Halloween Party Friday

Sophie had her first grown up Halloween party last night. A few of the girls in her year hired a venue and a DJ and threw a proper late night dress up disco. A first Sophie didn't want to dress up for it (maybe not so cool when you're 13) but after much persuasion on Thursday I managed to get her to wear a cat outfit we got her last minute in Tescos.

She was happy to be a cat but didn't like the long trousers on the outfit. So yesterday 2 hours before the party we got the sewing stuff out and made it into a hotpants suit. Then she was happy as larry to wear it.

So, come tea time off she trotted all dolled up and here are some of the photos we took.

Personally I think she looks uber cute. As far as I'm aware the party went very well and they all behaved very well. Came home at the right time and all had great fun. Here's some other photos of Sophie and Caleb just messing around. 

Organised? Me? No!

Hah! Well, that may be the case most years but I have today just completed all my Christmas and Birthday Shopping online for our kids and my sisters two. I rule!!!

I went onto Sainsburys online and got Caleb's birthday presents this morning in their better than half price sale. I ordered him a car garage,a JCB some cars and already have him some books. He doesn't have a lot of room in his bedroom and I don't like toys strewn everywhere so I guess that's enough from us as I'm sure he'll get some toys elsewhere. My family are all buying him clothes which he needs and books so that helps too.

Calebs first birthday

Then this afternoon I've been on Argos and other websites and got him his Storio for his Christmas and  some books for it, a dancing Timmy as he loves Timmy time and lots of little extras. I got Sophie a new digital camera, and the superdry jacket she wanted and she wants cash too so that's easy. I got 5 year old nephew a remote control Subaru as he loves them, and new nephew to be cute baby stuff.

Last Christmas

Caleb after Santa had been last year

that face makes it all worth it!

Yay me, now all I have to do it get for hubby and respective grown ups. This, I'm sure even I can do before Christmas.

Not Enough Hours in The Day

Is any other mother of a toddler out there finding it as hard as me to get online these days or generally just catch upon all the stuff we have to do as there's just not enough hours in the day?

This is the first evening I think I've had to sit down and do some writing and catching up for over a week. I need roughly another 24 hours in each day. So I'm setting goals for this month for what I can do in the 24 hours I'm allocated every day in November.

Firstly, I have to try and catch up with more people as I never seem to manage time to just hang out or meet some of the mummies I want to meet and keep saying I will.

Secondly, there's a shed load of stuff needing done around this house before Christmas, including radiators to be taken out and moved (note to self must phone and chase heating engineer), gutters needing cleaned out and fascia boards sanded and painted.

Thirdly, I must start some Christmas shopping and Birthday shopping for Calebs 2nd Birthday on the 20th November which I've been putting off as I've no clue what to get him. We haven't got room for more toys with Christmas around the corner but want something he'll love. (ideas on a postcard please)

And fourthly and finally, make more time for my hubby. He's feeling seriously neglected these days. (when he's here that is)

Feel free to give me a kick up the backside to get on with these things any time you want. Much appreciated.

Calebs 1st Birthday. Small present ideas remember, for this year. 

Walking Talking update.

Yes this is Caleb and yes he's outdoors walking and yes he enjoyed it very much.

His walking is coming on in leaps and bounds. Now we just need him to let go of a hand outdoors and walk by himself that way. Crawling indoors is completely finished with now. Yay Caleb.

Talking wise, he now counts to eleven unaided and is also recognising numbers visually and naming them correctly. He says full and correct sentences and statements. his favourite being at 8am 'mumma, where are you?' in the cutest whisper you've ever heard.

He is probably still a bit small and behind for his age but from this proud mumma, 'the boy done good!!!!!'

Go Caleb. 

My Birthday Online.

Last Friday was my 35th Birthday and I had a lovely day thanks to my family and all my online friends. Social networking really does make special occasion's seem more special somehow.

I must've had 40+ birthday messages through FaceBook and as many from my Twitter family. It really made my day. I'm not huge on birthdays as I get older and also as Hubby and I don't have a lot of spare cash we don't tend to do extravagant presents and this year especially things are tight so we are celebrating next week after payday. (This last month has been one of the toughest ever with our kitchen pipework bursting etc)I have found the last few years though that I look forward to them much more because everyone is so kind sending good wishes.

So what did I do on my birthday? Well, on the Wednesday before my lovely mum ,whom I don't see enough of, took me for a really lovely lunch while Hubby took Caleb for a few hours. Its the first time in 2 years that I've been out for a girlie lunch minus a small person and I had such a fab time. It was great to spend time with my mum who's run ragged all the time running after everyone and sometimes forgets me I feel but this more than made up for it all.

On Friday mum and dad also took Caleb for a few hours and my lovely and heavily pregnant sister took me out for lunch too. It was great to spend some time with her with no kids and especially lovely as her 2nd little boy is due to pop into this world by elective Cesarean next Tuesday 2nd November. She also lent Caleb and Gran and Papa Disney Cars DVD  for the day to keep little bubs happy and turned up with a bag full of her 5 year olds Disney Cars toys for him to borrow and he had great fun. By the time we got back Papa had had him out for a walk and he was sound asleep in the back garden.

Hubby is taking me to a lunch date of my choice next days off and also to buy a prezzie so I can honestly say for someone who doesn't do birthdays, I really enjoyed not doing this one.

Also a huge thank you to everyone for all the lovely birthday wishes too. All in all everyone made the day very special.

Teen Angst??? What about Mother Angst???

She's 13! Not 16,17 or 18!!! That's a fact!

She has a horrendous attitude, lies to me, hates her step dad, torments her brother, stays out drinking, has been smoking, swears and generally breaks my heart at every turn.

Is this my fault? Did I do something wrong? I don't smoke, I don't drink to excess, I spend every minute of my life with them, I'm fairly open minded, surprisingly easy to talk to, I protect them from everything I can, I love them with every inch of my being. So where did this go wrong? Will my children and subsequent children all turn out like this? Is it society?

I'm scared for my girl more than angry or upset. I'm them too but mostly scared of where all this is going to lead her. We've grounded her with a ban on her technology. Nothing seems to work.

Can you help me?

Am I Wrong?

I love my family. I really really do. All of them although I moan a lot about them.

But this week is killing me, well, I say this week but I think its been building up for a while. I'm exhausted all the time, completely wiped out. I've mentioned before other than a few short nights out to pictures etc over the last 3 years I haven't had more than the odd one hour off. I think hubby's taken the kids to his parents for an hour 3 times and my mum had Caleb once for me to get m y hair cut. (hence why I've had it done once since Caleb was born.)

So maybe that outlines a bit better why I'm feeling demented this week. Sophie's grounded again, with no phone, no mobile or laptop. Hubby's working nights, which means he sleeps all day and goes out to work after dinner. Caleb has been a bit under the weather, no sure why, but ictchy, moany, tired, clingy and generally time consuming (as toddlers are I accept this graciously), but when Caleb goes to bed at 8pmish and Hubby's at work, I'd love to be able to phone a friend or have a friend round. Or even just get peace on the laptop to chat on twitter. It's not to be though. The first few nights were ok. Sophie and I had nice girlie nights watching weekend trash tv and having girlie chats but now I'm so tired am desperately needing some time away from everyone. This sends my spiralling into guilt.

Is that awful? Should I feel this trapped?

Our house is very small and there's not much privacy in it at all. We barely all fit in to be honest but it does us. I'd just like somewhere I can go and have a chat with my mum on the phone or one of my friends. If I chat upstairs it disturbs Caleb and downstairs Sophs is around endlessly staring at the telly, tapping her glass or picking her braces and I'm getting the urge to send her to her room and telling her I need space. As a mum I don't feel I should though. Is that what being a mum's really about? Feeling trapped???

New Shoes. OMG!!!

Today I went shopping with the kids during half term holidays.  We went to get some winter tops for them and ended up buying Caleb some new shoes while we were there as he seemed uncomfortable walking in his cruisers.

We went into the shop and had him measured and he's up a half size already and obviously because he's walking too he needed into proper shoes. He's now a 5E which is good as  he's always had teeny feet. His shoes look a bit more in proportion to his build now.

The woman went and brought out all her boys 5E shoes and the choices are seriously limited for boys I find if you want properly fitted shoes. He has his UGG boots and a cheap pair of trainers which are fine if we're out and he's mostly in the pram but for walking I like fitted shoes. So we chose the best pair I thought out of a bad lot and I went to pay. 28 QUID!!!!! I mean £28........... for 2 tiny pieces of leather??? Now I'm not stingy at all at spending on the kids, I was happy to hand over £45 for his tiny UGGs but at least they have growing room in them, but £28 seems a teeny bit steep for something he'll be in for a month tops if you ask me.

These specialist kids shoe shops have you over a barrel though really as if you want their feet to grow properly and their walking to improve we as parents really don't have many options, do we?

I'm now having a sit down from the shock and a strong coffee.

Officially Walking, Talking, Running and Dancing.

I've blogged before about how Caleb's development worried me in the past. No more. It's all coming at once just like everyone said it would.

He's not only walking a few steps now, he hasn't crawled for days. The wobbliness has gone, and he can go at quite a pelt now and is nearly off to a run. He loves to stand in front of the television and dance without holding on and especially loves to turn round with a big smile and see us watching him and shouting 'dance'. He's a hoot.

His speech is coming on great guns too. He knows most of the animals in his ark and also when he sees them anywhere else he knows what's what. Fish, horsey, birdie, doggy, cat, and bear are is ultimate favourite but just some of his repartee. He tells me every morning that 'daddy's at work' and 'sis is at school' (he cant say Sophie yet so calls her sis)'Papa's away' and 'gran's at home'. He loves to shout all the different cars and colours and is saying 'one, two, three,' before he runs and also counts his fingers up to three.

Its official, I am no longer a stressy mum. He may still seem behind to some folks but to me he's way up there with Einstein. Ha Ha.

My Girl is now a Teenager and that Cake too.

Well, its official. My little girl is no more. She's now officially a teenager.

Last Thursday Sophie turned 13. She truly can't be classed as a little girl any more, although that's been going on for some time now. On her birthday she was supposed to have her braces fitted so we hadn't planned anything for the day. As it turned out it was postponed until the following week so it was a shame for her. She had a nice day though we think and on Friday we went to Gran and Papa's  for a family party. She seemed to enjoy that.

So what did she get? Hi top pastry boots which she has on in her photo (seem to be the fashion. Odd) and a contract phone from us. From Gran and Papa lots of clothes that she'd chosen herself. From everyone else money. We went to Silverburn shopping centre on Sunday and she bought a Paul's boutique jumper with her cash. 

I baked her a cake for her birthday and one for Grans house which had frosting on and was a nightmare to transport but seemed to go down well with everyone. I hate baking so I'm glad she enjoyed it. 

Here it is. A lot of stress went into this cake.

Oh well, that's hers over with until next year. Next is Caleb's birthday in November. He'll be 2 and that's just as scary in my book.  No babies left...... for now. 

Wow!!!! Loving our Wow toys.

This is a sponsored post.






This week we were very lucky to be sent some gorgeous toys to review by the lovely people at wowtoys.com.

We are now the proud owners of Ernie the Fire Engine Ernie and Police chase Charlie. Two of Caleb's most favourite things ever. As I'd previously blogged about how much he loved Daddy's old Fire Engine Tanya at Wow thought he might like Ernie and obviously Daddy's a policeman so Charlie is a sure fire winner too.

Ernie Fire Engine came in the box with 2 firemen and some road blocks. He's fabulous fire engine red and has lots of exciting bells and opening doors and a rotating firemans ladder attached.  Police chase Charlie comes with a Policeman and his police dog, and a button opening roof for the policeman to jump in. Both toys have friction powered motors so there's no batteries required at all. Just push or pull them along the floor and off they go, and without much noise either. Ernie has a flashing light and a bell but neither are particularly overbearing noise wise. They both have lots of little doors that open and extra features we had to play with to find.  Both are suitable from age range 18mths - 5yrs so perfect for the boy to have fun with. I've found a lot of the cars we buy for him are age 3+ so we can't leave him alone to play with them but these are perfect. No choking hazards at all and perfect for his stage of development too.

They're a perfect size for little hands and easy to work for little ones.

Caleb had them out the box almost before I could get them photographed. He has had a great few days playing with these toys. I genuinely cannot see any down side to either one. We (especially daddy and Caleb) have had great fun with them and hope to have lots more. I can highly recommend these toys and will be purchasing more for our boy as he is car daft.

Well done 'Wow' and thank you again.