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.