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  Bewtixmas and the art of transitioning.  Drifting through life in that strange place between Christmas and New years, Betwixmas, I always find myself entering; reflection phase. I actually quite like this odd, deliciously timeless part of the year where nobody has any idea what day it is and everyone adopts the eating schedule of a hobbit with a particularly vivacious appetite, for some however it is a painful time of unstructured waiting. A transitional period dragged out across too many days.  Prior to Christmas and birthdays I like to encourage my son to have a small clearout. This is not led by me, I don’t follow him around with a bin bag and threats and I would never clear out behind his back but instead gently -sometimes hopefully- suggest that it might be desirable to clear the way for new toys and donate others so that children can benefit from what has served him. In past years, this has been largely unsuccessful with him clinging onto even the randomest of items.  Many of t
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The parent voice

A moment of perspective, a reminder to think carefully about what we say to and discuss around our children particularly during this difficuilt time. Children are more perceptive than we often think and coupled with a lack of understanding and a vivid imagination this can stir up huge worries for children out of incredibly small things. Often we think we have explained something to a child and it is not until they repeated back to us or someone else that we realise how little we really said to them. My experience working with primary aged children has taught me that the amount of things children misunderstand or blow out of proportion is considerably higher than their grown ups might suspect. Working with children also showed me that adults are quick to dismiss feelings of anxiety, worry, depression, anger and fear in children. Often we as adults know that a situation would cause us anxiety or worry such as the current pandemic yet we might not even consider that children would als
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Terrifying Toddler groups

Come on, it can't just be me that is filled with a sinking feeling of pure dread when faced with a toddler group? Before we moved, I was a part time working mummy and although it was good to have the social aspect of work and the money of course, I found it very hard to find a balance and felt a bit like I didn't fit in, in either place. At work, I always felt like I had missed important or new information on the two days I wasn't in and at home i felt so wiped on my two days with Oscar that I didn't feel like tackling toddler groups (which were all miles away anyway). Once a week we went to A, not at all inexpensive, Music class which was enjoyable and exhausting but it was only 45 minutes long and did not really offer Oscar the time to socialise or me the time to meet any of the mum's. Since we have moved and I have become a stay at home mummy, I have been to morevtoddler groups than ever before. However we still haven't found our routine, for some reason
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Its beginning to look a lot like no bathroom!

Hey! Christmas. Christmas has always been immensely exciting for me, I absolutely adore Christmas...Or at least I did. This year, I struggled to find my Christmas cheer. Stuck in a house that didn't feel like home we were faced with the prospect of a strange Christmas with just the three of us. I have never spent a Christmas day away from my mum, not once, in 28 years. In fact once I stayed over at a boyfriend's house on Christmas eve and I made my mum pick us up at about 8 in the morning so I didn't miss a second of Christmas... It came as no surprise to me then, that I felt utterly unethused and quite miserable at the prospect of Christmas on our own. I spent the entire run up to the big day miserable and moody. Everything seemed like too much effort and exactly the same time, nothing felt special enough. I am a big organiser, we've hosted Christmas five years in a row and I loved every second. Even when I had a new born to breast feed, I still planned the menu
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Relocation, Relocation, relocation

After a year of unbelievable stress we have finally moved!! I was desperate to vacate our little one bed flat, with a lovely toddler we had all but outgrown the space and the walls were bursting at the seams with four years of accumulation. However, when the time came to leave I had mixed feelings. We may have been about to embark on an exciting new journey in a house-with actual inside stairs and it's own garden- but we were also leaving the area we grew up in and both of our families. Our relocation further into Kent was not necessarily a choice we made, rather a neccesesity. The need for more space was the strongest drive for us and the place we choice was simply the next affordable place out. The relocation to a place neither of us know also meant that I was forced to leave my job as a teaching assistant in a local primary school! Well, we are finally in our new house and it is slightly chaotic...okay it's insanely chaotic. The baby gates are you wide for the doors, the
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Exmouth with Tiddler: The book rest cafe and Bumble and Bee

The book rest cafe in Exmouth is a wonderful discovery. From the street the facade is slightly faded and relatively old fashioned, if you were to judge this book by its cover you would probably not be expecting very much. However a quick stroll through the book store downstairs, trying not to be distracted by the huge array of books on offer, leads you to a tiny staircase. There is a space to park the buggy downstairs before ascending the creaky and narrow staircase.  When you reach the top and open the door you will be wonderfully surprised! The book rest cafe opens up into a large space that seems twice as big as the shop downstairs. There are loads of tables packed into the main space and some trendy, squashy sofas in the window, with a lovely view.  Despite the amount of seating available the cafe manages to still feel roomy and uncrowded. I always get the sense of being in a friends cosy farmhouse kitchen when sitting in there and could easily spend hours there.  The space
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Travels with tiddler.

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Oscar is my tiddler. He is 20 months into this world and is a mad ball of continuous motion and energy. With this in mind I still decided it would be a fantastic idea to book us tickets to see my mum, in Devon, by train... For those of you not aware, the journey to Exmouth, from where we live, takes approximately 3hours. Naturally I was completely shitting it when the night before travelling was suddenly upon us and I looked frantically between the huge rucksack, general rucksack and pushchair that I would be lugging around the next morning. I am a notoriously awful packet, I freak out about it for days packing little bits here and there then have a massive packing related panic and end up with way too many knickers (You just never know) and not enough socks. Throw into the mix the random may weather and packing for a tiddler who needs SOME item of clothing changed every two minutes and my lightweight carefree packing quickly turned into the same enormous rucksack I take away with
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