Thames Valley Mums Blog

Is there an elephant in that zoo?

When my 4 1/2 year old daughter asked me if she had ever seen an elephant in real life, I flashed back zoo visits over the past four years.

None. 

We've taken the older three to the zoo, but not the youngest. As a matter of fact, we have probably not come within 50 miles of an elephant in quite a long time.  

Now I was on a mission.  Luckily, we were already planning a trip into London and it presented a great opportunity to show my daughter a "real life" elephant at the London Zoo.

Or so I thought. 

Healthy suggestions for packed lunches

It’s easy to get into a rut when preparing packed lunches.

My five-year-old brought this to my attention this week when she said (with hands on hips):

"PLEASE stop giving me ham sandwiches for lunch!"

Er, OK.

My usual lunch box repertoire includes a ham sandwich, an apple or grapes, and a Frube.

Poor girl.

To remedy this, I went in search of some ideas for healthy alternatives, and here are some of the things I found to put variety (and vitamins!) into your child's lunchbox.

Time to start brushing correctly!

I expected our recent family visit to the dentist to be like all the others --"The children’s teeth look good, apart from the finger sucking, see you next year".

However, this time, my eight and 10-year-olds were referred to the hygienist.  The nice South African dentist said the children were not brushing their teeth properly as evidenced by excess plaque build-up.

Yikes.   

I had noticed that the evening teeth brushing routine was being raced through with strokes more akin to crazed bowing on a violin.  I’m not sure when I lost control of the teeth brushing -- but I clearly had.

Nip boredom in the bud! Top 50 activities for children this half term

I used to measure the success of school breaks based on the number of trips made to A&E. One year I had to deal with a 2-year-old who lost her fingernail in a slammed door AND a 3-year-old who broke her arm whilst climbing out of her cot.

We've moved on since then, and so has the economy.

The credit crunch means that many people may opt to stay local this half term, rather than the usual trip to France and Euro Disney.

Here are some ideas in preparation for when you wake up on Monday morning and the children ask "what are we doing today mummy?"

This post has a Thames Valley twist, but there are ideas that you can use to beat half term boredom in any location.

And if none of these ideas appeal ... you can always hire a babysitter and get a massage!

Mummy, it's my wedding too!

Ella, my five year old, led a Q&A session with J and me in the car last week. Subject: our upcoming wedding. Objective: to glean as much detail as possible. Result: she realised she won't be staying with us on our wedding night.

"But why do I have to stay with Daddy after? Why can't I stay with you?" (Tense pause whilst my stomach knots and I prepare myself to deal with a tantrum).

"Well, it's traditional for the people getting married, the husband and wife, to be alone on their wedding night, darling."

"But that's not fair, mummy. It's my wedding too!"

Hip Hip Hooray! One Henley child's olympic dream

The pink socking wearing Leander Club Olympic rowers were welcomed this weekend by a town full of Henley school children waving the union jack.

I have to say I was impressed: 13 Leander Club rowers won metals in Beijing, helping Britain with it’s best ever Olympic performance in 100 years.

In case you weren’t aware, Britain won 19 gold metals in Beijing (47 metals in total) ranking fourth overall in the games (after China, US and Russia).

The string bag and octopus guide to parenthood

A friend gave me a copy of this before my children were born – it still makes me cry with laughter four years on – here’s a bit of it:

Preparing for a child to come into your home is not just a matter of reading Sheila Kitzinger and decorating the nursery.  Here are some simple tests for expectant parents to take to prepare themselves for the real life experience:

1. To discover how nights feel, walk around the living room from 5pm to 10pm carrying a wet bag weighing approximately 8-12 lbs. (For twins carry two bags).  At 10pm put the bag down, set the alarm for 12am and go to sleep. 

Top reason for not having a home office: "mummy's having a poo!"

I’m lucky in that ever since my children were at nursery, I have been able to work on a part time, self employed basis - fitting the marketing projects I take on around their schedule and needs.

I planned my return to work carefully. I would work from home of course, my laptop on the kitchen table; it made sense - low overheads, an ability to keep abreast of the household chores.

In my mind I would be happily typing a presentation that advised a multi-national company on what strategic direction it should be taking whilst rustling up nutritionally-balanced meals that Annabel Karmel would be proud of.

Cake sale blues? Try these "BEST EVER" apple and carrot muffins (recipe included)

You can tell when it is cake sale day at school -- there is a rugby scrum of mums fighting around a table of homemade goodies.  There are some darned good bakers at our school, and every mum has their speciality.

I’ve just found mine: THE BEST EVER apple and carrot muffins. My five-year-old,  who scrunches up her nose at anything that originated in a garden, LOVES these muffins. In her words: they are “the best ever!"

They are economical too, Scottish grandma is visiting and after downing a plateful of muffins, she pointed out all the money I saved by not offering her a box of Waitrose cupcakes.

London Cycle Show

Cycle 2008 is back in London on 10 - 12 October at Earls Court.

I always imagined I would be that cycle riding mum with flowing hair and a child on the back, and maybe one on the front as well.  I soon realised I am not Dutch and it doesn’t work like that here.

I went to the Cycle Show last year in hopes of getting a little bit closer to my dream.  What I didn’t expect was that it would be me and a bunch of 50-year-old men at the show.  It was foolish of me not to, considering the amount of titanium and carbon located in one place with expensive price tags.

Confessions of a dummy addict

I have a deep, dark secret.  I have hidden it from my closest friends for years.  I tried to hide it from my mum, but she eventually found out.

My children used dummies until they were practically young adults.

OK, I'm exaggerating, but it sure seemed like my life was governed by dummies for ages. I should have given them up earlier, but as the years went by they became harder and harder to extricate from our lives.

Planes, planes go away

What's up with the planes over Henley?

It's a good thing I get up early, because the recent change in flight paths over our homes would really make me seriously cranky if they woke me up as well as being incredibility loud and annoying.

At this risk of sounding like a NIMBY snob I'm going to propose this:

Thames Valley Mums unite!

Let BAA know we don't appreciate the planes flying over our homes and waking up our sleeping babies.  A friend of mine sent me this email address where you can lodge your complaints: noise_complaints@baa.com

Nits again!

We’ve only just been back at school.  The standard school lice letter hasn’t even been sent home. Yet, we have nits again.

The days of being a smug “never had nits” family is sadly long past.  It was so much easier when we just had a boy with very short hair.  It's those girls with the flowing locks that ruined added to my long list of qualifications on my parent CV. 

I don’t recall nits being part of my school life ... and neither does my mother.  I have no idea what has changed since then but they are here and it's best to keep a fine tooth comb handy.