Now my eldest is at school, he brings home all kinds of things: a new book, the odd certificate for good behaviour, a messy painting or two. Oh, and illnesses. Lots of them.

So far, we’ve had chickenpox, chest infections and numerous colds, and we count ourselves lucky, because you just know that the classrooms where they run and sweat and cough and sneeze are just swimming with all kinds of germs and nasty creatures (not including the children themselves, of course).

Here are five illnesses or conditions that your child will probably experience during their school lives, and – more importantly – how to cope with them.

Chickenpox

(Yes, it is all one word).

Some parents are so keen for their children to contract chickenpox early so it’s ‘out of the way’ that they purposefully send them to chicken pox parties, where one child – riddled with the disease – can happily skip about, infecting all of the other kids who think they’re there for a good time, but really it’s so they can become ill.

The symptoms are well-known: nausea, fever, loss of appetite – and, of course, the tell-tale rash, which eventually disappear in a week or two.

As far as treatment goes, there is no one cure that will get rid of chickenpox once it has been caught. Instead, treatment is aimed at reducing the effects of the illness, especially the incessant itching brought around by the blisters. Painkillers will help to reduce the itch, but you must consult your doctor if your child has a condition such as asthma. Never give your child aspirin – studies have proven a link between treating chickenpox with aspirin and a potentially fatal condition known as Reye’s syndrome.

Calamine lotion is an effective way to calm the effects of the rash, although it didn’t work for my son. Instead, we turned to Eurax cream, which did the trick in a couple of days. As always, with any illness, make sure your child has plenty of fluids.

Nits

Not technically an illness, of course, but the dreaded head lice are the stuff of nightmares for any parent, especially those who remember getting nits themselves in school and having to have their hair combed for hours on end. The term ‘nits’ actually only refers to the eggs of the lice, and it is a myth that they only like clean hair – but what do you care? All you want to do is get rid of them.

Wet combing your child’s hair is the cheapest way of removing head lice, and there are a number of nit combs on the market which will all do the job just as well as each other. Just be sure to wash the comb in a bowl of warm water and disinfectant between each run. Medicated shampoos and lotions are also an effective way of removing lice and killing their eggs. Anyway, all this talk of lice is making my head itch, so let’s move on to…

Mumps

I remember having mumps as a child, and looking like Professor Klump out of the film The Nutty Professor for ages. Symptoms include a headache, fever, joint pain, and the oh-so-obvious swelling of the parotid glands, just in front of your ears.

Unfortunately, mumps is a viral infection, which means there’s no cure. Instead, plenty of rest should be prescribed along with painkillers to reduce temperature and swelling. Eating soup and drinking water will limit the pain – avoid fruit juice, as this stimulates the production of saliva, which can worsen the pain.

Rubella

Also known as German measles, rubella is characterised by a distinctive red-pink rash,  conjunctivitis, a slightly raised temperature and a sore throat. Fortunately, your child’s chances of getting rubella are very small, thanks to immunisation programmes.

Painkillers, fluids and bedrest are, again, the best ways to treat this illness.

Ringworm

The good news is that ringworm has absolutely nothing to do with worms. It’s actually a general term used to describe a skin condition caused by a group of fungi called dermatophytes. It is highly contagious, passed from child to child through skin contact and sharing objects such as towels or sheets.

Symptoms include small patches of scaly skin, commonly on the scalp, which causes itchiness. Some children may also experience patchy hair loss, sores and a rash.

Scalp ringworm will usually be treated via oral antifungal medicine, such a terbinafine or griseofulvin, which sound like character names from the Lord of the Rings. These tablets do, however, have side effects, including nausea, diarrhoea, indigestion and skin rashes, which are also common by-products of marriage. Many cases of body ringworm, including groin infections, can be treated using antifungal cream, available over the counter from your local pharmacy. This is applied daily for two weeks to clear up the infection.

You can’t stop your child picking up illnesses; but, with this handy information, you can treat it as soon as possible. Unfortunately, nothing can cure the feeling of dread you get when you see your son scratching his scalp…

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Messy play is one of the best play activities for toddlers: lots of fun and full of learning opportunities for them. But what if the idea of all that squishy, squashy mess fills you or your child with horror? There are ways to benefit from all the positives, with these no-mess messy play ideas.

As it’s packed with colours, smells and textures messy play is a great sensory experience for touchy-feely kids who are still exploring the world using all their senses. It’s open-ended play too, where the children can be creative and try out all sorts of early science and maths concepts as they play. Messy play can be inexpensive and very easy to set up at home because you can make use of things you have around the house: sand, water, mud, even jelly.

Some children really don’t like messy play though. They might find the play too much for their super-tuned senses, and some are uncomfortable getting their hands dirty. As this kind of play offers so many benefits it’s a shame for them to miss out altogether, so why not adapt the play to suit them?

Or maybe it’s you who’s afraid of the mess? The thought of toddlers running around your house with hands covered in paint or mud isn’t every parent’s idea of fun play but there are simple measures you can take so your children can experience the play without destroying your home.

No-mess messy play ideas

How about containing the mess in a zip-lock plastic bag? You can fill your bags with hair gel, add glitter and food colouring to make different bags to explore, and even hide objects inside for the children to hunt out.

Another idea is to add in more play to times when you’re prepared for some mess. At bath time you’re already going to be dealing lots of splashing so this is a good opportunity to add in some extra sensory play. A few drops of food colouring in the bath water will transform the experience into a blue lagoon or pink magical land. You could also freeze some coloured ice cubes, using food colouring or fruit juices, and have them float and melt into your bath water.

Play dough is a good next step as it’s actually not too messy, although best played with in rooms with no carpets. Try my super easy playdough recipe and you can soon mix up an easy no-cook homemade version.

Even making a sensory tub filled with touchy feely things for child to explore can be much less messy if you make use of an empty paddling pool and put the tub and your child inside. They can have fun, make a bit of mess, and everything stays inside the pool, making clean up that much easier. You can start off with something easier to sweep up such as large pieces of dried pasta and work your way up slowly to using glitter!

image courtesy of http://nurturestore.co.uk

How do you feel about messy play – do you love it or loathe it? What your child’s favourite kind of sensory play?

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It’s Valentines (a day I like to treat like a second birthday!) and time for thinking about your other half, what they mean to you and acknowledging all that they do.

I know that I need that one day a year because I am very guilty of making assumptions about the things my other half will do, expecting that he will do them and then taking for granted the things that he does. It is good to have a day that reminds you to be extra especially nice to each other.

Not that my hubby and I are horrible to each other, it is just that with the priorities of family life, sometimes it is easier to put each other as a ‘together unit’ on the backburner. Plus, in all honesty by the time I get to the end of the day I am so shattered that romance is often the last thing on my mind. When three toddlers have mauled you about all day, you really don’t want anyone else touching you. Sometimes it just feels like another demand. Plus the fear of falling pregnant again when you have three under three is enough to make anyone abstain!

Saying that, apart from the pure exhaustion of family life impacting on…well the physical side of things at times (she says blushing) I have found that our children have actually brought us closer together. We have such similar views on how to raise children and on the kind of values we hope them to have, that we are very much together and in sync when it comes to parenting.

I am very fortunate that my hubby is a very hands on family man. He says that he makes a real effort to be this way because there is no way he could do full time childcare like I do, and so he really appreciates my need for five minutes to myself or at least an extra pair of hands.

We love being a family unit and spending our weekend as ‘just us’. I think at times we can be guilty of socially excluding ourselves at weekends, but we feel our time is so precious that we just want to share it together.

But, I began to wonder… considering we had three children very close together, including the twin aspect, our relationship should surely have been put under a lot of pressure? Have we just been lucky or can relationships get better as a result of having children?

I decided to carry out some extensive research-by that I mean I asked the question on Facebook and Twitter and this was the response:

Kathryn from FB said:

“Well with our first we were drifting apart as all my attention went on baby he never slept so ended in our bed and other half slept downstairs so wasn’t too good. We did things different this time and it was much better. X”

L Plate Mummy said:

“It was the other way round for us, first brought us closer together, but second we had a period where we seemed to be drifting. Think the pressure of two got to us a bit. Thankfully we have turned a corner.”

MummyDaddyandMe said:

“Having Mads has tied us together in a way that I never thought possible- It’s amazing knowing we created this little person! Yet it has also hasn’t been all plain sailing-you do argue about the silly things more because of tiredness and money etc!”

@MSEDDollp on Twitter said:

“Positive – sharing the beautiful people we created. Negative- the tiredness and lack of time together.”

Here Comes The Girls (also a twin Mummy) said:

“Hmm… interesting. We’ve had one night out last year when he got promotion. Had both our birthdays and anniversary and not had the time or money to celebrate any of them. Bit sad really. Would love to say not changed but priorities have.”

Emma Ford said:

“Very positive in most respects! Our teamwork (mostly) is quite a thing – there was little need for it before the boys! x”

Carol finds her wings said:

“Children highlighted our differences to a point we couldn’t stay together. Small things became big & discovered we disagree on basics.”

Not such a mixed bag of responses as you would expect and far more positive that I thought! Clearly one of the strong points revealed is that having children adds to general exhaustion, which in turn leads to earlier nights and a shorter temper. Don’t forget that sleep deprivation methods are used as a method of torture and therefore as parents we are under a lot of pressure for a long time. Additionally children increase the monthly outgoings. I know that when we had the twins we were spending £100 month on nappies, £30 month on wipes and another £120 on formula milk! When you are on maternity pay that is a lot to your additional monthly budget! It certainly adds pressure.

However, it does seem that despite these pressures, as long as your views and values as parents are the same you seem to weather the storm. I think this is an incredible achievement and one which we should as couples give ourselves more credit for. Marriage or partnership is something that requires lots of hard work to maintain even when there are just two of you to consider.

So, this Valentines, I say: acknowledge all you have achieved as a couple and even if you are really shattered and snowed under with all things baby, try and think of something nice to do to show you love your partner; a handmade card, a note in their wallet, a homemade cake. It has not got to be a fancy dinner out (by all means go for it if you can, but often by the evening the thought of getting dressed up to go out fills me with dread! – maybe opt for a takeaway) but just enjoy each other and talk. Remember you wanted each other first!

Happy Valentines!

Links –

MummyDaddyandMe – http://www.mummydaddyandmemakesthree.co.uk/

Here Comes The Girls – http://1978rebecca.blogspot.com/

L Plate Mummy – http://lplatemummy.wordpress.com/

Carole Finds her wings – http://www.carolefindsherwings.wordpress.com/

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It’s the simplest thing to say and the hardest thing to do in our busy, busy lives …slow down, smell the roses, watch the rain.

With my eldest child about to turn 16 I find myself looking back at his childhood with a smile. It is moments when we paused and took time to look and explore in detail which stand out in both our minds. The time we took to be together and appreciate the simple things has given us the strongest memories – looking for creatures in rock pools, skimming stones across a lake, racing snails on the patio, lying on our backs and watching the clouds, walking in the rain. It is so easy to get caught up in the mayhem and competitiveness of modern parenting, to feel our children have to be stimulated and entertained every second of every day, that we can forget how important just being together is.

I walk my youngest to school every morning and we have taken to getting up ten minutes earlier so that we have time to dawdle along. I hate dragging him past the worm which he has spotted and which needs ‘rescuing’ from all the pounding morning feet or insisting that he stops walking really slowly while he whittles a stick with a nice sharp stone he has found – so I don’t, unless I absolutely have to.

Taking time to appreciate things with the eyes of a child is restorative for an adult and nurturing for the child. Watching a raindrop run down a window pain, or choosing a raindrop each and seeing whose gets to the bottom first, is a deliciously intimate way to pass some time. It allows children the time to explore and examine. It’s not just a raindrop, what shape is it? Is it the same shape as it travels down the window as it was when you saw it land? Where did it come from? Where will it go? Is there a story behind it, did it leave a friend behind in the cloud?

Allowing children the time to stop and look teaches them a very valuable life lesson; how to entertain themselves. Finding joy in the small things and taking time to enjoy the simple things is crucial in this world of endless noise and frantic busyness. It also encourages them to ask questions and seek answers and, while it may be easier for an adult not to be pestered with endless questions, if we want to raise curious, well rounded children that can only be a good thing!

It doesn’t all have to be about clubs, activities and gadgets it should also be about smells, sounds, sights, feelings and questions. Making time to take time is time well invested.

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“Love is like the sun
coming out of the clouds and warming your soul.”

-Anonymous

We’re offering our fans the chance to win 2 of our Toddler Cups in this Valentine’s Giveaway!

To be in with a chance of winning your choice of Training Cups or Drinking Cups please enter the competition via the box below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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To me mealtimes are such an important part of the day. Not only is it a chance for my child to get all his important nutrients, to fill that little tummy of his and feed him his (hidden) vegetables, but it’s also a chance to get the whole family together.

We started this habit even before he hit the weaning stage; we would have him sitting with us when we were having our meals. I guess we knew that he was ready for weaning when he was watching us eat our food and chomping away on his hand at the same time.

After the initial weaning began and we had introduced him to solids, the next stage was to feed him similar foods to what we are eating at the table. I’m pretty sure that seeing us eat foods with his own eyes helped him to understand food and to become a food lover himself.

Over time this turned into an everyday thing and it was nice to have this routine in our family life. This routine turned into family meals, one of us would prepare the food and then the whole family would sit around the table to appreciate it. We have a family rule where dinner time is all about the food: we don’t have TV and we don’t have toys at the table. That’s simply just what works for our family and what works for us.

Oli was just a few months old when he joined us at the table, he’s now coming up to 3 and I think our mealtimes have been an important part of our bonding over the last few years. I’ve gone from spoon feeding him myself to him picking up garlic bread from the middle of the table to eat with his chilli. It’s actually been quite a nice journey to watch in him develop this life skill. We’ve learnt new words at the table, how to set the table and wash our hands before meals and most importantly we’ve learnt table manners together.

As an occasional treat you could even have family mealtime without the dinner table! We have one night a week where we eat a takeout on the living room floor, and if we can’t afford to buy one we make a homemade takeout of some kind. We stick on a film and chill out with our food, and this is our way of making food time fun.

You know your own family and, at the end of the day, it’s about knowing what works best and finding a routine that suits you all.

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BornFree Giveaway on the Multiple Mummy blog!

Huge congratulations to Kerry from the Multiple Mummy Blog who is celebrating her 1st Blogaversary this month!

We’re very pleased to announce that as part of the celebrations multiplemummy.com is hosting a BornFree Giveaway; offering fans a chance to win 2 BornFree Bottles in BPA-Free plastic or glass, a Twister Brush Set and a BornFree BPA-Free Training Cup.

For details on how to enter the competition please click here.

Kerry, a regular contributor to our Parent Panel, is a big supporter of BornFree UK and we are delighted to be able to share in her celebrations. Well done on a very successful year and here’s to many more!

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It is great to get out and about in all weathers and we all know there is nothing quite like grabbing an umbrella and doing some puddle jumping. However, sometimes the weather is just too unfriendly, or the house is full of poorly people and it results in a day stuck indoors.

This can end up being a spiral of hyped up, over excited children (well it is in my house) and so I abort all planned daily chores (unless one can be sneaked in, like a load of washing) and embark on a day in of fun! It can be done.

The day’s routine:

Dressing up

We delay getting dressed initially and play fancy dress instead. We have a big box in our playroom with dressing up bits and pieces that we have collected and made over the past few years and so this creates lots of fun choosing what to wear and characters. Usually it involves Captain Hook, Bob the builder and The Little Mermaid!

Role Play

We use the characters to create a game. Last week we used the table, the blankets and a stick and cushions and made a pirate ship. We played Peter Pan and Captain Hook for a long while and then I was able to leave them to play for a bit whilst I got dressed. (Just enough time before the bickers start!)

Carpet picnic snack time

Refuel time – Snacks are great but if you turn them into a picnic or tea party it becomes even more fun. You can make squash in their teapots that they can pour out into cups and lay a rug on the floor. It is so simple but they think it is brilliant.

Tidy up game

Obviously you have created some mess so you need to clear up a little bit just before naptime so you can get a cup of tea! Get them to race each other to put items away, make up a tidy up song, or make it a puzzle. If you say things like ‘I bet you don’t know where the cushion goes’ they suddenly want to prove you wrong.

Naps

Hooray! Hopefully you now get maybe an hour to yourself?

Lunch – make it together

Ready-made pizza bases are such a good staple to have in the freezer. Rather than slaving away during their nap making their lunch, wait until they wake and get them involved. They can spread the tomato paste, add their toppings and decorate as a face, a monster or clown. Usually, because they have made it, they then want to eat it!

Craft

Think up a craft idea or be as adventurous as you like if you are crafty. It can be as simple as painting or drawing. I recently did straw art- blow painting pictures with the kids-which was really easy but great fun!

Lounge playground

So they have concentrated for a bit and are now starting to realise they have not gone anywhere. They want to burn off steam but there’s no chance of the park: so we make an indoor playground. I lay cushions out for stepping stones, I turn the sofa into a slide by piling up the cushions and get some chairs and bits to climb over to make an obstacle course. Our very own mini play gym! They absolutely exhaust themselves running round; which is exactly what you want.

A TV chill out

Hopefully it is late afternoon/early evening for you now, so I think a little bit of TV chill out with their favourite programs or DVD is perfectly acceptable! If you want to join in, make it a nursery rhyme one where you can all sing along or do the actions, or use it as an opportunity to make your own dinner and get their tea together.

Teatime

Don’t bother with picnics this time – they should be exhausted and will be quite happy with some normality!

Bath time

Blowing bubbles and making potions is a great bath time activity.

Story time

Snuggle up on the sofa, or in their bed and have a few stories. This is one of my favourite times of the day!

Bed

Hurrah! You made it.

Hope this gives you some ideas. I would love to learn more ideas for structuring a day of indoor play so please feel free to share them in a comment below.

MM x

ps My link for straw art if you want it is: http://multiplemummy.com/noah/straw-art-creating-blow-paintings/

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It’s easy to spot a couple on a Date Night, especially if they’re parents. They’re the ones sat in the corner: he’s wearing a decent shirt, smart jeans and clean shoes; she’s sporting a full face of make-up, hair nicely styled, smart clothes. It doesn’t matter that they’ve gone down the Dog & Duck for a curry; they’re away from the kids for a night, and they’re going to make the most of it.

As parents, we naturally enjoy spending time with our children. The main highlight of my day is coming home from work – my two boys are usually quite excited to see me, unless there’s something particularly interesting on CBeebies, in which case they barely notice I’m there. But there are times, as horrible as it sounds, when it’s nice to be away from your kids, even if it is just for an evening.

If anything, it’s good for your health. As rewarding as parenthood is, there’s no doubting that it is pretty stressful, and all of that frustration and exasperation can’t be good for your heart – not to mention your mental health.

Parenting can also take its toll on your relationship with your partner. If you think back to how your relationship was before you had kids, and compare it to now, I would be willing to bet that you’d be able to see a marked difference. The love has remained – but the attention has dwindled as you both find your hands full of dirty nappies, bottles, instructions for the assembly of a cot, and No More Tears shampoo.

This is why date nights are so important. Not only do they give you space to breathe without inhaling a cloud of talcum powder, they give you time to spend with your partner to laugh and love and talk about anything and everything besides children. It has been proven that having a child often negatively affects a relationship, and so it is in your best interests (and those of your children) to spend some time apart from them once in a while.

It’s not like you have to spend a fortune to have a good time. Go to the cinema, go out for a meal…even if it’s just a walk in the park, you will soon find that the space and time will do wonders for your stress levels and your relationship.

But it goes a step further. Sometimes, you just need some time by yourself, away from your partner and your kids. That’s fine too, as long as your break isn’t taken during a particularly critical time, such as your child’s first nativity or whilst your wife is having contractions – and it’s also pretty important that you don’t disappear for a round of golf all day every day for a week; but it is also beneficial for you to let your hair down by yourself once in a while.

So don’t be afraid to dump your kids on a babysitter or your in-laws every now and then. You’ll reap the benefits later.

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I suffered from morning sickness for the first 16 weeks of my first pregnancy. It was horrid, but I still managed to work, and eating helped. I lived on bran flakes and went through boxes of them. Every week that passed, people would comment and say ‘it will stop in a few days’ but it seemed to go on forever. At 16 weeks, it was like a switch. It just stopped, no more sickness; but it had been enough to put me off pregnancy for a while.

So imagine my horror when six months after giving birth to Noah I discovered I was pregnant again. Honestly, New Year and alcohol are a potent combination: let this be a warning to you!

I had a feeling I might be pregnant and I knew I was late, but I had taken two tests and both had said negative.

So I carried on regardless, with my husband saying ‘See told you, you were being ridiculous!’

A week later I bought another test in town and low and behold it said pregnant! I immediately felt sick. I kid you not; I thought I was going to throw up there and then. ‘It’s all psychological’ I thought to myself, ‘get a grip’!

Since then I have since discovered that it is common to get a false negative with a twin pregnancy, as your hormone levels are so high.

I was already 8 weeks into my pregnancy and the sickness came on thick and fast. I tried to eat to make it better but it all came back up. I tried sickness bands, I tired ginger biscuits and tea and every possible remedy under the sun. I knew my sickness was bad but I kept telling myself to pull myself together. For goodness sake I was pregnant, not ill!

It started at first just in the mornings. Then it continued all through the day and then crept into the evenings. I was working four days week at that point and thank God I had an office coming off my classroom, because I would never have made it to the toilets. There was never a point throughout the day when I did not feel sick and I was being sick at least 10 times a day.

After three weeks of severe sickness and working I needed a day off to rest. I had been sick seven times that morning and it was only 7am!

I finally went to the Doctors who prescribed me anti sickness tablets. I was really apprehensive about taking them, but I could not look after the child I had and I was desperate. However, they just wiped me out and within minutes I would throw them back up again anyway. Being asleep would have been fine but I had another child to care for.

The sickness did not relent, it just got worse. I started to be sick in the night. I was beginning to feel like I was allergic to the baby and I was only 10 weeks pregnant. I was starting to resent it and wish it would just go away.

My Doctor signed me off work and I discovered that this severe sickness has a name: Hyperemesis Gravidarum, which literally means excessive vomiting in pregnancy. They wanted to admit me to hospital but I said no, I didn’t want to leave Noah behind; he was still a baby and I had never left him before. I was washed out and malnourished, and my weight was beginning to plummet.

I was now coming up to twelve weeks pregnant and I weighed two stones lighter than I did before I fell pregnant. I was sitting on the sofa at home with a bucket beside me when I got a call from the Doctor’s Surgery. The Doctor told me he had a very worried husband in his office and he needed to see me now!

I hardly had the strength to walk round there. When I arrived he took one look at me and said ‘You’re going to hospital, you need to be on a drip!’

I was devastated. I didn’t want to leave Noah but he assured me it would be for 12 hours and then I would feel well again. The thought of feeling well won me over.

When I got there though, they told me my ‘ketones’ were very high. If ketones are detected in your urine it means your body is breaking down fat rather than glucose to make energy (ketosis). It basically means you are starving. I looked awful- not white, but grey. Have you read Breaking Dawn from the Twilight saga or seen the recent film? How Bella felt pregnant…that was me, and actually, according to my friends, I looked worse! I should have tried drinking blood!

So a drip went up and there I stayed for not 12 hours but five days. They managed to reduce the ketones and get anti-sickness medication in me intravenously so I would not throw it up and the sickness slowed.

I had my scan whilst in hospital and the midwives kept saying, ‘Oh excessive sickness, it’s a sign of twins you know?’ I didn’t take it seriously, until the scan whilst I was in hospital revealed two little heartbeats!

The sickness kept going and going but after being discharged I was able to manage it with anti sickness tablets and keep some food down. It did not stop until 17 weeks but it felt like the longest 17 weeks of my life. Again it was like a light switch and just stopped with no rhyme or reason.

I have to say it was the most difficult bit of pregnancy for me and it took me weeks to regain full health and by that point with the growing twins inside me I was starting to just get huge. I feel I really missed out on the ‘blooming’ stage of this pregnancy.

They say sickness gets worse with every pregnancy you have. The thought of it over again fills me with dread but crazily I still want one more…am I a glutton for punishment?

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I remember the time when someone first asked me, whilst looking at Oli’s hair: “will he getting a haircut soon then?” and I replied with a “no not just yet”. The honest truth was that I never wanted to get his precious little blonde mop cut; it was so cute with the little curls that appeared after being washed and I wanted it to stay that way. His hair had taken so long to grow (he was a bald baby for such a long time) and I was so pleased that he actually had some. I liked the way it looked long on him and it just suited him. I thought if I was to get it cut they would take away all this precious hair of his.

Sadly it did get to the point where it really needed a cut, but another reason why we had put off his first haircut for so long was that he was a wriggler: he just doesn’t like to stay still at all. The thought of trying to get him to sit still in a hairdresser’s chair made my hair stand on end-he would surely scream the place down. I use a mobile hairdresser myself so instead I decided to take Oli to her house and we took along all the toys we thought we would need to distract him.

Oli's First Haircut

We were right about him not wanting to stay still. To allow the hairdresser to get near his hair we had to sit him on my lap and I had to hold him. I’m glad we picked someone who is used to children; she told us about how cutting children’s hair was quite nerve wracking at first because of how they like to move around-not good when you’re holding sharp equipment! So my one tip would be to go to someone who is experienced with cutting children’s hair and who is used to children not wanting to cooperate.

As well as trying to distract him with books and toys we tried to get him involved with his haircut by showing him the scissors and letting him use the comb to comb both mine and the hairdressers hair as well as his own. Part of me does wonder if I should have got it done earlier, even if it was just a little snip, so he would have been used to it from an early age. I guess it’s another lesson I’ve learned as a parent.

What was your baby’s first haircut experience like?

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January can be damp and dreary and it is all too easy to stay indoors all snuggled up on the sofa with a DVD and a box of biscuits waiting for warmer days. However, if your children are anything like mine, they need regular running and lots of fresh air if they are to function properly and not trash the house!

Here are my top tips for encouraging them out and about for enjoyable family walks as well as enjoying the park or garden throughout the winter.

1. Treasure Hunting: Take a treasure bag or box with you, an old shoe box will do, and fill it with special finds. To make it more of a challenge you can have a theme ‘collect 5 round objects’ or ‘5 spiky things’ or ‘5 different colours’. When you get home either display the finds on a nature table or use them to make a collage.

2 Animal Tracking: Take your magnifying glass and binoculars (deerstalker hat optional) and pretend to be detectives. There are lots of signs to look for (and lots of books to help you identify what you are looking at!)

• All the diggings and holes which mark out a badger sett (large) or rabbit burrow (small)

• Bashed snail shells on a song thrush’s stone plate

• Pinecones nibbled until they look like apple cores, all that is left of a squirrel’s lunch

• Molehills. Imagine the tunnel world below, when you get home make some tunnels with blankets/fabric draped over chairs and set up a mole hole

• Footprints (especially good on a muddy walk) Look at all the different shapes and styles of print and see if you can work out which bird or animal they come from

• Bones, pellets and pooh. Most children like looking for pooh and if you let them pooh spot they are in their element. We may think pooh is boring, they don’t, so look at the difference in size between horse pooh, deer pooh and rabbit pooh. If you can bear it, take a stick and have a poke to see if you can work out what they have been eating! You may be lucky and find owl pellets; owls spit out a pellet containing the bits of bones they can’t digest and children find these fascinating! There are usually small mammal bones to be found if you look carefully enough, my little boy has a gruesome collection of jaw bones which he keeps in a box to scare visitors!

If you take a camera with you children can record their findings and build up a booklet about their walks through the seasons. This works especially well on a regular and familiar walk.

3. Pack a Winter Picnic. Steaming hot soup from a flask when you have reached the top of the hill you fancy climbing or you reach a clearing in the forest is enough to tempt most children to walk just a little bit further.

4. Fossil hunting and skimming stones. The beach in winter is one of our very favourite places. Gone are the hoards of summer and it’s not far to walk before we have it to ourselves. Hunting for fossils, rock pooling, skimming stones and keeping the best ones to paint and decorate when we get home, all make for an excellent day out.

5. Fairy Houses and Giant’s Dens. Fairies need houses even in winter, collect sticks, moss, small pebbles and make little houses in the garden or out on a walk. If you are walking in the woodland you can build a den together big enough to sit inside; a perfect place for that winter picnic!

Happy winter walking!

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Christine lives in a ramshackle house in Somerset with her husband and four children aged 15, 14, 11 and 6 where she tries to hold everything together by blogging, freelance writing and placing buckets under drips.

Her background as a primary school teacher and her fifteen years of parenting have certainly given her plenty of things to write about! Last year saw her visiting Mozambique and New York with Save the Children and blogging for the Gates Foundation and the Department for International Development. This has strengthened her resolve to use blogging and social media to help make a difference to children’s lives.

You can find Christine blogging about all things family at http://christinemosler.wordpress.com/ and all things foodie at http://fabfoodblog.org/

Look out for a new post by Christine coming very soon on BornFree Mum and Dad.

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I never had a brother growing up. My mother decided in her infinite wisdom to spawn me a couple of younger sisters at a time when I thought girls were ‘gross’ and ‘yucky’. I was always keen on having a brother, someone with whom I could play Subbuteo and LEGO, and get into scraps with. Instead I had to make do with the various girly things my sisters offered – although one sister and I did have a game where we saw who could kick the other person the hardest in the crotch; but that’s a different – and more painful – story.

Twenty years later, I’m all grown up and have two sons, with about two and a half years between them, and it’s great to watch them grow up together. They’re not at the age yet when they’re constantly fighting – the eldest is 4; instead, the youngest just copies everything that his older brother does. But I find myself living out the brotherhood I never had through them.

I often wonder what they’ll be like when they’re older, and whether they’ll be an inseparable sibling duo, like the Hardy Boys or Ant and Dec (OK, so they’re not brothers by blood, but they’re practically joined at the hip). I want them to go to the same school, and for one to see the other getting picked on and wade in, fists flailing, having no regard for how much he is going to be told off, instead concerned only with the welfare of his brother. I want them to sneak food up to their bedrooms in the middle of the night, and for me to find them in the morning face-down in a sea of chocolate bar wrappers and cans of Coke.

When they’re older still, I want them to talk in hushed tones together about girls, and for one to console the other in the event of a break-up. I want them to be able to tell each other anything, to be best friends, to go out on the town and have a laugh knowing that each one has the other’s back at all times.

Moving on a few years, I want them to be Best Man at each other’s wedding, and to stand up in front of a hundred guests and tell story after embarrassing story, and I’ll be as proud as punch. And I want them to come over on Christmas Day when I’m old and grey and have lost most of my bladder control, and I can sit in the corner and watch them play with their kids before they nip off to the pub for a swift pint.

But that’s a long way away, and it’s doubtful that they’ll turn out exactly like that. They’ll probably fall out, or go to different universities, and end up being more friends than brothers. But only time will tell. One thing is for sure, though: no matter how big they get, they’ll never be able to beat their dad in a fight.

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It’s that time of year again when we start to reflect on the past year and start to think about what we would do differently this year. We set out on a mission to make New Years resolutions, all with the greatest of intentions but who actually keeps them?

I know that I am useless at it, but you see I make terrible resolutions and ones that I can never stick too.

These include things like:

1. Get fit (erm… yeah right, who am I kidding? The gym is like my allergy.)

2. Remember everyone’s birthday (sometimes I can’t even remember my own name so how is this humanly possible?)

3. Be a nicer person (I can’t help it, sometimes a good moan does us all the world of good!)

The problem is these resolutions are too general and not really achievable. In terms of getting fit, I would need to set myself some kind of challenge, like enter a race or something, but running just does not appeal (I don’t own a pair of trainers) and it requires time. And, if I ever get the gift of Time, what I really want is a cup of tea!

So I have been putting on my thinking cap because I do think it is good to reflect on your year and start to think about how you can move forwards. Lot of people fear change, but my worst fear is things becoming stagnant and nonmoving.

I have come to the conclusion that baby steps are the way forwards: goal setting. As a trained teacher and occupational therapist, I would always have an end target for the student or client, but also the break down steps to get there. So I feel resolutions should occur every three months, whereby you can stop, review, amend, push forwards and actually feel you are getting somewhere.

My first stop this year is the house. It is driving me mad! What I would really love to do is move but money says a big fat NO. Everything is old, filthy and shows evidence of little people! Whatever made us think a cream carpet was a good idea? I do not know. The carpet now looks like a very stained and splurged dirty watercolour and we really need a new one so that is a first 3-month plan! Then we set to the next resolution!

My next one is attempting to get Noah to try more foods. Baby step 1 – create and introduce a reward chart! See sounds achievable now doesn’t it?

OK, next: fitness…I am starting a Zumba class and I am going with a very motivated friend, so that will help and it started first week of January. Perfect!

Birthdays – I am going to have a Birthday Book and check birthdays for the following three months and buy cards ready. That way if I forget, which inevitably I will, I will only have to post them! Only a day late still counts, right?

It not rocket science. It will not change the world, but it will make me feel that I have not broken the rules by the end of the first month.

Achievable resolutions…all in easy baby steps!

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