Isabel has officially turned into a threenager. A little premature, given that she’s not 3 ’til November, but I can think of no other explanation for the epic strops we’ve had over the past fortnight. Last week we had the Worst Day Ever (oh so worthy of capitals) in which every SINGLE thing was a… read full entry »

With Isabel’s birthday approaching in the next few months I’ve been window-shopping for ideas for something cool, something that is going to ‘top’ Boris (last year’s gift). Looking at Tesco’s range of Lego sets it occurred to me that Lego & spin off brands are a brilliant exception to my no-plastic ‘toy snob‘ rules. Lego… read full entry »

I was writing a post on wooden toys for another blog I’m trying to get off the ground (got to find something to do with my excess time, ha) and it got me thinking about my ‘policy’ on toys. Since Isabel’s birth I have insisted (quite vocally, surprise surprise) on natural toys. Wooden blocks and… read full entry »

When I had Isabel, I found the first few months of her life completely overwhelming. I don’t know if it was the shock of dealing with a demanding newborn at all hours, the pain I was in from my many stitches, the 6 weeks of lochia or simply the realisation that I could no longer… read full entry »

Where do I begin? For starters, it turns out that kids are all different. You’d think this wouldn’t be much of a revelation being 1 of 6 myself but I certainly underestimated how much Isabel and Oliver would differ even at this stage. Little things like how they bring their wind up (Isabel didn’t, and… read full entry »

Sunshine, cuddles, laughter (“cow poo!”), unsupervised paint creativity (multi-coloured toddler), shared ice cream, good food, gardening, splashing in the puddle bath (paddling pool), and a voluntary bed time at 6:45 that took less than 15 minutes. I especially liked that last part.

Can it really be called potty ‘training’ if there’s no actual training? Or maybe the training part refers to Isabel training me into the next stage of parenting… I certainly feel like the past month has been the most confusing in the 2.5 years since Izz was born. Do we go straight to real pants… read full entry »

Isabel has shown a vague interest in the potty on and off for… oh, ages. We had a potty around the house from quite early on, both to normalise the whole peeing-in-a-pot thing and because when she was still actively stool withholding I needed something to squat her over. Anyway, as her interest increased I… read full entry »

Isabel drew Daddy: Pretty good likeness for Karl, as I am sure you’ll agree.