Over the Rainbow

My nephew Bruce was about 3 years old and he was walking back from Nursery with his Mum.

That morning the children had been learning their colours.

As they were walking along the road, Bruce was practising by telling his Mum the colour of things.

"Look, Mummy! That's a blue gate."

"Isn't that a black gate, Mummy?"

"Oh look! There's a green gate."

As they were going along, a young asian man was walking towards them.

Bruce asked, at the top of his voice,

"MUMMY, WHAT COLOUR'S THAT MISTER?"

His mum was absolutely mortified.

The young man, turned on his heels and walked back towards them.

He ruffled Bruce's hair gently and said,

"I'm BROWN, sonny, and your Mum is RED."

Why Did We Worry?

Some of you will know that the latest addition to our family arrived a few weeks ago.

Before Jayden was born, we all wondered how Hollie would react to her new brother.

As the oldest grandchild and great grandchild in both families, Hollie is the apple of everyone's eye.

She really is a lovely little girl: she's well behaved (mostly!) funny and loving.

We all love her and she has become accustomed to our undivided attention.

If you're a regular reader of my blog, you will also know that she has wisdom beyond her years, and is also a bit of a "Story Teller." (I wonder where she gets that from?!)

I wrote and emailed this poem to her the day Jayden was born.

CONGRATULATIONS HOLLIE!

You are now a Big Sister

Now Jayden’s arrived. Just what does that mean?

He’ll be the most beautiful baby you’ve seen.

He’ll cry when he’s hungry, and he’ll when he’s not.

He’ll cry when he’s cold and he’ll cry when he’s hot.

He might need a cuddle when you want one too.

He might smell of sick or maybe of poo.

But one day quite soon he’ll kiss your sweet face.

But he won’t steal your sweets or sit in your place.

As Jayden gets bigger he will join in your games.

And you’ll show him his toys and teach him their names.

Jayden will have the best sister there’s been.

And he’ll be your Prince and you’ll be his Queen.

You’ll never believe that this tiny wee lad

With one squeeze on your fingers will make you feel glad!

This sweet baby boy who’s as light as a feather,

Will love you for always and ever and ever.

We needn't have worried.

She keeps touching and kissing him and saying, "Aaaaah, I love my baby brother."

She fetches clean nappies and baby wipes for him. She holds his bottle for him.

She is a great Little Mother!

I couldn't resist showing this beautiful pic. It brought a lump to my throat!

That's What it's All About!

This picture is a representation of me about to take a bath. Not a very true representation, granted.

For a start, there's no mascara on the floor where I dropped the old Maybelline when I nearly poked my eye out.

This happened 'cos I was startled when the timer buzzed to tell me it was time to remove the Immac off my legs.

I don't know who they test these products on, but it wasn't long enough for my legs.

I rinsed it off and it still looked like I'd knelt in a pile of Brillo pads and they'd stuck there!

Apart from the depilatory disaster I'd been getting along fine and had just been adding the final touches to my new Cheryl Cole look.

I was sure that today was the day that my utter gorgeousness would be spotted by an undercover L'Oreal talent scout during my tussle in Sainsbury's deli aisle with the old biddies looking for the reduced items.

(Okay, okay, I know I look more like Old King Cole than Cheryl Cole, but this is MY story, remember.)

Where was I?.............................. Oh yes, me getting into the bath................

Or NOT getting in the bath, as is sometimes the case.

I'll explain, the thing is I have health issues.

I'm not talking about the three little pink pills I take each day to keep the men in white coats from carting me off to the "Peaceful little secure place the other side of town."

This is another problem, it's called Fibromyalgia (FMS) and it affects my joints. (It also affects my thought processes, but you'd already guessed that one, right?)

I won't bore you with the details, particularly as many people with FMS are much more disabled with it than I am.

So...........back to my bathing habits.

The main problem for me is that on my worst days my joints become hypersensitive to temperature, so that when my skin is wet it feels much colder than it is and this causes discomfort.

I can also be a bit weak in the knees, making it difficult to get out of the bath.

(Not the same'weak in the knees' I feel when David Tennant pops round to clean out me gutters and trim me lawn.)

I really, really try not to let it beat me, although I'm not always successful! It sometimes needs a novel approach when dealing with practical matters.

I found the solution by way of a bath seat, not the mechanical type my Mumsie has, it's basically a board that sits across the top of the bath.

Oh, here we are, I've found a piccie!

So, I run the bath, get on the seat, and wash and dry myself a bit at a time so that the skin around my joints only stays wets for a few seconds.

I was having a particularly bad day and was just beginning my ritual. Hollie, my 4 year old granddaughter came into the bathroom.

So she sat on the toilet lid swinging her legs and watched me with great interest.

Now, this cute little girl is full of imagination, so can sometimes say things that, how can I put this ........well they're not exactly true.

So when she said, "We do that at Nursery," I murmured absent mindedly, "Oh do you?"

She jumped off the loo and said she was going downstairs to find her daddy.

I finished getting dressed and went downstairs.

"Mum, what were you doing?" asked Phil, my son

"I was having a bath," I replied

"Hollie said that you were doing the Hokey Cokey like they do at Nursery."

I raised my eyebrows.

"You must stop making up these stories, Hollie!" said Phil

Her little eyes filled up and she said,

"Nanny was doing the Hokey Cokey! She put her right leg in, her right leg out."

The reason I remembered this little story is because of this I saw on a tshirt today..........................

Kids say the Funniest Things!

Yes, I know it's not Christmas anymore. I just had to share these things with you.

Children are not only a source of great joy and love; they are also a guaranteed way to put a smile on your face with their observations on life.

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"Family" words. Do you have any words in your family that were thought up by one of you?

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Chilldren are the most clever at this, and their words actually make more sense than the real one.

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Here are a couple of our "Family" words...............

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Hospital, right? WRONG.....it's

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Hospoorly

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Dairylea Cheese Triangles? WRONG.....it's

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Cheese-angles

These two were made up by my sons when they were tiny.

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I also love it when a child asks you a question, and you can barely keep a straight face when answering. The thing is, when you think about it, they see things much clearer than us sometimes.

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My eldest granddaughter wins this example hands down!

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She's three years old, going on 30.

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Two days before Christmas we are all in the car. My daughter-in-law is heavily pregnant.

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"Mummy.......?"

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"Yes, Hollie?"

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"When it's time for the baby to come out, will we have to go to Bethlehem to fetch it?"

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Aaaaah Bless 'em.

Do you have any stories like these?