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Mami To Five

Life: The good, the bad and the ugly bits!

Twins; Should you buy two of the same toy or make them share?

Recently, a question popped up in my Facebook timeline from a group dedicated to parents of twins. This particular mother was asking about having identical toys for her young twins and whether this was okay. Many of the replies to her post were from parents insisting that she was wrong to do so and that her children would never, ever learn to share if she always bought two of everything. 

Personally? I believe those parents are thinking about it all wrong.

My daughters are now 16 and let me tell you buying two of certain things just makes your life so much easier! Actually, they still get two of a lot of things. In fact even their 14 year old sister quite often gets an identical gift, all by request. At Christmas they have always sat with their backs to each other and everybody’s gifts are numbered so everyone still gets their own surprise.

Did my children grow up unable to share? 

Of course not! My children grew up to be much more selfless than many other children I know. They would share more readily at playgroups when they were toddlers and always ask for a treat for everyone else if one was being offered to them.

Being a twin, in fact being from a large family in general, means that sharing is ingrained into your every day life from the day you are born. Everything is shared. Nobody gets a snack if there aren’t enough to go round, bags of sweets are shared, chairs are shared, hell even pyjamas are shared in this house! twins with new notepads twins share everything? www.mami2five.com

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3 Comments CATEGORIES // Kids, Life with twins, parenting TAGGED: large family, multiples, twins and triplets, twins sharing

Frugal tips for feeding a family on a budget

Feeding a family can be expensive. When that family is larger than average costs can quickly escalate! Because we have teenagers it means that I am now basically feeding five adults and two children at every single meal. I also try and make extra so there are leftovers for lunches etc too.

We have been trying to make our finances look a bit healthier this year and I am trying to be a bit more frugal. For the last month I have also been keeping a closer eye on our weekly budget.

At the moment, our weekly shop averages around £120. Which at first glance sounds a lot, but when you break it down it only equates to just over £17 per person for the week, so less than £2.50 each a day. I’m not usually one to toot my own horn, but when you take into consideration that our youngest has to have the more expensive gluten/wheat, dairy and soya free foods I’m actually quite impressed with myself!

From what I’ve seen online, lot’s of people seem to want to be trying to be frugal and save some money this year so I thought I would share some tips on how I shop to try and help save you some pennies too!

Frugal Tips for Feeding a Family on a Budget

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5 Comments CATEGORIES // being frugal, Food TAGGED: feeding hungry kids, large family, money saving, shopping on a budget

Why we waited so long for another baby

When O was a baby, I would occasionally get questioned about the big age gap between my children, people would presume that he was either from a second marriage, or that he was unplanned. After all, my others were all close in age and much older. As he, and especially his sisters, have grown up there have even been the odd occasion where you can just tell people are wondering who his mother is! But actually there is a good reason for such a big gap.

Ten years ago, had you asked me if I was going to have another baby, I would have laughed and said something along the line ‘Oh god no! No more babies for me thank you very much.’ At the time I had four small children aged from a baby up to five years old. Life was sleepless, noisy and everyday was jam packed with nappies, laundry, breastfeeding, school runs and PND.three little girls and a brand new baby boy

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4 Comments CATEGORIES // baby days, parenting, pregnancy TAGGED: deciding to have a baby, large family, newborn baby, placental abruption

My Sunday Photo ~ A Helping Hand

a helping hand

The handy thing about having big sisters is that there’s always someone to give you a helping hand, or at least a fireman’s lift, when you hurt yourself trying to climb a castle wall!

OneDad3Girls

6 Comments CATEGORIES // Kids, My Sunday Photo, Photos TAGGED: large family, ogmore castle, siblings

My Captured Moment ~ Thumbs up

I came across this photo recently and it really made me smile. It was taken on LV’s 4th birthday ( in 2010) he still likes to dress just as funky now.

I also had a bit of a giggle because we have a running joke in the family that our girls have never been able to wear skinny jeans or leggings without them being baggy!

Thumbs up
Thumbs up everyone 🙂

Running in Lavender

2 Comments CATEGORIES // family, Kids, My Captured Moment TAGGED: happy birthday, large family, siblings

How much does a school trip cost!?!

You may well have guessed from the title that this post is about school trips. You may also have sensed a tone of disbelief in the pricing of said school trips!

Well, let me just set the scene with a little back story for you first.

Llangrannog Camp

LM, Langrannog 2013

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23 Comments CATEGORIES // Life with twins, parenting, Teenagers TAGGED: expensive school trips, large family, parenting problems, school trip

The House of Perpetual Mess!

In the 13 years since we started having kids I have come to accept that my house is not going to look anywhere near perfect, or even just tidy, until they have all left home. But saying that if the state of my own bedroom as a child is anything to go by, possibly not even then!

Between the seven of us, the masses of ‘stuff’ that we own, alongside our generally untidy habits mess is completely unavoidable. I hold my hand up here to say that I have never been the best of housewives, I’d much rather play with the kids and well, make messes, than do the dishes or put away clothes!

When the older four are in school I can get our living room into a vaguely tidy space but as soon as they walk though the door we have school bags and shoes strewn all over the place before they even get in a hello!

More often than not, come tea time my beautiful dining table:

farmhouse dining table with benches

Isn’t it so pretty, and clean!?!

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2 Comments CATEGORIES // competitions, General life TAGGED: always a mess, cute photos, fun at home, large family, messy

Word of the week – Memories

The word that sums up my week is:

 

memories

 

All of E&Ff’s photos and most of LM’s were taken before digital cameras.  I would like to say that the best ones were all carefully selected and placed in beautiful photo albums that are brought out occasionally to be oohed and aahed over. Sadly, this isn’t the case. They are all kept in a box upstairs, only to be pulled out when someone is looking for something else and comes across said box!

I would just like to point out that I had twins then went on to have a total of four kids aged five and under. Photo sorting was not a priority for me 🙂

This week I was actually looking for the photo box as I will be reviewing a phone case soon which has your photos printed on to it. I wanted to put some of the older kids when they were little on it. I also then had to dig out the external hard drive that holds the rest of LM’s and all of LV’s photo’s. See it doesn’t make any difference how the pictures were taken, they still end up at the back of a cupboard. Well, they do in my house anyway!

We have all had a wail of a time looking back at how they were when they tiny. So many memories come flooding back when I look at these pictures. I think about how tiny LV must have been having glasses. He’d already had them 8 months in this picture:

100_2106

LV aged 2

I think about all the happy, silly faces I’d be greeted by when I went to get them out of bed in the morning:

erin cropped

E aged 1

And the amount of time they actually spent in cardboard boxes when they were little. Seriously, there’s barely a photo that doesn’t at least have a box in the background!

ffion cropped

Ff aged 10 months

I also giggle at the all the dressing up and tea parties we seemed to have:

lili cropped

LM aged 1

I also looked back on some newer memories of O, like his first ever Christmas party:

IMG_1275

O aged 4 months

I may not show it sometimes when they are pestering each other and all I want to do is go hide in a dark room, but I am so proud of my kids. They have grown so much since these photo’s, even O, and my love for them has grown too. You hold those teeny tiny babies when they are first born and the world seems to stand still. But before you know it they are teenagers and almost taller than you are.

 

Are you like me that you have to go searching high and low for old photos before you can gaze over them lovingly? Or are you more organised and have your photos all sorted and displayed in albums, scrapbooks or actually framed? Oh and one last thing. Hold those babies extra tight and don’t wish away their lives. They will be up and grown before you know it x

The Reading Residence

3 Comments CATEGORIES // baby days, Kids, Uncategorized TAGGED: babies, baby photos, cardboard box, dressing up, large family, looking back, photo albums

Top 20 things I have found in my baby’s mouth

I wonder whats found it's way in there this time!

I wonder whats found it’s way in there this time!

Warning for all first time parents: If your child has gone quiet, your first thought should NEVER be ‘Oh aren’t they playing nicely’ it should always be, what are they doing/ breaking/eating/sticking up their nose or in their ear!

Having older kids with a crawling baby in the house can be a nightmare. No matter how much you baby proof, someone (and I’m not just blaming the kids here) will leave something laying around that is likely to end up in baby’s mouth. Obviously the more people in the house, the more likely this will happen. Add a seven year old boy into the mix and your problems treble!

Here are my top 20 things I have had to fish out of my son’s mouth over the last month or so, there are more but these things seem to find their way in there most often:

  1. A googly eye
  2. A pair of Lego figure legs
  3. A shoelace
  4. A Lego figure’s hair
  5. Car keys
  6. homework
  7. The end of the phone charger, luckily not plugged in!
  8. A piece of liquorice
  9. A pebble from the beach
  10. Batteries
  11. k’nex pieces
  12. a Lego figure
  13. a rubber eyeball
  14. an entire baby sock
  15. hair bobbles
  16. A Lego block
  17. coins
  18. mobile phones
  19. rings
  20. a nappy nippa

 

You might be seeing a slight trend in the Lego department. I can tell LV a million times a day to not bring his Lego downstairs but alas it always finds it way.  Although of course he never brings it, the Lego figures must magically come to life and carry the blocks downstairs before scattering themselves in pieces around the floor!

 

What things have you found your child eating that they shouldn’t? Or is yours one to stick things up their nose or in their ear? Let me know below.

 

4 Comments CATEGORIES // baby days, Kids, Raising boys, Uncategorized TAGGED: babies, baby, large family, parenting, things up noses, top 10, top ten

The problem with having lots of children

I had a commenter on my last post who coined some phrases that really got me thinking.
This is what the moon is a naked banana had to say:

Collective untruth is difficult to deal with. And that is one of the wonderful

things about siblings. It’s one in, all in.

and

 ‘Similar to collective persuasion, or collective bribery, or … or ….

You’re lost once you have more than 2 children!’

And honestly? I think they are right! As much as our four oldest bicker and squabble they do stand together against their father and I at least once or twice a day.  What am I supposed to say when they are all denying that they even took the milk out of the fridge let alone left it open and sitting on the work surface. Or when someone has tipped cereal all over the table and not cleaned it up, yet amazingly nobody tipped the cereal. Deny, deny, deny really does seem to be their mantra.

I hate to imagine how many times I have been bombarded with 4 separate but simultaneous conversations and then 5 minutes later when I’ve had time to process the situation find that I have agreed to something without even realising it! My reaction is usually wonder and awe at how they manage it rather than annoyance.

Then there are the times they ask me when I am obviously stressed or under pressure and agree just to get them to stop pestering! I often don’t realise of course until they feel that it is time to cash in on my promise of a trip somewhere, or ice cream, or whatever else took their fancy.  They can keep these promises quiet for months and spring them on me at any given moment that conversation usually goes a little like this:

Them: Mami, you remember you told us we could go to THAT PLACE?

Me: Ummm?*runs through every conversation we’ve had over the last two weeks*

Them: Well, Dadi said that we’re not doing anything tomorrow, and the weather is going to be nice.

Me: Right?

Them: And you did promise, so can we go? Please? Huh? Pleeeeaaase?

Me: When did I promise? I don’t think I remember saying that.

Them: Yes, you remember that time when the dinner was burning, the baby was screaming, and you were helping LV make that school project, while juggling.

Okay, I might have exaggerated there a bit but you get the picture. The planning they put into these conversations is fantastic they manage to ask only for things that are suitable for a  given day, for example the local country park on a warm day or an indoor activity on rainy days.  They even manage to play us off against each other. Plus they never, ever forget! I have been reminded of these promises I apparently made years and years earlier!

My husband and I often find ourselves looking at four pairs of puppy eyes asking for something, the ‘oh please Mami, we promise ….(insert any good deed imaginable) if you give/let us…’  When we send them away with a resounding ‘No!’ We will eventually get them trickling back one after the other over the next few hours, or days with their individual pleas.

There are even times that they know when to pull out the big guns. What is this secret weapon you ask? It is none other than the baby brother!

Little boy in glasses

LV at 5 years old. Would you be able to say no to that face?

For almost seven years, until O was born, LV was the baby. If there was some stubborn situations that hubby and I refused to budge on he would be the one sent down with his quivery bottom lip and big brown eyes.  Softly whimpering things like ‘but I think I would have really liked to go there’ or ‘I really do like ice cream Mami!’

Luckily for me he has had a bit if a growth spurt, and a big boy haircut, over the last 6 months and of course he is now no longer the baby so his effect is waning but I’m sure they will all train O well, in the ways if parental wrangling. They have had a trial run with LV so they will now know all the best tricks and I’m sure he will be a formidable ally for them.

Now don’t think we are push overs. Yes our children outnumber us but they rarely actually get their own way on things we don’t want to do or give them anyway.  But these kids really do have some power of persuasion in their little gang.  And that is great!But it seems their loyalties only run so deep.  They will defend each other to the last, unless of course they have actually been caught out doing something then they will instantly try and blame it on someone else.  Also, I actually brought this subject up with them the other day and E said that, one day they should all claim it was them, just as a change, they them all looked at each other and decided that was a bad idea as what if they said it first and no one else did too, so I feel there may be chance for me to use a little reverse psychology in the future!

So how about you? Do you often find yourselves being outwitted by your children? Do they use their collective powers to persuade, or even trick, you into doing or giving them something? I’d love to know we are not alone! Let me know in the comments.

 

 

Everything Mummy

 

7 Comments CATEGORIES // Kids, Life with twins, Uncategorized TAGGED: baby, children, gang, kids, large family, parenting, siblings, sisters, twins, united

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