Of all the celebration days during the year, Valentine’s Day is arguably one of the most commercialized; one of the more makey-uppy ones. Although not as makey-uppy as yesterday’s “Get a Different Name Day” which coincided with “Madly in Love with Me Day” (what, you mean you missed both of
Two weeks ago, Sam tried to climb out of the cot, so we ordered a bed. The bed quickly became the touchstone for all our dreams of finally getting some sleep. We had only seen it in a picture on the internet but nevertheless, we pinned our hopes on this
Today’s newspaper was already on the mat when I arrived home last night, or rather this morning, just after 3am. I felt a surge of The Fear when I saw it there, reminiscent of the feeling I used to get fifteen years ago, arriving home from impromptu Wednesday beers and
So. Baby. It’s time to chat. Well, you’re not a baby, and that’s sort of the point. You’re two years, one month and one week old, and it’s two years, one month and one week since I last had proper sleep. Yes, yes, I know there was that month before
“Take the path of least resistance” was the wise advice from Fiona Kennedy in this week’s blog interview. This is certainly the path we took in our house this morning, which is how the two-year-old ended up in our bed at 5.15am watching Mickey Mouse on YouTube. If I’d had chocolate
“So how was school today, any news?” I asked, as I turned the key in the ignition. “Mum, I think Emily is moving to Wexford. She wasn’t supposed to tell me, so don’t say it to her mum if you see her at the school. Maybe you can ask her
Bedtime doesn’t happen as early as it should in our house. Well, the kids usually come down looking for a glass of water or to say they can’t sleep, but actually they’re not so bad when the initial “OK time for bed” announcement is made – they’re usually fairly acquiescent heading
It was going to be the best Christmas ever. We say that every year of course, and every year we mean it. But last year was definitely going to be the best Christmas ever. We had planned everything in tiny detail – not remembering any of that “if you want
As an antidote to yesterday’s slightly downbeat post, here’s something more festive: five things I didn’t know about Christmas until I had kids. 1. There’s a reason kids go to bed early on Christmas Eve Before having children, I wondered about the emphasis on getting kids to bed earlier than
You burst into our lives two years ago, a much anticipated early Christmas present, a much hoped for healthy baby. And a boy! It was as though we didn’t know you could be a boy. Two big sisters – just two, but it could have been a dozen for how
As I checked on my almost-two-year old last night, I covered him with a very specific blanket and placed a spare soother right beside his hand. I closed the door rather than leaving it ajar as we usually do. He was wearing two-piece-pyjamas instead of a one-piece sleepsuit, and he had
An invitation to a charity event in the Disney Store popped into my inbox – their “Share in the Magic” campaign. Children welcome. But on a Wednesday evening. A work-day, a school-night. This would be tricky. But where there’s a will there’s a way, and where there’s Mickey Mouse and a Christmas
Last Saturday morning was always going to be stressful. My husband was leaving at 7.30am for his annual trip to a Liverpool game with “the lads” (at what age are they no longer “the lads”?) – this in itself was not a problem. I feel that six years into being
I’m very conscious that many of my posts are about parenting failures, domestic disasters, motherhood challenges, and mammy-guilt. I am in danger of appearing to be a terrible mother. So for once, I’m going to write about something lovely, something that went really, really well – our mid-term break. Don’t
It’s two months now since our nanny upped and left after just four days, with no notice and almost no notification of any kind. We were not impressed (the tears are almost visible here). She will be on the family blacklist FOREVER. I spent the following weeks worrying about work and
On Monday I attempted to convert my blog to a new website. This involved googling to get code to copy somewhere deep inside the hidden vaults of the new website. Not an easy task but what’s the worst that could happen? If it didn’t work, I’d use that nice back
If you are good at throwing birthday parties, this probably isn’t the post for you. In fact, if you’re even mildly average, feel free to click back out (really do – you will just find this patronising). If like me, your stomach churns with just a little bit of anxiety
Autumn equinox, the country bathed in an unexpected heatwave. A day to mark summer’s end with one last everything. One last ice-cream, one last outdoor lunch, one last walk on the Dun Laoghaire pier. It was the day of the All-Ireland football final, and Dublin Bay glinted in the sunlight,
Birthdays. They must be perfect. Nobody ever said that that’s a rule, but it is. If you have children, you want them to remember birthdays as their best days ever, don’t you? And realistically, as a parent of small kids, how many days are likely to run smoothly enough to