Diary of an (ex)London mum

Lately Baby has taken to trying to do everything at the same time.  Maybe he is reflecting what we do- trying to do too much at the same time.  So the pattern goes that he will eat, and try to play with this toys at the same time, and want to have a tablet nearby so he can watch something or play a game at the same time, and so on... Today he decided to keep his eating time as short as possible and was then complaining about being hungry roughly every two hours or so.  We decided enough was enough and to put a stop to this once and for all- we only gave him meals at meal times.  He could have a snack of fruit or something but nothing else- no mince pies, no biscuits, no toast.  Let's see if the behaviour can be changed.

Turkey and Christmas go together.  This year there will only be 3 of us consuming the turkey- my husband's family, who we are spending Christmas with, are mostly vegetarians/meat avoiders.  We would be preparing a Christmas roast for ourselves at some point during the holidays and then joining them for a meal that will be turkey free at another point.  Whenever that happens, it will mean one turkey for 3 people.  The smallest organic, free range turkeys weigh about 4-5 Kg and feed about 10.  That is a fair bit of turkey for 3.  We do end up eating turkey for more than one day, quite a lot of it as sandwich filling over the festive season- the one good thing about having too much roast is that we can take a break from cooking and just veg on the couch.  Turkeys actually sell out pretty quickly, especially if you are looking for a specific kind and/or size.  Sadly, it is not even the end of November and I am looking at placing an order for one, alb...

Everbody says life changes profoundly following the arrival of a child. It happens very gradually; creeps up on you even. Particularly if, like me, you are defiant and insist that life will carry on more or less as before, perhaps with a few enhancements/additions.  Today I caught myself looking at the adverts lining the wall along the escalators at Bond Street station, scanning for shows/exhibitions that Baby might like to see. Nothing wrong with that, you might say. Nothing wrong with that indeed. However, I have not done that for myself at all since Baby arrived. It would seem that I now (at least attempt to) look at the world with eyes for Baby only.

With Christmas comes the inevitable long break.  This year, Baby will spend some time with my husband and then a few days with just me, and the three of us will then spend the rest of the holidays together, popping out to see family over the holiday season.  We would like him to have some proper rest as it has been a long term and he has been very busy at school. The aim would be to allow him to get bored- to just relax and do whatever he wants, whenever he wants. It is just as important to stop and assimilate the things that have happened to us, as it is to keep accumulating experiences.   So this Christmas would be rest time, time to take stock and think about how to move forward. I talked a little about Christmas presents for Baby in my previous post of this series.  For me, Christmas is actually never far from my mind.  I am not a terribly imaginative person and find it difficult to choose presents for people.  To help with this, I take notes wh...

Maybe I said that a little for effect, but there is a lot of truth in that statement.  I have always been a fairly organised individual and pre-smart phones I was heavily dependent on my Filofax to help me keep track of life and all that.  Detailed plans were made as to when everything should happen, and detailed plans were made as to when I would go to do my groceries shopping- and what I need to buy- or go to training, or meet up with friends, or go to the movies, etc.  Life was busy and there was a lot to fit into a day.  Work took up a lot of my time and I was determined to use what's left of it effectively.   My diary was crammed full of such plans and it was actually quite a heavy thing to have to carry around.  I was never a small handbag kind of girl.  Then came the smart phone and digital calendars and my bag got a bit smaller and lighter. Then we had Baby and things were a bit chaotic for a while until we established some kind of r...

Halloween has come and gone, it is time to think about Christmas.  Christmas has been the biggest holiday in the year for as long as I can remember.  We come from a Christian background and, even though theologically Easter should be the bigger festival, we place more focus on the celebration of Christmas.  I suppose part of it has to do with combining the celebration of the end of a year, taking stock and giving thanks for getting through, and winding down after a year of toil. Baby loves Christmas and we have already started our countdown.  Throughout the second half of the year, Baby has been collecting points by doing good deeds, helping out at home, fulfilling tasks better than just at a basic effort level, etc.  Points are also taken off for not doing those things so that by Christmas we will have a numerical tally of how 'good' he has been and then we will allow him to choose an appropriate present.  He is generally not greedy.  Case in point...

Baby is now in Year 1, which is the second year of formal schooling in the U.K.  This term the school introduced the weekly spelling test as a means to keep track of a child's progress in literacy.  Baby is average in terms of his ability to read and write- adequate for his age group- but lately I have noticed a change in his level of interest in reading and writing which I think will aid him progress. For reading, this heightened interest coincided with the introduction of books on subjects that interested him.  Regular reading was introduced last year (in his Reception year)- the books are graded and children are promoted to more difficult reading material if they manage to read a number of books at each reading level. Part of Baby's increased interest coincided with his expanded vocabulary- the books talk about more interesting things because it is possible to do so.  In short it is worth helping children through the initial pain of reading simple things that t...

Time is precious.  Any time that we spend doing chores is time we don't spend with Baby.  Like a lot of working parents, we use online shopping to save time.  We have been using an online, weekly, organic vegetable box and groceries delivery service for a while, and I have to say that I have really enjoyed the experience of having a regular delivery of groceries where the fresh produce is whatever is good on a particular week.  Takes a bit of imagination and thinking on one's feet, but the vegetables have been really good and tasty; the suppliers help by including pamphlets with recipe suggestions that are useful for the vegetables supplied.  It is kind of nice to not stick to things that we know well so we don't get stuck in a rut.  It also meant that we enjoyed more variety of dishes as we have had to adapt to what is supplied. We have loved the vegetables so much that we have also been ordering their weekly organic roast box which is essentially a pre...

The wonderful Sam Shephard has died and in memory we started a Shephard season at home. My husband chose the first one and went for Baby Boom (headlining Diane Keaton), because it was too late to start The Right Stuff and still expect to get a decent amount of sleep before we have to wake up to go to work. I had not seen the movie for a good few years- I did not have fond memories of the movie and still did not really enjoy it that much.  It was the style of the movie rather than the subjects that it dealt with that I found difficult to like.  However, it dealt with subjects that were important at the time and still resonate now. Working mum/parent trying to juggle home life with a young child and career progression, the idea that a person who is not available to work 24 h a day as a minus point in an employee (which is pertinent not just for parents but anyone who wants some semblance of work-life balance),  organic/artisan/home-made food as a thing to sell to ...

This is the first year when we had to cope with school holidays and we seem to have negotiated the half term holidays fairly well- a little bit of trial and error here and there but no big disasters.  Baby's summer holidays start in 3 days.  Yes, that is much earlier than most other school children; lasting 9 weeks, it is also much longer than summer holidays enjoyed by most school children.  However, Baby's school days are longer so he does in fact attend school for the same number of hours as other children.  Having done more each day, the children at his school are given longer holidays.  This works quite well as it allows parents to work normal working days, and also results in holidays that are slightly staggered from the rest of the school children and often means we can take advantage of cheaper travel deals.  I am happy with this arrangement, which is why I chose the school, but it is daunting to plan activities and childcare for 2 months.  Fo...

One of the characteristics of state-funded schooling is the allocation of school places according to postcode.  This generally means that the students for any particular school may live quite close to their school.  It also depends on the density of schools at a location, e.g. children in living in rural areas may live further from their nearest schools in comparison to children living in built up areas.  We are fortunate that the school Baby goes to is relatively near home and it is possible to walk to school.  There are benefits in engaging with physical activities and the advice is for children, where possible, to walk to school to increase their active minutes.  That is important but the biggest attraction of walking to school with Baby is spending time with Baby.  On any typical work day, I don't get home till fairly late in the evening, when we rush through dinner, shower, homework and then bedtime.  Thus, the time that we spend having breakfast...

My husband introduced me to rock climbing and I love the activity.  Without wishing to wax lyrical about it, it exerts both the body and mind, and requires participants to be very aware of their physical abilities.  Each route is a problem which each individual has to solve according to what their bodies are able to do.  I am much shorter than my husband, for example, but we do the same climbs as we are climbing partners.  I would approach a route in a manner that suits me- e.g. I can't reach as high as as he can- and he does it in his own way but we get to the same destination.  Same route, different challenges, different solutions.  And it is lovely to be up high. We haven't had much of a chance to climb since we had Baby.  However, we have been taking him to the wall off and on since he started walking.  We didn't tend to climb very much on these trips as Baby required a lot of attention.  However, he is becoming a more capable climber ...

Baby has been away on Easter break for a week already- his school has longer school days during term time which means that the Christmas and Easter breaks are a bit longer than at other schools, to balance the teaching hours. He is currently staying with my parents to get some quality time with them and to give us a break. He has been away for a week and it has been weird adjusting to life where not everything is geared towards making things work for him. Gone temporarily is the early morning routine to get his lunch, and then him, ready for school. Gone also is the evening routine of homework, dinner, shower and bedtime. It is much less critical to have everything run like clockwork during the day. Tiring as that was, I must have gotten used to the structure of the day and actually feel a bit disconcerted by the current loss of structure. I guess we humans do love routines as they can be restful in their own ways. Having to determine what to do next all the time as there is no set s...