Reading a message on a parenting forum from a mum asking how she can get her nearly 5 year old to do colouring in. He’s very good at it, when he does do it, but he doesn’t ever want to do it, and she knows he needs to get doing it so that they can assess him properly at school as lots of maths problems need him to colour things in etc. Gah! It’s things like that that make me more determined than ever to not send the girls to school - I guess if he doesn’t colour in at school, then he either gets labelled as un-cooperative or it’s assumed he’s not capable. Talk about deadening a child’s eagerness to learn and enjoy life

We went to a soft play centre and had lunch there, then in the afternoon we made flubber.  Needless to say, Mopsy particularly adored it and played with it for at least twenty minutes - no mean feat for a two year old!  She played with it again in the evening.  I’m wondering how long it lasts for…anyone know?

This is a flower that Flopsy coloured in yesterday.  She was so proud of it - it’s the first time she’s managed colouring in truly within the lines.  She wanted to show it to Nana, Grandpa, Grandma, Grandad, Va and Great-dad (her Great-grandparents) so I said we’d put it on here for them to see (please leave comments!). 

Cotton-tail is now so strong and wriggly that we can’t leave her on a high surface as she wriggles and kicks enough to push herself back and spin herself around.  She’s very fun to have around.

I’ve had it wrong all this time! I have always found that carrying a baby in a car seat is extremely difficult - it’s heavy and unwiedly and you can’t carry anything else at the same time. I’ve always marvelled at the women who carry their babies in car seats for long distances every single time they get out of their car but, stupid me, my solution’s been to put the baby in a sling. Of course, it would be much easier and mean I didn’t have to have any contact with my baby (much more preferable…wouldn’t want it to get used to human contact!) if I just made a sling for the baby’s car seat to go in! Then I would be able to carry other things and the baby’s even in the perfect position for bottle feeding (definitely don’t want to cuddle the baby while I’m feeding it in case it starts to enjoy feeding times - might cause eating disorders in later life!). What an idiot I’ve been!

http://www.ababyoutlets.com/flying_falcon_products.htm

This may end up being a bit of a cryptic sounding post as I don’t want to reveal too much, but I’m about to have to deal with a group of people who seem to be doing things just because they’ve always been done. I’m going to have to say “why is it we’re doing this? Is it relevant now? How about…*gasp*…not doing it this way anymore???” and I’m not really looking forward to it in case I annoy people. Ho hum…my first challenge as a Chair I guess.

I’m going to be working as the BFC at one of our new local BF Peer Support groups and I’m so excited about it! Yes, I’m getting paid for it, which is wonderful, but the funding is not secure after March so I may not get paid for long but I don’t care - I just want to be working officially as a BFC and I can’t wait. I’m starting officially on the 27th, but am filling in for the BfN Trainee Supporter who’s been attending up until now tomorrow, and next week we’ll both be going for a sort of ‘hand-over’.

I’ve been working on the NCT Breastfeeding Helpline a lot, which I’m really enjoying. We’re allowed to do up to 30 hours a month and I started out doing 2 hours in the evenings, but listening for 2 hours is hard work, so I’ve changed it to doing 1 hour most evenings and the odd hour in the morning when DH is off work and it’s going really well.

We’re changing our lives a bit at the moment - trying to get the girls to have a ‘bedtime’ is getting more and more stressful, so we’ve decided to give up. We have enjoyed our period of having evenings to ourselves, but it’s really not worth the battle we’re having to endure at the moment in order to get an hour in front of the tv (as that’s all we have the energy for by that point!). We’re going to just play, play, play with the girls all evening until we all go to bed together…maybe they’ll decide they want a ‘bedtime’ again in the future, but for now, we’re going to enjoy our family and put our ‘time to ourselves’ to one side for a bit.

Flopsy, Mopsy and Cotton-tail continue to be a delightful trio of sisters - we are very much enjoying being the parents of three and are finding it a whole lot easier than when Mopsy was born. We seem to be lucky enough to be in the group of parents who can report that the impact of the third child is much, much less than the impact of the second.

  Lovely Grandad pulling Flopsy and Mopsy on their sledges.

  Flopsy making a snow-baby while Mopsy tries to get her snowball to not stick to her glove when she throws it!

 Little Cotton-tail, sleeping peacefully in the sling (her snowsuit clashes horribly with a) Flopsy’s coat and b) her coorie fleece pouch sling - oh well, she doesn’t care!)

 Making a very smart snowman with Grandad.

 The finished article

 Flopsy and Mopsy’s own snowman made with a little help from Grandma.

People know me too well - I’ve been alerted to this story by no less than three people!!!  However, it is ‘old’ news to me - I already am the proud owner of two knitted breasts.  One is a caucasian skin colour, the other is blue and navy!  My friend (another student BFC) has one that has a very unfortunately red nipple - ?very sore, ?thrush - who knows!  I certainly wouldn’t want to use it with real life mothers - way too scary looking LOL!