Secret Boys' Business (and one of the Dilemmas of Being a Single Mum....)

This morning Miss 5 and Mr 4 were having a bit of a disagreement which followed me into the toilet..... (there is no privacy when you're a mother!!!!!!!!) I told them to work it out and was somewhat aghast when my sweet innocent little Miss 5 said "If you don't stop it, I'm going to kick you in the nuts!" Great! Suffice it to say, this is not a phrase she has learnt from me.

I then had to educate her on what 'nuts' are, point them out on Mr 4 (well, he was in the toilet with his pants down waiting to go), and tell her what she had said was rude and uncouth and why she should never ever do it. I told her she could really hurt Mr 4 and he might even have to go to hospital (Is that true? ..... I thought it made it sound more scary), and told her if she kicked him there, when Mr 4 grows up and gets married, he and his wife might not be able to have children. After this surplus of information, Miss 4 looks up at me and asks very seriously:"But, who is his wife?" Aaarrggghh!

I have found certain things are a little difficult for a female to teach a young boy. Standing up to go the toilet is the obvious one! Poor Mr 4 appears quite traumatised by my belated efforts to get him to stand up and shake-shake-shake instead of sit down and wipe-wipe-wipe. Personally I would quite like it if men did wipe, but I won't go into that now.....)

I enlisted my next door neighbour's help so Mr T talked to Mr 4 about one of the joys of camping for men, which apparently is the ability to just stand up anywhere and 'go'..... (Incidentally, this is one of the least appealing aspects of camping for women!) When he told Mr 4 he could aim at a tree and then go shake-shake-shake, Mr 4 started crying and said "noooooooooo ...... the grass will get wet." He was completely immovable on the subject despite reassurances from myself and Mr T that the grass would be fine. Miss 5, ever the peacemaker said "It's ok, Mr T, he can just sit down with Mummy and go wipe-wipe-wipe." And so I'm back at square one.......

Any tips would be gratefully received......

What joy! What bliss!

The eagle has landed! We have lift-off! etc etc. I can finally say Mr 4 is completely toilet-trained and sleeping through the night without incident!!

Yay..... No more nappies!

Mr 3 becomes Mr 4.......

Well Mr 3 has just become Mr 4. He is still in love with Thomas the Tank Engine. Will this love affair never end??????? He requested a Thomas cake and, due to my general fabulousness, I embraced the challenge (amid much questioning of my own sanity and dramatic throwing of my hands up into the air) and came up with something that sorta kinda resembles Thomas. Of course, his birthday party arrived on the hottest day of the year so far (34 degrees). So helpful....
(For those of you interested, I Googled 'Thomas the Tank Engine cake' and came up with a site called 'Thomas the Tank Engine Birthday Cake Tutorial'. Mine looks nowhere near as good as hers..... but I didn't start days in advance or have any of the proper tools!!)

Mr 4 is growing up. He is now correcting so many of his mis-pronunciations of words. I am happy, though, that some still remain......... 'omelette' is what he calls his 'wallet', 'helicopperdial' for 'helicopter' (it's a mixture of helicopter and crocodile, in case you were wondering...), 'jumpoline' for 'trampoline' (incidentally, why aren't trampolines called jumpolines? It is a much more appropriate name!!)

Speaking of the 'jumpoline', the kids and I have been extremely blessed in our next door neighbours. When we moved in we discovered a Dad and two boys next door. They have become great friends to us; Mr T (the Dad) organised for the second hand jumpoline to be delivered to our house, and the boys (Mr J and Mr L) play with the kids beautifully. I would like to thank Mr J and Mr L for often making Thomas train tracks and thus saving my sanity (because pretty much every day Mr 4 asks me to make a train track with him!!!).... They also play 'crack the egg' on the trampoline and various other games and generally make my life and my kids' lives better.

Handy Hint Number 52: When you are a single mother, make sure you move into a house with fabulous next-door neighbours who will love your kids and play with them!

Mr 4 loves the trampoline. It is used every day. I have to watch and specify the style of jump: bottom drop, knees, and a special something called the 'beautiful bottom drop'. Mr 4 came up with that one, and as far as I can tell it is a bottom drop with pizazz and some crazy hand actions.....

Here is a photo of Mr 4 in action. BTW, apologies for the shirt. I did not buy it (it was a gift) and Mr 4 was only wearing it because we were not going out anywhere! How was I supposed to know I'd snap an extremely cute and joyous photo of him jumping on the trampoline?!