Pass It On: A Chance to Grow

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I chose to start a family; we wanted a child. When The Boy was born I vowed to myself that I would do everything in my power to protect him and keep him safe, if not forever, then certainly until he grew up into a happy and healthy adult who could care for himself and his own family.

And there in lies the crux of the matter.

I am able to do this; I am able to ensure that he is healthy, well-fed, vaccinated against illnesses which could otherwise kill him. I've read two blog-posts this week about vaccinations, one of them (Reluctant Housedad) was centred around receptionists' attitudes, and the other (Thinly Spread) is focused on a child's right to not die from a preventable illness.

Last year, I ranted and raved to a friend of mine when she was considering not having her child immunised with the MMR vaccine. Quite frankly I cannot understand why anyone would not have their child immunised against these three diseases. This friend wasn't sure if she should or not, but was unable to provide a valid reason why she shouldn't. I think she was afraid of saying "because of autism" and quite rightly so. There has never been a proven link between the MMR vaccine and autism, and the doctor that suggested it (for his own gain) has since been struck off. In 2009 more than 100 people (mostly children) contracted the measles virus in mid and west Wales. How many of those children hadn't been vaccinated? How many need not have suffered?

We live in a country where we are fortunate to have free healthcare on tap, and where our children are vaccinated against the world's deadliest diseases as a matter of course. It is our responsibility, as parents, to ensure that our helpless offspring are protected and able to grow into healthy and happy adults.

What about children who live in a country where there is no free healthcare? Where there is no little red book dutifully listing weight, height, head circumference and immunisations? What about them? Don't they have the same right as The Boy?

On June 13th, one day after The Boy's 2nd birthday, there is a Vaccine and Immunisation Conference in London. We have a chance to persuade world leaders to save 4 million lives in 4 hours. Twitter has been in the news a huge amount this week, all based around silly little superinjunctions. But what if we were able to use twitter, Facebook and our blogs for a more important message: that all children deserve the chance to actually grow up! Linked to the Save The Children campaign is an online petition which takes about 30 seconds to complete, please do so.

Now I have been tagged by the lovely Christine from Thinly Spread in a meme, started by Maggy at Red Ted Art and Josie at Sleep Is For The Week. This meme gets my contribution most definitely. The very simple idea of it is:

If you give a child a chance to grow, what will they be?

Now Christine reckons that the challenge is simple. I would like to point out to her that her youngest child is a lot older than nearly two like The Boy. However, she tagged me and I can't refuse because it's Christine and she is a goddess.

1) Get your child to either draw or craft a self-portrait of themselves now or in the future. Check out Maggy’s self-portrait post for some tips to get the littlies interested!

Now, I do not hold up much hope with The Boy's contribution. I suspect if he understood the question then he would say i-time-Pod tester (yes he means the iPod) or landscape gardener (he loves playing outdoors). I could waffle on about what I want him to be but that's not the point. So I had to get him to draw a picture of what he wants to be when he's older. This has proved interesting (he may have had some assistance).

I helped him to draw the circle and pointed at the areas where to draw the eyes, mouth and hair; he did the rest. I've no idea what he wants to be when he grows up and neither does he. He doesn't even know what 'in a minute' means, let alone in 20 years. However, it does show that he will have a well dodgy haircut.

2) Sign the Save the Children petition and then pass it onto your friends

Did that earlier in the week when Christine blogged about how she has been chosen to follow 'The Cold Trail', a route that a vaccine takes once it has left the city and reaches its destination in a rural community.

3) Write a blog post about it as soon as possible, including info about Save the Children and the petition. We want as many people linked up AND signed up the petition by Sunday 29th May 2011.

You're reading it.

4) Tag 8 fellow blogger friends

See below.

5) Link up your posts up below to the blog-hop or to RedTedArt or Sleep is for the Weak

Done.

6) If you have time, visit each other posts and say hello!

So, I'm tagging:

The Crazy Kitchen

Multiple Mummy

The Blog Up North

The Five Fs

Reluctant HouseDad

The Real Housewife of Suffolk County

GhostWriter Mummy

Mum2Four

You can add your link here by clicking on the Linky doo-dah at the bottom.

Flashback Friday: Musical Prodigy

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It's coming up to The Boy's birthday and today, with my little boy feeling poorly and needing a lot of cuddles, I've come over all reflective of when he was a tiddler.

Every Monday during term-time we go to Monkey Music. He adores it, loves the group leader and gets quite a lot out of it; which is just as well because neither of us are musical. I've got a piano in the dining room and yet it sits there unplayed, just waiting. It's waiting for The Boy to play it and it's very patient.

I bought the piano from the school that I work in six years ago; it was the old infants piano that was used when I went to that school. They were having a reoganisation of the pianos in the school, and that one was destined for either the tip or to be bought by the piano-tuner and reconditioned. Mwha ha ha, I got in there first! My old headteacher sold it to me £100 which I consider a real bargain. We spent the best part of a week sanding it down in the evenings, teachers are terrible creatures for leaving coffee-mug rings.

I didn't start this post with the intent of waffling on about my piano, bear with me; I've gone off on a tangent.

Oh yes, so when I was feeling nostalgic earlier about my little baby I found this video. It was taken around about this time last year and the change in The Boy since then is immense.

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Now pop over and check out the other Flashback Friday entries on Cafebebe's linky

Listography: Top Five Products I Can't Live Without

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On a materialistic note here, Kate wants to know which items in our life are so invaluable that we'd fall apart without them. I've got quite a few and only choosing five is really tricky (as The Boy would say).

  1. Make-up: No it's not because I am vain. It is because I am self-conscious of my skin. And you can say, "don't wear it and then your skin would be better," but you'd be wrong. I'm very pale and scar easily, so the chickenpox which I had when I was 19, and the horrendous hormone-propelled zits since The Boy have left a toll on my skin. Foundation, lippy and mascara give me the confidence to face the world.
  2. My Smartphone: I've got a HTC Desire, none of this fruity nonsense for me; I'm an Android girl! I cannot believe how much easier it has made my life; more organised, able to access e-mails, the Internet, take photos and videos of The Boy. And we mustn't forget Angry Birds.
  3. My car: I am not lazy, I actually like driving. I enjoy being in the driver's seat and focusing on all the different challenges, my car is my now second pride and joy.
  4. Canon EOS 300D SLR: The quality of photographs from it never fail to astound me. I've had it for seven years now and I absolutely adore it.
  5. Chocolate! Nuff said.

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Now pop over and see the other entries using that little notepad widget in the sidebar. Ta!

I'll beg on their behalf…

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I've had a brilliant week so far which is why I could be happy for others earlier when I saw the news about the finalists of the MAD Blog Awards.

I was particularly happy when I saw three names in there because I had nominated them in those categories, and it means I was right; they are fabulous.

Specifically, I am referring to:

I, amongst many others, nominated these three women because I adore their blogs for different reasons.

Thinly Spread is just amazing. I told Christine earlier on twitter that I wanted to go and live in her spare room, and it's true. The wonderful tales of family life that she tells just make me want to be the ultimate mummy; the übermummy. But I can't because she already is. I'm not telling you anymore, but if you don't know her blog then shame on you.

GhostWriterMummy is such an inspirational blogger. A primary school teacher, like Christine and myself, she speaks volumes to me on so many levels. Be it the project that she completed with her class on the Japanese earthquake, or the bravery behind her birth story, Susanne has made me confront my own inner demons and overcome them. Along with Jayne Crammond, she has established Maternity Matters, a site dedicated to raising the care that women experience before, during and after giving birth.

MammyWoo. Oh what can I say about Lexy and her sneezes? She is quite simply one of the most talented and endearing writers around on the blogs. If you don't believe me then you clearly haven't read about miming the need to purchase nappies in the middle of Spain, or about the need for mustard in her partner's sandwiches during labour. However, to experience Lexy at her very best then you must read It's only a day away! and I positively defy you not to laugh one second, cry the next, and then want to sweep her up and give her the most reassuring hug ever. I'm biased, she's my mate and I adore her, for good reason.

So while, I'm unashamedly flying the flag for these three ladies, I'll also beg for your votes for the following people. I don't want anyone else getting offended here if I don't mention you; I might not have ever come across your blogs so can't judge you. But these are my Inbox Delights. I may have to flip a coin for a couple of them…

Best MAD blog for Family Fun

Best MAD blog for family Life

Best MAD craft blog

Best MAD pregnancy blog

Most Inspiring MAD blogger

Best New MAD blog

Best MAD blog photography

Best MAD blog writer

Best MAD baby blog

Post of the Year

Please vote for whoever you see fit, don't be swayed by me.

Apart from for MammyWoo; you have to vote for her!

An Important Role to Fill

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Yesterday was a rollercaster ride all centred around the high of becoming a Toys R Us Toyologist. I cannot even begin to convey the great sense of pride that they liked our little blog, and our little family, enough to chose us to represent them for the next six-seven months.

A great deal of time was spent on twitter last night with several of my other fellow Toyologists (The Crazy Kitchen, Inside the Wendy House and EdSpire) discussing what would be involved, how many deliveries of toys we would have and how frequently, when would we get the information e-mail sent through, etc. I decided to go Googling and see what I could find out from the previous round of Toyologists blogs.

Reading More Than Just A Mother (by the excellent Emily Carlisle), I realised that there was going to be an awful lot of toys coming our way over the next half a year. Although the programme has been altered to reflect the viability of reviewing that many items, there is still going to be more than enough for one little boy. In my questionnaire which I received as a result of being shortlisted, I stated that I would be reviewing the toys with my niece and nephew, and would also hold Toyologist tea-parties with my baby and toddler group. That much remains true; I will do those things because I know how much enjoyment they will get out of it. However more worthy benefactors will be needed.

As Uncle Ben told Peter, "with great power comes great responsibility."

Now, I do realise that I am not Spiderwoman (a good thing bearing in mind my opinion of arachnids), however I do have a responsibility. I have a responsibility to my son to ensure that he doesn't 'expect' things to arrive for him without having worked for them. I have a responsibility to ensure that he grows up as a caring and responsible child, considering the needs of others before his own. I have a responsibility to prevent him from becoming spoilt.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not spoilsport mummy entirely (apart from when it comes to playing with mud); yes he will get to play with the toys and keep some of them, yes we will be giving a few to friends and family, and yes some of the toddler groups in our area (who may find it difficult to obtain resources from other areas) may benefit. However a significant proportion of the toys will be donated (once reviewed) to two local children's hospitals. One of them is Tŷ Hafan which offers comfort, care and support for life-limited children and young people and is dedicated to improving the quality of life of their whole family. Ty Hafan, and I, believe that play is a very important therapy for not only the children suffering from life-limiting illnesses but also their siblings. It is a magical place which needs all the support it can get.

The other children's hospital that I would like to donate to is the one that The Boy was in for five days when he was three weeks old. The Children's Hospital for Wales is amazing and without it I don't want to think what would have happened to our family. The hospital has been built in stages and almost entirely from charitable donations. The Boy was in for less than a week and I was overwhelmed at how amazing the staff and children were. However one little girl had been in for 13 weeks with severe eczema, and she was just one of a handful of children confined to the ward for a long period of her short life. I'd like to give back to them in a small way and I know that those children would appreciate new toys to play with.

We are so pleased to be ambassadors for Toys R Us and, through this, to be in a position to help other children less fortunate than The Boy. Thanks Toys R Us, we won't let you down!

I've got an 'ology!

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I am over the moon!

The Boy and me, and probably daddy too if we let him, have been chosen to be Toyologists for Toys R Us! This is huge and so so exciting. The process involved having to do a review of a toy that fell into one of three categories; we chose the outdoor play theme and reviewed the Little Tikes Makin' Mud Pies Kitchen. Amazingly and happily we were shortlisted along with 24 other lovely mums and dads.

Then last Wednesday evening, very late at night (it's when my brain works best much to hubby's discontent) I spent an hour and a half completing and submitting the comprehensive questionnaire explaining to Geoffrey Giraffe why we would be an ideal family to choose. I obviously managed to convince him because today at 12.08pm (ish) the lovely Toys R Us posted on their wall that we were one of the lucky ten families to be chosen! I had just got The Boy to sleep and was still holding him at the time, so I did a silent squeal of delight and gave him a celebratory kiss.

This now means that I get to be part of a lovely community of mummy, and daddy, reviewers who assist Geoffrey and friends in working out brilliant toys and helping to promote what has got to be the UK's biggest toy retailer. I was honoured to be shortlisted, now I am overwhelmed and so very proud.

 

It also means that I get to put this funky badge on my blog.

 

 

Final word from The Boy himself:

 

 

Snip!

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Oh God, what have I done?

I've done this about ten times before and normally it's fine, but this time I think I've really screwed up? I cried, I actually cried. One half was perfect. If I could have stopped halfway, then I would have done, but of course you can't just leave a job half done can you? You've got to finish it, especially when it's hair. Especially when it's your precious child's hair and you don't want him looking like a muppet.

Which is exactly what he now looks like.

Oh God, what have I done?

My gorgeous boy's beautiful locks have gone. Hence today's Silent Sunday. I've tried taking him to the hairdresser's and the first time she did it brilliantly, the second time was horrendous; he looked like he had a pudding-bowl cut. So I had to tidy it up anyway.

He sat on daddy's lap watching our dvd of Poppy Cat and was really focused, especially when I gave him the spray bottle to take apart. The right hand-side was literally perfect, the back was brilliant although I always struggle with the nape of the neck. Then the boys switched sides so I could do the other side and that is when it all went tits-up. They were sat at an angle so The Boy was leaning, I cut from above rather than below and basically it was too short. At this point, I cried. I may have stopped my foot. I certainly had to get a grip and even up the other side. When I'd finished it was even, and the actual cut itself is ok.

But it's too short and I don't like it.

Problem is you can't stick it back on can you? Does it really look awful?

Thank the God of Hairdressing Scissors that it is four weeks today until his birthday and our photoshoot to celebrate it. By then it might be halfway decent, halfway back towards looking like this:

And he went "wee, wee, wee" all the way (to the potty).

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Sorry, but I have a feeling that this blog is about to take a downwards spiral into the porcelain world of toilet humour. I'm not about to join Ade and Rik in the sphere of poo jokes and fluff gags, but we are venturing firmly into the world of potty training. It happens to us all so don't grimace! You had to do it once (unless you're 37 and still wearing nappies) and if you've got children then it has either happened or is going to happen to them too.

A few months ago I decided that it was time to get down the potty that has been stored in the attic for the past year. It's a Fisher Price Throne potty that my sister passed onto me, no don't worry it wasn't hers; her children used it. It does mean that it's seven years old but then it's moulded plastic so is going to be fine for the next 500 years really isn't it? This potty has a removable tray for easy cleaning and a 'red-eye' beam which triggers a cheer when something breaks it. Upon my sister's recommendations, it doesn't have batteries in at the moment otherwise he might follow his cousin and stick his hand in the potty (and urine or worse) to hear the cheer.

I explained once to The Boy that you sit on it to do a wee-wee and he had a little practise getting on and off it in the kitchen (fully-clothed). We then took him upstairs to bed and he had his first 'go' on it. He performed! We clapped and cheered him feeling immensely proud. Then we did the recommended thing of getting him to wave goodbye to it down the loo, flush, wash hands etc. At which point he went back on it and went again. In total he went five times! FIVE! On his first go! Wahay The Boy!

We've been taking it really slowly with him, knowing how important potty-training is and not wanting to get it wrong. For the time being we put him on the potty when we change his nappy and he always, always performs. Sometimes he's even attempted more than just a number one, thank God hubby dealt with that one! However I'm beginning to think that the time has come to progress onto it properly, but I'm hoping to put it off until the summer holidays for various reasons; he's my child and I don't want my mum doing this with him, I need a good week or two (or six) to devote to this important procedure, and it's easier in the summer because of drying clothes. On my part, it's also to deal with nappies on holidays than a recently trained toddler. Lazy, I know.

What makes me think that I'm being unfair in making him wait is this:

On Wednesday evening, he went upstairs to get ready for bed. He took his trousers and body off, pulled his nappy down, put it in the bin, sat on the potty, did a wee and then went and washed his hands. All by himself!

We stood open-mouthed! When did my baby get to be so grown-up?

ShowOff ShowCase: The One About Play

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The lovely Lauren at The Real HouseWife of Suffolk County recently pointed out that I post a fair amount about Learning Through Play. I've just done a search on my blog and she does appear to be right, there are 25 posts with that tag on my blog!

There's a reason for this; The Boy has reached the age where he is really beginning to discover his world and investigate how things work and interact. It's fascinating to watch, and with a small amount of careful guidance he can learn so much. My natural pedagogical instinct has kicked in slightly and I'm suddenly remembering all of my nursery nursing training which encourages learning through play.  Also, I'm a big kid and like toys.

This weekend, I want you to share your tales about play: cooking, painting, gardening, craft, playing with toys, beach trips, soft-play, pillow-fights, card games, team games, role-play, playing with teddies. You name it, I'd like you to link it up. Simply use the html to add the badge below to that post (you don't need to repost) and then enter your url below and feel the blog love.

Go on, Show Off The Ones About Play!

 

ShowOff ShowCase

ShowOff ShowCase: The One About Play

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A little blue bird might have tweeted at you that I've been shortlisted to be a Toys R Us Toyologist. Complete surprise, complete honour, completely nervous to find out the result on Monday! We had to review a toy, and I talked about how he liked to play with his Makin' Mud Pies kitchen. Those avid readers of my blog (all two of you) will know that I like to blog about learning through play, so this was an ideal opportunity for me to jabber on.

Therefore in honour of that amazing art form where your children make sense of the world in which they live, your theme this weekend is:

 

 

The One About Play

 


I'd like you to link up one of your posts about playing. No, don't worry it doesn't have to be deep and heavy, it doesn't have to discuss the educational benefits, it doesn't have to do any of that. It can just be about you and your children having fun together playing in the mud, or with a pillow, or in the woods, or at the park, or at soft-play. With paint, with water, dolls, action men, inaction men (my brother took apart my action man and couldn't get his second leg back on. I swear I had the world's only one-legged action man!).

Let's show off our posts about play and share some ideas.

Linky opens at 8am on Saturday and will close sometime around 10pm on Sunday, when I remember or when HimUpNorth has finally found an entry.

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