Freyja is 5

Today saw my not-so-little-anymore girl turn 5 years old. I can no longer pretend to be the mum of a pre-schooler. I got an email from Babycentre, ejecting me from the club.

In the morning, we took her to the Build a Bear factory where she chose a pink unicorn and developed a minor obsession with the place.


She already has a dress up bear - one dressed as an angel which she was given when she was born - but up until this birthday she had no idea of the possibilites which that bear presented. She does now...

She had requested an Ariel mermaid birthday party. The fact that it would be only her younger brother and her 2 boy cousins joining her didn't phase her at all. I'd been concentrating on the party she's having when we return to England and didn't really plan for a mermaid party. Turns out there's not much in the way of Ariel party decorations in Dubai. I managed, on the morning of her birthday, to rustle up some sparkles, ribbons and balloons, we had already ordered an amazing birthday cake and, to complete the effect, my brother bought her a mermaid outfit for her birthday present.

She was ecstatic that the mermaid costume came with 'boobs'!



Happy 5th birthday Freyja!

When I'm a Mummy...

This is Theo's current favourite line at the moment. He gets quite upset if someone informs him that he will be a Daddy, not a Mummy.


The influence of his big sister is strong - his favourite dressing up outfit is Cinderella. And he was rather cross that he didn't get any lipstick* for Christmas like Freyja did.

* we let them open a few early Christmas presents and Freyja got some Disney princess make-up from Katie. I will never forget the look on her face when she opened it up.

Genius Pad

A while ago I entered a competition over at the lovely Babyccino to win a Genius Pad. And amazingly - because I never expect to win anything - I won!

So today I headed to the post office and collected my gigantic post-it pad, which will be great for all sorts of things, mostly involving children and colouring pencils.

The pack also came with a very sweet paper car to pop out and make. Yay!

The Gallery - Sparkle

For the Gallery this week, here are my children by our sparkly Christmas tree, which (other than the lights) they decorated completely by themselves, without me interfering once.


We weren't going to have a tree this year as we're away for Christmas, but they are so excited about the whole thing that I ended up buying a tiny fake tree and then letting them loose with the decorations.

Playground influences

Today at breakfast the words I have been dreading came from Freyja's mouth......

......Hannah Montana.

Argh! Who is this person? I don't know anything about Hannah Montana (yet) but I fear her already. I'm quite happy discussing who my favourite Disney princess is (Ariel, if you must know. Freyja is firmly in the Sleeping Beauty camp).

I am not ready for Hannah Montana.

The Gallery - White

An easy gallery for me this week - Freyja as an Angel, dressed in white, for her first Nativity play at school.

Christmas Concerts and Pushing Your Luck

Today was Freyja's first ever nativity concert at school. She was an Angel.


There were two performances, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. We all went along in the morning where we watched an utterly charming performance, complete with adorable singing, actions and forgotten lines. Freyja was so excited to see us in the audience and kept smiling and waving. The headmistress came over to us at the end for a chat and laughed at how Theo had said loudly in the middle 'Mum, I want a piano'. We left on quite a high.

As I'd taken the day off work, I decided to go and see the afternoon performance too. I didn't want Freyja having no one there to see her.

Oh how I wish that I hadn't.

Theo, who behaved beautifully first time round, made it to about 5 minutes in before he started pushing chairs around, shouting and finally knocking a chair over then refusing to let go of it while I tried to pick him and it back up again.

I was desperately trying to get him off the floor and get out without causing too much of a scene while a nice father behind me was being spectacularly unhelpful by moving the chair I was trying to get past, back into place behind us. I did eventually manhandle a now yelling Theo out into the playground.

I knew that Freyja (and everyone else) had watched the whole thing and the chances were that Freyja was now going to be more upset that I had left, than she would have been with me not being there at all.

I could quite happily have sat down and cried. Or throttled Theo. But someone I managed to not even lose my temper with him, though I'm not sure how. Fear of witnesses, I guess - the manhandling had been a little alarming. We made it back in after 2 aborted attempts.

Now, rather than basking in the happiness of my daughter's very first school performance I find myself wondering if I could have handled it better and am left feeling agitated and cross with myself.

Needless to say the headmistress didn't come and speak to me this time. And nor did anyone else.

Snow Day

Well I feel that I must write something about the snow.

We've had loads, here in South East London. Freyja's school closed yesterday, though they were back in today with a very reduced level of staff. Freyja's teacher couldn't get in so she was in the nursery today. She went in very reluctantly but on the way home informed me that she liked the nursery better than her reception classroom - because they had a really great farm set to play with.

It's the third year we've had heavy snow in London but the Lightly family is still not kitted out in anything resembling suitable clothing. We have at least moved on from Adrian having to put socks on his hands last year. But we still have only knitted gloves. I've had to wear one of Freyja's hats all week. She doesn't have any warm, waterproof gear at all. At least our wellies still fit.

Once the snow has cleared I am going to buy a load of snow stuff. Including a sledge because I don't relish the idea of pushing Theo in his pushair through 5 inches of snow ever again.

Though as my friend pointed out today, getting kitted out is a sure fire way to make sure we get no more snow this winter. I'll take that chance.

The Gallery - Celebration

In February 2003 Adrian and I got engaged in Australia.


My photo for the gallery this week was taken the day after. We had woken up extra early to see the sun rise over Uluru, something we had missed the day before on account of the pouring rain. Adrian proposed to me while I was wearing a plastic pack-a-mac bought in a souvenir shop. That's love for you.

We then returned to Sydney where we staying with friends and celebrated by drinking far too much rum. Happy days!