No Snow Flakes

Oscar is still fairly disappointed by the weather here. To be more precise, he is waiting each day for the snow to arrive with no sign of it so far. He tells me it has to come for Santa to get here, so I only hope we get a few flutters in time for December 25th. Being a good Mama I engaged him in some snowflake making this morning to detract (try and blot out), the gale force winds, black skies and torrential rain, going on outside the window. He is still finding cutting pretty tricky (normal for age 2 right), but he enjoyed opening up the snowflakes to see the shapes. They made us both ridiculously happy, and that was the point of the exercise.

SERIOUSLY? (rant rant rant)

Have you seen the new ad campaign coming out in America? It is aimed at new parents, warning them on the dangers of co-sleeping.

Can it? Me and a meat cleaver are imposing the same level of threat? This kind of thing really bugs me. I remember my Health Visitor warning/checking I wasn't sleeping with Oscar, and it made me quite uptight about the whole thing. I used to make Duncan watch us while I napped so that I wouldn't accidentally kill the baby. Then I talked to some ACTUAL CO-SLEEPING MOTHERS, who advised me on safety issues and where to go for further information and we haven't looked back since. It seemed so alien to me to try and separate myself from my little infant, especially when he was trying to tell me the same thing 'stay with me Mama', his cries said it loud and clear. Here is a link to Dr Sears guide to co-sleeping, just in case you want a quick look, but there are hundreds of safety guides on the net.

LINK

* - I am well aware that tragic co-sleeping accidents do occur, but they also occur in most other aspects of life. Last week when I bought the teaset in the charity shop, the lady who served me and wrapped the china, told me about her grandson. He had somehow managed to get himself tangled in the cat net his family had put on the crib for his own protection. Devastatingly he was strangled and died, he was 7 months old. Would he have been safer by his mothers side? I cant answer that, but as I said, accidents do happen.

I sincerely hope this kind of scare mongering does not cross the Ocean to the UK, I am appalled by that image (and the 2 other similar images in the ad campaign).

Say Hello To Winter

We have snow on the hills here, but as yet, none in the city.  I have been feeling inspired by the beautiful view we have from the window, so I decided to make a little winter doll. You may or may not remember I made this doll for Oscar back in May?

Oscar named her Annie Rose after Alfie's baby sister in the Shirley Hughes Alfie books (fantastic by the way), and he loves her so. The pattern is simple to follow (although sewing up toys always takes eons), and I thought she would make a perfect present for my little 2 year old niece. So meet Annie Rose mark 2, who we have named Winter.

Winter's body and hair are made from 100% organic cotton, wool and her dress and headscarf are a wool and cashmere blend. Her insides are 100% natural sheep's wool (and FYI if you look for filler for pets beds, you can get it much cheaper than if you look for crafting filler). I am considering a faux fur cape and boots, I will see how it goes. What do you think?

And just because I love it, take a look at this view

Deck The Halls

According to a recent news report, the British public are putting up their Christmas tree's earlier than ever this year. I cant say that I am surprised. There hasn't been a lot of cheer for the average person this past year (or so).

Most people have their decorations in the attic, so for the cost of a real tree, if that's your persuasion, (we have a fake one because I cant stand the needles and the cats try to run up a real one), you can make everything seem bright and cheerful.

Isn't it nice to know we have gone that route though? I suppose we could have quite easily turned into a collective 'bah humbug'.

We put our tree up early because Oscar was asking me 200 times a day where our Christmas tree was. I may be sick of the sight of it by New Year, but I doubt it, because as I have said before, I love Christmas. Dont you?

See yesterday for more pics

A Lovely Day

I had a wonderful birthday yesterday. We put the Christmas tree up in the morning/early afternoon, then we had a birthday tea in the late afternoon. Oscar had specified my cake should be blue with silver balls so I obliged with a pale blue cake and sugar balls.

Oscar decorated the tree, for the main part, so does it look like a 2 year old did it? Yes it kind of does, but we love it anyway.

The Passing Of Time

Tomorrow is my 42nd birthday. 42, how did that happen. Some days I feel double that age, when my back is hurting or if I haven't had enough sleep. Some days I look 102, but that's a whole other topic. In my mind, mostly, I still feel like a girl. I still feel funny describing myself as a grown woman, let alone an older woman (as opposed to a young woman in her 20's). I am not talking about maturity either because that does not often tally with the passing of the years. I had afternoon tea with an old and seldom seen friend the other week (she lives in Gibraltar), and we were talking about when we first met. We met at a fortune teller in 1989, and I was 19 and 4 months pregnant and my friend was 18 and had a 6 month old baby, we were both married to men who coincidently worked in the same place. My friend laughed about it and said oh yes, what were we like 'playing at keeping house'. I suspect there is an element of truth in that, but some days I wonder where that confident self assured girl went. I dont remember having so many fears and worries when I was a girl. I always though confidence grew with the passing of time, now I am not so sure. Maybe its a case of ignorance was bliss? Maybe I need to make a new birthday year resolution, to relax a little more, worry a little less. It sounds like a good idea.

Happy December 1st

Happy December! Oscar opened his Advent today, and quite impressed he was too. We tied all the little stockings onto a silver cord last night and filled them with a couple of chocolates and a small rolled up colouring page. I thought I would share the colouring pages with you, so look out for one at the end of each post in December (they are pretty basic, for smaller kids). Can I just say though, although we do not receive sponsorship from Crayola, I can highly recommend their pens over cheaper versions. Especially if you need to do as much washing off as me.

Valerie

xxx