How Do You Solve a Problem Like H?

I’ll be honest, I’ve recited this post in my head a thousand times – never getting further than the fourth line. I’ve promised (my instagram following and myself) for a few months that I’d share what it is exactly that we’re going through with my beautiful, biggest bean – Hugo. Sometimes things are just too great to share in a social media caption, and definitely too monumental to squeeze into a 15 second instagram story. But the main reason I’ve procrastinated over this tome for the past two months – abandoning all other writing until this was complete, is that it’s hard to write about something when I’m not sure where it began, it feels like we could be in the middle and I most certainly don’t know if it will ever end.

But even before I begin, a preface if you will, I need to mention a couple of things. As always, I have Hugo’s permission to share our story. Secondly, Hugo, 85% of the time is a wonderful, intelligent, talented, sporty, witty and glorious person. It’s unfortunately that the other 15% is coming close to ruining our lives and Hugo is adamant there is nothing he can do to stop it. We’re trapped on Hugo’s emotional roller-coaster – I just hope someone finds the brakes or gives us a soft landing when we crash.

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John Lewis Christmas Ad 2016 #BusterTheBoxer

It was only last weekend mid X-Factor ad break, whilst keeping a keen eye out for our very own family ad, that I turned to Mr Only Girl and muttered, through a mouthful of Fruit and Nut, “I haven’t seen the John Lewis ad yet.” It had undertones of a disappointed 7 year old discovering that, perhaps, Santa doesn’t really exist… we all know he does really! These days ads are often seen as an obstacle to overcome to get to what it is we really want to watch – we fast forward, skip and watch online in order to avoid full length ad breaks. But the John Lewis Christmas ad breaks these rules – with over 26 million YouTube views on last year’s offering, the JL Xmas vid is the hottest drop since Take That reunion-tour tickets went on sale. It’s a serious calendar worthy event, which for me, signals the official start of the festive season and is the green light for the Christmas soundtrack in the office!

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Star Wars At John Lewis | Boy Gift List

There are certain things, as a mum of boys, that I had little interest in/didn’t have a clue about just over 10 years ago – oh, how my world has changed. I now have a wealth of knowledge on the latest football boots, how to acquire FIFA points and the epic saga that is – Star Wars. There seems to be an intrinsic link between Star Wars and boys – as though the love of lightsabers, the dark side and Jedi aspirations are woven into their DNA*. But there’s varying degrees of the force – some kiddos prefer to watch, admire and perhaps don a Darth Vader costume come Halloween, whilst others go all-out and opt for a full-on Millennium Falcon bedroom theme.

*This is a mama proven theory, not yet scientifically researched/published.

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The Mum Challenge | Vlog

Clearly, mid summer holidays, my brain’s been a tad too frazzled by “can I have something tw’eat?” for the 63rd time in a morning, “I’m bored!” but “Eugh, do we have to go out?!”, followed by “I’m heading into the road as I can see Pikachu!” As I thought it might seem like a good idea to let the kids take charge for half an hour. Lesson learnt… DON’T! This is what happens when you let the kids have their own way! I’ve clearly been feeding them the wrong “favourite dinner” for a while and I’m not sure why I’m so thrilled that Hugo thinks LA is a country, but at least I know when Bruno’s birthday is!

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StartRite Rhino School Shoes Review

It would appear there’s a shoe-destruction elf at the boys school. Admittedly I’m yet to receive the email informing me of such, which I imagine would be in a similar manner to the “there’s nits in your kids class – watchout” text that I receive twice a month, but I have the evidence to show he exists… Whilst they sit at their desks beautifully, listening attentively to their teachers every word simultaneously writing poetry whilst unicorns graze in the playground, the mischievous little imp does everything in his power to destroy a perfectly good pair of boy’s school shoes which cost moi anything between £30-£60, depending on the desperation level I’d reached at not being able to find decent school shoes in the boys’ sizes at a moments notice. This is an easier pill to swallow than that of “my children just decimate footwear with little regard for my bank balance.”

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