When we finally decided that perhaps it was time for a room-shift, Pink was removed from the spare room (where her cot had been camping next to the spare bed for… erm… two years *blush*), and moved into the tiniest box room – previously Jolly’s. He, in turn, was moved to the delights of the ex-spare bedroom, which is far more suitably sized to a growing boy, and was only ever actually filled with visitors a few times a year. Needless to say he uses the space a le-e-etle bit more frequently than that.
Anyhoo, Pink inherited Jollys room colour choice too; green. REALLY green. Like full on lime green. We have reviewed thoughtfully decorated with wall stickers, but still – it’s very green. We put up an irresistably sweet fairy lampshade too, in shades of pink. Goes nicely with the green walls, as you can imagine.
So. the time has come – she will finally get a Room Fit For A Girl.
This is the conversation we had last night
“how would you like us to paint your walls, like we painted No.1’s?”
(*NB. No.1 has just had his room decoated for the first time since he was 5. Dinosaurs gave given way to the most awesomable pre-teen room you could imagine. Much smugness form non-decorating parents)
“How about we paint your walls so they weren’t green any more? Would you like yellow walls?”
“no…. Pink”
“mmm, how about nice blue walls like the sky?”
“no… Pink”
“White?”
“Pink” (getting a bit louder and much more grunty)
“Orange?”
Jaw’s jutting now
“Pink.”
We decided to admit defeat at this point.
Honestly, we have no idea where it has come from. She is surrounded by boys toys – very few girlie items have been bought for her, and she spends a lot of her time ignoring the beautiful rag dolls to have tea parties with soldiers and cars. And you would not believe how realistic she is when she’s playing snipers.
In true ‘Spotted!’ fashion, this is one that made my heart beat a teeny bit faster, and an actually ‘Oooh!’ escape me. At first glance, it’s not that much – just yet another page in the BBC shop, yes?
Heck, No!
Click on that ladybird, and you’ll arrive at the Vintage Audio section of the BBC shop, that’s where. And nestled in its pages are some of the very best memories of my childhood. Johnny Morris Bedtime Stories (Gladys the Warthog has never left me y’know), Camberwick Green (I’m not going to tell you how long I have been sitting here trying to type Psshh-Cah-kerchunk… but if you know what I mean, then this disc is for you! And I dare you to leave a comment typing it any better…), The Magic Roundabout (My Mum made me an ace Dougal cake for my 5th birthday y’know) and besty-best of all, my own absolute favourite EVER – Willo The Wisp (I’ll pause there to allow your gasp of excitement).
Willo the Wisp… sigh… remember it? Narrated by Kenneth Williams, and featuring Mavis Cruet, the Fat Fairy; Arthur, the Cockney Caterpillar; Evil Edna, the Wicked Witch; Carwash, the Prissy Pussy; and The Moog, the Droopy Dog. Of course, we mustn’t forget ‘the Beast’, who is really Prince Humbert the Handsome, changed into various shapes and sizes by Evil Edna’s spells.
(There was a brief delay here for an inter-office competition of the best Kenneth Williams drawl “oh, Ma-a-ave” “Oh, Aa-a-rthur”. Mr Laura wins it, hands down. But that’s okay, as he was so good he made me very happy).
And as if that is not all, just to topfill your day with joy (as if it could get any better) each disc is a copy of the original vinyl LPs – no, really, they actually LOOK like the vinyl LP! – and they come in vintage packaging to look like the original album cover.
*swooning*
(Thanks to @Keris for the tip off. You made me very happy. And a weeny bit poorer. )
Know a Thomas & Friends-loving child (or grown-up!)? Would you like to win one of these for them? Toot Toot Yeah!
The new Early Engineers Roundabout Station Set includes a Thomas the Tank Engine, Tracktile for easy assembly in a circular layout, two station destinations and two accessories. It represents the most rewarding first train set experience.
We have three of these sets to be won so click here for full details and entry form.
I know, the Blog Love is late – but I was scuppered by half term, so… you’ll just have to live with it. It’s not like I didn’t know who I wanted to point you in the direction of either. This weeks Blog Love goes to a very special one, which has been a favourite read of mine for a while; but the last few posts are really so worth just five minutes of your time visiting and reading.
Simply and beautifully written, heart-wrenchingly honest, and each time it appears in my reader at the moment my heart beats a little faster as I go to read the next instalment. This link (and those that follow) takes you back a few days, so that you can start at the beginning – make sure you go from there to the following couple of posts, and add More Than Just A Mother to your reader/rss feed so you can follow her journey through her memory box, and the letters she wrote through the most terrible of times any of us could imagine.
I am aware the blog discusses with honesty and stinging emotion what is a very sensitive subject, and one which some may not wish to read about – certainly not caught unawares, and expecting a frothy giggle to make you snort into your morning coffee. So here’s her blogs own quick introduction to ‘MTJAM’ – More Than Just A Mother;
“I suffered years of infertility before being lucky enough to fall pregnant on our first attempt at IVF. I went into labour at just 26 weeks and my twin boys were born two weeks later. One of my sons contracted meningitis and died when he and his brother were five weeks old. It was – and still is – indescribably awful. My surviving son came home from hospital when he was four months old, and shortly afterwards I discovered I had fallen naturally pregnant – with twins. My girls were born safely at term after an arduous, risky pregnancy, wracked with grief, anxiety and denial. I was plunged into the darkness of post-natal depression, emerging a year later, finally in love with my children and just about able to deal with the loss of my son. Having other children doesn’t make it any easier to lose one, but it does give you a reason to keep going.
Please, do visit, read and comment – just make sure you have a tissue somewhere nearby, and an uninterrupted five minutes before you start.
We have four of the gorgeous Raggy-Tag comfort blankets to give away, in Liberty prints too!
“In keeping with Raggy-Tag’s English style and heritage, our latest range of comfort blankets has been made using beautiful Liberty fabric. This pure cotton material has a very fine thread count, creating a blanket that is delightfully soft and extremely durable. Each Liberty Raggy-Tag is backed with either blue or pink velour.”
For further details and to enter click here. Good luck!
Thank you for all the concerned messages, mails and tweets regarding the loss of Mustafa, and some of the genius suggestions of places we had yet to look. Thankfully, just when we had finally given up all hope and were starting to compose begging mails to Maileg themselves for the supply of just-one-more even though they no longer make Mustafas, a gleeful shout erupted from Jolly’s bedroom yesterday afternoon.
“I’ve GOT HIM! I’ve found MUSTAFA! PI-I-I-I-I-I-INK!!! Look who’s home!!!!!”
Pink gasped, gazed, beamed, clasped him to her, quite literally jumped up and down squeaking”‘yippee! yippee!” and then rushed off to reunite him with Daddy mouse and Mimi mouse.
He had been languishing all this time behind Jollys chest of drawers.
Of course.
Anyhoo, the mouse is found, and is back where he belongs…
See how happy he looks to be home?
Nearly as happy as a certain Pink someone was to see him.
As you, dear reader, will know, a love affair started in this house around Christmas time. These charming little mice did bewitch all of our hearts, but for Pink the love was total. This is her on Christmas Day night, poorly and restless in Mummy & Daddy’s bed:
And so the love began. Mimi and Mustafa (named by Gangy (Granny) on a whim, and apparently unable to change it to anything else) have been constant night time bed companions, and constant day time play companions too. They smoosh happily in her bag to accompany her on the school runs. They have ousted the usual plastic residents of the Happyland play village. They are apparently very partial to a cheese sandwich for lunch (grated please).
So much so that when that bad bad lady at Armstrong Ward wrote to me about a new batch, the family simply had to be added to. A bigger boy mouse was received, pronounced ‘Daddy Mouse!’ and gladly welcomed into the Mousefold. Bedtimes changed a little – now we had three mini beds for Daddy, Mimi and N-nuffa (woe betide anyone else calling him anything other than Mustafa, mind). Mice had to be called to bed, kissed on the nose and tucked up before Pink would receive the same treatment…
But. Tragedy has befallen our little mouse trio. Sadness flows where once merriment lived.
Mustafa is missing.
At first, we thought ‘oh, he’ll turn up’. The first bed time was hard – the Mice family was sadly tucked in, and the empty bed stroked wistfully. Big, tired eyes gazed up, a small lip wobbled. “Where’s N-nuffa, Mummy?”
Glib promises were made that he was off on an adventure, that we would find him in the morning.
A second day went past, with a more thorough search. A second bedtime with a sad little empty bed made ready for the missing Mustafa Mouse.
A sad little hand slept clutching his blanket for another two nights.
Yesterday I noticed that Daddy mouse and Mimi mouse were lying carelessly on the bedroom floor. It seems that an incomplete mice family is too sad to play with. Bedtime last night there were no mice in the bed. Six o’ clock this morning I was woken by sad girl calling quietly for her N-nuffa.
We have overturned the toybox, we have rummaged down the back of the sofa, we have checked in the shoe box, we have peered, poked and prodded into every dark corner we can find.
Well, Katy’s away, so I have to announce the winner of the Baby Show Ticket competition here – I’m not grown up enough to be allowed to play with the proper web site pages, see.
Anyhoo, the winner of a pair of tickets to The Baby Show at London’s ExCeL from 19th to 21st February is…
Sarah Whittington from Kent!
Email coming to you soon, Sarah – congratulations!
For those of you that didn’t win, don’t forget to check the other competitions – and there’s some new fab ones coming next week. Just as soon as the grown up is back to put them on the site…
Okay – here it is. Our Pancake Day effort. This morning, tempted by some really very evil Tweets this morning, I decided the boys might like a change from their usual Golden Syrup-fest. So I surprised them with this :
Once the boys had polished off one each of these, only No.1 managed a 2nd. Boy went for his more usual plain (yes, as in just-the-pancake; no toppings at all. Odd child, I know), and Jolly had a mini one with his favourite maple syrup. Never before have they been contented with so few pancakes! Win!
So there I am, browsing Etsy, like you do (Oh yes you do) – when all of a sudden my attention is nabbed by the MOST lovely t shirt. Just how gorgeous can one pig print get? Best of all, being Etsy and therefore all hand printed (my fave bit – stamped with locally-grown potatoes) it comes in sizes from itty bitty 6mths to galumphing great 6 years! Now tell me you haven’t just fallen in love with this cleverest little bi-lingual pig. After all – how many of you are fluent in cow?
If you’re new to Etsy (tsk – shame on you) then don’t be put off by the price in dollars – the seller My Pipsqueak is most definitely in the UK (Wales, actually, just in case you were interested…), you’ll just have to work within Etsy’s pricing American-ism’s.
Go on, you know you want to, it really is very extremely nice. We don't do them often, and they're always interestingly bursting with lovely things. Honest.
