For The Record...

He made it 1 week. That's all......7 days before he blew it at school. And when I say blew it, I mean seriously blew it. Not only did he fall out with his class teacher, he then went on to pick a fight with the headmistress.

Needless to say, dad was less than impressed. That night he got no stories, no TV and lost out on a trip to the toyshop to spend his birthday voucher.

Since then, we finished our first term at school on a high, by going 3 full days without upsetting either me or his teachers. Mrs M and I are in collaboration to nip this in the bud, and so far we are making good progress. Hopefully we'll continue this after the tattie picking holidays....

All of this is detracting from keeping tabs on what's really going on around here. The Wee Man is on solids, and the Middle Man generally is the root cause of everything funny around here. Hopefully, we'll get back to some degree of normality soon enough, and the camera will again become king.

A Battle of Wills

I'm sure it's not the first, and it'll be one in a line of many to come, but BB and dad are on a collision course. Head on!

It seems that he has taken to throwing tantrums at school. I can't stand to be the one who's kid is taking up all the teachers time, and I aim to nip it in the bud before it gets any worse. The annoying thing is, the wee snotterbag has sucked me into more arguments than I should have allowed already. Crikey, at 5 years old, he's pulling the strings in here already......

Oddly, his tempers are short lived, and he often falls back into the angelic little boy we all know and love very quickly. Can't think who else in this house changes mood at the snap of a finger like that ;-) Still, it's not on and it's already getting a regular feature of our discussion with Mrs M at the school gate. The growling and venting are not anything he has witnessed at home, but already I can see he is getting enough attention to keep them going, but I'll be damned if he's getting away with it.

After getting sucked into one row too many, and having used the secret phone line to both Mrs M and Santa, threatened to take away his new toys, even his bike (all of which I know is pointless, because the spoiled little Sir will happily play with something else), we (or rather I) have new plan.

We agreed tonight at bed time that I shall be asking Mrs M about his behaviour. I should mention he had already lost his story tonight for being cheeky to dad. Bedtime stories seem a fair trade at the moment, so here's plan K, or is it L? I'll be finding out if he has been rude/cheeky/aggressive/angry/sulky/pick your own adjective and insert, to any adults at school, and if so, he loses his bedtime story. If, on the other hand, he is good....all day, every day, then he can have two. This is an easy threat to follow through on, and whether you consider it good or bad parenting, I'm hoping it's effective parenting.

Until he learns, adapts and overcomes......

Wish You Weren't Here....

Today is BB's 5th birthday. I'm not one to be sentimental, I normally leave that side of things to Domestic Management. Today though, my mind has been cast back to that day 5 years ago sitting in what seemed like an ancient replica of a 1950's operating theatre, for which both Mrs W and I were ill prepared for.

We were pretty confident that all would be well. We (she) did all the right things through the pregnancy. I forced her to eat her greens. She didn't drink - not a drop, and she was active all the way through. It seemed to work too, we later had a chunky, but healthy boy who wasn't a kick in the backside off 9lbs. What we didn't even think once about, was BB coming out the sunroof.

After that long (so very long ) labour, after which the lazy mare could actually be arsed to give birth naturally, we got split up for what seemed like an eternity as she was prepared for the op. I remember being stuck in horribly bare locker room, with oversized cast iron radiators and pipes run over the walls. It was after 4 in the morning, and we'd been there for about 22 hrs. I was pooped, I kept dropping off as I waited on my own, then waking up with a start, thinking, that they would start without me. Eventually though, they came and got me.

That would prove to be the least gory child birth I'd ever witness. Other than catching MPLST's vomit, and being just a tiny bit concerned when they rattled (the lovely midwife had warned us there would be 3 sharp "tugs" as she put it") BB out of there, I saw my boy being carried upside down across the theatre by the ankle to the scales.

In those 5 years, we've squeezed in another couple of much more gruesome childbirth experiences. I'll leave those for another day... What we do have is a boy we can be proud of, he's not perfect, in fact, at times, he is a complete and utter little so and so. When he's good, which is most of the time, he is gentle, kind and very forgiving. He can't have got that from me. When he's not so good, he's stubborn, feisty and unreasonable in the extreme - but I guess he's allowed, he is only 5 for goodness sake. Incidentally, I got those traits from my mother, so it's all her fault.....

I guess we can be proud of what we've managed in those 5 years too. I read this article last night

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14899148 called Children Need Time Not Stuff. It pretty much fits in with our philosophy. We're far from perfect, if I'm honest, they do have a lot of stuff too. But what they have all had, is either mum or dad, nearly all of the time. That's quite a mind shift from where we were 5 and a half years ago, when I can remember trawling through childminder reports, and visiting nurseries. I think it's the single best decision we have ever made (apart from pro creation in the first place ;-)

I've missed BB's birthday today because I am at work. Would you believe that it's the only day in a 4 year cycle where we actually plan to test everything, and I mean everything (even the batteries to the telecoms) trip on demand. The result, is that I managed to only speak to BB for about 30 secs this morning, but I did hear the excitement in his voice. Work is generally not that bad a place to be, but today has been slow.....despite being one of the busiest days I'm meant to have here.

Happy Birthday Son. I wish I was home so we could ride our bikes together today. x

Whaur's the Burds?

This one's not so much about the kids. I finally cashed in a voucher received last Chrimbo from MPLST to get up close and personal with some birds. Before you go thinking she has gone soft, it's the type with wings I'm on about here, and not bingo wings either!


Turned out to be a pretty good day. The big boys didn't seem to phased by the birds of prey, no matter how big their talons. BB did perk up when I explained that the eagle owl was bigger than him across it's wings though. It allowed MPLST to take some pretty cool pics too.




The boys managed a pose when they got home with their sunflowers too. They are just opening up, so not the best yet.....

And after all of that, I got caught having a wee kip whilst on duty. Oops!

The First One's First Day

August the 16th 2011 was indeed a momentous day in the BFS household. BB started school this morning. He has been looking forward to school with such excitement, that it was never really going to be an issue, but nevertheless, we are glad it went without a hitch. He joined his new classmates (all 4 of them!) for the morning after proudly modeling his new school clothes.


All set, he made his way there under his own steam too. Dad on the other hand struggled with the pedaling....the wee man can shift now!

Meanwhile, back at SH, LL has been tackling the potty for the last couple of days. The way forward is to do it outside, which aside from obviously saving your carpets and floors, also presents good photo opportunities for little bottoms......

I took and edited this one myself. Quite pleased with it - even if I do say so myself.....

I think he was looking for the cat in this one.....this is the post holiday bliss parents love. Whilst BB was at school, LL roamed semi naked in the name of toilet training whilst we had a jam donut and some coffee. Whoever said kids were hard work??

I shouldn't (and couldn't) forget the wee man as well. Whilst all this chaos goes on around him, all he does is drink milk and pose for the camera.

One down...two to go!