Songs we sing to our children

Like lots of mothers-to-be, when pregnant with my first I spent lots of time relaxing in the bath listening to classical music. Funnily enough, I didn't manage it quite so often with the second! I did have another couple of songs which I liked to play to baby during pregnancy. The first was the (highly unsuitable for children) Kanye West - Stronger ("I need you to hurry up now, 'cos I can't wait much longer") and Gabriella Cilmi - Nothing Sweet About Me ("Tell you something that I've found, the world's a better place when (you're) upside down").

When my babies were small, I spent a lot of time marching them up and down trying to get them to sleep (yes, I know, rod for own back and all that). I needed songs with a fast beat that could be repeated as necessary. A particular favourite was "What Shall We Do With The Crying Baby?" to the tune of "Drunken Sailor". Verses included classics like "Walk him up and down 'til he stops crying", "When will you ever go to sle-ep" and "I'm not doing this when you're 18". I also created "The Baby in my Arms" to the tune of "The Wheels on the Bus". Typical verses were "Mummy with the baby walks up and down", "The baby in my arms goes waa waa waa", The baby in my arms won't go to sleep" and so on.

Of course I do sing more traditional songs with my children too. We have a brilliant CD with a mixture of classic nursery rhymes, modern songs and even television theme tunes. A copy lives in the car and has been known to prevent total meltdown, or at least delay it momentarily. Harry loves "The Wheels on the Bus" and remembers an extraordinary number of verses, as well as those he makes up himself. Still early days for Mia, but she seems to be developing a fondness for "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, Once I Caught a Fish Alive" with accompanying actions (counting on fingers, signing for fish and a little nip to the nose with the bite!).

What songs did you sing to your child?

Baby and toddler groups

Opinion among mums seems to be divided on baby and toddler groups. Some people love them and others can't see the point. I've just got back from my local one, and I have to say that it's brilliant. It costs £1, for that I get a drink, Harry gets as many biscuits as he can eat, and he gets two rooms full of toys that we don't have at home. It gets us all out of the house for a couple of hours and fills a morning. I get to talk to other grown ups and he gets to learn how to share (or not) with little ones of all ages.

Of course there are some things to avoid. I never ask anyone how well their baby sleeps, and I change the subject if someone asks me. There are also many other topics best left alone - toddler eating habits, potty training, bedtime battles. But it's nice to talk to other people about what they've been up to or local places to visit.

Although I've made some lovely friends, to be honest I don't really go for the conversation. I'm quite happy to sit on my own in the corner. The main reason I go is to give Harry (and now Mia) something different to do other than sitting around the house. And it's also a way for him to play with ride-on toys, play kitchens, ball pits and slides, without them cluttering up our house! Some people find that other mums can be cliquey, but at least you know that you've always got your child to talk to!

If you live locally (Worthing) and are interested in visiting a really friendly local group, get in touch!

Bathing baby, 1940's style

I've got a small collection of old magazines and I was having a look through them recently. It was interesting to see that much of the advice on raising babies was similar to that given today. I expected it to be quite different.

Well, apart from the fact that the diet of my four month old is sadly lacking:

Woman's Weekly, Number 2405, December 7 1957

Although baby food now is sold for babies 4 months old, so it's not really that different. The only difference now is that now the manufacturers have to pretend that no-one is actually giving a baby solid food before six months (and I'm not criticising here, because we weaned Harry early).

Even the advice on how to bathe baby was very similar to that given today (click to enlarge):

Woman, No. 158, June 8 1940

Not that I am quite so diligent when it comes to bathing Mia, I tend to just plonk her in and wash her all at once. But did people really used to sew the baby into the nappies?

I must go down to the sea again...

Welcome to the next post in my beaches of the UK series. We do seem to have been spending a lot of time at the beach lately, and today we went to Littlehampton. Littlehampton beach is good because it has more sand and is much better for building sandcastles that Worthing. It's also fairly easy to park along the roads out of season and there's a small pier and boats to see. It's pretty much shut up at this time of year though, although there were plenty of people about.

I hope that it's not just us, but most of our outings with the little ones seem to begin and end with screaming. Now that Mia is here there's a fair chunk of screaming in the middle too. We had a number of pitying looks today as Mia screamed and screamed in her carrier as we walked about desperately trying to calm her down. Other people always assume that crying babies are hungry, but I'd just given her a big bottle of expressed milk, so I knew that she'd had a good feed. I still tried to feed her anyway and she wasn't interested. She's just not a fan of the beach at the moment.

Harry on the other hand makes a big fuss about getting ready to go out, and then when he is out he never wants to come home. I must admit that we nearly gave up getting him out the door today, but he really did have a good time when he was out, he always does!

I like walking up and down the beach and looking for interesting shells in the pebbles. I even found some sea glass today. There was another lady walking along looking just as intently through the pebbles, I would have loved to know what she was looking for! Although she probably wondered the same about me!

Living by the sea in Worthing

I do love living by the sea. For some reason it's the seaside out of season that appeals to me more. Something about a deserted, windswept beach with everything closed up. Yesterday I made a promise to myself to get down to the beach more often, so today I packed up the bag, the baby and the toddler and headed down there. It's a good half hour walk and hard work with the pushchair and carrier, but I always feel glad that I made the effort.

I timed our visit for when the tide was out, in the hope that there might be some sand. Unfortunately it didn't really live up to the expectations set by the sand Harry played in on our recent Welsh holiday. It was a bit wet and cold and not really up to being made into sandcastles. Harry still managed to amuse himself for a while though with his spade and digger while I walked about trying to get Mia to stop screaming and go to sleep.

Baby asleep, we walked over to the rocks and clambered about on those for a bit. Although it was overcast, it was actually quite warm and not too windy.

They both slept all the way back, and then Harry continued to sleep at home in the pushchair, so it must have worn him out! We all do better from some fresh sea air.

Easy Madeira Cake

I woke up the other morning with a craving for Maderia cake, so I had to get one in the oven. Here is my easy recipe, handed down from my Mum. I use a cup measure from my breadmaker, but a small mug would do it.

Ingredients:
4 oz margarine
1 cup caster sugar
2 cups self raising flour
2 eggs
1 tablespoon milk

Method:
Mix all the ingredients together. Place in a 7" lined tin and bake at 180 degrees (lower for fan assisted ovens) for just under an hour. I mix by hand, if you use an electric mixer it will probably rise a bit better.

Delicious when still warm. The best bit is the crust!

You can make the cake more fun by dividing the mixture into several parts before putting into the tin. Mix a few drops of food colouring into each part, then layer the coloured mixtures into the tin. Rainbow cake! Or you can make the mixture in two halves, and in one half replace some of the flour with cocoa powder. Layer the two mixtures together in the tin to make marble cake.

Bringing the holiday home

We are very lucky to be able to get away on holiday several times a year. We've just returned from a week in a self-catering cottage in Wales and we had a lovely time. We did lots of fun things together as a family, and I started thinking about what  things in particular were so good about the holiday, and whether there was anything that we could carry on with now that we're back home.

Obviously there are some things that are exclusive to being on holiday. No going out to work, less housework, extra help with childcare, more meals out and more money spent on day trips and entertainment.

But lots of things are more to do with the change of routine. One thing that I like is that you only have what you need. We took very few toys and clothes, and it was easy to tidy up because everything had a place.

We also spent a lot of time outdoors last week. Obviously this is weather dependent, but unless it is actually raining there shouldn't be any excuse not to get out at least once a day, and even rain can be coped with if you've got the right clothing. We also spent a lot of time at the beach, and being that we live in a seaside town, we really should get to the beach more often.

We had a plan each day for the activities that we wanted to do, and we got on and did them. We also had our meals planned for the week based on a weekly shop.

So I've made a list of things that I hope to do.

• Continue decluttering, and resist the urge to keep buying toys.
• Get outside each day, even if it's only for a walk down the road. Easy to put off when trying to schedule around naps and grumpy toddlers, but it really does benefit everyone.
• Get to the beach more often. To make it easier, I'll put together a bag with the beach toys, changes of clothing etc. that I can just grab and go. I also need to investigate tide times, as the local beach only has sand when the tide is out. 
• Explore the local area - we are quite good at finding free local activities but it's always worth keeping an eye out for what is going on. We're hoping to move house soon, so there will be a whole new local area to explore.
• Plan at least a few indoor activities for each day, even if just something simple like play dough or painting, so I've always got something ready to get on with.

Wish me luck!