Flamingoes and Ducks ahoy!!!

Posted on May 9, 2011 by Ant

So last Friday we travelled down to the Wetlands Centre just outside Llanelli. We parked in the gateway car park just before Bynea and cycled our way along the coastal path that takes you right around to the entrance. Matilda and Archie were in the Car Bike Car (or trailer as we like to call it), so had the best view in the house, spotting all types of wildlife along the way. Ducks flying overhead, birds and butterflies in the hedges, we even saw a rabbit hopping along in the field, not sure if the kids saw it but it’s a pretty wonderful site to see a rabbit hopping along in the wild so me and Clare were quite happy to have witnessed it. It took us about 20 minutes to cycle around to the wetlands centre. We parked our bikes in the bike racks and went inside.

Stretching over 450 acres on the Burry Inlet, the Wetlands Centre is a magnificent mosaic of lakes, pools and lagoons and is home to countless wild species as diverse as dragonflies and little egrets. It also homes over 600 of some of the world’s most spectacular ducks, geese, swans and flamingos, many so tame they feed from the hand. Of course Matilda and Archie’s main attraction are the Ducks, and boy are there plenty of Ducks here. Black ones, white ones, blue billed ones, yellow billed ones etc. So many ducks it would take a sack full of birdseed to make sure they all had their share. Luckily there were plenty of people around so there was no chance that the ducks were going to be left hungry.

So we fed the ducks on our way to the adventure playground and a break for our picnic lunch, Matilda’s new obsession. It has become apparent that in Matilda’s head whenever we get somewhere, whether it is the beach, a country park or as in this case the Wetlands Centre we immediately have to sit and eat our picnic lunch. It’s as if we go places to eat our lunch. This means half the time we are eating our lunch at 11.00am in the morning, so by actual lunchtime the kids are hungry again. But as long as they eat it, which in the large majority of cases they do, we don’t mind. So they had a play and ate what they wanted and we wondered around some more. It’s so peaceful there that you don’t mind taking your time. As with the other times we’ve been here the most exciting moment of the visit was seeing the flamingoes, and once again they didn’t disappoint. They were positively luminous basking in the sun, occasionally striding in to get some food that is kept in the sun house, before moving gracefully back out.

We also for the first time walked over to the other side of the centre where there is an aptly named Water Vole City. This is an area with purpose built tunnels that the kids can run through and explore and I guess live as a water vole would live. Or do as we did and have a game of hide and seek. Further round from this there is also a maze, but we didn’t get there as it was time to walk back to the main building. The walking and the heat had taken its toll on the kids so it was time to go. Not before however a customary visit to the café to fill up the bellies, now empty due to the early lunch.

So we got back on the bikes, the kids got in the Car Bike Car and we pedaled back to our car in Bynea. The journey back along the coastal path of course seemed quicker, it always does the second time around, but the kids wouldn’t have noticed. They had fallen asleep within 500 yards of leaving the Wetlands Centre proof that a good day was had by all.

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Grandpa is the new Gigglebiz…

Posted on April 14, 2011 by Ant

For the moment at least Justin Fletcher has been removed from the affections of my 3 year old daughter. Whereas it used to be Justin this and Justin that, let’s watch Gigglebiz, put Something Special on please, we now have a new favourite programme, Grandpa in my Pocket. Now we’ve been through situations like this before where Justin gets frozen out for a few months. Previous programmes to have broken the Justin grip on my children were Same Smile, Mighty Mites, but Matilda and Archie always seem to be won back. But for the present time at least, Grandpa in My Pocket is officially number one.

If you haven’t seen the programme it centres on a Grandpa who lives with the Mason family in the fictional seaside town of Sunnysands. When he puts his flat cap on he shrinks to the size of an action man which suddenly opens up a whole new world of magical adventures involving toy planes, cars and even a seagull called Gordon. Jason the son is the only one who knows of grandpas secret and is constantly cleaning up for him and getting him out of little scrapes, all in the name of teamwork!!! You can kind of see while my little munchkins love the programme so much. The characters are fun, smiley and the whole feeling of the programme is very positive. There is no such thing as a baddy or villain in sunnysands, grandpas sister being the nearest we get to a pantomime villain, but pantomime it is. The situations that the characters get into are silly and harmless and as with most children’s programmes there is always a happy ending.

How long Grandpa in My Pocket will stay on top in their affections is unsure. Something Special still gets a look in some nights, and we have a Justin Fletcher Sings CD in the car on repeat, so he’s still getting a look in. He’s just not numero uno at the moment. But that’s not a bad thing for us parents. A change they say, is as good as a rest…

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Raise a Glass for the Mothers…

Posted on April 8, 2011 by Ant

So it was Mothering Sunday yesterday, in case you hadn’t noticed. Which was why all the flowers and chocolates had doubled in price and you couldn’t book a table for lunch unless you had made the phone call towards the latter part of last year. But this wasn’t a bad thing as it forced me into cooking and it was nice to sit down as a foursome and enjoy a Sunday lunch as a family. Thankfully it turned out OK, meat not burnt, veggies edible and the gravy was a nice colour and consistency. The kids enjoyed, Matilda more than Archie. She has an obsession with Roast potatoes and is pretty good at trying other things on her plate, but the one thing they both cannot get enough of are Aunt Bessies Yorkshire puddings. They will devour them one after the other, and I’m sure if we hadn’t have run out (or said we had run out, ma ha ha ha ha!!!) they would have just kept eating.

After dinner we went out on the trampoline for a little bit and then for a walk in Llewellyn Park, which is adjacent to our house. Matilda and Archie love any park but as you can imagine a park they can see from their back garden as they bounce up and down on the trampoline holds an extra special little place in their heart. We spent some time in the playgrounds and went on a walk of discovery across a new boardwalk that was constructed a while back but we hadn’t yet had the chance to explore. It takes you over a stretch of marsh land at the bottom of the park which gives you the opportunity to search for tadpoles down below. We then ventured through a bit of a woodland walk, before returning to the parks for one last swing. When we got back to the garden, they had one last bounce before retiring upstairs for a bath. Mammy enjoyed Mothers Day as it was truly a day spent together. At the end the kids were zonked and Mammy and Daddy weren’t too far behind, a glass of vino and it was job done.

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It only seems like yesterday…

Posted on April 6, 2011 by Ant

So Archie turned 2 last month, my-my how quickly that has passed. We did the usual thing for his birthday a little tea party with just close family and friends. He enjoyed we think, but then kids always do if you let them run free in the garden. Mix in a sunny day (not vital), water, sand, a trampoline and its kiddie heaven. At the end of the day you’re left with a gang of tired kids and a few ripe bumps and bruises to take home to Mammy. The perfect yardstick to judge whether it was a good party or not?

So now Archie is 2 it’s time to start him in The Children’s Room, a Montessori Nursery in Swansea, which Matilda just adored and obviously we’re hoping Archie will take to in the same manner. It’s not vital he goes there, just as it wasn’t with Matilda, its more to let him establish social skills and develop other parts of his personality. Matilda came on leaps and bounds in the time she spent there before going to Nursery, and so we want to give Archie that same opportunity. We’re in his second week already and at the moment the leaving him there stage is not going so well. It’s as if he likes going there and talks about ‘Little School’ at home all the time, but when faced with the prospect of being left there alone without Mammy (who he knows is going to pick him up, as he also tells us this all the time) he gets a little bit upset. Not for long, granted, but enough for my wife Clare’s stomach to drop and enough to paint a picture of our darling son potentially not enjoying himself. We’re hoping it will pass, as there is so much to enjoy about being in The Children’s Room, playing with the rabbits, painting pictures, playing with water etc., all in such a relaxing and calming environment. What’s not to like?

Archie was being left for pretty much the three hours today, as we’ve been building it up slowly to ease him in. Leaving your children somewhere for the first time is always hard, be it with their grandparents, pre school nursery, playgroup or school, but it is something that has to be done or at least tried. I’ve thankfully only ever left Matilda and Archie with their grandparents so haven’t experienced anything like the heartbreak my wife has seen leaving them in the The Children’s Room or Nursery. But Clare keeps telling herself it’s for the greater good, and in a few weeks time when there’s been a marked improvement in his speech, confidence and social skills, and he’s started striding up to the front door to ring the door bell, we’ll know that the little bit of heartbreak was worth it. I know, easy for me to say.

Check out The Children’s Room now.

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Margam Park a Great Day Out

Posted on March 14, 2011 by Ant

Saturday, as we had a break in the rain we decided to take a trip up the M4 to Margam Park. It was good to get out of the house and it’s always relaxing to go to a country park like Margam because the kids are able to charge about without a care in the world. Wind them up and let them go. As it had been raining there was the added bonus (well added bonus for them) of there being lots of puddles around and as they both had their wellies on they didn’t hold back. For the kids there are three main areas, four if you include the discovery centre but Matilda and Archie were probably just a tad too young and a tad too exhausted by the time we got there for that. There’s Fairyland, the Adventure Playground and the Farm. We went to Fairyland first which is an area full of mini brick houses, a castle and a giant shoe. Each house has its own theme based on a nursery rhyme or a classic children’s fairytale. We saw Snow White, Dick Whittington, Jack Be Nimble, Cinderella etc. And who knows who lives in the miniature castle. I tried to convince Matilda that there were crocodiles in the moat but she was having none of it. In the middle of all this is a small children’s playground which surprisingly the munchkins didn’t really go on. They were more interested in seeing who lived where before delving into mammy’s bag for treats.

Next came a long walk up towards the main castle, past the orangery via more fantastic puddles and a whole host of fascinating trees to run under and climb over. We had a quick lunch break and it was onwards and upwards to the adventure playground. The adventure playground at Margam was probably not designed with a soon to be 2 year old and 3 year old in mind but they still really enjoy it and manage to get by. Matilda pretty much has the confidence now to go on most things and with a little bit of help Archie isn’t too far behind. There are fab tunnels, walkways and slides and as they both get older I think they will learn to love this playground more and more.

We then walked down to the farm. Correction Matilda walked and Archie got in his pram. They were starting to get a bit tired at this point, which is not surprising considering how much walking they had done. That’s the one constraint about Margam Park it’s pretty spread out. We see it as a good thing as it makes going there more of a proper day out. It’s nice to stroll between the different areas and let’s face it if everything was in the same place you’d be done and dusted in no time. The farm was ok but because of the time of year it is there weren’t many animals on display. We saw some chickens, turkeys, goats, ducks, donkeys, bulls etc., and after finding some more puddles and a stream it was time to make our way back to the car. With Matilda and Archie tucked up in the pram, rain cover down to shield against the wind we made the walk down through the woodlands, past where the train starts from (beginning Easter time) and back to the car to no doubt catch some zzz’s. I’d recommend Margam Park to everyone, a great day out.

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3D or not 3D

Posted on March 8, 2011 by Ant

We took the kids for their first cinema experience last Friday. Quite exciting, not only for the kids but it has been years since me and my wife had been to see a film at the cinema. If my mind serves me correctly it was either James Bond Casino Royale or the Borat film that we saw last, yep, told you it was a while back. So, we went to the supermarket to stock up on some sweets beforehand and made our way to the cinema. We were going to see Gnomeo and Juliet. I won’t say the kids were excited as they didn’t really know where they were going or what the cinema is. I’d showed them the trailer on my computer before we left and they had found that funny so hopes were high. Lesson one for daddy was the price of cinema tickets these days. Wowee have they increased!!! On top of this is the price of 3D tickets. Wow wow wowee!!! The only experience i’ve ever had of 3D was jaws 3 so i am still in that mindset. Little did i know it was £2 extra per person to watch the film in 3D, then £1 on top of that for the glasses? Naively i thought you could watch the 3d version of the film in 2D if you wanted by just not putting the glasses on. But that’s just not possible. So after i’d picked myself up of the floor from being told it was going to cost me near £50 to take my family to the cinema, we were shown to the 2d option. This was better for us considering Matilda and Archie may not even like the experience, and much easier on daddy’s wallet.

So we went in to the theatre and found ourselves some seats near the front of the auditorium. The munchkins were already smiling and enjoyed walking in. Thankfully it was still quite light at this stage, one of the factors that could be a problem for them. Another factor was the noise, it was very loud in there, as you would expect from the surround sound experience, but again that didn’t seem to faze them. All in all it was quite positive, they settled down in their seats, amazed at the size of the screen. Matilda didn’t stop giggling and Archie was fascinated by the flip chair that kept disappearing when he got off it. The chair kept his attention for a while, then he ate some smarties, drank some water, again amazed that there was actually a place specifically for him to place his drinking cup. The film had started and i’m happy to say that there was enough to keep them interested. Matilda was really enjoying, smiling and laughing, and Archie was watching snippets, mostly whilst standing up or looking for the smarties he’d dropped. They did fall asleep, partly my fault because of the 3D mix up so we had to see a later showing, and partly because they hadn’t been to sleep that morning, but it was gone halfway in the film so we didn’t mind. Overall the trip to the cinema was deemed a success we will definitely go again, more informed of the prices and the whole new 3D concept. As for the film i thought it was funny, not a classic by all means, but worth a watch and if you’ve got £50 to burn go and watch it in 3D.

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Matilda Loves Archie Supports Fairtrade Fortnight

Posted on March 1, 2011 by Ant

Monday 28th February saw the beginning of Fairtrade Fortnight. At Matilda loves Archie we stock Lazy Baby who have worked tooth and nail to be granted license to use the Fairtrade mark. This means that all people involved in the creation of each item of Lazy Baby clothing are receiving a fair wage which in turn means they can look after their own little babies. Find out more about Fairtrade here, and how by buying Fairtrade you are offering 7.5 million people in the developing world a more secure future. Check out our range of Lazy Baby and Plain Lazy Kids clothing now at Matilda loves Archie!!!

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Time for the Big Boy Bed!

Posted on February 16, 2011 by Ant

It was time last weekend to move Archie from his Cot into his Cot Bed or Big Boy Bed as he now likes to call it. Much deliberation went in before hand on whether it was the right time, was he old enough, would it effect his sleeping pattern (or lack of it!!!) etc. But after all this it was decided the big bed move would go ahead, and to try and make the transition as smooth as possible we would dismantle the cot and reassemble it together as a family. So we all squeezed into Archie’s room which is the box room of the house, and began to dismantle the cot. Not that difficult a job, as with most modern flat pack furniture all you need is an alan key and a screwdriver. No wait…, make that 3 alan keys and 3 screwdrivers, one each for myself, Matilda and Archie.

Converting the cot to a bed was relatively easy, in-between the jumping on the mattress, balancing on the bed slats, and trying to manoeuvre the alan keys into the right holes, we were probably only 15 minutes or so longer than if I were doing the job by myself. So we got it done and Archie has his new “Big boy bed” complete with a brand new blue bed guard. The biggest worry we had when all this was completed is the fact that Archie can now get out of bed. What I mean by this is that he has a small gap either side of the bed guard that he could potentially sneak out of. We’ve never had a baby gate on either of the children’s bedrooms so there’s always the danger that if they got out of their beds then they could crawl out onto the landing and potentially further on that, down the stairs. Matilda has never had this urge but as I’ve mentioned on numerous occasions Archie is a different animal. So we decided that we would shut the stair gate at the top of the stairs for the time being, and see how he sleeps. Not ideal as the baby gate is between the bedrooms and the bathroom, so you can imagine having to undo and close that every time you need to go to the bathroom in the dead of the night. Just another obstacle added to the assault course that is our landing (boy do we need another room), and a squeaky obstacle at that.

Anyway back to the boy’s sleeping arrangements and so far so good, not a hint of trying to escape the clutches of the cot bed. His night time routine hasn’t been disturbed and the reaction I get as I’m zipping up his Growbag each night tells me that he likes his new big boy bed and why wouldn’t he? He’s now got one more thing that is the same as his sisters, well that’s how we sold it to him anyway.

P.s. Find Blankets and Growbags ideal for sleep time at Matilda loves Archie.

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What your child eats now???

Posted on February 9, 2011 by Ant

One of the biggest bug bearers as parents and it can be quite stressful at times is you’re child’s diet. What they eat, what they don’t eat, what they should be eating, what you’d like them to be eating, it’s frustrating and one of the parts of their life where you haven’t got 100% control. Sure you can put new food in front of them but you cannot force them to eat it. If you’re anything like me and my wife you would have tried a lot of different foods to try and encourage different tastes but to no avail. Our children are quite happy at the moment eating what they like, what they know and at the end of the day any parent in the world would rather them be eating something rather than nothing. As I have previously written the munchkins will eat their fair share of good homemade foods, favourites being Spag Bol and a green vegetable concoction from Annabel Karmel called Eat Your Greens, but they also love the sausages, chicken nuggets and fries. Again they’ll eat their fruits, bananas, apples, grapes but on the flip side they enjoy a packet of crisps, or a chocolate biscuit, which isn’t a bad thing as everyone has to have treats. So I was quite interested on hearing research that has come forward this week whose findings stated that “What three year olds eat now affects their school performance many years later”.

Much has been made in the last few years of what our children are eating for school dinners. Jaime’s School Dinners did sterling work that is hopefully being carried on throughout the UK, but the research presented in this article suggests we need to start much earlier in our kids lives. The research is taken from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (also known as the Child of the 90’s Study) which enrolled 14,000 mothers during their pregnancy in 191-92 and has followed most of the children and parents in minute detail ever since. The findings are saying that children who do poorly at school are more likely to have been affected by the food they ate many years earlier, rather than the food they are eating now. The study shows that children that ate a diet of junk food at the age of three, made less progress in school between the ages of six (Key Stage 1) and 10 (Key Stage 2). It is important to attain that “Junk food” is defined here as highly processed foods, takeaways, and foods high in fat and sugar such as crisps, sweets and fizzy drinks.

My initial reaction to this study was to go home immediately and start piling my kids’ plates with new healthy foods, fruit, veg and fresh fish to name just a few. But that’s not going to help and as I said earlier it’s not that easy. What my munchkins eat is up to them, there’s the old saying “you can take a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink”, and that is always my main gripe with how these types of study are presented to the general public. Are they put out in the public domain to scare you? Yes they are full of fantastic theory and extremely informative, and they certainly make you think. But what they don’t do is explain how you could go about making these changes, maybe give suggestions and alternatives to the junk food.

Luckily whilst researching this article I came across a site that has done just that. Net Mums has done a fantastic article on this study, not only reporting on the facts and figures but they also give valuable information on how to go about the change. The food swap chart is fab and gives plenty of alternatives that we could all be using. I’ll certainly be making a few swaps and hopefully they’ll be taken on board. But I won’t be scared into making drastic and wholesale changes to my child’s diet as there’s no need and from previous experience it won’t get me anywhere. A study like this is good in that it makes you question what you are doing and could you be doing better, but its articles like the one on Net Mums that really empower you and provide you with the enthusiasm to make the changes.

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No Wrestling at Antenatal

Posted on February 7, 2011 by Ant

Our antenatal classes were a bit of a mixed bag in terms of usefulness. We covered a mix of topics, breathing techniques, which nappies to use, exercises that may help etc., we had a guided tour of the maternity unit and got to see where the magic happened. But one of the things they don’t seem to cover in these meetings are the wrestling techniques required to get your child ready for school in the mornings. The amount of time spent chasing, catching and then forcing (sorry I should say helping) them to get dressed defies logic. Everything is a battle. General procedure is that I go down in the morning and give the kids breakfast while my wife gets ready and she then follows us down armed with their clothes, toothbrushes and flannel. As she gets to the bottom of the steps you can hear the imaginary bell ringing in the background, “Round One!”

This will be getting them to brush their teeth and wash their faces. Not a bad one to start of with as Archie is quite forthcoming in taking the toothbrush from you. What he does with it then is open for debate, usually a bit of brushing but mostly sucking, but he will put the toothbrush to his mouth. Depending on how we are feeling we will try and help the brushing along, but it’s amazing how strong 2 year olds are these days. Matilda is generally a good brusher, and most of this stems from school as she’s been shown a few times the right way to brush her teeth but she’s gone to dislike having her face washed. But it has to be done as it’s usually got one of jam, toothpaste, milk on it, and at the moment it’s cold season, so you do the maths.

Next task (or round if you’re going with the analogy) is getting them both dressed. On a good day a five minute job, on a bad day we could be talking 15 to 20 minutes. The initial sticking point is getting them undressed from their pyjamas. If this goes well then everything falls into place. If you start having to chase them around the living room then it starts to become a long morning. Especially if they start thinking it’s a game and take it in turns to sprint away from you. Once you’ve caught Archie he gives in quite easily and is dressed within seconds, after you’ve scrambled to put a clean nappy on him. Matilda however will be awkward to the last and fight everything, knickers, jeans, socks, and top that you’re trying to place on her little frame. Dressing the kids is definitely not a pleasure for us or them. Funny really when all they want to do is play with their toys and all we want to do is get them dressed so they can carry on playing with their toys. You’d think we could come to some sort of arrangement with them and work out a happy medium.

Last thing to do with Matilda is brush her hair. Mostly a problem as her immediate thought is that her hair will be knotty. So no matter how gentle you are or how quick you are in brushing the hair it’s never incident free. We then have one final chase before forcing the coats on and we are good to go. All that’s left is to get them in the car and off to school. One bit of hope that we cling to is that we are not the only parents having this battle in the mornings. Maybe we should make a pact that all kids can go to school in their PJ’s. We’d get an extra hour in bed and every morning would be a lot calmer and stress free.

Nop, I don’t think it’ll happen either.

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