Love is . . .

Two very good friends of mine became first time dads over the past few days.

And it reminded me just how bloody great it is to become a parent for the first time.

Remember that feeling? That indescribable surge of love, the breathtaking tug on your heartstrings. That feeling that finally, finally you get it.

Both my friends are feeling that right now and I am chuffed to bits for them.

They have both waited a long long time for this day, for one reason or another, and I can just imagine the look of pure joy on their faces now their little miracles are finally here.

First dad said he just sits and stares at his daughter: "it's amazing. It's just amazing" he tells me barely able to contain his emotion.

And this was a text message I had with the other new dad:
How are you feeling today?

Knackered. Came home yesterday and had first of many sleepless nights.

Feels good though doesn't it?

The best.

It's easy to forget those early days when your daughter is weeing on the bed for attention (yes, yes we're there now) and you're frazzled from all the attention they need over the school break and they're throwing mud up the kitchen window to see if it will stick and demanding bike rides every 5 minutes.

This has brought that first flush of motherhood flooding back.

So, to little baby George and Olivia, welcome to the world. Auntie Tara can't wait to meet you both.

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The enduring appeal of Mr Potato Head

We are what you would call a 'game' family.

We will happily sit around all Sunday afternoon playing Connect 4, Kerplunk, Operation and Uno (it's a card game and my 6-year-old thrashes the lot of us at it!).

So this weekend we were battling it out over a game of Frustration and I thought to myself, has anyone actually managed to invent a new game or toy that can beat the good old fashioned stuff we've always loved?

These days our children are exposed to computer games, high tech versions of old classics and interactive devices that would have seemed positively alien when I was a young girl.

And yet, despite all the technology and the amazing advances, my son will pick a game of noughts and crosses (tic tac toe) over his Nintendo DS any day.

If I offer to sit and do his 100-piece SpiderMan jigsaw with him, he will drop everything.

And don't even get me started on his love of Lego.

We have a Wii and we L O V E it. But a game of cricket in the garden wins hands down every single time.

Hangman, using just a scrap of paper and a pencil, has been fantastic in helping his spellings along.

Tonight, while making dinner, my 3-year-old daughter was totally engrossed with Mr Potato Head. The simplest of toys when you think about it and yet she shuns her make up sets, electronic books, talking round the globe thingy to play with that.

Ah now, that gets me all nostalgic over the toys I played with as a child.

Buckaroo, Spirograph and Sindy. And that hideous doll that that had hair that 'grew' so I chopped it all off one day because no one told this child that it didn't actually grow as such.

And Crossfire which was totally lethal because it basically meant you got to fire ballbearings at each other!

So what were your childhood favourites and do you still play any of them now?

And if not, why not!

NOTE: I just wanted to add how fantastic all the comments were on the Shouldn't we ALL be homeschooling post last week.

Really, it's so wonderful to see you guys get all hot under the collar about something like this and to hear from homeschoolers themselves, teachers and all those who have come across this concern themselves was great.
A fabulous cross section of words from everyone involved and I appreciate you taking the time to leave your comments.

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Shouldn't we ALL be home schooling?

As I was walking my son to school this morning I found myself chatting to one of his young classmates about how excellent their reading is and how they are coming on in leaps and bounds now they are in Year 1.

My son loves reading. It makes me so proud when he asks if he can read his latest school book to me and puts so much effort into making the spoken word come to life, adding emphasis on sentences with exclamation marks at the end.
Just adorable.

It must be so liberating when you learn how to read. That explosion of suddenly being able to understand the world around you, of being able to read signs, billboards (not always a good thing) and sit and take in a book all on your own.

So I'm chatting away to this bright little 6-year-old and he says "but Charlie isn't doing so well. He's only on yellow" (their reading books are split in to colours and they progress up the colour chart).
"Oh dear," I say, "well maybe he's just taking a bit longer to take it all in," I offer.
"No," he announces all matter of fact, "Charlie says it's because his mummy won't read with him at night."

I don't know why, but it really upset me and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it ever since.

I know there are hot debates over whether to send your child to school or to dive into homeschooling.
I have read some bloggers who do an amazing job of giving their charges a well rounded education from home. Amazing stuff.
School is exactly the right place for my son. He is very sociable and thrives in a group environment. And he has positively blossomed in the classroom.

However, that doesn't mean his schooling ends when the school day finishes.
I want him to grow up in an environment where learning is seen as fun.
Grubbing around in the back garden can be a lesson in maths, or biology or just the wonder of discovering new things.
Baking cakes teaches weights and measurements, how to measure time, how to read recipes.
Even collecting football cards can offer valuable lessons in life.

I hold my hands up and admit I don't always do near enough with my two. Or nearly enough as I would like to.
But at the bare minimum, I try to teach them that the world is a wonderful, wondrous place if they just take the time to learn about it.

Our big thing is reading. We read a lot. We read stories old and new, we read Atlases, picture dictionaries, children's Bible, fabulous books which show how the human body works, books about sharks, books about dinosaurs, magazines.

I loved school when I was growing up. I loved maths, I love physics (it's all right, I can hear you groaning there in the background), I adored English literature lessons and I found learning, well, a gas.
And now my son is all wide-eyed and amazed at things like how our heart works, how caterpillars transform into butterflies, how the planets are configured.
And it actually makes me feel young again. Like I'm learning it all again through young eyes.

The wife of one of my favourite American bloggers, Writer Dad, has launched a new site devoted to just that.
Cindy Platt has been a teacher for years and is passionate about it. I'll say that again because it's important: She is passionate about it.
She aims to help all parents: "You do not need a teaching credential to enrich your child’s life" she says and I couldn't agree more.
And she ends her 'about' page with the words: 'Our children will write the future, I want the confidence mine will do it well'.

Me too Cindy, me too.

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Green

There are two things I love about this time of year: Being able to show my children how green and beautiful the world around them is, and taking photographs of it.

It is so breathtakingly pretty where I live right now. It is so green and lush and the air seems to be full with portent.

Sure, it's rained an awful lot just lately. A lot.

But the benefits far outweigh the negatives as far as I am concerned - have you seen how breathtaking the UK countryside is after a downpour?

We have been out breathing in as much of this beauty as often as we can. Come rain or shine.

And my trusty camera has been right there at my side to record it (and I've talked before on the wonderful benefits of taking a million photos of your children growing up!)

We get muddy

We climb

We contemplate our surroundings

We discover the 'magic' of dock leaves

We roam wild and free

We unearth weird and wonderful creatures

We run like the wind himself is chasing us

I know it seems depressing when the sun won't shine and it seems to rain endlessly when spring should be heralding an explosion of good weather.

But take a look again - this time through the eyes of a child.

I promise it will look a whole lot better!

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Wordless Wednesday: Because clearly the lovely and rather expensive bed we've just bought her isn't good enough

This is the sight that greeted me when I came to put Mia to bed last night.

It's a mini replica of her bedroom (notice the picture frame and the nightlight from her bedside table) BUT it's out on the landing. Right at the top of the stairs.

Clearly the fact that mummy spent HOURS online searching for the perfect bed so she could move from her cotbed to grown up status in style, escapes her.

And don't be surprised at the inclusion of a pink Dora backpack (stuffed to brimming with, well, stuff), countless cuddly toys and a notebook in her bedtime display - she normally squirrels those away under her duvet at night "in case I wake up in the night and get bored".
There's barely enough room for her in that bed these days!

(By the way, I showed this photo to a friend whose only response was: "crikey, your skirting boards are clean aren't they?". Yes but look at the mad child won't you!)

Stop by for more Wordless Wednesdays, or for entries from around the world visit here.

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The conversation no parent wants. And how to avoid it.

Case study 1:
"Mummy, where did flowers come from?"
"Well they grow from seeds."
"I know that, but where do the seeds come from?"
"From the flowers."
"But before there were any flowers where did the seeds come from? Imagine there is a world and there are no plants or flowers in it, now where did the flowers come from?"

I desperately try to rewind my mind back (cough cough) a few years back to my biology lessons but for some bizarre reason all my memory is flooded with is how to dissect a bullock's eyeball and a diagram of how the human kidney works.

Dan is bored of waiting. He's clearly been thinking some more on the subject.

"It's like babies. I know they start out as seeds in your tummy, but how did the seed get there? Who put it there? Was it God? And how did he get it in there? . . ."

Suddenly the contents of the kitchen bin are utterly fascinating and oh my goodness look at the time, it's time to run the bath.

Case study 2:
"Why did you and daddy move to this house?"
"We wanted to have a bigger home and bigger garden ready to start a family."
"Were we not at the old house then?"
"No honey, you were born while we were living here."
"So how did you know you were going to have a baby when you moved here? How can you plan it like that? Do you have to go into hospital so they can put it inside you?"

I do that surprised, slightly shocked look of someone whose mobile phone is vibrating and they don't know where it is. I pat my jacket pocket and swiftly pretend to answer and say 'hey nana, sure we'd like to come over'.

I've had near misses in the 'where do babies come from' stakes before, but I fear distraction isn't going to work for much longer.
And he's too bright to fall for 'it's God's way' or 'the stork did it'. Or ask your daddy.
I know there are many of you who must have been through this. I need you now.

H E L P.

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Me me me me me. And Dan's new doo

Really, you gals are so very very generous.

I've been tagged all over the place and I am never ever one to turn down a challenge so I'm going to run with it but BUT, as anyone who knows me, I will be making up my own rules because, well, because it's my blog and I can. So there.

First of all the thank yous.
To Rebel Mother at Another Day in the Madhouse (who I just want to hug and I admire so much for obvious reasons when you read her blog), to Nixdminx (who is a great follow on Twitter), to Little Mummy (who's probably got her head in the clouds as she's just returned from a trip to Disney), Katherine at Supply and Demands (who has had the same children's hair cutting dilemma as me recently!), Mum Gone Mad (who has 4 kids, 2 cats, 1 dog and 1 gecko - what's not to love!) and the lovely Tasha at WAHM BAM (who is heavy with child, so be gentle).

The meme was basically a list of a million (or so) questions which you had to answer then add one, ditch another, pearl one, answer in Spanish, then jumble them all up and answer them backwards.
Well that's how I interpreted the rules anyway and that's far too advanced for anyone who I'll be passing this onto. So I've made it real simple. Like me.
I'd really like to get to know you better. Answer these questions. Pass them on. End of.

1. Who is the hottest movie star?
Hugh Jackman. Or George Clooney. Oh no hang on, Johnny Depp. No no no it's Hugh. All right, all right I can't choose. I'll just have to have them all.

2. Apart from your house and your car, what's the most expensive item you've ever bought?
No one thing, but my collection of shoes could probably have paid for a nice diamond ring.

3. What's your most treasured memory?
The day(s) I became a mum.

4. What was the best gift you ever received as a child?
A ZX Spectrum computer that my parents and both sets of grandparents saved up for to buy me for Christmas when I was about 13 or 14. I thought I was so cool and grown up. Little did I know how much heartache loading those games up via cassette deck would cause me.

5. What's the biggest mistake you've made?
Waiting until I was 34 to have children. I think had I started early we would have had more. It would have also meant my beloved nana would have met my children, which is a big regret of mine.

6. 4 words to describe yourself.
Loyal, friendly, approachable, and I laugh at everything which really cheeses my husband off because I laugh at everything but I don't care because it's better to turn that frown upside down, I tell him. There is no one word for that, sorry.

7. What was your highlight or lowlight of 2008?
Quitting my stressful job and becoming a work at home mum (that was a highlight by the way!)

8. Favourite film?
Raiders of the Lost Ark.

9. Tell me one thing I don't know about you.
I have been on a tour of the Star Wars sets in Tunisia. I am THAT much of a nerd.

10. If you were a comic book/strip or cartoon character, who would you be?
Hong Kong Phooey.

And you know those people who say 'you don't have to do it if you don't want to la la la' well I'm not one of those people. Do it or I'll be round to slap your legs and pull your hair.

I pass the baton on to Kat at 3 Bedroom Bungalow, Adrenalyn, Turf Dad, Daisy at Answer Starts With You, DC Urban Dad and that Selfish so and so Dave Fowler. Oh and Blogger Dad because he'll be be reading the comic strip question and holding his hand in the air like the most eager schoolkid in the world.
Go forth my friends . . .

And just to finish off, here is a photo of Daniel with his new haircut that I spent way too much time fretting over.
I catch him every now and again grabbing at the nape of his neck and then realising there is no longer any hair there to tug at.
But I didn't need to worry. He's still a handsome lad. The sun also went to his head a bit this weekend and he went all Hawaii 5 O on us. Or Magnum PI.

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