The creators of the ‘Little Big Town‘ series of book sent us 3 beautifully-illustrated books, as you can see below:

Well, we read them together this evening, and I’m pleased to say they went down very well with both of my boys.

“The Monster Books of Colours” includes a selection of gruesome monsters, all of whom are brightly coloured and hideous-looking – and illustrate a colour. It’s as simple as that really – around a dozen monsters, some friendly-looking and some a little more…. well, monstrous.

“The Monster Books of Numbers” contains some of the same monsters (and a few new faces), and counts up to 10 – as well as a few bigger numbers added in to the mix. Again, simple but effective really!

“Where’s the Scone” is a lot less monstrous, instead choosing to illustrate a number of well-known animals (as well as a few random extras – gnu anyone?!) eating their favourite foods.

All three are very pre-school friendly – Robert managed to read all the numbers and colours himself, and a few of the animals as well. However, “Where’s the Scone” was definitely the most useful book for budding readers – the names of some of the monsters would challenge even the most capable reader that’s for sure! But I think they all serve the purpose they’re designed for (numbers, colours and words) very well – so I’d recommend them to others quite happily.

The books are accompanied by some great online resources and digital “added value”, though we’ve not really explored them very much so far. Head on over to the “Little Big Town” website to check them out for yourselves!

So, I posted a poll on my Facebook page, asking the following question: “Calling all British parents of 0-5 year olds: Which of these books feature amongst your favourite bedtime reads for the kids? Feel free to pick a few, and add your own suggestions too!”. I added a few of our own favourites, and they were soon joined by 30 more suggestions. Over 200 votes later, I had myself a top 10 list – which you can read below.

I asked the same question in the Dad Bloggers Facebook group. As you can see below, there isn’t a lot of crossover – I wasn’t expecting much, but the only books which made the list on both sides of the Atlantic are “The Very Hungry Caterpillar”, “Green Eggs and Ham” and “Guess How Much I Love You” – though “Where the Wild Things Are” gets a notable mention for *almost* making the UK list.

Anyway, there’s not a lot more for me to comment on at present – apart from the books that appear in both lists, I’ve not read any of the books in the second list. Though now that I’ve compiled it, I’m almost tempted the buy some of the North American favourites and compare the two lists myself.

If you’re more internationally well-read than myself, and have better experience of both lists, I’d love to know your thoughts. How do the two lists compare?

Anyway, here’s the lists…

The British List:

1. The Gruffalo, by Julia Donaldson
2. The Very Hungry Caterpillar, by Eric Carle
3. The Tiger Who Came to Tea, by Judith Kerr
4. The Snail and the Whale, by Julia Donaldson
5. Room on the Broom, by Julia Donaldson
6. Guess How Much I love You, by Sam McBratney
7. We’re Going on a Bear Hunt, by Michael Rosen
8. The Smartest Giant in Town, by Julia Donaldson
9. Peepo, by Janet and Allan Ahlberg
10. Green Eggs and Ham, by Dr. Seuss

The North American List:

1. Goodnight Moon, by Margaret Wise Brown
2. Green Eggs and Ham, by Dr. Seuss
3. The Giving Tree, by Shel Silverstein
4. The Very Hungry Caterpillar, by Eric Carle
5. Curious George, by Hans Augusto Rey
6. If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, by Laura Numeroff
7. Skippyjon Jones, by Judith Byron Schachner
8. The Richard Scarry books
9. Guess How Much I Love You, by Sam McBratney
10. Where the Wild Things Are, by Maurice Sendak

Let me know your thoughts in the comments!

For the past 6 months or so we’ve been taking Robert on a variety of visits to various hospitals in our area, with the aim of finding out what can be done about Robert’s oral issues. That is to say, we’ve been referred to a few different specialists to analyse the issues – we’ve not been doorstepping the NHS!

Anyway, here’s a quick run-down of the issues:

1. Robert’s tongue-tie means he struggles with certain letter-sounds, particularly his S’s. He pronounces “School” as “Cool”, for instance. Whilst this isn’t necessarily a disaster in itself, it’s starting to affect his personality, especially with his school-friends now being at the age where they’re keen to point this out to him.
2. When he sleeps, Robert snores. And I don’t mean cute kiddy snores – we’re talking horrendous adult snoring, which clearly affects the quality of his sleep.
3. When he eats, Robert insists on chewing his food until it’s obliterated – mealtimes can last for up to an hour as a result, and he’s definitely on the skinny side for his age.

Whilst we weren’t sure whether any of these things were connected, the doctors we were seeing clearly saw some connection, as one of the things we were asked to do was record some video of Robert snoring – something which wasn’t a problem, to say the least.

Anyway, today Sara took Robert for what proved to be the most impactful hospital check-up so far – having looked at his X-rays, watched the video and generally assessed the situation, it has been decided that Robert will be heading in for a night at the hospital this summer, where he will have his adenoids, his tonsils AND his tongue-tie removed. Ouch!

Whilst we’re certainly relieved that a solution is in sight, this obviously opens up a whole new can of worms for our little family. The biggest question, of course, is how shall we manage this process with Robert? We’re pretty sure that we’re not going to tell him any of the gory details at this stage – possibly at all – but it’s going to be hard getting the whole thing done without him getting scared. I remember when I went in to hospital for some oral surgery back when I was 12, and I had nightmares about it all for weeks before – so I dread to think what a 4-nearly-5 year old will be imagining.

Obviously I’ll keep you all posted as to what goes on a little closer to the time, but I’m interested to hear advice from anybody who has been through their own junior-surgery adventures. Are we doing the right thing by keeping Robert in the dark, or should we take a different approach? Let us know!

In typical fashion, I definitely spoke too soon – pride before a fall and all those other cliches. No sooner had I hit ‘Publish’ on that post, Freddie began to display his own collection of pox-spots – and boy oh boy did he have a LOT of spots.

As you can see from the photo above, poor Freddie seemed to get chicken pox about 5 times as bad as his brother did – he was covered from head to toe in itchy little blotches, and the remnants are still sticking around today – over two weeks later.

Thankfully, whilst he seemed to gain hundreds and hundreds of spots, the little champ fought through it all with the resilience of a man ten-times his age – a few scratches here and there and a couple of days where he was feeling pretty grumpy (and who can blame him?!) but he coped remarkably well.

I must admit, I was rather surprised by quite how badly Freddie contracted the pox – I guess Robert’s own dose and subsequent quick-kicking of it had made me assume Freddie would get it the same way – or maybe even to a lesser extent. But unfortunately it wasn’t to be.

The difference in their suffering may well be due to something that Sara and I have suspected for a while: namely, that Robert may well have been OVER-exposed to chicken pox in his short life, and might well have begun to develop at least a little immunity to it before he contracted it fully. Until the point we spotted the first little batch of red marks on his back 3 weeks ago, we’d been amazed that he HADN’T yet had chicken pox – several of his friends and playmates had had chicken pox around Robert in the past few years, and we’d begun to wonder if perhaps he was some sort of pox-fighting X-man. But thankfully (sadly?) my eldest son ISN’T a mutant…

As you can see from the photo below, Freddie didn’t let his ailments get him down too badly – he’s maintained a happy demeanour and cheery disposition throughout most of his ordeal, which is a big relief for his parents. And the good news is, his spots have ALMOST all gone now, so we should finally be on the down-hill section of this fun ordeal…

One that plays on my mind a lot is driven by one of my eldest son’s most prominent characteristics: Toby is monumentally competitive. Firstly, is this a feature that has been encouraged in him or is it just his personality? That age old question. Even watching him grow from 8 lbs 6 oz to a chunky nearly-6 year old I am not sure, but I suspect the nature end of the nature-nurture spectrum. That’s a hunch supported by evidence from a small sample size: his younger brother is not nearly so eager to win.

Aside from this, what is the best way to deal with such an obvious element of his character? One side of me wants to encourage his competitive streak, to ensure that he becomes as successful in life, in his chosen profession, in sport and every other aspect of what he will become. However, I don’t want him to grow into a ruthless git, willing to strike down all others on the way to victory. As any other parent, I want him and his brother to grow up to be as dignified and magnanimous as possible.

Being a bad loser comes hand-in-hand with this competitive nature. The overwhelming disappointment that comes from finishing second at snakes and ladders or not scoring a scorcher at footie on Saturday morning sometimes takes time to get over. And it’s usually another challenge of sorts that eventually manages it.

His mum and I will guide him as best we can. He now readily shakes my hand after beating me in the garden (I’m already past the point of letting him win!), although sometimes only after several laps of honour and a gentle reminder. And he has an uncanny knack of avoiding those snakes and shooting up those ladders. I guess he will become what he wants to, and I am looking forward to enjoying it with him and the rest of our Team!

David Mould lives in Oxfordshire with his partner and two boys – if you want to share any advice with him, you can tweet him on @djmould1980 on Twitter

As a family, we’d not had a proper holiday for almost 2 years – 3 years if you don’t count an extended family meet-up. So with a trip to the Isles of Scilly on the horizon, we were all getting very excited about a well deserved break.

So you can imagine our consternation when, on the very first day of the holiday (as we drove down to Penzance for a pre-holiday night in a hotel), Robert came down with Chicken Pox. What stellar timing! Having spent the past 4+ years HOPING he would be struck-down (as many of his friends have been), he managed to catch it on the first day of our holidays – disaster!

Don’t get me wrong, we’ve not been wishing ill on our own flesh and blood – and we’re not the sort of people to send our children to the mythical Pox parties some parents (allegedly) hold. But as everyone knows, the younger you get Chicken Pox, the less impact it will have on the little blighters.

Sara and I decided that, whilst we would stock-up on calamine lotion and Piriton, we’d go ahead with the holiday and see what happened. The first day was rocky (if you’ll excuse the pun), as we spent the first few hours on a very wobbly ferry heading over to the Islands. As most boys would be, Robert was rather bored after the first ten minutes or so and insisted on having his spots dabbed with Calamine at least 5 times in 2 hours. I couldn’t begrudge him that though, especially when the itchiest ones seemed to be on his bum, the poor lad.

Amazingly though, after that first morning, he hardly asked for lotion once – my current theory is that either the sea air or the distraction of the holiday made him forget to itch. Or it could have been the Arctic-cold winds that we were stood in for most of the week, as we walked around islands and travelled in boats. Whatever it was though, it was a bloody miracle!

Whilst the itching didn’t bother him too much, we DID get a few funny looks as we dragged a spot-covered boy around from island to island – though thankfully nobody complained or threw us out. Luckily he ‘scabbed-over’ quite quickly, so we didn’t have the worry of a contagious child for long, and he put up with the occasional stares from strangers very well.

By the time we got home on Saturday, his spots had almost completely cleared-up – though the prospect of Freddie now getting it is a certainty (the first few spots appeared this evening!) and without a holiday to distract him, I’m waiting with a mixture of hope and dread to see how my opinion of Chicken Pox has changed by this time next week…!

Oh well, at least it’s one infamous childhood illness we can tick off the list. NEXT!

So rather than blogging, I have been spending my evening’s making things like this – as I say above, normal services will be resumed shortly, when I’ve finished all my orders!

Fast forward two years and that little bump in my wife’s tummy is now walking, talking and growing up WAY too fast for my liking. There’s some cute proof up there on the right of this post – Freddie getting ready for bed last night, modelling his first pair of pyjamas. Up until this point he has been happy in his sleep-suit and sleeping bag, but watching Robert getting in to his big-boy pyjamas every night has clearly had an effect on him, and he toddled over to the draw and pointed at the pile of pyjamas.

So it was with a mix of excitement and a heavy heart that Sara dug out the pyjamas for his size and let him put them on. And BOY was he pleased with himself!

It won’t be long until he’s too big for his cot (even his cute John Lewis baby crib seems like a lifetime ago!) and crossing over to the bunk-bed that we recently bought (in preparation for that big day) which his big brother is currently loving. At least that milestone will come with a silver lining – getting rid of the cot will free up quite a bit of room in their tiny bedroom, so everyone will be pleased by that.

I know I sound like an old lady when I say this, but to all the parents of newborns and small babies out there: make the most of that magical time! I know it might seem like an endless slew of nappies, feeding, screaming and general sleeplessness, but… actually, scrap that – the newborn days are pretty tough. But the time from 6-months to 18-months is pretty magical. Make the most of that. *ahem*

Oh whatever, you know what I mean.

My boys and their beautiful mum

1) You’ll never get a good night’s sleep again.

Whether it be your baby’s dirty nappy or your ten-year-old’s terrible nightmare, truth is that once you become a parent, you’ll never be able to get the blissful night’s sleep you once enjoyed. So get used to your kids waking you up for the next several years, and remember that unlike your alarm clock, there is no “snooze” button for crying!

2) You’ll spend more time in sickness than in health.

Your mum may have told you that she enjoyed taking care of you when you were sick—making you soup, taking your temperature, putting a wet towel on your forehead. What she didn’t tell you was how often you and your siblings got sick. When we send our kids off to daycare or school every day, what we’re really sending them to is a breeding ground for germs—and all of the common colds, flu-like symptoms, ear infections, and chicken pox that come with it. Oh, and between the germs and constant sleep deprivation, you’ll be more susceptible to sickness as well. Lucky you.

3) You’ll become an expert in bodily fluids and functions.

Being a parent often requires you to know your child more intimately than you ever wanted to know another human being. That’s right, I’m talking about all the snot, spit, urine, and defecation you have to deal with on a daily basis. To some extent, you were probably expecting this when you became a parent, but what you may not have known is that sometimes, your baby’s health depends on you paying attention to what’s inside the nappy—size, colour, and shape of bowel movements can tell you a lot about their health.

4) Your children will embarrass you.

While we’re all certainly proud of our children—and often take great measure to display that pride in our conversations with other parents—there will be moments when your children will make you wish you were invisible: screaming in the middle of an important ceremony, knocking down boxes at the supermarket, throwing a temper tantrum at the shopping centre, etc.

5) Your kids are a lifelong financial investment.

Forget your mortgage and your credit card bills. The biggest expense of your adult years will likely be raising your children. According to the latest data from LV, the average cost of raising one child from the cradle to college is now a whopping £222,458. Education, childcare, and food are the biggest expenses, but costs crop up everywhere you can imagine: diapers, clothing, toys — even the cost of baby furniture! If you have a big family, get ready for the financial pinch.

Cherrie West knows way more about parenting than she lets on…!

Nobody knows quite what goes on behind the doors at the “Celebrity Mum of the Year” awards judging – the process is one of the industry’s most closely guarded secrets. But the following is a small sample of the tasks the celebrity mums are rumoured to be asked to complete:

• Swiftly and calmly changing a nappy which looks like the result of a bomb attack at a sewerage works at 3am in the morning, without resorting to swear words.
• Preparing a nutritional and filling meal with the contents of a fridge which hasn’t been filled for almost a week, and which mainly consists of cheddar cheese, a leek and some week-old ham.
• Giving a convincing response to the question “What do you think of my model?” when presented with a toilet roll sellotaped to a cereal box for the seventh time in under an hour.
• Making up a good answer to the question “How does the TV remote control work?” without any knowledge of infra-red, without making themselves appear stupid.
• Reading ‘The Tiger Who Came to Tea’ for the 100th time, whilst managing to still sound lively and energetic and not questioning why the hell the father appears to have more beer in the house than water in the taps.

The paucity of talent in that list is one thing, but what really got my goat when browsing through the list was the inclusion of the following women: Fearne Cotton, Kate Middleton and Sarah Storey.

Now don’t get me wrong – I’m not questioning any of those three women’s parental abilities – they may well be excellent mothers… WHEN THEIR CHILDREN ARE BORN! Yep, all three of those celebrity “mums” are currently pregnant with their first children - so how does anybody in the world profess to have any knowledge of how inspirational they are as mums?!

Not that it’s an honour they’re going to be gagging to receive mind you – previous recipients of one of the many “celebrity mum of the year” awards include Katie Price (2012, 2009, 2007), Stacey Solomon (2011), Kym Marsh (2009), Sharon Osbourne (2006) and Kerry Katona (2005, 2002). I don’t know about you, but as a regular parent I don’t find much inspiration in that list – but maybe I’m missing something?

Don’t worry though dads, us men aren’t left unrecognised – the “Celebrity Dad of the Year” awards are another regular fixture on the awards calendar, and the winners on that list provide even more inspiration to us than the women. Last year’s winner was pop star Gary Barlow, who pipped previous four-time winner Peter Andre to the title in a tightly-fought “battle-of-the-dads”.

Whilst I suspect I’ve probably put more thought in to this post than the entire nomination/judging panel of these awards have done in over a decade, I hope I’m not the only one who is insulted by this sort of award.

Should the average, hard-working parent really have these “celebrities” representing the apparent pinnacle of success in parenting? Can’t we all revolt and force them to choose some actual deserving people?

Who’s with me? Anyone? No. Oh well…