The Gallery: Hands

I’m actually crying as I try and type this. Today is a very special day. It’s my Grandma’s 100th birthday – yes 100! I’m pretty sure it’s the day she’s been holding on for, for at least the last 3 years, when she hasn’t been able to communicate very well. Her brain is still fully functioning, but she can’t hear too well, or speak or write so she has no way of letting us know what she’s thinking.

I couldn’t let today go without showing a picture of my Grandma, but when I saw the theme was ‘hands’ I saw this picture in a completely different light. Who needs to hear or speak to communicate when your hands can say so much? Those frail, 98 year old hands are protecting and loving those newborn hands, and those little hands have placed all their trust in them. This is pretty much the only picture I have of my Grandma with her only Great Grandchildren, and it’s the last time she really saw them with an awareness of who they, and I were. It is so precious, but it’s only now that I’m learning to look beyond the obvious. It’s not all about the faces at all, so thank you, Tara for helping me see this!

This week’s other Gallery pictures can be found on Tara’s blog over at Sticky Fingers.

The Gallery: Friends

I come from a very small family. Every day I get sad that I don’t really speak to my parents. It’s a whole other post in itself, and one I’m working up to, when I can be brave enough, but I genuinely hope that one day I’ll have a good relationship with my side of the family.

So why bring that up now, when it’s a gallery theme all about friends this week on Tara’s blog over at Sticky Fingers? Well I think of myself as being lucky to have lots of friends, and my children too are lucky in that respect. They are both very sociable and outgoing and generally enjoy being around other children. My daughter has two very special friends who I’d love to have included in this post, but I haven’t asked permission to put the photos in! It doesn’t matter though because now I’m getting to the point (promise!)… I’d always hoped I could be part of a family which extends beyond the tie of genes:

My husband is my best friend…

My children are best friends…

They want to play together

They play tricks together…

They work together…

They read together…

Sure they are company for each other at home like all siblings, but their relationship even aged 4 and 2 extends beyond this. My son is at his happiest when he runs up to his sister at the end of her school day. My daughter likes nothing more than helping her brother up over the bits at the soft play that he’s not quite big enough to do by himself. If either of them gets upset, the other one will instantly ditch whatever they are doing to make sure all is ok.

Maybe in a few years, things will be different, but for now, I get to see the strongest friendship I’ve ever witnessed, every single day, how lucky am I?!

 

The Gallery: A Family Story

Wow, what a difficult theme! A Family Story is just our life isn’t it, so how do you take one picture which sums up your life?! I’ve been a bit of a sporadic participator in the Gallery over the last few weeks, but I love looking at everyone else’s offerings!

It’s weird though, I say how I find it difficult, yet straight away, only one photo came to my mind:

I’m really glad that Tara points out that “It’s not about taking technically brilliant photos” because I didn’t even manage to get my husband’s full head in (although I’m hoping the fact I’d just given birth and the anaesthetic I’d been given so I could have my stitches was just starting to wear off, can count as some way towards an excuse!), but I had to choose this picture, because to me it just visualises love, that abstract emotion, that families have for each other, no matter whether they show it or not.

This photo was the first photo I took after three had become four. A very poignant moment in our family story, possibly slightly cliched for a post like this, but who cares?!

One of my favourite films of all time is Love Actually, much to my husband’s annoyance (his top films include Schindler’s List, Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs!) but it gets me every time, I cry buckets every time, and I laugh until I cry again every time. Why? Because love is such an amazing emotion, and every family should be tied by it, not by blood, but by love.

So this picture, although not technically brilliant (I’m guessing without a head, it might not even pass as technically staisfactory!) shows what I think is the most important aspect of my family story – the love we have for each other, passing through the generations. The love a father has for his children, and the love my daughter has for her brother.

See how other people have summed up their family stories in one photo on Tara’s blog at Sticky Fingers.

 

The Gallery: Me Right Now

Generally the only time in my day when I get to guiltlessly tweet or read blogs is when I’ve just got in from the school run. The first thing the children do is start jumping up and down and begging for hot chocolate. For my daughter this means luke warm hot chocolate that has been sieved to ensure no undissolved bit floating on the top or she won’t touch it, yes I did say sieved! For my son, it means cold milk with 2 marshmallows floating in it and a teaspoon with which to scoop them out. He doesn’t like hot chocolate, but for some reason it’s what he calls his post school run milk!

However I know that once I’ve done my motherly duties, caught up on the highlights of my daughter’s day at school, and they have their drinks, complete with teaspoons and straws, I will have about 10 minutes of peace. This is when I sneak a look at my Google Reader. Last Friday, I decided to lie on the floor and do this. Very soon, the children finished their drinks, and decided to jump on me. I’d love to say how great it was for them to do this just as I had to take a snap of what I was doing right then, but sadly not. I should know better because being jumped on with no warning or awareness of their body weight is actually something I have become used to on a ‘several times daily’ basis! So that’s what I was doing, being jumped on! Five minutes earlier we were having a drink. Five minutes later we were engrossed in a game of Animal Dominoes.

Have a look at this week’s other Gallery offerings on Tara’s blog at Sticky Fingers!

The Gallery: Eyes

My children look completely different. They neither look related to each other, or to me, in fact sometimes I wonder if I got at least one of them muddled up in the hospital! People are always trying to notice likenesses and similarities, and they always manage to, but everyone says different things, it’s almost like they feel they’re not being polite unless they tell me that my offspring resemble me in some way!

I’ve looked and looked, and the only thing I’ve ever managed to try and console myself with is that their eyes are quite similar, so I thought I’d milk it for all it was worth on this week’s Gallery! This photo is taken from the one at the top of my blog, and I think it’s pretty much the only similarity between them, and the fact they both like jumping on me full pelt with no warning of course!

 

 

Check out the other Gallery posts this week over on Tara’s blog at Sticky Fingers.

 

The Gallery: My Awesome Photo

When I saw this week’s theme on the Gallery, I knew I’d struggle! I love taking pictures, but they never work out how I wish they would. I don’t trawl through pictures for these posts, I always know which photos to choose, but this week I didn’t. As far as I’m concerned, any moment I feel the need to try and capture is special or I wouldn’t have bothered, it’s just a shame my skills don’t really lie in that area!

Anyway, I decided not to post up a picture straight away, then last night, I woke up in the middle of the night, and suddenly I knew which photo was my ‘awesome’ one! I’d love it to have been one with both of my children in, but I love this photo of my daughter, because it’s so natural. We were on holiday in France at the time. It was the first time we’d been abroad as a family, and this photo was taken in the playground on the campsite where we were staying. It was a beautiful, sunny day, and we were just so relaxed and happy. It’s quite difficult to get natural smiles from either of our children in front of the camera, so this one was really special. A happy child is surely one of the most awesome things ever!

Check out the other ‘awesome photos’ over on Sticky Fingers blog!

 

The Gallery: The Kitchen

I’ve written many times how my enjoyment of cooking is a relatively new thing. Before I had children, I didn’t have the time or inclination to bother, especially as I lived less than 5 minutes walk from Marks and Spencer! My children adore baking (well probably it’s the stirring and general mess making that they like), especially the taste test afterwards, so it’s only fitting that my photos for the Gallery this week show that activity. I’d love to go out to the kitchen now and take lots of pictures, especially as I totally love my new cutrtains and matching blind that I’ve got in my new house, but it might dispel any myths that I am in fact a domestic goddess if you saw it in its current state! So here’s when I’m at my happiest in the kitchen (apart from when the kids are in bed and I’m sat at the table with a glass of wine and heat magazine!):

And if you look closely, you can get a small glimpse of my new curtains which I love!

Pop over to Tara’s blog at Sticky Fingers and check out other people’s entries!

 

The Gallery: 11.11.11

I was feeling very optimistic about sharing some pictures and reading what everyone was up to on 11.11.11, but then I had the dullest day ever, I spent it cleaning, and I’m not sure that pictures of my beloved Cillit Bang would have worked, so I was quite disappointed that I had nothing to share. That is, until I went to pick my daughter up from school, only to find that she had been chosen to look after Benji Bear for the weekend! So 11.11.11: Meet Benji!

He walked all the way home from school with us…

He even got to the door first…

He had a chocolate lolly as a special Friday treat…

Evie showed him where she lived on her big map…

He tried her favourite dinner…

He did some karaoke (well he was a backing singer along with Bambi!)…

And was then very tired, so snuggled down for a good night’s sleep!

There’s only one family in the whole world that got to look after Benji Bear on 11.11.11, and that was us so we’re very lucky! I can’t wait to popover to Tara’s blog, and see what everyone else got up to! See you at Sticky Fingers!

The Gallery: Guilty Pleasures

Having been in the process of moving house for what seems like a year, but what is in fact only a couple of months, it’s no wonder I haven’t managed to keep up with the Gallery, which I used to love taking part in each week, and when I flicked on to Tara’s blog having purchased a dongle to keep me going until the broadband finally gets set up and saw that the theme was ‘Guilty Pleasures,’ I wasn’t sure where to start. It’s not that I don’t have any, I just don’t tend to keep photographic evidence of them!

I was wandering around the house ‘unpacking’ and trying to decide whether to put a picture up of the cookie tin, or the tub of Ben & Jerry’s in the freezer, only to find that these pleasures are rather too guilty as they were in fact both empty! Then I stumbled across one of my biggest guilty pleasures (although the picture doesn’t show the full collection, we just haven’t upacked the rest yet!) – perfect!

It just so happens that my daughter shares this love, so I can pretend I’m doing it for her, but I have such a soft spot for Disney, I can’t help but shed a tear during pretty much every film, and have to confess to absolutely bawling my eyes out at the end of Toy Story 3! Snuggling up under a duvet with a bag of dolly mixtures to watch a Disney film is most definitely my guilty pleasure, but please keep my secret, because then I’ll seem like a very good and patient Mummy being prepared to sit through all these films in the name of being a parent!

Other guilty pleasures will be exposed on Tara’s Blog over at Sticky Fingers!

The Gallery: Chilled Out…

It’s got to be said, this week’s theme on the Gallery – ‘Chilled Out,’  couldn’t describe my children’s default setting better! Sure they love running around outside, wreaking havoc and being active like any other 4 and 2 year olds, but I’m confident that if I gave them a choice of any activity, or ‘watching TV’ they’d choose to do the latter. Ok, maybe bouncing on their trampoline, visiting the park, beach, zoo or soft play, or painting may win, but you get the idea, despite how badly executed it is!

My children just love chilling, both for real and at play:

But this isn’t all about the children, Mummy needs to chill too. I don’t know where I’d be without these sanctuaries!

And last but not least, our favourite place to chill:

I think we’ll all miss living 10 minutes from here when we move, but why not pop over to Tara’s blog ‘Sticky Fingers’ and see some other ways we all like to chill out!