Button Necklace

D1 and I spent the evening eating junk and making necklaces from a value pack of colourful buttons!

The buttons cost a whole £1 from hobby craft.  Some are a little defected but there are plenty of usable ones.  I picked up the thong from the local charity shop for a measly 20p - We are lucky to have one specialising in beautiful crafty bits and bobs.

D3 is suddenly getting very nosy and is easily distracted when feeding and my colourful creation made for a fantastic nursing necklace.  I shall be wearing it a fair bit over the next few weeks I think.

The Child Will Sleep Anywhere

I took this snap last week and feel it's screaming out for a caption.

What can you come up with?

How Much???

Today was the first day back at school after the Easter Break and D1 went back wearing her new school summer dress.

You may remember my previous post about my fantastic new toy (the sewing machine)... Well, I came across a vintage pattern for school uniform in a local charity shop for 50p, and then couldn't believe my luck when one of the fabric shops in town reduced all it's fabrics to £1/mtr.  I am a total novice when it comes to sewing but I am really enjoying it so thought I would give it a go...  

I had never followed a pattern before so just dived straight in and made it up as i went along.  I used greaseproof paper to trace the pattern, forgot to note all of the markings and cut off the notches!  I spent a lot of time on you tube watching "how to" videos and asked various friends and family members what to do with edges and hems.

Here's the result:

It won me the biggest kiss and cuddle, I can't believe how pleased she was with it.  It only took me 9 hours, Plus another 2 hours to get the hem right.

So, by my Maths:

50p for the pattern

+ 

£1 for the fabric 

+ 

11 hours at minimum wage

=

£68.38

Maybe dress number two will work out in the £30 price range?

Easter Learning - Chocolate Colours

D2 is learning her colours.  Once we had purchased back the stash of cheap and nasty foil wrapped eggs from D1, The Big D set up a little colour sorting game.

D2 had a great time and seemed to catch on really quick, even going to the toy box and presenting BigD with a yellow toy.  A very successful lesson I hear you say.

This video is her showing off her new skills!

She has become really fond of this "game" and has played it daily since Sunday - My baking session with the surplus chocolate may just have to wait a while.

Easter Learning - Chocolate Maths

This year the Easter Bunny left it far too late "must have run out of dairy free eggs" to hide round the garden for our annual Easter egg hunt so we just had to grab a packet of little chocolate eggs from Tesco.

D1 still had a great time hunting for them and we agreed an exchange rate of 10p per egg.  Where D1 is concerned money has no value and she would happily swap a £2 coin for 2p if the 2p was shinier - We are trying to rectify this and over the Easter Holidays she has been paying for all the shopping, we have also been learning how to count in tens so we had great fun working out how many pennies she needed in exchange for her hoard of eggs.

How many eggs does Daddy need in exchange for 50p?

The eggs cost £3 and she made £2.60 from her stash.  We are now left with a pile of indelible cheap and nasty Tesco chocolate and are -£5.60.  Next year the Easter Bunny will be more organised and buy a packet of plastic refillable eggs from the pound shop!  In the mean time I am on the look out for a recipe that might make all that chocolate edible.

Come Dine With Us - D1 Style

This Easter holidays D1 has been in charge of all our evening meals.  

I picked up a fab little cook book (What's for dinner) from the book club at a baby singing group that D2, D3 and I attend.  It is great in so many ways, we love the photography and more importantly there are not many recipes that we won't try.  It certainly isn't posh dinner party food but it definitely is a quick and easy everyday family cook book.

D1 flicked through the book and bookmarked every recipe that caught her attention (lots of pasta) and we are now working our way through them.  She is writing a shopping list and we are going to the shop for ingredients on a daily basis (we are walking distance to the super market), she is paying and then helping to prepare the meal.

It's proving to be a great exercise and the Italian Chicken Bake will definitely be going on the menu more often, even our fussy eater (D2) ate it all, along with the extra vegetables I snuck in!

Potty Training

D2 has been "ready" for potty training for a few months now, since she was 18 months to be precise, but with a new baby due we decided the time just wasn't right.  

It all started with nappy rash.  We kept the nappy off one evening after her bath in order to get some air to her bottom and settled down to read some books.  We took the opportunity to introduce the potty and had her sit on it whilst we read - I didn't think for a minute it would get used and if I am totally honest I just didn't want to be cleaning up pee off the sofa.  

Minutes into our book she jumps up in fright following a fluke wee wee.  We seized the moment and laid the praise on super thick, I even gave her a chocolate button.  The following evening we did the same and we were presented with another wee wee, again we went OTT  on the praise and gave her another chocolate button.  Later that same evening she tells me she has done another wee and this time asks for chocolate!  Coincidence surely?  No.  Not all.  The scenario was repeated every time we took the nappy off.  

D1 was nowhere near ready to toilet train until she was 2 and a half so I couldn't really get my head round it with D2 being so young and wasn't quite sure what to do.  I spoke to all kinds of people and sought advice from the nursery nurse/ leader at the breastfeeding support group (booby club) we attend.  Eventually we decided to wait until after the baby was born as, apparently, it is not uncommon for children to slip backwards when a new baby arrives.

Well...  D2 is now 23 months and baby D3 has been with us now for 10 weeks so we are all, well and truly, settled into our new routines.  The bigD has 6 days off over Easter so we had decided that we would give potty training that final push then.  Last SUNDAY, however, we were having a lazy day and no one got properly dressed all day, it wasn't until 3 o'clock in the afternoon when D2 came up the stairs shouting she had done a number 2 that I realised we still hadn't put her nappy on.  My first thought was "oh s h one t" (no pun intended) I really couldn't  be doing with having to deal with a nice pile of poo on the carpet.   I get down the stairs only to find it nicely contained in the potty and it, only then, dawns on me that she has gone the whole day without a nappy on, AND without leaving me any little presents.

On MONDAY we decided that after her achievement the day before  it would be unfair to put the nappy back on during the day so out came the big girls knickers and by 10 o'clock we had had 3 accidents.  I was starting to regret making the commitment.   

TUESDAY wasn't much better.  Everything was going wrong when we put pants on.

WEDNESDAY was booby club and we had been doing brilliantly all morning until she decided to pee all over a friend's soft structured sling ( If you are reading I am so sorry).  That evening I did some research and came across this article, I am not too sure I agree with the 3 day thing but basically they advise no underwear for 3 months (hopefully it won't take anywhere near that long) and it seemed to fit with it all going wrong when she is wearing knickers.

THURSDAY we headed off to meet friends at a local play centre.  We went with a bare bottom and I was armed with kitchen roll, a small hand towel, flash wipes, nappy sacks and, of course, the potty.  She did 3 on target (the potty) and 1 at the entrance to the ball pool!  It was a good job I had gone prepared.  Not that prepared - I had forgotten a change of clothes (Any excuse for a new dress from the shop up the street).

FRIDAY was accident free except for the puddle left in D3's bouncy chair.

SATURDAY onwards has been accident (and knicker) free.  We have used pull up pants for bed and nap times and she has been dry for most nights, even waking to use the toilet.  It is clear that the knickers, tights or trousers were giving her a false sense of security and I think we will try to introduce knickers again at the end of the easter holidays and see how we get on...