Posts in category: Personal

One afternoon last week while Rhys was at school, Nerys and I decided to do a spot of baking.

We had a couple of bananas that were the perfect amount of over-ripeness to be made into yummy chocolate banana bread, so decided to whip some up.  While we were getting the ingredients together I set up the camera in the kitchen with the aim of snapping a few photos of us together as part of my month-long project of getting in a photo every day.

What I didn’t realise as I was setting up the camera, was that Nerys had found the remote trigger on the table.

And before I knew it she had snapped this photo of herself.

I just love this so much.

When I scrolled through the photos afterwards it made me smile so much to see this, and a couple of others that she had taken.  She had so much fun being in control and using the remote to snap the photos.

Quite often at the moment she’ll turn to me and say, “we’re both mummies today, ok?” which tends to mean that she wants to do grown up things like put on her play make up or get her own snacks from the kitchen.  She is so capable this little girl and as much as I want to keep her all for myself it makes me so happy to see her wanting to be so independent.

One of her most used expressions is ‘let I do it’ and I love it for the mixture of big-girl independence and little-girl language.

It sort of sums her up at the moment.  She is a lovely mix of big-girl and little-girl.  And I’m so loving watching her grow and develop all the time.

I have a feeling not much will stop this one when she goes out in the world!

We had a whole week together as a family in February, with Steve taking time off work while the children were on their half-term holidays.

Yet somehow we didn’t take a single photo of the four of us together.

So this month’s Me and Mine project is a few days late, with photos taken this weekend just gone.  I decided last year that I would rather ‘cheat’ a bit and take photos at the beginning of the next month, instead of snapping some last minute photos that I’m not really happy with  just for the sake of taking them in the right month.

I’m pleased that I made that decision because it means that I have these photos from our quick trip to Victoria Park, in lovely bright sunshine, for this month.

This wall is at the edge of the little skate park area in Victoria Park, and seemed like the perfect backdrop for some photos, it’s so bright and colourful.

I managed to get the children to stay in one place long enough to snap a handful of pictures before they whizzed off on their scooters again.

February was a big month for Nerys as she turned four, which I can’t quite get my head around.  Four just seems so big, so far out of the baby and toddler stages, and I still don’t feel ready for it.

Nerys was definitely ready though, she’s been looking forward to her birthday for ages, and is so proud to tell people how old she is now.

Now I just have a couple of months to prepare myself for the fact that Rhys will be turning seven.  Where on earth is the time going?!

We’re back to the normal school routine this morning, after a really quite lovely half term break.

It was one of those strange weeks that felt really long, but in a really good way.

We didn’t even really do all that much, but Steve had the week off work and so we got several jobs around the house done that we’d been meaning to tackle for ages.  We took the children to the British Heart Foundation shop in town, to hunt for a new chest of drawers for their bedroom.  Not the most exciting thing to do but they both actually enjoyed themselves, wandering round, opening doors and drawers and testing out various sofas.

Then midweek we spent a lovely few hours with some friends in Brynmill park.

The boys ran around and played together, catching imaginary pokémon with their imaginary pokéballs.  The girls climbed on the climbing frame and whizzed down the slide.  Nerys even braved the fireman’s pole a couple of times.

She was so proud of herself when she did it all on her own.

Although after doing it a few times she then started to almost panic and refused to do it any more.  It was like she had it for a moment there, but then just lost it again.  And then the fear crept back in.

I have no doubt she’ll be back up there trying again next time we’re at the park though!

Along with park trips and furniture shopping we managed a wonderfully quiet day at home and a visit to the Gower Heritage Centre during our half term.

All in all, it was a really lovely week, just spending time together and having a break from the normal routine.

Back to it now though, for a few weeks at least.  Roll on Easter I say.

Last summer the children and I went along to a couple of activities in Swansea that were part of the ParkLives programme.

One of the activities we did was a design a duck session in Brynmill Park, where the children were given a picture of a duck to decorate any way they wanted.  When all the pictures were finished a judge came along to pick out their favourites and Rhys was absolutely thrilled when his was chosen.

He won this duck toy, that quacks when you squeeze it, and every time he sees it it acts as this lovely little reminder for him of that day in the park.  All these months later I still don’t think he can quite believe that it happened.

One day last week he decided to take his duck into school for show and tell, and he was still happily playing with it and telling people about it when I picked him up at the end of the day.

Rhys’ class has an approach to show and tell that I quite like.  They ask the children to only bring in things that they’ve created or that are related to something they’ve achieved.  So you might have a child bring in a certificate from their swimming lessons, or a medal from a fun run.  You might also have someone bring in a drawing that they did at home that they’re proud of.

I like this idea of giving a bit of focus to show and tell sessions, and also giving the children a chance to share the things they’re proud of with their classmates.  To my mind it also teaches the children about celebrating the achievements of others, which I think is great.

They give out ‘dojo points’ in his class too, for things like sitting nicely, being ready to learn, trying hard and generally being helpful in class.  Each week the child with the most points gets to take home a little trophy for the weekend.

One of the things that I love so much about this is seeing how pleased the children are for the winner each week.  Rhys is always so happy to tell me who is taking home the trophy, there’s not a hint of jealousy there, only happiness.

Wouldn’t the world be a much nicer place if we could all be like that; happy for each other, celebrating other people’s successes.

Pretty much since Rhys started full time school we’ve had the same routine when I go and pick him up in the afternoons.

As long as it’s not pouring with rain we go straight to the school yard for him to run around and burn off a bit more energy.

Most of the time a few of his friends pop in for a play too.  They run off to the dell to explore, or play on the lovely wooden play equipment together.

Some days we’ll be the only ones in there, and Rhys and Nerys will just play together.

We only have about 20 minutes or so in there, before the teacher comes along to lock the gate, but it’s a really lovely little routine.

It’s great for Rhys and Nerys to have a chance to run around for a bit after a day at school, and I love having a few minutes to chat with my parent friends.

The thing is, when you do something like this pretty much every day, it becomes so normal and everyday that you don’t always think to record it.  But these are exactly the kinds of things I think I should be recording.  These are the things that the children will remember when they’re older, and I think they’ll love to see photos from these times.

One thing I’ve noticed though is that it can be so easy to fall into the trap of wanting our photos to look perfect.  To try and get the perfect pose and expression from our children.  To edit so many things out of the background that at the time we think are distractions.

Those distractions though, are so often the things we love to see the most when we look back at old photos.

I know when I look at photos from my childhood I absolutely love seeing those little details.  The duvet cover on my bunkbed.  The toys scattered around.

Those details are the things that make us feel nostalgic, that bring make the memories of what that time in your life ‘felt’ like.  You know?

I’m trying to be much more mindful of the things that I include in the photos that I take of my children.  I hope that seeing photos of themselves like these, standing next to the brightly coloured fence in the school yard will bring back memories of all the time we spent playing there in the afternoons.

I hope all these photos bring back memories of the fun they had together.

I’ve said it before and I’m sure I’ll say it again many times, but one of my favourite things about having children is getting to know them.  Watching them grow and finding out who they are as people.  Seeing what sort of things they’re naturally drawn to, what their interests are, what lights them up.

Nerys, at nearly 4, is showing more and more parts of her personality.

She loves spending time after school with her brother and his friends, digging in the mud with sticks, ‘mining’ for buried stones.

She loves watching Blaze and the monster machines, and shouting out the answers to the questions they ask.

She is strong and loves climbing and hanging off things.

She also loves standing with me in front of the mirror and pretending to put on my make up.

She loves wearing pretty dresses and putting lots and lots of clips in her hair.

When presented with a whole shelf full of magazines she will often pick ‘Pink’ magazine, which is as stereotypically girly as it sounds like it would be.

She is so many different things, and I am absolutely loving getting to know all these different side of her.