minimad

Seven 13

 in minimad  tagged Birthday / MiniMad / seven by

How can my baby be seven? All of a sudden he is starting to look like the man he is going to be. So in honor of my darling Mini, this is for you.

You give the best cuddles in the whole wide world, they are all encompassing and frequent. One of my favorite times of the day is that cuddle in my bed before we get up and face the day ahead. Oftren we each say five more minutes.

You have no pause button. You do everything at full speed.

You are extremely sensitive, although you often hide it under your bravado. You care about what other people think and say.

You have my temper! It is like looking into a mirror. I know this is something you are working hard to control, but baby it is going to be a challenge. I know, I have been there, however, it is part of your personality. We talk about being able to learn to read and write, so learning to control your temper will be something you can do too.

Your family mean everything to you. You love us all with a passion.

You are a reader. You love fact books and sleep with your Guinness Book of Records and 2013 Football fact book. Every morning I remove at least 4 books from your bed.

You put your clothes on back to front. When we tell you, you just shrug and say it is “your thing”!

You are still mad about anything London.

Concentrating on the positives………. 10

 in minimad  tagged minimads / parenting / tantrums / Temper by

We have been making strides in improving Mini’s behaviour with help and advice from Franki.  It is really hard to see clearly when you are in the midst of horrible behaviour.  But she has really given us the ability to clarify what we need to do and support when things are not on track. So what are we doing? Firstly we have set realistic expectations with Mini.  He has a reward chart with what is expected of him on and we also included Maxi on it so he didn’t feel singled out. We are making the actions achievable We are working together as a team.  If he gets out of bed, we just tell him it is more »

Admitting we need some help 32

 in minimad  tagged Mini / not sleeping / Temper by

I have mentioned before that Mini’s emotions bubble very close to the surface. The bad ones and the good. This means that he is quick to express his happiness and cuddles are never far away, however, conversely it means that he could blow at anytime. It is horrible. I have been feeling as though I am walking on egg shell for the last month or so. Him not sleeping makes things a hundred times worse.

Yesterday things came to a real head and I just lost it. I can not keep on parenting like this. Wondering what is going to set him off. There is no rhyme or reason often to what sets him off, often it can be something as silly as he forgot what we were having for dinner or that he is losing a game.

The thing if when Mini is angry, it is a horrible thing to see. He lashes out, physically and verbally. It is never his fault, always someone else’s and trying to get him to calm down is beyond us at this time. He keeps himself together most of the time at school, but can be disruptive when he is bored. it is at home we seem to get the brunt of it and as I am the primary care giver, I see the most of it. From the minute he wakes up, we are often at loggerheads. He doesn’t want to go to school. He doesn’t want to have breakfast, the list goes on and on.

The scariest thing is I am becoming scared of my six year old. When he hits it hurts, he scratches, he bites and he destroys things. He has lifted and thrown the kitchen table before. We have talked about rules. That it is OK to be angry, but not OK to hurt people or things and that it is good to talk, but once he is on fire we really struggle.

Gosh this post is so hard to write. I do not want to label him and we take great care not to call him a naughty boys and just say that what he is doing is wrong.

We are at the end of our tether and do not know where to look for help or advice. I am so conflicted, I adore him and he is a joy to be with most of the time, but there is always that nagging worry at the back of my mind. MadDad is not excluded and Mini has shown his dark side at football practice too. Maxi gets it if he is winning in a game or he is playing with something that Mini wants.

I can not go on living as we have for the last month. Last year was much better, which is why I think it is linked to his need for sleep.

The thing is we do not know where to go for help.

Dracula’s Strange Addiction 5

 in halloween / minimad  tagged asda / halloween / Mini / story by

ini is also joining in with the Spooky Scribe team and below is his story, which the team at Asda are going to to add to a book for him to keep. So without further ado, I present you Mini’s story, which he typed up himself and added the clip art too (he is six and I am in awe of his computer skills)! I guess you can make out from this story, that Mini has a sweet tooth.

My Midsummer Baby turned six 8

 in minimad  tagged Birthday / Mini / sixth birthday by

Mini was born six years ago on 24 June. He is and always will be my midsummer baby. This year I have not had the urge to blog about his birthday, for some reason I have wanted to keep it close to me for a little longer. I felt irrationally that by not blogging about it I was keeping him five for a little longer.

We gave him some options of what he wanted to do for his birthday. Did he want a party, a day out or a quiet birthday tea? Not one for a party, he said that we would rather have a family day out and then we were invited down to London by Dairylea and it was just perfect as London is his favorite place in the whole world. He didn’t even have a birthday list, when asked what he wanted for a present, he wasn’t sure!

Stitching 9

 in minimad  tagged embroidery / MiniMad / stitching by

All in all it took him 45 minutes to complete his macaroon and when he did, he asked if he could have his own stitching kit for his sixth birthday (which is on 24 June). Mummy best get busy then making the little man his own needle book and putting together a little pack all of his own.

Mini’s bedroom, how to change without redecorating 6

 in minimad  tagged bedroom / London / London 2012 / Mini by

Mini was in the smallest room upstairs, but with him getting older, we wanted to give him a larger room, especially as he had asked for a desk, but we didn’t want to decorate or go to much expense. Now Mini is obsessed with London, all things to do with our nations capital. So he wanted a London themes and with the Olympics coming this year, we thought it was the perfect time to update is things.

Nobody likes me 26

 in minimad  tagged friends / Mini / MiniMad / parenting by

Now you might know that we have had ongoing issues with Mini about going to school since Preschool. He doesn’t like school. He doesnt want to go and we have been trying to get to the bottom of this for a long, long time and finding something like this in your five year old’s notebook, I can tell you is crushing.

I know that we can not always be happy all the time, but at five you should be happy most of the time and you should not be made to feel as though no body likes you. Initially when I tried to approach him about it, he just ripped the note up and started to cry. He explained that none of th

When your child just doesn’t want to go to sleep – An update 11

 in minimad  tagged bed / bedtime / MiniMad / parenting / sleep / sleeping by

Mid January I blogged about Mini not going to bed and going to sleep and how it was really affecting our evenings and also making him really tired and grumpy in the morning. Well I thought it was time for an update and I am pleased to be able to tell ypu that our evenings have been transformed.

Mini now goes to bed between 7pm and 7.30pm and goes to sleep. He has even asked to go to bed and taken himself up at 6.45pm one evening. Even when were were moving his room he still went to bed and sleep in all the mess and chaos.

So how have we done it. Basically it has all been about consistency. We have a strict bedtime routine. No screen time after 6pm. Dinner, night clothes, books, cuddles and bed (with a bath a couple of times a week).

When your child just doesn’t want to go to sleep 20

 in minimad  tagged bed / MiniMad / nighttime / parenting / sleep by

What do you do when you have a child that just refuses to go off to sleep? I wish I knew. Maxi has always gone to bed like a dream and when his head hits that pillow he is off in the land of Nod till six am ish. Mini, however, is another story. He needs his sleep and is a monster without it, as most children are, but he has this ability to fight going off to sleep.

It started when he was around 3 years old and I put a lot of it down to the fact that I had been in and out of hospital and made allowances for him and for me. But the fact is he is five and a half and still doesn’t want to go to bed on a night and will make every excuse under the sun to stay up or find a reason to get up. My tummy is hurting, I have earache, I am hold, I am hot, I need a drink, I am hungry, I am scared and so on and so on. The fact is that both me and MadDad had let it go on to long and we were tired. Tired of the relentless taking him back up to bed, tired of not having our evenings together, tired of one or the other giving in and cuddling Mini either upstairs or downstairs and just plain exhausted by it all.

Five 16

 in minimad  tagged Birthday / five / Mini / MiniMad / minimads by

ow to describe Mini, well he is noise with muck on.
His emotions run close to the surface and some times get the better of him, but this means you always know where you stand.
He is a lover and a fighter.
He shows a talent for music and a passion for reading and literature.
He is my earth, wind, stars and moon.

Everything is so easy if you are 4 year old 9

 in minimad  tagged children / MiniMad / minisms by

Maxi was born in Reading, so he has chosen Reading football team as his and was super excited this weekend by the fact that they were still in the FA cup, but also really upset to find out that he couldn’t watch them on TV (as they were not being shown playing), so we listened to the match on the radio. When Manchester City sored the goal, Maxi got pretty upset.  So MadDad tried to explain the ranking system and said that Manchester City were in a higher league and were possibly the richest football club in England at the moment and this is the conversation that sprung from there.   more »

Discussing the Bad Stuff 9

 in minimad  tagged charity / disasters / maximad / MiniMad / news by

The world seems to have had more than it’s fair share of disasters over the last couple of years, the floods in India, situation in Haiti, the earthquake in Christchurch and then overnight the massive earthquake in Japan. It seems to be a pretty scary time to live at the moment. I am all too aware of how tragedy can affect children, we have experienced enough in our family and my boys have been exposed to illness and death from an early age, but this does not mean that I no longer feel the need to shield them from the hardest realities of the news. I find the news footage shocking more »

Encouraging boy’s to write 16

 in minimad  tagged art / children / craft / learning / maximad / minimads / parenting / school / writing by

My boys are like chalk and cheese, as I have said before.  Maxi was writing by age three, whereas, Mini really doesn’t enjoy mark making or writing.  He is a perfectionist and gets upset that it doesn’t look like he thinks it is supposed to, this isn’t helping in mu opinion with the school teaching cursive handwriting from Reception. Up to now this hasn’t been an issue for him, but it is really starting to get him down and also to hold him back.  Why you ask?  Well he knows all his letters and sounds and is a great phonic reader, but he is so reticent about writing that the school more »

Full of imagination 8

 in minimad / Uncategorized  tagged achivement / MiniMad / proud / school by

I think that sometimes is is hard for Mini growing up in Maxi’s shadow.  People often revel in the fact that Maxi is super clever and leave Mini out of the equation.   The thing is both of the boys are bright, but Maxi’s shows his intelligence everyday, whilst Mini well he is just Mini, unique and special.   However, this week Mini has excelled himself by being awarded the Headteachers award for creativity (something that Maxi has never had) and also a certificate from his teacher for independently writing a story about a superhero on the computer. When I asked him who his favorite superhero was on Sunday he responded by more »

Emotional Exhaustion 28

 in minimad  tagged death / maximad / MiniMad / school by

Sometimes, I bite off more than I can chew.  Sometimes, I have no option.  But I am laughing through my tears. Today has been a challenge again.  A day spent with my sister in law working on clearing out the house again.  Mini’s glasses to pick up for the opticians and then parents evenings to go to.  MadDad is sore and possibly overdoing this as his wound is weeping and I am tired to the core. But then we hear a voice with a guitar and we both sit and listen.  Mini sings a song and I sit with tears in my eyes.  For his song is about his grandma who more »