Poo, Mummy you a a stinky Poo from a Poo hole

Oh yes, the poo words have started and will not stop here in The Mad House.  You are a stinky poo face mummy.  Daddy has a poo hole.  Ner ner na ner ner, poo, poo,  POO and more POO.  My boys may look angelic, but I can assure you the noises that are coming from those mouths are not in anyway of the saintly variety.

What is it with boys and the words poo, botty burp, parp, fart, plump, pump, plop, poot. boff, trump and lots of other words that are all in the same vane.

Yes I am living in a house full of toilet humour, where Mini thinks he is the height of sophistication for farting in the bath and creating his own jacuzzi!

And it seems that I am not the only one experience this, oh no.  I took the boys to a 6th birthday party yesterday and all the boys are at it.  They think it is hilarious.  Who can burp the loudest, say their name in a burp, make the best trumping sound using their armpit and hand and who can make the loudest raspberry.  They are constantly engaging in battles of this nature, in between the dancing and the food that is!

So to all mothers of boys over 5, please do let me know how long this is going to last, or is this it and I am just going to have to join in too?

Why We Need More Male Primary School Teachers

I spent Thursday night at 9pm glued to BBC2 watching their School season, more specifically Gareth Malone's Extraordinary School for Boys.

It highlighted what is a real worry for me the feminising of teaching and the lack of male teachers in our primary schools.  According to a recent piece in the telegraph am only make up 12% of of the teachers in primary schools.

As a mum of two boys I find this a worry statistics and would love for my boys to go to a primary school where the teaching mix was much more appropriate to the society we live in.

We are lucky in the Maxi has a Male teacher for Year 1 and also had a male teacher in Preschool, but there are no more male teachers at the school and there are no male teaching assistants at all.

Why are male teachers important?

I often though that the reason boys and girls were different was due to their upbringing, but being a mum to two boys has been a real eye opener for me. I realise that they are completely wired differently and need different things to girls and I feel that we need to take this in to account when teaching them.

Boys need positive make role models, they need to be able to let off steam.  They need their differences to be embraced, but to be made to learn like girls.

Anyway back to the programme, what struck me so much was that they boys were really engaged, they interacted to Gareth and they were happy.  They were not stuck in some apathetic state.

I spent some time on twitter too and it was amazing the number of people who all agree that we need more male primary school teachers and that boys need a different approach to girls.

I am so looking forward to the rest of the program on Thursday.

The Benefits of Play

I was invited by Pampers to come and look round their never ending world of play exhibit at the Metro Centre and to meet Pampers play expert Professor Dieter Wolke.

To be honest the interactive exhibit was pitched at children much younger than Maxi and Mini, so I bought them a slush each and we sat down to chat to the professor about why play is important and also the difference in play of boys and girls.

Firstly as a mum of two boys, I asked about the fact that the boys will always turn something in to a gun or a sword, they will build one from Lego, use a stick or even just use their hand and make the noises, should I be worried about this?

The professor reassured me that this was perfectly normal for boys and even children of pacifists will engage in this type of play and it is nothing to worry about or intervene with.

I also asked about developmental and educational play, as I am concerned that these terms are banded around so often at the moment.

All play is educational and you should be led by your children with the type of play that they enjoy, so if they seem to love dressing up, then dress up with them.  If they like to copy mummy cleaning, then get them a small cleaning kit and let them join you.

Play doesn't need to be end specific, children should be able to just enjoy being to see where it takes them.

A lot of this is just common sense, but as a mum I do know that sometimes you do worry.  I worried that the boys didn't get tummy time and other types of developmental stuff when they were small, but when you have 2 children in fifteen months then you learn to let go a little.

What is your child's favorite type of play?

Writing Workshop - The best things come to those who wait

 
The best things come to those who wait, well that's what they say.

I am not good at waiting, no I don't have a patient bone in my body.

If I want something then I want it yesterday.  I want it NOW.

I have been known to stamp my feet and bat my eyelashes to try and get what I want.

But what about when not one can give you that thing?

What then?

For me I hid my need, I pretended that I was happy.

I even managed to convince myself that life was good.

And it was.  I was happy.

I lived a good life, a great life and managed not to think about what was missing.

But ever so often, something happened to make me realise what was missing.

Something that made me take a sharp breath in order to take the pain away.

Where was I, yes life was good.

Every so often, I would be given hope, only to have it dashed.

I was given glimpses in to the life that might be.

Sometimes these periods lasted six weeks, sometimes a lot longer.

But each time they were fleeting, leaving me with a sense of deja vu.

Each time I came back stronger and more determined that there was nothing missing in my life.

We talked about the fact that we were content with our lot and I was finally resigned to what I had.

Then it happened, something collided and the planets aligned.

Finally after years of waiting,

After the heartache of getting close, far too close on occasion.

We were blessed with a happy, healthy baby.

And then just like buses who seem to come all at once.

fifteen months later we were blessed with another.

No I no longer need to convince myself that life is good.

life really is good, we really didn't know just what we were missing.

I didn't realise that my jigsaw puzzle had four pieces.

But now I have what I wanted all along and I am not going to stop giving my all.

I am happy.

This week for Sleep is for the Weaks Writing Workshop I chose Prompt 2 Write about something that was worth waiting for – what was worth the patience and frustration?

 

-Inspired by new mummy’s Tiddlyompompom and And One more Means Five who both had gorgeous babies this last week. Congratulations!

The Gallery - Portraits

This weeks prompt over at Sticky Fingers for The Gallery was Portraits, how apt seen as I received these from school this week.

They don't get much more adorable than this, do they?

I am so lucky to have two such wonderful children, so some special things about my boys.

I love nothing more than my morning snuggles with Mini, he often comes and joins us at some point during the night and we love it, we are cherishing the fact that he wants to be close to both me and MadDad.;;;;;I

I love the fact that tucking Maxi in to bed is always such a treat, he is usually asleep before you even get out of the room!

It is hard to believe that Mini is very nearly as tall as Maxi and he now has size 10 and a half feet!

I am so impressed with Maxi's reading, it is coming on in leaps and bounds and he gets really animated when reading to us on an evening, the four of us sit together on the sofa and really love this time.

I also really like the fact that they are becoming part of our neighbourhood and love that they are often called on to come out and play (I go up to my bedroom and watch them out the window).

I think maybe the time is coming for the stabilisers to come off Maxi's bike.  We are only holding off, as we know that what one does the other always wants to follow.

There is nothing better than coming home to two boys who make my heart sing and make most things a joy.

They both blamanche or milky jelly.  They adore making it, which couldn't be simpler.  Dissolve the jelly in a quarter of a pint of boiling water, allow to cool but not set and then add half a pint of milk, pour in to moulds then pop in the fridge 30mins later you have this....

Perfect to serve with strawberries. 

Writing Workshop - Do not be defined by what you can be, rather who you can be

What can I say about a mothers love, the love I feel for my two boys

The need to give them happiness throughout their lives

To see joy in their faces

To be privileged to experience with them so many firsts.

First Steps

First Smile

First tooth

The first feel of sand in their toes

To be able to pick them up after their first fall.

To be able to give unconditional love.

To love their faults.

To instill in them the morals of their father.

To teach them to be righteous men, with big hearts and a strong comprehension of good and bad and the sense to make the best choice.

To go down the right path.

To be blessed with experiencing wonderment.

To introduce them to Father Christmas and to instill in them that giving is better than receiving.

To watch them grow and blossom

To find the love of their lives and watch them mature

I am truly blessed with two wonderful boys and the chance to make a difference

I wrote this on 22 August 2006, when mini was less than two months old and Maxi was just 17 months old and it means just as much then as now, if not more.    I wrote it after a 2am night feed and was unable to get back to sleep, whist I watched mini sleep peacefully. 

I chose option 3 What do you secretly dream of your children doing?

When I think of what I hope my children may grow up to do, there isn't one job, one career that comes to mind and that is OK.  I am resigned to the fact that I place more emphasis on who they are and who they can be, rather than what they can be.

The one thing they do both know, is that they can choose to be the best that they can be and that I will always be there.

 

Wordless Wednesday

The little ones that make me happy