Beach boys

A lovely commission piece I worked on recently for our friends The Coopers, of their super-dooper lovely boys on Hunstanton beach :)

Ninja Mum revisited

I turned Ninja Mum into linocuts. I was too lazy to reverse the image so it's a mirror image to the original. but Ninja Mum is super stealthy whichever way she goes.

A Fond Farewell

I made this picture of our boys and their friends, as a leaving gift for our Headteacher who is retiring after today. 
We will miss being greeted by her in the mornings as we frantically rush in (she knows all the children by name!), her knocking down conkers in the autumn with the kids, her warmth and so much more. We love our school. I've watched our eldest thrive and grow in confidence over the years, and now with our little one joining the preschool, I look forward to seeing how he grows and develops in a nurturing and stimulating environment under the new Headteacher.

I LOVED illustrating the kids in this picture :) Although not very "accurate", I think I was able to capture their character and everybody managed to guess who was who, hooray!

Look Mummy Look!

Our boys like to show me what they've drawn or made throughout the day, no matter what I may be doing at the time. 

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to all you super mums!

The-Singular-Strong-Arm-Workout

With baby in one arm, engage in single pan cooking, shaking the pan vigorously to try and unstick burnt vegetables. 5 x 10 seconds of vigorous shaking, resulting in singular strong arm and delicious "caramelised" vegetables.

With baby in one arm, search for that elusive piece of lego in the big box. The more elusive the better - for your arm, but maybe not for the impatient lego enthusiast or the ears of a small baby.

With screaming wrigglesome baby in one arm, push buggy homeward for as long as you can bear the noise, discomfort or the looks, to achieve that singular strong arm look.

Special leaf

"Here you go mummy, I found a special leaf for you".

Funny how little people will notice straight away if you are sneakily trying to scoff a sweet treat or something but seem completely oblivious when you are heavily laden with bags stuffed full of shopping and big, heavy awkward things, each pocket and hand full of stuff.

NINJA MUM

My alter ego.

I may be clumsy and clang about and bump into things during the day, but once we tuck the boys into bed for the night, I turn into "NINJA MUM".

NINJA MUM slowly and stealthily creeps out of the room, along the hallway and down the stairs, even if it takes all night. She knows exactly where all the creaky floorboards are and deftly steps over them. She has super sensitive hearing and will respond immediately to moans and groans with a quick shush.

She has been known to crawl out of the room backwards, never taking her eyes off the cot, convinced that if she turned her back on the baby it would break the spell of sleep.

Ridiculous innit.

The Vampire and the Cat

We went on our first Trick or Treat this Halloween - lots of lovely carved pumpkins and friendly neighbours and fun costumes and sugar!! 

All that walking up and down our neighbourhood just before bedtime proved too much for the 3 year old though, as he declared "Trick or treat is tired-ing" and I had to carry him all the way home. 

Both boys slept beautifully that night, which made every arm-numbing back-breaking step carrying the boy worth it! 

Good Luck Jam!

My bezzie mate of over 30 years is moving to Edinburgh. 

We lived opposite each other all throughout our school years and shared a house in Brighton for a couple of years. We've laughed and cried and partied and danced and talked so much over the years - admittedly less and less since our boys came along but we've always had such a giggle!

I decided to send her a handmade silly fun pop-up card, as I'd been experimenting with pop-up card ideas lately. She's holding up a map of Scotland and a list of essential Edinburgh slang words - a very entertaining and educational bit of research! The card was cobbled together whilst wrangling 2 boys so there are plenty of mistakes and room for improvement, but it was really good fun putting it together and I felt like I learned a few things :)

I turn my back for 1 second...

...and find him playing with a bit of chewing gum he's peeled off the pavement. 

(This is what happened the last time.)

Carwash

SLEEP seems to be a recurring theme when it comes to illustrating motherhood, especially when you have 2 terrible sleepers :'(

These days we often end up with both of them in our bed, rotating and wriggling non-stop (with Daddy getting booted out) and so I name this new position "The Carwash".

You can find previous sleep positions here and here.

What are you doing H?

I found him casually leaning against the wall with his legs arranged like a no 4, so I asked him,

"What are you doing?" and he replied,

"Being a flamingo". 

Obviously.

Wild Bats

I asked my boys what musical instrument they would play if they were in a band. Eldest answered electric guitar, youngest said electric rattle, haha :D

I asked who else was in the band and what's the band's name?

So here are WILD BATS, with Oki and Leon on guitar, Hoshi on electric rattle, Emma on drums and Tom on electric piano. With a name like that I feel like they should appear on stage like this:

Child play in the time of Trump

Even playtime with the kids take on a political edge these days...

The Literal Kid

We get this quite a lot from our 5 year old, with a completely straight face.

Toddler demands

Every time our toddler and I step into the local supermarket, the relentless demands begin. He's fairly predictable but every once in a while he'll surprise me :D

mums on the run

Motherhood has changed me in many ways. 

I'm not as laid back as I used to be, I'm impatient, I shout, I lose control of my emotions and unbelievabIy I consider waking up at 7:30am a sleep in. 

I have also recently started enjoying running. When I told this to my old school friend she said she nearly fell off her chair! I was never any good at sports and HATED running so it's no surprise really.

It started off with a Parkrun one Saturday morning at our local park. I thought I'd give it a go even though I hadn't run in over 20 years, telling myself if I can give birth on gas and air then I can overcome the pain of running 5km! I did and it hurt and I felt sick and was a complete mess but strangely I wanted to do it again.

Then I discovered Power pramming - a group of mums getting together in the park to run with their buggies - something you can do with your child and a lovely supportive group of mums AND for free - amazing! 

I've been running with the little one in the buggy since last June (although these days, he seems to prefer it when it's just me and him) and I've come to realise that actually, the challenge isn't so much the running as the constant providing of snacks and drinks to the little one whilst running. It's taken me a while to work out what the best snacks are; it's got to be easy to grab and hand over, low maintenance but chewy enough to keep their gobs shut and busy for a while. 

Motherhood is all about multitasking and learning to do a whole array of things one-handed, and now I can add 'peeling a satsuma whilst running with a buggy' to my list of newly acquired skills thanks to my ever-hungry son and Power pramming :)

Good words and bad words

I love the words that come out of our little ones' mouths. Sometimes poetic, sometimes ridiculous and funny! Here are a few uttered by our 2 year old:

(When he spotted the moon through the car window following us when we were driving at night)

(His description on seeing fireworks for the first time, followed by "Big magic, small magic, red ones, green ones...")

(Runny nose)

(Fight talk)

Incidentally, our 5 year old very clearly said this the other day:

when he couldn't quite put his lego together. After a pause, I asked "What did you say?" so he repeated it very clearly. I asked him where he got that phrase to which he proudly and matter of fact-ly replied, "Daddy".

Order of Things 2016

Many many years ago, my good friend Jon scribbled a little doodle on my school folder called "Order of Things" (below). Here it is revisited 20+ years later, through my son's eyes during school pick up. I don't get a look in.

HOPPY CHRISTMAS!

It's been a busy year for us - leaving London and starting a new life in a new town with 2 small children, but we're settling nicely and starting to find some sort of rhythm to daily life and a little bit of sanity!!

Wishing everyone a Hoppy Christmas and a Happy New Year!