The cat, my boy and the missing teddy bear mystery.

Our family (including Clovey)

My chosen reading at the moment is a book called, "New Toddler Taming" that was lent to me by a friend of mine who has two boys. It has been a difficult time with our threenager and he's been pushing mine and Hubbie's patience to the very limit. It has made us both feel so tired and sad and disappointed. It feels like we just have no clue how to deal with this seething mass of shouting, kicking, screaming energy and it's demoralising.

Then I look at him right now lying on his front drawing a picture of Big Ben wearing clothes he chose and put on himself - yes they do match. He comes over to show me he's also drawn a picture, "Of me and Daddy and Mummy and my sister Clovey." Then he draws another small face, "That's my baby brother." Our boy is an only child, so maybe it's more aspirational than factual. He knows that we would love for him to have a sibling so it's reassuring to know that he's keen on the idea of being an older brother.

I often reflect on the early days when he was so new and shiny and it was exciting being exhausted, overwhelmed new parents. When he was so tiny he'd lie between us in the bed and I'd hold my breath so I would be able to hear the snuffles that confirmed he was breathing and alive. Carrying my baby son in a sling and being able to kiss the top of his head while strap hanging on a bus or walking to an appointment for a check up with the doctor. Being so scared of every little thing that might go wrong and realising that this would be the emotion I'd feel the rest of my life.

In order to keep a sense of perspective I try and reflect on the positive things that bring a smile to my face. The things that remind me how proud I am of my boy and how blessed I feel that he is in my life.

• The other morning me and Hubbie were dancing in the kitchen to the Prodigy, Firestarter. The boy walked in, looked at us for a moment then joined in with the mayhem. That's my boy !

• He's obsessed with a movie called Firehouse Dog that we've watched so many times I think I spend more time with Bruce Greenwood (the Dad) than with Hubbie.

My little pony

• On the Bank Holiday it was so wet and miserable outside we stayed indoors mainlining movies. Carry on a Cabby was on and our boy enjoyed watching it with us - I have no explanation for why he was dressed in a pink pony outfit. 

• We took him to Peppa Pig world last week and there was torrential rain, thunder, lightning in the morning followed by an afternoon of blazing sunshine, no queues and ice cream for the boys. I asked him what the best thing about the day was. After some thought he said, "the eggy bread you made me for breakfast Mummy."

Look no queuing !!

• This morning he asked if I'd seen his teddy bear Jiggles. We both searched upstairs and couldn't find him. I jokingly asked the cat if he knew anything and he miaowed. I told the boy that clearly Neo was telling us where the bear was and to follow him. I heard a loud squeal as the boy found his bear exactly where the cat was standing - at the bottom of the stairs. I swear those two are pulling tricks on me !

So, as we go into another weekend I am armed with tips and hints from the book and a heart full of hope that this one will be better than the last one was.

I find it's a good life rule to give the last word to Calvin and Hobbes.

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Teddy bear bowling (patent pending)

I took the boy to visit my parents last week. He loves it there as he has lots of toys, plenty of grown ups who adore him and spoil him and he is the centre of attention the entire time he's there.

When he was there this time he invented a new game - we were going to call it Ten Bear Bowling, but getting four bears to sit up was difficult enough, so it's called Teddy Bear Bowling.

Aim for the middle

Knock down the bears

And go back for the rest

It's not exactly skilful, but it did keep him from wrecking the house and he loved watching Tellytubbies and Zippy fall over as he threw a football at them. I told you it's not skilful.

We may need to work on the finer points of the game - like ensuring all the bears are similar sizes maybe, but the squeals of laughter and excited attempts to knock them all over were just priceless :)

This is a post for Mummy Never Sleeps linky All The Small Things

Disclosure: No bears were harmed in the making of this post :)

He eats marmite and I'm the Crazy Cat Lady ?

I love my cat.

partners in crime

The way he wanders into a room and miaows "Hello" and when he is fed he miaows "thank you"

The way he has trained the boy to pilfer biscuits for him when we've said no

The way he twitches his nose when someone is eating marmite - he licked Hubbie's toast the other morning

The way he sits on the stairs staring at us when we look like we're going away

The way he comes running downstairs when we get home from being away then pretends not to care that we're back

The way he comes in wet from the rain and then miaows to be dried off with his warm towel

Most of all I love him because when I couldn't find him yesterday afternoon and I looked everywhere for him:

I looked in the garden

I looked on his bed

I looked on our bed

Finally,

I found him on the boy's bed, snuggled up with a toy dog and a teeny tiny teddy bear.

This is why I love my cat :)

There's cute, then there's my cat :)

This post is part of Mummy Never Sleeps linky All the small things