Mummy&Roo

I'm cheating a little bit this week and I'm writing my feature Friday on Thursday. That's only because I'm going on holiday Saturday so will probably be running around like a lunatic tomorrow trying to find something I've forgotten until the very last minute. This weeks Feature business is: Pretty Little Style Pretty Little Style is a friend of mine who makes the most amazing hair accessories. She mostly makes them for children but I have previously seen her make adult ones too. I have watched her business grow over the last few years from an idea to save her money to a massive business with loads of fans and followers. She can make bows to any colour brief and has made us bows to match outfits for multiple special occasions, I've also known her make bows to match dance costumes, school colours and more. My latest bow set including matching bow sets for Roo and her big sister Amelia for holiday. The girls haven't seen them yet but I know they're...

Today we joined our childminder and the gang at Forest School. Forest school is an opportunity for the children to play and learn in an outdoor, messy, fun setting. There's a mud kitchen, bug viewers, a den, mud art. They make natural crafts and then have hot chocolate and biscuits around a fire. While I was there they were planning future visits (they go weekly) and how they would fit them in with their topics. I now know this is going to involve making bird feeder and some food adventures with the fire. I can hear some of you already "there's a fire, and children?!" yes there is a fire but the children go no where near it, there is a visual barrier of sticks, lots of supervision and most importantly they are taught. How can children ever learn about fire safety if they're never exposed to fire? I agree that it's better they are exposed to and experience risk at an early age so they can learn to handle that risk rather than just developing a fear. This go...

I've decided every Friday I will talk about some of my favourite small businesses which I have been enjoying that week. As this is the first week it will be slightly larger and will include a few of my favourite businesses. Scarborough Scribbles etc Scarborough Scribbles is the creation of the amazing Jenny. Everything is designed from her own imagination and is the put onto a hand drawing, digital design, cross stitch, clay model or more. Jenny is incredibly talented and incredibly humble. In the last 6 months I've had several items from her including a hand painted card, a digital design for a get well card and I'm getting a keyring soon which I will share a picture when I receive it. Scribbles is still a fairly new business so stop by, check it out and maybe have a little shop. If you don't see what you want drop her a message, tell her Mummy&Roo sent you. www.facebook.com/scarboroughscribbles  Loonicorn Loonicorn is the brilliant shop run by the even ...

Today I have not stopped, I know this is the case for most Mums but I'm dead on my feet. My day started when Roo woke me up at 6am. Daddy has a serious case of man flu mixed with an undiagnosed musculoskeletal condition so he was totally out of action last night and this morning. I got Roo ready and fought the traffic to drop her off with her childminder. I fought back through rush hour traffic to get home to the germ and the work I had to do. Cue 2 hours of making shopping bags, writing address labels and packing everything away. At 11am I got in the car to start the main part of the day, drop 11 parcels at the post office and jump back in the car to head to Hull, an hour and 20 minute drive. Got there an hour early but thankfully they saw me early. The reason I drove all the way to Hull is because I'm taking part in a voluntary (read unpaid) drug trial into the possible treatments for PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome) and that's the centre running the trial. Somet...

In 11 sleeps we're taking Roo & her big sister on holiday, it's not her first holiday but I'm still anxious. We're going to Fuertaventura for a week with my family, making 9 of us on holiday. Last year the plane had individual TV screens in each seat, this year it doesn't and the flight time is mid afternoon so that means we'll be lucky to get her to sleep. We're taking a tablet (I know, lazy but it's easy), some colouring and some teeny gifts to give the 3 kids every so often. Please give me your toddler travel tips! Travelling with a 2, 3 and 12 year olds is scaring me

Roo has really developed into her threenager title and the tantrums are becoming more common. Coping with these tantrums is new to us, the older one didn't do it. I've racked my brain and I think I remember some Super Nanny tips from years ago. At the moment we're trying totally ignoring it and carrying on as if it isn't happening, but I'm not convinced that's working overly well. We've tried giving her cuddles when she's tantruming or explaining what's happening but that just resulted in me being kicked. Most of the time when she's tantruming it's because she's frustrated that she can't do something, she's so determined. Anyone have any toddler tantrum tips? Drop them in the comments, I'll give most things a try once

This was going to be a very different post. I was originally going to write about never promising a toddler something when the weather can have an effect. All week we have been promising to take Roo to the fair if she was a good girl. It worked and she was good (to be honest, she's normally pretty good I just like to reward it). So today we were going to the fair. It was only small but that suited us because less rides = less expense and Paw Patrol were advertised to be there today from 3 - 5pm. So originally I was going to talk about the fact the rain was making it less of an exciting prospect. It chucked it down at about 2pm and we were thinking about how not fun it would be in the rain. Well the rain eased and we headed to the fair at around 3pm.   Roo was telling us she was "getting so cited bout the fair" the whole way there and we were all glad we'd decided to head down despite the weather. Then we got there and they were packing it all away! I was ...

Yesterday I decided to make Roo a phonics game, it didn't go quite to plan.  My thought process was to create a game which teaches something important, something battery free and something we could play together. Great I thought, serious Mum points for me! I followed the early years guidance of teaching sounds in special sets, the first of which is s, a, t, i, p, n. I created letter cards and 9 images which match the sounds. I went for a simple first draft with the plan of creating a neater laminated one afterwards.  The game is simple, match the word sounds to the letter. Teaching letter recognition and sounds. At this point I was still basking in my amazing plan and the flurry of Mum points due to me. The first maybe 3 minutes of playing went really well, she was interested and liked the pictures. Then is went horribly downhill! Roo likes to be able to do things, she likes to feel smart and get applause. As soon as she realised she wasn't very ...

It seems recently Roo has discovered McDonalds in a big way and is constantly asking to go to "AckDonalds" or playing pretend where she goes to McDonalds. It has got me wondering, what is the huge draw with McDonalds? My first thought was, it must be the toy! Kids are suckers for anything with a "free" toy. As adults we realise it's not free at all but the allure of a toy and the thought it's free so a prize or something more special than just something from a shop. I'm not entirely sure it's just the toy though, Roo never seems bothered about what the toy is going to be. I expected devastation when she discovered it was no longer moji's and was now books, but no she is still totally happy with the book. Then I thought some more and I think I've got it! It's a restaurant which encourage children and childlike behaviour. No one tells you to make sure to keep your face clean, no one tries to make you use cutlery. The colours are bright...

Today we've done our usual twice weekly hair check and once again she's managed to pick up head lice. We use repellent shampoo, we have combs all over the house, we comb her hair regularly and still they come back. There must be something about her that they really like because every time we've got rid of them they come back. If you do not check your child for nits regularly and don't treat them promptly then you are not a good parent. They're itchy, they're awful and they give ammunition to the bullies. We live in the 21st century, we are modern men and women, between us we should be able to keep a little parasite under control. But no, there'll be someone out there who just doesn't bother, doesn't check their child and then rest of us are suffering as they pass them on to every child they interact with! I've reached a point where I no longer bother with the harsh chemicals, they come back anyway and Roo hates having them on her head. Inste...

Does anyone else have a fight at bedtime every night??? Roo isn't naughty she's just got far too much energy all the time and bedtime can take up to 2 hours! What's worse is she's smart! So she knows if she says she needs the toilet I'll have to pay attention because we're toilet training. She makes sure to just push so far so she doesn't miss out on any treats. Most nights we have: I want Daddy - Daddy goes up I want Mummy - Mummy goes up I need a wee I need juice I want more milk I need a poo I want *insert very specific teddy which hasn't been seen in weeks* I need a wee The problem is, if Mummy or Daddy's very thin shred of patience gets broken and we get cross with Roo she starts sobbing hysterically and that takes more calming down.  Before the perfect parent squad starts; she has a bedtime routine which has been set in place for months, involves plenty of winding down time, cuddles etc. We've tried later bedtimes, w...

We have recently finally managed to potty train (I say we, I'm actually quite experienced at using the toilet so really it's been Roo). The biggest challenge now is night times.  Roo is smart, I think most 3 year olds are smarter than we give them credit for, and she seems to know when she's wearing a nappy. I've been buying Huggies night-time pull ups and I've managed to convince her they're "night time pants" but I'm not sure she's fooled.  She will tell us she needs a wee on a night but this seems like more of a way to delay going to sleep than her moving towards being dry over night.  As for the Huggies pull ups. They're good, she likes the designs and can be very picky. We currently have the 'boys' ones as she wanted Lightning McQueen but I cannot see any difference in the pull ups other than the blue colouring on the packaging and pull ups. It does annoy me they are marketed as boys when it's just another colour but...