What mother hood is all about

Yes it was mothers day at the weekend, in the UK and was away until Monday, and came back and my son made me a lovely card, and bought me a book.

In the early years, being a mum it is how to change a nappy without them peeing or poohing on you, and your spouse/partner complains about the stench from your baby’s pooh, and organizing appointments, for vaccines and health checks. Thank the lord that men do get Paternity leave.

Getting up in the early hours, and now my son gets me up out of bed. He will turn off my alarm, put on my light and pull the covers off. They say as they get older, your children become the parent, and is very much true, and can begin, which noone tells you, when they are still a child.

He loves food and is always telling me in advance of what he would like for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and likes me to go to the toilet with him and do bed time story when my eyes are on the floor, due to the early morning wake up call, and tells me to get dressed.

Its about being calm, when your child’s father strips them down before you’ve filled up the bath, for bath time and your child is hysterical, in tears wondering what the hell is going on, and leaving them with your child for the first time, and both of us, wondering which way the nappy should go, and planning, on who is going to do the first feed in the morning, unless breastfeeding as I as a baby never drank from a bottle, and do the late night feed, in the early years.

I love that I get a lot of cuddles, meal times, going out and visiting places and we do a morning walk at the weekends or playing football and rugby, seeing children shows, and seen many at the Polka Theatre in Wimbledon, The Rose Theatre in Kingston and we have gone to the cinema, going on train experiences, because my son loves trains and just have great days out.

We as mums do a lot and thanks to my husband for his help, and my family as they helped a lot, and being a mum you need that, just to adjust and learn. Talking to other mums and going to different children clubs. My son does Swimming at the weekend and has now joined a rugby club and been awarded with medals. It makes all those sleepless nights and early wake up calls, worth it.

So I hope you had a good mother’s day, and next it will be Fathers day.

Many thanks for reading,

Carrie X

Last day of term and planning for half term

Yes, my son breaks up for half term, some schools in the UK have already begun having time off as many schools have a two week half term, and so I hope it is going well, with your kids, as you love them to bits, but can drive you mad at the same time.

Image inside Battersea Power Station

My son has been a little devil the last few weeks, and being a little more strict with him, because Henry wants to watch his tablet as soon as he wakes up, but because he was mucking about, not wanting to eat is brekkie or get dressed for school, made it a rule that he can watch his tablet, once he has eaten his breakfast and gotten dressed for school, and yes he has been protesting but has started to be less stressful and wants to play rugby instead.

Tablets and Android devices can affect a child’s behaviour and so I monitor now how long he spends on his tablet and have sometime watching educational stuff.

I have discovered a new learning APP Called, https://uk.ixl.com/ and will be using it a lot next week, as I have been with y son in the mornings, done some learning in maths using this platform and is great APP to continue their learning out of school.

So I do have things planned for half term. I am taking him to the Natural History Museum because along with trains he loves dinosaurs, and then is going to a kids club for two days, and then plan to take him up London, and get the train to London Bridge, as he has been asking if we can do that for a while, so if the trains are operating then we will be taking trip into London from Epsom, and then it is Friday, and then he is back to school a week later.

If you visit London check out the museums, I often take Henry there because they will add new things to see when you go and one time we went I booked a film about the Antarctic and was so interesting, and you did have to pay, but wasn’t very expensive and was enjoyable to watch, but if you do’t do that then they are free to visit, but would recommend to prebook.

In London Bridge there are shops inside the stations, Borough Market and have street acts, then over the bridge from London Waterloo there is Covent garden and from there, is Trafalgar Square, and many theatres and restaurants where you can have a good meal.

Also check out the Southbank Centre too: https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/families?type=family-young-people They have a some shows on and there is often a book market and then have the Festival Hall, the London Eye, Shrek Adventure, London Dungeons and the London Aquarium.

Check out the UberBoat, we did this in the summer holidays and loved it. North Greenwich is a great place to go, as there is a Trampolining, Cable Cars, a Virtue Rollercoaster ride, which me and Henry did and wanted to get of at first, but was a great laugh, and then there is Battersea, and so plenty of things to see and visit.

So I hope that helps give you ideas. I am not sponsored by anyone, and personal choice and on attractions I have visited often that I know can be so much fun.

Many thanks for reading,

Carrie X

Enjoying the Autumn with your kids

I got this idea for this blog because lastnight and today when we, my son and mum, spent time looking for conkers and picking them up for the Autumn and it is a great thing to do with your kids. Now I know many may say it doesn’t stop spiders coming in, but in my experience it has and was a tip my Aunty gave me.

Photo by Charles Parker on Pexels.com

Autumn is a great time to have fun with your kids and you can still have fun, and that is going on walks and playing in the autumn leaves. Teaching kids about harvesting and picking fruit and vegetables that have grown, in the garden, and collecting leaves for arts and crafts.

Have a sleepover and camp out with hot chocolates and the other day we with our son had a picky bits night with Pizza, Chicken goujons and carrots sticks and dip and why not make some nachos if you kids like them, with sour cream, Guacamole and chilli if they eat that and be in some comfy matching pyjamas, and just relax and get cosy.

Have your kids cooking and teach them how to make a casserole for example and do a menu that they can choose what they’d like now the weather is changing and set a budget, for them and choose a autumnal food to eat. I love meals like pie and mash potato, with green vegetables and as a dessert, like apple crumble with custard.

Play board games or a card game.

As a kid I loved card games and games like Pictionary, where you have to draw or describe for your team to guess what it is, and give us a clue and often when spending time with family they will play Shut the box. I love playing games like drafts and Chess, connect 4 and even a computer games night.

Do a Autumn shop and have your kids finding decor and decorate their room and why, again can do arts and crafts for that and help decorate the home.

It is a great time to declutter to and have your kids change their wardrobe from summer to autumn, or revamp their wardrobe where they have clothes to wear all year round, I have a fashion blog for Women talking about Versatile Fashion and at the moment I am doing an Autumn reset, please check out my blog site: https://everyonecanbuildacastle.com In this I am completely tasks like sorting out my bedroom and a great season to do it.

I plan my year by following the academic year, so from August to July, but doesn’t mean you have to, but is a great time to complete tasks and get your kids involved to make it fun, and put a movie on or some of their favourite music and have a good sort out of what tasks need to get done and preparing for the colder season, with your kids and then reward them and yourself by going to the cinema and why not if you have a garden camp out in blankets and read ghost stories or play games.

I know it gets dark early, but you can still get so much more out of the days in Autumn and not hop on the underground if you can, in London or if you drive go to a National Trust park and park in London and see the sights. I love the Southbank and good for a stroll along the river and Battersea has been built up, with Battersea Power station having shops in side and there are buses you can get there, and soon the Christmas lights will be on, and planning for the next half term.

So I hope that you like these types of blogs and if you’d like to be kept up to date then subscribe and you will be alerted everytime time I publish a blog on this site.

I have written a book called Mum&Me for parents to have a good fun read. It is fiction but will make you laugh out loud. It is available on amazon, so go and check it out now: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mum-Me-Gucci-Tits-Virtue/dp/B0BGNF4LNF/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2ZS3FRRZB5YHR&keywords=Mum%26Me+by+Carrie+Holmes&qid=1695633136&sprefix=mum%26me+by+carrie+holmes%2Caps%2C363&sr=8-1

Many thanks for reading,

Carrie X

Spending the weekend with your kids

I love the weekends spending time with my son because we have such fun and plan each weekend like we did whilst in the park on Sunday of what he would like to do, and so I took note and discussed about doing those things next weekend.

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com

It is so good to do different things and this weekend, my son after he went to his Swimming lesson, did some painting of some wooden houses I bought from The Works and then on Sunday Henry went to the park on his scooter whilst I walked and got some steps in, and next week I am taking him on a train, Saturday will be spent going to a coffee shop, because he was asking if we can go to one again, and so said we’d do that on Saturday and go and watch the trains, and use his vouchers he received for his birthday.

The weekend for me is doing things that you wouldn’t do in the week like going to the park or watching the trains or playing football or rugby. We often go the local park where there is a pond and buy some duck feed in the cafe in there, where I take him on occasions to have lunch and feed the ducks.

Fresh air does wonders to your wellbeing for you and your kids. having a craft afternoon, and making the weekend full of fun even if it playing with a cardboard box, you can still make it fun, painting and help use their imagination, like building a fort. Henry was pretending to be a Police officer and arresting me, and was using the downstairs bathroom as a jail. It is good for their imaginations to do pretend play and helps take them away from their devices, as my son could spend ages watching his tablet which is not good all of the time.

The weekends is great for having a nice meal together that they don’t always get to do in the week as they are tired and just want to chill, and even if you don’t get a chance to have a meal together in the week, the weekends are the best times. As a kid we would always have a meal together, and I love a Sunday roast, such a meal that is fulfilling and often on a Sunday I would cook a casserole or a stew using the slow cooker and your kids help you is a great way tho encourage them to eat their vegetables if they don’t eat a huge amount in the week.

As a kid we would often go to my Nans at the weekends and seeing other families and all go for a meal, and in the summer time we’d go somewhere by the river where we wouldn’t always get to do especially in the week, and often my dad would take us near the river to ride our bikes and as a kid not many shops were open unlike now so you’d make the weekends different to the week and so I love the weekend and love not having to set an alarm, and watching some weekend TV that I don’t always do in the week and watch a film and making the most of this time together, so my son can have good memories of the weekends aswell.

Many thanks for reading,

Carrie X

Typicallondongal

Celebrate the Queens Jubilee with your kids

Yes it is! and I am so looking forward to the street parties because of this birthday to the Queen. She is an amazing lady and so would love to meet her in person to tell her, instead though my son wrote to her and received a reply.

I would encourage you to have your children write to her and I did as a kid when at Primary School, wrote to Prince William and called him, “Mr William” and I can’t remember if I did receive a reply, but glad I did that.

We Brits like a celebration, and so there will be many street parties, and so why not do one aswell even if you aren’t from the UK, as it will be a memory that will be great for them to tell to their children in years to come.

Have your kids create decorations for it and flags. I remember back when I was a kid celebrating the Royal Weddings, and celebrating the Queens I think 25th anniversary of being Queen and I appeared in a local paper, The Fulham Chronicle, and was dressed in a blue, white and red outfit, and then you had the Royal Weddings.

Tell the story of the Queen, and her life leading up to being the Queen. Have them write a story of the Queen and of the this Jubilee celebration. It will be a good memory and if you take photos for the celebrations, create some wall art, like a collage of this anniversary and with Henry we made a crown.

I wrote about this in my daily blog on google: https://mydailythougthsandfeelings.blogspot.com/2022/05/what-to-do-when-it-is-raining-during.html

Have your children make their own invitation to invite people to your street party and have a seating plan.

Create some cup cakes and have them decorate them for the day.

Then there is Bunting, all you need is string and paper and cut them into triangles, and have them decorate plates for it and cups. Play some Jubilee games like parcel parcel, lucky dips and egg and spoon race. Just making it fun for them to cherish and look back to smile so if there are other celebrations in the future, then they can then tell their kids and lots of things can be passed down, like clothes and have a Platinum Jubilee jumble sale.

The ideas are endless but having fun is the key.

Many thanks for reading,

Carrie X

Not Going Insane During the School Holidays

Hello and welcome to a new Parenting post, today is The Second week of the summer holidays and if you are going insane already you aren’t on your own and my patience has been challenged yet I got through it and so can you.

Kids come with many traits, stroppiness, answering back and full of energy and I am just glad I have my coffee to keep me from losing the plot and it has meant I have got my weeks worth of exercise.

Who needs a gym when your kids can make you run?

It means playing football a lot, cricket or WWF, yes and they say “Don’t try this at home” but as soon as I am picking stuff up of the floor to tidy I have a 7 year old who dive bombs and now I am wrestling to get up to drink my coffee that often goes cold. Good thing Iced coffees exist, as either way I get my energy and stay awake during the day for the course of the 6 weeks holidays.

If you wanna know what coffee I drink at the moment it is Nescafe but when buying a coffee out it is a caramel latte.

Should you use food when it comes to kids playing up?

Yes as they can play up when hungry and so I take snacks and water with me. My son doesn’t really drink flavoured drinks and it is milk or water and in terms of food I will take with me, crackers. or a sandwich, crisps. raisins and since COVID I will use my bank card and not take out cash but it depends where we go. If will often just take out like £20 in cash but if not need to then I don’t.

I tend to do different things during school holidays compared to when Henry is at school, like have an Ice Cream with my son, take a packed lunch and have a picnic and play ball somewhere or like tomorrow go to the seaside to see my family who live near there and having a lot of days out, as often kids especially if an only child at the minute, miss other children being around and when I used to go on holiday would make friends with new children who were also on holiday and being near the see helps me as a parent to keep my calm.

If they get upset when leaving then reassure them that they will have more time away and can write to them as I liked doing this I met a girl called Laura when I went to Devon one year to a holiday camp who lived in Nottingham and kept in touch. We have lost contact now but I loved as a kid to have penfriends and should be memerable for kids to look back on when they get older.

So more blogs to come and remember to #staysafe make sure you wear masks if required and wash your hands regularly when out due to the spread of germs and hand sanitizer.

Many thanks for reading,

Carrie X

Helping kids to use their imagination

When I was a kid I loved doing pretend play where we would pretend to be mums with our dollies and toy pushchairs walking around the Estate I lived in or played indoors.

(If you would like to read about my life growing up in Peabody Estate then why not check out my book, The Peabody Years on Amazon. )

I remember when Sarah Ferguson married Prince Andrew and we each pretended to be a royal bride and go up some steps which used to be a laundry room or something like that,  and pretended that we were on the Royal Balcony with people cheering us.

Neither of us kissed just to say, it was never like that but we just liked to pretend we were different people for a good few hours.

Creating pretend play like having a toy kitchen area, having a dolls house or costumes were great, and we were always in fancy dress. Helping kids to use their imagination is great for them to build relationships with other children and learn to create stories.

It encourages them to speak and make associations with things so they know what a fireman looks like, what a hospital kit looks like and what you do in a kitchen.

Normally now when a kid starts school they will start of by doing more learning through play rather than beginning a child’s school life doing sit down work and Henry has really benefited through play, as he will often do pretend play with his drafts kid and play tipping point, he knows what 10,000 pounds is and pretends that the person he is imagining himself as, gets the jackpot of 10,000 pounds.

He has learned through continuing to play in the park with other kids how to climb more challenging climbing frames, which really helps with his motor skills, which are important.

Kids will learn what is washing machine if they have pretend one at home that they can play with, and what you do if you have a kitchen sink, and knows that this is for cleaning dishes.

I loved writing and creating stories since I was a kid and would often do writing and I think that kids should still do handwriting lessons like I had at school because I do think where we have electronic devices now, how handwriting can become affected, I know mine has since I have been using the computer more, and so I do make a point of actually writing, and getting kids to do fun writing games can really help with their growth and development.

Create a story with your child and make it as creative and fun as possible, then you have something you can keep forever and look back on.

With my son Henry I want him to have lots of good memories of his childhood and be able to look back and smile, and doing pretend play is a great way to bond with your children, and gets the child out of you too.

So lets get imagining and have lots of fun.

Many thanks for reading,

 

Carrie X

 

Games and toys that kids love to play with

Hello and welcome to a new parenting blog. In this post I am sharing some games and toys that kids love to play with.

There are classics and new games you can play and activities, please check out this video by Jordan Paige who gives details of how to keep your kids entertained at home.

With Henry he is loving Lego at the moment and we have played this a lot in the last couple of days, and have been trying to build garage for his imaginable helicopter and I am thinking of surprising him with a toy helicopter to actually put it into his garage built out of lego.

My son loves all buses, trains and helicopters, so we will often spend some time drawing these and when out looking at the numbers of buses, the different types of trains and how many planes we can spot and if we can see any helicopters.

The Countdown game, my mum bought this for Henry, because he loves this game show and has an actual board with it, where he can put letters, numbers and conundrums on, and comes with a countdown clock aswell.

Connect 4 is a household favourite and when I was at secondary school me and my friends made up a connect 4 championship in which I won.

It is a game that I don’t think will ever go out of fashion and very easy to play and encourages kids to count to see when they have 4 counters in a column or row placed together even in red or yellow counter.

Monopoly me and brother were band from playing as kids as it always ended in a fight and argument, but if you don’t have kids that will squabble then it can be a good game to play, just don’t do what me and my brother did, which was try and cheat to make each other bankrupt. Remember it is only a game.

Wordsearches and colouring in. I loved these as a kid and still do, and you can have endless amount of fun with these trying to find letters or colouring in pictures, and everyone can get involved.

Hide and seek, is a classic and my son loves it when we hide his teddy that he has to try and find, or we hide and he has to find us, to the point he will not hide himself but continuously wants to be the one who finds the person.

There are many card games you can play the most easiest one being snap but there are other games too that I love playing when I was a kid and that was rummy and eights and twos.

Rummy is where you have 4 of one suit of cards and 3 of another and eights and twos is where if you lay down a 2 card the other person has to pick up 2 cards and if a person lays an eight card of any suit the other person misses a go, and then when you are down to the last card, you must say last card, and if you can’t lay down your card because you have to lay down the same suit card unless you lay an Ace and this means you can change suit to then lay down a card of a different suit or has the same number card.

Races is always a favourite if you have kids who like to run, cycle, skateboard, scooter or skate, making sure they where a helmet and padding gear in case of any accidents.

Have a load of balloons blown up and see how many each child can burst within a minute or you can play a game with coloured balls and have a game to see how many for example red balls they can pick up and put in a bucket or even use laundry baskets.

Snakes and ladders has always been a favourite along with outdoor games like tennis, badminton, volleyball and rounders.

When we used to stay on a piece of land in Newbury we would camp there for the weekend and play such games and it was such a laugh, and if you have swimming pool or large paddling pool you can play swimming pool volleyball and get everyone involved.

There are endless games you can play. When I was a kid me and my brother and a friend of us would have toy wars, where we would throw a toy ,of course using a cuddly toy and hit one another with them.

Table Tennis has always been a favourite and you can get good priced tables now for table tennis and great if you have a big spare room, garage or garden.

It doesn’t have to be long winded games but one that can get all your kids involved and keeps them occupied for a few hours or so.

Anyway I hope these tips are helpful and until my next blog which will be on Tuesday, many thanks for reading,

 

Carrie X