Some days I sit back once the children are thankfully fast asleep in their bird bags (it’s what we call the sleeping pods in our house on account of Sammy’s nickname being the big bird when he was little, well he was never little, but you get what I mean!) and can’t always say I have been the best mummy today. No river walks, no feeding ducks, no arts and crafts just lots of cbeebies, maybe a Pixar film thrown in and a tea from the freezer that Annabel Karmel definitely wouldn’t be proud of.

However, today is not one of those days, well maybe we did sneak in half an hour of Wall-E!

We have had almost a whole day in the garden after a soft play session with a best pal this morning.

To end the day we had what is known as a “pirate picnic” really it is just an ordinary picnic with a pirate napkin left over from my husbands 27th birthday. But nevertheless Sammy loves it and we all had to dress up, sit on a blanket and not let the Westies eat anything!

With far too many distractions this tea time like putting the pop up tunnel on the slide and chasing the dogs playing tug of war with a disgusting dog rope that needed to be washed 6 months ago I decided to wrap up the left overs in tin foil and we had a pirate treasure hunt when Dada finished work! My husband works in the garage, literally! We converted the back to an office so we are so lucky that he only has a 3 second commute home of an evening!

Anyway, what a day me hearties! I am now looking out of the window with a glass of vino watching him push the boys on the swing! 

On a beautiful summers day, no wait it’s actually March (England appears to have firmly decided we are only to enjoy the British summertime around Easter), there is nothing better than to hoof the small ones out into the garden in the hope you might get at least 10 minutes to yourself! Today is such a day in our house and it made me realise how completely full of weeds the garden is! My “gardening” skills extend to slipping a chap called Bob a cheque for £20 every few weeks during the summer, it is worth going without a takeaway every so often so my husband says. To be fair to the man we do have a steep bank at the side which I wouldn’t even attempt for fear of dropping the mower into the path of the traffic pelting down the lane. All sounds terribly grand but really it isn’t.

So I thought of a quick game of counting the daisies to keep bigger boy entertained while we raced against the clock to see who could collect the right number of daisies first on the chalk number. Small boy who can only crawl like a caterpillar decided eating the daisies would be his contribution!!

Happy days!

I am finding the potty training stage unbelievably challenging, more so than I ever thought it would be. This is mostly down to listening to almost all my friends telling me their child got it in a week. A week! We started at Christmas and we are still going….. My darling Sammy will be 3 at the end of May (he keeps reminding me he is having a wonder pets party) and with another small boy who is 8 months old I am desperate to crack it as I know he is ready as when we are at home or a home from home like Granny’s house he utters those magic words “mama I need a wee wee”

When we go to our favourite toddler group we arrive and leave in the same pair of dry pants so why oh why does he refuse at nursery and pre school?!

He goes to the nursery he has been at since he was 18 months where they described him at the last parents evening as “the big fish who everyone knows and loves” but flatly refuses to use any kind of potty let alone the toilet with the black toilet seat!!

At his adorable pre school where he started in November they have tried every trick in the book but still he waits and holds on then whoosh there’s a flood!

So we are trying a new tack. A sprinkle for a tinkle! Huge chocolatey, colourful sprinkles surely no toddler can resist them!

Wish me luck for tomorrow d-day in 25 hours! any tips would be very gratefully received!