"Love begins at home, and it is not how much we do... but how much love we put in that action."

A few months back Mrs. M picked up 4 frames from the cheapo corner in Ikea and she knew exactly what she wanted to do with them. It wasn't until this week though that she explained her idea to Opeie. The big plan was for him to use his creative flair and draw a picture for each of us to go up in the hall. Opeie jumped at the chance to get his artwork up and got started straight away. I love seeing what the boys come up with when they are being creative, children's drawings are so innocent.

The concentration on his face was intense and when it came to the self portait he requested a mirror from Mrs. M as he was unsure what he looked like.

There was no surprise that both him and Seth would be riding on their Micro-scooters, thay may as well have them surgically attached at this point. The pictures turned out amazing (obviously we expected nothing less) and they have been lovingly mounted on the wall by the front door, to greet all of our lovely visitors. I think it is so important to make a huge deal of your childrens creations and having them on show add's to our already warm and welcoming family home.

 

"Mommy you are AMAZING"

Mothers day! the most important day of the year in our house for me and the boys as Mrs M really takes care of us all and although I like to think that we show her how we feel about her every day its nice to have that one very special day of the year where we can really make a fuss of her.

She's not my mom though so its only right to let one of the boys write this post and our eager 4 year old was quick to step up the the plate as he wanted to write about his lovely mom (in his own words) and pick some great pictures...

Opeie just asked me to add on the end "I think mommy is beautiful!"

“Nothing makes a room feel emptier than wanting someone in it.”

The problem with deciding to have a couple of weeks of intermittent writing is that you spend the following few weeks playing catch up. A couple of weeks back Mrs M had to work away for a week in Holland and it was the first time we have had to spend this sort of time away from her. I wont lie it was really difficult, not because I need her home to help with things, me and the boys had that covered but more because we just need he about. All those little things that sometimes we take for granted, like tucking the boys in at night, reading, the crazy sofa acrobatics that they do and for me the way she looks at me when she tells me she loves me had been put on standby for 5 days.

For Mrs M the time flew by because she was so busy, but for us, not so much. She may not have been with us but she made sure that despite being away she made a huge amount of effort to make us all feel special (Do you remember the treasure hunt?). To show her how special she is to us, we spent our time making a banner so that we could surprise her at the airport.

The Friday evening we picked her up was really emotional. I had given myself a headache through the sheer excitement of her coming home, the boys were eager to get to the station the day before she was due to get back and as soon as Mrs M saw our boys standing there with their banner there was floods of tears. Despite the fact that we were away from her for the week, myself and the boys are so proud of what she has achieved this year in her career. For someone that puts so much effort in to everything she does and is passionate about her work she deserves everything that is coming her way.

Mrs M, you are an amazing person and I feel so lucky every day that you go to such lengths to look after us, I hope you know how much we adore you. X

"The most important educational vehicle in all life is a parent figure."

I love mothers day, probably more than Mrs M's birthday, but then shes the kind of person that stresses about getting older so that may be why. Mothers day and fathers day have been huge for me since having the boys as they are a celebration of parenting, the thing that is most important to me. Becoming a dad changed everything for me and having children makes everything so much more amazing. They are hard work at times and demand a lot of attention, so I have always made it very clear how important it is to say thank you to mommy for everything she does for us.

The boys don't need any prompting when it comes to this time of year, when the words 'Mothers Day' are mentioned they spring in to action. What can we make her? can we buy her something nice? To be fair though, being such caring thoughtful children they are like that all year round, always wanting to put a smile on Mrs M's face (and i know how they feel).

After waking mommy up and presenting her with lovely cards we asked her what she wanted to do and she told us she fancied a walk up Carding Mill Valley, so we wrapped up and headed towards our mothers day celebration. I think as soon as she opened the car door she instantly regretted her decision as it was freezing. But we ventured up the valley and it was a lovely way to spend the special Sunday morning.

After an hour or so we we all craving a hot drink so we headed to the cafe and Mrs M made a bee line for her table, situated right next to the log fire. So we all sweated having our lunch before heading home for an afternoon of family time together.

We're so lucky to have Mrs M looking after us and it was great getting to spend some quality time with her considering she has had so much work on recently. 

To all my mom friends out there...

I hope all you moms out there had an amazing Mother's Day.

Unexpected kindness is the most powerful least costly and mostunderrated agent of human change.”

It is so nice to see daily how much Opeie loves his family. When he's playing / role playing all our family and friends are included even if they are not there at the time. Last week while shopping for Mrs M's Mother's Day gift Opeie started to get really excited and couldn't catch his breath. When he finally got his words out it seemed that he had spotted an enormous Lindt bunny and knowing how much Nanny loves Lindt chocolate he was desperate to have a picture taken to send her way...

Opeie is such a thoughtful little boy. I think, like me, he really appreciates the family he has and he wants to make everyone happy with these thoughtful little acts of kindness.

"The brain is wider than the sky."

In keeping with our learning about the body activity a week or so ago we decided to try another activity which me and Opeie had fun with last week. I had explained all about the brain and Seth had helped to tell Opeie about its uses and the way it controls our movement etc. To start the fun we needed to draw the brain. I drew the outline and Opeie had fun drawing all the 'wriggly worms' on.

We then talked about what things Opeie thinks about day to day. I'm always wondering whats going on in his little head. He has such a fun life and it would be really interesting to know how he interprets what goes on.

I started the fun off with a great quote from Opeie he'd said about 20 minutes before... 'i think gherkin sounds like a nice word but i don't like the taste of it', (i guess they are an acquired taste).

I love when Opeie and Seth draw pictures of us and when asked what he thinks about the most he said "Mommy and daddy" and got straight to drawing a lovely portrait of us both which i adored.

There was no surprise at all that LEGO was also in the top things that are thought about throughout the day. I'll admit i has hoping for him to completely blow my mind with something really obscure, but what he actually did was tell me how important me and Mrs M are, how much he loves his big brother and how much of an impact Polly has made on his daily routine.

an entertaining short activity with the always adorable little version of me

“Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort.”

Opeie has started getting in to his drawing a lot more recently which is great, its one of the things i loved to do when i was a lot younger and is still something i enjoy today when i have the time. Embracing your creative side is so important and personally i think it is as important as the academic side of learning. With every new shape drawn and mark made Opeie is developing exactly the way we wanted him to and his excitement recreating the people he loves most is infectious, One of his most recent creations is a dedication to the beautiful one in our family, mommy. I think he's captured something here that perhaps we don't all pick up on.

So here she is, Mrs M in all her glory,  Excellent work Opeie...

"Writing is an exploration. You start from nothing and learn as you go."

We've been really concentrating on Opeie's writing over the last few weeks, its coming on quite nicely and is good to see him holding the pen correctly. Ive been explaining the importance of talking nicely to each other in the house and how its really important to let mommy and Seth know how much we love them as they are not with us all the time, so our practice handwriting has been messages for mommy when she gets home from work.

Great work Opeie!

"As far as I'm concerned, there's no job more important on the planet than being a mom."

I love Mother's Day, I love being able to celebrate Mrs M and all the amazing things she does. She always puts us first and always makes it so clear how much she loves us I feel so lucky to have her in my life and I would never take that for granted. Although sometimes she can feel a little pushed out when were doing our boy thing I know that if there's ever even a slight mention of cuddles the boys are all her, I completely understand though, I'm quite partial to a bit of her affection myself.

Mother's Day is a great way for the boys to make a fuss of mommy and despite us celebrating Opeie's birthday yesterday too he must have said 'happy mothers day' at least 50 times. They really do love their mom. Mother's Day preparation started around a week a go and although our house is full of craft stuff the boys were excited to see a new box of craft items for our little creative session.

Me and Opeie had used the bits to make mommy an I love you card a week ago to so we've made good use of it. we made her a sheep out of buttons, combining two of her loves, sheep and textile related things.

The boys wanted to make a Mother's Day card each and I also made one too because I wanted her to know just how much I appreciate her as a mom. I really couldn't ask for a better mother for our two boys she is a truly amazing woman. So production started and the boys were loving anything with a sticky back. I decided to use some pages from a Dr. Seuss book and hand sewed some buttons on. In keeping with Dr. Seuss Seth made a Truffula tree on his card which was very cute.

Cards made and gifts wrapped we hid them away and waited patiently for the mommy celebration to begin. 

As expected Mrs M was all smiles and couldn't get enough of her little boys yesterday. It's so lovely to be reminded every day just how much me and boys clearly mean to her as she truly is the most important person to us and we would do anything we can to make sure she is as happy as can be.

Happy Mother's Day Mrs M we are all so smitten by you xxx

"A smile is a curve that sets everything straight."

Just a very quick post today. Mrs M has been feeling a little down the last few days so myself and my little assistant set about our 'make mommy smile morning'. Whenever Mrs M is having a bad day we make her a card, there is a big box in the house of 'I love you' cards that we have made and today we were adding to our collection. Firstly i looked to my partner in crime for some inspiration. "What shall we make Mommy today Opeie?"... "A Princess". Good clear instructions from a two year old, that's what i love.

I stood behind Opeie and helped him cut out the pieces for the face and then he did all of the gluing including googly eyes and gems for the crown, as always it was a real team effort. Opeie kept saying "Mommy's going to be so happy" which i thought was adorable. He's always so proud of himself when we give Mrs M something we have made together.

The head was complete so i asked Opeie what we were going to do about the body, to which he replied "Cat in the Hat dress". Good job i had been collecting all of those Dr. Seuss books for my future craft idea.

A few pages from The Cat in the Hat and we started to make our dress...

Opeie did say 'Princess' so he needed to stick lots more sparkly gems on for the full effect. I helped Opeie write a short message inside and then talked him through writing his name himself, which for 2 years old i think he did an amazing job of (he just needed a little help on the tails of the E's).

As expected Opeie was eager to get the card to Mommy and as he showed her he looked very chuffed with himself. The card did exactly what we intended it to do and put a huge smile on mommies face. A little bit of effort goes a long way and its important for me and the boys to show Mrs M just how much we love her, she does after all put everything she has in to looking after us.

Thoughtful acts and Opeie's drawings at 2

Little thoughtful acts are so important, they make day to life life so much happier. Yesterday i needed to pop out for an eye test and when i returned Opeie was standing at the front door to meet me clutching a beautiful card he had made me with mommy. I love receiving things like this out of the blue it really makes my day. These thoughtful acts no matter how trivial some may seem make everything seem just that little more smiley.

Opeie seemed very proud of his creation and rightly so. His little scribble drawings always put a huge grin on my face and the fact that he tells you what each one is is just adorable. Another great addition to my ever expanding memory box, thanks Opeie.