Welcome to Witney!

Well, this has to be a very short post as I am using the library computer and am aware that as I did not book this computer, I may be thrown off at any given moment.....Alas the batteries in my camera are dead and I haven't been organised enough to replace them yet, but I will post pics of our new house and the kids enjoying it as soon as I get around to buying some new ones. We have been here for almost two weeks now and according to Ben he loves this new house 'and I certainly like the doorbell!', he exclaimed. the kids are sooo cute, upon waking up the first morning in the house Ben excited pointed out to Jasmine that we have three toilets!

Will post more when I get another opportunity, but until then....

Here is that picture...finally, 1 1/2 years after moving to Witney! (And we no longer even live there!)

Countdown to Witney: 2 days to go.....!

We got the keys to the new house on wednesday, so me, the kids, Aunty Gail,cousin Aaron, Uncle Clint and Pippi set off for Witney to see the house for ourselves (finally!) Unfortunately the day didn't start off as planned. I had wanted to be arriving in Witney around 11am, but as it happens we didn't even set off from Leicester until after 10pm. As Clint is fond of taking off around the country, we decided that it would be best if he led the procession of cars as he confidently described a route in the direction of Luton (?) which was meant to be much easier. Well, almost 4 long, hot, stuffy hours later we arrived rather the worse for wear at the new house. Ironically Maria (aka Pippi) whose car I and the children were in, turned off towards Oxfordshire thinking Clnt had also turned off. He hadn't. We called his mobile and received a torrent of emotion about how we were supposed to be following.....needless to say, we turned around and met up with them again. We shouldn't have bothered as we would have been in Witney around 2 hours earlier if we had!
Anyway, when we arrived Ben and Jas were so excited they ran around the house, looked in all the cupboards, played in the garden and went to the park. They most definately didn't want to leave at the end of the day.
I am really pleased with the house as it has a much bigger garden than at our previous house, is very neutrally decorated, and has a lot of amenities close by, namely a park and playing fields and a supermarket, nursery, takeaways and a school.
It is also very quiet and there appeared to be a lot of young families and children around. I think we're going to fit in very nicely indeed.

Hip, hip, hooray!!! Ben is 4!

I can't believe my baby boy is 4 years old!!! Where on earth has the time gone, I can remeber being pregnant with him like it was yesterday.... As I'm sure most of you know we have been experiencing some freak weather here in England, with more rain than I have ever witnessed in my whole quarter century of life. But on the eve of Ben's birthday (which, as in years previous, we were having at his grandmother's in Nottingham) I prayed for sunshine and a ground dry enough for the children to take advantage of the huge back garden. I did play it safe though and decided against the planned barbecue, but as it turns out we got both sun and dry(ish) ground. And we had a blast. For the first time Ben was able to invite his own friends and we had Kieron (his best friend), Anya, Dhru, Rhianna, Melissa, Kway and Oliver. Not to mention lots of family and parents of said friends. We bought Ben a bike and his face was a picture when he saw it - alhtough he did exclaim 'but I wanted a scooter!' Granddad Allen came up trumps with the scooter, and feeling left out, Jasmine went hunting in Pippi's garage and found a scooter of her own. Between that scooter and the safety helmet (that her aunty Gail bought her as consolation for it not being her birthday), she was one happy camper. In fact, her and her beloved scooter were inseparable. Pics to follow....

Countdown to Witney - 14 days to go....

Here's a pic of Witney town centre, and no, it's not much bigger than what you see here. Luckily for a city gal like me there are mini-me versions of WHSmiths, Dorothy Perkins, Fatface, Costa Coffee, Adams, Waterstones and Boots (not to mentions some rather quaint shops/boutiques/pubs). Now they're not the shops I frequent most, but they do make me feel a little more at home and less like I'm out in the boonies. Being a sucker for programes lik 'Escape to the country' and 'relocation, relocation', it is quite easy for me to be drawn into the fantasy of country living, but realistically, I think the idyll would fade the first time I got the munchies after 10pm at night and there was not a shop open after 5pm. Or, when the only multi-culturism comes via the TV. Nope, proper rural country life is not for me, but market town life is a more realistic expectation. In fact I am really excited about this move, now that I've gotten over my initial reservations about being so far from family and friends.

So much for 'summer' holidays

Well, it is only officially day 3 of the summer holidays and we are going stir crazy!!! The weather has been so awful that we have been housebound and are suffering a severe case of cabin fever. In all honesty the kids are driving me mad cause there's only so many DVD's and colouring activities that you can subject them to before sheer boredom sets in and they start whining for attention. So, in order to try and engage us all in something fun together I submitted to their constant demands to have their faces painted and I must say, we were all rather pleased with the results :



I'm sure you can tell that Ben is a pirate, but that Jasmine is a lion I suspect may be a little harder to discern - I think I need a little more practice.....
Another project of mine these last couple of weeks has been to start creating a dressing up box for Ben and Jas. I keep a look out for reduced price costumes and so far have found a fairy princess outfit, a scooby doo, a superman, a fireperson (got to be pc!) and a policeperson. Once we are settled in the new house I'm going to look around carboots and second-hand shops for items such as costume jewellery and other accessories. I am also going to invest in some proper face paints because the kids absolutely love being made up.
We have had a few dress-up sessions and even Jasmine's baby doll (whom she named 'Amen') joined in the fun. I think she looks quite scary to be honest, but Ben and Jas look soooo adorable :-)








BATDOLL - how freaky does she look :-)

'Bring your Parents to school Day'

Last week I got to spend the afternoon at school with Ben and it was so cute how excited he was to see me in his class :-) First off it was the afternoon F1 Children's day to have lunch at school to prepare them for full-time school and Ben had decided he wanted a packed lunch....cue Earth Mother fantasies about baking cookies, putting fruit into cute little tupperware, frying some homemade chicken strips and packing it all lovingly the night before. Reality was quite different...I didn't get chance to go shopping for all the ingredients and ended up whizzing round tesco just half an hour before he was due at school. I grabbed chicken from the deli, a multigrain bagel from the bakery, some frommage frais from the chilled section, organic crisps from the baby food aisle and grapes and apples from the fruit and veg aisle. Not bad for a last minute dash. Next dilemma: what to put it all in....well I had remebered to bring this mini cooler bag that I had bought for Nick to take his sandwhiches to work in (he just got laughed at by his colleaugues to my dismay), then I improvised with some bags nicked from the veg aisles, and spoon nicked from the cafe (for his yoghurt). Whew, sorted! He actually ate most of it and when I arrived to join him in class, his little face lit up and he proceeded to take me around various activities from playing in the sand, to painting, to cutting and sticking, to puzzles. On talking to his teacher Miss Pinnegar and the teaching assistant Miss Nott, I was very proud to learn that he is a very confident and attentive, inquisitive boy, who is very creative and can concentrate on tasks for extended periods of time. This was also confirmed by his first school report which I received a few days later. I always knew he is a bright child, but it is very pleasing to have it confirmed by his teachers.


Ben and his teacher Miss Pinnegar


I have been preparing Ben for his new school by telling when I was going to visit them, as well as about the clubs there and describing the playground and so on, and he is so excited by it all, that he doesn't seem to mind that he will be leaving his friends behind - kids are amazingly resilient and I have no worries about him settling in when we do move.

Jasmine hasn't really been at nursery long enough to really have any problems readjusting and anyway, she is a really confident, headstrong girl who knows her own mind - they will both really thrive in the new school.
Here's a few pics of her on her last day at Glebelands pre-school.




Isn't she gorgeous :-)

Countdown to Witney.....

Days to go: 17.....

Last saturday Nick put down the deposit on our new home in Madley Park, Witney - HOOORRRAAAYYY! As of 1st of August we will once again have our own home and be a proper family again, I can't wait! We have also secured a place at a small school in the nearby village of North Leigh for Ben and Jasmine will attend their pre-school 3 mornings a week. What I didn't realise when we were visiting the schools is that in Oxfordshire children are first offered a part-time place the term after they turn 4, not 3 like in Leicestershire. This means that Ben will have to do another year part-time. I was a little disappointed at first, but have now come around to thinking that it is actually a good thing. There is so much more I wanted to do with the children when I left work to stay at home that I didn't get to because I still don't drive, so I feel I have been given a second chance to do more with them before they start on the treadmill that is full time education. It also means that both Ben and Jas have time to settle in to a completely new way of life. Downside for Jasmine is that she won't get a place until January 2009 and if the school doesn't do mid-year intakes, then September 2009!

Anyway, more about the new house.....It is a newbuild so a blank canvas, has a separate dining room, a downstairs wc, an en-suite (which means the kids have the family bathroom to themselves!) and the cherry on the top? A DISHWASHER yay!!! I'm so excited...

The kids are already picking things that they want in their new bedroom, and with Ben's birthday just a week away, I'm sure we'll have more than enough things to fill all this new space.
He spent his last day at school friday just gone and when I explained that he probably wouldn't see his friends again (even his best friend Kieron) he said 'well I'm going to get some new ones', and didn't seem fazed at all.

Now I just have to find a dentist, a doctor and a part-time job for when both kids are at school (I figure it's the best way to meet new people and get to know the area). My first priority personally is to finally take my driving test so I am free to take the kids around the countryside that is all around us - I just found out that witney is in the Cotswolds, how quaint :-) Me in the Cotswolds! I think I'm going to have to take up the art of Jam making and cake baking!

watch this space for pics of the new house...

Hello again, long time no hear from...

It's been absolutely ages since I lasted posted anything, and so much has changed/happened. Most importantly Nick is now living in a market town in West Oxfordshire and we (me and the children) are living with my dad. ???????? what the....? Well, Nick got a fantastic new job with a travel company in Witney, Oxfordshire so we decided that he would move down first and that we would follow later when he had settled in and found us a house. So, to cut down on living expenses, it made sense for me and the kids to move in with my dad (just 5 mins from our old house) and Nick would rent a room near to work. Well it's been almost two months now and in a word it is 'hard'. I really miss having my own home, I miss having Nick around and I miss being a family together. The kids miss their home, and they especially miss their daddy. The last time Nick visited us (2 weeks ago) Ben cried and wailed and clung to him. Jasmine also cried but only as we were walking away, and she cried silently, which in a way was even harder to deal with. I unashamedly shed a few tears because it was really distressing seeing the kids like that. Needless to say I have been scouring the net for a house to rent in Witney as I am determined to be settled in before Ben has to start school full-time (where has time gone??? My baby going full time?).
Other developments are:
-Jasmine has started going to a nursery next door to Ben's school 3 afternoons a week and is loving it. She comes home singing the songs and with little bits of artwork for me (although last week she also brought home some other kids work too!)
-Ben no longer loves school and has decided that he wants to go to nursery with Jasmine instead. It is upsetting and frustrating when he makes excuses everyday why he shouldn't go to school. Especially as I know he's missing his dad and that he has been through a lot of change. He was also quite unwell with a chest infection that lasted almost 6 weeks - so I never know if he is just playing me or if he really is unwell or something. One thing I do know is that once at school he does really enjoy himself, so off we set each afternoon on our loooong journey to school.
-I have decided to apply to Reading University to do a degree in French and German with European studies next year.

Anyway, I shall hopefully be able to start posting a little more regularly now that life is settling down again.
till the next time....

Potty update...

Or rather 'toilet' update as Jasmine refuses to use the potty. She has done so well this week and even stayed dry all night for two nights in a row. Last night she did have an accident, but the makeshift mat saved the day (or rather, the night). They both had accidents actually, but I think that they drank too much of the pool water when they went swimming. And because we got back home late, they also had their last drink later than usual.
Jamsine has a very particular way of sitting on the toilet. I have a special seat that has handles and makes the toilet smaller so she can sit comfortably on it. When I put her on she sits very solemnly with her hands folded neatly in her lap - she won't smile back at me (even when I am grinning like an idiot) until she has finished her business. Then ever so slowly she raises her eyes to mine and a grin breaks out on her face...cue me clapping and saying 'yay, you did it, well done!!!'

Swimming fun
Maria (Nick's mum) came to stay yesterday and whilst Ben had his swimming lesson she took Jasmine into the main pool. My poor little baby, who had been so excited to wear her 'swimming trunks(!), was terrified! I could see he little arms clinging to 'pippi' (their name for Maria) as they sat at the water's edge. As the pool is more of a leisure pool, you enter it like you would the sea, rather than climb down into it. She was petrified of the waves - even though she'd been looking forward to them, but allowed Pippi to sit on the 'beach' with her as the waves lapped at them. I was watching from the sidelines, whilst also trying to watch Ben's swimming lesson. Jasmine hasn't been in a swimming pool since we were in St Lucia and she was 5 months old. I have been too afraid to go alone with the two of them as neither is used to the water and can get scared quite easily. I was always worried that i wouldn't be able to cope with them both alone. Luckily Ben is improving because of his lessons, in fact he did really in his lesson today. He did however, get over excited (and I think spurred on by the sight of his fellow learners jumping into the water) and he went to jump onto his back in the water. As you can imagine he sunk like a rock and came up spluttering and flailing about! He climbed out and ran crying to the instructor who duly calmed him down (I was a little worried, but realised that he was in no real danger). He swam the length of the pool (it's only a baby pool) a few times with the rubber tube around him the first time without being led by an instructor - I was so proud! After he had finished he joined Maria and Jasmine in the fun pool and I was so jealous. I couldn't join them becuase I seem to have misplaced my costume, so I could only look on with envy as they splashed in the waves. As the kids gained more confidence and got used to the water they all seemed to be having so much fun. I will definately be buying a costume and taking them myself very soon!
In the showers afterwards I was helping Ben to get washed when he told me he needed to go to the toilet. Well, I have this thing about toilets in swimming pools ( actually I have a thing about public toilets full stop, but especially the ones at pools) as you never can tell just what that wet stuff on the floor is.....so I told Ben to just do it in the shower. Big mistake. He pulled down his trunks and weeed up the wall, and yes there were other people in the shower! He only did what I asked I guess, just not quite in the way I envisioned!

Mummy wow! I’m a big girl now! (cue huggies pullups jingle)

I am so proud of my little girl! Yesterday she was dry all day. I put a nappy on her to go to bed but she pooed in it instantly (I’m sure she saves them for the moment I put a nappy on her to go out/to bed), so I had to change her and realised I had forgotten to buy more nappies. She was going to have to go cold turkey…no more nappies for real. I put some pants on her and fashioned a makeshift waterproof mat out of a folded up sheet, folded again around a large, durable, plastic bag. But you know what? She didn’t wet the bed at all – even when I transferred her to our bed (along with the mat) she stayed dry. So today I decided to not buy any more nappies for real. As in, not even for bed. When we took Ben to school she went to the toilet, then we went shopping and she stayed dry. When we got home she went for a wee again, and then she went again for a poo! She looked so pleased with herself. Yesterday she said ‘clap then!’, when she went to the toilet – she’s so used to the big fuss I make of her when she goes, that she expects – no demands – it now. More embarrassingly she has taken to announcing to the world her toilet successes. I popped into Tesco yesterday and took her to the toilet (in the disabled loos) before going myself. When we came out she threw her arms up in the air and with an ear-splitting grin and said in a very loud voice ‘we did a wee!’. The shame! She did it again at shopping today – I hope this is a phase of the very short kind
Although I can’t wait for her to be completely trained, part of me is already starting to miss having a baby. This by no means implies that I want another (at least not for a looong while yet). It’s just I realised that they aren’t really babies anymore, and I am so used to having a baby that it feels a like time is rushing on too fast sometimes. I have always said since I had Ben, that as a parent you enjoy the stage that your baby is at, whilst missing the stage they were in, but also look forward to the next stage. Ben will be starting full time school in September this year, and once that happens the time will speed on even faster. Life will be governed by term dates, and we all know that for parents it seems like the kids are always off school! So before I know it he will be starting junior, then secondary school, then shock horror – leaving home! And even though I still see Jassy as my baby, she isn’t a baby at all. She’s nearly 2 ½ (her petit frame makes her seem more baby-like). Her language skills are so advanced (as are Ben’s) that I am constantly being kept on my toes…I don’t have babies anymore. I have proper kids. Kids that tell me what they want to be when they are older, what they want for birthdays and Christmas.
On this topic, Ben was telling me yesterday that when he is older he is going to get some money and go shopping and buy all his favourite things. When asked what they are he replied, ‘sausages, milk, crisps and yoghurts and wine.’ ‘Wine?’ I asked, ‘why do you want to buy wine?’. ‘Because when I’m older I can’, he said in a ‘duh’ kind of tone. Silly me.

Speaking of conversations we have, I was reminded of an incident a few weeks ago where Jasmine and Ben where playing up at the dinner table and I said to Jasmine that if she got off her chair again she would go on the naughty step. She got off the chair again and simultaneously I said ‘Naughty Step!’ and Nick said ‘Bed!’ Ben piped up in a clear voice and said to Nick, ‘well you said ‘bed’ and mummy said ‘naughty step’. So is it bed or naughty step?’. Needless to say we were both left rather shamefaced. Oh, the wisdom of youth – sometimes we adults overcomplicate things and it takes a child to come along with simple logic to make us see things more clearly. And my two never forget what you say to them. Don’t promise something you can’t keep because they will most definitely remind you of it. And don’t dare try and fob them off, because they will hold you to it!

Flour babies

On Monday I decided to have a sneaky play on the Sims after Ben got home from school. I settled the kids with a snack and their favourite DVD, and then crept upstairs to customise the house I’d built. Anyway, I was happily choosing wallpaper and furnishings when I heard the cupboard door in the kitchen being opened and shut, so I called out to the kids to come out of the cupboard. Thinking no more of it, I went back to my game. From downstairs I could hear some real giggling and belly laughing and thought to myself how nice it was that, for once, the kids were playing quite happily together with no sounds of fighting/arguing/crying….little did I know…..
A short while later Jasmine came rushing upstairs and climbed onto my lap saying, ‘the bear’s gonna get me mum!’ (?) Absentmindedly I helped her up, when I noticed that she was rather white. Yes, she was white. She was naked and covered from head to toe in a fine powdery substance. ‘What the..!?’ I exclaimed, my heart beating because I wondered if she’d got into the cupboard under the sink and gotten hold of the washing powder/soda crystals, or some other chemical substance I keep under there (the cupboard is locked, but I never underestimate the determination of a child that wants something!). I dipped my finger into her hair and smelled the powder and realised it was of the edible type. So I rushed downstairs and the sight that greeted me will stay with me forever. Two naked toddlers covered from head to toe, standing in the midst of a blanket of flour. My living room looked like it had been hit by a blizzard! There was flour everywhere! I ran to the cupboard and checked, yep, they had taken my plain flour, my wholemeal bread flour, my chickpea flour, my sugar and my butter! I was a strange mix of emotions right about then…..Firstly I wanted to laugh, not only did the children look hilarious, but there was a kind of surreal quality to it all. Add to the mix a little anger - the monkey rats!!! They’d destroyed my living room!!! Throw in some despair, some self-recrimination (I did leave them unattended after all) and a pinch of relief (at least they didn’t get anything dangerous) and you can pretty much understand how I was feeling at that moment in time. I went back into the living room to assess the damage and noticed that not only was the floor between the back of the couch and the piano about an inch deep in flour (not to mention butter and disposable cutlery and plates (?)), but it was all over the freshly washed clothes that were waiting to be ironed, the freshly ironed clothes waiting to be put away, up the curtains, all over the couch and the (dry-clean only) cushions, the rug and the lounger and throws. It had also been trampled out into the hallway and kitchen. Big Sigh! I needed to approach this in an organised fashion…..so, I ran a bath and dumped both Ben and Jas in. I washed their hair – which Jas hated as usual. But Mrs nice mummy I was not! I poured jugful after jugful of water over her head and she screamed blue murder. I however, was having none of it. I couldn’t really get too angry at them for the flour incident as I was partly to blame, but there was going to be a consequence. If you put flour all over your hair, it has to be washed out, whether you like it or not, so there! From my questioning of the two of them, the culprit appears to be Jasmine – which I can totally imagine. But Ben got told off for joining in when he knows that I don’t like them playing with the food in the cupboard. Next I tackled the mess downstairs, whilst the kids were confined to their bedroom. I had to shovel up the flour with the dustpan before taking the hoover to it. Bad idea. Hoovers can’t cope with such large amounts of fine dust and I could hear its groans of protest. I then had to rewash the clothes and only just finished that today. Whew! Moral of the story? When the cat’s away, the mice will play. Or rather, when mummy is not looking, the fun really starts! Pictures of the insident will follow shortly.....

Be careful what you say to children - it almost always comes back to haunt you!

From time to time, when the situation warrants, I try to explain to Benjamin and Jasmine that there are children in the world who are not as lucky as them. Ok, so they are still too young to fully understand, but I do want them to grow up thankful for what they have been blessed with, and compassionate towards those who haven't had the same good fortune. For example, I was watching a Blue Peter report on children in Malawi a few weeks ago, and explained to them both that there are children in the world who do not have mummies and daddies, and that there are children who don't have any toys at all to play with or books to read. Of course they wanted to know why - and that's where it gets tricky. I didn't want to frighten or upset them, so I simply said that their mummies and daddies were too poorly for the doctor to make them better, so they have gone to live with Jesus and the angels in heaven. 'Where is heaven?' Ben asked. 'Way up in the clouds' I said, feeling rather pleased with my explanations. We have had the heaven talk a few times already as my great-grandmother died last November (God Bless her) and I gave a similar explanation - that she was too poorly so she has gone to live with Jesus. A few weeks ago Ben was playing with his toy mobile phone and I overheard him talking to granny asking her if she was with Jesus and if she was better yet. It was very bittersweet.

Today however, we were again talking about children who don't have any toys (I can't rememeber how we got onto the subject) and Ben said; 'that's because they wouldn't put them away so their mummy put them in the bin!' well, what can I say?!?!? I have been guilty of threatening to throw the toys in the bin if they don't tidy them away - normally after I have been asking and asking for a while, and frustration creeps in. Guilty as charged! Well, that's what I mean about things coming back to haunt you - you can often say something to a child that seems harmless at the time, but when you hear them repeat it at another time, it suddenly sounds so much worse. it's not the first time I have been made aware of something that I say in passing and don't give much thought to, when one of the kids has said it during play - or to me even! So today's post is a little bit of advice - only say to or around your children what you don't mind hearing them repeat. Sounds like common sense huh? Well, you'd be surprised just how often we don't use it when it comes to the conversations we have around our kids. All is not lost though, I was reminded just what good traits I have passed on - Ben then said to me 'we can take some of our toys to the children and we can all play with them, ok?'.

A child is never too young to be taught good values. Don't underestimate what they are capable of understanding and doing. I have learned many a lesson from mine.

Another Picasso in the making....?

On the theme of future careers, I think Ben is going to have something to do with art. He can draw so well for a 3 year old and his writing is also amazing for his age. He can write his name, Jas, mum, dad and can copy any word I write for him very legibly. He loves his ‘workbooks’ and can spend ages practicing his writing, pattern recognition etc…. His school was running an art competition with the theme of ‘seasons’. We decided on summer (well I did actually, as most of the craft stuff I have is better suited to the summer theme, than the winter one Ben wanted) and Ben drew a butterfly, some grass, clouds, a bee, a tree, and himself and Jasmine (holding hands, as he proudly told me). He also stuck on some flower crystals. The result is stunning and with very minimal input from myself (I drew the black lines on the bee and the outline for the tree trunk as well as cut out the yellow circle for the sun).

If he doesn’t win for his year group then they must have a mini Monet at Glebelands! Will keep you posted! Meanwhile, here’s a photo of the picture. Fan letters can be sent to the usual address.

My Child's better than yours (neh neh neneh neh!)

Jasmine is destined to be a model – ‘yeah sure!’ I hear you say. Well you may think that I’m just another smug, over-indulgent mother who thinks that her children are more beautiful/intelligent/funny than any other that ever lived, but I think I’m actually on to something here. Firstly she is the most gorgeous little girl on the planet – no really, just look at her adorable face and that mass of dark curls. Secondly, she has a fascination with clothes. I can dress her in an outfit in the morning, and then turn around a half hour later and she’s wearing something completely different – granted her taste and coordination of colours and patterns is rather ‘eclectic’, but she genuinely loves to dress/undress herself and has definite opinions on what she does and doesn’t want to wear. A few months back she liked to undress more than anything else (rather worrying!), and loved nothing more than running around naked (I could turn around at any given moment and she’d be starkers!). Then came the ‘baby clothes phase’. She keeps unearthing baby clothes that I have packed away and putting them on announcing ‘they fit me mummy!’ and looking real proud of herself. In fact I’ve even put her to bed in her pyjamas at times, then gone to check on her a couple hours later and she’s fast asleep in a jumper sized 0-3 months (or naked)! This phase is still in motion and she has an attachment to a bobbly fleece jumper she used to wear as a baby. She either uses it as a comforter when sucking her fingers, or actually wears it. It’s kind of cute really. No matter how many times that jumper has made it to the ‘must give to charity’ bag, Jasmine somehow always manages to rescue it! I have given up now and decided to just leave her with it.
This may all be very cute, but what does it have to do with her being a model? Well here is the really smug mummy bit….both her and Ben were offered modelling contracts. Just got to find the extortionate portfolio fee……


















Here endeth my boastfulness for the day (although I think it is perfectly acceptable to think one's offspring are the greatest. In fact it would be weird if, as a parent, you didn't)

The potty saga continues…..(11/02/07)

I thought we were doing pretty well with the whole potty training thing, in that 50% of the wee’s were done in the ptty/toilet and the other 50% on the floor, not bad for a week’s work. So, I guess I got a little daring on Tuesday just gone, and decided to not put a nappy on Jasmine as we took Ben to the top of the road where he is met by his classmates Rhianna’s mum to take him to school. Well, we dropped Ben off, and then I decided to go and buy a newspaper. On the way I got sidelined by a group of parents on the park and forgot completely about Jas not having a nappy on. I got to the shop and as I was paying for the paper Jasmine started whimpering and saying ‘I need a wee wee mum’…..’nooooooo’ I wailed and dashed over to her just a telltale puddle appeared on the floor! I whipped her up and turned red-faced to the person behind the till and exclaimed in a little voice, ‘ermm I think you’re going to need a mop. I’m really sorry, she’s had an accident’. Then I grabbed the paper, and with Jas under the other arm I fled! The poor thing was so upset, and when I put her down to walk (all the while trying to calm her and explain that it was just a bit of wet, and we’d be home soon) that she tottered in a rather bow-legged manner and gingerly tried to make it home! It was sooo funny and cute. Nonetheless I was not looking forward to returning to the shop any time in the near future!

Since then we’ve had poo on the floor (for some reason most of the ‘accidents’ seem to take place in the same spot on the living floor, just by the door. Reminds me of cats!), poo in the leg of her all-in-one pyjamas and a wee in toy corner. But we have also had some successes, so I shall persevere! I will not be beaten! When she needs to go she cries for her nappy to be put back on – this is my cue to make a mad dash for the nearest potty and plonk her on it!

No more nappies….? (01/02/07)

This was the day I told Jasmine that I am not going to buy any more nappies, that she is too old to wear them now and they are too expensive! She agreed (!) and we tried once again to be done with all this nappy malarkey. What makes it frustrating is that at 18 months she was using the toilet – not the potty, the toilet. But alas, I had to concentrate on getting Ben into pants and using the toilet as he needed to be out of nappies before he started school. So unfortunately at times I was unable to take her to the toilet as I was dealing with Ben. As a result she regressed and got much too comfortable in her faithful nappies again.
When training Ben I am ashamed to admit that I got very frustrated with him and at times quite angry as he is such an intelligent little boy that I guess I expected more from him than was necessarily fair, and forgot at times that he was still only 2 ½ years old. I didn’t want a repeat experience and so have pretty much gone completely the other way with Jasmine and have left her to her own devices thinking that the day would come when she would declare ‘no more nappies, I’m a big girl now!’. This day has yet to come. So I took the bull by the horns and decided it was high time she gave them up. What actually prompted this decision was Jasmine telling me ‘ I did a poo poo mummy’ just minutes after I had changed her, and when I had just 5 minutes to get everyone into coats and out to the bus stop to take Ben to school! I told her she’d have to wait until we got to the school because we were running too late. Well, we missed the bus (and therefore any chance of getting to school on time – although it turns out it was closed for the day because the heating broke down) so I proceeded to change her and thought ‘enough is enough!’ ‘No more nappies’, I said, ‘mummy doesn’t wear nappies, Daddy doesn’t wear nappies and Ben doesn’t wear nappies. You are a big girl so you shouldn’t either.’ As I said, she agreed and off we went.
My little girl then used the potty twice (hooray!!!) which both her and Ben were very proud of and called me to see the evidence! She followed this with two ‘accidents’ on my living room carpet. Whenever she wet herself she asked for her nappy to be put back on, but I am persevering – I will get her out of nappies before the end of this month!!!

It’s snowing!!!! (08/02/07)

Today it snowed. The kids were ecstatic and started singing Jingle Bells and asking if Santa would be bringing some toys (like they don’t have more than enough already!) – I guess in their eyes snow = Christmas. The kids were wrapped up in so many layers they looked rather round, but they were enthralled by the sight, feel and even the taste of the snow. Yep, you’d think snow was a delicacy the way Jasmine was licking it off her gloves! Ben amused himself by throwing snowballs at my back as I pushed Jasmine in the pram – I did get him back a few times though. He thought it was hilarious when he slipped and fell on his bottom, but then moaned that his bum was hurting. I realised that this is the first time they have both been old enough to enjoy snow – and probably the first time we’ve had so much of it in a looonnng time.

He'll be swimming like a fish in no time

As it was snowing quite hard I didn’t take Ben to school, but decided that he couldn’t miss his first swimming lesson at the local pool. I am so glad that I decided to brave the elements! Ben was so cute! He looked adorable in his little red trunks and I couldn’t resist an ‘aaahhh’ when he tentatively walked down the steps into the baby pool. He clung to the instructor’s hand until she managed to reassure him that his feet actually could touch the ground, the look of relief on his face was tangible! When asked to dip his face into the water, emboldened by the ‘so-not-a-beginner girl’ next to him who dunked her head under for a few seconds, Ben came up spluttering and obviously decided he didn’t like this at all, and tried to climb out of the pool! He hated being splashed, but handled it rather well – even splashing the instructor towards the end of the class. I was so proud when he was led from one side of the pool to the other with a floating pole round himself, kicking furiously. I had thought he would totally freak out when the instructor gently pushed him into a horizontal position, but he bravely kicked on! That’s my boy. So, lesson number one went really well and he is looking forward to the next one. He’s already even picked out a locker in the changing room that he would like to use next time; ‘I want the one with the blue hair band (sic) on it!’ As for Jasmine, I had to keep stopping her from attempting to splash in the little fountain near the baby pool! She behaved really well otherwise and was keen on keeping an eye on Ben’s whereabouts. Next time I think Jasmine and I will go in the big pool whilst we wait for Ben so she can have a chance to get used to the water as well. How I'm going to cope when they are both in the pool at the same time with me I don't know - that's why I haven't really taken them swimming much. Pure fear!

Our very first snowman Jack

When we got home it was getting dark, but we decided to try and make a mini snowman – and mini it was! We had nothing for eyes, mouth or nose and it was quickly getting too dark and cold to be any more artistic. Ben thought it should be called Jack and Jack survived for daddy to see him as he came into the house that evening from work. Unfortunately Jack had disappeared by the next day and it looked to be under suspicious circumstances.....(some kid had kicked him in)

Chicken Pox and yellow baths

Poor Jasmine caught chicken pox from God-knows-who just a few days after Christmas and was unable to go to my aunt’s launch party for her new hair and beauty salon on 1st January 2007. No sooner had she recovered, Ben got them too. Neither was particularly unwell with them, just a day of itching and a restless night, then they pretty much forgot about them – although Jasmine got attached to having calamine lotion rubbed in and had to be weaned off it!
For Christmas my friend Alex had bought Jasmine some bath tints to colour the water at bathtime and they had already had a pink bath and a blue bath, but I didn’t want to use the last yellow tint until they were both clear of the chicken pox rash, so they waited patiently…and before I knew it was February and I thought it was about time, so Jas got to put in the last tablet and they both swirled it around – as you can see from the pictures below, they had a great time – thanks Alex!

Wake up mum, it's Christmas!

Christmas was at Granddad Allen's house this year and boy was I glad not to have to do anything!!! Me and the kids baked cookies, but otherwise I was free to lounge about, with nothing more important to think about other than what I was going to eat/drink/watch on TV next - Bliss!

On Christmas Eve we put the kids to bed and left a plate with carrot sticks for the reindeers and a glass of milk for Santa. Santa and the reindeers must have left the house very hungry because Jasmine kept pinching the carrots and drank most of the milk! In the morning at the crack of dawn the kids were up and ready to open their 'santa sacks' (a pillow case filled with goodies like crayons, colouring books, bath toys etc....whatever happened to a stocking with nuts and an orange eh?) On the Big Day itself the kids had a blast playing with their uncles Theo, Emile and Nadim (!) and Devon made an excellent Christmas Dinner! As usual there were more presents and toys for the kids than we knew what to do with, and plenty more in Leicester still waiting to be picked up. However, in typical kid fashion, they lost interest in the actual gifts rather quickly and amused themselves ripping and throwing the wrapping paper about! Jasmine did love her new pyjamas and slipper socks that we bought for her, and Ben's favourite gift had to be the dragon puzzle that we bought - he made it over and over and over again, and I was so proud, because it has an irregular shape so I thought it'd be a little difficult for him - it wasn't! All in all, Christmas was a lot of fun and I had a nice, relaxing, enjoyable time. Next year it's my turn again.......so much for a rest!

The Great Chrsitmas Tree Hunt

Well, I had it all planned out rather nicely in my head. We’d go to a local farm and buy a medium sized, real tree, then whilst the kids and Nick decorated it, I’d be in the kitchen baking delicious cookies and cinnamon shortbread and mulling wine…..ahhhhh, what’s it they say about best laid plans and all?! The farm was all shut up and didn’t look like it was even selling trees this year, so we decided to go further out into the little villages in search of another farm selling trees. Well, we drove and we drove and we….drove. But alas, the only Chrsitmas tress we saw, other than those glowing beautifully through people’s windows, were a few bedraggled looking specimens on sale outside of the local Co-op. It was getting so late that we decided to at least check them out – they looked even worse close up so we left forming a plan B. Plan B: go to Tesco - well they do sell practically anything you can think of, except for ..Christmas trees. Plan B bit the dust rather quickly. Plan C: try B&Q. We had bought a rather nice real tree from there before so it seemed like a good bet. They too were clean out of real trees, but as it was so close to Christmas (Only 7 days to go) all of the fake trees were reduced. Now one thing you must know, before meeting Nick I had only ever had a fake tree, but Nick’s tree snobbishness had obviously rubbed off on me as it felt wrong to be buying a plastic thing in a box. Well I soon changed my mind, it only cost £4 odd and it really only was for the kids’ benefit as me and Nick were going to be working all the rest of that week. So we got the tree, and when we got home there was no mulled wine or cookies or shortbread, just a hastily eaten meal and decorating time! I must admit, it did look rather pretty once the kids and I had put all the glitz on it (and the kids had been eager to assemble it!).
Ben put the star on and they both loved it, they don’t know the difference! All that said, next year I’ll be more prepared, cookies will be ready as will the mulled wine and cinnamon shortbread. And our real, pine scented tree will be waiting for it’s adornment from the first week in December.