Thursday, 31 December 2009
2009 in Review according to us here at A Mothers Ramblings!
Following on from yesterdays Wordless Wednesday Post of 2009 in Photos, I thought that today I would do it in words.
I have gone back through the posts from the start of the year and here are the posts that I think best sum up each month for me!
January: Baby Boy Giggles - Insult or compliment? I choose this because it was showing how much Baby Boy was developing and understanding everything around him.
February: Top Ender Giggles - They make it difficult I choose this because it is just so much like Top Ender that she wants everything to be straight forward.
March: Top Ender Giggles - Buts its free! I choose this because Top Ender may be the most frugal of us all!
April: Baby Boy Walking I choose this because Baby Boy walked!!!
May: Top Ender Giggles - At least she didn't get out any vinegar and brown paper! I choose this because this shows that Top Ender really does have my sense of humour even when not trying!
June: Daddy Giggles - Why wasn't he using the Zebra crossing though? I choose this because Daddy actually wrote this one!
July: Top Ender Giggles - Well how do I know? I choose this because I remember how sore poor Baby Boy was.
August: I have a TV Stalker I choose this because I still can't walk past the Blue House and I am sure that one day you are going to see me on the news because Bear has kidnapped me.
September: Sleeping like a Baby I choose this because I did once have a night time routine that kind of worked!
October: The Tale of Princess Top Ender and Baron Teenager Boy (and friends) I choose this because I like that a five year old can beat a Teenager at an arcade game and that somewhere in Brighton that Teenager Boy is still hanging his head in shame.
November: A Wiggly Tooth I choose this because Top Ender is growing up...
December: Santa caught on webcam! I choose this because I just love watching Santa in my living room!
And so that brings us to my predictions for this forthcoming year. My predictions for my family in 2010 are;
We will take a family holiday abroad
I will lose 104lbs
Baby Boy will sleep through the night
Top Ender will be classed as knowing how to swim
and
we won't be having another baby!
I have gone back through the posts from the start of the year and here are the posts that I think best sum up each month for me!
January: Baby Boy Giggles - Insult or compliment? I choose this because it was showing how much Baby Boy was developing and understanding everything around him.
February: Top Ender Giggles - They make it difficult I choose this because it is just so much like Top Ender that she wants everything to be straight forward.
March: Top Ender Giggles - Buts its free! I choose this because Top Ender may be the most frugal of us all!
April: Baby Boy Walking I choose this because Baby Boy walked!!!
May: Top Ender Giggles - At least she didn't get out any vinegar and brown paper! I choose this because this shows that Top Ender really does have my sense of humour even when not trying!
June: Daddy Giggles - Why wasn't he using the Zebra crossing though? I choose this because Daddy actually wrote this one!
July: Top Ender Giggles - Well how do I know? I choose this because I remember how sore poor Baby Boy was.
August: I have a TV Stalker I choose this because I still can't walk past the Blue House and I am sure that one day you are going to see me on the news because Bear has kidnapped me.
September: Sleeping like a Baby I choose this because I did once have a night time routine that kind of worked!
October: The Tale of Princess Top Ender and Baron Teenager Boy (and friends) I choose this because I like that a five year old can beat a Teenager at an arcade game and that somewhere in Brighton that Teenager Boy is still hanging his head in shame.
November: A Wiggly Tooth I choose this because Top Ender is growing up...
December: Santa caught on webcam! I choose this because I just love watching Santa in my living room!
And so that brings us to my predictions for this forthcoming year. My predictions for my family in 2010 are;
We will take a family holiday abroad
I will lose 104lbs
Baby Boy will sleep through the night
Top Ender will be classed as knowing how to swim
and
we won't be having another baby!
Wednesday, 30 December 2009
Friday, 25 December 2009
Santa caught on Webcam!
We have several webcams in our house and Top Ender decided that this year she would like to try and catch Santa on them, when he came to deliver gifts to our house. I thought this was an excellent idea as we wouldn't be breaking any rules as we would still be asleep in our beds and so we arranged for the webcams to record during the night.
Santa has an easy job here as he only brings the gifts that are left in our Stockings and so other than eating the snacks we leave out for him, taking the carrot for one of his reindeer (Think about it if every house in the land left out multiple carrots for the Santa's reindeer it would mean fat reindeers who are then to heavy to fly and the end of Christmas) and reading the note we leave he doesn't have to stay long, but even I was surprised that he got our house done in 96 seconds!
Merry Christmas Everyone!
Santa has an easy job here as he only brings the gifts that are left in our Stockings and so other than eating the snacks we leave out for him, taking the carrot for one of his reindeer (Think about it if every house in the land left out multiple carrots for the Santa's reindeer it would mean fat reindeers who are then to heavy to fly and the end of Christmas) and reading the note we leave he doesn't have to stay long, but even I was surprised that he got our house done in 96 seconds!
Merry Christmas Everyone!
Top Enders Christmas Speech
Welcome to Top Enders Christmas Speech... short and sweet!
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Thursday, 24 December 2009
Top Ender Giggles - Luckiest in the whole wide world
"If you had a Baby in your tummy, I would stroke you like this" said Top Ender whilst we were cuddled up on the sofa and Baby Boy was having some Boob.
"Like you did when Baby Boy was in my Tummy?" I asked
"Yes, just like that" said Top Ender "Do you know what Baby Boy?" asked Top Ender
Baby Boy sat up and looked at his sister giving her a milky grin
"You are the luckiest Boy in the whole wide world to have me as your Sister!" she cooed.
"Is that right?" I asked
"Yes! And I am the Luckiest Girl in the whole wide world to have him as my Brother!" she added
"Well I guess that it's true then" I said
"And we are both the Luckiest in the whole wide world to have you and Daddy as our Mummy and Daddy" she grinned
"Not as lucky as we are to have you two. Not as lucky as we are at all." I whispered whilst kissing them
Wednesday, 23 December 2009
Wednesday, 16 December 2009
Thursday, 10 December 2009
Cinderella at Milton Keynes Theatre
On Monday night Daddy, Top Ender, Baby Boy and I went to The Milton Kenyes Theatre to review Cinderella as part of The Great Panto Review at Have a Lovely time. I was really excited to be given the opportunity as Cinderella was being played by Lousie Dearman. Now most of you probably have no idea who this blonde Temptress of the West End is but I do because I went to school with her and she was the first friend I made when my family moved to a new town when I was seven years old. In fact as a side note, her first professional engagement was as part of the Children's choir in The West End production of Joseph and The Technicolour Dreamcoat... which was also my first (and last) professional engagement in the West End!
Anyway, the story followed the traditional panto version of Cinderella, there were the mean deluded and ugly stepsisters "Bootylicious" Britney and "Willowy" Whitney (the wonderful Chris Dennis and equally wonderful David Langham), Buttons suffering from unrequited love for Cinderella(*The* Bobby Davro), a fairy Godmother (Anthea "I-did-a-conga-with-'Daddy'-during-GMTV's-Get-up-and-Give-week-in-1995" Turner), A Prince Charming (Anthony "I can make you feel good" Kavana, who is blooming sexy btw!), Man servant Dandini (the perfect Chris Nelson) and of course Cinderella's Dad Baron Hardup who had just returned with the ugly stepsisters from America and had a rather strong American accent... but then that could of been because he was being played by Mickey Rooney!
Another little side note, when I took my Spanish GCSE, one of the questions we had to prepare an answer for was who did we respect. My still memorised answer was;
"Me gusta el actor estadounidense Mickey Rooney, que jugó Mi Taylor en "National Velvet". Creo que es un actor maravilloso."
Which translates as;
"I like the American actor Mickey Rooney, who played Mi Taylor in "National Velvet". I think he is a wonderful actor."
I like to think that the reason I scored low on my GCSE Spanish oral exam was because my Teacher had no clue as to who I was talking about, and not because my Spanish accent was/is terrible.
Top Ender sat transfixed for the entire first act and could only be dragged away from her seat in the interval to visit the toilet on the condition that she could have an ice-cream when she returned, and that she wouldn't miss the second act! She found the whole spectacle to be an amazing experience and was delighted with the inclusion of the last song of the night High School Musicals "We're all in this Together". She thought the costumes to be divine (they were), the sets to be amazing (they were) and the jokes that didn't fly over her head (which I am so happy did the last thing I need is a repeat of the Sausage incident) to be laugh out loud funny.
Baby Boy stood for most of the first act, dancing along to the music, shouting at the appropriate times and chatting up the lady who was sat in front of him. If the lady who was sat in front of him is reading this, you made his night by chatting back before the show started and I really am sorry if you found popcorn in your hair when you went home. The majority of the second act was missed by Baby Boy as he went to sleep on my knee just before the Interval... only to awake in the Second act to shout "Boo, hiss" as we had rehearsed earlier in the day. The lady sitting next to me thought this was marvellous, especially as he snuggled back down and went to sleep again after.
Daddy was impressed that the writer Eric Potts (You know Diggory Compton the baker in Coronation Street) had written 14 of the Pantos being shown around the UK this year and found Bobby Davro's topical jokes (the ones that were luckily flying over Top Enders head) to be very amusing as well as finding out that Bobby Davro, beloved entertainer has a fantastic singing voice. We have both been doing impressions of him since we left the Theatre!
I found the whole production to be laugh out loud funny, and even the good natured heckles didn't phase the actors who just rolled them into the dialogue and giggled along with us at the slip of the tongues and odd mess up of lines. Two local cast members (who won a MK Got Talent style contest) made me proud to be from MK and the sponsorship by Robinsons (Remember Top Enders review of the Put on a Panto site?) caused a good giggle from the Adult Audience members when mentioned by The Ugly Sisters in an attempt to get the sponsorship projections turned off in the second act! There is no doubt that The Ugly Sisters and Bobby Davro were the Show stealers (and the ones involved in talking most to the Audience) although Louise Dearman's impression of Stacey from this years X Factor was hilarious!
As is usual there was a fair amount of audience participation and The Ugly Step-Sisters "picked" upon one female audience member who turned out to be a family friend (her two eldest daughters were two of my bridesmaids!) and she and her family ranging from 70 something to 7(ish) all enjoyed the show too, even though they were "picked" upon the whole evening and I have to mention because I know she reads this blog that we knew the female 70 year old something had a nice "Ooh and Aah" but its official now because Bobby Davro said so!
Cinderella is on at Milton Keynes Theatre Now until Daddy's Birthday, (otherwise known as The 17th January 2010) Tickets range between £17 and £29 depending on where you sit and of course when you go. So go and buy tickets now and tell them I sent you and that we are incredibly grateful for our tickets and we are looking forward to Jack and The Bean Stalk next year!
Of course the whole point of The Great Panto Review series and all the hard work being put into helping bloggers get the tickets for them and their families was to help children with cancer through the charity NACCPO. There is a target of £1,000 and we are asking those who can to support this by visiting the JustGiving page at www.justgiving.com/Havealovelytime
And the last thought of the night came from Daddy who commented;
"Well honey, you might of gone to school with Louise Dearman, but you haven't got a signed photo of Anthea Turner now have you?"
He has me there, a signed photo of Anthea Turner is something I don't have... now where did I put that signed photo of Louise Dearman?
Anyway, the story followed the traditional panto version of Cinderella, there were the mean deluded and ugly stepsisters "Bootylicious" Britney and "Willowy" Whitney (the wonderful Chris Dennis and equally wonderful David Langham), Buttons suffering from unrequited love for Cinderella(*The* Bobby Davro), a fairy Godmother (Anthea "I-did-a-conga-with-'Daddy'-during-GMTV's-Get-up-and-Give-week-in-1995" Turner), A Prince Charming (Anthony "I can make you feel good" Kavana, who is blooming sexy btw!), Man servant Dandini (the perfect Chris Nelson) and of course Cinderella's Dad Baron Hardup who had just returned with the ugly stepsisters from America and had a rather strong American accent... but then that could of been because he was being played by Mickey Rooney!
Another little side note, when I took my Spanish GCSE, one of the questions we had to prepare an answer for was who did we respect. My still memorised answer was;
"Me gusta el actor estadounidense Mickey Rooney, que jugó Mi Taylor en "National Velvet". Creo que es un actor maravilloso."
Which translates as;
"I like the American actor Mickey Rooney, who played Mi Taylor in "National Velvet". I think he is a wonderful actor."
I like to think that the reason I scored low on my GCSE Spanish oral exam was because my Teacher had no clue as to who I was talking about, and not because my Spanish accent was/is terrible.
Top Ender sat transfixed for the entire first act and could only be dragged away from her seat in the interval to visit the toilet on the condition that she could have an ice-cream when she returned, and that she wouldn't miss the second act! She found the whole spectacle to be an amazing experience and was delighted with the inclusion of the last song of the night High School Musicals "We're all in this Together". She thought the costumes to be divine (they were), the sets to be amazing (they were) and the jokes that didn't fly over her head (which I am so happy did the last thing I need is a repeat of the Sausage incident) to be laugh out loud funny.
Baby Boy stood for most of the first act, dancing along to the music, shouting at the appropriate times and chatting up the lady who was sat in front of him. If the lady who was sat in front of him is reading this, you made his night by chatting back before the show started and I really am sorry if you found popcorn in your hair when you went home. The majority of the second act was missed by Baby Boy as he went to sleep on my knee just before the Interval... only to awake in the Second act to shout "Boo, hiss" as we had rehearsed earlier in the day. The lady sitting next to me thought this was marvellous, especially as he snuggled back down and went to sleep again after.
Daddy was impressed that the writer Eric Potts (You know Diggory Compton the baker in Coronation Street) had written 14 of the Pantos being shown around the UK this year and found Bobby Davro's topical jokes (the ones that were luckily flying over Top Enders head) to be very amusing as well as finding out that Bobby Davro, beloved entertainer has a fantastic singing voice. We have both been doing impressions of him since we left the Theatre!
I found the whole production to be laugh out loud funny, and even the good natured heckles didn't phase the actors who just rolled them into the dialogue and giggled along with us at the slip of the tongues and odd mess up of lines. Two local cast members (who won a MK Got Talent style contest) made me proud to be from MK and the sponsorship by Robinsons (Remember Top Enders review of the Put on a Panto site?) caused a good giggle from the Adult Audience members when mentioned by The Ugly Sisters in an attempt to get the sponsorship projections turned off in the second act! There is no doubt that The Ugly Sisters and Bobby Davro were the Show stealers (and the ones involved in talking most to the Audience) although Louise Dearman's impression of Stacey from this years X Factor was hilarious!
As is usual there was a fair amount of audience participation and The Ugly Step-Sisters "picked" upon one female audience member who turned out to be a family friend (her two eldest daughters were two of my bridesmaids!) and she and her family ranging from 70 something to 7(ish) all enjoyed the show too, even though they were "picked" upon the whole evening and I have to mention because I know she reads this blog that we knew the female 70 year old something had a nice "Ooh and Aah" but its official now because Bobby Davro said so!
Cinderella is on at Milton Keynes Theatre Now until Daddy's Birthday, (otherwise known as The 17th January 2010) Tickets range between £17 and £29 depending on where you sit and of course when you go. So go and buy tickets now and tell them I sent you and that we are incredibly grateful for our tickets and we are looking forward to Jack and The Bean Stalk next year!
Of course the whole point of The Great Panto Review series and all the hard work being put into helping bloggers get the tickets for them and their families was to help children with cancer through the charity NACCPO. There is a target of £1,000 and we are asking those who can to support this by visiting the JustGiving page at www.justgiving.com/Havealovelytime
And the last thought of the night came from Daddy who commented;
"Well honey, you might of gone to school with Louise Dearman, but you haven't got a signed photo of Anthea Turner now have you?"
He has me there, a signed photo of Anthea Turner is something I don't have... now where did I put that signed photo of Louise Dearman?
Friday, 4 December 2009
Top Ender Giggles - Handy Manny I blame you!
Baby Boy loves Handy Manny (and so do I) and so it is often on in our house. Of course this means that Top Ender is quite often forced to watch it. One of the episodes that caused quite a stir in our house is when Manny goes to his Family Reunion.
"Can we have a family reunion Mummy?" Top Ender asked for around the 100th time.
"Well, who would you invite" I asked because for various reasons one side of my family and one side of Daddy's family have essentially been cut out of our lives
"Our family obviously" she replied
"Yes but you traditionally only invite one branch" I countered
"Oh. Well I guess your family as I am more related to your family that Daddy's" she said
"What do you mean Top Ender?" I questioned
"Well Baby Boy and I came out of you so we are more your family" she said
Wednesday, 2 December 2009
Tuesday, 1 December 2009
A Story Before Bed
Last week Daddy went on a Business trip to Chile for a week. He has been on Business trips before, but never away overnight (since Top Ender has been born anyway) and never so far away. As is normal for Daddy he started to worry about all the things that could go wrong and that led him to want to leave something of himself behind for Baby Boy and Top Ender to have.
Eventually he found a website where using your web cam you could record a story that you can then email to your loved one to watch whilst you are away. The website that he used is called "A Story Before Bed" and Top Ender and Baby Boy loved the story that he recorded for them so much I wanted to share this website with you!
I thought the best thing I could do was record one myself so I could tell you all about it firsthand. It was so easy to do as the website walks you through what you need to do. The first screen you see is this one below, and if you want to you can watch a demo before trying the service for free.
They have a great selection of books to choose from and if you are like me you will spend ages reading through the previews and wondering which one would suit your family best. They can sort the books by length or by age suitability and there a a lot of titles of familiar stories available to record.
Then you get to dedicate who the book is to and who it is read by. As you can see I chose The 3 Little Pigs as I wanted something that Baby Boy would be familiar with and Daddy had recorded The Princess Frog which was more for Top Ender than him.
The website will then access your web cam and get you to adjust the sound levels so that all you have to do is simply read the book, clicking on the pages as you need them to turn over. When you have finished recording the book you get a chance to preview what you have recorded and a chance to re-record it if needed!
I spent the entire preview muttering to myself about how my voice sounds different when it is recorded opposed to what it sounds like when I hear it in my head. Then you can pay for your book at a cost of $4.99 which is around £3 or you have 24hours to decide if you want to keep it.
I had been so impressed with this service that I emailed the company to let them know how great they were and that I was planning to tell everyone about them that they gave me a code to give to you all so that you can record and save a book for free!
The code is valid from today until the 15th December 2009 and you just need to enter it at the checkout once you are happy with your recording!
RG9T-AW7R-CJ4F
Happy recording!
Eventually he found a website where using your web cam you could record a story that you can then email to your loved one to watch whilst you are away. The website that he used is called "A Story Before Bed" and Top Ender and Baby Boy loved the story that he recorded for them so much I wanted to share this website with you!
I thought the best thing I could do was record one myself so I could tell you all about it firsthand. It was so easy to do as the website walks you through what you need to do. The first screen you see is this one below, and if you want to you can watch a demo before trying the service for free.
They have a great selection of books to choose from and if you are like me you will spend ages reading through the previews and wondering which one would suit your family best. They can sort the books by length or by age suitability and there a a lot of titles of familiar stories available to record.
Then you get to dedicate who the book is to and who it is read by. As you can see I chose The 3 Little Pigs as I wanted something that Baby Boy would be familiar with and Daddy had recorded The Princess Frog which was more for Top Ender than him.
The website will then access your web cam and get you to adjust the sound levels so that all you have to do is simply read the book, clicking on the pages as you need them to turn over. When you have finished recording the book you get a chance to preview what you have recorded and a chance to re-record it if needed!
I spent the entire preview muttering to myself about how my voice sounds different when it is recorded opposed to what it sounds like when I hear it in my head. Then you can pay for your book at a cost of $4.99 which is around £3 or you have 24hours to decide if you want to keep it.
I had been so impressed with this service that I emailed the company to let them know how great they were and that I was planning to tell everyone about them that they gave me a code to give to you all so that you can record and save a book for free!
The code is valid from today until the 15th December 2009 and you just need to enter it at the checkout once you are happy with your recording!
RG9T-AW7R-CJ4F
Happy recording!
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