Playpennies

It's the summer. No really, I know it doesn't feel like it, but it is!

It's the time when people hook up their caravans, pack their tents or jet off to sunnier places for their holidays. If you've ever travelled any distance with a toddler you know that you need to be prepared for all events that are likely to come to pass whilst you're on the road.

That means packing food or knowing where you're going to stop along the way. Stopping along the way is also essential for those inevitable pee stops, because there's nothing worse than having to stop on the hard shoulder of any of the motorways so your toddler can have a wee!

Actually there is - a toddler in the back of the car who is BORED!

This ingenious idea to combat toddler boredom whilst on the move is so simple I want to know why I hadn't thought of it before!

Little kids are obsessed with buckles and clips, they'll spend hours fiddling with them so put a few fiddly clips and other bits and bobs on a blanket (or something similar) and BINGO! Something that will keep your little one amused for ages AND your travelling sanity intact! BRILL!

If you've got some clever and crafty ideas up your sleeve that I haven't thought of, drop me a line and let me know!

A little while ago I came across a growth chart that told you what you were 'as big as' at any given height on the chart.

As my household is one, perhaps, uncommonly obsessed with measuring vertical progress I like the idea of making of your own height chart even more!

We've always just written on the door frame in pencil, which is ok until it's time to redecorate or it's time to move! I have pieces of paper with everyone's height at certain dates written on them and stashed away somewhere safe.

I came across this EXCELLENT home-made growth chart tutorial today and I LOVE how it looks!

In fact I'm utterly in love with the whole concept - you could make them for your own children which can be kept as keepsakes when they've stopped growing - their own children, should they have any, will love looking at how tall their mother or father was at their age.

They can be made as new baby gifts for friends or family, and the designs are endless.

If you're at a loose end this summer holidays and you have a child starting school in September, then you could make one WITH your child and measure their height progress during their school career.

If you love this idea as much as I do and decide to make one, please send us photographs of your finished creations - we'd love to see them!

This week PlayPennies loves...Notes From Home.

You can never be sure what you're going to find when you look at a list of blog titles and chose one to dive into.  Sometimes they're very funny, sometimes they're quite angsty (is that a real word? If not, it is now!), sometimes they're sad and other times they just wallop you round the head and bring everything back into persepective.

So the first post I came across today informed me, in three lines,  that William is very unwell; actually, he's in hospital and it's serious.  As a mother, I can't leave - I want to know what's happened to William and I feel the immediate need to offer support to his mum in reading what she has to say.

Further reading revealed that William is seven and his mum is Ella.  William has FSGS and Nephoric Syndrome, a kidney disorder. The family's journey from pre-diagnosis of FSGS, to diagnosis and present day makes for heart wrenching reading  - if you don't sit there with a lump in your throat and tears in your eyes then you must have a heart of stone.

I was muttering a lot this morning about how the Teenagers have STILL not got the hang of washing up AND putting their things away; how they still haven't brought their washing down - all they have to do is fling it in the utility room!; how they left all the remote controls scattered around the lounge, left Sky on pause and so my mental list of ' and they haven't done...' went on.

These words from Ella pulled me up very short - if all I have to worry about is washing-up not being put away, then I should be thanking my lucky stars not moaning...

"But his childhood is already full of hospitals, sickness, medications, tiredness and missed schooling.

I just want him to be a child, to have the carefree childhood we had come to take for granted. To have the same opportunities in the future for a normal life. To be healthy. And that is hard to come to terms with as a parent, to know that I cannot fix that for him."

WAIT! STOP! Don't go without reading what Ella has to share - I promise this isn't a blog full of self-pity and wailing! It's packed full of strength and humour when hiding under the duvet seems like the better option; there's joy and daily happiness too.

Go and share the journey with this family - drop them a line to wish them all well, if you feel moved to - you'll walk away not feeling maudlin, or depressed, but with the colours of the world looking brighter than they did before you stopped by Notes From Home.

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I'm really going to show my age now, whenever I come across cardboard playhouses I hear this song by Living in a Box from waaaaay back in 1987  - if you don't remember it, you either weren't living in the country at the time or you're a young whipper-snapper! - ha! late 1980s fashion and music at its very best *grin*

Anyway, back to the business in hand!

How many times have you bought a present that's come in a HUGE cardboard box and your child has had more fun playing in the box than with the toy it contained?

There's something great about hiding, and playing, in cardboard boxes! I loved doing that as a kid, all of my kids loved doing it and I love being the grown-up now who gets to cut holes out for windows and doors.

Of course, if you're really cool you're windows will be hinged on one side so you can open and close them - I have perfected the art over the years.

But what if you want to go a step further than that and have a proper playhouse? So buy a proper playhouse!

But what if you don't have the space to have a permament building structure dominating the room OR the not-insignificant amount of cash required to buy one?

Buy a cardboard playhouse! I think these are simply genius if you aren't content with just any old box or want something 'more'.

They come flat-packed, you can put them up in minutes AND take them down again in minutes when they're not being played in and you need to reclaim the space.

They come in various shapes, sizes and colours - traditional playhouse, rocket ship, teepee, castle, igloo, princess castle, garrsion fort the list goes on!

They have to be the ultimate in cardboard box playtime and they're perfect for eco-friendly warriers too, just bung it in the recycling bin when it's time to move on.

I'm not sure they'll ever replace the magic of playing with a bog-standard cardboard box that was only ever intended to be packaging, but they still look pretty cool to me!

I didn't breastfeed any of my children.

I've got used to the occasional GASP, the subtle headshaking and muted tut-tuttings over the years and I make no apologies for it.  The thought of it actually made me feel quite queasy and want to lock 'the girls' up and throw away the key!

I have a friend, on the other hand, who utterly loved every single moment of it and was distraught when she finally decided to stop (and I'm talking years here not months!).

She's one of these women who are very strong and confident in their own skin so wasn't remotely phased about breastfeeding in public and couldn't care less if someone too offence; she wasn't over the top and didn't 'put on a big show' but she didn't curl up in the corner and try to hide either.

It's a thorny issue! Denise Van Outen admitted to giving up breastfeeding early for fear of being papped whilst doing so and the resulting pictures being published in the papers.

Okay so lesser-famous mothers don't have that to contend with but they DO have to face the rest of it - the stares from some, the surreptitious sideways glances from others, the barbed comments not said to you but uttered loudly enough for you to hear - you get the picture.

So what are you to do?

Don't go out until your child can sit at the table and eat a chocolate chip muffin along with the rest of the Starbucks patrons - that's one option. Don't breastfeed at all - that's another, but what if you WANT to!?

I came across this 'breastfeeding apron' this morning and I when I saw the title I had to investigate further - it's not, thankgoodness, a multi-tasking cooking pinny that allows you to cook and breastfeed at the same time!

It's like a bib that you attach round your neck, it hangs down covering your front and baby and boobs are squirrelled away underneath. I think I'd prefer to call it a backless smock though, it sounds more glam' and less like you can't drink a skinny latte without dribbling it down your front!

But what I want to know is this:  is this money for old rope?

You can achieve the same results with a light muslin square, right? Or, if you're handy with a sewing machine, make something similar of your own for a fraction of the cost (I know this one is priced in US dollars, but there must be an equivalent to buy with our Great British pounds!), or is this sort of item pure genius and only going to make the lives of breastfeeding mums easier and less stressful?

Regardless of the answer, there is still the bigger question to answer: why, in the modern times we live in, breastfeeding aprons/bibs/backless smocks/tents even! are necessary?  WHY is breastfeeding in public still such a taboo?!

Answers and opinions on virtual postcards please - enquiring minds (mine!) want to know.

This week PlayPennies Loves...The Diary Of A Frugal Family!

I don't mind telling you that I'm almost 37 (ha! that looks OLD written down and a bit weird because I only feel 15 most of the time) and I keep reading and hearing about the pensions crisis that's heading our way.

I doubt there'll be a State pension by the time my generation retire, or even if there'll be a retirement age by then! Anyone relying on the State pension will find themselves way below the poverty line and we should be putting 25% of our income aside for those glorious 'twilight' years.

Yeah RIGHT! I'd love to know how most people are supposed to do that! Income, generally, isn't increasing in-line with the rise in cost of living and every week I wonder how on earth, short of selling the kids and living on my own, I can slash my Tesco shopping bill!

So I thought I'd rummage around The Diary Of A Frugal Family to see if I could pick up a few tips and, of course, it fits perfectly with our PlayPennies ethos.

I love reading long musey rambling posts, and I can write them too (oh that's kind to say you hadn't noticed), so I always admire people who seem to be able to say so much without rivalling War and Peace in the process and our Frugal Mum has got it down to a fine art.

I did laugh when I read her thoughts about Handy Manny and how he's not being so smart by doing lots of work for free - very true!

I was taken on a quick trip along memory lane with this Did you used to do this? post - I did, although I'm not sure my mum EVER wore any of my creations...I'm going to ask her!

I rather enjoyed reading through the Cooking with Kids posts. The warped part of my brain instantly wondered what sort of recipies use kids for ingredients; the dark recesses of my mind can be scary at times and you'll be most relieved to know that it was the children DOING the cooking, rather than being cooked (mind you...tempting when The Teenagers are whirling through the house in a blazes of hormonal glory!).

And I properly laughed-out-loud at some of the comments written down in the Memory Book post, especially this one...

'"My dad's willy stinks!" Said to the woman at the checkout in the supermarket when he broke wind (is there a nicer way to say that) in the queue. He was mortified.'

Sorry Mr Frugal, but I couldn't resist using that little gem to highlight such a funny post! I can feel him being mortified ALL over again *grin*

If you are looking for a quick, light-hearted rummage through someone else's world as they combat the credit crunch with humour and grace then grab the, now, obligatory cup of coffee and chocolate covered Hob Nobs and drop in on the fabulous Frugal Family.

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For the last few Sundays I've been bemoaning the fact that so far this summer we've had the irritating two-or-three-days-hot-sunny-weather followed by five-or-six-days-of-chilly-cloudy-weather!

Last Monday was the last decent day we had in my part of the world, my youngest will start suffering from cabin fever before too long.

However, the lovely people at the Met' Office are saying that the 'heatwave' - used in the loosest possible way, of course, as it probably only describes one day! -  is set to return next week; HURRAH! just in time for the summer holidays!

Keeping kids amused for six weeks has the potential to become very expensive, but at least when the weather's nice they can play outside in the garden and this usually means one thing  (well two things actually): sunscreen and WATER!

Playing in the garden with water in the sunshine go together like strawberrys and cream, or Pimms and lemonade when the kids have gone to bed!

But it can turn into a bit of a soggy garden-bog fest' if there isnt' some structure to it. I came across this list of fun garden water games to play with your kids this morning and already have a couple of favourites that sound awesome!

'Water Volley Ball' and 'Don't Be A Drip' are guaranteed to induce squeals of delight and have a 'mild peril' element to them too to get the adrenalin racing!

For water volley ball you just need a marker for the 'net' if you don't have one, two towels, a supply of water balloons and four players. Place the balloon in the middle of a towl and toss it over the net to the other team who have to catch it and then return it over the net.  If the opposite team don't catch the balloon and it explodes on the ground - you SCORE!

Dont' be a drip - make a little hole in a balloon (it doesn't have to a be a water balloon), fill it with water and tie a knot in the end (obviously). The aim of this game is to play catch with it and NOT be the person holding it when all the water has gone. SO simple but can you imagine the hilarity and frantic chucking of the balloon the closer it gets to being empty!

Water balloons are dead cheap - I found these over at Amazon (144 of them for £2.87) but Tesco, Asda et al are bound to do them too.  I think these garden games sound like a lot of fun and hope they  save you from a few of those 'I'm bored' summer holiday moments!

If you've got any great summer garden game ideas, drop us a line and let us know about them.

THAT is the question!

I'm going to do my best not to start RANTING and go on for hours here because I'd rather hear YOUR opinions...I already know mine.

Q: Your child has just started school. It's all new and unfamiliar; they fall over, graze their knees, are crying and upset.

Do you want the teachers to:

a) be sympathetic but stand back whilst your child sobs, telling them to get to their feet and must go to the sinks to wash the graze themselves because they're not allowed to touch any children in case it's considered, or construed, as abuse, or

b) help your child to their feet and put a reassuring arm around their shoulder and reassure them that everything will be ok?

I was reading this article earlier and it got me thinking...a dangerous pasttime I know!

How are we going to protect our youngsters, when necessary, without demonising physical contact of any kind and teaching them to view all adults with suspicion?!

I taught horse-riding to kids a few years ago; if I needed to help them onto their pony, or move their hands or legs so they were positioned properly I had to say, "I'm going to have to touch you, is that ok?" and I had to make sure there was a least one other adult present to witness their consent!

If they said no, I'd have to watch them struggle - it was crazy! It's even worse for men!

I know a lot of male photographers with kids who've felt awkward just shooting their own children playing in the park, and viewed with suspicion for being a man near kids with a camera.

My teenagers are going to be flying, on their own, with British Airways to Italy next month. Should I be reassured, or outraged on behalf of the male population, that due to the BA policy which states unaccompanied children are NOT to be seated next to an adult male they don't know, my nearly 15-year-old daughter won't be sat next to a man?

When the cabin crew go up and down the aisles before take-off this is what they're also checking for. If they spot this very scenario then the man is politely asked to move to a different seat and the plane will NOT be allowed to take off until he agrees!

Have we all gone crazy or are we still not doing enough?

HOW do we find a balance - is this even possible? - before we batten down the hatches completely and never talk, touch or look at anyone again!

Opinions on a virtual postcard please!

This kid has some elite ninja skills!

[Source: Blameitonthevoices]

This week PlayPennies Loves...Single Parent Dad.

There's no denying it, mummy bloggers outnumber the daddy bloggers - so in a bid to address the balance, this week PlayPennies Loves a daddy blogger.

Our dad was widowed, aged just 32, in 2005 when his wife Samantha died suddenly from heart problems, leaving him to care for single-handedly for Max who was just a baby at the time...

"Since then we have been carving a new life, including building a new home, and me forging a new career. By day I am a freelance writer, blogger, copywriter. At any other time, I'm trying to be a superhero dad..."

...it was at this point I knew I couldn't leave, it was also at this point I reached for the tissues (I'd learned from last week!)

Then I put them away again as this isn't a blog which induces tears; posts like this with their tales of bedtime stories and walking home from BBQs hand-in-hand, leave you feeling warm inside and with a big grin on your face.

On 23 May we loved Dan the dad blogger from All That Comes With It who was taking part in a 6-day walk along the length of Hadrian's Wall in aid of the Joseph Salmon Trust.

By pure coincidence our single dad is ALSO walking this walk (small world and all that!)  with Dan and the rest of the crew - in fact, they'll be walking right now! Actually, as it's lunchtime it's more likely they'll be in a pub somewhere but either way, I wish them all the best and look forward to reading all about their exploits when they return.

Of course, walking the 84 miles along the wall does mean being away from Max for six days, the best way to approach this time apart is something our dad of the day wrestled and grappled with.

So I was happily rummaging through lots of posts when WHAM! I got well and truly struck in the heart with emotion as a result of the entry titled I'm in so much trouble; now, what did I do with those tissues? Dammit, I was doing SO well!

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I came across this FAUBULOUS growth chart today!

Ever since I was small, there has a been a ritual in my family of periodically recording how tall everyone is on, generally, a doorframe in the kitchen!

When it's time for the frame to be painted all measurements and dates are carefully written down on paper so they're not lost forever under the latest colour gloss.

This tradition carries on today and as the competition between The Teenagers as to who is the tallest has come to an end - my daughter, at 5ft 4 and a bit, is clearly not going to be any taller; she's miffed, as she at the very least wanted to be taller than me! - my eldest son continues to shoot upwards at an alarming pace.

He grew half an inch in ONE month not so long back and we now have the 6ft target marked on the door frame.

He's currently 5ft 10 and the measuring takes place under strict conditions and VERY close supervision from my daughter at the feet end to ensure that no tip-toe cheating occurs!

This 'I'm as big as...' growth chart makes this growing and measuring malarky just a bit more interesting and, dare I mention it, slightly educational.

Each person who measures themselves against the 'I'm as big as chart' will discover something about their height, whether they are bigger than a baguette, smaller than the Statue of Liberty's nose or make the height requirement to become a NASA astronaut!

And when you're done with the whole measuring thing you can take the chart down, fold it up and put it away for posterity.

I'm sure it'll make a few reappearances when the kids are all grown up and want to take a trip down memory lane, "Do you remember when I was as big as..?"

Very occasionally I drop into Dealspwn - one of the other HUKD blogs - to see what my tech' colleagues are up to and what's going on in the world for gaming geeks!

As part of their Big Birthday BlowOut they've recently run a competition, the title, and brief,  of which can best described as 'Games you'd like to see...'

The esteemed panel of judges have managed to narrow down the entries to FIVE - you can see them all here if you wish - but by  far my favourite was the Tesco Value 'Really Good Action Game'.

It tickled me no end! Computer games, particularly the new releases, can be hellishly expensive. If you've got three children, like me, who all like different genres and are different ages you can easily kiss goodbye to £100 in a matter of seconds.

I wonder if I'd be able to persuade the Teenagers to go for a 'Value Action Game' or a 'Value Brain Training' (no that's not a euphamism for going to a under-performing school!) and maybe Sainsburys would come up with an 'Essentials' range to rival the Tesco Value branded games and there'd be a price war and EVERYTHING!

Ok, back to reality. In a country where everything to do with money is going up, apart from the amount paid into your bank account each month, if you could have any product 'Valued' or 'Essentialised' what would it be?

Drop us a line and let us know...

Thought I would share this little animated gif that I made. It's my new baby girl, having an energetic sneeze!

What's even funnier was this - when I posted the GIF on my facebook wall, my mum saw it and said, "My gosh, that was a huge fit of sneezes she had!"

This week PlayPennies Loves...Home Office Mum.

*Bing-Bong*  This is a PlayPennies Public Service Announcement - DO NOT read on until you have a box of tissues close to hand. Thank you for listening. *Bong-Bing*

I'm a mum, and I work from my office at home.  I know other women who are mums and work from offices at home (and NO 'office' isn't a euphamism for kitchen!) so dropping in on Home Office Mum for my weekly very-taxing-couple-of-hours-hard-work-with-a-cup-of-coffee research for today's PlayPennies Loves... post was a natural choice.

The dogs, the cats and the Teenagers have given up rolling their eyes at my sudden outbursts of laughter now and there were plenty of them, along with some rather witchy cackles, when I read the Gay Pirate Squirrels...obviously post.

If you've EVER had to rustle up items to contribute to costumes for school productions then you'll already know the terror, torment, torture and tantrums this involves, and you'll chuckle, cackle and laugh along with empathy and sympathy like I did.

Laughter swiftly turned to tears when I read One Huge Step For Son, One Giant Leap For Mum - proper tears, lump in the throat and occasional sharp intakes of breath! This is all about first days at school - you took notice of the announcement right? Because here's the paragraph that reduced me to a blubbering wreck (you try typing through tears, it's not easy)...

"Seeing him in his little grey shorts and school shirt, knobbly knees on show, hair sticking up in all directions, I just wanted to grab hold of him and never let go. There he stood, my baby, tucking his shirt in so that he looked smart, brimming with confidence, ready to take on the world. That feeling right then - that love and pride and sadness and joy - all rolled into one is what it means to be a mother."

You see, my youngest turned four yesterday and he starts school in September; at the other end of the spectrum, the eldest Teenager only has one year left at school and has been chosen to receive an end-of-year academic award at a special presentation evening this coming Thursday... it was only yesterday that HE was little boy in grey shorts with knobbly knees.

More tears were to follow, but these were the can't-breathe-for-laughing type of tears that came from reading the hilarious Pee'd Off post - if you've got boys you'll cry too, if you've got girls you'll be thanking that XX chromosome combination!

I really could suggest another 30 posts for you to read - in fact, I recommend you do nothing else for the rest of the day and just read Home Office Mum until it's time for bed, leaving the computer only for food, coffee (replace with glass of something cold with at least an 11% volume when it hits wine o'clock) and the quickest of pee's!

In closing, I'll leave you with a link to the Pink And Bubbly post whilst I raise my own virtual glass to Home Office Mum and say 'THANK YOU  for an utterly WONDERFUL read!'

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Travelling on your own can be expensive. Tamsin travelled up to stay overnight at my house last night after attending CyberMummy with 'the boss', and because the London Underground was manic she missed her connecting train and was charged £48 for a new ticket even though the next train was practically empty!

Throw children into the travelling mix and the costs really start to spiral, especially if you're planning to fly abroad on holiday.

The news has been awash with the announcement by Ryan Air boss, Michael O'Leary, that he's considering removing the last five or six rows of seats and allowing passengers to fly for free if they're happy to perch on bar stools or stand during flights that are an hour and a half or less.

"We might take out the last five or six rows and say to passengers 'Do you want to stand up? If you do you can travel for free'," he said, and he's reportedly asked Boeing to look at the possibility of vertical seats.

Arguing against the accusation that this is a budget step too far he went on to say, "Why is this any different to what happens on trains where you see thousands of people who cannot get a seat standing in the aisles? It happens regularly on the Underground..."

I was telling Tamsin about this, on the way to dropping her at the station this morning, and we were musing over how child friendly this move would be and the more I think about it, the more I reckon it could actually work  and be easier for parents flying with kids!

Getting a child to sit still in a seat for an hour and a half can be 'interesting', so wouldn't it be so much easier if they could mooch around for the duration of the flight? Play with cars on the floor if they wanted to or perch atop a bar stoo, rather than be strapped into a seat and told they must sit still and be quiet for the duration..?

Time will tell whether this actually happens as Michael O'Leary has said that, obviously, this style of flying would have to be approved by the Irish Aviation Authority, but, you know, I think it would prove rather popular!

There's still a huge market for low-cost flying - Ryan Air passenger numbers for June were up 13% on last year whereas British Airways' were down 5% for the same month.

So what do you think?

Would you choose to stand and fly for free (or a very VERY low price, £4 and £5 are the other figures that have been thrown around)? Would it benefit families flying with small kids,  after all, if they're under two then they have to sit on your lap anyway!  Or has Mr O'Leary finally lost the plot?

Did you know that denim originally hails from France?

Nor me until a quick bit of research revealed that when Columbus took to the high seas on the Santa Maria in 1492, her sails were made from Serge de Nimes, fabric of Nimes.  This was a hard-wearing and sturdy material which was also used by Italian sailors from Genoa for their trousers, and it's widely thought that the name jeans comes from there.

I think almost everyone on the planet has an item or two of denim clothing in their wardrobes...but what about denim nappies?  What do we think of these?

Good? After all, anything that makes nappies look cool can only be a good thing, right?

Bad? You have to be kidding! There's plenty of time for kids to develop hang ups about their wardrobes like the rest of us later.

What's all the fuss about?! No one complains that nappies with dinosaurs printed on them is an attempt to brainwash tiny tots into taking up a career as a Paleontologist - get over it, they're just nappies!

These denim look-a-like nappies from Huggies - complete with pocket styling and everything else that makes them look like a pair of denim shorts - are currently limited edition only and if you want to grab some then click HERE to find out where and when they'll be available!

By they way, if you're a washable nappy fan you can also get denim-look cotton covers for those too...just in case you were feeling left out for a minute there.

This week PlayPennies Loves...Hot Cross Mum

I must confess that this is my favourite part of the week, I mean let's face it who WOULDN'T want to get paid for reading funny and interesting blogs?!

Granted I'm not going to be able to shut up shop and move to a penthouse appartment on Monaco just yet, but there's nothing quite like grabbing a cup of coffee on a Sunday morning (it's 8.55am as I write this) and spending a fair bit of time rifling through each week's featured blog to bring you a few gems from the author.

This week we're TOTALLY loving Hot Cross Mum - my immediate thought was of warm fruity delicious smelling buns with butter melting through them so it was almost impossible not to stop by and pay her a visit.

I sat and chuckled and laughed out loud through almost every post I read,  not just 'LOL'ing but proper involuntary laughing-out-loud that made the dogs jump and The Teenagers roll their eyes.  Wry humour abounds and when you're not laughing you'll find yourself nodding along in 'yep, that's exactly how it is here too' agreement.

It does seem we're a mystery to our kids at any age - The Teenagers just think I sit at the computer all day and 'play' on the Internet - but Hot Cross Mum's hubby seems to be a bit of an enigma to them all...

"To be honest, I'm not entirely sure myself what my husband does every day. He has me completely baffled by his daily routine of disappearing just before the kids wake up in the morning and failure to return home before they are tucked up in bed. Hmmmm. Perhaps my four-year-old can help me out...." click HERE to find out just what the four-year-old really thinks his daddy does.

Ohhh there are SO many posts I want to draw your attention to, but time and space are limited so you're going to HAVE to pay Hot Cross Mum a visit of your own, but the best laugh-out-loud moment came from the Extreme Parenting post.  Here's the very edited highlights of the post which offers the edited highlights from an article promoting a book on 'Extreme Parenting'...

"No nappies from 7 months old
Apparently, this all went really well, as long as the child was ‘offered’ (?) a wee every hour. What’s that you say? Every hour? From the age of 7 months? I’m no statistician but that’s a hell of a lot of wees being ‘offered’ before the child’s first birthday. Rudd thinks this was a fantastic idea and says, “there is nothing worse than trying to unpeel a heavy two-year-old’s poo bag.” Oh yes there is. Trying to scrape up sloppy baby poo off the carpet eight times a day."

You can just hear the tone of voice and see the expression on her face as she wrote this.

If you don't want to watch the football today, get yourself a flask of coffee (so you don't have to keep going to the kitchen; one cup's just not going to be enough, trust me) and drop by Hot Cross Mum's place for the afternoon.

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This week myself, Tamsin and Lynley were in London for an event and one of the ladies we met was 6 months pregnant. Her bump was lovely and neat and tidy and all out the front, which according to old wives tales means she's having a boy (do only old wives tell these tales...? What if you're a young wife...? I digress...).

We all took turns in guessing the gender of this unborn child and it got me thinking about all the strange tales and traditions that go hand-in-hand with pregnancy.

So after a quick scoot around the Internet (actually it's taken a while, I got rather engrossed in it all) here are some of the more bizarre from around the world that you might find interesting...

In Portugal it's believed that eating certain fruits and vegetables will influence whether you have a boy or a girl - if you want a girl you should eat round fruit and veg', and if you want a boy you should eat long-shaped varieties .

The Portugese also belief that dogs and cats should be kept away from pregnant women otherwise the baby could end up being born excessively hairy, and in Mongolia pregnant women shouldn't touch each other when they meet as it's believed that doing so will change the sex of the babies.

Whilst all the traditions, superstitions and old wives tales from around the globe are different, everyone wants and hopes for a trouble-free pregnancy and an easy birth but some of the ways to encourage this are downright bizarre.

My particular favourite comes from Russia - if the husband and wife tell each other the names of all their previous lovers then the birth will be an easy one.  HA! I'm sure there are some people who'd rather go for the difficult option than spill the beans on that one.

In most of the world women hope for beautiful weather and sunshine on their wedding days, not so in Malta! Here women pray for rain on their wedding day as this is said to be a predictor for an easy birth later on.

In Japan, to prevent birthmarks on babies pregnant mothers shouldn't look at fire and eating raw fish is forbidden.  Up past Scotland on Orkney it used to be believed that boys should be baptised before girls, a girl baptised before a boy would grow a beard - now that's just odd!

In China for a pregnancy to be successful, the husband is supposed to carry his wife over burning coals when entering the house. Now, I couldn't find when this was supposed to happen - whether just once at the very beginning of the pregnancy or for the whole duration! But the thought of all these Chinese husbands creating beds of burning coals and carrying his pregnant wife in and out of the house for nine months amuses me greatly!

There are so many different beliefs and whilst it's possible to see where the origins of some of them are, most are just downright bizarre!

Drop us a line if you have and strange pregnancy tradition stories you'd like to share with us here at PlayPennies.

Ladies and gentleman, I give you.....the Zaky Hand!

I stumbled across the Zaky Hand this morning during my twice-weekly meander around the interweb to find something 'random' and interesting to show you.

I'm really quite enamoured with it and wonder what you all think; the story behind it is this....

"Zachary weighed 2 lbs when he was born at Memorial Hermann Hospital during Tropical Storm Allison. The hospital lost power during the storm and in order to live, Zachary needed a special NICU warmer and the breathing machine.

For 10 hours Zachary was kept alive "by hand" until he was evacuated. His mother held him against her chest with skin-to-skin contact to give him warmth, help his heart-rate and stress, while his father and nurses hand-ventilated him.

Ultimately after their NICU experience, Zachary's mother, Yamile Jackson, designed and created the Zaky to provide comfort to other NICU babies."

I utterly adore this idea! I know you could probably achieve the same result with a normal bung-it-in-the-microwave hot pack, but it's the fact they are shaped like hands that does it for me and just makes me melt.

I am also very amused by the thought that it would look like your baby is being craddled by Thing from The Addams Family. In fact, I think want a pair of my own to cuddle up to when I need a comforting pair of hands.

If you actually want to buy a Zaky Hand, or two - they come in 'left' and 'right', they're available HERE in the UK for £24.50 (there's lots of blurb here about the Zaky Hand too - the order bit is a the bottom of the page).

Utter genius or just a bit random?  What do you reckon?

This week PlayPennies Loves...Chez Spud.

In the mad, yet wonderful, dysfunction that is my household and family, Father's Day is unfolding as follows:  my father is in Italy (my parents live there), the teenagers are still languishing in bed and are supposed to be going to their father's sometime today but no one seems to know when yet and the man in my life (also a father) is out having lunch with his kids on the other side of the world.

And me? I'm trying to pluck up the courage needed for a trip to Ikea in about half an hour!

I was intending to be waiting outside when they opened the doors at 10am (it's 11.10am now as I'm writing this and Ikea is at least 45 minutes away) but I got deliciously delayed by Spudbaloo and her wonderful WONDERFUL blog, Chez Spud.

If you need an antidote to stress and the general parenting bleurgh that gets hurled your way from time to time then go to Chez Spud's and pull up a chair, within minutes all will be well with the world again and life will have taken on a warm fuzzy glow.

I love reading about other people's lives, their loves, their commentary on life in general and any random musings they happen to share.  It's like peeking through the windows without running the risk of arrest and being charged with stalking!

Spudbaloo runs a camera club on her blog and I've rediscovered my love of photography for photography's sake - being a photographer, it can feel a bit like a busman's holiday shooting outside of a work brief but, looking at Spud's photographs (I hope she doesn't mind if I call her Spud...)I've realised I miss shooting just for me!

I've also penned in another future wedding, this time between Spudbaloo's youngest, Diggy, and Miss Clara who lives next door.  They're utterly adorable, totally in love and I think we might need to start picking out hats here at PlayPennies and requesting invitations!

But we need to put our thinking caps on for Bertie, the elder of the Chez Spud progeny, for his love is being spurned in favour of another - he does have a plan though, and a rather cunning one at that!

"Bertie cannot compete with the dark haired boy at nursery who has captured her [Imogen - Miss Clara's older sister]heart. She only loves boys with dark hair, perhaps I should die it for him? Those blonde locks are holding him back…although he has A Plan. He has decided to dress up as Imogen’s beau on their wedding day, and make a mask so he looks like him. Then he will steal his bride by stealth."

Genius!

Chez Spud has recently turned one and in that annivesary post are a couple of lines that sum up perfectly what it's all about...

"I’m still not sure what my blog is about…”stuff I think about” is probably the best description I can give it…does it even need a description? It’s a blog. I write stuff about stuff on it. I put pictures on it. Does it need defining further?"

No, it doesn't...and you shouldn't need any further persuading to get chocolate and a cup of coffee and immerse yourself in the world of this lovely family for the next few hours.

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