Sunday soapbox - no notice

This half term at nursery JR has been learning lots about London including names of famous landmarks, all about Her Majesty The Queen, how to bow and various nursery rhymes and songs. This is really lovely and you're probably wondering why this is the subject of a Sunday soapbox!

Well her goes, on Tuesday this week JR brought home a very nice invitation to go to see him and his classmates do a presentation all about what they have been learning.

You are probably still thinking aww how sweet, and yes it is incredibly sweet. However here's the problem they sent the invites home on Tuesday for a performance on Thursday morning, and they had to be dressed in Red,White & Blue. Each child had to write the invite to a parent or guardian of their choice JR chose Daddy. 

Again this is fine however Daddy works full time and is usually able with some planning to get time off, TWO days NOTICE is not enough time for planning of days off for working parents or to organise Union Flag coloured clothes in the end he went in a red Mr Bump t-shirt and daddy missed out watching his really nice and lovely London Showcase! PLEASE teachers more than 2 days notice would be nice next time! 

Mister maker That gives me an idea DVD - Review

JR and TP are both huge Mister Maker fans, so when I was given the opportunity to review Abbey Home Medias new Mister Maker DVD I asked the boys if they would like to, and of course they said YES!

The boys were so excited when the parcel arrived they couldn't wait for me to connect the laptop to the tv (Our DVD player is broken). 

When I put the DVD on the boys sat still, quiet and didn't take their eyes off the screen (still and quiet never ever happens!) They watched the whole DVD which has a running time of 95 minutes and when it finished they asked to watch it through again and they did quietly again except for lots of giggling and laughing.

There are 5 episodes on the DVD they are listed on the back of the DVD as shown below

I would completely recommend this DVD for the little Mister Maker fans in your life, we watched it with the tiny 3's cousins as well and they all really enjoyed it their ages are 2,3,5,&7 so although its a cbeebies production I think it would appeal to all ages as there abilities grow as they get older they can try the makes over and over again. 

I was sent this DVD free of charge for the purposes of this review but as always on me and the tiny 3 all the options included in this review are honest and my own. 

La's hospital journey part 2

On the morning of Friday 17th may I got JR ready to be picked up for nursery and TP ready to spend the day with his great-grandparents. Then I got me and LA ready for a day patient visit to the local children's ward, I took enough nappies, formula, clothes and food to see la through until early evening, I also packed her sleep sac so she could nap. I took nothing for me! I didn't need anything I'd only be there a few hours, so I took no food or drink for myself, and no money to get anything either. Once LA was examined and given a cot (purely for her comfort,I was reassured) her dietician Cheryl came to have a look at her and speak with the doctors and consultants, again I was told all they needed to do was watch her feed and take some blood and would be out later that day. Very stupidly I had a panic attack and once Mr M&TTT arrived I was sent to A&E, to be checked out as apparently nurses on the children's ward aren't insured to help ill parents so thank god it wasn't anything serious.

When I returned to the ward after self discharging myself (there were people who needed the help more than me I was fine) I was told that they hadn't been able to get any blood we'd have to wait for the night shift so we'd need to stay in for just 1 NIGHT! 

1 night I was able to cope with and Mr M&TTT went home and got me food, drink, a change of clothes and nightwear. Whilst in the bay ward LA picked up a tummy bug a very nasty bout of D&V so we were moved into a side room at 3am but that meant that I had privacy, my own bathroom and my own tv, and LA had a box of toys all to herself.

When we woke up on the Saturday morning it soon became apparent that until she got over the stomach bug there was no way we were going home. 

Vistaprint photo book a photo story review!

A while ago I was asked if I would like to review a photo book from vistaprint, I was told I'd be given £100 to spend on a book of my photos. Me and Mr m&ttt spent quite a while looking through our family photos and decided we'd put together a photo book of our 2011 holiday to benidorm. 

1st of all we chose the extra large size book with personalised cover

Then we decided on the glossy paper 

And then we decided on 32 photos to be included some pages had 2 photos on

Others had one large photo

Next we chose the background theme there were several nice ones to choose from but we decided that for our book the beach theme would be best, and as you can see they really compliment the photos.

The quality of the photos is amazing, my iPhone camera doesn't really do all the pictures justice.

Then we chose a picture for the back cover, you can also use the front picture as a wrap around on the front and back cover.

There was the opportunity to add words to the pages but we felt that in our own opinion we preferred it with no captions, but obviously this is to personal choice.

The ordering process was really easy, and the website was really easy to navigate through, and quite foolproof. 

If you would like to create a book of your own memories for yourself, or as a gift for a loved one, this is the perfect way. This would make a lovely gift for family who live in another part of the country, or even another country.

The vistaprint photo book can be purchased here http://www.vistaprint.co.uk

DECLARATION

I was given £100 to spend on a photobook at vistaprint.co.uk for the purpose of this review, however as always on Me and the tiny 3 the views and opinions contained in this review are honest and my own.

LA's hospital journey part 1

As regular readers know LA has been diagnosed with a milk allergy and as a symptom of this her weight has always been very up and down. Since we started weaning her 2 months ago we thought her weight would even off and she'd start to steadily gain weight, alas no it didn't it instead it has rapidly dropped. 

On Tuesday 14th may 2013 I took her to be weighted at the baby clinic, I was shocked to discover that she had lost a lot of weight. When my health visitor asked what and how much she was eating I immediately thought I was doing something wrong, but my health visitor assured me that with what she was eating she should be putting on plenty of weight and she we'd be referred to a paediatrician but would have to wait a couple of months.

On the Thursday of that week LA had a paediatric dietician appointment, Cheryl our dietician again weighted LA and even though she'd eaten really really well she'd lost even more weight in the 2 days. Cheryl decided that we'd bypass the community paediatrician and phoned the hospitals children's ward to see if they were able to take a look at her,but warned them not to expect an ill looking child, they were very busy with surgical patients that day and requested that we came back as a day case the following day a 11am. 

At this point I asked Cheryl if there was any chance at all that LA would be kept in and we were told not to expect to be kept in, but expect to be there until late afternoon! 

Little did we know what would happen the following day.........

Project 365 25-5-2013

This is painted on the window of our room in hotel Russell's hall hospital, costa pensnett 

Have you been wondering why I've been quiet this week?

You may have noticed I've been a little quiet this last week on both my blog and social media. The reason for that is my gorgeous daughter LA is in hospital. Right to explain I think I'm going to do this in a few shorter posts rather than one long one. This is a tough time for me and my family so please bear with me 

Me and LA settling down for the night in ward C2 Russell's Hall Hospital 

Social pix 17/5/2013

 

A nice walk in sunny Cardiff with daddy 

No room for a tuff spot no problem!

I've been seeing loads of posts lately about tuff spots and messy play, I have even been inspired to buy the kids some water beads, glo sticks, stars and pasta shapes. 

The problem I have is I live in a small appartment with no garden, and only a small kitchen so I have no room for a tuff spot. I know many people will have the same problem, but I have found a very simple solution I've brought the kids a large rectangular garden tray, the sort that you would put troughs on. It really does the job I need it too we have used it on an almost daily basis for about 3 weeks now and the boys always find something new to use it for. 

Moon sand & moon dough (I don't have a moon dough photo as they decided they needed to be naked!)

JR mushed up all the water beads by running and lying on them and was covered in them as you can see more clearly below

So there you have it NO TUFF SPOT - NO PROBLEM! 

A photo post of our day trip to Cardiff

On bank holiday Monday we went for a family day out to Cardiff, after being reassured by my twitter friend Theboyandme that there was plenty to see and do. Here's my photo blog of the day! 

My 2 boys walking hand in hand outside the Cardiff Millennium Centre

 Mr shark and Mr clown fish! 

Walking from the bay to the city centre to find the castle 

The Cardiff City Champions parade bus

Sneaking a peek inside millennium stadium

Mosaic on the floor outside millennium stadium

Bruce the shark and Nemo the clown fish walking with daddy 

Enjoying the sun, while mummy and daddy work out where we're going now

A bit of a dodgy picture but its a darlek arrrggghh!!!!

I think the cyberman is after JR but its okay his eyes are covered the cyberman won't see him

TP wasn't very happy on the merry go round

There you have it my photo blog of our day trip in the wonderful city of Cardiff. We enjoyed it so much we're planning on spending a few days there in the summer.

La's first tooth

This afternoon after mr m&ttt finished work we had to pop to our local kiddiecare store. When we arrived the boys were both asleep in their carseats, as I was only going for one agreed item I went into the store on my own. Whilst in there I received a text message from mr m&ttt it read ' I know something that you possibly don't!'. This hurried along my shopping a bit as I wanted to know what! When I got into the car mr m&ttt told me to give him my finger and close my eyes, the next thing I know I could feel my daughter gumming my finger, then I felt it LA's 1st tooth it's front bottom right and has come through quite a lot!
So there you go that's the story of how I found out my daughter has her 1st tooth!

How do you explain death to a four year old?

This afternoon I had to take JR to the doctors as he has impetigo on his face! As regular readers know I don't drive, that meant we had to walk although its not far just a straight road and only takes about 20 mins to walk there with the kids.
Today Jackson was enjoying the nice weather and taking a lot of notice of his surrounding, this was when he made a discovery in the middle of the pavement a dead robin! He crouched down to have a look at it and said "mommy it's a bird! Why isn't he in the sky flying with his friends?" I really didn't know how to answer his question so said he was sleeping having an afternoon nap like LA does.
The thing is I'm worried now that I've lied to him, and I should have told him the truth but he's only 4.5 I want him to keep his innocence a little bit longer!
Is that wrong of me what do you guys think??

St George's Day Celebrations

On Saturday JR's dance group had the honour of performing in our town centre market place as part of the St. George's Day celebrations. I was such a proud mum when he walked out into the performance area with all his friends from dance, they performed their 'Hillbilly Rock' routine. Which you can watch here.



I am such a very proud mummy it's hard to put into words how I feel, except to say I cried!
He was excited as well as you can see in the final photo he finally got his dance trousers with his name on like the bigger boys have!

LA's Dietician checkup

Today we took our gorgeous 7 month old daughter to the hospital for a paediatric dietician's appointment. She's been under a dietician since she was 8 weeks old as her can't sustain any weight gain, food is just a mystery to her she has never cried hungry ever!
We started weaning her at 6 months old using a mixture of baby led weaning (blw) and jars or homemade mush
Today we were told that she had lost weight since her last check up 2 months ago and is now back too monthly appointments at least until she is 1!
The dietician said we have to make her special formula more calorific by adding 9 scoops of powder to 7oz of water, and also prescribing her iron drops and multi vitamin drops.
The weaning is not going to plan she will only eat 1 solid meal a day and as also started refusing her formula as well the little monkey!
We have had a bit of success today with the blw she mullered a whole rusk in minutes hopefully that's the start of a healthy weight gain. I am sure she is trying to make certain she's the youngest sibling by causing as much worry as possible!

Little funfest at redhouse farm

This post is a little late at the party as little funfest was 2 weeks ago, but quite honestly I've been suffering from a post fun fest slump!

Little funfest was a 2 day festival of fun for little tiddlers held at Redhouse Farm, Dunham Massey, altringham.

We went on the 1st day Friday April 5th and we had an absolutely fantastic day, in fact we had so much fun if mr m&ttt wouldn't have had to work on the 6th we would have gone again the following day as well.
We arrived quite early as we had set off early due to the fact we had to travel on the notoriously busy M6 North. When we arrived we were met by Alex Winters from cbeebies he was absolutely the most lovely friendly person I have ever met, and since we had been twittering for a while it was just like meeting an old friend which mr m&ttt found slightly strange.
After the initial shock that Alex off the telly knew his name and was speaking to him JR spotted the huge sandpit and play area, so off we went to that. The boys absolutely loved it although JR got a little scared at the top of the climbing frame and wouldn't go down the curly slide!
Once little funfest opened we made our way across the field to see what was on when and the boys went on a couple of the rides although TP cried on everyone and JR wouldn't let me take him on the pirate ship!
After the rides our next port of call was the tractor ride, this was absolutely fantastic fun, JR was big enough to fit in his own car, and me and TP shared a car. TP loved being able to see the tractor pulling us around and giggled and laughed when we went round in circles and JR got so comfy in his seat we thought he'd fallen to sleep!
When we finished the ride we went into the big top tent to see Alex winters officially open the festival, there was a bit of a delay because they had a problem with 1 of the generators so started about 20 minutes behind but nobody seemed to mind as there was fun music being played.
When Alex appeared on stage he appeared as Derek, I think Derek is what he'll be like in 30 years time, but was very funny! The boys started arguing at this point because JR realised right away that Derek was actually Alex Winters but TP being only 2.5 believes that what you see must be true therefore the man in the stage must be called Derek and wasn't Alex Winters! After Alex had finished we watched a bit of the star kids party, before heading over to the barn to watch Alex read a story!
A story that both my boys love me reading to them is "We're going on a bear hunt" and this was the first story that Alex read. He had the whole audience captivated even the adults! He led the children all around the barn and was really good when the children wouldn't sit down or interrupted him! At the part of the story where you find the bear he pointed out a dad in the audience and got the children to believe that this man was in fact a bear. I have never seen a grown man be so enthusiastic about a story ever! He then read Room on a broom and the children were equally as captivated, I by this time could feel my eyes shutting and I think that is a testament to how good the story telling was I felt like a child being read a bedtime story.
After the story telling we waited to meet mr bloom (I personally don't have a thing for mr bloom although I know a few who do!) Mr Bloom aka Ben Faulkes was brilliant with the kids and when several apf the children asked where his veggies were he said that they were at a birthday party.
After photos with Mr Bloom we waited to see a balloon modelling demonstration little did we know that we'd be expected to have a go ourselves it was great fun and in the end we created 4 balloon dogs none of which survived the journey home!
We then went to see Harry potter and both me and JR got sorted into houses I was sorted into slitherin and JR into hufflepuff it was great fun especially for me as I love Harry Potter.
Then we went to watch Alex and Jem Frazer on the main stage in the big top JR and TP learnt a new song called the banana milkshake song and both will start randomly singing it without prior notice.
We then went to look at some of the animals and then went back to the big top to see mr bloom on stage. By this point we were all really tired so said bye to Alex winters and headed home after an absolutely fantastic fun fuelled day and none of us can wait for the next one!