. He's cuddly and lovely. Everyone reassures me that he is at the age to be minimally affected and to be honest, as long as everyone puts their egos second and the boys first there is no reason for either of them to be irreparably scared for life.

Spike's Birthday

Birthday times were spent with immediate family. Granny, Pops, the cousins, Aunty Ruthy and Aunty Hannah.  Spike is a massive Bing Bunny fan and these have gone to bed with him every evening since he got them.  

Had to include this one. Emily getting massively involved with the cake. Fantastic!

Both boys are big Thomas and Friends fans so this was a bit of a tactical present really. They both love pushing the trains around the tracks and it takes a surprising amount of dexterity to push the carriage down and release it in the right way to make the volcano glow and dragon roar.  Bound to be some motor development going on there!

I usually do a home made cake but opted for a shop bought Thomas and Friends one from ASDA this year.  The kids loved it and I just didn't have the time or energy for homemade this year.

Had to include this. Hilarious.

All pooped out. Bless.