kids Archives - Mami To Five

Does your child know what a birthday is?

A birthday. The day we celebrate a person’s life and the fact they have reached another year older. It’s obvious that’s what it is. Isn’t it?

Today, I learnt that my fiveyear old had no idea what a birthday actually is! Just as a bit of a backstory, his birthday was last week and mine was 8 days before his, so birthdays have been high on the discussion list for a good while now. This is how that conversation went:

O: Mami, how do you remember when my birthday is?

Me: Because it’s your birthday, I’m a Mami it’s my job to remember.

O: But how did you know it was my birthday?

Me: Ermmm……Do you know what a birthday means?

O: It’s the day I get presents.

Me: Do you know why though?

O: No.

Me: Your very first birthday was the day you came out my tummy.

O: Whhhhaaaaaaaattttttt!?!? When I was borned?

Me: Yes!!! On July 9^th every year means you are exactly a WHOLE year older from when you were born. So it’s been 5 years since you were born. That’s why we celebrate birthdays, because you are bigger and we are happy.

O: Well wow! I did not know that! He said shaking his head

This conversation happened about 10 minutes into a 20 minute car journey with just me and him in the car. I spent the next 10 minutes tittering to myself as he occasionally muttered under his breath about how cool that was and how he did NOT know that before! It was like I had blown his little inquisitive mind!

It is funny the little things we just presume kids know, when actually they might have no idea at all! Do your kids know what a birthday really means?

Summer Days Linky ~ Finally, a Day Out!

Please sponsor our Alzheimer’s Memory Walk through JustGiving

Welcome back to the Summer Days Linky with myself and Karen from Stopping at Two. You can read more about it HERE. You can link your summery posts at the bottom of this post.

So here we are, the end of the last full week of the summer holidays! It has been a long six weeks, but in a way it has also flown by. I must admit that we are all ready to get back to our usual routine and with the awful weather we have had the kids getting a little cabin feverish now and are actually looking forward to going back to school!

This week Lee was off work and it was supposed to be our week of fun.

It hasn’t quite worked out that way.

To begin with LV has broken his heel bone and is on crutches. He doesn’t have a cast on, which he is extra gutted about, but he isn’t allowed to put any weight on it for at least another 4 weeks. This has obviously limited the activities we could do.

The second problem was two hospital appointments which took up Monday and Wednesday.

The third and most inconvenient issue was once again, you guessed it, the weather! It has been horrendous here most of the week meaning most of our possible days out had to be crossed off the list.

By Thursday we decided we needed to look for somewhere further afield and after a quick google of ‘where is sunny in the UK now’ we jumped in the car and made our way to Bristol Zoo. I will tell you more about it next week but here are some photos as a teaser.

Blue skies! Such a change from the downpour we had just left in Wales.

Even the lions were enjoying a doze in the sun!

I think I had the better end of the deal with the much needed piggybacks later on in the afternoon. Not only did I get the smallest boy but using my pod (a style of baby carrier) makes life so much easier!

So now on to the Summer Days linky, please feel free to link up any type of post. It could be a round up of your week, a picture you want to share, a yummy recipe, fun craft or an activity you’ve tried. Maybe you simply went out for a lovely walk in the sun or spent a bit of time in the garden. Anything you like that makes you think of summer including fashion, beauty, interiors and travel posts.

Of course there are a few simple rules:

Link up one of your summer related posts from this year.
Please comment on at least the two posts before yours ~ Remember these linkys only work if we all share the love, the more you give the more you get back!
You can use the hashtag #SummerDays when you comment to let people know where you came from.
Please add the badge to the bottom of your post to help spread the word of the linky.
Have fun! It is summer after all 😀

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My Captured moment – windy day at the beach

With the Summer Days linky starting back up tomorrow I thought it appropriate to share a photo from a few summers ago for this weeks Captured Moment. These photos of E were taken on what must have been a particularly windy day at the beach, way back in June 2010 when the kids were spending some time with my parents. I just love the look on her face when the umbrella has turned inside out!

My Captured Moment ~ Bathroom Humour

I try to keep My Captured Moment for all of the photos from times gone by that are special to me but won’t really fit in a post of their own. As I was skimming back through the images on my computer screen these two popped up and made me giggle, I just had to share them with you.

They were taken last July after O got these foam letters for his first birthday. Almost everyday I’d walk into the bathroom to find some silly message stuck to the tiles which were altered numerous times over into something sillier and sillier.

If the level of bathroom humour stays like this in my house I’ll be a happy Mami, but it’s nice to know I don’t suck!

My Sunday Photo ~ The Anderson Shelter

This term eight year old LV has been learning about World War 2. His homework this week was to make a model of an Anderson Shelter. He is my fourth child so far to do this particular piece of homework in five years!

At least I get a six year break before having to do it all again though 😀

My Captured Moment ~ Big Red Tractor

This is one of Lee’s favourite photographs of LM.

She was two years old and we were on a camping holiday in Devon. One of the highlights of our trip was to a hedgehog hospital. For the life of me I can’t remember the name of the place though! There were farm animals, hedgehogs, a trampoline and little ride on tractors and yet LM wanted to spend all her time on this big red tractor.

The one thing that makes me smile the most is the shoes she’s wearing. They are a pair of Clarks Doodles and she wore them for the entire summer, which we were blessed with sunny weather throughout. Her feet bore the half circle tan mark for years and years. I swear even if you look at her feet now, almost a decade later, you would still see the faint outline!

I’d love to find out the name of this hedgehog hospital. Does the red tractor look familiar to you?

Do you suffer from Involuntary oversharing?

Common name: Involuntary Oversharing

Latin name: totalis blabbermouthium

Symptoms: Inability to refrain from expelling a build up of information, every single thought that has entered sufferers head, or anything vaguely exciting that has happened to them. Symptoms usually appear on meeting another adult after extended periods in only the company of children.

Sufferers: Most commonly found in stay at home mothers but, increasingly seen in fathers over the last few years.

Infectius status: Not originally thought to be contagious, but with the advent of baby groups and preschool activities it has been found to infect all mothers who come into contact with each other.

Cure: See bottom of page

Very cute but not much conversation!

A Very Merry (Poorly) Christmas

I hope you have all had a great time over Christmas and aren’t suffering too much from a post turkey & booze overindulgence hangover?

We have had a quiet few days here ourselves. With the littlest member of our brood feeling none too hot. Well, actually I tell a lie, he’s been feeling much too hot for the majority of the last week! Apart from his raging temperature which has caused him to be almost delirious at times, he’s had no appetite, been full of snot, coughing his guts up and generally been a very poorly little boy. But for the sake of the other children we tried not to let that put a dampener on our festivities!

How to collect a urine sample from a toddler!

It’s 100% guaranteed that if you take your toddler’s nappy off and you dont want them to, they will instantly pee on the floor, your lap, or in your bed.

But that one time you need really them to pee on command? It is like getting blood (or urine!) from a stone. That is until the millisecond your not looking and they pee on the sofa of course!

So having had to go through this ordeal recently I thought I would pass on my tips, with a little humour thrown in for good measure, because, well, if you don’t laugh you’ll cry right? So here are my: READ MORE »

My Childish, Ranty Post

Just to pre-warn you (if the title didn’t) that this post is not me at my most dignified, this is basically my version of a toddler tantrum, stamping feet and all!

*****Message to my daughters: Girls I know you read my blog so please pay attention and take note!!!!!*****

I refer you first to my post a few months ago, about all the things I have found in my bed. Then there was the one about children pinching anything and everything that belongs to you. They were quite jovial posts, a bit of a lark. But sometimes, mostly when I’m tired (I have had about 12 hours sleep total since last week!) I can get really annoyed at the little things but especially the fact that my bed is always full of crap and bits, my quilt is strewn all over the floor half out of the cover and my headphones are nowhere to be seen.

I NEED MY HEADPHONES!

Yes, I know, being in a paddy about headphones is ~~totally~~ a bit childish.

But they are MY HEADPHONES!!!