The Eye of the Tiger

There is no denying it our son is a complete rock monster. Don't believe me? Well here you go!





Of course it isn't just rock music that he loves in fact he will happily sing along to Bob Marley or a bit of Scouting For Girls or even Take That's Rule the World, but if you put Eye of the Tiger on or his other current favourite song Sex on Fire he just goes mad and does his little rock out moment and his Freddie Mercury dance, not that he has ever seen any Queen videos... boy we have to introduce him to those!

I couldn't love him any more than what I do but when I watch these clips, apart from laughing myself silly my heart bursts with love and pride and joy that this little fella is mine and something I helped to create and those moments when he completely drives me insane and I want to scream I just think of the moments like in this clip and the others and it reminds me of what a fun loving cool dude he is.

Superheroes eaten by giant sweet dog

I do wonder what goes on in that head of that little monkey monster of mine. Last night he started back at Beavers and one of the things they did was to create a piece of artwork using sweets. Here is what Callum created:


Now I could tell that basically it was an animal and that animal being a dog but well the rest...

The small round marshmellows on the left hand side are apparently Batman and Robin.
The dog only has eyes and a nose as there wasn't enough room to fit a mouth on.
BUT the dog has got a mouth because... well it's eating Batman and Robin up.
And please don't ask me why the lollipop is sticking out of the dogs bum, the lollipop is the dogs tail but it got shooved in there. As for the three M&M's by the tail... well they are certainly something our dog Dash doesn't have any longer and I have no idea what Callum thinks they are.

Still it's Callum's creation and it sums him up pretty well, he loves our dog Dash and he is a total geek.

Amazed we made it through the maize

Yesterday Callum, my sister Katie and I headed out to The Great Maze near Braintree, Essex. We'd decided that it was something different to do and would burn off some of Callum's never-ending energy supply and walk off some of our booze drinking and sweet eating from the weekend (notice the booze drinking was by Katie not me!!! LOL).

Getting there was meant to be easy, gets on the M11 and then when you get to the A120 (I think that was the one) it'll be sign posted. Yeah right! We ended up having to back-track on ourselves on the A120 and just guess which turning we needed to take. Needless to say we thankfully found a garage where the helpful assistant gave us better instructions and we were properly on our way.

We were lucky to arrive nice and early (even given our little detour on the roads) and the sun was shining brightly and there was a nice cool breeze. On their website they boasted of having 10 acres of maize maze which they change each year, this being their tenth anniversary. Also added bonus you can buy a map but it's in a sealed envelope and if you don't open it you get the money back for it. We lasted 30 minutes before Callum begged us to open it, we'd had quite a lot of "which way now Callum?" moments.




As well as making our way through the maze there was a competition going on where they had placed imitation caged animals around the maze for you to find and on top of the cages were what their names were and you wrote these down on the entry form and first prize is £100! We found all but two of them but the kind ladies at the kiosk desk gave Callum the names of the two we couldn't find. Here is one we did find though!

Mike the Magpie

At the beginning of the maze Callum had volunteered himself as our leader and we had to follow him which was fun and he made good choices when it came to which way now as crossroads.





Although he did on occasion try to leave us behind:




But we did make it to the middle of the maze and the "tower" to view the whole maze.



And eventually to the end.



All in all it took us I think 1 hour 23 minutes but 30 minutes of that was before we opened the map and don't forget we made sure we tried our best to find all of the caged animals. I don't think that's too bad going. Thank you Katie for a wonderful day out.

Say "Cheese!"

The other month Daz asked if I could get a more recent (and nicer) photo of Callum and I together for him to have at work on his computer. You'd think this would be a simple task wouldn't you? Well it isn't!




Firstly I can't find my remote control for my camera so I have to either rely on the in-camera timer which in all honesty doesn't give you much time or I have to try and work out an angle that fits both Callum and I in together in the frame while I myself am holding the camera, as you know not necessarily the easiest of tasks. Also add to this that doing the second method Callum then sees his reflection in the lens and so keeps moving to getting just all of his face in the frame. But apart from all of this it's been fun! I think we're still hunting for the "perfect" photo but we've sure got some funny ones and as our friend Cindy said: "You can tell how much fun you two had taking these."




So for your eyes here are a select few of the shots taken. Currently we've had to "shoots" and no doubt there will be plenty more to come BUT I am determined to get this photo and get it by taking the photo myself.

All photos can be seen here.

The Lady With the Lamp

Seems one of the ways to get Callum to pay an interest in some things is by reading his blog entries so I'm trying out a new idea. Yesterday we got home a table of his schools Summer Term lessons plan, there is the usual English and Maths etc but there was also History and this term they will be covering Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole. Now Florence Nightingale I know about but I'd not really heard about Mary Seacole. Having had a brief look this morning I now understand where they are going to go on this, first learning about Florence Nightingale and then about Mary Seacole and the differences between these two amazing women and how one of them became a heroine and the other sadly not mentioned about much. I like it.

So seeing as how Florence is going to be talked about first I thought I'd start off in that order too and write a bit down here and hopefully it'll make Callum want to read and learn about these two inspiring women.

Florence Nightingale was born 12th May 1820 in Florence, Italy and was thus named after her place of birth. She came from a wealthy background and was what was considered in those days to be a rich girl who spent her summers living in Derbyshire and her winters living in Hampshire (that's what the rich did in the olden days). Rich girls were also expected to do almost nothing, something Florence found boring but she was lucky in the fact that even though at this time in History girls did not receive any form of education her father believed all women should receive an education and so he taught Florence and her sister a variety of subjects ranging from Science and Maths to History and Philosophy.

While growing up Florence developed an interest in helping others and cared for the sick pets and servants when the time allowed her to do so. Then aged 17 years old Florence believed she was called into service by God to become a Nurse "to do something toward lifting the load of suffering from the helpless and miserable." Her parents at first refused to allow her to become a Nurse as it was not considered to be a suitable job for a well educated woman but Florence did not give up and eventually her father gave permission and allowed Florence to do so and she went to Germany to train to become a Nurse.

In 1853 the Crimean War Broke Out and Florence who had studied and become a Superintendent of the Hospital for Gentlewomen in London was asked in to go to Turkey to manage the nursing of the British soldiers wounded and ill. She travelled to Scutari where the soldiers were being taken care of and was shocked to see the poor condition of the hospital with many wounded and ill unwashed and sleeping in over-crowded and dirty conditions with no blankets and decent food. These conditions made diseases (typhus, cholera and dysentery) spread quickly and there was a high death rate (only 1 in 6 died from their wounds where 5 in 6 died from infection and diseases).

Florence and her nurses changed this. They set up a kitchen and fed the wounded from their own supplies, they dug a latrine for sanitation (that's kind of a toilet Callum) and enlisted the help of the wounded soldiers wives. Now they could properly care for the ill and wounded and not so many died. Because of her dedication to her job and how she would often visit soldiers at night when everyone else was asleep to make sure they were alright and because she hardly slept herself Florence earned the name Lady With The Lamp. She was a true heroine to the soldiers and everyone back home in England and she changed the face of nursing from an untrained professional to a highly skilled and well respected medical profession with important responsibilities.

Florence died in 1910 aged 90 years old.

Conversation

Earlier today while tidying up Callum's bedroom.

Callum: I really love you Mummy.

Me: Aww thanks, I love you too.

Callum: I know, you always tell me. Will you marry me Mummy?

Me: Oh I'm too old to marry you.

Callum: But I love you lots and you always say that's important when you marry someone. I'm going to attempt to marry you.

Me: You know how you're not meant to marry certain people? Well Mummy's kinda count too.

Callum: Oh. OK... I still love you lots though.

Piranha Panic (NaBloPoMo)

Look into those eyes, do they look like the eyes of someone that would have you playing Piranha Panic before 8am on a Thursday? Well they are!! And they are eyes that cheat at the game too! LOL! But do you know what it was fun, all cosied up on the bed while Daz was getting ready for work, even though a few of the marbles (not just the ones in my head) were missing, even though the rain was hammering down on the window panes... and even through the major cheating going on. I suppose there will be no surprises when I say that Callum won but I'll beat him next time. I love playing family games, they give you that chance to just shut the rest of the world out and enjoy the company of those that are near and dear to you. Sure sometimes Callum makes you play, play and play until you never want to play that game again, I'm looking at you Top Trumps, or Daz makes you get out the Monopoly Board so he can own more hotels than you, but you know what you always end up giving in and getting on with yet another round of whatever game it is you're fed up of playing and that's because at the end of the day you're spending precious moments with those loved ones....and you know just one day you will own all of those pretty sapphire blue properties on the board, bwahahahah they will be mine... oh ermm... who took over the typing then???

Each year Daz and I try to add to our collection of board/family games, some times it's a success and others a big huge mess that gets hidden in the back of the wardrobe. This year I've been looking around to see what looks fun and here are a few suggestions I've come up with:


Articulate

This is a game that we've played a good few times with family members but is a game that we haven't as of yet bought. The idea is for each team to make their way round the board by describing what is on the card for the other member of your team to guess, within 30 seconds. You can not say it sounds like or rhymes with to help them out. At the end of the allotted time however many your team mate/s guessed that's how many spaces you can move on. The winner is the person who makes it round the board first. It's a little bit like that game show that Joey plays on in Friends. It's great loud fun and gets your brain thinking and also in a way tests how well you know the people you play with.


Pictureka

This is the new game out from the same people who make Articulate and looks more like something we could play with Callum. It's like hide and seek but as a board game and you have to find the item on the card that is picked, first to find it wins the card and then the one with the most cards at the end is the winner. Sounds fun although I'm not sure what kind of longevity this might have because if you have a child like mine who is brilliant at remembering where things are he'll have that board memorised in no time. Still it's one to maybe consider.


Trivial Pursuits

In my opinion you can never go wrong with good old Trivial Pursuits, maybe that's why they have brought out so many different versions of it. The latest that I've seen is the Girls vs Boys one. As it says on Amazon "Boys questions cover boy toys, action films, blokey sports and hot babes. Girls questions cover chick flicks, chick lit, fashion, girly music and hot hunks". Now this seems like it could be fun. Sure ok it's not really for the kids but I have noticed today on Amazon that they have Disney Pixar Bitesize one. We'll see how this one goes.

I'm sure there are going to be plenty more board games that grab my attention and I'll be sure to let you all know what we end up getting and if it is a hit, miss or maybe.

Thank You For the Music (NaBloPoMo)

Music plays a big part in most peoples lives and it certainly does in ours. From when I was pregnant with Callum to today he has loved music and mostly it seems rock. Today while cooped up in bed (again!) I decided to look through the various online photo/video sites I have and came across some gems (well in my opinion) of Callum dancing.

First up we have Callum singing and dancing along to The Barenaked Ladies' rendition of Jingle Bells, this was in December 2006 so Callum would have been 3 and a half years old nearly. Even through the crappy recording no matter how many times I watch this it still makes me laugh and smile, it is so typical of Callum and his love of life and the energy he has an abundance of.



Now fast forward to November 2007 and we once again have Callum singing and "dancing" to Jingle Bells but this time on his musical keyboard. I never realised before the coincidence of these, nearly one year apart and in a way the same song. I'm now thinking I will have to do a yearly capture of Callum singing and dancing to Jingle Bells and I look forward to seeing how in a year he changes and grows up so much. It's sad to see but also wonderful, he is maturing and learning at such a fast rate that it is wonderful to have these moments on video to look back on. For that I am thankful.

NaBloPoMo

No this isn't the next stage of my insanity but instead a challenge I am taking up. Somewhere on the wonderful internet today I came across NaBloPoMo and the strange amalgamation of letters caught my interest so I found the official site and read about it. It sounded fun and maybe a way to lessen my boredom. So here goes. It seems as though for the month of December the topic is Thanks and I think that's a pretty good topic to discuss and talk about.

These last few days have made me realise even more than ever how thankful I am in having such wonderful, loving, kind, handsome, funny men/boys in my life. Yes I'm talking about my extremely handsome husband Daz and my dazzlingly beautiful boy Callum, or otherwise known as My Boys. These last few days I have been bed bound with a poorly leg (goodness knows what I've done but painful isn't as strong a word to use) and they have been a godsend. Daz has run around doing all mannes of chores, getting Callum to and from school, making me little food parcels, helping me to the bathroom and back and so on and so on. He even this morning before setting off on the school run for Callum before then making his journey into work brought me up a plethora of material to keep me occupied all day and not starving hungry or gasping for a drink, he even remembered my favourite dvd boxset (the Good Life). I've always known how lucky I was to meet Daz and marry him but I'm even more thankful today for that. As for Callum he has been his usual mischievious self. This morning after he was dressed ready for school he came into the bedroom, crept into bed with me and then brought out his Top Gear Cool Wall book and stickers, "This will help you feel better Mummy, which cars do you want as yours?" We spent the next 15 minutes discussing why the cars should go on the cool wall or the uncool wall. Top Gear I salute you (once again!) in your wiseness in bein able to keep a five year old and a thirty-five year old entertained, I am indeed thankful to you for that!

This entry is probably a bit random and bizarre, I'm tired and can't think too well but hopefully over the next few days I will be able to be more cohesive... and be able to type and spell better.

For now I'll leave you with my little thank you photo, My Boys! I love you with all my heart and more.

Faster Than A Speeding Train

Cuddles and Sleep

That's how quick this year is going. It seemed like only yesterday that it was the beginning of the school summer holidays and I had high hopes of doing a weekly post update of what we were doing. Yeah that kind of didn't work did it? Next it'll be Christmas and New Year and we'll all be wondering where the year went.

So what has been happening lately in the White House? Well...

We had a pretty good six weeks summer holiday, sure the weather wasn't brilliant but we got time out in the garden, managed to have a few BBQ's and some visits out.

We also got a puppy! Yes you read that right. My parents bought me back a cross springer spaniel/border collie puppy from Ireland as a birthday present for me and a play friend for Callum. He's a complete monster but so adorably cute you can't stay angry with him for long. We've called him Dash which seems very suitable as him and Callum do dash all over the place. We've had a few jealously problems with Callum but they mostly seem smoothed over now I no longer have Callum telling me I don't love him as much as the dog. Hello buddy the dog comes lower down the pecking list than the fish, bottom of the pile he is! It's cute to watch the two of them out in the garden playing, Dash loves Callum to go down the slide and then he can jump on Callum. I don't know if my flowers are enjoying Dash though a few of those have been dug up and flung around in a mad frenzy. I think over the years Callum and Dash will become the best of friends, they are already teaming up on me when it's time to come in from the garden the little so and so's.

What else has been happening then? Well Callum went back to school the beginning of September (actually it was on Daz and mines 9th Wedding anniversary). The new school building had been finished so they were all set up for starting them in there. Of course there were a few hiccups, actually quite a few but over the weeks it seems to be settling down. All the kids seem to love the new building and they have a much bigger and better playground now so I no longer have Callum coming home with wripped knees in his trousers every day, heck I even managed to have him last a whole week in the same pair of trousers as he kept them immaculately clean. To go with the new school building Callum also has a new teacher, he name is Alexandra (Alex for short) and seems very nice. He has gone up to Year 1 now so they are more about learning their numbers and to read and write than playing but it still seems like they get plenty of playtime in. Also the added bonus is that this year he is in the same class as his best friends Aman and Laila which they all seem to like.

But alas this brand new school is all going to change on Monday. Why? Well last week we got a letter offering Callum a place at a school that is just round the corner from us which means just a five mintue walk to school rather than the 2 bus journey route we currently have to do. Daz and I looked at the school on Monday and are really happy with it so we've accepted the place and they want to start Callum on Monday, it's all a huge rush and yet another new uniform to buy Callum (not cheap either!) but we feel that in the long run this is the best option. We love our house we live in now and want to stay here for as long as we can so a school within walking distance will be ideal it'll fit in with the future plans we have involving our life. Callum seemed more than happy to change schools and we've promised him that we are going to make this his last change of school until he goes to secondary school. He's a child that easily makes friends and seems most of the time to take well to change so we're hoping he'll take those traits along with him to his next school. It's all very nerve wracking and exciting at the same time. Fingers crossed it goes well.

Anyway I should go and check on the new family member Dash and see if he has dried off from his play in the garden and that he isn't muddy from any digging. But first I'll post some photos.

Vet Callum checking patient Dash for any paw injuries.

The Terrible Two Playing Cars.

Summer Begins! - Week One

School has broken up and so begins Summer Time! Over the next six weeks (and maybe probably longer!) I'll be posting photos of Callum and his summer holidays. Hopefully I'll also get time to do some full blog entries too.

The first week of Callum's summer holidays was a very busy one, it was his Fifth Birthday so we had parties, trips to the seaside, lazy days at home playing with new presents and friends coming round for paddling pool fun.






Birthday Cake Surprise! Callum looking shocked that all the other kids didn't sing Happy Birthday to him but instead blew out his candles.

















Nevermind second time round was more successful.




















On the Sunday we had family round for another party, here's everyone bar my brother Joe who left early to go drinking over the park with his buddies. Teenagers!







Then Monday Keith (Daz' brother) and his fiancee took Daz, Callum and I to Southend. It was our first trip ever to the Seaside and lots of fun was had, well until the end when I slipped down the concrete steps but we won't talk about that too much.




















Then last but not least we eventually reach Callum's birthday the 22nd July. Our little boy is Five years old, my where did the time go? Here he is opening presents.







For Callum's birthday Daz and I bought him a bike, a big boys grown up bike. Callum's finding it a littler harder to ride than his trike but it's mostly down to size and that our garden is the flatest garden there is. Still he'll get there. Here he is on a little practice.

And well some monkeys are just too cheeky!

Tune if for the next entry which involves Down on Foxburrows Farm, South Park and lots more.

What the Teachers had to say.

Today I had a meeting with Callum's school teachers. It was just the end of year parent meeting but this time round they had daytime appointments which is a much easier way to do things.

I got to read a copy of Callum's school report (of which I'll get the original at the end of the week) and from that I learned that he has settled in well and is on the recommended level of learning for all subjects. There was a little concern about his emotional side which the school are dealing with I think they called it "action" where they are trying to teach him how to deal with things such as if someone is playing with something he wants to play with how he should go about not crying to get his own way but either talking to the person currently playing with said item or playing with something else until said item is free. They aren't overly concerned it's just something they want him to learn and said as he is an only child it's not an unusual thing for him to be doing. They also mentioned about his maths and said that he needs to practice more with his bond numbers. This had Daz and I a little confused. By bond numbers they mean just adding up sums that make say 5 or 1o, so for example 2 = 8 = 10. Now at home Callum is constantly going round doing sums like this but it turns out that at school he isn't. We're not quite sure why but his teacher just suggested we keep up with him doing it at home and see if it carries over to at school. Children are strange that way, the things he'll do at school he won't do at home and vice versa.

At the end of the day though for someone who has only been at the school 68 days, has moved from one London Borough to another and had no friends at the new school or even in the area we now live in he is doing remarkable well. His teachers told me it is like he started back in September with everyone else and has made some good friendships and is eager to learn. Lets hope he keeps it up.

Three Little Birds

As with most societies these days Callum's school is very mixed cultural wise. We live in a Borough that has a lot of immigration to it which is rewarding and enriching. So as to embrace this it seems that Callum's school has been teaching him and his classmates various songs which not only seem to have meanings relating to people being different but also about making friends and being there for each other. Now Callum takes after me in lots of ways as it is always being pointed out to me not just by Daz but by lots of other people, so it seems only fitting that he also has my lack of musical talent, I am tone deaf. Still this aside it's so lovely and cute to hear Callum sitting outside playing with his cars singing one of the many songs he has learnt at school. It's got to the stage now that Callum even has his own playlist on our iTunes of these songs and it's an interesting task trying to work out which song he has been taught from the few lines he can remember (thank you google!) then tracking it down for us to buy and adding to his list and then learning the whole song.

So far the songs he has learnt are:

Bob Marley - Three Little Birds
Stevie Wonder - Ebony and Ivory
Bill Withers - Lean on Me
Keane - Everybody's Changing
S Club 7 - Reach
Queen - We Will Rock You
Dionne Warwick - That's What Friends Are For

Out of those his favourite seems to be Bob's song which I have no problems about Bob Marley was a hugely talented person and the song is a nice sweet song, which Callum after us only singing it through twice now knows all the words to. I also like the message in it about not worrying about things, I often worry that my special little man himself worries about too many things, you can see his brain ticking over thinking about things and it's not unusual for him to pent up worries and then suddenly one night burst out crying with them all. I hope this song helps him to realise that he can tell people and that together we can work it out to make everything alright. Also Bob's song is the one song each night he will ask me to sing to him before he goes to sleep.

I love waiting to hear what the newest song is and I hope his school continues to do this. It is in my opinion a fun way to teach kids about music but also about life too. Well done Cranbrook Primary School.

Are You Asleep Little Bear?

It's 8.30pm and we put Callum to bed at just gone 7.30pm so in theory you would think he would be asleep...

Me: Callum are you asleep?
Callum: Yes.
Me: If you're asleep why are you answering me then?
Callum: Because you and Daddy always tell me to not ignore you and answer your questions.
Me: Oh, erm, err, yes. Good Boy. Now Good Night.

The Love of a Child

It seems after having a little bit of a rough year in 2007 with Callum and his attitude towards me a new corner has been turned. He still has his moments but he is mostly back to his loving self. If I'm a little bit ill he'll kindly inform me that morning that it is his job to take care of me that day, especially if it's a day that Daz has to go to work. Callum seems to love this new found responsibility and will ask me every five minutes if I'm ok, tell me to sit down and rest and ask if I want a drink or something to eat. My own little boy version of Florence Nightingale. It's nice to have him back, although he is still very much all about Daddy but I've read the book Raising Boys and know this is something that happens with boys.

Spider-Fish!

We have a new member to the White household, his name as the title says is Spider-Fish. Here's what happened.

On Friday gone (think it was 14th September) Callum and I went to Pets at Home as Toot and Beep our two goldfish needed some oxygen tablets. While there as always we looked at all the other pets there and the fish. Callum then asked if he could have another fish. I said we'd have to check with Daddy, to which he said ok. So yesterday the three of us headed back to Pets At Home. The first thing we decided was that we'd have to think about whether we'd get a new tank for all three fish to go in together, or should we be brave and let Callum have one of those little round ones in his room with the fish? Of course I was silly and asked Callum what he would prefer, yes I know duh dumb question! *laugh* Anyway the next size up tanks were a bit pricey, we would have been looking at around £30 just for the tank and I knew we'd be able to get a little one for under £5 in another shop. After much contemplation we headed of elsewhere to take on the brave option of Callum having a fish in his own room and bought a new tank for £1.99, some pebbles, a little house and all for around £5- £6! By the time we'd done all this though it was too late to head back to the pet shop and so we told Callum and him and I would go this morning.

And that's what we did. Just before lunchtime we took a little stroll over to Pets At Home. While making our way there we talked about what name to give the new fish. Originally Callum suggested Toot two, then it went to Mr Fishy (he's on a bit of a Mr Men thing at the moment) to other names which I can't recall now. By the time we'd reached the pet shop no suitable name had been agreed.

Callum pretty quickly decided which fish he wanted, a pretty yellow/gold fish with white fins and tail and a lively little thing too. Having had the fish caught, bagged and various plants bought we headed back home and had more talk of a name. And that's when Callum decided on Spider-Fish, in his own words, he's just like Spider-man but he's a fish so we'll call him Spider-Fish. Now I'm not sure if Daz and I have the geekiest child ever or the coolest. Maybe I should add that he's also since getting home been going round singing "Spider-Fish, Spider-Fish" to the tune of the Spider-man song. *laugh*

I just hope that Callum shows Daz and I how responsible he can be and that we won't be woken up in the morning to Callum creeping into our bed with instead of Big Brown Bear, Spider-Fish!

Dancing on the Tables

Last night Daz, Callum and I were watching Lord of the Rings Return of the King. It was at the beginning. One scene is Pippin and Merry dancing on a table in a pub with tankards of, well whatever they drink. Callum turned round to Daz and goes:

"Daddy when you and Uncle Martyn go down the pub do you dance on tables?"

Daz laughed and said that they didn't to which Callum replied in a disappointing voice:

"Oh." after a few seconds silence he then asked when he could go down the pub with Daz and Uncle Martyn. He's so desperate to go down the pub with them both.

It's a Shrubbery!

Yesterday morning Daz, Callum and I headed off out into town. While I was in the bank Daz took Callum to Woolworths to buy some new Hot Wheels cars to go with a new track we'd bought him. On the way over to Woolworths they walked past another bank and a guy was outside and said: "I'd love to walk into the bank with a plant and say Hands up it's a Shrubbery." Callum found this hysterical and started laughing to which the guy turned round to Daz and said "You have an awesome Kid, he found my joke funny."

Have We Cracked It?

Fingers crossed we have.

Since day one Callum has always been a bad sleeper, even as a baby he just wasn't interested in sleep, there were (and still are) too many things going on around him for such simplicities. Daz and I have tried literally every trick in the book and put up with so many sleep deprived nights.

Firstly we tried the controlled crying method which culminated in Callum showing us his Hulk powers and the double gates on his bedroom door being ripped off and thrown across the room... I kid you not. This was after we'd had weeks of the method being in place and still hours and hours and hours each night of the crying and not just by Callum. So that went out the window.

Then there was the withdrawal method (not at all as bad as what it sounds like) which never really seemed to work. After months the furthest away I got was a step away from the bed. That kid of ours just knew as soon as we'd stepped outside his room and start the crying and calling you back routine.

There have been the falling asleep on his floor tricks, letting him fall asleep in our room and transfering him to his bed capers, the quick return method, the try and exhaust him but end up too exhausted yourself tactic and lots more. None ever worked. So it seemed that Daz and I were destined to never have a good nights sleep (and our neighbours too) and to be forever trying to get Callum to go to sleep.

Then last year just before Christmas I said enough is enough. I was fed up with spending hours on end coaxing Callum to sleep and then being woken up in the middle of the night by covers being snatched away and pushed to the edge of the bed and either Daz or moving to the front room to sleep on the sofa. But how could we put an end to this we wondered, we'd tried nearly every trick in the book save for drugging him and obviously we didn't want to do that... well... no honestly it never entered our minds.

Then it hit us and we wondered why we'd both been so dumb... bribery!!! I've come to the conclusion that our son will one day make a good politician he is always open to a good bit of bribery as well as having an answer for everything. So armed with this Daz and I stocked up on the little hot wheels cars that are a firm favourite of Callums (and Daz'). For every night that Callum spent the whole night in his bed without waking us up, in the morning he got to choose one car from a selection of them. Days is all it took for Daz and I to have our bed back to ourselves. Heavenly.

Then disaster struck. A few days before Christmas our boiler broke and we had no heating and the temperature really dropped. WE all bundled up and snuggled for warmth in our bed and so we went straight back to square one. Arrrrgghhh!!! Was this just the way things were meant to be?!?

The boiler was fixed within a few weeks and after the excitement of Christmas was over we once again begain the arduous task of a good nights sleep. This time it took a little longer but we got there. Yay!!! We had our uninterrupted sleep back. The only thing left to do now was to encourage Callum to go to sleep in the evenings without me sitting in there for half an hour or however long it took. See that was the other problem we had, Callum flatly refused to let Daz get him off to sleep, in Callum's words it had to be "Mummy get me to sleep." I love my son and will do anything for him but I also love Daz and the two of us need to spend time together but with the way things were our evenings were spent apart. So you've guessed it... out came the bribery cars. We started this about two weeks ago and to date it's going really well.

Daz and I do the bedtime routine. Daz baths Callum while I hoover the flat, then I get Callum ready for bed and read him a story while he drinks his milk and then miracle of miracles (well after a reminder about the bribe) I can walk out of the bedroom without a screaming crying fit from Callum and with the promise that I will come back in a little while and check on him. I can then get on and tidy up the dinner mess and within about half an hour it seems our little Monkey Monster is fast asleep. So for the moment it seems we have finally cracked the whole sleep problem that has haunted us for years.

Now we just have to see how things work without the bribes becasue we are quickly running out of space to store the what seems like a million and one toy cars.

The Madness of Modern Families

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Families Thames Valley West

The BBC have been showing a thirty minute tv series called [I]The Madness of Modern Families[/I]. It shows the lengths that parents (well some parents I'm hoping that not all parents feel this way) go to or feel they need to go to be the perfect parent. They have a comical side to them but it does give you pause for thought.

Is there really this big pressure to be the perfect parent in society's eyes? Is being able to hold the best and most talked about (in a good way) birthday party all we have as parents to live up to? Who decided this? Do we in effect end up making our children suffer for this, what affect does it have on them? Is it that important that little Biscuit can count to twenty in every known language when he is a year old? Or that cute little Lollipop gives out the best glitter nailvarnish in her party packs? Or that Florida's Mummy spent weeks making the most amazing school concert costume so she (to me Florida sounds like a girls name, doesn't it to you?) would outshine every other child on the stage and what does it matter if she's only playing a dustbin?

I've not managed to catch all of the series as it's on when I'm putting my little monkey monster to bed and reading him a bedtime story but the ones I've caught a brief bit of are the birthday party one and the extra-curriculum activities one.

I remember on the birthday party one this father said that after so many years of stressing over his daughters birthday party he turned round to her and said (as best as I can remember)

"You can have a party but at some point you'll cry, someone will open your presents, you'll eat and drink too much and be sick, you will argue with your best friend and most of the other children you won't even know. Someone will hurt someone else and you'll be very tired at the end of it all and not have enjoyed it. If you want you can have that... Orrrrr I can take you now to the nearest toy shop and all that money that would have been spent on the party you can be spend on buying as much plastic crap as you want."

It did make me laugh but in reality this is a father who has just felt that he can no longer or most likely doesn't want to be in the "Party Bag Brigade".

This week (which I only caught snippets of) was about ballet lessons for babies, Swahili for toddlers and such.

I'm not sure outside about outside of the UK but here in Jolly Olde Blighty children start school younger than when I was a kid (which yes I know was a similiar time to the dinosaurs roaming around but that's not the point) at just four years old. They attend playschool, or nursery or pre-school, whichever you want to call it although I'm sure there is some difference I'm yet to comprehend between them, from as young as two years old now. I've heard at some places how they are more about the teaching to read and write side of things and not the play and interaction side. Are we so interested in making our little darlings grow up so quickly? I'm all for learning and yes last week when Callum showed me how he could write his name I was proud (even though it doesn't 100% look like his name I can work out which bits are which letter) and showed it off and told everyone. I'm not though worried that he has shown me no interest in wanting to learn the alphabet chart, he can sing the song and that's all that is important to him, and you know what that is all that is important to me, what makes my little boy happy.

I'm not sure where I'm going with this blog. I just wonder why there is all this pressure out there to do all these things and who puts it there. It sure isn't children as they are happy enough jumping in puddles and throwing leaves at everyone.

Anyway I'm off now to start planning for Callum's first "big and proper" birthday party. It isn't until July but I need to make sure I have just the right number of children... and the right type of children to attend the occassion. That the party bag will be the talk of the county for the next year and that I have enough diamond crusted presents for the parce the parcel presents.