stay-at-home mum of 2 children, & running 2 businesses

My personalised Dad t-shirt is in the Not On The High Street Cyber Monday catalogue mailing!

See it for sale on this website.

See it for sale on the Not On The High Street website.

I carved the pumpkin, with my daughter’s help to scoop it out.

We baked and decorated ginger-dead-men biscuits! (What a cool idea by Firebox! – Where I got the cookie cutter from – which cuts the shape and also embosses the bones into the dough before cooking, that you can fill with icing afterwards.)

I also did my usual game of put your hand through the hole in the box and guess what’s inside, which the kids love! (Peeled grapes for eyeballs etc.! The box is covered in fake cobwebs to disguise it a bit). And we did a Halloween chocolate treasure hunt in the dark with torches, and played musical bumps to Halloween music. We all had a lot of fun and the kids were very excited!

Earlier this week I ordered some Christmas wrapping paper, and an advent calendar each for my two children, from Dots and Spots.

They’re a small business, run by Becky Peabody, that’s been rising fast in the last year or so, and I’ve been following them for a few years now, watching them grow from a small range of greeting cards and postcards to a whole raft of different products including wrapping paper, notebooks, badges and stickers! When my 3 year old son saw the stickers which arrived with the package he said “I love stickers” and proceeded to choose two to wear immediately – here’s a picture of the happy customer

I’ve lost touch in the last 6 months or so, due to being too busy to take part in Twitter much, and I miss being out of the loop – hopefully next year I’ll get my work load under control and be able to socialise again more! My own businesses have been keeping me very busy – freelance website development – and Flaming Imp where I now mostly sell t-shirts and mugs I’ve designed, and my latest new product which is personalised glass engraved pint tankards!

(Get this mug at Etsy! Also available on a t-shirt.)

I’ve moved in a very different direction to Dots and Spots! I started out with greeting cards, and then posters, both of which you have to stock yourself, and have moved to personalised t-shirts and mugs which are printed on demand – and also designing cult t-shirts which I submit to t-shirt-a-day sites and sell on Etsy and Red Bubble.

My 3 year old son is not talking much. We’ve been worried for a while. By this age most kids are nattering away and talking fully and excitedly about things. My son says a few key words together and that’s all – basic things on the level of “eat it”, “shoes on”. By this age I was playing complicated board games with his sister (6 years old now), but I’m not even playing the simplest board game with my son.

About 3 months ago I phoned the health visitor and she arranged a drop in speech and language therapy session for us. It was recognised that he was behind (she said probably about 6 months, not that my son spoke or participated in the session at all!), and he was “referred”.

A few weeks ago a health visitor checked up to see if things were ok now and I said no they were the same. She said she would chase up what was going on. So today we had another session, a slightly more in depth one but pretty much the same as before and with the same person as before! My son did participate more this time though and even say something. However, it was very obvious that he was having difficulty, and when things got too difficult (being asked to act on 3 key words together – e.g. make *teddy* *jump* on the *bed*) he decided not to play along anymore.

He acted on one keyword fine, but he had difficulty with the two keywords (put the *ball* on the *book*) – sometimes getting it wrong, or doing a lot of thinking aswell rather than acting quickly.

Now, to speed up writing the rest of this I’m going to paste what I put on Twitter!:

It seems likely that the problem isn’t his speech as much as his understanding. He doesn’t understand language very well and therefore doesn’t speak it very well either Could be one of three things wrong:

1. delay (which is unlikely due to other factors – like that he is completely fine in every other development you can possibly think of – in fact more advanced mostly – and he is able to concentrate and focus on one thing for a length of time rather than flitting between things)
2. hearing problem (I *so* hope this is the case as it’s most fixable!), or
3. problem with language area of the brain (NO!!! PLEASE NO!)

So all in all I’m feeling a bit down. Referral for language sessions – at least 5 weeks, referral for hearing test – 2-3 months(!!! WHAT?!). And he starts school in September. Why don’t referrals happen quicker? For goodness sake, how long does it take to do a hearing test?! If the problem is hearing it needs to get sorted now, so he can get developing his language skills and understand what’s going on at school! Very disappointed by the system. Also, she’d said she was referring for hearing test the first time, but it hasn’t happened – rubbish!

My husband got this t-shirt today for Father’s Day. He also got…

A very creative Father’s Day card that my daughter made at school – and a medal (see below), then two bought cards that the kids did lovely drawings in.

He also got one of my Dad design mugs, personalised with our children’s names:

The t-shirt was wrapped in some paper which I’d specifically bought to use for him, but I’d bought it years ago and kept forgetting to use it! It went down really well – it was of one of his favourite T.V. programmes as a kid: Rhubarb and Custard. He ended up showing the kids some espisodes on YouTube and it really took him on a trip down memory lane. In fact my son went to sleep tonight with the wrapping paper, still looking at it!

We had Whitby kippers for breakfast, went to Legoland Discover Centre for the afternoon and then to Oddest Bar in Chorlton for dinner – a nice day

My design of Browncoats Academy, Serenity Valley Campus, Firefly Class t-shirt available for $13 from OtherTees, a new limited edition t-shirt website, now and for the next 5 days! http://othertees.pl

I’m really excited about this, please tell everyone!

Earlier this week, actually it was on the only lovely hot and sunny day we’ve had, my son and I got in the car to go to the park and it was completely dead. I looked behind me knowing what I would find – that the little inside light was on in the back. It had been on all night and drained the battery. My son had been playing in the car the day before and had left the light on (I sat there reading a book in the front, waiting for him to finish playing!). This has happened once before – with a previous car we owned and with our daughter – the AA came and charged the battery and took the bulb out of the light for us so that it couldn’t happen again!

I then did something I really regret – I turned to my son and said to him “you’ve broken the car. You left the light on”. He really took it to heart the poor thing (he’s just turned 3 years old) and said “cars broken” and his bottom lip started to go. I tried to rectify the situation, making light of it and saying “don’t worry, it’s ok, we can get it fixed!”, but it continued to concern him on and off.

I called the AA and told them I had a flat battery due to an inside light being left on over night. They send someone out surprisingly quickly and he was soon charging the battery. So far so good. He charged it for a few minutes (whilst also draining it as I discovered the CD player was going – which I turned off when I put my bag in the car ready for our delayed trip to the park). He then tested the battery and told me it failed and that I should buy a new battery at 85 pounds! He said it “took a lot out of” the battery to have it drained (Yeah! A lot of charge! It shouldn’t ruin the battery though!). I felt very pressured into accepting, but after a very brief phonecall with my husband we decided not to replace the battery.

The AA man then said to me that if the battery was flat again the next morning they would not come out to me because I refused a new battery. What?! So you have to accept a new battery there and then, on the first instance it goes flat, or you’re hung out to dry – you can’t just test out the battery for one day and see what happens before making an informed decision?! What the heck am I paying them lots of money for each year?

Well, the AA man went away with the final words “just keep smiling, that’s my motto” – thanks for that! I then took my son to the park. I was completely stressed out and worried the whole time we were at the park incase the car wouldn’t start again when we got back to it. I almost felt sick approaching it. After all that worry it started fine – instantly – exactly as normal, and it has continued to be like that since – no problems at all, the car is as it normally is. I’m so glad that I didn’t unnecesarily part with 85 pounds for a new car battery I didn’t need!

Check out the awesome train track I set up for my 3 year old son today! We certainly enjoyed playing with it. Two different sets (wooden, and lego Duplo) bridging over each other. I felt really good when my 6 year old daughter got home from school and was *really* impressed and said it was amazing

My daughter, who turned 6 years old earlier this year, started piano lessons in January. Her piano teacher, Alex Winkcup, who works at the RNCM (Royal Northern College of Music), gave us a leaflet for a Showcase free piano concert taking place as part of the Chorlton Arts Festival. We went along this evening and it was very good! My daughter went to bed late and very excited!

If you’re looking for a good piano teacher in the central/south Manchester area (Whalley Range, Chorlton, Trafford etc.) then I’d definitely recommend Alex Winkcup.

It was Mother’s Day today, and my husband presented his amazing Chocolate Orange Baked Cheesecake which I’d requested. It is the most gorgeously delicious thing ever, and his own concoction. He could easily go into business selling these, they are a million times better than anything you can buy in the shops, and far superior toanything you can buy in a restaurant too. Light, moist and creamy – and you can taste the chocolate and the orange in it. My son is in the background looking forward to having a slice

And there’s a slice… yum

I also received flowers delivered to the house. Unfortunately my husband had mixed up the messages when ordering flowers for me, and for his own mother – so we got each other’s messages! Hehe! Oops.

The day started off with lovely Mother’s Day cards from my two children. My daughter had written and drawn in hers (and on the envelope), and really put a lot of time and effort into it – and lots of thought and imagination (my son’s only two years old, so not old enough to do the same yet – except a few scribbles – but he hadn’t been in the mood to do anything in it when my husband asked him!). I also got presents of two lots of Hotel Chocolat chocolates (a small Rocky Road slab, and a little box of 6 Mother’s Day chocolates). I also got a lie in, and a chance to read my book and have a lie on the sofa in the afternoon whilst the kids were playing outside, and we all went out for a meal in the evening. All in all a good day!