With Greer being the 4th baby in our family, when she was born and at her Christening she was given money as gifts because quite honestly there was absolutely nothing she needed. As a result I was left with a bit of a dilemma- the effects of the credit crunch had meant that both Nairn & Erica’s child trust funds lost 20% of their value last year when we had scrimped and scraped to be able to top them up. I have a thing about people working hard for their money and giving it to my children – it was really important to me that these gifts were used well so putting it into Greer’s CTF was out of the question.

I decided that it would be better to invest her money in a different way and instead signed up to do a Waterbabies course of lessons starting in November when Greer was just six months old and was surprised to find she was one of the oldest babies there. I had heard of Waterbabies but wasn’t really too sure what it encompassed so imagine my horror and surprise when – on our first half hour lesson – I had to dunk my baby underwater! Our amazing instructor Shauna warned us all how our babies were likely to react and my inner sceptic scoffed, “Yeah right, there’s no way she knows how every baby will react” but in fact she was right. Greer looked like I’d waved a packet of chocolate buttons under her nose and pulled them away but within seconds she was back to her usual happy self. The weeks progressed and Greer was taught to react to a variety of verbal cues – my tiny baby was swimming underwater, holding on to the side of the pool with no support from me and floating on her back.

Enthused by Greer’s confidence we booked onto a second block and alas, we were struck by the wobbles – a phenomenon so common that Waterbabies have an information leaflet about it! – where Greer simply freaked out any time I tried to hand her over to our instructor for her underwater swims. It coincided with Greer’s I’m-not-talking-to-you-because-you’re-not-Mum phase which meant I barely put her down from February until June but the Waterbabies staff explained it’s a phase of development when babies suddenly realise that actually Mum can leave their side and usually coincides with learning to walk. We decided to take a break after Greer’s underwater shoot and we got to see her photograph last week. Look at my baby!

I have to admit that I did have a sharp intake of breath when I first considered the price of the course but having been party to the Waterbabies expertise I would – and indeed will, when Greer restarts her classes -pay it again. Her water confidence is well worth the money. I can’t recommend Waterbabies highly enough and my sole regret is that I didn’t do the classes with my other three! If you’re even considering it, definitely sign up because it’s been an invaluable experience for us.

Waterbabies in Scotland is run by Hugh & Ailsa Davidson and the office phone number is 0131 554 6682.

Posted under with the kids

I mused about this a few weeks ago and had a fairly impressive response so I’ve decided to go ahead with this.

The little and large swap of 2010
Okay, so! The premis of this swap is that we can do some crafting with our kids and get to know some similarly crafty families in the process. You don’t need to be a parent to participate but you do need to acquire a child to craft with – Aunties and Uncles or even childminders can get in on the action here – and it’s all in the name of fun. Participants will be matched as closely as possible on the number of children and their ages.

The Rules
1) Swap partners will be allocated on a build-a-relationship basis – that is to say, you will be given the email address of your partner and heartily encouraged to converse before sending your parcel.
2) Participants will encourage and assist their child(ren) to make something for their child(ren) counterpart and will themselves make something for the child(ren). Additionally, the adult participants should send a treat to their counterpart – a nice bar of chocolate, a magazine or suchlike. I would like to see letters being exchanged between the children but I appreciate that some of them may not be at a letter-writing stage.
3) Sign-ups open today and close in one week on Wednesday April 7th 2010 at midnight. Participants will receive their partner’s questionnaire by midnight on Thursday April 8th 2010 and have until Thursday May 6th 2010 to post their parcel. This date has been picked so that even UK second class post should have arrived by the weekend but international participants are also encouraged.
4) I cannot stress this enough: This is a swap to benefit the kids, if you don’t think you can send out your parcel in time then don’t join in. The idea of a child who has worked really hard on their present waiting for a late parcel makes me cry.
5) Participants should email me with the answers to this questionnaire:

Your name:
Name(s) & age(s) of the child(ren) participating:
Address:
Your blog/twitter/website/shop address:
What constitutes a treat for you:
Are sweets allowed for the little participant(s):
What is your craft discipline:
Some info about the little participant(s) – likes, dislikes, allergies etc

I’ll get to work on a swap button and a flickr group. I can’t wait to hear from you!

Posted under swaps, with the kids

Having read this on Friday, I asked Bob to make some bird food to hang up in our garden. Passing birds already have a pick at any food the hens leave but with the snow still covering the ground their supplies of worms, insects and vegetation are vastly reduced. Bob and Nairn made these in a matter of minutes and had a bit of fun doing it too.

Findlay spent half an hour on Tuesday cracking open the massive bag of monkey nuts that always seems to go uneaten after Hallowe’en and these were crushed in the food processor and added to some of the quail feed and layers pellets that we have lying around. Finally Bob melted some fat and added into the mixture, shaping three reasonably large balls with a length of wool through them so they could be hung up. Once they’d cooled and the fat had solidified, Bob hung them on our washing line where they’ll hopefully tide over a few birds until the snow goes away.

We were lucky enough to have bird seed on hand, but the advice in that article is to put out leftovers like grated cheese, porridge oats, soft fruit, unsalted bacon, cooked rice or pasta and the insides of cooked potatoes. If you’re feeling especially generous, it’s suggested that you could put out mealworms, fatballs, crushed peanuts, dried fruit & seeds and grain. All of these things will bring a host of little birds into your garden as well as assuring their chances of survival are just that little bit higher while the weather is so dreadful.

Posted under with the kids

Wow! It’s Christmas Eve – how the Dickens did that happen?!

I just want to take this opportunity to say thank you all very much for your support and comments over this year. You’ve shared in some of the most magnificent times in our lives as well as some of the worst, you’ve all been so very kind and I’m thrilled to have made so many friends in all of you. 2010 is going to be so busy and I promise to make an effort to stay in contact as much as possible. I wish each and every one of you a fabulous Christmas, and for those who have already celebrated their holiday for the year I hope and pray it was filled with love, laughter and joy.

Now – a little quicky for those of you with young children. As we ALL know, Santa Claus is coming tonight! HOW EXCITED ARE YOU?! But with it being so snowy outside the reindeer will definitely need a bit of help to find your house, won’t they? Every year my children’s nursery put a little bag of Reindeer Food into their Christmas folder and I thought I’d share it with you. (Please excuse the photos as I’m still having to use my phone. We’re hoping Santa brings us a new camera this year!)

All you need is a few tablespoons of porridge oats, mix with a teaspoon each of different coloured glitter, add in some cut up shiny paper if you have it and pop into little bags. I’ve put some into a baby food jar with a painted lid for my little nieces to sprinkle outside tonight before going to bed.

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope Santa is good to you!

Posted under for the kids, with the kids

Every Wednesday I take the kids to a nursery rhymes class in a Glasgow library with my sister Stephanie and niece Bailey. We’ve been going since before Greer was born and we’ve made quite a group of friends now, including Jean and her wee daughter Molly. Molly’s first birthday party was on Saturday and I did some face painting there only to have one of Jean’s Aunties ask me to do her face. “No problem!” said I, and this was the last face I painted of the day.

Now, before I show the picture I need to be honest. I estimated that this lovely lady was in her mid-fifties. She’s actually 71 (and says she doesn’t mind me mentioning that on my website)! I honestly hope when I’m 71 that I have the cojones to do stuff like this. Awesome.

Overall I was pretty happy with how it went, being that I haven’t painted for other people for a looooong time. I didn’t have time to get new brushes, hence the very thick black lines but on the whole it went not bad!

Posted under for the kids, with the kids

When I was a kid, my Mum wouldn’t let us go out Trick or Treating (or guisin’ as it’s known around these parts). Her view was that it was akin to begging so never mind the death by being a social misfit element. Cheers Mum!

Anyway, perhaps as a result or perhaps because I am a grown woman trapped in an 8 year old’s body I make a BIG FUSS about Hallowe’en now and luckily our neighbours do too. I had a trug in the hall for apple dookin’, little bags made up for all our visitors and extra sweets & monkey nuts for tricks. This was the front of our house last night:

Hey – I never said I was an artist!

Bob carved a couple of pumpkins, doing his now customary Jack Skellington-O-Lantern and a different creepy lantern for added spooky factor.

And I carved my first ever pumpkin which I am SO IMPRESSED with!

Alas in all the hurry to get out on time I got NO PHOTOS OF THE CHILDREN! Hopefully my sister will have some, otherwise I might have to get them all dressed up again which I’m sure they’ll hate

The kids had a great night, we were out for maybe an hour and they have enough sweets, crisps, apples & tangerines to keep them happy until Christmas! Luckily the weather held out for them and it was a nice mild night. I hope you enjoyed your Hallowe’en as much as we did, and blessed Samhain to the Wiccans, Pagans and Gaels.

Posted under with the kids

I’ve signed up for Sam’s button swap after she was short a swapper. I never intend to join in these things but get sucked in by the excitement and fun. I’ve been partnered with Laura which is very exciting as I’ve been in awe of her work for quite a long time now!

I’ve also joined in Apryl’s Fantasy Movie swap which I’m massively excited about. I’ve been partnered with Christa who shares the same favourite film as me (The Labyrinth) so I need to get cracking on with my crafting for her

Also! I didn’t want to post about this until after the fact, but I have been crafting again! My lovely friend Fiona got married on Saturday and she mentioned a few months ago that she had loads to do but no time to do it. I asked if I could help and she asked me to make the ties for her groomsmen (the pink ones). This of course gives me an opportunity to share a photo of the gorgeous bride and her handsome new husband.

Aren’t they gorgeous? I’m so thrilled for them and it was an honour to share their day, they are such a fantastic couple and I just know they’re going to make one another so happy.

I’ll leave you with a bit more pink. I am a bad Mummy.

Posted under sewing, swaps, with the kids

A couple of weeks ago I received a very interesting email from a representative of Baker Ross, a company I was vaguely aware of through my previous voluntary work with the Beavers. The Lovely Chap explained that he was trying to spread the word about the products they have available for arts & crafts and offered to send me some goodies in return for a review. Well, being a canny Scot I’m never one to turn down a freebie Only problem was, what to choose?

Bob & I spent ages flicking over the site to try and pick. In the end I had a list of – well to be honest, pretty much everything they stock! So I emailed Lovely Chap back and told him that I’d be thrilled to review for him but he’d need to pick for me and last week a package arrived containing half a dozen mini canvases, a pack of Giotto Decor pens and this set of woodcraft kits.

So! I opened the package, looked at the canvases and Bob & I said almost simultaneously “Handprints!” You see, my babies are not really babies anymore and it’s really hitting me. I have the ubiquitous penmarks up my living room door showing how they’ve grown since we moved here four years ago, but I’ve always wanted to make a more permanent reminder.

Look at the difference between them all!! The girls (Erica is a UK6G) managed to fit their hand and foot on one canvas but the boys needed separate ones (Nairn is a UK9G, Findlay is a UK12F), which meant I didn’t really have the fallback of spare canvases if we made a muckup! I did find with Erica it was a bit of a squeeze because her feet are so broad but we managed.

On the whole it was pretty easy – Findlay being older was able to listen to my instructions not to move his hand or foot once it was on the canvas. Nairn and Erica had clearly done similar at nursery by the professional way they slapped their hands and feet down. Then it was Greer’s turn. What a bloody nightmare. First of all I had to feed her so she’d let me paint her foot without screaming the house down. Then, once she’d finished feeding I sat her up to put her foot on the canvas and she spewed on me. I cleaned us both up and painted her hand only for her to decide that she was keeping her hand squeezed as tightly into a fist as possible so I decided to do a fistprint. Started painting the outside of her fingers and she opened her hand up! ARRRGGHH! Hence, Greer’s prints aren’t as neat as I’d have liked but that in itself is a little story to tell her when she’s older

Next time I think I’d use paint pads like these though. The orange, purple and green paints I’d bought when Findlay was a toddler (so at least six years ago now!) and they were very watery hence the resulting prints not being quite as crisp as I’d like. Findlay’s red prints were done with paint the kids got at Christmas which was quite viscous and perfect really for the purpose. The only drawback with this was getting paint out from in between toes and fingers – as you can see, Findlay just loved this part!

Now I just need to paint my hall so my lovely reminders of my tinies can go where I can see them!

Posted under family, with the kids

I went on a little tour of the garden earlier this afternoon with the camera and Erica in order to show you lovely lot how our first attempts at growing our own produce have gone. The vast majority of our garden has been trashed by the chickens (and admittedly by us) but we’re slowly plotting out the garden and getting things the way we want them to be. With luck, we’ll have done the majority of the work by the end of the Summer holidays and I’ll be able to show better photographs

We have an old coal shed at our back door and recently built a fence using the coal shed as the corner. This gave us a patio sealed off from the hens and once we’d laid turf this has given us a lovely area for the kids to play safely. This in turn has released the pressure on us as we couldn’t let the kids out to play before we’d done that. So! Without further ado…

We had to move this rhubarb from the bottom of the garden as it was flooded there, as a result we have the smallest rhubarb shoots in the world! Little person for scale.

This is one of our raised beds, the netting is to keep the hens out. The plants at the front are carrots, with two varieties of lettuce behind that and then onions.

In the next raised bed we have brocolli!

We went into the greenhouse to have a look and found some tomato plants…

…and some herbs…

..while Erica posed…

…and admired the peapods.

We took a photo of a few of our hens

and also our beautiful fuschia

The cherry tree that was planted after we had Greer is fruiting too!

Then we had a look in the coop to see if the hens had laid today

before heading back up towards the patio where we looked at the strawberry plants

and Erica posed again

We looked at our blueberry and blackcurrant “bushes” which were unfortunately damaged a few months ago by one of the children and therefore are unlikely to flower and bear fruit this year. Statler and Waldorf look after them

and finally our spuds. Our local authority recently gave us wheelie bins dedicated to glass after running a pilot glass recycling project which left the old sacks redundant. So! We’re growing potatoes in ours.

Next year we hope to add another 4 raised beds but of course this is all dependant on our successes this year. I shall keep you posted! In the meantime – are you growing anything? If so, what are you growing and what do you hope to achieve?

Posted under self-sufficiency, with the kids

On Friday Nairn, Erica, Greer and I took a trip to Edinburgh to visit some of our great friends (Findlay had a better offer – he spent the night with his Granny and Grampa instead!) First stop, we dropped in to visit our lovely friend Kate and her family. A few weeks ago, Kate came to visit us and left with two hens so we returned the visit and took two kittens! Kate’s colleague has taken the little black kitten (who has been renamed Murphy) and Kate’s family kept one of the ginger kittens. The kids all played spectacularly together although we only stayed a couple of hours as we had made arrangements to see another friend, although I nearly ended up dead of fright when we left Kate’s and Erica ran straight out onto the road.

Do you ever have those moments of absolute fright when you just can’t act quickly enough? I was standing in Kate’s path with the cat carrier in one hand and in the other I had Greer in her carseat but my brain couldn’t work out which I should put down in order to leap forward and grab her, plus Kate was standing behind me and I was blocking the path so she couldn’t get past me. Absolutely horrible experience and it really shook me up – Erica was EXTREMELY lucky that there was no traffic passing at the time.

Anyway. I had a rough idea where Kate stayed, but when I checked on the map I realised that she was only a mile away from our second visit of the day – my sewing hero Amanda. Even more bizarre is that their kids are all going to be attending the same school with the youngest of each family in the same class at school. It really rammed home how small a place the internet is! So anyway, we got round to Amanda’s and decided to go to the Botanics for a walk about only to get completely soaked to the skin. Of course, the rain decided to show itself right after Nairn peeked around a bush proudly announcing that he’d pooed. In his pants. Which I then had to try and sort out on a hill in the Botanics in the rain with Greer in a sling. Remind me again why I had four kids?!

My camera battery died so I only got a few photos but Amanda took some crackers and a video clip which you can see here.

As always, click for bigger pictures.

You can’t see terribly clearly here but the kids were actually hammering that thing (which is a metal recycling point) and thoroughly enjoying their percussion session whilst loudly announcing their glee. Typical kids at play, until one of the Botanics staff walked past and I joked, “They’re not always this noisy!” and got the most withering “you’re a shit parent” look I’ve ever had. Ahem…

Have you seen The Ring? You know where the character is crawling out of the TV? Look at the top right hand corner of this photo…

Hugging WITH ENERGY!

Nairn decided to hug Jamie at speed, Jamie fell on Erica who fell on Maia…

Then they all rolled down the hill.

About two seconds after this photo was taken, Erica used Jamie as a springboard to somersault over/onto him. Poor Jamie took it like a pro by laughing it off, so she did it again. And again. He’s a very patient lad that one…

So I brought three very tired but very cheery children back to East Kilbride and dropped Nairn & Erica with Bob’s parents for the weekend. It’s the first weekend we’ve had just with Greer since she was born and I found that I really had no idea what to do with myself! I’ve been on the go constantly and suddenly there wasn’t that go-go-go. Any other parents feel like that when their kids aren’t around?

I’ll leave you with a picture of what’s going on in my house right now. I thought it was only kids who liked playing in empty boxes?!

Posted under me, with the kids