Peppa Pig does Bedtime

July 14, 2011 By DorkyMum in Family Tags: children, children's television, children's tv, kids television, kids tv, parenting, Peppa Pig, television, toddlers 8 Comments

Peppa Pig holding a teddy bear

It is only a few months since DorkySon had no interest in watching TV. I could see other mothers raising their eyebrows at me when I said that he just wasn’t bothered, that not even the delights of Bob the Builder or Fireman Sam could persuade him to spend more than a fidgety few minutes in front of the box, before wandering off to find a book.

“Aye right,” they were thinking. “You’re just no fun, DorkyMum, not letting your wee boy watch the occasional bit of trash on the telly.”

But I was telling the truth. He really wasn’t fussed. I must have been the only mother in history desperately trying to get her kid interested in television, so I could have ten minutes peace to sit down with a cup of tea or make his dinner. Continue reading →

Live In The Now: July

July 7, 2011 By DorkyMum in Family, Travel Tags: America, Canada, eating, Family, food, friendship, holiday, New Hampshire, parenting, relationships, toddlers, Travel, USA, vacation 6 Comments

Pink blossoms on a blue background with the slogan 'live in the now'

Okay, I promise this will be my last holiday-related post. After this I’ll get my head together and start focusing on life in not-so-sunny Scotland again. But our ten days away were too full of good moments not to share at least some of them. This also serves as my ‘Live In the Now’ post for July, because it captures so many details that I don’t want to forget.

The Travel!

Well, the travel itself wasn’t exactly awesome. In fact, I dedicated an entire post to how much I dislike flying. But what I loved was discovering what an amazingly good traveller DorkySon is; five planes, three taxis, three buses, two cars, one train… and not a single toddler meltdown. I would love to say that it was our thorough preparation that led to the smooth journey, but in fact we’re just incredibly lucky to have a mellow two year old, who barely seemed to notice the delays and queues. He slept on almost every aeroplane, attacked the inflight meals with gusto, and beamed at the cabin crew every time they passed our seat. He was thrilled by the taxi rides, excited by the bus journeys between terminals, and is still talking about his ‘special seat’ in the hire car. Whereas DorkyDad and I usually ended up crumpled, tired and crabby, DorkySon emerged from every journey with a smile on his face and ready for the next adventure. I don’t know how he did it, but he’s a champ. Continue reading →

Painting the Town: Street Art in Portsmouth, New Hampshire

July 4, 2011 By DorkyMum in Photography, Travel Tags: Alexandros Vasmoulakis, America, Andreas von Chrzanowski, art, bumblebee, graffiti, herakut, holiday, New Hampshire, North America, Photography, Portsmouth, Portsmouth Museum of Art, Portsmouth NH, Seacoast, Shark Toof, street art, Travel, United States, USA, vacation 4 Comments

I’d only been to Portsmouth, NH, once before this holiday. So I wasn’t sure if the amazing artwork painted on building around the town was a permanent feature or a special exhibition. A quick Google search on my return revealed that they were part of the Street a.k.a. Museum exhibit, curated by the Portsmouth Museum of Art.

I’ve had a wee look at this map which gives the locations of all the artworks, and although I didn’t manage to spot them all in the couple of days we were there, here are the ones I did find: Continue reading →

The Challenges of Flying with Young Children

July 2, 2011 By DorkyMum in Family, Travel Tags: aeroplanes, air travel, airlines, airports, Alex Salmond, BA, Boston, Edinburgh, flying, flying with children, flying with kids, Heathrow, Hilton, Terminal 5, Toronto, travel with children, travel with kids 14 Comments

Passenger plane in the sky

“Oh no,” said DorkyDad. “What a terrible start to a holiday.” We had just been treated to the sight of Alex Salmond, recently off a flight from London, strutting through Edinburgh airport. For a man in a crumpled suit, he exuded an extraordinary air of arrogance.

As it turned out, DorkyDad was right. Our holiday did not get off to a great start. A security alert at Edinburgh meant that we missed our connection at Heathrow. Despite arriving with 25 minutes to spare, we were discouraged from even attempting to catch it, and had already been re-booked onto another flight the next morning.

There followed a farcical afternoon and early evening, in which we were sent from floor to floor, desk to desk, and back again, in an attempt to secure three things: our bags and DorkySon’s pram, a bed for the night, and confirmation of our flight the next day. It proved surprisingly difficult. Individually, every member of staff we spoke to was lovely. Collectively it seemed like the right hand wasn’t even aware of the left hand’s existence. I am giving myself a week or two more to chill out before I write to BA… but they had better be ready for me. Continue reading →

DorkySon’s ‘Too Big’ Adventure

July 1, 2011 By DorkyMum in Family, Travel Tags: Canada, chevrolet, Chevy, children, Family, holiday, ice cream, Niagara Falls, Ontario, parenting, toddlers, Travel, vacation 7 Comments

We’re just back from a fantastic holiday to North America, where we saw a lot of friends and family, enjoyed some great weather, and ate far, far too much. There were many highlights, which I hope to have time to write about over the next week or so, but I thought I’d start by sharing DorkySon’s perspective on things.

On our first full day in Canada, Uncle P offered to take us to see Niagara Falls. DorkyDad had been before, but neither DorkySon nor I had, and I was looking forward to it. I wasn’t disappointed. How beautiful is this?

Continue reading →

Dorkymum | Stories from Tasmania

Stories from our family home in Tasmania