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August 19th, 2010
I’ll admit that these are slightly tongue in cheek but I found it a bit unsettling when my eldest started school as I really didn’t know what was going on – so god knows how he felt. Here are a few top tips that I’ve learnt over the last two years which might make your life a bit easier….
Tip no1: Read the documentation that the school provide. Inside out and from cover to cover. You really don’t want to be the only person whose child doesn’t have their PE gear on the right day.
Tip no2: Decide up front whether you’re going to be a clique-y Mum or not. I’m definitely not and now cunningly time collecting my boy from school so that I’m one of the last to arrive, therefore avoiding any unnecessary chitchat.
Tip no3: Always check your child’s schoolbag for ‘things of importance’. Although the majority of school letters can now be sent home via email, party invitations etc can be overlooked which is never a good thing.
Tip no4: Accept now that for 10 minutes before you leave the house every day you’re going to spend the next 7 years saying exactly the same thing, aka ‘the school run’
‘Right time to brush your teeth.’
‘No, brush your teeth, not the grouting on the wall tiles.’
‘And not your sisters hair either.’
‘Nice clean teeth all round. Right, shoes on everyone.’
‘What do you mean you can’t find your shoes. Have you looked? Yes? Really? Well what are they doing here then? Exactly where I said they would be and where they’re always kept but you couldn’t find them. Hm. Put your shoes on NOW.’
‘Not on your sister, on YOUR feet.’
‘Yes, you do need a coat.’
‘ I don’t care that it’s sunny at the moment, it might be cold or wet later and you might need it. Put your coat on please. NOW.’
‘Finally, coats and shoes on, everyone out and into the car please, quickly, we’re running tight for time because you took so long to brush your teeth / put on shoes / put on coats.’
‘Into the CAR children! Leave the ball / sandpit / snails on the footpath alone. No 2 son, it is NOT funny to run away while Mummy is strapping in your little sister, leaving me chasing after you screaming like a fishwife. Nor is it funny to start stripping off all your clothes as soon as my back is turned. Never mind, get in, it’s warm in the car anyway.’
‘No1 son – where’s your schoolbag? In the house? What’s it doing in the house when it should be on your back as it should be every single morning of existence yet you seem to forget it every single day. Why is that, does some sort of selective amnesia which hits you the moment you walk indoors after school?’
‘Yes, I know the car clock says 8:47 and we should be at school by 8:50. But if Mummy goes round this corner on two wheels, I might just be able to make it in time….oh, almost, no time to park up, I’ll just pull up in front of the gate and you can jump out thereby blocking the road for everyone else and being extremely irritating….’
Tags: cheeky baby wipes, cheeky cloth baby wipes, starting school tips
Posted in Hints and Tips | No Comments »
August 12th, 2010
Starting school can be a little daunting for both parents and children alike. I remember standing at my classroom window crying as my Mummy walked away until another little girl took my hand and told me it would all be OK, my Mummy would be back later (bless her!)
Even if your child has been attending nursery regularly, starting ‘big school’ can be a bit of a challenge. Depending on where their birthday falls, they may well only just have turned four when they start school, which seems very little.
Here are a few tips which I found helped us:
- Always be positive about school, emphasising how much fun it will be, that it will be great to make new friends and how much your child will learn
- Share stories of how much you enjoyed school and the types of activities you did
- Take advantage of any ’settling in’ sessions ran by the school. Many in our area offer open days at the end of term, plus more social occasions like a teddy bears picnic for example which gives the children a chance to meet each other in a relaxed atmosphere
- When you visit the school, make sure you point out the obvious things like toilets or where coats and lunchboxes are stored
- Explain to your child that if he/she wants to know something / needs help / wants the loo that they’ll get the teachers attention by raising their hand
- If other children from your child’s nursery will be attending the same school, let the school know in advance and they may be able to place them in the same class
- Read some books together about starting school. We particularly like Topsy and Tim Start School by Jean and Gareth Adamson
In the week before starting school
- Start re-setting bedtimes. In our house holidays mean that you can stay up a little later, however it’s time to start ’school-night’ earlier bedtimes.
- Have a trial ’school-run’. It does get quicker but you don’t want to be running late, frantically throwing the children into the car at the last minute on the first day of school. You’ve got the whole of the rest of the year for that!
Hopefully that will be helpful – but nearer the time I’ll also do a quick update on tips to prepare yourself as a parent.
Tags: cheeky baby wipes, starting school, starting school tips
Posted in Hints and Tips | No Comments »
July 29th, 2010
I’ve found the phone in the bin. (Luckily it rang, otherwise it would have been gone forever).
I’ve found my middle son semi-naked at the bottom of a soft-play slide…
..and found his wet pants and trousers in the ball pit. (Oh, the shame as the ball pit was then closed for cleaning….)
I’ve found both my youngest children standing in the toilet bowl. Separately. Two years apart and I’ve got no idea why?
I’ve found my son and his friend having a ‘naked party’ upstairs when they should have been asleep…
I’ve found lego in my bed, my wardobe, my handbag and my shoes. Ouch.
I’ve found no2 sons ‘cuddly’ in numerous places, including inside a cushion cover (he’d been missing for a few days on that occasion, the little rascal) and on top of an overhead lightshade!
I’ve found that nothing makes bumps and bruises better than a kiss from Mummy or Daddy…
But I’ve lost my heart. My children have stolen it and swear they’re keeping it safe but I think it’s lost for good.
This post was part of Josie’s Writing Workshop and the prompt was inspired by Deer Baby and her postFinders Keepers.
Tags: cheeky baby wipes, josies writing workshop
Posted in Writing Workshop | 5 Comments »
July 15th, 2010
Ok, just to be clear from the start that it’s not a good idea for little ones to be in the kitchen for the actual jam-making bit. Hot sugar and kids is NEVER a good combination, but they’ll love the raspberry picking and testing the jam at the end – when some Cheeky wipes come in very handy for mucky faces.
I was at a bit of a loss as to what to do with the littl’uns yesterday after school. Wednesday is normally when we go to the local soft play Zoo for a couple of hours until tea-time, but we’d had soft play in the morning already.
I briefly considered hanging out at home, but decided to take a trip to our local pick your own fruit farm which is just up the road. I was really uncertain how it would go. Visions of raspberry smeared children, rolling on the ground because they were so full of stolen fruit did briefly cross my mind, but in the end I decided to go for it.
It was brilliant. The raspberry bushes were absolutely laden with fruit, big, juicy and very tasty. I armed each of the littlun’s with a bag and set them to work, telling them that there was a prize for the person who could pick most fruit. They did amazingly, with the eldest picking 3 pounds, the middle one (who is only 3) picking almost 2 pounds and even the baby managed to pick almost half a pound – although hers were squashed because the bag was too big and she kept standing on it! And they didn’t even steal that many either.
Laden down with over 4kgs of fruit we headed home and I banished the littl’uns to the play room out of harms way while I made the jam which took about 35 minutes start to finish. I used a recipe from Darina Allens’s cookbook which was really easy:
Ingredients
- 1 kg raspberries
- 1kg granulated sugar
Method
- Pre-heat oven to 180c. Put sugar on a large baking tray or roasting dish and place in the oven to warm for 10 minutes.
- Place a plate in the fridge to cool.
- Wash raspberries, drain, then place in your largest pot and mash a little.
- Heat the raspberries gently until the juice starts to run from them.
- Take your warmed sugar out of the oven and add to the raspberries, continue to warm gently until sugar is dissolved.
- Put your clean jars into the oven for 5 minutes to sterilize.
- Once sugar is dissolved, bring the raspberry to the boil and boil rapidly for about 5 – 10 minutes until it reaches setting point. You’ll know the jam is set when you spoon a little onto your cooled plate and it wrinkles after a couple of minutes in the fridge.
- Pour into your sterilized jars and cover while warm.
I made my jam using 4kgs raspberries / sugar and it gave me 16 random sized pots as you can see above!
Tags: cheeky baby wipes, kids activity, natural face wipes, raspberry jam recipe
Posted in Recipes, Tips for Entertaining children | No Comments »
July 13th, 2010
As you know (because I may have mentioned it once or twice before) we took our Cheeky Wipes to Glastonbury where they were brilliant for keeping us fragrant and clean, even when the showers were switched off due to the hot weather.
Which got me thinking about other uses for Cheeky Wipes, aside from the usual baby changing / face & hands cleaning ones?
Make-up removal
Cheeky Wipes are brilliant for taking off your make-up as you don’t get that ‘tight’ feeling that baby wipes leave you with. I’ve got super-sensitive skin and they’re great when used with the Lavender & Chamomile Fresh Wipes Oil.
Alternative Therapies
I’ve got a reflexologist friend and she has a extra set of Cheeky Wipes which she uses on her clients feet with the Mucky Wipes Tea Tree & Tea Tree Lemon Oil prior to a client treatment. The antibacterial nature and lovely clean smell of the oil really set the scene well for a tip-top treatment.
Household Cleaning
Obviously, wiping up after meal times is a standard use. But I’ve also used my Cheeky Wipes to help clean a soiled mattress. Again the wipes were soaked in the mucky wipes solution which helped kill any odour from the mattress.
Dog Wipes
I kid you not, but I had a lady in the USA buy a kit specially to wipe her dog’s feet after she’d come in from outside. She said they worked a treat!
I think this is possibly the most unusual use for Cheeky Wipes that I’ve come across, but if you’ve got any more, please leave me a comment and let me know. There’s a prize of a set of extra wipes for the best answer left by next Friday, 23rd July.
Tags: cheeky baby wipes, natural anti-bacterial household wipes, natural make-up removal wipes
Posted in Green Living, Hints and Tips | 1 Comment »
May 18th, 2010
Jodie’s writing workshop this week came at an appropriate time. Inspired by the (Nudie) Princess Diaries and tales of wanton destruction wreaked by small children, and given that both my littl’est ones (F who will be 3 next month, and J, 18 months) have been in tornado mode for the last week, it struck a chord with me.
We’ve had a trail of devastation this week that would compare favourably with two mini-tornadoes.
Firstly, we had ‘the domino game’ where F (probably with J as his willing accomplice) dropped their big brothers domino’s down the outside drain, one by one. Daddy fished them out with BIG rubber gloves on and after a good bleaching they’ve come to no harm, but still.
Then we had ‘book destruction’ when F destroyed one of his favourite books for no apparent reason, other than because he could?
But this was topped yesterday by ’scribbling on the living room fireplace’. Possibly F chose the living room fireplace because it has a nice plain cream background, against which his artistic scribbles would stand out nice and clearly. Possible he was just scribbling on the nearest thing to hand. Who knows.
Unfortunately I didn’t catch any of these classics on camera, but thought I’d share a few oldies, so you get a sense of what I’m up against.  Take J for example. As you can see, last week she decided for whatever reason, that climbing INTO the toilet was a good thing. What’s slightly strange is that her brother, F, at about the same age, did the same thing. What’s that all about?
There was also the memorable incident of the weetabix….when F was only 6 months old!
Or when he progressed to eating the newly sprouted sunflowers (his brothers pride and joy…)
But there’s not much which they break which can’t be fixed (except sunflower seedlings of course), so I guess we just grin and bare it and try to record as much as possible for posterity….
And of course, it’s lucky I’ve got my Cheeky Wipes to clear up all the mess!
Tags: cheeky baby wipes, mucky baby, toddler destruction
Posted in Writing Workshop | 8 Comments »
April 27th, 2010
You may remember my trauma from last week about whether to risk trying to fly to Scotland in case my flight was cancelled last minute. For most of last Tuesday I had resigned myself to driving, only to wake up on Wednesday morning to find that the flight ban had been lifted.
We arrived at Gatwick on Thursday expecting to find bedlam – instead we walked straight up to the check-in desk and then straight through security. No queues, no hordes of disgruntled foreigners trying to get home. I think the whole thing was a big conspiracy…
Anyway. The show went well, so much so that I only had a quick chance to look around however luckily I didn’t have to look far to find something very cool. Rigth next door to me was the lovely and very talented Natalie from Button Bob. Natalie is an artist, who will turn your favourite photographs of your child into a unique hand-drawn portrait. Unbelievably, while Natalie wasn’t chatting to prospective customers she was working on a commission from another exhibitor. It was a charcoal drawing taken from a birthday party invite, beautifully detailed.
A real plus to having a portrait drawn or painted for you is that if (like me) you don’t actually possess one picture where all three of your children are smiling / not pulling faces it doesn’t matter. Natalie can take three separate photos to create your perfect portrait.
My favourites were the gorgeous, brightly coloured paintings with funky coloured backgrounds. In fact I’m seriously considering having one done as a Fathers Day gift (don’t tell Mr CW)….
If you’re looking for a different Fathers Day Gift, prices start from £60 and if you talk very nicely to Natalie she might even be able to offer you 10% discount.
For me, I’m glad to be home, just getting myself psyched up for the NEC Baby Show now…
Tags: cheeky baby wipes, scottish baby show
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
April 1st, 2010
Can you remember before you were born? Well, that’s what being dead is like.
This weeks writing workshop is inspired by Chris at Thinly Spread who is struggling to explain ‘What comes next’ to her 12 year old son, without the comfort blanket of ‘Faith’.
Like Christine, I don’t have ‘Faith’ (with or without George Michael soundtrack). Being born and brought up in Northern Ireland at the start of the troubles put paid to any interest in belief for me, aside from the many sweeties I won at Sunday school for being a good girl and memorising the books of the bible in order. And the stories were good. Bloody, violent and supernatural (plagues of locusts, angels bringing death to all 1st born sons, fathers giving their sons as blood sacrifices), gruesome stuff! It was the stories and sweeties I wanted, not my soul saved.
I couldn’t understand (and still don’t) the idea of a wrathful god who incites violence against other people for not sharing the same beliefs. Seriously, you want to KILL someone because they don’t believe the same mythical creature as you created the world in 7 days – even when we know scientifically that isn’t the way it happened?
Anyway. My no1 son started to ask questions about death and dying when he was about 4. They started from talking about our family tree. ‘Mummy, who is your Mummy?’ ‘And who is Momo’s Mummy?’ ‘And where is our great-granny?’, which lead to the BIG question ‘What is dead?’.
I have to say I struggled a little bit with this one, until I read the brilliant ‘God Delusion’ by Richard Dawkins. His explanation is the one that I now use as standard. ‘Being dead is just like the time before you were born. Can you remember that?’ It’s not scary, it’s completely logical and it’s almost familiar…it’s something even a 5 year old can relate to.
Anyway. It doesn’t help with the tears about how he doesn’t want to be dead, he likes being alive but I try to reassure him. ‘Well, that’s why you need to be a good boy and enjoy your life while you have it. Make the most of it, be happy and have fun because you’re here for a good time, not a long time.’
It’s something we’d all do well to remember.
Tags: cheeky baby wipes, cheeky cloth wipes, explain death to a child
Posted in Writing Workshop | 3 Comments »
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