Cosmic Kids Yoga website
I may have mentioned once or twice than The Boy, like many (most?) three year olds is a tiny bundle of seriously high-energy, wired over-tiredness, a ticking time bomb of half-understood emotion and high spirits just waiting for a thwarting of his will to completely lose.his.shit. Preschool have suggested some strategies, The Man and I have done our research and read up a few parenting books and tried all kinds of different ways to help him regulate his emotions and behaviour. Banning television has helped, to a point, and I thought mindfulness might be a useful skill for him to learn, but when I tried it we actually ended up with our biggest meltdown ever – turns out the difficulty of teaching your own children anything starts pretty early.
Review – Made by Raspberry Tart and friends
South Oxfordshire is something of a crafters’ heaven. More than anywhere else I’ve lived it is teeming with gorgeous little fabric and yarn shops, quilting groups, stitch and bitch sessions, yarn bombing and all sorts. I’m not sure which came first – the crafters or the craft shops, but the two now exist in a blissful symbiosis of supply and demand.
For the disparate crafter, like myself, there’s the holy triumverate of Masons in Abingdon, a set of three shops spread throughout the town selling variously: fabric and yarn, fabric and notions and ribbons, cake decorating and papercraft items. Lady Sew and Sew is a lush fabric warehouse in Henley – a quilter’s paradise of fabrics – and for the quilter in search of support, Village Fabrics in Wallingford has the most knowledgeable and helpful staff, and they don’t do a hard sell on you. It also runs lots of great classes and groups.
Top 10 gifts to buy for a new baby
My sister’s boyfriend’s sister (convoluted connection I know) is due her first baby any day now and I was getting my brain picked for suggestions of really good presents for her and for the baby. Seemed like a good topic for another lovely ‘list’ blog post so here we go – some of my top picks for babies! (And not forgetting something for the new mums, here are some really excellent ideas just for them.)1 – Ewan the sleep sheep – A cuddly sheep that lights up with a soft red glow and plays a range of soothing heartbeat-themed white noise tracks. Not only has this been such a hit in our house that we have one for each child and The Boy still uses his, but the customer service is truly fabulous – speedy, helpful, good sense of humour! My number 1 top pick!
Surprisingly not-hellish: Review of The Treehouse soft play, Didcot
So I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I was going to write a no-holds-barred expose of soft play hell, based on a couple of experiences I had had. They’re loud, drafty or hot, smell peculiar and often seem unclean. Children run rampant and feral and the whole experience feels like a hyper-coloured scene out of Lord of the Flies.
So my heart sank somewhat when, due to the ‘inclement’ (read: fucking miserable) weather, The Man proposed we ran the fidgets out of The Boy at a softplay in Didcot they’d been to before. I reluctantly agreed to go along as The Girl was on day two of a feeding frenzy that left me with no free hands and a desperate need to get out of the house in an attempt to save some of my last remaining sanity.
Parklife: an unscientific review of Cutteslowe park
So Boy, Girl and I headed out to North Oxford today, ostensibly so The Boy could have a taster session of ‘Hockeytots’ – a hockey course for two to four year olds run by the Oxford Hawks hockey team (honestly, arming three year olds, who thought that was a good idea? Oh yes. Me. Doh). He actually loved it and did rather well – it channelled his aggression in a productive manner and he could practice his listening and following-instruction skills. Turns out he’s a bit of a demon at thwacking a ball with a hockey stick and his competitive spirit is burning strongly, so we may head back for another go at that.
Wittenham Clumps
The clumps are something of a local legend. Whenever the sun is out, whenever someone wants to run the steam out of a hyper child, or walk a dog, or show visiting family the sights of the area then it is recommended they visit the clumps.
Previously known by such suggestive names such as Mother Dunch’s Buttocks or the Berkshire Bubs the (now much more boringly titled) Wittenham Clumps are two hills, crested with woodlands and surrounded by fields and more woodland and cared for by the Earth Trust. From the top you can see across half of Oxfordshire, from the Benson weir to the Didcot cooling towers, Dorchester Abbey to Culham fusion reactor.
