Sanity saver or sanity breaker?

Handprints onto baubles, and glittery stickingness.

To start with, both these craft ideas were sanity savers. How to distract a poorly toddler while keeping his under-the-weather younger sibling happy(ish).

Idea number 1. Steal somebody else's idea of doing handprints onto baubles and attempt to do the same. With a 3 year old and a 2 week old.

Ben was happy to comply with the handprint part of it, but trying to stop him playing with all the bits (brushes, water, paint etc) while I tried to prise / tease Charley's fist open to paint / apply handprint / clean it was another matter entirely.

That didn't make too much mess though.

Idea number 2. While the health visitor was round (to weigh Charley - he's now 8lbs 15.5oz - that's 4.06kg, a gain of half a pound / 200g in a week which I'm pretty pleased about!) I gave Ben a pair of scissors and some pieces of card to cut up. It kept him occupied for a LONG time. Huge amount of concentration. So much so that he forgot about his usual preoccupation of drumming, and had to be asked to play for us!

There wasn't a great deal of mess from the cutting up either.

The mess on our floor (which I haven't had chance to clean up) has come from glitter. That is the problem with children who have learnt to use their opposable thumbs: they can open boxes and glitter pots and glue sticks without adult help.

Idea number 3 was to do some glittery sticking onto pre-painted sheets of paper, but of course Charley was unsettleable after the health visitor left (he'd been woken up only 15 minutes into what should have been a long nap) and so I was feeding him, settling him, soothing him, putting him down in his nest every time he fell asleep only to be yelled for 5 minutes later when he woke again, while Ben was playing with glitter and glue with me only really able to watch from the sofa.

So I can explain the piles of glitter on the carpet in the living room.

But I'm still wondering where the glitter has come from that I noticed all over the kitchen worktops this morning!


We actually made it to the tots party this morning - and only missed half of it!! Called in at tesco on the way to see if they had any toys I could wrap for Santa to give to Ben at the party, Got some random big-eyed creature called Daisy which Ben chose, but then couldn't find a gift bag and didn't want a whole roll of gift wrap just for that. Decided to see if the corner shop had anything and all they had left was a bottle bag - which, once cut down to size, was a perfect fit for Daisy the Possible Cow. Ben was pleased to see Ede and they made the most of being together by getting up to mischief, taking ride-on toys to the buggy parking area and getting stuck.

I can do mornings. I never thought I'd be able to say that. I have disliked mornings for as long as I can remember. I still don't enjoy them a great deal, but they are easier to cope with than afternoons. Ben has never been an easy afternoon child. If distracted he's fine. If not - and the last 8 or 9 months have generally been a case of 'not' - he's tired, cranky, grumpy, petulant, whiney... just like his mum really. Together we just wind each other up I think. Add Charley into the mix and we still can't get out in the afternoons (yet). (At least, not when we're expecting the health visitor.) Add poorliness and extreme tiredness all round and you're in for a winner of an afternoon......


Ben still off his food. And drink. And nursing like there's no tomorrow, or at least feels like it :( Hope he gets better soon. Hope Charley and I don't actually succumb to the lurgy although we're both suffering a little.


In these circumstances I believe the done thing is to count one's blessings!!

But I'm going to think about the things that Ben has done recently that have really impressed me and made me proud.

He's learning and recognising his numbers. He has known his numbers in theory for a while, able to pronounce them and count aloud 1 to 10; but not really made the connection with reality. With his daddy's help, looking for each advent window he's been putting word and shape together. And at the weekend he actually counted accurately the Father Christmas russian dolls on our mantlepiece! That's the first time I've heard him count anything properly.

He's learning to be patient at night when I have to deal with Charley - so much so that he rolls over and falls asleep again! Tonight he wanted Charlie (from Charlie and Lola) to cuddle to sleep. But instead of cuddling him, he announced that the toy was Charley-bear and that he was Daddy-Charley and he rolled over away from me and the toy, and fell asleep just as if he was Steve and the toy was Ben.


Ready for my bed again. (Have been all afternoon and evening!)