It all adds up!

There I was pottering around making some lunch while our little bear was happily role-playing with her dolls.  Or so I thought.  As I wandered into the living room, our little bear came up to me, holding up a piece of paper with numbers on.  I lavished praise on her, told her well done and told her how clever she is…

 Then I realised that the numbers actually did add up.  Our little bear had actually done her sums all. by. herself!!

 

Now if that’s not a #ProudMummyMoment, I don’t know what is!…. well, this homework was too 😉

My Word of the Week is ‘sums’ 🙂

Click the badge below to go to Jocelyn’s blog linky at The Reading Residence…

and to Vicky Welton’s blog at vevivos

and share a Magic Moment with Jaime at The Oliver’s Madhouse too

~~

Read my emotional and inspiring true story ‘Diary of a Complicated Pregnancy’. Available now through my website at Virtually All Sorts. 50% of sales to the charity Action on Pre-Eclampsia. …and visit my facebook page or follow me on twitter @ComplicatedPreg

Also available – my indispensable guide to avoiding ‘Working Mum Guilt’. Whether you are about to return or have already started back, this book offers practical solutions and feedback from real Mums with real families in real situations. Covering topics such as Post Natal Depression, childcare options, yours and your child’s development and time management – Ditch the guilt today! … and visit my facebook page or follow me on twitter @WorkingMumGuilt

Follow Carol Cameleon’s board Parenting blogs I love… And think you might too! on Pinterest.

Why homework has made me one proud Mummy Bear!

Well, it’s been a while since I blogged and that’s because of the 3 bears succumbing to the nastiest lurgy that we’ve had in ages.  It looks like we’ve turned a corner and are now on the road to recovery…  so on with my week.  Last week to be precise!  I had every intention of posting last week but the sentiment still stands so here goes!

I’ve blogged before about why I get excited about our little bear’s homework and it is SUCH an exciting time for me to be getting involved with our little bear’s homework and thinking outside the box.  I’ve been grabbing it with enthusiasm and gusto!  Reception at our little bear’s school is learning about The Three Little Pigs and the children (and parents!) are being encouraged to do something pig-related for homework.  It’s always with much excitement that I delve into ‘the book bag’ every day after school.  First, I take out the ‘Communication Book’ which is a fantastic little book, particularly as I don’t always pick our bear up from school in the afternoon.  Then I rummage through the various pieces of scrap colourful paper that our bear and friends have so diligently put into each others’ book bags through the course of the day!  As I rummage, I find her Reading Record Book and the actual book to be read.  And if the homework book is in there, I have a flick through that too.

Faced with doing something ‘Three Little Pigs’ related, our little bear’s creative head went into overdrive.  I asked our little bear what she would like to do for her homework and she immediately went to the stash of packaging that I have very cleverly been keeping, dragged it all out like a game of jenga (she takes after her Dad – always takes the one from the middle, never from the top…!)  Next she told me she wanted to make 3 houses – straw, sticks and brick.  That done, we made some ‘bodies’ with lollysticks that we’ve been keeping to one side.  And hey presto, we had 3 little pigs (4 including Mummy Pig!) and the Big Bad Wolf!  We had oh so much fun completing it and took it into school on the Monday morning for her teacher.  As I handed her teacher the bag with the models inside, I felt an overwhelming rush of pride that I had taken the time to do this with our little bear.

That done, I thought very little of it and just got on with my day.  When I picked her up, she told me that her teacher said she had done ‘good work’.  Another rush of pride….  But when I picked her up later that same week, she showed me with pride her sticker which read ‘Principal’s Award’.  Then she told me that her teacher had taken her to see the Headteacher for ‘good work’ with her Three Little Pigs house models!  Given the lurgy that’s been lingering and staying well past its sell-by-date, I wasn’t feeling on top form… until our little bear told me this wonderful news and showed me her sticker.  Suddenly, nothing else mattered, my hacking cough and wheezing didn’t matter, only my heart swelling and very nearly bursting with pride mattered.

Proud?  Just a bit!

Not surprisingly then, my #WordoftheWeek is ‘Pride’…

Linking up with Jocelyn’s Word of the Week

And Jenny at Let’s Talk Mommy ‘Share With Me’

~Read my emotional and inspiring true story ‘Diary of a Complicated Pregnancy’. Available now through my website at Virtually All Sorts. 50% of sales to the charity Action on Pre-Eclampsia. …and visit my facebook page or follow me on twitter @ComplicatedPreg

Also available – my indispensable guide to avoiding ‘Working Mum Guilt’. Whether you are about to return or have already started back, this book offers practical solutions and feedback from real Mums with real families in real situations. Covering topics such as Post Natal Depression, childcare options, yours and your child’s development and time management – Ditch the guilt today! … and visit my facebook page or follow me on twitter @WorkingMumGuilt

Follow Carol Cameleon’s board Parenting blogs I love… And think you might too! on Pinterest.

In the swing of it…

Four weeks in and I do believe that we’re well and truly in the swing of it … in the swing of school that is.

• Friendships are being formed
• New things are being taught and learnt (at quite a speed!)
• New foods are being eaten
• Various books are being found in book bags for homework, which I’m really excited about!

Yes our little bear’s growing and learning with a hop, skip and jump.  So far so good!

And my word of the week has got to be ‘swing’!

~

Written for #WordoftheWeek (click the badge below to go to The Reading Residence to read other peoples’ words…)

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Read my emotional and inspiring true story ‘Diary of a Complicated Pregnancy’. Available now through my website at Virtually All Sorts. 50% of sales to the charity Action on Pre-Eclampsia. …and visit my facebook page or follow me on twitter @ComplicatedPreg

Also available – my indispensable guide to avoiding ‘Working Mum Guilt’. Whether you are about to return or have already started back, this book offers practical solutions and feedback from real Mums with real families in real situations. Covering topics such as Post Natal Depression, childcare options, yours and your child’s development and time management – Ditch the guilt today! … and visit my facebook page or follow me on twitter @WorkingMumGuilt

A change is as good as a rest… but is it half term yet?!

 Over the past couple of weeks we’ve had changes coming at us from all directions.  A change here, a change there, changes everywhere!  And they all revolve around starting school.

We’ve had a change of routine, physical changes as our little bear continues to grow, emotional changes for us all but especially for our little bear and a change in social interaction as new friendships are formed (which is so lovely to see and hear about).

So as we end another week of school my word of the week is ‘change’.

A change really is as good as a rest… but is it half term yet?! 😉

~

 

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Read my emotional and inspiring true story ‘Diary of a Complicated Pregnancy’. Available now through my website at Virtually All Sorts. 50% of sales to the charity Action on Pre-Eclampsia. …and visit my facebook page or follow me on twitter @ComplicatedPreg

Also available – my indispensable guide to avoiding ‘Working Mum Guilt’. Whether you are about to return or have already started back, this book offers practical solutions and feedback from real Mums with real families in real situations. Covering topics such as Post Natal Depression, childcare options, yours and your child’s development and time management – Ditch the guilt today! … and visit my facebook page or follow me on twitter @WorkingMumGuilt

Not another blog post about starting school ? (yes, sorry!)

This week has been all about change and I’m going to add yet another blog post to the blogosphere about starting school.  But really and truly I make no apologies.  It is a massive milestone after all…

Thankfully it’s been a pretty smooth, very tiring for all involved but exciting and fun nonetheless.  She’s been doing some very quick colouing-in at her desk (that used to be a cot) after her breakfast while I get ready.  And the uniform… our little bear loves her uniform.  So much so that she’s asked to wear her school tights again at the weekend!…

A week in and myself and hubby have noticed changes in her already!  Even down to her sentence structure.  She’s more adventurous with her food (I wrote about her Faddy Fussy Journey before) and started the week insisting on pack-ups.  She’s ended the week insisting on school dinners 🙂

She’s making new friends and her party invites have gone into all their book bags thanks to her wonderful teacher.  The invites are addressed just to ‘my new friend’!  She’s singing songs at home that she’s been singing in class including ‘Little Red Hen’ and shown us the actions 🙂 We’ve heard all about the toy office in the shed in the reception garden.  It sounds like so much fun and she made stickers for us which she put in her book bag!  That tells me she’s been thinking about us during her school day, as have we of her.

It’s early days and it’s been emotional!  But my word of the week is ‘change’.

Read more ‘word of the week’ blogs by clicking on the badge below to go The Reading Residence…

~

Read my emotional and inspiring true story ‘Diary of a Complicated Pregnancy’. Available now through my website at Virtually All Sorts. 50% of sales to the charity Action on Pre-Eclampsia. …and visit my facebook page or follow me on twitter @ComplicatedPreg

Also available – my indispensable guide to avoiding ‘Working Mum Guilt’. Whether you are about to return or have already started back, this book offers practical solutions and feedback from real Mums with real families in real situations. Covering topics such as Post Natal Depression, childcare options, yours and your child’s development and time management – Ditch the guilt today! … and visit my facebook page or follow me on twitter @WorkingMumGuilt

Find out why it’s been a wobbly week!

Find out why it’s been a wobbly week…!

 It didn’t take me very long to come up with an appropriate word this week.

A family member who fell down the stairs fracturing several vertebrae in their neck and damaging their spinal cord, is showing signs of slow recovery.  Thankfully.

Another family member fell over and broke their wrist.  On their writing hand side  – just in time for the start of term…

I had an emotional wobble seeing friends’ status updates of their little ones in their school uniforms, as the first day at ‘big’ school is fast approaching for our little bear…

And our little bear had quite an adventure!  Her 2nd wobbly tooth was refusing to budge, her gum was bleeding and she was crying in pain/panic.  One emergency appointment at the dentist, 2 stickers and 1 ice cream later (and some flexi-time used up at work!) and the tooth fairy paid a visit.  ‘Paid’ being the operative word!

Now you can see why my word of the week is, without a shadow of a doubt, ‘WOBBLY!’

I’m hoping for a more stable one next week, although my bottom lip will certainly be wobbling with our little bear starting school!

I’d have a big glass of wine but I don’t drink anymore!

Why not join in with your word of the week with The Reading Residence by clicking the badge below?

~

Read my emotional and inspiring true story ‘Diary of a Complicated Pregnancy’. Available now through my website at Virtually All Sorts. 50% of sales to the charity Action on Pre-Eclampsia. …and visit my facebook page or follow me on twitter @ComplicatedPreg

Also available – my indispensable guide to avoiding ‘Working Mum Guilt’. Whether you are about to return or have already started back, this book offers practical solutions and feedback from real Mums with real families in real situations. Covering topics such as Post Natal Depression, childcare options, yours and your child’s development and time management – Ditch the guilt today! … and visit my facebook page or follow me on twitter @WorkingMumGuilt

Getting prepared for school ~ a uniform list!

A pretty ‘uniform’ school list…

Very soon our little bear will be starting ‘big’ school.

This week I realised that I ought to go through my checklist of things we need.  I’d say it’s a pretty ‘uniform’ list (pun intended – sorry!), so feel free to follow this list yourself (although it’s not unisex so please consider that!..)  If I’ve forgotten anything glaringly obvious, please give me a nudge by commenting ~ I’ve still got a couple of weeks…thanks:

Cardigan/jumper

Pinafore dresses/skirts/trousers/polo shirts

Tights/socks

Shoes

Plimsols

P.E. kit

School coloured hair accessories

School bag for holding lunch box/spare clothes

School book bag

P.E. kit bag

Autumn coat

Name tags!

Lunch box

Drink bottle

Envelopes for dinner money etc

Change pot to keep somewhere handy for collecting loose change for said dinner money etc ~ every penny helps, right?

Tissues (for me on the first day!)

~

So please tell, have I missed something?

Do they need pencil cases and basic equipment to go in them at this ‘tender’ age?

Now to label everything up!… I may be some time.  Although I have done some already and not a needle and thread in sight 😉

It was pretty clear to me that my Word of the Week had to be ‘prepared’.

Visit Jocelyn at The Reading Residence for some by clicking the badge below…

~~~~~

Read my emotional and inspiring true story ‘Diary of a Complicated Pregnancy’. Available now through my website at Virtually All Sorts. 50% of sales to the charity Action on Pre-Eclampsia. …and visit my facebook page or follow me on twitter @ComplicatedPreg

Also available – my indispensable guide to avoiding ‘Working Mum Guilt’. Whether you are about to return or have already started back, this book offers practical solutions and feedback from real Mums with real families in real situations. Covering topics such as Post Natal Depression, childcare options, yours and your child’s development and time management – Ditch the guilt today! … and visit my facebook page or follow me on twitter @WorkingMumGuilt

I’ve been cramming in Summer Holiday Activities…

With a week off in the Summer holidays with our little bear, with strictly, absolutely no clock-watching, we’ve been doing lots of activities.  We’ve been cramming in a non-busy way 😉

 

There have been no rules really.  Just enjoyment, relaxation and a few lie-ins!

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Hubby and I are firm believers in ‘down time’ and letting our bear do what she likes in holidays and at weekends, basically following her lead.  But I had a mental bucket list that I wanted to keep in mind, ready for those “I’m boooored” moments when she needs that extra stimulation and so far mummy, daddy and our little bear have:

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Been outdoorsy.  We’ve visited the local parks.  If our bear had her way, this would be a daily occurrence but she has to go in the paddling pool in her Ariel swimming cossie and unfortunately the weather’s been a bit chilly at times!  The local recs haven’t had a look in.  It’s the ‘big park’ every time.  We don’t get the opportunity to do the park all that often because of work/childcare time restraints in the week and often the weather’s not great at the weekends.

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Been crafty!  Because there’s nothing our little bear likes more than making and doing, we had the paint box at the ready.  She painted her bedroom wall with daddy bear and this week she has painted a mural onto that wall.  We’ve also made crocodiles from a Toucan Box we had stashed away for the hols.  I’ll be blogging about that very soon…

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Been cultural.  We visited the local museum just today and in the process learnt about dinosaurs, the local area during the war and in the Ice Age.  Our bear flitted from one room to the next but she did enjoy it!

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But the biggie, the cherry  on top, the icing on the cake, was a desk that we put up for her.  This is no ordinary desk though.  It’s one we converted from her old cot 🙂  More on that on the blog in the coming weeks too…

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So, our week has been enjoyable, restful, invigorating, stimulating, lovely and crammed (in a sort of non-busy way!..)

And that is my word this week ~ “crammed”.

What’s your word?

Join in at The Reading Residence.

~~~

Read my emotional and inspiring true story ‘Diary of a Complicated Pregnancy’. Available now through my website at Virtually All Sorts. 50% of sales to the charity Action on Pre-Eclampsia. …and visit my facebook page or follow me on twitter @ComplicatedPreg

Also available – my indispensable guide to avoiding ‘Working Mum Guilt’. Whether you are about to return or have already started back, this book offers practical solutions and feedback from real Mums with real families in real situations. Covering topics such as Post Natal Depression, childcare options, yours and your child’s development and time management – Ditch the guilt today! … and visit my facebook page or follow me on twitter @WorkingMumGuilt

Flexible working starts here!

 

It’s been a week of new beginnings in the Bear household!  After several weeks of nail-biting meetings with my manager at work and HR, I started my new flexible working hours!  From the minute that I submitted my flexible working application form at work, to the minute I found out that they would meet me half way, I thought of very little else to be honest!  I had to request my new hours because otherwise we wouldn’t have managed to work out the school run in September when a new chapter begins.  So to say that it was a massive relief is, quite possibly, the understatement of the year… Well, that and getting our first choice of school for our little bear 🙂

 

Yes, this was the week that I started my new hours.  The same amount of hours, just different ‘shifts’ without the actual shift work.  If I’m not making much sense, then please forgive me but I’ve spent most of the week waking up, working out what day it, what shift hubby is on, whether I’m starting work at 9 am or later, what time I need to get our little bear off to the childminder…!

 

And now that the week’s over, it’s time for a week off work!  Yippeeeee!

 

How’s your week been?  What word sums it up?  Join in with Word of the Week over at The Reading Residence… 

 

 

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Read my emotional and inspiring true story ‘Diary of a Complicated Pregnancy’. Available now through my website at Virtually All Sorts. 50% of sales to the charity Action on Pre-Eclampsia. …and visit my facebook page or follow me on twitter @ComplicatedPreg

Also available – my indispensable guide to avoiding ‘Working Mum Guilt’. Whether you are about to return or have already started back, this book offers practical solutions and feedback from real Mums with real families in real situations. Covering topics such as Post Natal Depression, childcare options, yours and your child’s development and time management – Ditch the guilt today! … and visit my facebook page or follow me on twitter @WorkingMumGuilt

Being stretched to the limit but holding it all together… just!

Quite honestly, my word of the week can only be …

…because I have been pulled in all directions, I have snapped, I have been wrapped around little fingers, I have been stretched in every way, shape and form imaginable, I have pinged back and ‘lost it’ but then more importantly, I have kept it all together.

 

Well, to be honest, that last one about keeping it all together is debatable!  You see, we have been decorating, dealt with blocked waste pipes, I have been a pushover with our little bear and I’ve just about managed to keep my sanity through it all…

 

Wonder what on earth the next week of the school summer holidays will bring?!

~

Read my emotional and inspiring true story ‘Diary of a Complicated Pregnancy’. Available now through my website at Virtually All Sorts. 50% of sales to the charity Action on Pre-Eclampsia. …and visit my facebook page or follow me on twitter @ComplicatedPreg

Also available – my indispensable guide to avoiding ‘Working Mum Guilt’. Whether you are about to return or have already started back, this book offers practical solutions and feedback from real Mums with real families in real situations. Covering topics such as Post Natal Depression, childcare options, yours and your child’s development and time management – Ditch the guilt today! … and visit my facebook page or follow me on twitter @WorkingMumGuilt