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.

Argos - The Shop That sells everything

Yesterday Callum started at a new school. Sadly we haven't been able to get into a school within walking distance to our new home but we have managed to get into one that is nearer and an easier journey than what we were doing. The best thing about this new school journey though is that we now have an added companion in the form of Daz or in Callum's case "DADDY!!". It's been great!

This morning upon opening the front door we were greeted by the typical weather England is famous for, yep that's correct, RAIN!! Callum and I grabbed our umbrellas and Daz "I'm a Man I don't need no umbrella!" got wet. We took the short walk up the road to wait for our hail and ride bus. While waiting Daz and Callum mucked around and took turns to have the umbrella (yes the"I'm a Man I don't need no umbrella!" talk didn't last long) and pretend they were a Buzzy Bee (that's what Callum's umbrella is). On Daz turn Callum turned round and said "I'm going to zap you with my gun." and Daz replied "Where did that come from?" Callum's reply? "Argos!"

It is funny the things kids say.

Cloud Spotting

Yesterday while Callum and I were on our way to the supermarket we stopped off at the park for a bit. One of Callum's favourite things there is the swings, he loves for me to push him as high as he can go and see if his feet can touch the sky, he's also now becoming fairly good at swinging himself using his feet. We were lucky that yesterday morning was a lovely spring morning, a little fresh but beautiful sunshine and those big white fluffy clouds. So what better thing to do while sitting on the swing looking at touching the sky than to do a bit of cloud spotting. I'm sure everyone knows what this is but in case you don't it's where you look for a picture/object etc of something in the cloud. I love this and it seems so does that son on mine (yes another way that I can't deny he's my son. ;) ) What I love most about this though is that it shows the imagination that someone has and imagination is something Callum has an abundance of. I was once told by a group of Health Visitors just before Callum's third birthday that he had amazing imagination and imagination way ahead for his age and that if he kept it up he would be someone who would set the world on fire. I hope they didn't mean that literally though. LOL.

The great thing about yesterday though was that I could clearly see what Callum was saying when he said the objects he did. There was a Father over there with his two children, one of them being on the opposite swing to Callum, who was listening to Callum's descriptions and (I'm never one to boast so I don't mean it if that comes across here like that) you could tell he was clearly impressed by what he heard, looked for himself and then saw. Sadly I didn't have time to take any photos of the cloud shapes that Callum pointed out, I was too busy having to push him on the swing to do so, but I do remember what he saw.

Firstly there was a car (no surprise there), it wasn't how you or I would draw a car but how Callum would draw one of his sports cars.

Then came a Lion, lying down a bit like this picture but with it's tail up in the air. Next was a horse, rearing with it turned to look at you a little this this picture , that horse then changed into a Dragon. There were other shapes Callum saw like a Rocket and a Penguin but I myself couldn't make those out although I didn't dampen his enthusiasm just said I wasn't as good at spotting things as him maybe.

All in all it was a lovely 30 minutes spent which made up for the monkey monster he was in the Supermarket.

Snips and Snails and puppy-dogs' tails.

What are little boys made of, made of?

What are little boys made of?

Snips and snails, and puppy-dogs' tails,

That's what little boys are made of.

What are little girls made of, made of?

What are little girls made of?

Sugar and spice, and everything nice,

That's what little girls are made of.

While out enjoying a little bit of sunshine today and playing football Callum proved why this nursery rhyme is so true. Every Snail, Ladybird, Worm, Bug was picked up, examined (in a nice way not a dissecting way) and then placed back after a good handling. Oh and lots of questions asked. "What Do Snails Do? " "Why are Ladybird's Red? " Why do worms live in the dirt?"

Eventually we came indoors and as per normal Callum mode his jumper was taken off and left on the floor while he ran up to play with his toys. As I picked up the jumper I noticed lying on the floor something long, thing, gray and moving. Yes it was a worm. He had picked it up and put it in his pocket, probably knowing Callum to keep it warm. The poor thing had wriggled it's way out of the pocket and was trying it's hardest to bury itself in our carpet. Callum wasn't too hot on telling me if anything else was in the pockets so I had the unenviable task of sticking my hands in a four year olds pockets to see what was in there. Thankfully nothing. Mr Worm is now safely outside in a good old bit of proper dirt and said jumper is in the washing machine waiting for a good wash.

Walking on Sunshine

Yesterday marked the beginning of Spring in the UK with the clocks going forward and with it came sunshine which was so beautiful after all the wind and rain we have had. A lovely day was had with Daz' family celebrating Daz' Dad's Birthday with a little party we held for him. The sun was shining, there was plenty of food, the windows were even opened to let in the spring air. Oh and the Wii was on and the whole family having fun playing Wii Sports on it and some of the Truck games. A wonderful day and Callum even handled going to bed late well.

Daz and I were granted a nice lie in this morning with Callum not waking up until gone 8am which definitely beats the 6am wake up call we usually get. What with it being the first day of the Easter School Holidays (yes I know Easter was the other week but the schools are confused it seems) there was no need to rush around, Daz got ready for work and Callum and I had a leisurely breakfast and a play at Excite Trucks on the Wii and then a quick tidy up in time for an old playschool friend of Callum's to pay us a visit with his Mum and sister, it was lovely to see Dawn, Fred and Abbie. Surprisingly the sunshine decided to stay with us so the kids all got to go out in the garden and have fun with water and mud. What more do young kids need? Well apart from a bath! Callum had to be dragged in eventually for lunch but afterwards (and after Dawn and Co had gone home) we were back out in the garden. There was more water, more digging and I even got some gardening done. Sure we had a disaster with the cat we are currently cat sitting (Shandy) escaped and it took us until just before 8pm to get her back but it was lovely to spend the day just Callum and I in the garden having fun and enjoying the sunshine. Fingers crossed it's still sunny and warm tomorrow so we can have all that fun again plus lots more.

Litterbug Into My Life

Litterbugs!!

This week at Callum's school is science week. All week they've had various people come in and talk to them about stuff, today it was about recycling (yeah not too sure on the whole science thing). Anyway Callum and I are today waiting at the bus stop and there are all the usual mob of school kids. In front of us are two boys and a girl. One of the boys has a carton type drink and when he finishes it just throws it on the floor. Callum then pipes up and says "That boy is naughty he's a litterbug he threw that on the floor." the girl hears him and laughs and tell the litterbugboy that Callum is telling him off. Thankfully the boy took it all good heartedly and asked Callum if it was litter and then said he should set the younger generation a good example and proceeded to pick it up and put it in the bin. Callum then told him he was a good boy.

It's The Thought That Counts

While on the doorstep last night unlocking it to come in Callum turned round and said to me:

"Mummy I forgot, I picked you some flowers at school, they were near the bush. I picked lots for you."

Upon getting inside the house he emptied his pocket out and put in my hand about 20 little flower heads... all dead. The sad look on his face when he saw them was heartbreaking. I told him never to mind about them being dead it was the thought that counted and maybe next time he wanted to get me flowers he could tell Daddy and they could buy some from the shop that won't die so quickly. It was such a sweet tender moment. Bless him.

Peter Callum Pan

Kids are such wonderful funny creatures. A few months ago Callum saw Peter Pan for the first time. He spent the next couple weeks going round singing Never Smile At A Crocodile and calling Daz Tinkerbell and me Captain Hook, well untill Daz put him in his place and I (quite rightly) became Tinkerbell. Then leading up to Christmas he became enamoured by Dr Who, mostly down to the fact that his cousin Alex is mad about Dr Who. One day we were in Woolworths and Callum saw a black Dalek costume and asked for it. I suggested he wait a little while until after Christmas and we'd see if it would be in the sale because jeez louise those things are costly! Much to Callum's delight a couple weeks into the New Year and we found one, this time a brown/gold one, in the slaes for £8! Bargain! It seemed that Callum's phase of the builder, policeman, fireman costume had gone to the next level... and the more expensive level. But hey he had fun showing the Dalek to his cousin Alex who has a Cyberman costume and they caused havoc together.

Now we come to Friday just gone. It was the last day of half term and we decided to go and visit Daz at work, from the new house it's a ten minute bus ride and there are plenty of shops in Ilford. Callum was over the moon to be going to see Daddy at work and added bonus that Grandad "Grumps" Steve worked there too. After a while of Callum terrorizing, hell who am I kidding, wooing over more like, the girls at the office I took Callum off to look in Woolworths at the toys. At the top of the escalators, before we get to the cars there are the dress up costumes. Callum asks is we can look and asks for a Power Rangers costume, but he's on a Power Rangers ban at the moment so I said no. Then the two of us at the same time spied the Peter Pan costume. It was a must!!!

Now here is the funny thing about Callum, unless it's a toy car he won't have any interest in the item once it's bought until a day or two later, he isn't one of those that always wants to rush home and put the dress up outfit on. It's like he has to spend a day at least thinking up a cool story/game to go along with the new outfit. So it wasn't until Saturday afternoon that he donned the Peter Pan outfit, except he wasn't Peter Pan he was Peter Callum Pan. And what does every hero need? Yep that's right an arch nemesis which turned out to be Mummy Hook with her gentleman's umbrella (one of those that has the curly hook end). While Daz was out getting beer supplies the battle of all battles was had. Peter Callum vs Mummy Hook (who occasionally became Mummy Wendy so as to refix the costume to Peter Callum). That Peter Callum showed that he was no coward custardly yellow hero but a fighting spirit one. We battled and chased all over the house and until that Daz came home and became Tinker Daddy I was holding my own.

Needless to say lots of exhausting fun was had and I even managed to get Peter Callum Pan to pose for some photos.

Commuter Cam Challenge

Along with others I was set a challenge by Tyler at General Admission to photograph and blog about my commute to work. Seeing as how my job is Full Time Mum I don't really have a commute but I do have a school journey. Alas though that would have a few difficulties as in this day and age in England (and I assume it will most likely be like this elsewhere in the world) you have to be very careful of what or to be more precise whom photos are taken of. It would cause a big problem to take photos on the bus and near Callum's school. On Friday Callum had the day off so I commuterblogged us exploring our new neighbourhood, hey it's still part of my job and I did try as best I can to get in photos of part of our commute to school. Also Tyler Blogs about others commutes that you can read about here and has links to others blogs.

First of we need to get ready to go out. Callum chose his outfit himself so hence the green and blue mixed together. Here he is taking a break from the exhausting work of putting your socks on.





Once dressed it was time to head on out. Next to check the weather as snow was predicted. Even thought it was beautiful blue skies it was freezing cold.



Now we're off... no we're not... yes we are. Those with kids will know how they are, we had to make sure we had the correct toy car with us for our journey.

Our New Home, yep it needs a paint job! Oh and we have a King's Head above our front door, they alternate down the road between Kings and Queens.


Yes and the windows need cleaning. Anyway back to our journey. I don't have a driving licence and if I did we don't have a car so we do lots of walking, using of buses and when I'm brave enough I'll get on to using the trains. Our new road is a long long long road which is a shock to before as we lived in the middle of a town centre five seconds walk from everything. Here is the long long long road.


You'll notice a few road/street signs posted on this commute. That's down to Callum it's his new thing I have to tell him what they all mean and explain it all to him. This one is just down the road from us. Callum also said we had to take a photo of it to show Daz and to explain to him about it all and the usefulness of it.


An important part of parenting is knowing where the nearest park and playground is. They are a life saver for energetic kids and if it's a quiet day you can always have a go yourself.

Right at the end of the road here is a green gate to the park. We didn't go this day, like I said it was very cold and we were on a mission to find the nearest sweet shop and buy sweets. But we did go the other week and even though it wasn't quiet it didn't stop Joyce my mother-in-law from going down the slide herself, you'd never guess how old she is.






More signs and a very smashed up car, which Callum was convinced we would be allowed to fix ourselves and then keep.




And so our journey continues. People find the strangest of places to park their bikes, more street signs, the park, plus we pass the bus that Daz gets to work, well home too.






Right so what was our mission on this journey? Oh yes, SWEET SHOP!! We found it. Also it turns out it's the Off Licence that Daz has been going to, the reason why? If he times it right he can jump on the bus (photographed above) there and back and cut his journey by ten minutes! I didn't get a great photo of the shop because I had a Callum monkey monster who had had his sweets bought and didn't want to wait around for photos being taken. The shop did however sell Halal sweets which I never really thought about before.




That road is as long as our road and leads all the way down to the High Road, I won't bore you with a million photos of it and I can't show the photo of the personal number plate as just as I clicked someone walked in front of it. No names mentioned.... CALLUM!!! And by that time I was worried the owner might wonder why some strange woman was outside photograhing their car. However I should show a photo of our mode of transport for the day. Spider-Car! And actually I changed my mind and I'll show the personalised numberplate.






Eventually we enter the High Road! To the right we have Seven Kings Railway Station. Next to this station you have a pub called The Joker and over the road you have The Shannon Center but it may be a different name now. As you can probably guess from the names both Irish entertainment hot spots. So much for the love of the Irish these two places were well reknowed for at the end of the evening both spots emptying and huge brawls happening.



A glance through the wooden panels shows the train track. When I worked up London this was the line that I used to get to and from work. Then we spot our bus that we get home, the good old 86 bus, this bus has been on many an occasions a life saver.






And because it's time for me to put dinner on and my backside is aching from sitting on the floor for so long typing this up here is a bunch of the rest of the journey. I'll edit and update this entry later on but for the time being you'll have to just do with the photos.