23 November 2011

Tantrum Tactics - The Grab and Run technique

Mya had a tantrum today. In public.

Okay, so this is not the first tantrum she has ever had in front of strangers but this was the first one that I actually considered walking away and pretending she wasn't mine! Not that that plan would have worked ... The child chasing me calling me Mummy would have been a bit of a give away.

So there I was with a screaming, writhing child in the middle of Primark's children's section. I only went in for a pack of vests for Mya. It wasn't even like I was being selfish going out on a shopping spree for myself but did Mya care? Erm ... no.

We had just come out of the lift and I had parked up the pushchair next to the sleepwear aisle when the whingeing began. Not thinking at all, I unstrapped her and held her in my arms.
Rookie mistake.
I knew as soon as I did it that there was no way she was going to get back in the pushchair.
By this point she had managed to wriggle her way out of my arms and was pulling all of the clothes off the rails.

I could already feel myself going red in the face, anticipating the tantrum that was about to ensue when I tried to pick her up. I was nervously giggling and smiling at the other mums who were fleeing the area, shaking their heads as if to say 'Get out of here while you can ... She's gonna blow!!'

But I had to do it. As much as I wanted to wait until the store closed and had emptied of customers to try and get Mya out, I couldn't. I had to face the inevitable.
As soon as my hands tucked under her arms to pick her up her back arched, her eyes widened with a terrifying sheen of anger, her mouth opened wide enough to fit an entire melon and then it came.

The scream.

The scream that echoed through the entire floor of the shop. The scream that caused an old lady to stop and grab at her chest as if she was going to keel over and die right there in Primark. The scream that made me want to cry, scream back at her and run away all at the same time!

I attempted to put her in the pushchair but as I had expected I would have needed the strength of ten rugby players to pin her down long enough to get the straps on, so I made the decision to implement the Grab and Run technique.

Step one of this plan is to Grab. In order to get her to stop writhing out of my arms I had to tickle her into submission. It was one of the angriest laughs I have ever heard but I had hold of her. Step one complete. Now for Step two. Run.

We got to the lift and I said a little thank you to Jesus (and I am not religious...at all) for presenting me with an empty carriage to my escape! In the lift I tried once more in vain to get her strapped into the pushchair but to no avail. The doors pinged open and the queue of people waiting were presented with a panting, red faced, sweaty woman with hair in her mouth and a breast half hanging out of her top armed with a wriggling, growling toddler, foaming spit bubbles.

Needless to say a path was quickly cleared.

At that point I could see the exit.
I took a deep breath and half jogged the last stretch of my escape, taking out about three rails of clothes with the pushchair and inadvertently punching an old man with an angry child.
But I made it out. I was safe. I was free.

I quickly disappeared down a quiet alley, took a deep breath, looked Mya directly in the eyes and calmly asked her to sit in her pushchair.
To which she happily obliged.
Little bugger.

The Grab and Run technique treated me fairly well today. It was in no way glamourous and it didn't avoid embarrassment, however, the tantrum was pretty short lived and I did escape alive ... and most importantly, so did Mya!

Next time on Tantrum Tactics ... Bribery.

Proud



This is my daughter, Mya.

She makes me so proud.
I am proud of her ability to make me smile every day.
I am proud of how she dealt with reflux for such a huge part of her life. 
I am proud of how she has brought me and her dad closer together.
I am proud of the person she has made me.
I am proud to call myself her Mum.

But this is not just a photo of my daughter.
This is a photo of my work, my passion,
my art.

This is a photo of myself
and what I am.
A mother.
An artist.
Me.


And I am so proud.





The Gallery by Sticky Fingers

22 November 2011

Liebster Blog Award

This month I was awarded the Liebster Blog Award by the lovely Lara at comfyslippers&littlenippers.
It really made my day being nominated for this award! I am very new in the blogging world so to be acknowledged like this makes me do my Super Happy Loony Smile ... which looks a little like this!




And here is the award
*Trying to hold back the tears*
*Failing miserably and howling like a loser*



... it's so beautiful!

Leibster Award Rules
1. Thank my Liebster Blog Award presenter (s) on my blog
2. Link back to the blogger (s) who awarded you
3. Copy & paste the award to your blog
4. Nominate 5 blogs to receive the award
5. Let them know of their nomination by leaving a comment on their blog
Finally, try to pass the award on to blogs that are fairly new and have less than 200 followers.

Okay so being fairly new to the universe of Blogging I am not entirely sure who has received this award or not so I am just going to throw some names out of some newer blogs that I like. And if you have received the award before, well, lucky you! Feel the love!

1. http://evewantedawardobe.blogspot.com/ Okay, so Hannah, the creator of this awesome fashion blog, also happens to be my step-sister (which is kind of cheating) but I do love this blog. I struggle to even get out of my pyjamas some days and when I do get dressed my outfit is accessorised with decapitated Pom bears and smears of snot! I like the little window into the fashion world which I left behind. You can also watch her YouTube videos here ...

2. http://bloodsweatandtantrums.blogspot.com/ Jennifer is very new to the blogging world but I love her story of her little man, Taylor, starting with when she found out she was pregnant. It is a heartfelt, down to earth blog and and a lovely read.

3. http://www.jackandlils.com/ Cathy is another new blogger but I was immediately drawn to her blog after she described having suffered with Post natal Anxiety. Having dealt with this myself, I liked (very selfishly) reading a story of someone else who has been through it too. Her blog is a lovely record of the ups and downs of raising young children.

4. http://www.amummytoo.co.uk/ Emily blogs about her experiences as a working mum. It is a beautifully laid out and well written blog and the fact that she manages to blog at all with a newborn and a 4 year old son is amazing! I salute you! Lovely blog.

5. http://www.1978rebecca.blogspot.com/ Here Come the Girls is a funny and lighthearted account of life with three girls - One year old twins and a four year old. I particularly love the post Top 5 special things about multiples. This blog is a lovely insight into the world of twins!

So that's 5! Read them, love them and maybe do a little dance!
Once again, a big, fat thank you to Lara at comfyslippers&littlenippers for nominating me!



21 November 2011

Mya. My Beautiful Nutter.


How to get into your highchair ... With style!

There is quite obviously, a very easy way of doing this ... but I do love a challenge!





Coming off Citalopram - Part 2

It has been ten days and I feel I owe just a quick follow up post to Coming off Citalopram.

I don't know what I expected to be honest. I have been up, I have been down and I have gone through every emotion possible since coming off the pills. There have been good days when I have gone without the pills completely and days where I couldn't cope with the withdrawal and crumbled off a pin head size part of a tablet to take off the edge.

I am not sure if I expected a happy ending, nicely wrapped up in a neat bow or if I was just being naive.

The reality is that I am in a sort of limbo at the moment. One moment I am thinking Wow, I am really doing this. I am so close, one more step and I will be free of it all and the next, Sod it. Nothing is worth this much stress!

I know it is still very early and I am probably expecting too much of myself, however, I happen to be the most impatient person ever and I want results and I want them now!! *sulk*

Oh well! Taking one day at a time and in the meantime I will cheer myself up with this little bundle of hilarity ...



19 November 2011

Little Ted, xfactor and an Evil Penguin

Yo Yo Spaghetti-O!

So I haven't been around on ye olde blog for a week or so.
Mum hasn't been very well and then her laptop died which just pushed her into an actual mental breakdown! She started playing with my toys out of sheer boredom.
There was one time when she re-enacted a whole episode of Jeremy Kyle with my Lego men ... scary!


I was just about to call the men in white coats when the new laptop lead was delivered!
Phew!
Mum is back tapping away and I am treating my poor Lego men for Post-traumatic stress disorder!

So what have I been up to I hear you ask!
Well this week I have mostly been working on my singing.
I am hoping to enter Xfactor next year. I have a feeling 2012 is my year.
2012 - The year of the London Olympics, the supposed end of the world (silly Mayans!) and the year Mya Moo wins the Xfactor!!
You wait, there will be grannies all over the UK weeping at the beauty of my voice!

Here is a sneak preview just for you awesome readers!


What do you think?
I have been told my enunciation needs some work but besides that, pretty good right?

Besides singing, I haven't really been doing a lot this week. With mum being unwell we stayed in most of the time, snuggling and watching DVDs. Mum complained about having to watch Peppa Pig on repeat when our Sky box broke but I reckon deep down she really likes it. Sometimes, after I go to bed, I can still hear her watching it! She claims she forgets to turn it off... Mum, you're fooling nobody! Admit it ...
Peppa Pig is awesome!!

We had a visit from Grammy Soo too! I love my Grammy She is a little bit mental, like my mum, but she makes me laugh ...
.. AND she knitted me this teddy! He's so cute and small and I call him Little Ted.

This is me and Grammy Soo! Oh, she does make me chortle!

This is Little Ted. He's so cute I could pee!


So, yeah ... That's what I have been up to since I've been gone!
That's all (for now) folks!
Speak soon!



14 November 2011

Mix-tape Monday

Boo and Me

This week Boo and Me asked us to own up to one of our Guilty Pleasures.

This is an easy one for me.
I mean it's an easy one to choose. To admit to? Not so much.

But just for you, my lovely readers, here it is. My Guilty Pleasure.

There is one song from the very first album I owned that I still bop around like a loser to every time I hear it. It is so fabulously pants that I am sat here right now with the volume up full whack, holding the TV remote as my microphone and I am singing. Singing so badly, in fact, I am pretty sure I just saw my 18 month old daughter roll her eyes at me!

Mya is looking at me as if to say, 'Why you gotta play that song so loud?'

I say ...

Because we want to, BECAUSE WE WANT TO!



What?
It's cool!

12 November 2011

Saturday is Caption day

Lovely Jubbly Saturday fun.
Think up a caption for this photo and pop it in the comments below!

This photo was taken in May this year at my Mum's birthday dinner but I love it
so dug it out for you all to enjoy!

Ready ... Teddy ... Caption!!


Saturday Is Caption Day

#SatCap brought to you by Mammasaurus.co.uk

10 November 2011

Coming off Citalopram

Okay, so this week my blog has been kind of abandoned.
My poor blog has had half a dozen new posts written, deleted and written again only to then be deleted...again. If my blog were hand written, my bin would be full to the brim of ripped up, screwed up trodden on pieces of paper.

The reason being, I am in the process of coming off my anti-depressants.

Cue scary music - Dum Dum DUUUMMM.

I was 16 when I first started suffering with depression. I was given counselling and cognitive therapy sessions until I was 18 and they didn't come free on the NHS anymore.
At 18 I was put onto Citalopram.


Little did I know at the time, they would be a part of my life for many years to come.

I found anti-depressants great at taking away the 'lows' but they also took away the 'highs'. My mood was set to neutral and I was on cruise control.
Whenever I felt like I was getting better and was ready to come off them, I would have the most atrocious withdrawal symptoms. I would describe it as nothing short of hell. When coming off them I would feel like I was buried deep inside my body. My body would feel weighted to the ground and with every movement I made I would have what felt like an electric shock fire through every part of my body. Every time I would come off for even a couple of days I would feel so ill that even simple tasks, like holding a cup of coffee were such a tremendous effort. Needless to say, I didn't try coming off them very often. 

When I was pregnant, I was the happiest I had been in a long time. Whether it was hormones or not, I felt on top of the world! Somehow, I am not quite sure how, I managed to wean myself off the Citalopram in order to breastfeed after giving birth. I was thrilled. I was drug free for the first time in 6 years and was over the moon.
Although the first 10 weeks of Mya's life proved to be very difficult. She suffered with *Gastro-esophageal Reflux and a dairy intolerance.  I explained in a previous post, this was probably what sparked my **Post-natal Anxiety. The doctors tried to peg it as Post-natal depression and quickly put me back on the Citalopram. In my fragile state I accepted them.

I have been on them ever since, waiting for a time to try and come off them again.

The last couple of months I have slowly managed to reduce them from 20mg to 5mg every other day. My GP insists that the amount I am taking at the moment is probably not significant enough to even warrant taking them at all. I insist otherwise. I am very aware of when I am even hours late taking my dose.

This week I have been taking them every other day and today (brace yourselves) I have stopped completely ...

I have been completely out of it for the last few days. I have been feeling like a total zombie. My head has been spinning and my memory is like a sieve. I have been forgetting things that I have just been told. I even accidentally stole a beaker from a shop having forgotten that I put it in the basket of Mya's buggy not two minutes before.
I don't even expect this post to make any sense.

So that is why my poor blog has been ignored. I have been trying to write but as soon as I open my laptop, my brain just seizes up. Brain says No.

All I can do right now is try to push through and hope the withdrawal will be short lived.

Wish me luck!


* Read about Mya's Reflux here - Reflux
** Read about my Post-natal Anxiety here - Post-natal Anxiety

Read Coming off Citalopram - Part 2
Read Coming off Citalopram - Part 3
Read Coming off Citalopram - Part 4

5 November 2011

Fifteen random things about me ...

1. I have never (touch wood) broken a bone in my body


2. I cannot under any circumstances wear a pair of odd socks .. its a weird obsessive compulsive thing.


3. I have cankles

4. I am officially the laziest person in the world


5. Taking into account the above, as a kid, I wanted to be an olympic runner!


6. I hate all sports on television. I hate football the most


7. I would definitely become a lesbian for Angelina Jolie


8. I don't like crisps or biscuits or cereal or toffee .. they all get stuck in your teeth *shudder*

 9. I have seen 3 dead bodies in my life .. only one was family


10. I Hate Star Wars

11. I have the same size hands as a cambodian midget

12. In a double bed I always have to sleep furthest away from the door so that in the case of an axe murderer the other person will be killed first giving me precious seconds to make an escape

13. I have no idea what I want to be when I grow up


14. I really REALLY hate Star Wars

 15. Im scared of daddy long legs, moths, may bugs, butterflies, birds (unless caged), submarines, space, armageddon and fish

Grammy Soo and Grumpy's House

The other day, Mum and me packed all of our stuff and set off on a trip to go see Grammy Soo and Grumpy.
Grammy and Grumpy are my my Mum's Mummy and Step-daddy.
They live in Wales which is a land far far away. And there are lots of sheep ... and rain!

The drive there took ages!
Mum spent a lot of the time singing (very, very badly) and complaining that she was bored. Seriously, I had to yell at her to shut up at one point!
I was trying to catch up on my beauty sleep!

I was woken half way through the journey to a loud clattering of rain. Mum was shrieking that she couldn't see where she was going! I nearly pooped my nappy!
But soon the rain subsided and this thing appeared in the sky. It looked like a glowing halo of crayons.
Mum said it was called a Rainbow.
It. was. beautiful.



Grammy cuggles
When we got to Grammy and Grumpy's house I was pleased to get out of the car. My poor little baby butt had gone numb!

 I was very happy to see my Grammy. She welcomed us into the house with a big grin and gave me a big cuddle, burying my face into her wild, silver mane of hair!
Grumpy hid behind the door and peeked around saying 'Heeeere's Grumpy!' like in that film The Shining (which my mum says I am far too young to watch! pfft).
Grumpy thinks he's very funny!

While Grumpy walked the dogs and Mum was comatose on the sofa, downing what looked like a duplo bucket full of coffee, me and Grammy played lots of games, including building blocks, hide and seek and the Hanging me upsy-down game, my favourite!


Look at me - I'm totally upside down!

When we were done playing games, I took a wander around. Grammy and Grumpy do not live in a house. It is a Zoo! They have lots of animals including a chameleon, three parrots, two cats and too many dogs to count, Mum said there are nearly ten!
My favourites were the cats (Reeves and Mortimer). But they didn't seem to like me much, every time I tried to chase them and give them a big cuddle, they ran away!
*This is La-La, she is yellow,
therefore La-low!
Their loss ... my cuddles are da best!




It is very cold at Grammy and Grumpy's so, at bed time, mum wrapped me up in about ten layers of pyjamas and tucked me into my travel cot with enough blankets to warm an Eskimo. Lovely jubbly. I snuggled up with my *La-low and my Monkey and drifted off into the land of Noddington.

I woke up in the night to darkness. I know it gets dark at night (duh) but I mean it was really dark! I couldn't even see my hands in front of my face! I cried out for mum thinking I had gone blind! Mum scooped me up and cuddled me in bed with her. I fell back asleep with my hands holding her face and my nose touching hers just to make sure she didn't go anywhere. And she didn't!
I woke up in the morning next to Mum who was still fast asleep. I tried prodding her cheek to wake her up but she was still out for the count. I bounced on the bed a bit and sang the 'Mumma' song. (which was inspired by this little piece of genius...)


She eventually woke up when I prised her eyes open with my fingers and giggled so much I dribbled a bit on her face!

Not long after being up, I had jumped on Grammy and Grumpy's bed and got them up, mum had downed her bucket of coffee, got me dressed and fed and we were ready to go exploring out in the garden!
Their garden is awesome! It is full of mud.
Mud and chickens!

 
Me in my Wellington boots!
This is me telling mum I would totally fit in the giant bowl!
'Come on Grammy, faster! I see chickens!'
 Chicken-tastic!
Hi there Chickens! I'm Mya, pleased to meet you!
This is Grumpy in a cage!
Not really sure why but it was pretty funny!


Soon after exploring it was time to leave. Mum changed my muddy clothes and packed up all of our things.
I didn't want to say goodbye to Grammy and Grumpy so soon but I was getting tired and was looking forward to going home and seeing Dad.
After lots of cuggles goodbye, Mum and me strapped ourselves into the car and set off back home.

I slept most of the way home, only waking in short bursts to shout at Mum to stop singing. Because plugging my fingers into my ears wasn't a big enough hint!
Seriously, her singing is truly abysmal. She couldn't carry a tune in a basket!

When we got home, Mum immediately crashed on the sofa and I snuggled up with her watching Peppa Pig.
Ahhh.

I loved my adventures in Wales but there really is no place like home.