All posts filed under: Short Stuff

The most awesome solution

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You know that guy who was in your friend group when you were a teenager who was always so much smarter than everyone else? The one you always knew would go far? We had one of those. He was crazy smart,  as well as alarmingly good at sports and doing practical stuff. He would have been really annoying if he wasn’t so damn nice with it. This weekend I was panicking about electrocution from fairy lights,  repeating “stop touching the Christmas tree. Stop touching the Christmas tree. Stop touching the Christmas tree” and googling “how bad is it if your kid eats tinsel”.  I paused to have a soothing social media fix, and saw that my friend had also experienced a similar toddler-related conundrum, but had Mathsed and Scienced his way though it. So while I’m still shrieking at my children and standing on ornaments that are strewn all over the carpet (because “stop touching the Christmas tree” is an open challenge to a two year old), my friend is probably sitting around with his super …

School visit shenanigans

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Prior to her school visits, I’m pretty sure Amy pulled Tilly aside and whispered, “Hey Tills, be a pal and act like a total shit-stick so that I will look angelic by comparison”. Because during 3 x vists to Amy’s 2016 school (if they’ll still take her), Tilly has: Trashed the classroom nativity scene Run off with the teacher’s permanent marker Yelled “It’s POOS!” when the teacher held up a picture of potatoes and asked the class what it was Performed an expressive dance in the middle of the orderly circle the children had formed during mat time Smashed a glass Up-ended jigsaw puzzles Inexplicably started chanting “All Blacks! All Blacks! All Blacks!” while running around the classroom as the other children studiously made Christmas cards Pulled apart a wooden rainbow Taken a bite out of a glue stick at the craft table. Meanwhile, Amy has been folding her arms, sitting nicely, singing along to class songs, and shooting warning looks at her delinquent little sister.

A McPikelets two-fer in Little Treasures

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Thrilled to have two pieces in the latest edition of Little Treasures Magazine! My regular column is about how if you stop paying attention to all the “Mummy Wars!”carry-on  you can discover what amazing little unifiers babies are. The other piece is a gorgeous double-pager featuring a lovely family I’ve had the pleasure of meeting through UpsideDowns (the charity I work with that provides access to speech therapy for children with Down Syndrome).