Chasing Butterflies Daily

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...

Firstly it took 1,438 attempts to get this photo... I've got one where the youngest looks like he's surely possessed by the devil himself. The rest either someone isn't looking at the camera, or their head is cropped out or they look incredibly miserable with the experience... Don't blame them! Looking at this you've hopefully noticed we're all wearing matching clothes. There's several reasons for this, the main one being my husband. He's enjoyed getting me and my eldest matching clothes for years now, that is mostly because he finds it hilarious that I fit into children's clothes (it's actually very convenient as they are usually a lot cheaper). When we had our second and she turned out to be another girl he started buying them more marching things. Part of me was very against this as there were more than enough clothes for the second born to wear. But having siblings of the same gender and close in age pretty much guarantees e...

A lot of my posts about the kids are tongue in cheek, I joke about how annoying they are as a coping mechanism. Luckily they throw me moments to be proud of too, just occasionally they must know I need a reminder it's not all chaos. If you're on the fence about adding another one to the mix then I'll tell you honestly that it's madness when they multiply. And it only gets madder as they get older and fight more and more. But there's also a whole lot more love to go around. This wee event happened today and I'm sharing it partly for myself as a reminder of the nice moments but also for any mother who's recently added to her crazy or is thinking about it. After pick up today I let the kids stay and play in the school playground for a bit. I'd been speaking to another parent when the 5 year old came up to me, tears streaming down her face. It transpires that she was distraught because she'd tried to stop some of the older boys from pushing...

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...

Other than the obvious that they always have a friend & all the hand-me-downs here are some of the other benefits to having multiple children I have found. You can always ask one of the older ones to sniff the baby's bum to check if they've pooped so you don't have to. You get to stay up all night as the children have a running rota where they take turns waking/keeping you up, especially ideal if you don't like sleep. You definitely won't need an alarm as at least one child is bound to wake you up (mostly likely by fighting with a sibling) - except for those days when you really need to get up of course; do not become complacent and opt against setting an alarm if you actually have to get up early, they are guaranteed to sleep in just because it's inconvenient. You become a cheap date as you're unlikely to want to risk a hangover with 3 kids under 5 years about (or one of any age to be honest - I recommend waiting till they are out of nappies be...

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...

Most kids like to make a mess, ours love to make as much of a mess as humanly possible. I mean I've seen other children look on with horrified expressions when our two girls get stuck in as they seem to be on a mission to get as dirty as they can (no idea what #3 will be like but considering he already loves to follow them about I won't be surprised if they teach him to behave the same). Before kids I thought all children loved a certain level of mess making but being a parent has taught me that children are all so different; what some find fun and intriguing is an overload to the senses for others. Our girls NEED to feel everything, it seems to be a strong compulsion. If the paints come out in our house I have to know that I've got time to throw them in the shower after because we have yet to make it past the 5 minute threshold before one of them starts to paint themselves (which only encourages the other one), I don't try to stop them any more because they ha...

It's a pretty well known fact that siblings get great amusement from imitating each other. ESPECIALLY younger siblings when they copy the older ones and annoy them to the very brinks of frustration. Having a younger sister myself, I can vouch for it's efficiency in winding someone up. Our two oldest ones even have a game that consists of them saying (until it escalates to full blown shouting) "stop copying me" at each other while simultaneously making movements for the other one to copy and making pretend grumpy faces. This usually ends up with them both laughing hysterically, that is until one of them decides that they don't actually want to be copied any longer and the giggles turn into a real argument. We've however hit a new phase with our second born as she now imitates her big sister anytime said sister injures herself. It's been going on for a couple of weeks so of course I usually brush off her whining and tell her she's fine and not sore...