Sibling love

Playing beautifully, as they have been all day. ❤️

Stop and go

I am completely in love with my son's stop-go sign (other side is red and says 'stop'). It's for me to hold up when I want to say "Stop shouting" or "Go" when I want a hug. ❤️😍

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to my father and the father of my sparkler children!

May you have a wonderful day (of doing not much to my father, to maybe to doing a little less than usual to my husband, as far as I can go, I'm afraid!)

Sporting the Father's Day t-shirt present. We all got a special lie in this morning until 6.45!! 🤗

The questioning child

A great reminder. It's so easy to forget what I remember so clearly as a child in terms of my own needs. The innocence of genuinely wanting to understand why or what for, and the absolute confusion when a parent became angry at my wilfulness or questioning. "Because I said so," meant nothing to me. It made me lose respect for the parent in that moment. A clear answer, or even "I'm sorry I don't have time to go through why right now, ask me later" would have been much better for me.

https://afineparent.com/positive-parenting-faq/strong-willed-child.html

Nightmares

Son was telling me he'd been having nightmares about monsters in the garden, that look like me and my husband, but are blue and eat small children! 😳 I asked what veggies they like, none, but they do like strawberries, so we're going to always have a supply of strawberries so that they don't eat him and his sister. 😂

The children of the clouds

So my daughter was asking me about the children "up there" this morning. Took me ages to realise she didn't mean on the roof of the car, but in the clouds. She insisted these children live in the clouds and she was worried that they were thirsty, but could maybe drink rain water (which I suggested and which made her happy). I asked where the children had come from and she said they used to live in homes with their mummies and daddies, and now they live in the clouds with the other children. Such a lovely and random conversation. I love the minds of my little people.

Big daddy

Two year old daughter: you're little, mama.
Me: am I?
Daughter: yes, like me and S (brother).
Me: what about daddy?
Daughter: daddy is big...with big muscles and big legs.

Underfoot

Me: you really like being outdoors and barefoot, don't you?
Two year old daughter: yeah, I do!
Me: with your feet in the squishy mud, and the grass under your feet...
Daughter: yeah! And the poopies in my toes!
Me: 😳

(Damn all the dog owners who don't pick up their dog's poops).

Dear deer

Just blew a loud noise with grass for the kids and a deer popped it's head around the closest patch of ferns to check us out! Beautiful! 😍

Sleep maths

Counted the kids to sleep tonight. Daughter was conned into stopping milk as I said boobies would rest while I counted to 30. I counted 28, 29, 40, 41, 42, all the way to 130 by which point she was asleep. Son was wired so took over from husband around 8am and counted to 281 before he was asleep. I love my version of maths!! 😍