Oh, so how lovely is it when you snuggle on your child's bed with them and talk over the day?

[hunkermunker]

And they say "tickle dis one, Mummy" and move your hand to their other leg

Wonderful.

We had a lovely day, walk to the barbers down the quietish roads that are Surrey, we came back, he asked for lunch at the local wine bar.( chips and garlic mayo, please Mummy)

I tried to palm him off with a picnic lunch, I lost we had a lovely time, came home, made a mess with sticky stuff.

Question asked when I was being kissed goodnight, best part of the day ?, , this messy mess Mummy, don't clean it up.

I haven't.

DS1 has discovered chips this last weekend...he rather likes them

And pizza...he says "coming through" now and wants to come and help cook his dinner!

Message withdrawn

awww....

I have Evil mummy head on ATM because by the time they are in bed the last thing I want to do is talk to them.

Actually I feel like that whne they get up too....mostly because they wake me up at the crack of dawn everyday.

How old are your boys, LTH?

I'm finding our little one is waking the big boys, by standing up in his cot and shouting "door!" 5am-ish at the moment. [really tired emoticon]

When I put ds to bed we always talk about what we did in the day, or what we will do tomorrow, he is 5yrs and has never been interested in bedtime stories, so I decided this was a good substitute

Oh it's th best.

And Lottie does the tickle thing.
She says 'tic tic' and holds out her arm, or her hand and f i pause, even for a second she says 'tic, toc mummy tic tic'.
And then she falls asleep with her little arm in the air and her little podgy hand.

Mmmmmmmm

And when you talk about the day and they just repeat back key words.
Like I say "and hen we saw the ducks' and she sleepily mutters 'ducks' and I say "and we gave them bread" and she whispers "bread'.

Heaven. Absolute heaven.

Oh and every night when we're doing the story reading, before the going throught the day and the tic tic, I read one book and as I close the book and say 'the end' she holds up one podgy fingr and says 'one more, just one more'. Same every night.

I love it and have an overwhelming urge to cry right now!

They're 7, 5 and very nearly 3, bubble

TBh it's never really the same one who wakes me up...I think they have a rota

It'll be ds1 just being abit too noisy by weeing straight into the water in the loo or standing on the creeking floorboard while he does whatever he does outside our room.
Or ds2 sneezing. He starts sneezing at soon as he wakes up, which is excatly the same as Dh does.
Or ds3 just wanting to be escorted downstiars like a Lord.

once I'm awake I can never get back to sleep....very bloody annoying!

I like the bit where DD says, 'sing that song mummy, the one that gran-gran used to sing to you'
I am filling up right now.

I also love it in the morning when DD comes and sneaks in between DH and me - 'mummy, do you want me to tickle your back?'

Mad isn't it Gingerbear, I sing Lottie the song my mum used to sing me. What's your song? Mine's so silly it:

Hurry to School Johnny,
you will be late,
9 o clock striking and you will be late,
oh mother he said
I'm in such a plight
I can't find my gloves
I had them last night
In cupboard and drawer I've searched everywhere
and now I shall have to cold I declare
with his hands in his pockets
he ran all the way
and he felt very cross for the rest of the day
then when he got home that same afternoon
said kind sister nell I'll fetch your tea soon
the kettle was boiling the tea was soon made
and lots of nice things on the table were laid
Nell went to the press
the cake for to get
when out of the tin abundle she takes
why johnny she says, you bad little boy you shall only have bread.

!!!!!!!!!

I fill in a calendar with my 5 year old dd.We started with a picture to represent an event,and are now moving on to writing (although pictures more fun)

Also fill in future events (parties,horseriding,flying home to UK)

It's something I've always done with the families of the children I work with (learning disabilities-am a SALT) but actually it's brilliant for allchildren.

We spend hours flicking through it,laughing over all sorts of silly things
(the night the fox ripped open the rubbish bin,the day the baby was sick on his shoes,the new shoes we bought...)

Lovely.

On Top of Old Smoky

GB - how funny - i'm trying to train lottie to scratch my back but she does one tiny scratch and then goes into happy hands so I ask again and she does one scratch and back to happy hands. Think I might have to wait and train DD2 instead!

LTH. Can you doze at all? Or are you 'awake as soon as you're awake?'

As long as the baby gates are closed, my older two will play with Elijah in the bedroom next door to ours for a good 20 minutes or so. And an extra 20 minutes doze is not to be sniffed at, at 5am. [slack mummy emoticon?]

Moondog, that sounds a wonderful idea - do you just put loose pages together or use a scrapbook of some sort?

Just a regular calendar (although sometimes we design our own in work)
Only proviso is that the square for each day is big enough to draw a picture in.
Dh and I have a good laugh at each other's efforts.
We have been doing it for two years and dd spends a lot of time going over them.

we like to sing these lyrics too:

On top of spaghetti,
All covered with cheese,
I lost my poor meatball,
When somebody sneezed.

It rolled off the table,
And on to the floor,
And then my poor meatball,
Rolled out of the door.

It rolled in the garden,
And under a bush,
And then my poor meatball,
Was nothing but mush.

The mush was as tasty
As tasty could be,
And then the next summer,
It grew into a tree.

The tree was all covered,
All covered with moss,
And on it grew meatballs,
And tomato sauce.

So if you eat spaghetti,
All covered with cheese,
Hold on to your meatball,
Whenever you sneeze.

Will have to try that one Moondog - I am a sucker for keepsakes.

Part of my DD2s bedtime routine is to grab DHs ears and rub them, then his hands. She also wraps her legs right round him (like a big cuddle). . Bit of a nightmare if he is not there though as it has to be Daddys ears!!

She will also count sheep!! shuts her eyes and says "1 sheep, 2 sheep ......

Anyway I better stop at bedtime routine otherwise I will go on and on about all the cute things my DD does and says.

My sister lets her children draw on her with felttips in order to get a tickle.They won't do it otherwise!

Oh dear!

My children won't have warm bed time memories - they will recall an increasingly irate mum who is speed reading their stories and snapping at them as they think of one strategy after another to delay bed time

Things is I have them all day - solo, and channel lots of energy into them so that by bed time I am desperate to get them out of the way