29 Feb 2012
by Tamsinin Little Diva Tags: Child, Cute Girl's Hair, Mommy, Squidge
Today’s hairstyle was quite a challenge, especially with Squidge’s super curly hair. It took ages to get those bits of hair to twist, and stay twisted! However, she was just lovely and said to me at one point, “Mom, you know you’re getting cross with a piece of hair, right? You’re crazy…”
Well, if that isn’t telling me what’s what, then nothing is! We adapted the cute girl’s hairstyle from Adopt a Do to fit her curls and her short front ends. Sweet!
28 Feb 2012
by Tamsinin Little Diva Tags: Child, Cute Girl's Hair, School, Squidge
Sorry, how could I resist a Grapes of Wrath reference, especially since this hairdo really does have that bunch of grapes look to it. This cute girl’s hairdo is also from Adopt A Do and is dead easy. Honestly, a blindfolded frog hopped up (hur hur) on caffeine could put this one together. That’s my kind of style…
Squidge was really ill last week. Not “collapse in a heap and drool” sick, thank goodness, but she did have a nasty ear infection and a roaring temperature. This was a week where we did no hair but plenty of cuddling. And where we decided that we would stick to our goal of doing one funky hair do a day, on school days only, and that we would try and do all the hairstyles on each website we have found with cute girls hairstyles.
So, that means we are sticking to Adopt A Do until we have tried every fabulous hairdo Mindy has created and then we will amble on to someone else. OK, so, back to the hair.
This hairstyle snuck up onto the site while we were battling the germs. Or I missed it before and only found it after. Either way, we both took one look at it and went, “Yeah!”. What a style to celebrate her return to school, hey?
Squidge’s hair is fine, as I mentioned before, so we tend to struggle with hairstyles that flourish with thick hair. This is one “do” that sort of didn’t work for us at first. If your little one has fine hair, then I recommend reducing the number of sections from five to four. It just means that each braid is a bit thicker. Have fun!
27 Feb 2012
by Tamsinin Little Diva Tags: Child, Cute Girl's Hair, Mommy, Squidge
This hairdo is stunning and I love it. (geddit? Love it? Yeah?) Ok, bad jokes aside this particular hairdo immediately caught Squidge’s eye and she gave me her perfected puppy dog, “Ohhh pleeeeeeeeeease” face when I balked at the idea.
Take a peek at the original version here, yeah, Adopt A Do is far better at this cute girl’s hairstyle stuff than I will ever be, and her heart braid is astonishingly good. I was a little intimidated and didn’t believe the whole “This will take you 1o minutes” thing at all.
I looked at the clock, 8am stared back at me, Squidge batted her eyelashes, and I thought, “Sod it, if it fails we can do something else quickly…”
And here it is. A surprisingly simple braid that takes almost exactly ten minutes to create and that looks utterly delicious. Squidge won a Cool Hairstyle Award at school for this one – yeah, my offspring’s school rewards funky hairdos on a Friday, I know it isn’t very educational but I love it.
You can see the video
walkthrough here and for those of you who have a child
with the same fine and curly hair as mine, you can avoid those pesky End Of Day Tangles in the loose hair at the back by using a moisturising hairspray. I’ve been using the John Frieda Frizz-Ease Laque hairspray as it does a great job of keeping the tangles out for longer. And it smells YUMMY.
20 Feb 2012
by Tamsinin Little Diva Tags: Child, Cute Hairstyles, Hair, School, Squidge
Have you read The Hunger Games yet? Oh man, if you enjoy a fast paced, sci-fi-esque read, then this book should be in your paws right now. I didn’t want to read it, I thought it was too close to Battle Royale for it to be original, but I ended up eating my socks. Similar idea, completely different implementation with superb imagery.
So, for our first Little Diva post, we decided (Squidge and I) to do the hairstyle from the Hunger Games. I cannot claim credit for this, though. I have become a faithful follower of Adopt A Do and love this woman’s incredible talent. None of our hairstyles match hers but Squidge and I keep trying, one day ours will look as good!
We decided that we are going to try and do a funky, crazy, exciting hairstyle every school day for a year. Sometimes they will be repeated so we won’t show those, we will just show off the hairstyles that made it onto the school yard.
Our Katniss braid went the wrong way...
Some will come with instructions specifically suited to Squidge’s curly, fine hair. Others will simply direct you to the place where I was guided, expertly, by these amazing mums who create cute hairstyles for girls…
This particular hairstyle works really well with curly hair but I do advise you to spray it with a bit of water or detangler first. I use the Vosene detangler as it comes with built-in anti-nit stuff and it is really, really good at its job.
20 Feb 2012
by Tamsinin Fascinating Things Tags: Child, Husband
No pictures please!
While playing a game of Memory Squidge says to her father, “Maybe this game just wants me to win?” as she looks at his pitiful collection of cards versus her own enormous pile…
11 Nov 2011
by Tamsinin Parenthood Tags: Child, Husband, Squidge
Squidge: E! E! guess what?
E: What?
Squidge: My dad burps really loudly after his supper
E: Gasp of amazement
Squidge: Yeah, he does! He does! And it is every time.
E: Cool
A few minutes later comes the response to the email sent to The Husband outlining the conversation…
I feel vaguely misrepresented here.
04 Oct 2011
by Tamsinin Bedraggled Mum Tags: Anniversary, Child, Husband, Mommy, School, School Run, Squidge
I have come to the conclusion that the School Run is not suited to a wedding anniversary. This is why…
7am: BLEEP BLEEP BLEEEP. The Husband’s built-in iPhone alarm wakes me up from a deep snore sleep. I realise I am still sick. I go back to sleep.
7:30am: Meep Meep Meep, WOOF. Meep Meep Meep WOOF. Squidge’s Animagic puppies (she got these for her birthday) are eeping at each other while she manages her doggy zoo on her bed. I place pillow over head. At this point the fact that it is a) our anniversary and b) my morning shift has not been remembered.
7:45am: “Mooooooommmeeeeee” The adorable voice howls, I mean, calls at me from the bottom of the stairs. I smell coffee. I rise, like a zombie (seriously, if you saw The Hair you would totally think I had been dragged out of a grave backwards) and head for the smell.
7:47 am: “Happy Anniversary darling,” says The Husband, looking annoyingly perky and talking to me before I have caffeine. I can get off on a technicality for that. He hands me a lovely card with blood on it, “Look,” he says, “I bled for you.” Suddenly a lightbulb goes off in my head. OH. My. Holy. Knickers. I have his card, but I haven’t written in it. I have his present, but it hasn’t arrived yet. I have his gift voucher, but I didn’t print it.
8am: I have shut the lounge door and am frantically writing in The Husband’s card. I pause for a moment to praise myself for its amusing joke involving the Kama Sutra. All the cards I buy him are rude. It’s important. I am also juggling a child who is not interested in remaining in the same room. She is like a cat. If the door is shut she has to go through it. I am trying to print Amazon voucher at the same time but screen faces kitchen and the door has glass panels so is blindingly obvious I have not prepared his present. The Husband is being rather sweet about pretending not to notice his Crap Wife.
8:01am: Fastest card writing and printing in the West. Duly handed over and I’m making French Toast for breakfast. We got some Manuka honey yesterday and, along with the Olbas oil tissues, the cough mixture, the Beechams, the honey and lemon tea, the rooibos tea and the echinacea it has been added to my “eff off you effing cold” armoury.
8:05am: Am frantically juggling hot spitty pan, temper is frazzling as coffee machine on a go slow and STILL no caffeine, and child has come into kitchen for the fourth time to argue about getting ready for school. “Mom, how am I supposed to get ready if I don’t have any school clothes to wear?” she asks. I snap. I pick her up and carry her into her room, dump her on floor, yank shirt, knickers, socks, and pinafore out of cupboard (all of which are in plain sight) while yelling (not REALLY yelling), “It is all here so stop coming up with excuses. WHY we have to go through this EVERY morning when *blah blah blah*”
8:15am: Sulky child sitting at table with French Toast. Husband glaring at Sulky Wife who knows she should not have gotten cross but is refusing to back down in spite of having now had some coffee. The Husband is also grumpy about being undermined by aforementioned wife when he weighed into Getting Dressed Argument. The Husband is tad sulky too. I attempt to lighten mood by going, “Ooooh, look, Manuka Honey!” The Husband responds with, “Bet it is just a marketing scam.” Child responds with, “It tastes funny! I don’t want it! Ack! Ack! It makes my throat burn.” I try to drown self in coffee mug.
8:25am: Child sits like angel while I brush her hair. She is, stubbornly, refusing to offer hugs and to make friends. She is a master manipulator and knows how to push her mother’s buttons. I am so pathetic.
8:30am: The Husband hurtles downstairs screaming, “TIME TO GO!!! We are late!!!” He insists Squidge goes as she is, sock-free, as she was told ages ago to get ready. He relents as he walks out the door, half carrying her and half putting her socks on. Silence reigns over the house.
8:55am: Email: Dear Husband, thank you for my lovely anniversary present. I love you. Not sure we should have our anniversary on a weekday anymore.
Reply: Well, quite.
22 Aug 2011
by Tamsinin Bedraggled Mum, Parenthood Tags: Child, Fascinating, Husband, Mommy, Poo, Squidge
The Husband and I, since July 2006, have been haunted by the Inconvenient Poo.
It all started when Squidge was a baby. As we sat down to dinner, looking down at the adorable little baby in her playpen/cot/pram/baby holding device with fond eyes and happy smiles, she would get that focused expression that can only mean one thing. An enormous poo.
At first we didn’t notice but after a few weeks we realised that, no matter how we shifted the timing, Squidge would have a poo as we sat down to eat our dinner. I am surprised that I wasn’t really thin back then. It is hard to return to cold food after having wrestled, for ten minutes, with a crap that has possible sentience.
We even named her poos after Scottish distilleries when Squidge had the most powerful and utterly terrifying poo ever at the Glenmorangie distillery. I was off on the tour, sipping whiskey and licking whisky caskets (no, not really) while The Husband had to race into the nearest loo and literally CUT her clothes off her and throw them in the bin. There was, apparently, poo up to her neck.
So, those violent and messy poos are Glenmorangies, the ones that are accompanied by lots of noise and dramatic crashing noises but somehow yield no real results are called Dalwhinnies, and the Glenfiddich is the more casual and yet alarmingly whiffy poo.
To this day Squidge will declare, usually in a loud voice and usually at a restaurant (with non-child carrying friends trying not to look horrified), that she requires a poo JUST as the food lands on the table.
However, the Inconvenient Poo does not just strike when food is nearby. It has a plan. It wants me to have a nervous breakdown and cause my last nerve endings to collapse in anguish. For the Inconvenient Poo will almost always arrive WHEN WE HAVE JUST LEFT THE LAST TOILET BEHIND.
And when I say last toilet I mean – it is late and we are in town and all the shops are closed and there are no nearby pubs or restaurants, we have just hiked to the beach where there are NO public toilets in reach and an accident WILL occur by the time we hike to the ones we can find, on a bus, on a train when I am carrying 16 bags and then have to wrestle them, her and ME into the tiny toilet, on a train where all the toilets are out of order and there are still 1.5 hours to go (this HAS happened), and when all the toilets in the surrounding area are out of order…
We have also had the, “Oh I didn’t realise I had a poo” while standing in it on the floor of a restaurant. The “Oh god what the hell do I do with this” poo that appeared while walking through a nearby farm and resulted in my burying it. I still feel faintly worried about that farmer hunting me down somehow. And the “I appear to have had an accident mum” when in the car on the M25 where (apparently) nobody is allowed to wee because there are NO TOILETS.
Actually, am considering a side business of opening up some rent-a-toilets on the M25 for people like me who drank an entire large skinny latte before hitting the M25 and then realising, in a massive traffic jam, that Houston had a Problem.
To this day we are haunted by the Inconvenient Poo, an all powerful being that remains utterly in control. The only weapons we have are wipes and spare knickers. Stay on your guard parents, next time it could be you…
20 Jun 2011
by Tamsinin Bedraggled Mum, Slightly Insane Tags: Blog, Child, Husband, Squidge
I feel sorry for my husband. I really, really do. I mean, let’s face it, he is married to someone who would (in the old days) have been labelled as mentally unstable and put into a huggy jacket for all eternity. Nowadays I am merely considered “quirky” and he is forced to endure great pain. Like when I nearly killed him on Father’s Day…
Let’s start at the beginning of this truly insane weekend.
On Saturday, after a lovely morning of pootling through Brighton and purchasing all manner of delightful objects for Father’s Day, Squidge and I returned home to fetch The Husband. Then the four of us trundled off to her school to view their Art Day which was, essentially, the kids’ artwork in frames on boards.
We loved her pic. The Husband grinched about the fact that we have to pay £6.50 for a framed pic in yet another fund raising activity and muttering about writing a blank cheque and being a bank. I was all misty-eyed about the awesomeness of a painting done by my little genius, all framed and ready to go.
Then on the way home, on a narrow sidewalk, a woman hit my child with her mobility scooter. There was this sickening “crunch” and then that cry that no mother EVER wants to hear.
I felt her hand ripped from mine and everything seemed to go in slow motion.
It was like I was turning in syrup. My child lay on the pavement, arm outstretched, face almost under the wheel of the scooter. I screamed, “Oh my god!” The world ground to a horrible halt.
I cannot tell you how hideous that moment was. I ran to her, checked her out. Made her move arms and legs. And down the side of her beautiful face was a raw scrape where the wheels had ripped her skin off. Other than that my lovely brave child was alright.
The Husband and I were NOT.
I was so shaken I kept walking with Squidge, I wanted to get to a wider part of the pavement so I could put her down and look at her more closely without being bumped into by people. The Husband was torn between me and the woman. We both knew we couldn’t say anything more than the horror on our faces. She kept saying sorry.
I knew I couldn’t beat up a woman in a mobility scooter. But BOY was I angry. I had already been irked by her aggressive driving, practically forcing me to jump out her way. Now I was fuming. But I kept walking. I didn’t want to upset The Husband and Squidge any more than they already were.
We went to a local coffee shop as Squidge said she wanted a hot chocolate and we were both happy to oblige. Then we talked about what had happened and The Husband shared his bombshell.
He said that those machines are really heavy and that if it had been an inch to the left it could have crushed her skull. It sounds dramatic but he is not prone to fits of fancy. He was right.
The strength left my legs. Really. When that realisation kicked in I could barely breathe.
Two days later and we are both still very disturbed by it all. Something so simple could have been a tragedy.
Should mobility scooters be allowed on the pavements? I am inclined to say no, now.
In spite of our drama we forged ahead for a fabulous Father’s Day. He got breakfast in bed, lots of pressies. We went to the fair and did some random wandering around and looking at vintage cars and laughing at donkeys in the Donkey Derby and nibbling on fudge.
We also saw this at one of the stands.
No, I don’t get it either. A prize to the human who can connect the naked man in a thong with his legs chopped off to a Lion’s fundraising day and stuffed toy animals.
It was an ace day until, after eating the dinner I got for him, he fell over ill and has not been able to move much since. Awesome. I poisoned The Husband on Father’s Day.
What kind of a woman am I????
20 May 2011
by Tamsinin Fascinating Things, Parenthood Tags: Child, Fascinating, Joke
I am not entirely sure who thought that this was a fabulous name for a children’s juice range. It makes me laugh. Every. Single. Time.
Sadly the juice fails to live up to its name. Unless placed on the Juice Shelf in the kitchen which is pretty, um, high.
Previous Older Entries Next Newer Entries
What you said