Tuesday 18 August 2015

The tooth fairy

When Grace lost her first two front teeth I went to a fair bit of effort with fairy poetry, flowers, glitter pens and oven burnt paper to provide Grace with a pretty memorable first tooth fairy experience.

So after she lost her third tooth, she wrote a lovely letter to the tooth fairy then tucked both the letter and the tooth under her pillow before going to bed. I went to bed soon after leaving the official tooth fairy business up to her dad who dutifully swapped the letter and the tooth for 50p before discarding both items in his bedside drawer.
Things sort of went pear-shaped from there.
Around 4am the next morning, a very disgruntled Grace shook me awake to complain that the tooth fairy had forgotten her. I feigned horror then accompanied her to her bedroom to strike up the hunt for the money, only to find it under the pillow as expected. All was well with the world and a very relieved Grace settled back down fairly quickly.

Fast forward a few days and then all hell broke loose. Grace was sobbing her little heart out and it took me a good ten minutes to calm her down enough to find out why she was so upset.
‘Didn’t she like my letter? I drew her pictures and everything? Why would she put it in Daddy’s draw? Why would she put my tooth in Daddy’s draw? Didn’t she think it was a special tooth?’…
The initial shock soon turned to anger with a very upset Grace then pointing the finger at me.
‘You know, I thought something was wrong when I didn’t find any flowers or glitter…. There always needs to be glitter because its pixie dust that falls off their wings when they fly…. Okay Mum, I need to tell you something… I know you’re telling me the fairy is real and that maybe she was so busy that she just forget to leave the flowers but I remember the first letter. It was written with glitter, just like the glitter from my glitter pens. I think that maybe the tooth fairy isn’t real and that you were just pretending… just tell me the truth!
The tears were very real and no explanation that I offered would suffice so I took the low road out and handed her my phone so she could hash it out with her dad. Who magically made everything better by telling her the exact same thing as I did! Within just a few seconds Grace was giggling and skipping about like nothing had every happened.
*note to self: stock up on glitter, flowers and other fairy paraphernalia to avoid similar events in the near future*
 

Monday 17 August 2015

Volcanoes are bad news.

Grace has a little bit of an interest in volcanoes at the moment. Her grandparents have recently returned from a holiday in Italy while showing her their holiday snaps, they gave her a brief lesson in the history of the volcanoes at Pompeii.

Which prompted the following conversation a few weeks ago:

Grace to adult friend ‘Have you ever been to Italy? My Nana and Granddad have. They went to Pompeii. Do you know what happened there? Well it’s very sad story so I can’t tell you at the moment because we’re eating our pudding but I can give you the good news....the volcano stopped!'
And then over the weekend, while driving through Cannock Chase, Grace saw the top of the power plant rising above the trees in the distance. ‘Hey, Look, volcanoes!' she announced. Looking at this picture I found on google, I can see why she made the comparison.
(photo of the Rugely Power Station by Dave Hanmer - https://www.flickr.com/photos/7706119@N04/2131414974)

Mascara versus Scarloey.


I may have mentioned in my last post that Owen was a little transport obsessed? Well his poison just so happens to be steam trains. Particularly the engines from the Thomas & Friends series.
This couldn’t have been clearer, when the other day, he and Grace’s had a very heated discussion in the car. Grace, who is growing up at terrifying speed stated that that when she grows up she’ll be able to wear pink lipstick and mascara.

Owen shot back with ‘No. You’re going to have Scarloey!’ and this seemed to be the catalyst for raised voices that bordered on high pitched screeches, which were far, far too loud for me in the confined space of our little Astra.

Grace ‘No, not Scarloey! I said mascara Owen. Mascara!’
 Owen ‘No, you need Scarloey’.
Grace ‘No, you put mascara on your eyes, not Scarloey’.
Owen ‘No! Scarloey’.
Grace ‘You can’t put Scarloey on your eyes Owen! It’s a train! Trains don’t go on your eyes!’

The next few minutes were a blur of mascara’s and Scarloey’s before I almost blew a fuse and desperately resorted to quietening my children with the eye-twitching soulful sounds of the Frozen album. We’d been driving for a few minutes in silence just listening to Anna banging on doors and Elsa letting things go, when I heard Owen say ‘But I like Scarloey. So you’re going to have Scarloey’…
 

 

 

 

Wednesday 12 August 2015

If you didn't know...

Though born down-under and raised in the West Midlands, she speaks with a very convincing American Accent at times. With her newly missing front tooth, she’s developed an adorable lisp that is just begging for me to ask her to say things like ‘thistle and whistle’. She’s been attending acrobatics and dance classes for the past six months so if she wants to do a cartwheel or a hand stand then she will. Who cares if we are stood in a field of sheep poo? If she says she didn’t touch it, then trust her, she didn’t! But yes, she will take some hand sanitizer or a baby wipe ‘just in case’…
At nearly six years old she considers herself to be fairly grown up since she’ll be starting grade one soon, so this entitles her to chime in any time that I am telling her baby brother off for anything. No, she won’t mind her own business because she’s a big girl now and she is just practising for when she starts babysitting Owen. Which will be soon, since you know, she is just so grown up now. And ‘six is nearly eight which is nearly twelve’ according to Grace.

Also now that she is so grown up, she can dress herself. Myself or any other adult are no longer allowed to offer advice based on the weather or destination. This means if she leaves the house wearing sandals, shorts and a t-shirt in the pouring rain after five outfit changes that had the whole family running late, then I should always think ahead and pack some more appropriate clothes just in case. She also does her own hair now which pretty much equates to spending ages in the mirror while brushing the bits she can reach which makes for some terrible tantrums when it comes time to actually getting a comb through those naturally beautiful tresses.



Grace loves musicals of the Disney variety – she tortured me by being Anna & Elsa obsessed for the best part of two years but her current faves would be Mulan, Pocohontas and Belle. It’s not uncommon for her to command control of the car stereo and only she can sing the words to ‘Be our guest’ or ‘Colours of the Wind’. Unless of course, she claps her hands together just the one time. This is the signal that shows that you’re now allowed to join in. And join in your must! Not knowing the words isn’t a good enough excuse to be exempt from the Disney sing along. As punishment, she will ensure we watch each film another twenty times. That week.

She’s opinionated, bossy and completely irrational at times, but she’s also possibly the funniest person I’ve ever met (though Owen is fast becoming her equal). This is Grace now.  


 

Tuesday 11 August 2015

Meet Owen

This is my son Owen. He's 2 and a half, in love with all things transport and really fond of singing 'Wheels on the Bus' many, many times a day.






In the past few months his speech has been really coming along and just like his big sister, he comes out with some very funny things. Like the other morning; I awoke to find Owen laying nose to nose with me in my bed. The second he noticed that I had opened my eyes, he grabbed my face in both hands and said to me 'Come on Mummy. Let's go and drive over all of the speed bumps'. I'll pretend there was a euphemism there rather than a very literal request to get in the car and physically drive over all and any speed bumps that we can find. So sort of like my What Grace Said Next page, this page here will host Owen’s quips and conversations.