Littlemummy.Com

I have a quick breakfast tip for you, it’s not the most healthy, this is a treat - perhaps for a weekend morning but Erin really enjoyed it and it made a nice change from weetabix;

Small squares of French Toast (also known as eggy bread), a small side portion of maple syrup for dipping served in a ramekin or small plastic bowl. Strawberry milk diluted with extra whole milk.

Erin loved the change and the fact that it was sweet, but most of all she liked doing the dipping herself!

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Erin has found an outlet for her pocket money (£1 a week, what?…she’s 19 months, she surely doesn’t need more than that!!). The new In The Night Garden magazine has been released, and she purchased her first copy today. I have found it to be a high quality (!) publication featuring stories and pictures, a free (!) jumbo sticker sheet and the piéce de résistance…. an iggle piggle hand puppet, surely worth the £1.99 alone!

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Now for some highlights elsewhere in the blogosphere;

When Erin begins nursery I’ll be sure to include some lunchtime entertainment, scribbit has some inspiration on the subject.

I enjoyed this humorous list of tips to get you through your first year of school. 21st Century Mummy has fast become a must read for me since she joined British Parent Bloggers.

Whitney’s always been one of my favoured writers at GNMParents, Your Choices, Your Child’s Experience was yet another article that made me think.

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The first ever Carnival of British Parents was hosted by the Little Legends blog, I’d urge any british parent bloggers to submit a post for the next edition. You can do so here.

The ever growing Carnival of Family Life was in Australia this week.

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And finally in case you needed some further reading (!) here are some littlemummy retro’s from September last year….

Painting inspiration - try something different next time
Make a Paper Flower Collage

Erin received her third pair of new shoes, at £26 they were the most expensive yet, although thankfully I think we are into the upper price range so future pairs should cost the same (or less, if I get them in a sale). I tried to get a link but couldn’t find one, but they are chocolate leather with an aqua green flower on the front, they are called Isobel Lauren (in case you’re interested).

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I’m doing the packing thing at the moment as we prepare to head off to Wales for a long weekend. We’ll be doing lots of visiting and hopefully we’ll get some nice weather to explore the Gower Peninsula with Erin.

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And finally, I have been awarded this ‘nice matters’ award, which, from what I can gather is awarded for being…well…nice. So thanks Alasdair who was kind enough to give it to me.

I would like to pass the award onto Michelle of Scribbit fame, I recently bombarded her (uninvited) via google chat about various blogging related problems I had. She was extremely friendly and helpful, and was nice for the sake of being nice. Thanks Michelle!

It’s been a busy few days. Saturday we went to Tummel Valley for the weekend and went to a great park in Aberfeldy, lots of fun and it seemed we were away much longer than a night.

Yesterday was my wedding anniversary, three years and counting (!).

I also got a free ticket to the Edinburgh Tattoo, so I went with my sister in law as Alex was working. We saw the usual pipes and drums along with groups from around the world including bands from Moscow, Boston and a female drill squad from Taipei. It was a really nice evening.

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The Simple Dollar had an interesting post about a homemade summer camp. I think this is a great idea if you can get it organised.

Scribbit has some advice on getting kids to go to bed at 7pm.

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Home of Slightly Cracked Dreams has awarded me this schmooze award, which is awarded for the following reason;

“recognize those people that were exceptionally adept at creating relationships with other bloggers by making an effort to be part of a conversation, as opposed to a monologue”.

I’m going to pass it onto T-bird to say thanks for all the comments she’s left here over the past few months.

We took Erin to soft play today. We have deduced that Erin is more the quiet pursuits type when soft play failed to hit the spot but a magazine and crayons was met with whoops and wows!

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Ingenious Rose gave me an Inspirational Blogger Award for my efforts with the British Parent Bloggers Blog

The blog is going well. I am currently adding new members and writing a how to start blogging series. All good fun, and it’s nice that it’s appreciated. Thanks Ingenious.

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Finally, the Carnival of Family Life was a cracker this week with lots of worthy highlights, here we go…

I enjoyed down with the kids entry art vs craft. It made me smile but also made a valid point which I’m still pondering, when does art become craft and vice versa….In my opinion it’s all art but it becomes art that is a craft when you use a non liquid medium or more than a couple of mediums together. Ok, I need to get out more…

And a few other favourites;

Here’s a math problem for you. And math is not my strong point

Thinking Outside the Box: Checkers with 5-years olds.

18 Overlooked Things Everyone Should Bring to College

The Trouble with TV

The Kitchen Picasso - 12 Art Projects Kids Can Cook Up

Well, as the pictures show we had a lovely weekend. On Saturday we went to portobello for a walk, and then to north berwick, where we paddled and ate chips and ice cream (thankfully my eating healthy challenge has been moved to next week).

On Sunday my mum helped with doing more of the bathroom floor while Alex and I went to Ikea and bought a new desk and chair, so I now have my own little corner, which I’m very happy about.

Monday we went to Dobbies which is a garden centre with extras, we saw the fish and pets, Erin played in the park and we took another look in the scrumptious food shop.

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GNMParents has a great article about the tooth fairy which has the underlying question of ‘What is Just Enough?’, when it comes to giving our kids money, toys and treats. My own viewpoint is that in today’s society less is more, and an infrequent gift brings more joy for that child than the child that receives toys and gadgets on a weekly basis.

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A lot of effort has gone into this week’s carnival of family life, please pop by and say hello.

I have quite a bit of news to catch up on. Here goes…

Erin the Artist

Erin decided to do a little redecorating in the form of a mural on my nice cream livingroom wall. Yet another sign that toddlerhood is upon us.

Alex and the Problogger

We attended my friend’s wedding on sunday, which was amazing. I’d like to share with you an excerpt from the day;

Me: See the video guy (to husband, Alex)

Alex: Aha

Me: Well, you know that really good blogger I mention sometimes.

Alex: (blank look)

Me: You know, the one that earns six figures and has tons of readers.

Alex: Oh yeah. What! Is that him?!

Me: (look of despair) Uh, yes Alex the six figure earning problogger Darren Rowse (from Australia!)is moonlighting as a wedding video guy in Edinburgh, at our friend’s wedding no less…..

No, he just is his absolute double (roll eyes).

Posts of Interest

Live the power discusses procrastination and how to combat it.

Ten steps to good parenting at lidl raised a knowing smile.

Play activities had a great article this week in their sensory play series. The sense of smell is not something I’ve ever based activities around, not even at the nursery. Great idea.

The Carnival of Family Life is at home at Island Life.

It’s that time of the year when we need an inspiration boost to keep our kids amused for the rest of summer, our budgets are probably pretty stretched now too. The Simple Dollar presents 10 ways to amuse kids for a dollar or less.

Scribbit has a great article on quiet time, she focusses on the benefits of it when you have multiple children, but I think I will establish some ‘room time’ wherby Erin can play in her room and I can try and get some housework done. You should also check out the rubber glove puppet idea while you’re there.

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Apparently it takes a toddler 500 times of hearing a word before they use it themselves. Clearly I say “no” and “there we go” way too often.

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British parent blog spoiler ahead.

Here’s a sneak peak at the theme for the new site - click test run for a proper look at it. It’s quite plain but I intend on customizing it over time, eventually I’d like to have a fully customized design but it’s a bit out of my price range for now, so we’ll need to make do. What does everyone think?

Hi all, mother at large emailed me last week to check I hadn’t gone AWOL, I figured I’d better explain what I’ve been up to. My firend is getting married this sunday so we headed, with another 14 women, to Leeds for the traditional hen weekend. I can’t spill too much as the general rule is that what happens on a hen weekend stays on a hen weekend, I will give you a few clues and let you make up your own story. Champagne, bunk beds, sick (not me), strawberry daquiri’s, and the dirty dancing music….

We also had people over for our first Wii party. Much fun.
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The carnival of family life is at the so called me.

I don’t necessarily agree with this article to it’s full extent, however, the topic of young girls dressing a little more appropriately is definitely one that I think should be highlighted - A Return to Modesty

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I have been given this thoughtful blogger award by mother at large, which is most appreciated.

I’m passing the award onto Megin, Stu, and t-bird.

Please collect your awards here.

Erin had her MMR jabs today, I’m not going to tell you of all the hours I spent researching all the information and making my list of pro’s and cons because I didn’t. That’s right, I didn’t do any research, not one shred, no leaflets, no books, no websites not even a mention on a forum. Zilch. I just received the notice, and went. I’ve heard enough to know that my decision would be unwavered and that to research would only create unnecessary worry and angst. She seems fine, in fact, my little princess has barely wimpered all day, until bedtime that is. She was fooling no-one!

We also spent some of that money today that I mentioned a while back, we purchased a fridge, a flat screen tv and dvd combi, and a nintendo wii (more to come on that later..)

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The Carnival of Family Life is at Be a Good Mum this week.

A quick message for the British Parent Bloggers, the site’s hosting has been organised and we’re pondering themes, if you’d like to submit a theme for consideration please do so via my contact form. Three columns is preferred, but I’ll consider anything sent my way.

Littlemummy Retro: 5 Important Tips for Dads to Be

I finished up the part-time job on friday with a sigh of relief, it was a tad too much trying to make it work around Erin.

Saturday I had an all day girly shopping day, amongst the purchases, new jeans, pink stilettos (!) and some stripey vests, call me a bad mother but I managed to avoid all child related gear for the day!

This week I’m testing patience as my new habit, it’s already been tested this morning when Erin refused to put on the really cute sandals I bought her….breath…1..2….3….

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In the rest of the world….

I agree with ingenious rose, a carefree childhood is still possible, as parents is it our responsibility to shoulder the worry? I think so. This is an interesting topic, what does everyonelse think? Are we just being paranoid parents? How far do we need to go to protect them? At what point does our need to protect actually result in stifling their development?

The Scottish National Party have refused to ban IVF treatment to drug addicts. Drug addicts can barely look after themselves let alone a baby or two babies, as is often the case with IVF. So let’s see, we pay their benefits which they spend on drugs, then we pay for costly IVF treatment, then we pay them even more benefits for the kids, which they spend on drugs. Crazy. The main worry is not the money though, what kind of life will those kids have, can you be a good parent and a drug addict?

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I’ve been nominated for Rockin Blogger by Ponn. This time I’m going to pass a few out to my fellow Brit Parent Bloggers, Ingenious Rose, DJ Kirkby, and Jo Beaufoix.