In the bath tonight, and toddler-daughter couldn't get the roll-soap, that her lovely Auntie bought her for Christmas, to work. So she must have absorbed that neither could I, as I resorted to writing on the flannel for a bit of fricton, which resulted in a spot of colour appearing (couldn't draw on the bath or skin very well).
Tonight, with this in mind, she lifted the flannel and hung it over the side of her bath and began to draw. The things children remember, eh?
She also discovered physics this evening, by holding on to the drawstring belt on my dress for as long as possible, while I pulled back, delighting in the resistance this created.
Latin, tomorrow, as she advances her vocabulary? Or astronomy as she continues her search for stars (she loves the shape, I've yet to introduce her to the night sky, it being baltic outside at the moment)?
Tuesday 21 January 2014
Monday 20 January 2014
Toddler energy
Where do toddlers find all their energy from?
Toddler-daughter woke about 7.30, and slept for a couple of hours this afternoon (as normal, waking about 3). D popped her into bed about 8.00 tonight and at 9.30 she was still wide awake.When I went to check on her she laughed, said 'sock' and took the offending object off, then pointed her finger at her lullaby machine so we could switch it on again for her.
We need to find an energetic toddler-dolly that will wear her out, because clearly nursery is not exhausting enough.
Toddler-daughter woke about 7.30, and slept for a couple of hours this afternoon (as normal, waking about 3). D popped her into bed about 8.00 tonight and at 9.30 she was still wide awake.When I went to check on her she laughed, said 'sock' and took the offending object off, then pointed her finger at her lullaby machine so we could switch it on again for her.
We need to find an energetic toddler-dolly that will wear her out, because clearly nursery is not exhausting enough.
Saturday 18 January 2014
Illness and quitting work and holidays
So, sickness finally grounded my mind and all I could do was stare at the TV and follow toddler-daughter in her wake of chaos, kicking her toys to the side to clear a path between sofa and kitchen.
But I'm halfway through the course of antibiotics so back blogging!
And for the third time, a January has brought a massive change to my life and I've handed in my notice at work. Previously I met D in a January, after handing in a job notice, and was also due to meet toddler-daughter in a January.
Jan 2014 and I'm ready for some changes, really ready. And to celebrate/reflect we've booked a long weekend in a Butlins (first timers) for Feb, the month of toddler-daughter's 2nd birthday. Have some cake ideas from clumbsycookie.blogspot.co.uk too, so will no doubt post baking stories in the next few days.
But I'm halfway through the course of antibiotics so back blogging!
And for the third time, a January has brought a massive change to my life and I've handed in my notice at work. Previously I met D in a January, after handing in a job notice, and was also due to meet toddler-daughter in a January.
Jan 2014 and I'm ready for some changes, really ready. And to celebrate/reflect we've booked a long weekend in a Butlins (first timers) for Feb, the month of toddler-daughter's 2nd birthday. Have some cake ideas from clumbsycookie.blogspot.co.uk too, so will no doubt post baking stories in the next few days.
Monday 6 January 2014
To tidy up, or not?
D rang me from work this morning whilst I was on the bus going into town. Initially I was terrified as this is a rare event and it could only mean trouble. Then I remembered that I'd just left toddler-daughter with her Grandparents five minutes earlier, so I breathed again.
But he did have alarming news - he mentioned someone coming to look at the garden fence (which has been battered for four months prior to this weekend's wonderful weather and now is horizontal across our lawn/mossy patch). A gardener would need need to wander through the house?
Now, I left the house at the same time as toddler-daughter had been at her playtime zenith, and I ran out of time to attempt to wash the breakfast dishes (and the bowls holding last night's snacks). I planned on doing it five minutes before D came home tonight, utilising the maximum chance of it remaining presentable by popping TD in her high chair just before I started tidying: when do children actually help with tidying up, instead of mucking in enthusiastically and ultimately spreading the chaos? It's all karma, I know. My Mum will verify within five minutes of my presence I can make any room look like a hurricane has popped in for a quick coffee.
As my mind raced for excuses to justify not tidying up before I left, a few of D's words seeped into my consciousness. Wednesday and morning. Two days away? I can have the house tidy by then, will just put TD in front of the yellow teddy (Sooty) five minutes before the gardener is due to arrive. Maybe twenty; she does have my DNA.
Now to stop writing and turn my attention to the kitchen. After I've finished my cup of tea, of course.
But he did have alarming news - he mentioned someone coming to look at the garden fence (which has been battered for four months prior to this weekend's wonderful weather and now is horizontal across our lawn/mossy patch). A gardener would need need to wander through the house?
Now, I left the house at the same time as toddler-daughter had been at her playtime zenith, and I ran out of time to attempt to wash the breakfast dishes (and the bowls holding last night's snacks). I planned on doing it five minutes before D came home tonight, utilising the maximum chance of it remaining presentable by popping TD in her high chair just before I started tidying: when do children actually help with tidying up, instead of mucking in enthusiastically and ultimately spreading the chaos? It's all karma, I know. My Mum will verify within five minutes of my presence I can make any room look like a hurricane has popped in for a quick coffee.
As my mind raced for excuses to justify not tidying up before I left, a few of D's words seeped into my consciousness. Wednesday and morning. Two days away? I can have the house tidy by then, will just put TD in front of the yellow teddy (Sooty) five minutes before the gardener is due to arrive. Maybe twenty; she does have my DNA.
Now to stop writing and turn my attention to the kitchen. After I've finished my cup of tea, of course.
Sunday 5 January 2014
Mummy time
I've just enjoyed a lovely bath bomb bath, full of marigold petals and those vital moisturisers. Told D that I'd be about 40 minutes, and after six years he knows that's code for at least an hour, and shut myself away with Karen Brady's autobiography.
And she is shocking! She revealed, amongst her forthwright and inspirational words of wisdom for women everywhere, that she can't spend more than a few minutes in a bath without thinking she needs to do something.
Yes, run the hot water tap a little longer, love, and sink back down. Bet she also struggles having another hour's sleep after waking at the weekend.
Be good, scrap the diet resolutions of January and reconnect with yourself in the bath- you'll use all those smellies lurking in your vanity cases and spend an hour away from the snack box.
And she is shocking! She revealed, amongst her forthwright and inspirational words of wisdom for women everywhere, that she can't spend more than a few minutes in a bath without thinking she needs to do something.
Yes, run the hot water tap a little longer, love, and sink back down. Bet she also struggles having another hour's sleep after waking at the weekend.
Be good, scrap the diet resolutions of January and reconnect with yourself in the bath- you'll use all those smellies lurking in your vanity cases and spend an hour away from the snack box.
Saturday 4 January 2014
M&S sales vs M&S staff
Enjoyed a few quiet minutes tonight pottering through the remnants of the Marks' winter sale, to pick up clothes for toddler-daughter. Pyjamas, check (the tick not a print), onesie (first-time buyer, will let you know if sleep is possible), summer shoes, winter boots and, because it was looking at me, a frying pan.
Of the five items only one was priced correctly (frying pan). All other items were marked lower than The Computer believed them to be. Abandoned the pyjamas as I wasn't really sure about those, just swiped them in a half-price sale frenzy. Onesie & footwear were authorized by a rather charming Manager who tutted and declared a customer probably marked the items down to collect later. What, and I thwarted their plans by taking them off the shelf in the meantime? Felt charmed by the woman's under-optimism.
Bet there's a disgruntled temp somewhere chortling over leftover Christmas cake about how their stickergun ran amuck on their last day at work.
Much appreciated, temp, much appreciated.
Of the five items only one was priced correctly (frying pan). All other items were marked lower than The Computer believed them to be. Abandoned the pyjamas as I wasn't really sure about those, just swiped them in a half-price sale frenzy. Onesie & footwear were authorized by a rather charming Manager who tutted and declared a customer probably marked the items down to collect later. What, and I thwarted their plans by taking them off the shelf in the meantime? Felt charmed by the woman's under-optimism.
Bet there's a disgruntled temp somewhere chortling over leftover Christmas cake about how their stickergun ran amuck on their last day at work.
Much appreciated, temp, much appreciated.
Friday 3 January 2014
Madagascar 2 & sleeping TD
Is it wrong to watch Madagascar 2 even though toddler-daughter is in bed? I'm a happy-ending lass at heart so naturally disposed to kids' films over a horror - a bad day doesn't seem so bad if lions can dance and a giraffe and hippo can fall in love.
I've already trained toddler-daughter in the art of tellyviewing, and she can easily pay attention to a full fifteen minute Sooty episode while I blog, or watch twenty minutes of Elmo on youtube on the bus going into nursery.
In the right dose, television has earned its status.
I've already trained toddler-daughter in the art of tellyviewing, and she can easily pay attention to a full fifteen minute Sooty episode while I blog, or watch twenty minutes of Elmo on youtube on the bus going into nursery.
In the right dose, television has earned its status.
Another pre-alarm start
Woke only 15 minutes before the alarm this morning and seriously contemplated going back to sleep for another fifteen minutes - it's cold and dark outside, people.
I guess the novelty of returning to work has worn off. At least it's Friday, and though I'm working over the weekend even I can manage 11-2 without much fuss.
Maybe even toddler-daughter will wake me up tomorrow.
I guess the novelty of returning to work has worn off. At least it's Friday, and though I'm working over the weekend even I can manage 11-2 without much fuss.
Maybe even toddler-daughter will wake me up tomorrow.
Thursday 2 January 2014
Lunch break!
For the first time in a long while I had a lunch break today, as toddler-daughter (TD) has spent the day with both her grandparents and not in the office nursery.
Usually I'm trying to save time by starting earlier and shortening my lunch-break so I can leave early to pick up TD and give us a head start on the rush hour buses and evening routine of tea, play, bath, bottle, bed before we repeat the process tomorrow.
But today I have to stay until 5 pm, so I had a leisurely start (okay, an extra 10 minutes) and time to straighten my hair AND apply a little BB cream this morning, and as TD is being swapped over by grandparents this afternoon, I don't have the guilt of needing to relieve one set after eight hours with an energetic toddler.
As I work in an office in the city centre, this meant I could: pop into Fat Face to try to pick up an order that has been circulating for a week (not in, will have to try again tomorrow and seriously reconsider shopping there), call into M&S for a birthday present, milk and sweet & salty popcorn, and browse Sale window displays.
But because I'm a Mummy I did all this in 40 minutes and came back to my desk early!
However, I did swap my normal tea for a milky choco-latte in the staff room, just because I could.
However, I did swap my normal tea for a milky choco-latte in the staff room, just because I could.
Twas the day after New Year...
Woke naturally at 6.30, so after a seven minute indecision came downstairs for a quiet breakfast before Daddy and Toddler-Daughter wake. Cat out, kettle and chocolate chip brioche on, and the first morning back to work isn't as much of a shock to my 10-days-off-work body.
Hope you have a good start to a Thursday.
Hope you have a good start to a Thursday.
Wednesday 1 January 2014
Time Management
Apparently, I have 5 hours spare each day.
Try this little calculation; feel free to work out on paper, on a child's chalk board, on the device you're reading this post on.
How many hours a week for the following activities....
Then take the number away from the 168 hours in a week, and divide the remaining by 7.
What will you do with all this free time?
Or, what can you do to reclaim some time for you?
Try this little calculation; feel free to work out on paper, on a child's chalk board, on the device you're reading this post on.
How many hours a week for the following activities....
- Part-time work (not housework)
- Commuting
- Housework (needs it's own category)
- Exercise (it's January, the optimistic month)
- TV (I was perhaps conservative on this)
- Sleep
- Cooking/Eating
- Bathing
- Social/Family life (could split into two categories)
Then take the number away from the 168 hours in a week, and divide the remaining by 7.
What will you do with all this free time?
Or, what can you do to reclaim some time for you?
Breakfast with Mummy
Introduced toddler-daughter to French Toast (Eggy Bread, Barb!) this morning, and I think she was impressed. Well, as impressed as she can be with food at the moment; a molar is claiming priority over eating. She has just gone for her nap, which means I should use the time to take the tree down, but I'm making the most of my last day off with a cup of tea, before I return to the office tomorrow.
I can't complain, we've had a great sleep pattern for the last fortnight after a continual bout of coughing/running nose that we've had since she began nursery in September, and this Christmas TD has slept around twelve hours at night, with a good one-two hour nap during the day. She emulates a bear with her winter hibernation and thankfully inherited my sleep habits - her Dad enjoys six-seven hours a night, whereas I need about eight to nine hours to be functional, plus an additional hour upon waking for my mind to catch up with my body.
No such luxury tomorrow, however as we face our shock to the cozy Christmas routine, with awful weather and a seven am start for us all. Will need my fair share of tea and biscuits (bourbons, please) to survive the twelve hours between awake and asleep.
I can't complain, we've had a great sleep pattern for the last fortnight after a continual bout of coughing/running nose that we've had since she began nursery in September, and this Christmas TD has slept around twelve hours at night, with a good one-two hour nap during the day. She emulates a bear with her winter hibernation and thankfully inherited my sleep habits - her Dad enjoys six-seven hours a night, whereas I need about eight to nine hours to be functional, plus an additional hour upon waking for my mind to catch up with my body.
No such luxury tomorrow, however as we face our shock to the cozy Christmas routine, with awful weather and a seven am start for us all. Will need my fair share of tea and biscuits (bourbons, please) to survive the twelve hours between awake and asleep.
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