Chasing Butterflies Daily

Home made play dough is ridiculously easy to make and takes very few ingredients. Generally all things you have in your cupboards normally. Now most of the recipes I can find involve cream of tartar which we never have, BUT we always have lemon juice (I'm obsessed) and that's a perfectly good substitute - as is vinegar but it's obviously got a stronger smell. This recipe is a non cook one that I've played around with to find the perfect texture for us. I've adjusted the measurements to suit metric system as I have never baked in cups/pints etc. Ingredients 300ml flour 150ml salt 2tbs oil (veg./oil/coconut) 2tbs lemon juice 250-300ml boiling water food colouring Method Just bung all the dry ingredients into a bowl, mix the boiling water (I'd use the lower amount stated and only add the extra if it's needing more moisture - if it's too wet sprinkle some extra flour) with the wet ingredients and then add to the bowl of fl...

When I was about 5-6 years old my dad and I lived in Beijing, China. My mother had been with us our first year there but had returned to Sweden the second year for work. One day my dad and I visited friends - a dad and his daughter, my age, if I remember correctly. Don't think there was anyone else and unsure if the girl was my friend and the reason we visited or if it was my dad's friend and his daughter. In any case we were both going through an age when we were inexplicably interested in cutting the hair and fur off our dolls and animals. One of us had the brilliant idea of locking ourselves in one of the bathrooms while our dads were busy chatting. There were scissors that made it in with us. Then we cut each others (or maybe our own) hair. At the time I had a fringe that I never liked and wanted to grow out, but I was constantly told I could only grow it out when I was responsible enough to keep it out of my eyes with hair clips and bands. I definitely wasn...

When I was in pre-school in Sweden I remember we had a set of boards that were designed to practice threading and tying laces, I think there possibly were ones with buttons and zips as well. Now our girls have already mastered buttons and zips, they have plenty on their clothes. But, as is the case for many kids these days, they don't really have to deal with laces as most kids shoes either have velcro or elastics. It's still an important skill to master though. I could set them loose on the adult shoes with laces in the house but I liked the larger size of the boards I learnt on as a kid so decided we'd try to make something similar at home. It's handy with the projects that keep the kids busy through different phases, especially when you've literally got nothing but time to kill like most of us do in these covid times. The girls have yet to actually master the tying of the bow but they enjoyed the process of making their boards and threading their ribbons...

So I saw someone else on one of the FB family lockdown pages share this idea and I loved it. Our theme for the time being is looking at colours and light/dark. Partly because I love colours, but also because we've felt inspired by the fab GALT Rainbow Lab activities I posted about on my instagram account recently . This rainbow activity is great fun and uses multiple skills while occupying a fair bit of time. We spent most of the morning doing this.  First step tip out ALL your toys on the floor (admittedly we skipped most of the stuffed toys because it got pretty crowded with four bodies plus the sea of toys). I didn't tell the kids what the end aim of our activity was. Then divide the toys into groups depending on their colour. We used our toy boxes to keep them together as the toddler was pretty adamant he was going to mix things up again. As we worked our way through the toys we talked about what colour they were and what those colours are in English, ...

In honour of our son and third baby's first birthday I thought I'd share a wee hack I have come up with with you. With cameras in our pockets most of the time these days mothers are taking thousands of photos of their children (I'm going to hazard a guess that it's a common habit regardless if whether you like to share them on social media or not!). The problem with the endless supply of pictures of our little cherubs is that it becomes so difficult to choose our favourites and create albums of the important early years. If you're anything like me you still like to have a book with the "best of" even in these technological days where everything is backed up online. Somehow I found the time to scrap book an album of our first born's first year but finding the time to make something as special for her younger sister seemed like it would be an impossible task. However I figured out an easy and very effortless way to document her ye...

Let's talk about bribes... Because let's face it: call them what you like we all try to bargain with our children in different ways at times. When I was little I legitimately thought that all "smarties" and "m&m's" were actually called " muta " (the Swedish word for bribe). Only once I'd learnt to read did I find out they were in fact called something else. My mum would have them with her and I would loudly ask for "bribes" in public, the looks she must've gotten! But if you ask me she was just a normal parent, wanting a little bit of peace from the madness of spending time with their child. I also have a tendency to get hangry : I do now and I definitely did as a child so I don't blame my mum for having little "pick-me-ups" with her for when my blood sugar levels dropped. In fact I wish I was better at carrying around bribes for myself now I'm an adult. I'd probably be an infinitely happie...

Watching little girls in leotards partaking in their ballet class is one of the cutest things ever. Still remember the first time our eldest put on her costume 2.5 years ago. It's far from the ballet classes I had when we lived in China. I was five and the teacher was Russian and so so strict, there was no play just straight into constant repetition of the positions. Worlds apart from the weekly classes we attend, both the teachers are fantastic and the focus is on fun and playful learning. The class is only half an hour long but they make use of lots of different props, and with the high tempo it feels like they fit in far more. Most importantly, our daughter loves it. The only thing that is cuter than her prancing about with pure happiness spread across her face is hearing her little sister cheer her on from the room next door. She dances along to the music and shouts out encouragement. "Good job, Sessa! Awesome jump!". To say it was cuteness overload when t...

I can still remember (very vaguely) what New Year used to be like before there were children. The angst of trying to figure out how you were celebrating, hoping to be invited to so-and-so's party or get into a club; incidentally always the worst option! The few club new year's celebrations I attended the line to get in was so long - despite pre-booking and VIP tables sorted - that we'd get in just as it became midnight and only be able to make a toast if we were luck enough to have been given our drink by then. I always preferred being at someone's house and remember, with fondness, two years in particular, 2007-8 & 2008-9 (if I'm not mistaken... There were a few blurry years around then). The last one before pregnancies and children was my first with my other half, also my first one in Scotland as we'd been over for Christmas. We were badly prepared though and instead of going to Edinburgh's famous Hogmanay celebration (which now has to wait t...

When I just had the one child I didn't mind going to the shop too much. It was kind of a handy chore to have, we lived abroad and it killed some of the long baby hours while getting me out the house. It was a break from just being us two. When Vanessa learnt to walk, the walk between our house and the shop in Switzerland became a good way to tire her out. She's always had lots of energy and as soon as she learnt to run she started doing crazy laps of the room before bedtime, she still does it a good few times a week. Even when Nova arrived it was mostly alright. It depended on how I had them with me, we opted to get a better baby carrier and stick to our single pram, just changing the attachments between the toddler seat and carry cot, instead of getting a double. So either I carried Nova in a carrier and Vanessa (26 months+ old at the time) sat in the buggy or Nova lay in the pram and Vanessa walked. The latter was a lot more hard work in the shop, she went through a deli...

I don't know about you guys but when I was little I was told to suck it up a lot of the time (especially by my dad) whenever I hurt myself. He repeatedly told me he just didn't understand why there was such drama over the smallest cuts and bruises and then when I actually injured myself seriously I would cope quite calmly. I never had an answer for him, but like with a lot of things, I am totally with him on that one now I'm a parent. Other things he constantly banged on about included posture and table manners, which for all that it annoyed me as a child I really appreciate now, good table manners cost nothing but make a world of difference to an meal with someone. One of his favourite Swedish sayings that I also now appreciate is: "Låt maten tysta mun" (Let your food silence your mouth). I used to think he was so strict (he wasn't really) but now I have children who genuinely never stop talking, I totally get where he was coming from. When I've got foo...