Let It snow Let It Snow Let It Snow.

Yes!!! At long last it decided to snow. I've ben wanting this for so long as Callum has never properly seen real snow before, the last time we had snow that settled enough to play with was when Callum was only 5 months old and so a little too young to appreciate it.

I woke up about 7 o'clock this morning and there was this winter wonderland delight before my eyes and a big smile on my face appeared. Already I had plans for for what to do. I should have known that when I said to Callum to come look out the window and see the snow and he didn't want to that those plans wouldn't see fruition. OH well such is life with the little monkey monster, we had to go out in the snow anyway for the walk to playschool. At least it looked pretty.



I thought maybe the walk to playschool might change his mind but no that didn't, he just kept telling me he didn't like it and it was scary even after I explained that snow was just another type of rain. Nothing could change his mind and make him see the fun in snow. Is this little boy really my son I thought, snow is awesome!!! How can you not want to touch it and throw it? Strange boy. All the other children at the playschool were loving the thought of snowballs.

Upon picking Callum up from playschool somebody had down a 360 degree turn about snow. Audrey who runs the group had during the morning taken the children out in groups of two to shuffle up snow and bring it indoors for them to play with in big bowls until it melted and (surprise surprise yes Mummy is right) it turned into water! So I now had a little monkey monster wanting to play with snow... just as most of it had melted. *laugh* We managed to find a few garden walls with snow remains on them and had mini snowball fights on our way home. Now somebody keeps glimpsing outside asking when more snow is going to come, guess which one of us it is. :D

That's Fuunneeeyyy

All children are funny with their little sayings, or how they perceive things or just something they say. This weekend Callum has been in extra funny mood and had Daz and I in stitches with laughter.

This weekend Daz and I started a new weekend routine with Callum. We'd talked and decided that rather than we run ourselves ragged all week and weekend that we needed some ground rules for the weekend and a set plan for both of us to have a rest. What we decided on was that on a Saturday Daz would have the morning to have a lie in, or whatever he wanted and that that morning would be Callum and Mummy morning for us to do what ever we wanted. And on Sunday it would be the other way round with me lying in and Daddy and Callum having their morning or whatever they wanted to do. I must say it worked fantastically and we had one of the best weekends in a long time with no tired tantrums from Mummy and Daddy or from Callum. :D

Originally Callum and I were going to go out, grab a drink at Costas and then go and buy scrummy food and make Daz breakfast in bed, but Callum put an end to that. Instead we spent the morning lounging in our Pyjamas, playing Cars and seeing how many cars we could get to go all the way down the ramp on his garage. Then I had the great idea of trying out the exercise ball I'd bought during the week. Callum loved it and the two of us played on that for a half hour or more, doing forward rolls, sitting on it and bouncing and all forms of fun stuff, whizzing across the front room floor on it. Daz said the laughter from Callum and I woke him up and said it was such a great way to be woken up.

Daz then decided we needed to have a treat for lunch so suggested Callum's favourite... McDonald's. Callum laid out the plans for the rest of the day. "We go McDonald's in Brewery, then toy shop, Entertainer in Brewery and then Sainsburys and buy all the food up, with a book and a car for me." Sounded a good plan.


When the three of us got to Sainsburys to do the shopping Callum took up his usual pose... standing up in the trolley pointing the way and telling me to go either left, right, forward or backward and most important of all... STOP! Some nice old man started giving Callum directions but he was all "No, that way, not his way." Callum directions were "Forward Mummy. Left now STOP!" I want that." What did he want? The huge pink (I'm still to fathom out Callum's love for pink) smarties tube. He was practically falling out of the trolley to get them, somehow we managed to avoid (1) a tantrum and (2) not getting the smarties. The next aisle was the crisps aisle where Callum in his typical manner used what is a common phrase of his "But it's my favourite..." to persuade us to buy him multi-packs of crisps. You may be wondering by this point where Daz is, well he was running round other aisles grabbing things that we actually DID need. LOL! Callum and I were nearing the end of the crisps aisle when suddenly Daz appears round the corner in his cowboy stance mode going "Draw pardner." and cocking his fingers in a guns actions. Normally Callum will reply by doing Iron Man laser noises but this time he goes "But Daddy I can't I don't have any paper and pens to draw.". He had this look of utter confusion on his face. I love that little monkey monster of ours and he has such a wicked sense of humour and comes out with the most funny of things.

What do you say when those five (well six if you have a polite child) words are uttered?

"Can I have a pet please."

What do you say? How do you explain to your child that a pet isn't a good thing to have in a 2 bedroom flat? How can you avoid those pleading eyes? And how do you avoid the feeling that you yourself would like a pet?

Yesterday I had to deal with these questions. Callum was watching something on Cbeebies about pets and he turned around and asked why we didn't have a pet. Before I could answer those words were uttered... "Can I have a pet please, Mummy?" Arrrggghhh I thought how do I deal with this? I'd love nothing more than to get my little boy a puppy and they could grow up together and enjoy the wonders of life. But sensible Mummy mode crept in, with a blindfold on to avoid those pleading eyes.

"A pet wouldn't like living in a flat, Callum. It's too high up and we have no garden." I tell him.

"But why can't I have a pet?" he replies.

"Where would it sleep?" I ask

"On the shelf." He replies.

I then wonder what pet he is talking about, but we never get that far in the conversation as toy cars are there as a distraction.

I think about how long will it be before we have to give in and buy a pet for Callum? And given our love for animals we may be easy targets at relenting and buying a pet sooner than we realised and wanted to. Maybe it's time to invest in a fishtank and so called easy pets to look after and see how our little boy handles that.

I know for sure we won't be getting any more birds. We did have two budgies at one point called Havoc and Storm. Callum and Storm were forever trying to hatch plans for the Great Bird Escape and sadly Havoc and Storm had to go live elsewhere, at Callum's Grandparents. They are still happily living there and the Great Bird Escape seems to be a forgotten memory. So there's why we won't have any more birds.

Rabbits will be out too as after the way Callum showed my Mum and I his hunting skills with the pet rabbit I don't think they are save around him. Don't worry the rabbit is still alive, it just never tries to outrun Callum again as he can catch it.

Maybe in months to come you'll be seeing a photo of Callum and his new pet, we'll see.