I'm not dressed as spider man I AM SPIDERMAN

My son first started his huge obsession with spider man on the 25th September 2011. Your probably  thinking how on earth does she remember that! Its because on the 24th he had to go to hospital for an operation and 2 night stay. After the first night we were moved to a different bed and in the over bed tv was a spiderman dvd. We'd never watched it with him and he had no toys but he knew this dvd was a spiderman dvd.

Since then he kept asking for  toys and we bought him the dvds after he finally saw it on telly. Christmas 2011 Father Christmas dropped the above outfit off and all of a sudden he wasn't Jem anymore.

We would ask him if he was dressed up as spiderman and his grandparents would ask same over phone and every time the answer was the same.
"No I'm not dressed up as spiderman. I am spiderman"

His strong belief that he turns into the characters he dresses up as is amazing and more than inspiring. He's been lumbered with the most negative mother in the world who constantly doubts herself and doesn't always believe I can do it so maybe I should take a leaf out Jems book and instead of being me I can be a successful woman who can achieve anything and at night when I'm relaxing I can be Tracy again.

I often think my son came into my life to teach me. I spend time answering the most important questions  what are the holes on a shirt called, whats in macaroni cheese, whats milkshake made from. But I have the feeling he's trying to teach me far more important things.

Patience- we're trying for our 2nd child and my son told me it takes time to have a baby and we should be patient.

Self-belief- course you can mummy, ooooh mummy that's wonderful, WOW mummy you look gorgeous

Love and forgiveness- even after I've shouted, done time out and taken things off him i get a big hug and kiss at end of day and I love you.

Renunciation- I was never selfish woman and would happily help anyone and buy nice presents but now I have to regularly go without so my  son has something and not necessarily what he needs lol.

Acceptance- Kids have the great ability to not notice scars, defects and other things that we so often notice and ashamedly some avoid. Jem has taught me confidence in approaching anyone and reminding me constantly we're all equal.

So although we bring our children up and teach the alphabet, good behaviour, numbers, colours, how to eat, basic life skills. Somehow though I think I'll be the one thanking Jem in 15 years time for teaching me the most important lessons not other way round lol xx

Yum, yum pigs bum!!!

We invited a friend round for tea last night and although I suspect were technically in summer still it feels autumnal. So we had  a roast with brownies to follow.

It was a fully vegetarian meal and our rather skinny and controlled friend wolfed the lot which for me as a unconfident cook was amazing :)

I first found the recipe for the brownies in a co-op magazine and have since perfected it.

I thought I would share the secret with you because everyone should try these.

150g (5 1/2oz) butter
150g (5 1/2oz) plain chocolate
3 medium eggs
200g (7oz) caster sugar
75g (2 3/4oz) walnuts
125g (4 1/2oz) plain flour
baking paper
baking tray

preheat oven to gas mark 4, 180C or 350F
grease and line your tray

cube the butter and chocolate into a pan. put on stove and melt gently

beat eggs and sugar together. beat the chocolate mixture into egg mix.

next fold in the flour and if your using them the walnuts.

pour into prepared tin and cook for about 25 minutes.

Ive found that by doubling quantities they taste better. One batch makes about 8 small or 6 large brownies so I always do double. Also take out after 25 minutes an if your in habit of checking middle of cake when baking you should be looking out for sticky middle not runny and not dry but sticky.

If you follow this you end up with the most delicious gooey centred brownies that are terribly moreish but beautifully light.

Good luck and hope you enjoy them. I often melt any left over chocolate and drizzle on top so when there day old can heat it slighty and the chocolate on top melts a little.

One last  thing these last days. I baked some to take camping and we went for 4 days 3 nights and they were still fresh  after 4 days as long as kept in air tight tub :) happyy baking xx

If you have a beard do you drink beer?

This is what Jem asked us this evening. Its a perfectly valid question lol.
Wonder what he will ask next lol.

If you have a moustache do you eat mice :/ not sure I think only kids can see things we can't.

Jem hears all sorts another one is  poker face by lady gaga he calls the baa baa song cos once you hear that and listen it does sound like that lol.

I'm going off on tangent a bit lol just thought was cute :)

I decided back in ooooooh February maybe i wanted a nice quilt to go on my bed as can never find bedding  i like that goes with my room. Its a dusky pink and white and most bedding is either too garish or got black on. So the plan is white bedding and nice bright quilt on top.

I had a look online and found some gorgeous ones that I loved then looked at price tag: £60!!!!!!!!!!! no way so logical step?? make one.

I started collect fabrics and looking at designs, deciding on colours, size etc and finally by June had most material I needed. Thought to self order last bits and by beginning of July I will start making it whoop. I had planned to use cross stitch squares to make it unique and provide something more textured.
Here's centre piece:

Its now 5th September and Ive only just started. There was always something more important to do.

At first i was i hadn't settled on a size and design. Then we decided to go camping end of June and needed a cheap pram to take and anytime I've had a pram I have to make accessories unique to that pram. So i made a liner, blanket, mini bag, bottle holder and bag to hold blanket under foot rest out way. Then was our camping holiday end of July.

I also set up Shroom Designs in this time. Then came home and thought whoooo can start quilt.

Oh no you don't. Since August I've had too many orders to start. Mostly me adding more and more cross stitch designs held me up a bit.

So here i am cutting out my squares finally trying to work out how on earth a rotary cutter works lol (I'm better with scissors lol) and feeling I've done loads.

Now for size of quilt and size of squares I decided to use I need 165 Squares in total.
I had started with the cross stitch squares and thinking wow ill be done in now time got a good stash of squares. Counted them last night and i have 40!! Bit of a come down now I'm dreading cutting more and more out and my pile not growing lol but this is what i have so far hope you like :)

Looks a bit bright and mish mash but that's how i like my stuff all over place and totally clashing but looks right :) i have more squares but this gives you an idea and as you can see most my squares are slightly wonky lol xxx

Discipline

So I thought I would continue the theme of my son for another few blogs :) (and stupidly just realised can change font colour and add pictures :/ oh dear lol)


We all have our babies and often go to playgroups and see big toddlers and giant children and think my child will never be like that. They will be kind and loving, do as there told and be as easy peasy as they are now.


Hahahahahaha how I laugh at people who say that now (mostly at myself lol). How naive I was lol and now my child is that big scary child who all the new mums look warily at and I say hes ok he wont hurt them or take dummy and thankfully that's true apart from those 2 times :/.

When our children are babies we see 'naughty' children and those who are brats and think nope ill prevent all that and my baby will be polite and nice and never act spoilt.


Hahahaha how I laugh at myself for thinking again a naive thought.


Then the day we realise ok my child is like all the other children and wont be perfect even 50% of the time i will use this method and that method to keep him in check. that parent obviously doesn't do it right but i will.


Hahahah...... oh that isn't funny cos it seems I'm not doing it right either :/


So here's what we do:

Time out
we have a posh time out mat that times the minutes and if the child lifts off set out an alarm.

So he gets sent there to calm down and more often than not ends up having a little sing to himself and takes great joy is purposely getting off to make alarm go. As you can see he looks relaxed if slightly annoyed at having photo taken lol. he then gets off and the reaction???? usually carries on being naughty lol.

Reward chart

We used a magnetic reward chart to assist his potty training and worked beautifully so I decided to make him his very own chart for being good and the result was a yeti climbing a mountain. Now as you see hes still near the bottom. This isn't because hes naughty all the time and doesn't deserve for the yeti to move up because he is and does. It's at the bottom because every time he does a good thing or does as told he have about 10 warnings that accompany it so ends in the warning of yeti being moved down mountain, time out and he eventually does as hes told. Poor yeti is getting sea sick with the going up and down all time lol.

Take away toys
The next step is if you don't tidy your toys I will take them off you, throw them away or give to someone who appreciates them. There are a number of results (again!!) for this 'threat' (NB has also been made a promise). They are: NOOO MUMMY and they get half tidied, that's not fair then they get tidied, rarely ok mummy and the most common and equally as shocking every time is You do it then or Daddy will do it.

You will go to bed early
This is rarely used and mostly by daddy but very occasionally we have to use it and whats the response to this you might ask????
Can I go now please.
Huh? what erm no you have to stay downstairs now.
But I don't want to, I want to go play upstairs
Well your not doing as your told so you don't get to do what you want and play upstairs when your suppose to be in trouble
Well that's not fair (then usually a little stamp of foot and stomp of foot and stalks into kitchen lol)

As you see the discipline doesn't quite go to plan he seems to enjoy most of them :/ I've always thought he was a strange child ha. The thing he loves most in the world however is chocolate!!! But then don't we all?
Hes always been a fussy and difficult eater after about 12 months and has been a huge battle so the most used phrase is:

You won't get pudding if you don't eat your tea
This one works YYYYEEEAAAHHHH. Hes told no pudding if don't eat your tea and have one bit of everything to at least try it. We get a confident ok mummy I will eat my tea and every teatime ends in a lil boy acting like a hamster. He barely licks the fork and demands an answer.
Is that enough mummy.
No Jem eat lots more
Is that enough mummy
No Jem eat lots then ill tell you when its enough.

This continues for at least an hour but it works and hes only gone without pudding twice in his life.

So if your new mum reading this thinking my baby wont be like this and all these methods will work take a step back and accept they probably wont and you'll be the one crying at the end whilst your child is running around destroying the house.
Which leads me to one more point.
How on earth does something soooo small makes so much blooming mess in the space of a back turn? I couldn't make that much mess in an hour even if i was trying very hard!

Children definitely have unique skills I just hope Jem's sense of fun and his attitude of taking it all in his stride continues and he doesn't become a stuffy moany adult like his mummy lol xx

We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo....

how about you, you , you.
I was brought up with my parents listening to Carpenters, Matt Munro and Cliff Richard. The lasting affect on me is everytime  I go to the zoo I torture my partner and my son with a rubbish rendition of we're going to the zoo lol.

So we went to the zoo today lol.  We set ground rules to stop naughtyy behaviour and any missing child events and its blissful to say the day went well. Its a good job i dont have high expectations!!! We had another day of shouting and stress but it was fab.

We saw baby cheetahs, baby elephants, baby robot dinosaurs, baby meerkats and baby rhinos. There was loads of awwwing and how cute (from me) there was equal amounts of I want (that was daddy :p) and a lot more of JEMMMMMM stop running off!!! OOOOhh how the heads turned so I did my best shout concentrate on getting Jem back and don't look at anyone lol.

We saw masses of red, hot sweaty babies, red hot sweaty men (eww) and a suprisingly large number of 8 years being scared of the robot dinosaurs when all the tiny toddlers were running  up to them laughing.
Two of the dinosaurs squirted water on all the childrenand mean mummy knew and  made her lil baby stand and look at the big dinosaur knowing full well what happened next hahaha. Jem handled it well and was wringing wet but happy. (see photo on Shroom Designs page)

The worse bit of the day was a young lad of 13 got hit, kicked and half strangled off his dad and his mum turned the other way. Shocking.

We got wet, we got excited (that was me at the lion cage haha) we got very tired and at long last got home with pressies and a faint whiff of egg butty left in the bag :) xx