June has just 1 week left. It is always a really busy month in my family. My son and husband both have their birthdays as well as one of my Aunts. This year, to add to the mix, one of my cousins visited from overseas and my Aunt held a family party for her. All in all it has been a wonderful, if exhausting month.

All Things Wild

We have done a lot this month. For my son’s birthday we went to All Things Wild in Warwickshire. It was such a good day. There was a lot to do both inside and out for the children, and it is aimed largely at younger children. We could not possibly have seen everything there in one day so I am sure we will return, but we still did a lot! There were play areas, sandpits (yep, several of them) an old decommissioned helicopter that you could get in and pretend to fly. There were lots of animals to look at. There was a big dinosaur barn with lots of dinosaur related things to look at, but for us the best part was the Step Back in Time dinosaur trail. It was longer than we had anticipated and we probably should have saved it for after lunch, but both children, especially my formerly dinosaur mad son, loved it.

Tickets for All Things Wild can be bought online or on the door and cost £10.49 for adults and£9.49 for children aged 3-16, under 3s are free https://www.allthingswild.co.uk/product-category/tickets/

Herbert Museum & Art Gallery, Coventry

I was so impressed with this place. I have heard a lot of good things about it, but this was our first visit. The museum Isom the ground floor with the art gallery on the first floor. It is a proper museum and art gallery with proper exhibits, I didn’t feel that it was dumbed down at all for the children, but there were plenty of things for the children to do and touch in every gallery space- much easier to stop them from touching things they shouldn’t if there are things they are allowed to touch. We particularly enjoyed dressing up to look like someone from the renaissance period, and making our own sculptures from foam blocks. There were also musical instruments to play with, Prehistoric fossils to touch (ok replicas of them but still!) and loads more. They also have a cafe with a lovely little play area for the children that has toys like stacking cups and a play till, and also a chalkboard wall to draw on. I would highly recommend the museum, and we intend Togo back over the summer.

The museum is right next door to the Cathedral, which is absolute beautiful.

On the way back to the car my son said we had had a wonderful day, high praise indeed from a 4 year old.

Sudbury Hall & Museum of Childhood

This past weekend to go out on a family day for my husband’s birthday we took advantage of our National Trust membership and went to Sudbury Hall which is about an hour’s drive from home (a great length for a nap for our youngest and that may have been why we chose it!) We ask for National Trust membership for Christmas as a present for my husband and I and we get some great days out from it.

We rarely get inside the house when we go to these places, something for the future when the children are older. I always remember as a child being dragged to National Trust places with the lure of the tearoom and the shop. I’m not sure we were allowed to buy anything from the shop when we got there, but I always looked. Once there I remember imagining what it would be like to be the lady of the house so I must have enjoyed it. To an extent anyway! At the moment with 2 small children we always choose somewhere that talks about play areas and nice grounds. We find a National Trust place to visit whenever we are away, and the Midlands has loads within a short distance.

This weekend the house had a museum of childhood, and that was a lovely trip down memory lane for my husband and I, with lots for the children to play with. The grounds were lovely and there was a really nice play area under cover of the trees -it was very hot so that shade was very welcome. The tearoom was next to a large lawn so the children could wander a little while we had a coffee. A lovely place to visit.

It has been a lovely month!

Father’s Day Cards

I like to get the children to make something for Father’s Day. Last year I got them to do footprints in air drying clay which I then painted and put into frames. (I then insisted they stay at home instead of be taken into my husband’s office, so who were they made for??)

This year I have traced round their handprints and will use them to make a keyring. I shall post a separate blogpost about that when it is done.

Yesterday after the school run I got the children to make Father’s Day cards- with varying degrees of success and participation. We made animal cards. My 4 year old son wanted to make a pig because they are pink and that is his favourite colour. However I didn’t have any pink card at home, so he chose red instead. I drew the outline of the pig’s face on some card and he cut out most of the face himself using safety scissors, and I finished it off (I may have tidied the cutting out up a little). I cut out a snout and asked R to draw nostrils on the snout and stick it down using pritt stick. He chose an orange pen to draw the nostrils on, and then decided to do the pig’s eyes the same colour! I cut out some ears and he stuck them onto the pig’s head (with some heavy encouragement as to the placing of the ears- he was trying to put them where human ears would go) and then we stuck a spiral tail on the back of the pig. For some reason he decided that the tail should be blue! The overall impression is very interesting as I am sure you will agree!

My daughter is 1 and still tries to put most things in her mouth. Nevertheless I thought she might like to help me make her Father’s Day card. My original plan was to cut shapes out of card for her and get her to stick them down using glue dots (as they wouldn’t be as messy and she would be less likely to get the glue on her fingers and then in her mouth). However, as with all best laid plans when toddlers are involved, she decided that pulling the ears off the bear card was much more fun. So she did stick those ears down with me (about 17 times) and I just drew the rest of the card. I gave her a pen to see whether she would draw on the card as I and her brother were doing, and she did make a couple of marks on the paper, so I shall class that as a toddler made card and try again next year!

Hopefully Daddy will like his homemade cards anyway. I would love to see your homemade Father’s Day cards.

Baby sleep- 13 months

My little girl is a bit poorly. I think it’s her teeth, but I am not sure. She finally cut her first tooth about a week ago at the age of 13 months so she has some catching up to do. Then again, she might just have a cold as I can hear her snoring away on the baby monitor next to me.

Last night she actually slept in the evening. My husband put her to bed at 8 and she didn’t wake up until after midnight- which is unheard of from her, well rarely in any case. However she was then wide awake for 2 hours- come on mummy, it must be morning as I have slept for more than an hour at a time….

And tonight she went down in her cot and stayed there despite opening her eyes as I put her down. Is this a sign of her sleep patterns changing? Suddenly about 10,000 pigs just flew over my house! Amazing!

I know her sleep patterns will change at some point, and she will eventually sleep through the night. I doubt we are there yet. For now, though, and it’s an awful thing to say because it’s the result of her being a bit under the weather, I am very much enjoying having an evening or two child free!

Today I have been a Mummy for 4 years

My son turned 4 today. I can’t believe it has been 4 years since we met him.

He has become such a lovely, kind, generous boy. He is so lovely to his sister, and loves his family. He is an energetic, determined boy, passionate about the things he is interested in and loves. He gets into obsessions, we have seen it with the food he will or will not eat, and with the toys he wants to play with/programmes he wants to watch (they are very much linked to each other). He likes to study something and understand it before attempting a new skill. He takes his time with relationships as well, he is reserved with friendships until he is comfortable. Then he is generous with his affections. He told us the other day that all of his friends were his best friends.

This last year has been a very hard one, especially for him. Until a few weeks shy of his third birthday he was the only apple of his parents’ eye. We were so lucky with him and didn’t really experience the so called “terrible twos”. He had his moments of pushing boundaries and getting frustrated when he couldn’t do what he wanted, when I was insisting on something (if he made a mess he had to at least help tidy it up when it was time to tidy up), or when he was tired or hungry. He didn’t have real tantrums, however, and wasn’t difficult in the slightest.

Then his sister was born and his world was turned upside down. Suddenly he had to be the big boy, he had to know better more often, he had to share everything with an invader. We have had some times when he has been really angry about it all. He has shouted at me that he does not love me very much at all. He has had far more tantrums, he has rejected mummy, he has relied more on other people. He has struggled, and suffered. He has been in pain quite a lot adjusting to his new life. My heart has gone out to him so much this last year, and he has also driven me to distraction other times. My expectations of him have been too high at times and I am learning to set those expectations where they should be. He is just a little boy!

However, it has also been a hugely positive year for him too. He is so much more confident with other children, and is starting to hold his own with them. He has friends at school and talks about them. He has recently started swimming lessons on a Saturday with a new group of people and by the second week he was talking to the other children and laughing with them.

He loves his sister and I love watching their relationship develop. Most of the time she is quite irritating to him- she just wants to play with whatever he is playing with (and often vice versa), and when she does this she will take over and they will fight. He is getting better at asking us for help rather than shoving her out of the way. When I ask him what he thinks he can do to stop her playing with his toys he actually makes suggestions instead of saying he doesn’t know. When he last went to stay with his Grandmother he wanted her to go too. I hope that their relationship continues to develop and improve. I hope they can play together and enjoy it.

In short, my boy is amazing, and he has come through the last year, which has been very challenging for us all, admirably. He is my firstborn and I adore him. I hope he hears me when I tell him that I love him every second of every day and when I tell him I am proud of him.

Happy birthday sweetness.