My daughter has a reward chart currently on the go. This is to recognise her efforts with tasting new foods, behaving well and to mark any special achievements. If she gets 30 stars we treat her to a new book. This is how we’ve arrived at what is turning to be a little bit of a mini obsession. We love visiting Waterstones the book shop. On a recent trip there, after spending an age looking at all of the story…
So there’s a couple of dates in the diary coming up in the next few months which have got me (over) thinking parenting again. Seriously, no one tells you at parent school that your mind is in a constant state of turbulent emotions do they?! [note to self – parent school? what a cracking idea!] Both of these events involve my Daughter going off with people who I don’t completely 100% know. As in not a family babysitting assist or…
One feature of my blog since it started back in June 2017 (over two years ago?! well done me…) has been my posts describing how my Daughter has adapted going from Nursery to Primary School. It hasn’t been a conscious decision to specifically document this transition. But it feels right to once again write a few words as she prepares to start Year two. I’ve enjoyed revisiting my older posts on this covering Graduation at Nursery, my first thoughts of…
Seriously? That’s half of the year gone already?! I bet a few of us have said that. Time does seem to be flying past. It’s gotten me thinking about the year I’ve had so far and how it’s shaping up compared to some goals I set myself in January. As I start to write this, it feels like the year has passed me by. Lets see: Goals! I’ve been using a bullet journal for over a year now and I…
I learnt this fascinating fact tonight. My Daughter is a right little chatterbox and we’ve had some brilliant exchanges whilst she’s in the shower prior to going to bed. She obviously takes after her Dad as most of my thinking is done there. She just doesn’t seem to have much of an inner monologue (again, guilty as charged) and tends to ramble on about anything and everything (stop it, this is getting scary!). It’s definitely one of my favourite things…
Before I start, I probably should clarify something. This isn’t a post documenting a year of those fantastic spectacles of nature. Although I have seen some awesome ones in my time. I swear I’ve seen the end of a rainbow coming out of a loch in Scotland . No pot of gold though. I also witnessed a brilliant double rainbow a few months back. Ah, memories…. No, this is a post about my daughters first year in her local Rainbows…
I don’t write nearly as much ‘review’ type posts as I probably should. “Call yourself a blogger?!” I hear my internal voice call. “Well, yes, actually” I reply in my most condescending tone before my wife asks “Who are you talking to?”…. Moving swiftly on… This weekend we were craving a bit of outdoor fun. Ignoring the usual ‘it’s grim up North’ weather forecast we decided to try the Zog trail at Hamsterley Forest. We’ve been here both before and…
I’ve had a pretty intense few weeks work wise and as a result I’m expecting my mental health to take a bit of a battering. Once I’ve got this week out of the way things should calm down but history has taught me it’s the period after the storm that seems to be when I’m at my most vulnerable and susceptible to an attack. I wrote about my experiences with anxiety in a post last year which explains my own…
Right from the moment way back when my Mam (and Santa) got me an Amstrad CPC 464 for Christmas I’ve been a gamer. Of the computer sort that is. I’ve been a fan of board games a lot longer and have fond memories of the family getting together on Sunday to play. But I’m in danger of digressing. Since turning 40 a couple of years ago, together with becoming a parent, my gaming has subsided a little. Probably more because…
It feels like it’s been a very slow and frustrating start to the year. I’ve always been someone whose mood can be easily affected by the weather. So the January blues are always a given for me. It’s why I’m pretty famous in my friends and family circle as the guy who invented the “January present for themselves”. In previous years it seems to be the month I’ve treat myself to the next bit of tech, be it a new…