Been a long time

Hi guys so it really has been a while. Well here are a few pics of what I have been doing with my time .. Please forgive me if the photos don't make up for it ☺

So as u can see from the pics it's a whole loads fun with the kids, cooking and eating !! Enjoy xx

Long time no post

So it's been a whole loada weeks since my last post. What can I say I have been extremely busy! Weddings, funerals, kids , cooking, cleaning , shopping .. Same old same old. No rest for the wicked hey!!

So I was thinking.. I was washing up today like normal. No I don't own a dishwasher but believe me when I get my kitchen redone , house renovated I AM going to buy a dishwasher! Although I have been told its bad for the back.. Mmmm.. Another post maybe!
Ok so I have digressed.

Well I was washing up and I realised I have an abundance of colourful plastic dishes. I have too many I don't know where to put! The colourful plastic cups and bowls , beakers and plates from ikea... The ones safe for kids to use. They are EVERYWHERE! I can't get away from them. They haunt me in every room. And am I the only one that sees them?!. Seems like it as I ALWAYs end up Picking them up and washing them.
I have tried to stack them up on the other plates in the cupboards but they just don't slot in right and look odd. And worst of all when I open the kitchen cupboard they come tumbling out!! My worst nightmare.
So this week I have issues with plastic dishes! Anyone else have the same problem?

To work or not work that is the question

So I have started doing my KIT (keep in touch days) at work . For those of you that don't. Know what they are , they are a number of days allocated to someone on maternity leave to use up to ease their way back to work. I don't actually start work till 4 th June, but I have decided to use up my kit days and help 'get back into work mode.'
I went into work today and just basically shadowed another teacher with the group of students that I will be with when I go back.  I got up early this morning (no change there) and left the kids with the hubby to sort out. It was actually the first time I have left my baby boy ALL day with his dad. It was hard.

However,once I got to work, it was like I never left!! I had a good day actually felt brain challenged rather than baby brain ! I managed to have a peaceful cup of tea and cake without worrying a toddler was going to knock it over, without rushing and having to deal with sticky hands and , taking to the toilet and changing the nappy half way through my cup of tea. It was a very nice cup of tea indeed. I didn't have my toddler wanting a bite of my cake, or wanting to dip a biscuit in my tea and then having to drink tea with softened biscuit, errgh.  Lunch was even better! I only ate MY lunch .  I felt selfish for once.

All the time I was there I thought of my babies. We're they ok? Has the nappy been changed, have they eaten? Has my daughter been to the toilet? Are they crying? Has my baby had a nap? Even though they were with their dad I still worried.

Was it worth all the worry? The telephone calls back to hubby asking if they are ok? I don't know.
I really don't. But selfishly I enjoyed work, I enjoyed spending the day with adults, I loved interacting with other people, I adored the social aspect of work. Is that bad? And best of all, I absolutely 100 percent was delighted to spend the day without the kids.

This was a one off.  If only life was this easy. The selfless act of being a mother almost instantly feels better than being selfish.

Have you gone back to work recently after maternity leave? What are your thoughts?

Honey I took the kids to school and....

So I m not sure if I mentioned in my earlier posts that I am a SEN teacher at a special school and I work with adults age 16-18. So yesterday I decided to take the kids into school to ' show them off' as we speak. I thought its time I took the baby in before my maternity ends.. And just go see everyone. Besides there's a new 'cafebar' opened that is manned by the post 16 students themselves as part of ' work experience' .. So I could get a drink aswell whilst in there and see the students in action.
 Firstly, two year old had a melt down in the car screaming as she thought I was taking her to the Sure Start centre, which I am sure I made clear we were going to go there AFTER the school. Anyway I managed to settle her by distraction of the snow flakes! What wonderful creation!!
 We got into the school and was seated very politely by one of the students and then our orders were taken.
Well then it started because she got the non ending compliments of ' oh how beautiful are you? ,and .. How old are you? And pretty dress and love your hair etc etc... With her head tucked under my cardigan I wondered how long that would last. She peeped through and started screaming and giggling.. I immediately felt embarrassed!! Trying to shush her discreetly and bribe her with chocolates if she went quiet was my sorry tactic I used. She did eventually quieten down but I realised the more attention she got the more excited she became  and the more excited she became the more she wanted to jump up and down and scream.
Well lets put it this way, it was an entertaining morning and .. The students were entertained.

I went home that day thinking that my work colleagues probably think I have a devil of a daughter and discipline is not really my strongest asset. However the baby was an angel...
I won't be doing that again. Not for a looooong time.

How I entertained my toddler

It's pretty hard entertaining a two half year when you have a 7 month old baby and a grown man to look after. Idea of entertainment for the Man is to plonk my daughter in front of the tele.. Yes she will watch it but its not really mind stimulating and I have been told its not really good for them.
Well I had a busy morning yesterday and hubby had come back from a night shift so I got up with the kids and gave them breakfast ,while the MR went to bed.
I noticed we had an opened box of chocolate rice crispies and golden balls from Aldi. So I decided to make chocolate crispies bun thingies with my daughter..

Oh how she was kept entertained for atleast 45 minutes. I asked her politely if she would break up the chocolate into pieces .. She did that extremely well. Ofcourse many pieces fell to the floor. Good job I bought an extra packet of cooking chocolate that I secretly warmed up in the microwave!
Then I gave her the box of crispies and golden balls and she poured them into the melted chocolate and stirred the ingredients altogether. This took a while as the golden balls had a larger surface area and were fighting their way through the chocolate almost as if they didn't want to be covered!! Huff puff.
The best bit came next.
I showed Lissa how to scoop the mix and pour into the bun case using the spoon and to my surprise she picked up extremely well. The face of concentration and utter perfection was a photo opportunity NOT to miss. Then Ofcourse it's no fun without sprinkles!! I gave her a tub of sprinkles and told her to pour her heart out. I promised myself I wasn't going to get worked up about the mess on the floor. Who cares if there's drops of messy melted chocolate and rise crispies and sprinkles all over the floor?! Only my 7 month old will roll over and be covered in it and maybe use his fine motor skills to pick up the sprinkles and eat them! SHOCK HORROR. Well I got to them before he did.
See. It can be fun baking with a two year old. And keeping SHTUM about the mess somehow makes me feel free!
Go ahead try it. Pour your heart out.

Sleep deprived

How to deal with sleepless nights.

Well I have been having a problem getting my 7 month old to sleep all night. As I breastfeeding he still feeds atleast twice a night although for the last two nights I have been letting him ' cry it out' ..
It was easy with my first. When she was 6month old I was told by the health visitor that once she's on solids she doesn't need to wake up at night for a feed and if she does its out of habit. So as head strong as I was then, I was desperate for my sleep , desperate for my 8 hours ' beauty ' sleep!! So I set off on this journey of ' controlled crying' . I let my daughter at 6 months, cry at night .. Initially, the first night she cried for 50 mins..it was the most hardest thing I have had to do. But I was so determined and steadfast. I was not going to let a 6 month old 'rule the roost' as my health visitor said. So I carried on and the next night she cried for 30 mins and then 25 mins and then 10 mins and that was it. She's been sleeping 7am-7pm /8am-8pm since then. I triumphed. I succeeded . I got my sleep. But with bloody hard work, determination , ear plugs and crying my eyes out!! At that time I felt like an awful mother, a failure, I felt like I deprived
My child of the cuddles and comfort she needed at that time in her life. But I made sure I made up for it in the day time. Now.. I feel it was the best thing I did. She's got great sleeping habits. She sleeps in the dark on her own in her own bed. She falls asleep on her own too. My beautiful little girl.
However... With my boy 7 month old. It's a different story. He's bigger than she was at 7 months. He eats more and drinks more. He weighs more. I just don't know what to do. I'm craving sleep. I'm shattered everyday and cranky with everyone that comes in my way on a morning. And that's mostly my toddler , my 2 year old.
I have tried the 'controlled crying method' but I seem to give up this time. I worry about my daughters sleep getting disturbed, and the sounds of his cry are heart aching. He seems to have a firmer hold on me than my daughter. I hate it. He definitely 'rules the roost' in my home. I am still going to persevere with the controlled crying method.. I have to detach myself with him during the night. I will just have to make it up during the day. My beautiful baby boy.
Have you had a problem with sleep?
Any ideas will be greatly appreciated.

Let it snow let it snow let it snow

On the forecast for this week and on the news , it so seemed everyone was going into some sort of melt down because of the disastrous weather to come. Snow. A little bit of snow.
Now come on .. It's not snow like it used to be in those days. I remember it coming up to the knees. Oh how exciting were those days. We played outside for hours building igloos and snow mans and having snowball fights with anyone and everyone. Nowadays.. A little bit of snow brings everyone to a halt! And dare I say, myself.
I have been trying to persuade myself to go out and build a snow man .. Well.. I want to build a snow woman. But the amount of effort and time it takes to dress the toddler up just makes me want to forget the whole thing. I mean.. Ok this is what I mean. FINDING warm clothes and fighting with her Everytime to put her clothes on ... Screaming because she doesn't want to wear the trousers I have got her or she doesn't want to wear the cardigan because its white and she doesn't want to wear yellow knickers and can't find the same pair of socks!!then is the hat and the gloves and the scarfe and the wellies!! See.. A nightmare!!! So I give up!!!! It's so much easier than fighting with her and then preparing for a temper outburst which in turn ends the ripple effect across the household.... Baby starts crying .. I start getting stressed. So what do I do again . Lock myself up in the toilet.

Have a good snow day or snow week. Don't give up. LIKE I HAVE.