Thursday 14 March 2013

Happy Marchmass to us

On 1st December last year a dear friend and her sprog moved very far away. All the way to the south coast of England in-fact. What with it being March I had totally forgotten that she had promised Christmas presents in the new year. Yesterday they arrived! LOOK AT WHAT WE GOT!!!


Home made presents are the best, only to be topped by being Ghibli related! We share a love of the Japanese animations and so I rightly let slip a squeal of delight when I saw what she'd sent. No Face and soot sprites! We also got a wall sticker of the protagonists from many of the Ghibli releases. Chuffed doesn't cover it! Now I have an excuse to create a Ghibli wall *goes off to drool over Ghibli wall goodies*

Wednesday 13 March 2013

Chop chop chop!


That's right, at three and a half I decided Isaac was old enough to start using knives (!) I use the corer/slicer to cut it into wedges and then he uses a small paring knife to cut the wedges into pieces.

Am I mad? I don't think so.

He's a sensible little chap and I trust him not to use them when I'm not in the room as he's proven trust worthy with scissors since he was very small. 

And we have rules: 

1) Always cut down 
2) Never wave knives around 
3) Never use a knife without a grown up

There have been a few heart-in-mouth moments where I thought he might lose a bit of finger and I've leapt in to correct the path of the knife, but that's why I'm there until his motor skills are more developed. 

He really loves to do things on his own and I love to help him. Trust and mutual respect is earned; how can he earn it if I don't let him?


A few snaps

Most of these were taken on my phone as I'm forever forgetting to take my compact camera out with me and there is a battery issue with my Nikon, so please excuse the quality!

We had a real tree for the first time at Christmas. It was so lovely and hardly any needle droppage! 


It reads "Imagine waking tomorrow and all music has disappeared". I see this on my walk to Dan's house and it makes me shudder every time.

Isaac gets to grip with Reading Eggs. My Dad gave him a year's subscription to the site and he loves it! I was reluctant to get on the technology bandwagon while he's still so young, but it's actually teaching him to read so I figure it can't be all bad.

January snow.

Walking walking everywhere...I've lost a whole stone in weight since selling my car!

Local board game evening. Dan shows Isaac Othello. 

I knit some mitts! Officially over the knitting fear now and will give most things a go. Still working up to a big project (i.e.: something bigger than hats of mittens), but have been working on different stitches and pattern reading and it goes well.

February snow. It looks beautiful, but it's soooooooooooooo cold! We've had March snow too, a mini blizzard in-fact earlier this week. What's going on with the weather in this country huh?

So there we are, a few random snaps from while we've been away. The Nikon has been taken somewhere hopefully to fix it and I shall make more of an effort to take my camera out!

The end.

Saturday 9 March 2013

Not Mothering Sunday

After a few reasonably traumatic weeks (I know there seem to be a lot at the moment, fingers crossed that's the last of them for a while?) we had a really nice day today. We left the confines of Derby! On a bus! We only went the fourteen miles down the A52 to Nottingham, but that's quite an achievement for the boy who doesn't like to leave the house.

Isaac showcases his love of technology using Dan's phone
When Isaac was a baby I was introduced to a children's author by the name of Oliver Jeffers. Isaac and I love his books; the central character in three of them (that I know of) is "the boy" whose name isn't ever revealed. The tales are sweet and moving, the language simple and the images beautifully painted all of which portend a positive story experience for both Isaac and I. I never tire of reading these stories to my boy. So. As you can imagine, I was more than a little excited that a stage production of How To Catch a Star was coming to Nottingham. I held off booking tickets until last week and almost cried when Isaac shouted that he "DID NOT WANT TO GO" several times this morning. But. We made it! 


Isaac thoroughly enjoyed it which is what I was aiming for. Result! For me, I felt that transition to stage lost the simple beauty of Jeffers' style. The two performers were a hugely OTT with fill in noises and there was the inevitable addition to the story that comes with all children's-book-to-other-medium transfers which detracts from the essence of the narrative. However, all the children in the audience loved every minute of it so I'll stop my boring old adult grumbling! 

There are quite a few stage adaptation of children's stories around now I notice. We've been to see Julia Donaldson & Axel Sheffler's The Snail and The Whale fairly recently and less recently Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar. I'm so pleased that Isaac enjoys these trips to the theatre, I really am. We have tickets to see another one of Oliver Jeffer's next month - Stuck. We haven't read it yet and I think I might keep it that way. 

We arrived in Nottingham deliberately a couple of hours before the performance in order to eat some lunch which we did at The Malt Cross. If you're in Nottingham and peckish/thirsty, do go; it's SUCH a beautiful building inside. It was formerly the Victoria Music Hall (?) I learned today. Their food is very good, if a little pricey for pub food BUT all profit from the cafe goes to charity! How can you argue with that? The atmosphere is relaxed and they are fine with children (even if the clientele aren't as I overheard on a previous visit). Isaac actually ate some vegetables today! Well. A vegetable. Baby sweetcorn times three! WOOOOOOOH!

It's totally irrelevant and incredibly juvenile which is probably why it made me snigger: I saw a poster advertising some sort of comedy event with what can only be described as a fat Mister Maker.

Mister Maker
Piss Taker
If you've ever had the unfortunate luck to endure an episode of the Cbeebies show then you should be chortling to yourself right about now. The premise of the show is all good (get kids interested in being creative), but the man himself is irritating as hell. I should stop here before I launch into some sort of discussion about children's television shows and their presenters. Because I can and I will. I can see the words in my brain already. Stopping. Now. 

Our return bus journey culminated in gridlocked traffic as we arrived in Derby so we were let off early. Isaac had fallen asleep across our laps and was groggy so I strapped him on my back and waved goodbye to Dan as I boarded the bus home in a non-gridlocked part of town. We were greeted with the usual limitless enthusiasm of the furry one. And then Isaac weed on the sofa. *sigh* Unimpressed doesn't cover it. Anyway (there is a point to all this) I cleaned it up and stopped being mad about it. About an hour later he came over to me, sat on my lap, put his arms around my neck looked me straight in the eye and said "you're the best mummy in the world" and then kissed me on the nose. I'm welling up again now!

The sun wasn't shining and the British drizzle carried on regardless, but I will always remember today and smile. My non-Mothering Sunday Mother's Day. Perfect.


Friday 8 March 2013

It keeps me out of trouble!

While I've been quiet on here I've been noisy elsewhere. Now I'm quiet over there I thought I'd be noisy about it over here! But what is it? It, my friends, is Pie Productions! You know I like to make stuff, right? Well, my house was getting pretty full of stuff that I made and friends (and indeed strangers) told me I should sell the things I make. So I am! 

Up until now I've made items to order, but things have been pretty quiet since Christmas so I'm just making stuff I like and listing it for sale now. My first in-stock item is this rather gorgeous dragon. It's made using the Fierce Little Dragon pattern by Lucy Collin in lovely spring jewel tones.  He can be washed by hand and has purple safety eyes.

£16 + p&p
If you would like to buy him, or indeed a dragon in a colour of your choice then send me a message on Facebook or an email to sarah [at] pie productions [dot] co [dot] uk

The most popular item that I make is easily the crocodile stitch booties which are available in baby right through to adult and I've made all sizes! They're so cute and very warm.

Baby size (6-9 months)
Newborn size
Newborn size
Child size (16cm) with optional non-slip sole
Adult size (UK ladies 3) with non-slip sole
I'v noticed spring fashions starting to pop up in the shops recently and summer will be here quicker than you know it! With this in mind I'm shamelessly plugging the little girl's top I make. 100% cotton with crocheted trim.


If there's anything you like then do get in touch. I'm quite crafty so we can discuss bespoke items too :-) There are loads more photos over on the Pie Productions page so take a look and say hi!

Thursday 28 February 2013

Hello 2013

My my it's been a very long time! Just over seven months in-fact. I'm very aware that my last post wasn't so positive, but it was a fair and accurate description of life at the time. Well. It didn't get any better. The terrible twos really took off into some horrible direction and we only now seem to be settling. There is still an awful lot of "I don't WANT to!" almost every time I suggest he get dressed, so much so that I've resorted to sticker charts...which work approximately 75% of the time. Bed time is another point of contention. Quite simply: I want him to go to bed and he doesn't! 

Staying calm, rational and not shouty is also a challenge when every night's sleep for as long as I can remember has been broken because Isaac wakes me up either wet, scared of something or wanting to get in with me. I do not object to these things and accept them as part of being a parent. I am fortunate that I do get to sleep right through when he stays at his father's. 

Relationship changes for me have caused ripples and probably haven't helped Isaac through a difficult time and then there's the ever upsetting money situation. Living within one's means when one's means isn't very much is trying and down right bloody difficult. 

BUT!

SPRING IS HERE ish !!

Yes, life is on the move again. Yesterday was the first properly sunny day we've had and it was glorious. I didn't even wear a coat! There are little buds on trees and plants everywhere and bulbs shooting up left right and centre. Not in my garden, that would be a miracle. Winter this year has been a long hard slog and we are very ready for more outdoorsy weather. I had my first Couch Surfer since December 2011 on Monday night. An interesting fellow cycling from Chester to Vietnam over the course of six months culminating in a teaching job there. 

We did manage a trip to a local rec ground the other day (finally at about 3.30pm after talking about it with him all day - he agreed!) I haven't been there since Rinny was a puppy so it was lovely to see the new (to me) play area for children and be reminded of the big football pitch where we could let the dog off for a good run.



I made the executive decision to remove myself from Facebook. Which I did yesterday. And to stop using my HTC Desire smartphone in favour of my old Nokia C3-01. Why have I done these things? I have an addictive personality and was finding myself constantly wasting time on both which is essentially me ignoring my son. This is not acceptable and blatantly damaging to our relationship and what he accepts as normal. I think I've written about it before...a long time ago and possibly on a different blog. I get sucked in by technology. It has a place, but my little boy has the biggest and most important place in my life. 

I might still be a little bit addicted to Words With Friends and Hanging With Friends, but I'm investigating an Android app simulator for Windows called Blue Stacks. I shall see how that goes. It feels very strange to remove myself so completely from something that is such a huge part of many people's lives nowadays. 

So, here is to longer days, warmer weather and (fingers crossed) a sunnier little boy.


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