21 July , 201721 July , 2017 - Sarah 11 Comments

Toby is four years old

Four years old! How on earth did the tiny squishy baby that we brought home from the hospital turn into a four year old who is going to be starting school in a couple of months?!

I last wrote an update when Toby was three and a half and in some ways he’s changed so much since then, and in others he’s exactly the same! He is now 110 cm tall, which means he’s grown another 4 cm in the last six months and he is still on the 91st centile. He weighs about 2 stone 10 lb (17.2kg) so is still super skinny even though he eats really well. He is mostly wearing age 5-6 clothes now, although some of his pants are 18-24 months because his bum is tiny! Oh and he’s got size 10 ½ feet. Read more

19 July , 201718 July , 2017 - Sarah 1 Comment

Remembering Childhood // Lylia Rose

It’s that time of week when another blogger is going to be sharing their childhood memories. This week’s Remembering Childhood comes from Victoria at Lylia Rose.

Which decade were you born in?

The 80s! I was born in 1985

What is your earliest memory? How old were you?

I vaguely remember taking my colouring in up to my teacher in reception class and being told to sit back down and colour in some more. I would have been four years old.

What was your favourite toy at 5 years old? At 10?

At 5 probably a My Little Pony house with some ponies. At 10 my rollerblades were my favourite! Read more

17 July , 201716 July , 2017 - Sarah 8 Comments

Living Arrows 29/52 (2017)

Last week it was Toby’s fourth birthday (and I will get round to writing his four year update soon!) – it was on a nursery day so he opened a couple of presents in the morning then had a cake and pass the parcel at nursery, and got to open the rest of his presents when he came home.

Barry and I spent nearly all day making a Numberblocks birthday cake as requested by Toby – I’m going to put a tutorial up soon too. I did all the cakes and icing, and Barry made all the features, which ended up being much trickier than I had imagined!

Anyway, I was really pleased with how it turned out – Toby loved it, although after the first piece refused to eat any more because apparently the icing was ‘revolting’ so Barry’s work colleagues were treated to quite a lot of cake last week! Read more

15 July , 201718 July , 2017 - Sarah 26 Comments

When a children’s entertainer crossed the line

**EDIT**

Since writing this post I have been in contact with the entertainer in question, and my sons’ nursery.

Firstly the entertainer has apologised for any offence he may have caused. He apologised for upsetting Toby and assured me it was in no way intentional and I have accepted this apology.

He has also assured me that he is no way racist and as such I have removed references to racism from the post, although I still don’t agree that making a joke of someone’s accent or where they come from is acceptable.

However, the entertainer explained to me that he has a very successful business, he has been doing the same act for 20 years and has never had any complaints previously. He told me that although he had listened to my concerns he does not believe there is an issue and will not be changing his act. He sees his job as being to entertain the parents as well as the children and because the comments that I found unacceptable go over the children’s heads then there is no issue with making them.

I have also spoken to the manager at Toby’s nursery. Apparently they have been using this entertainer for years and will continue to do so. They have consulted some of the other parents who were at the party and none of them had any issue with the material used on the day.

Clearly, I am not entirely happy with the outcome here. Although I have received an apology which I have accepted, I am disappointed that neither the entertainer, nor the nursery feel that my concerns are valid. However, I have decided that it isn’t really in anyone’s interests for me to pursue this matter any further. I will just be making sure I avoid this particular entertainer in future. I will also now be closing comments on this post as I don’t think there is really any more to be said. Thank you to everyone who has commented and shown me support .

Today was Toby’s nursery leavers’ party, even though he’s not actually leaving until the end of the summer. I expected party games and a few sandwiches. What we got was something entirely different.

We arrived a few minutes after the party had started and the children’s entertainer was already in full swing. As the kids arrived he made an effort to find out their names and used them throughout the party. He made balloon animals, span plates and got them all dancing. That was all great. What wasn’t so great was how, from the minute they arrived, he made jokes at their expense to get cheap laughs from the adults.

The entertainer in question came from a company in Blackpool (and I think I’ve come across someone else from the same agency at a christening/ birthday party that we went to a few months ago – I can’t be 100% certain but they definitely seemed to be following the same script). Now I know Blackpool is renowned for its end of the pier shows with ‘a bit of blue for the dads’ as Peter Kay put it. It may be the spiritual home of Roy ‘Chubby’ Brown, but that doesn’t mean I expect innuendo, comments mocking someone’s accent, or unashamed sexism when I go to a party for four year olds. Read more

15 July , 201714 July , 2017 - Sarah 4 Comments

Siblings // Toby and Gabe in July (2017)

There’s not really anything new to say this month – Toby and Gabe still fight and bicker all the time. I think it’s actually ramped up a notch now Gabe has learnt the word ‘mine’! But having said that there are more moments where they play nicely together, or they have a sweet moment.

Toby loves making Gabe laugh, and is pretty good at doing it, and Gabe still just wants to do everything his brother does. He will literally copy everything Toby does – the other day Toby slipped going downstairs – he just ended up sitting down on the top step but sat down quite hard and hurt his bum a little bit. Gabe who was coming downstairs after him then proceeded to sit down on the step and say ‘ow’ too!

I’m still holding out hope that as Gabe starts to talk more and more and becomes more capable physically they will be able to play together more. Toby did say to me yesterday though that Gabe is his best friend in our family. I mean there’s only the four of us but still, it was very cute.

Of course everything will probably change in a couple of months when Toby is at school and Gabe gets more time with me on his own. I think Gabe is really going to miss his big brother, even if they do spend half their time arguing at the moment!

View this post on Instagram

T R O U B L E // These two just look like they're up to mischief don't they? We made a den underneath their little table and once we'd extended it make sure there was enough room for both of them they had a lovely time. I felt like I had a real glimpse of the future today too – Toby had his second transition session at school this afternoon and walking along to pick him up, with Gabe in the buggy just made me realise what life could be like in September. Of course I might still go back to work teaching and then our lives will look completely different…but even though I always said I didn't want to do it, being a stay at home mum is looking more and more appealing. #glimpseofthefuture #stayathomemum

A post shared by Sarah // Parenting Blog (@tobygoesbananas) on Jun 29, 2017 at 12:06pm PDT

One thing is for sure these two definitely love each other like only brothers can. And I know I say it every month but I can’t wait to see how their relationship continues to develop.

13 July , 201713 July , 2017 - Sarah 4 Comments

Fit by 40 // The weight loss diaries (Day 26-44)

Last week I published the first two weeks of my weight loss diaries – this post covers the days since then. It’s a bit of a monster update but I wanted to bring you up to date so I can carry on from here…

24^th June 2017 (Day 26)

I’ve been doing Shake That Weight for a week and a half so far and it’s going quite well. I lost 3lb the first week which isn’t quite as much as I was hoping for but I think it wasn’t as dramatic as sometimes because I was already following quite a low calorie diet. I’ve been sticking to it pretty well – a couple of bites of the kids’ food here and there but certainly not falling off the wagon standards.

I’m not feeling hungry any more either but still getting that feeling of ‘I want to eat something’. I know that’s just emotional and not real hunger but I’m finding having one of the STW snacks or even just a couple of grapes helps.

I also started doing so yoga on Tuesday – I’m just following some videos on YouTube but I’m really enjoying it. I’ve done it every evening since I started. I’ve also found some kid’s yoga on YouTube that we’ve done a couple of times – Toby and Gabe seemed to enjoy it so I’m going to try and keep that up with them as well.

On the whole I’m feeling quite positive about it all at the moment. We’ll see what Tuesday’s weigh in brings but I feel like I’m really ready to make the right changes this time…we shall see.

2^nd July 2017 (Day 34)

10 July , 20179 July , 2017 - Sarah 8 Comments

Living Arrows 28/52 (2017)

Well, after last week’s post when Gabe had slept through for two nights in a row, he actually managed two more…which is the most he has slept in his whole life! Unfortunately he ended the week with a temperature and normal service has been resumes as far as sleep goes but at least we know he can do it and I’m sure he will again. Until then I’m going to accept it and wait – that’s all I can do really!

Yesterday we went on the Lakeside & Haverthwaite Railway with Barry’s mum and dad. It’s a steam train in the Lake District and we had a lovely day out (mostly – days out with our two are never entirely stress-free!) Gabe seemed to have recovered from whatever was wrong with him at the end of last week and was remarkably un-whingey for most of the day. Read more

7 July , 201711 February , 2018 - Sarah 2 Comments

Planning a family camping holiday

*This post is in association with Halfords

My parents have both been involved with the Scout Association since before I was born. My dad was a Scout leader for years, and that meant I first when camping when I was 10 weeks old! All our family holidays when I was a child were either camping, or later caravanning holidays and I have such brilliant memories of them all. I would love for our boys to have the same experiences and that is why we are planning a family camping holiday for this summer.

So when I was young, as well as several Scout and Guide camps every year, we also spent weekends camping in the UK and we were lucky enough to spend a month in France and Spain every summer. We got a caravan when I was about 7 or 8. But even after we got the caravan my brother and I would sleep either a small tent or in the caravan awning. Read more

6 July , 201714 February , 2019 - Sarah 7 Comments

How to cope if your toddler doesn’t sleep

Gabe is 22 and a half months old, and I don’t want to shout to loudly about it, but his sleep seems to finally be improving. In fact as I write this he has slept all night, in his own bed, until at least 6:30 am for four nights in a row! Unfortunately he didn’t make it to five nights but this is very much new territory for Gabe. Everyone expects a lot of sleepless nights when they have a new baby, but when that baby gets to 6, 12, then 18 months old and they still aren’t sleeping it gets harder and harder, so how do you cope if your toddler doesn’t sleep?

I’m going to start this post by saying I only have one piece of advice to give you, and I pretty much guarantee it will work. It may not be the advice that you want to hear but after having two babies who became toddlers who didn’t sleep it is the only thing I know that will help. Read more

5 July , 20175 July , 2017 - Sarah Leave a comment

Remembering Childhood // Devon Mama

It’s that time of week when another blogger is going to be sharing their childhood memories. This week’s Remembering Childhood comes from Hayley from Devon Mama.