Merry Christmas from the Little Ones

The stockings are filled, the tree is surrounded with presents,

The Little ones were angels and went straight off to sleep without a murmur,

after leaving their treats out for Santa and his reindeer.

Mummy and Daddy are watching a Christmas film and Daddy is enjoying a tipple,

I can't wait to see their faces tomorrow morning when they open their gifts.

Merry Christmas Everyone from us at Loving Life with the Little Ones. xx

See you in the New Year. x

Dry, itchy eczema prone skin- you should try AVEENO®- We love it.

"Stop scratching" "I can't it's itchy" "You'll make it sore" "I can't help it, it's sooo itchy" " Stop it, it will bleed" "Grrr but I want to itch it" "Leave it alone"

Does this sound familiar? Little 1 has had dry itchy eczema prone skin since she was a few weeks old when I noticed after bath time that her skin was dry and rough. Over the years she has been prescribed and used several emollient creams, mild steroid creams and ointments and lots of different moisturisers, as well as using quite a few different bath products and washing powders too, we have found that some things irritate her more than others and some products work better than others at relieving the sore itchy skin.

Now that she is 5 years old her eczema seems to have settled, her general skin is healthy but she gets itchy if she wears certain fabrics, gets hot or uses products that don't suit her, she is also allergic to some sun lotions and plasters too. I have to be careful what I buy and think of her when using the washing machine too.

I suffer from eczema too, I get very dry itchy sore hands especially between my fingers and this means I have to take my wedding rings off at night otherwise my fingers get irritated. Many cleaning and washing up products just do not suit me and really dry and irritate my skin making it worse. Since I have been pregnant I have also suffered red dry itchy patches on my lower arms and wrists too.

Recently we were sent some products from AVEENO® to try and I have to say I love them. AVEENO® products are designed for dry, itchy eczema prone skin and made from colloidal (very finely milled) oatmeal, a natural ingredient with properties known to moisturise, soothe, cleanse and protect the skin as well as helping to maintain a healthy skin pH balance. We were sent the moisturising lotion, cream and bath and shower oil.

We have found all the products useful, Little 1 has been using the moisturising lotion after bathtime to keep her skin hydrated and the itchiness at bay and I have been keeping my hands soft and flare free using the AVEENO® cream regularly throughout the day. But the star of the show for us is the bath and shower oil, I started using it on myself in the shower and noticed immediately how smooth and supple my skin was and how quickly it soothed my itchy dry patches that have occurred in pregnancy. I used my usual bath wash the other day and I really noticed how red and itchy the patches were the next day compared to using the AVEENO® bath and shower oil so I will definitely continue using it. Little 1 has also used it in the shower and loves how slippery it is and that it goes white as she rubs it in, it leaves her skin is lovely and soft too. I have so far been reluctant to use it in the bath in case it makes the children's feet slippy, although it doesn't in the shower so I should give it a go really. 

AVEENO® have also recently developed a book with children's author Penelope Harper after carrying out some research (YouGov Aveeno Skin Stories Study, 2014) into the difficulties that mum's face when managing their child’s dry eczema-prone skin which found:

·         48% of surveyed mums agree that their child does not enjoy their emollient routine

·         46% of mums stated that their child doesn’t like using creams or lotions

·         And 51% of mums say that they would find advice on how to develop an enjoyable dry, eczema-prone skin routine helpful

We received a copy of the book and Little 1 has had fun making up her own creaming song like the one at the end of the story of Ellie and her gecko friend Eddie, you can download the book for free here: http://www.aveeno.co.uk/childrens-dry-skin

AVEENO® asked us to share our top tips for eczema prone skin so here are our top 5.

1. Keep eczema prone skin cool in the summer and avoid overheating the house in winter.
2. Wear cotton and other natural breathable fabrics to avoid irritation.
3. Avoid perfumed and chemical laden bathing and washing products.
4. Take time to earn what causes your/your child's flare ups and the best products for calming them quickly.
5. Keep dry and eczema prone skin moisturised as it helps prevent itchiness.

Do try AVEENO® too, you can request a free sample here: www.aveenosamples.com

N.B We received a copy of the Dry-ventures of Ellie and Eddie book and three Aveeno products to try in return for this post.

A wintery walk to blow the cobwebs away

What a beautiful day it was on Saturday, the sky was clear, hardly a cloud in the sky and the sun was shining, perfect for a little stroll to clear away the cobwebs and burn a little of the girls excess pre-Christmas excitement.

It was still rather chilly though so we layered the girls up in warm clothes and tights, thick jumpers, hats and scarves. Little 1 teemed her winter get up with sunglasses as it was getting towards the end of the day and the sun was low.

Little 2 despite having bright red freezing cold hands declared that her hands were warm and refused to wear her gloves, usually she is pretty good at wearing them when her hands are cold unless she wants to suck her thumb. Perhaps she wanted to be free to run and climb!

We drove to one of our favourite nearby lookout spot and took in the sunny views, the girls enjoyed posing for a few wintery pictures and giggled as they were chased by Daddy up and down the bumpy hills.

We reached our favourite climbing tree, the Little ones and Daddy had a go while I took the opportunity to have a play around with a few settings on my new camera I had for my birthday last month and snap a few pictures.

After a brief moment where Little 1 got something in her eye, a rather large fleck of wood that she very bravely let me get out without any tears, we headed on back up the hill munching away on a packet of chocolate buttons I had secreted into my pocket.

We looked back and watched the sun beginning to set as we made our way back to the car. It was a really lovely stroll to blow the cobwebs away and get a little fresh air on a bright and chilly wintery afternoon.

How much do we stifle our children's creativity?

Recently I have been thinking about how much (or how little) freedom I give my children to be children and be freely creative. It all stems back to a post I wrote last May when Little 1 came home from preschool with a box of pet snails (check out the post here - the snail one) and she drew this picture.

Having shown an interest in the snails and watched them for a while she chose to draw a picture, she drew the two pictures on the left, top down views of the snails with their shells on their backs, the way she saw them from the top of the box. I don't know what compelled me to do it but after praising her efforts I suggested she draw one from the side, a view that we are all more comfortable with and the 'normal' way to draw a snail, I don't really know why I did it and had to have a more 'normal' image of a snail to pin to the wall. I regretted it afterwards and wished I hadn't done that. Why did her drawing have to be like everyone elses?

It was this comment left on my snail post that really got me thinking about what had happened in that drawing session and has caused me to think about my actions several times since then.

''.......I am completely smitten with her drawings. In the UK an adult or older child

would never draw a top down view of a snail like that, as she gets older she'll 

realise it's not usual and wouldn't do it. So much creativity is stifled by accepted

norms - alas it's the same for everybody :) ''

- Comment from www.TheBrickCastle.com

I was thinking about what I could write in this post and a few examples I could use to indicate how much we dictate our children's creativity and persuade them to conform to the 'norm' if there is such a thing, when two examples were presented to me that very afternoon. 

Firstly Little 2 wanted the train track out, I was pottering and finishing off some housework so she set out building a track by herself, she did really well and built this all by herself over about 5 minutes (from the bridge until the end).

I had then finished my jobs and went to join her by helping build the track on the other side of the bridge and back around until I ran out of track. Now if I had built the whole track I would have ensured it had met in the middle or altered it so that it did when I'd run out of pieces, why, because it just had to in my mind. But as Little 2 had built most of the track herself and was pleased with her efforts (and with this post in mind) I didn't do anything else. 

Little 2 and I played a while up and down the track, maybe 10 minutes or so and then she used the train on the carpet to reach the other end of track, she mentioned that the track wasn't finished and had a look in the box. There were other bits of buildings and gates from the village in there so I watched as she lengthened the track using these bits and created a little road to run the train between.

We played with our track for a good hour and then ended up singing train and car related songs as she sat in the box and drove a train/car. I am glad I left the track as it was and didn't change it, what did it matter anyway?

The second incidence was just half an hour later when I collected Little 1 from school, as I checked her school bag for notes etc I pulled out a pile of colouring pages she had done. 5 pictures were Christmas pictures that she had coloured in multi colours using every available shade (see below). This is how she has coloured in since the summer, all her pictures look like this at the moment, it is what she likes to do and I don't have a problem with it. She knows that a baby is not green and a mince pie is brown, she is proud of her artwork and so are we.

The next picture I found was a colour by numbers christmas tree, all coloured correctly as per the instructions and with a comment underneath it, Great colouring Little 1, which had obviously come from one of the teaching staff. Little 1 spotted me looking at it and told me that she had shown the multicoloured work to her teaching assistant who had asked her if she would like to do another colouring and gave her the colour by numbers, it may just have been a coincidence or a class activity I have no idea but was it a subtle suggestion that this was the way it should be done?? After all there were no comments on the other colouring pages!

So having spent the past few days thinking about what I say and what I do relating to the Little ones I have realised just how much, in daily life, I guide them towards the norm or tell them something has to be this way, make suggestions or guide them when they are doing something. 

I hereby promise that I will take a step back and let them be children, let them use their creativity their way and let them do it the way they want to do it and not try to 'help' or correct them too much, after all society will knock them into shape whether I like it or not sooner or later. 

(I also promise that later on when we decorate the Christmas tree with Daddy I will not adjust the baubles when the children have gone to bed even if it means they are all on the same square foot of tree.)

Do you let your child be free to do things their way or do you correct them and guide them towards the socially acceptable norm or they way you would do it?? What do they do when we take a step back and just let them be??

Easy peasy festive fudge

The Little ones and I like to bake, cakes, biscuits and sometimes sweets, we haven't done much baking recently as everyone has been run down and tired. We like to make yummy things at Christmas to share with visitors or give as little gifts to our family and friends and with the big day less than 3 weeks away I thought we ought to get started. This time we chose something that was quick and easy as we had grandad visiting and wanted to make something for him to take home with him.

We chose to make fudge, a milk chocolate one and white chocolate and cranberry one using a very simple recipe from our festive treats cook book.

Little 2 and I made the first batch of milk chocolate fudge when Little 1 was at Hockey club in the morning and Little 1 helped to make the white chocolate one in the afternoon. Little 2 couldn't wait to help me and was anxious to get started.

To make this fudge all you need is:
300g chocolate
200g condensed milk
2 teaspoons of vanilla essence
and then if you want to add something to them like raisins or cranberries etc you need 90g of whatever you are adding, we added 90g of cranberries to the white chocolate one.
(and that is it, so simple, so easy, no thermometers or anything, and it only takes a few minutes to make)

As we were giving away a large portion of what we were making we decided to double the recipe for each flavour which was quite handy as the tins of condensed milk I had bought were 397g. 

All you need to do is melt the chocolate, condensed milk and vanilla essence together on a low heat until fully melted and then add in any other ingredients off the heat before tipping it into a tray lined with greaseproof paper. Little 2 enjoyed snapping and breaking up the chocolate into the saucepan and helped me to pour in the condensed milk. I did the hot bit and she helped me to flatten it a bit in the tray before we placed it in the fridge for a few hours to harden.

Later when Little 1 was home she helped me to make the white chocolate one and enjoyed chopping up the cranberries to add and stirring the mixture.

After the fudge had hardened I tipped it out of the trays, pulled off the greaseproof paper and chopped it into squares, it did look really yummy. It was very tasty cold from the fridge and had a slightly chewy texture not really very crumbly like proper fudge but it was really delicious and I preferred it to the dry sugary crumbly stuff you sometimes get, we all loved it and all wanted more so I've had to hide it at the back of the fridge away from the girls! 

We portioned most of our fudge into little starry bags and tied them in silver ribbon, Grandad got some to take home and the rest will go to the first few family members we see! I think I will make some more next week as it was so quick and easy, perfect for school teachers and pre-school staff at the end of term as a little thank you, I think I will add raisins to the chocolate one and maybe we could try a little rum instead of vanilla essence!! mmm

Have you made anything yummy for Christmas? Next week we are going to attempt to make a gingerbread house.

The Little ones write to Santa

With Christmas fast approaching we decided it was time to write letters to Father Christmas (courtesy of the post people at Royal Mail), the Little ones have done this each year for the past few years as long as they could doodle and I love seeing their faces as their reply arrives through the post. 

It started after breakfast with me asking if Little 1 could write a Christmas list (and soon), all the shopping for the girls has been done already but I wanted to make sure they were not going to be disappointed when something they desperately wanted did not arrive as they had neglected to tell me about it!

Little 1 wrote this note as there was not time for a proper letter before school and I was relieved to see my intuition had been correct and she was not going to be disappointed come Christmas day, nothing huge or fancy just a couple of things she really wanted and a dolls bed we have already (although it does belong to Little 2 technically).

Later on Little 2 wanted to write her letter which resembled something of a black circle, when asked if she wanted to make it prettier she drew two more circles and looked most pleased with her efforts! A bit of stamping soon brightened up the letter and it was ready for mummy to write her name and address on.

The Little ones both love stamping, we do it quite a lot especially when we make cards, although they always end up covered in ink!!

Little 2 decorated the envelope with a few more stamps and signed her name at the bottom of the letter I wrote for her as she told me what she wanted to ask for, luckily her list too was rather small and Mummy Christmas had it all sorted. Not like last year when Little 1 declared a week before Christmas that she really wanted a Tinkerbell fleece blanket after hiding her letter for a week, thank goodness for ebay!

When little 1 arrived home from school she quickly set to writing her proper letter prompted by what she had written earlier, she also wrote her name, class at school, age and address (with a bit of help from me) and drew a picture of Father Christmas, then she got happy with the stamp and practically covered every available remaining space! (Some details have been removed for anonymity reasons).

She decorated her envelope with a picture of Father Christmas and we stuck on the stamps.

I was taking a picture of Little 1 and her completed letter when she was suddenly photobombed by her normally camera shy little sister, check it out.... Top is the photo as it should have looked and bottom is the rather blurred large face of little 2 instead!

Their letters are currently winging their way to the North Pole and I hope we will receive some replies shortly.

A toddler kind of day

Today was a toddler kind of day, there are many of these in our house at the moment, after the school run, a trip to the post office and the supermarket the rest of my day was all hers and so we played.

It started with Playmobil in the den, the toy princesses were having a tea party, which of course meant a party dress. Little 2 was initially wearing a long sleeved top, jeggings, normal socks and a sleeveless jumper but insisted on needing a party dress to dance and twirl in for the tea party so chose her summeryist one to wear on top and of course it just had to be worn with thick fluffy socks which HAD to be rolled down! (don't you just love the fashion sense of a toddler).

We played in the den and she wanted her picture taken, she doesn't normally like to have her photo done and rarely poses through choice but today she wanted to show off her dress.

Then came time for the dancing, dancing and twirling is this little girls favourite thing to do at the moment, rarely a day goes by where she isn't wearing a dress over her clothes by mid morning so that she can dance and twirl throughout the day. The funny thing is that she would rather wear trousers or a skirt and tights in the morning than a weather appropriate dress that she could twirl in all day!

After a spot of lunch we played with the babies and made dinner with the Playmobil figures before having a chill out and watching a bit of Peter Pan on dvd before collecting Little 1 from school. All in all a pretty normal school day in our house.

6 months pregnant- Dear Baby....

Today I am 26 weeks pregnant and if I am really honest I am feeling rough. After having a stressful time last month with extra scans and Little 3 being diagnosed with a mild heart problem, Little 2 being ill practically all month with a run of illnesses and scaring us with her breathing over a minor chest infection (this is the post all about that!), and Little 1 having a cough, which all meant lots of worry and not a lot of sleep, I think my body has just about given up!

Due to the lack of sleep last month for one thing and another, worry, a growing bump, coughing and ill children mainly, I am tired, tired out and run down. This week started with me catching a cold, just a normal one but it has knocked me sideways, when it started my head felt like it was going to explode, my bump hurt so much from all the sneezing pulling at my already achy muscles, I wanted to cry by the end of the day and then the cold went onto my chest and I lost my voice, it still isn't back properly 4 days later. I haven't felt so tired in ages.

Little 3 has also been a pickle keeping me awake at night and causing me to feel pretty uncomfortable at times so I thought I would just pen a short note to my little one (not that it will change anything, it is just for fun after all)...

Dear Baby,

Mummy loves you very much already and I am looking forward to when the time comes to meet you but there are one or two things we need to sort out before that time comes. There are still 14 weeks (give or take) to go and I really need to have a word...

Firstly my bladder is not a trampoline or punch bag and I really would prefer it if you could refrain from using it so especially when I am trying to get to sleep, getting up to go to the toilet three times in 5 minutes is not my idea of fun! I need to sleep!

Your favourite position might be super comfortable for you but I do not share the same feelings. You are currently transverse across my tummy with your head over my left hip and your bottom over my right and your back pushing painfully behind my belly button, that one is just not going to work anymore, it really is uncomfortable now that you have grown. I don't feel my belly button can stretch much more and I can't bend down, if you could just find a new position (preferably head down) I would be ever so grateful.

When you have spent the previous 10 minutes having a good kick and wriggle, it is not funny to freeze for the few minutes that Daddy puts his hand on my tummy, I am sure Daddy is convinced I am imagining it all and it would be lovely for him to connect with you for a moment!

Having said all this I am glad that you are comfortable in there and growing well, I am just tired and having an off day. I really do love you lots.

Love Mummy x 

Our Christmas traditions

With Christmas fast approaching, exactly a month away today, I have been thinking about our Christmas traditions and I thought I should get a wriggle on and write about them.

The Little ones are getting older now, at 5 years and 2 and 3/4 years old, for the past few years we have been doing the same things at Christmas time, some things we have done from before we had children too. The Little ones are beginning to remember the things we do each year and they have developed into new Christmas traditions for our family.

Baking- For as long as I can remember I have made biscuits at Christmas time, I remember doing it at home and here before the Little ones came along and I have done it with them too. I, until last year, used the same recipe every year for simple spicy biscuits which we have made recently. We always cut them out with Christmas cutters and decorated them with white icing and all sorts of red, green and silver decorations and handed them out to family and friends in little Christmas bags along with our Christmas cards. 

Last year I was given a book of Christmas baking for my birthday and instead of making biscuits the Little ones and I made giant chocolate drops and decorated them in a sort of florentine style with cut up apricots, candied apple, raisins, nuts and mini chocolate drops . We also made home-made coconut ice too and gave the treats out to people instead, including Little 1's preschool teachers, everyone loved them. So this year I think I will go through the book again with the girls and see what they fancy making.

I was also given a gingerbread house cutter set last Christmas and I am planning to use my spicy biscuit recipe to make one with the girls and decorate it as a family. I have thought about doing this for the past couple of years but thought the girls were a bit young before, watch this space for our Christmas baking as I am sure I will write about it.

The Snowman/Christmas DVD- For the past few years we have allowed Little 1 to stay up a little later on Christmas eve and watch the Snowman on dvd once she is in her pyjamas (a treat for her as the tv is not usually allowed on after tea in our house), this is usually done with hot chocolate and a few chocolate coins, we all sit together as a family for this one. Now that the children are getting older and their attention span is improving we might start watching a Christmas film instead although we usually pull out our collection of Christmas films from late November and watch them whenever we fancy so we might decide to keep it as the Snowman (at least it is short), we'll have to see what they want to watch this year.

Mince Pie for Santa- After the dvd and hot chocolate we always prepare a plate with a mince pie and milk for Santa and a carrot for the reindeer that the girls leave by the fireplace before they go up to bed.

Christmas clothes from Nanny-  On Christmas morning we always open all of our stockings in our bed before coming downstairs in our pyjamas where the girls open their presents from Father Christmas and us and Mummy and Daddy swap gifts with each other. Then either we go over to Nanny and Uncle M's or they come to us for coffee, croissants and a few little gifts if there is time. Since the girls were born Nanny has always bought the girls an outfit to wear on Christmas day and she will either bring it over with her for them to get dressed or give it to us the day before if we are going over to them. This year however Little 2 will be wearing Little 1's dress from a couple of years ago and Little 1 was lucky enough to receive a lovely Christmassy dress from Frugi recently so she didn't need one either.

Little 1's Frugi Reindeer dress.

Dinner at Granny's - After a quick chat and a play with their new things all of us head over to Granny and Grampy's for Christmas dinner. It is great that we are all together for Christmas and I get to spend lots of time with the girls as I am not cooking a Christmas dinner, we spend the rest of the day there eating, opening presents and eating more and bring 2 tired children home in their pyjamas to go straight up to bed.

Boxing Day presents- As we don't have the time to open all of our presents on Christmas day we usually leave the ones for the girls from other people, and ours from friends and work until Boxing day when Nanny and Uncle M come over and we swap gifts with them and open all the rest of ours. Later on we head over to Great Granny's for tea with the whole family, it is a bit of a squeeze!

So there you have it, our two days of Christmas, what do you do, has it changed and developed over the years? How do your children influence your traditions?