Hooray! My youngest daughter had dry knickers last night. Daddy and I are so proud of her. I wasn't planning on starting to toilet train her through the night time until she was around 4 years old, which would have been next year.

Mia has had a few bad days with soiling her knickers so I decided to tell Mia and Elliw that if they both have clean knickers and behave all week then they can both wear knickers for bedtime on the weekend. Elliw has always been fine with going to toilet, it was more of an aim hoping to help Mia stop soiling and peeing in her knickers. It didn't work. Yesterday was a very bad day.

Before bedtime last night, Elliw decided she didn't want a nappy. She wanted knickers to go to bed. Me and Daddy looked at each other wondering what we could use to protect the mattress and sheets. We decided to use a black bin bag under the fitted sheet, with a towel on top and then another towel on top of the fitted sheet. She was super excited. She was really proud of herself and phoned her Nain Carys to tell her that she was wearing knickers to go to bed, and no nappy!

Mia was very jealous. I am hoping a little bit that this will learn her to stop being so lazy with toileting. I have never experienced this milestone of night training so I was on the go and took Elliw to toilet around 9pm when I wanted to go myself, and I took her to toilet for a pee again just before I went to bed at 11.30pm. It was quite funny because she was half asleep sitting on the toilet. I was worried that she would be wide awake and then wanting more juice, but she didn't wake up! Thank god. She woke up in the middle of the night for a pee. She was still dry. Hooray! Morning time came and Daddy woke up to her and she had dry knickers! We are both so proud of her. Again, she phoned her Nain Carys to tell her! So happy.

I hope this will continue now. I am expecting a few odd accidents, she is only 3 years old! Daddy treated her to a day out of after speech therapy whilst I stayed at home with Mia because she had been misbehaving yesterday and in the morning.

Will give you all an update next week.

I feel so lucky to have a child so easy to potty train and toilet train in night! I really can't wait until my eldest reaches that stage, so we don't have to buy pull ups again!

How old were your children when they had a dry night?

Being a parent isn't a job. It's a blessing. But there are so many roles a parent has to be once a child is born. Whether you are a single mum, single dad, stay-at-home parents or working parents. To be a childcare worker or a plumber you get courses and help but there are no guidelines with parenting. You may get offered to go to parenting classes, or there may be on in your area and that is great. You may have close friends or relatives you will help you to kind of understand and prepare yourself for parenting. But no one can prepare you to be a Mum or a Dad. No one.

Us parents have day and night shifts. 24 hours, 7 days. No wage, but we don't want to be paid. Some of us may have child benefit and child tax but that money goes straight off to buy them new clothes and pay bills to keep a roof over their head. Being a parent is the hardest thing in the world. There is no book or voice to tell you exactly what being a parent is like. Every parent copes in different way, handles things differently and every single child is different and develops differently.

20 Roles of a parent
1. Doctor when our little ones a poorly.
2. Hairdressers every morning.
3. Maids cleaning the house every day.
4. Chefs 3 or more times a day.
5. Servants looking after the littles ones.
6. Magician by magically hiding the dummies away.
7. Photographer. Capturing memories.
8. Santa Clause at Christmas time.. hours and hours of wrapping.
9. The Tooth Fairy in the middle of the night.
10. Animals when you want us to pretend to be a certain animal! The joys.
11. Night Carers when little ones wake up in the middle of the night.
12. Day carers, looking after the little ones all day.
13. Zombie when little ones have kept us up all night but wake up extra early.
14. Lollipop woman/man when we have to teach our little ones to cross the road.
15. Taxi drivers to take the little ones out.
16. Artists. Our little ones think were fantastic, so that's good, I guess.
17. Teachers. Learning our children new words, how to tell the time and so much more.
18. Caretaker, making sure all doors are locked and listening out for anything unusual in the middle of the night, even when we are sleeping.
19. Personal shopper. Going to the shop buying the kids things.
20. Storyteller when we read a bedtime story book.

Now that is only 20 things. There are much more. A lot more. Now, I am sure most of you can imagine how much a Doctor, Teacher and the rest of the roles get paid. Us parents get paid nothing but we don't want anything because instead we get lots of cuddles, kisses, fantastic memories and the amazing opportunity to watch our little ones grow from a helpless newborn baby to an independent adult like ourselves.

Can you relate to any of the above? Do you play any other role?

When I wanted to start my blog, of course the first thing I needed to do was think of a blog name. I remember sitting and staring at my laptop screen thinking of different things. I typed many blog names. I searched on Google some of the names I had thought of, most were taken or similar. If I remember rightly, I called my blog miaandelliw {or similar!} to start with. But then I thought, what if I have another child in future? I wanted to make my blog name about me.

That is when Life As Mum came to my head. I wish I could have done lifeasmum instead of life-as-mum but the one without the dashes was already taken, I checked their blog and it hadn't been active for over a year-ish. I didn't mind having the dash though.

I have been a mother since I was 17 years old. I fell pregnant with my first daughter at 16 years old and gave birth roughly 3 months after my 17th birthday. I haven't had that 'teenage life' all my friends had from school. Yup! I mean all my friends from school. They are all still friends now. I haven't seen them for years and years. It's a shame we all drifted away but sometimes when you're a parent you need to sacrifice things. I couldn't go out on camping trips, festivals and drinking every weekend. I wanted to be home with my baby girl.

I was a young single working parent. Mia's Dad didn't do anything with her until she was roughly 6-7 months old. But I grew up much quicker. So when I thought about my blog name, Life As Mum, I thought it was perfect for me. Because that is the life I have had since I left college and still living now. I wouldn't have it any other way.

So that is why I chose my blog name Life As Mum.

I thought I would write this post to maybe find out why other bloggers chose their blog name too. If there is anything they would change about it. So I am going to tag a few bloggers, hoping they will join in and write a post on the meaning behind their blog name. If you would like to join in, you're more than welcome too! I'd love to read it! Leave a link in the comment or tweet me @lifeasmumblog

I tag: Kerry, Michelle, Kim, Alex, Kirsty, Debs, Aby& Catriona

You are more than welcome to link up your 'The Meaning Behind My Blog Name' on the linky. I really can't wait to find out more about people's blog names. Feel free to add a badge or let people know there is a linky they can link up their post! Hope you all join in :)

You can find the linky here.

<a href="http://www.life-as-mum.co.uk/p/blog-name-meaning-linky.html" target="_blank"><img alt="thumbnailsize" border="0" src="http://i57.tinypic.com/2q0vol0.png" style="border: none; max-width: 100%;" /> </a>

Not very often do I write about Mia and Elliw's strong bonded relationship. Because for the past few months all they have done {most of the time} is argue and fight about anything and everything. There have been some time in between where I do catch them playing nicely and lying down on the sofa together which I absolutely love. Not often do I capture the moments on camera though because I am too slow!

This was the first photo of Mia and Elliw together. I really regret not taking more of them on the first day of Elliw's birth. But Mia was pretty confussed. Although she has a smile on her face in the photo, not long after she was pushing away, so she didn't stay for long. And yup, that is my little chub in my Nain's arms!

This is my favourite photo of both of them. This is the first proper, cute photo I had of both girls together. It was early in the morning and Mia wanted a cuddle. This was taken in the first week of Elliw and I being home from hospital. I'm gutted it's so dark but I love the way they are both looking and they look so close.

 

I love capturing their strong sister relationship. I think it's so nice to see the good side of sisterly love! So now I will leave it to the photos...

 

 

Kids will be kids. They can talk, scream and constantly ask you things throughout the day. They behave and then they can misbehave a second later. Parents love to have a break now and then, just to hear the peace. But when the kids are home and it's quiet... a little too quiet. Then it can make you a little nervous. Well it makes me nervous!!

What 5 things can your kids get up to when they are quiet...?

1. Playing in the bathroom. Oh the joys of finding them in the bathroom, soaked through. Toilet roll down the toilet, toothpaste and shampoo everywhere and on the kids too!

2. Drawing on walls. Most kids think they're artists and we praise them for their art work BUT WHY OH WHY! draw on the walls?!!

3. In your bedroom. Oh yes. You tell them every single day NOT to go into your room. But you end up finding them jumping on your bed, taking something and loosing it, oh and emptying all your cupboards and draws. Don't forget plastering themselves in make up and painting their nails too!

4. Sleeping. Why do kids feel the need of napping about an hour before bedtime? Even though you would love it if you could leave them to sleep, they haven't had any tea and you know it wouldn't be worth it when they wake up in the middle of the night at so damn early in the morning!

5. Hiding. Ever had that time when the kids were quiet. You go to check up on them, too see what they are doing. But. You can't find them. You shout their name and then 10 minutes after you hear giggles coming from the wardrobe! Happened to me... plenty of times.

I have experienced every single one of those above. Although, Mia is older now so she can happily sit down and colour or write. But when she was younger she was a right terror. Elliw is still at that age of exploring and pushing my buttons, sometimes Mia will join her too!

Have you ever experienced any of the above? If not, what do your children get up to when they are quiet?

This is another post following my recent post about our weekend away. I took so many photos over the weekend there would have been to much if I had put it all in one post! So this post today is about our day at the River Dee in Chester. I had heard people talking about it before but never visited.

After trouble finding a parking space, we finally found one. Once we arrived there was a band playing but we didn't take much noticed of the band. We headed of to get an ice cream as the girls wanted one. So we then all sat down for a bit before heading off onto one of the boats. My partners Aunty wanted to go on the boat called 'The Diana' and luckily it was the boat that was there when we arrived.

My partner didn't come on the boat with us so he went shopping instead and got a few swimming bits for the girls to go swimming in the hotel later on in the day when we arrived back to the hotel.

The girls really enjoyed the boat ride. The views were stunning. I regret not taking photos of the little huts and posh houses and holidays homes along the side of the river. They were amazing! I would love to own one. There were many families in speed and paddle boats along the river.

The boat ride lasted roughly 30 minutes. I was a little worried about how the girls would behave, especially Elliw! But they were well behaved. They really enjoyed themselves. When we arrived back, my partner met us. We headed off to the nearest café for a snack and a cup of tea. We didn't stay in long as the girls started playing up so me and my partner took them back out to the front.

The River Dee is a beautiful place. Again, a great place for photos.

Have you ever visited The River Dee?

Very rarely do I see the girls having cuddles on the sofa. The other morning I came downstairs and I caught them cuddling each other on the sofa, watching TV. So I quietly went to the kitchen to get my camera and caught them on camera. Of course, after they saw me taking a photo of them they started to get hyper and silly, as usual.

I love seeing them cuddling each other. The only other times they sit closely next to each other, is when one has the iPad and the other wants to watch it too, or when they sit down for meal times. We all try to have a sit down in front of the TV and have cuddles before bed. Doesn't happen very often but I am trying my best to get this as a routine because we all enjoy it when it happens, then we have happy babies going to bed too!

Do your children ever have sofa cuddles?

The beach hasn't always been my favourite place to visits, as I can't stand the sand. The girls aren't overly keen when they arrive but the longer they are there, the more they enjoy it. We try to visit the beach at least two or more times a year, if we can. All depending on the weather. I always prepare a beach bag(s) when we go to the beach for the day.

Sun Lotion - Make sure you apply sun lotion on the children and yourself before going out of the house and again when you arrive at the beach. Ideally, the childrens sun lotion should be 50+. Make sure that the sun lotion isn't out of date. It may be best to buy a new sun lotion each year.

Towels - Lots of towels. A towel each and then a 2 or 3 spare so you can sit down.

Swim Suits - These are the best clothing for the beach, and you or your kids could take a visit to the sea too.

Baby shade - If you have a young baby or toddler then you could buy a sun shaded tent to keep them out of the heat and prevent them getting burnt.

Drinks - Usually we all visit the beach when it's hot, so it may be best to bring plenty of water for everyone.

Snacks - If your planning to stay on the beach all day then you could pack some snacks and small meals for the day. As usually, cafes and restaurant near a beach a pretty pricey!

Bingo Paddy Power are giving my lovely readers a chance to win these 3 amazing prizes
- £10 Amazon Voucher
- Twister picnic blanket
- Bar bingo - Pack of bingo cards

For your chance to win these fab items all you have to do is read the Terms & Conditions then enter via the Rafflecopter below.

Terms & Conditions
- Giveaway ends 16th August 2015 at 11.59pm
- Each entry is checked carefully, you will be disqualified if cheating
- Prizes are supplied by Bing, Paddy Power
- Winner will be e-mailed within 48 hours of giveaway ending

UPDATE - I have been informed that the Twister Beach Towel is OUT OF STOCK, instead you will receive a TWISTER PICNIC BLANKET!

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Mia and Elliw love bath time. If they could, they would play in the bath for hours. Of course, after each bath the floor is soaked! With all the splashing and throwing water at each other. Mia used to be petrified of the water on her face, but now she is getting really confident of the water. Finally! Elliw loves water. She doesn't mind water being chucked at her face, she laughs. Which I think is great, as she is so confident with the water.


We have been reviewing some Professor Scrubbington's bath products. As the bath was filling up, the girls decided to play with the bubbles and make themselves look like Santa Clause which was pretty funny. Professor Scrubbington's is a new range of natural personal care products aimed at primary school children. They're stylish bottles are perfect size for little hands. They are 98% natural with no parabens, colourants or SLS.

Inside the bottle is liquid and you squeeze the tube that is attached to the lid and it transform to magic foam! So much easier to wash their hair, body, hands and face. The smell of the products are very fresh and is naturally gentle & moisturising for all skin types.

Mia, Elliw and I were very pleased with the products we received. They look great in the bathroom and we shall be using them at every bath time. They are sure to last a few washes.

Professor Scrubbington's products are not in leading stores just yet, but keep an eye on them later on in the year.

 

You can see more by visiting Professor Scrubbington's website.
Receive a deduction code on your first order by entering BM20.

Now that Mia and Elliw have tested these and given you all a review, me and Professor Scrubbington's are giving one lucky winner the chance to WIN the same pack as we received! To enter, all you have to do is read the Terms & Conditions carefully and then enter the Rafflecopter below. Good Luck.

Terms & Conditions

1. Giveaway ends 28th August 2015 at 11.59pm

2. Winner receives identical prize to what I have reviewed

3. Must be 18+

4. No cheating. You will be disqualified.

 

My giveaways are comper friendly. Anyone can enter, aslong as you enter correctly and follow the rules.

 



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If your partner is a man then you may be able relate with this post. Lets just be honest *sarcastic* men are in much more pain and a lot more ill, more than women when they are poorly. Yup. Ok then. As I am writing this, my partner has some eye infection. Although I do feel very sorry for him and hoping he does not have to have any surgery {doctor said he may have to, if it gets a little worse} BUT my god! Do they moan!

What things to expect your man is poorly
- A lot of moaning. I mean a lot. All day, every day. Even when they are on the mend.

- A mess. For some odd reason, when men are ill they seem to think it is ok not to do any kind of housework. I mean nothing. They also think it is acceptable to leave anything, anywhere.

- 'Oh i'm ill' quotes and excuses. Many of them...

- 'What are you doing tomorrow?' If they know they are home tomorrow because they are too ill to work, they will ask you what you are doing, hoping and hinting for you to take the kids out.

- Lazy partners. When Mum is ill, Mum still has to do the same damn daily routine! Dads don't... apparently.

Fair enough if they are very poorly. But for some reason my partner does most of these when he has a cold or a cough!

Does your man over react when they are ill?

I love personalised items and books. A personalised book is pretty special. They are great for the kids and they are something you can keep for when they are older too. I recently reviewed an 'I Love...' book from Love2Read.

I was very pleased with the quality of the pages inside of the book and the texture of the book too. The size is just perfect for small hands. I chose the 'I Love...' book because I thought it would be a lovely idea to put a few of Elliw's favourite people in there. Some of the people included in the book are Me, Daddy, Mia, her cousin Osian and her best friend Aishah. The quality of the photos were pretty good too. Overall I was very pleased with the book and Elliw loves going through the book and pointing the people out. It's great for her speech so it is helping her in a way too, which I am pleased about.

Love2Read offers a range of different personalised books. So each book ordered is personalised and unique. The words in the book are a perfect size for a child who is learning to read. The letters are clear and bold. On the first page of the book tells you who the book belongs too. I think it's a great idea as it can help them recognise their own name. You can also write who the book is from. Perfect as a gift.

The books start from £14.99 and you can purchase one over at the Love2Read website.

Love2Read and I are teaming up on a giveaway! For your chance to win a Love2Read Book all you have to do is enter the Rafflecopter below and make sure you read the T&C's before entering please.

Terms & Conditions
- Giveaway starts 28th July 2015
- Giveaway ends 19th August 2015 at 11.59pm
- No cheating, you will be disqualified. All entries are checked.
- The prize is a Love2Read book. No cash.
- No payment is required for this giveaway.
- Winner will be e-mailed within 48 hours of giveaway ending.

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I honestly can not believe it is July!

A whole month has flown by.

We are in the Summer Holidays now.

We started the holidays with a great weekend away.

I managed to get a photo with two of my little princesses.

 

The past month you both have made mammy happy, sad, teary, stressed and mad!

Mia you're going through a stage of attitude

Elliw you are still going through terrible 2's/naughty 3's

 

Even though you can both drive me so nuts at times

I love you both too pieces.

 

Love you xxx

You're probably stressed most days when you're a parent and probably if you're not a parent. Life can get on top of you sometimes and that is when you need to step back and take a break. Do something that will calm you down. Make you stress-free. Colouring is one way. There is a new colouring book just for adults. A Zen Art Therapy for Adults. A colouring book that helps adults with stress.

The book has loads of pages with stunning patterns and pages where you can draw your own patterns and finish patterns off too. The book comes with free colouring pencils for you too colour. I had a go at this, but it's pretty hard to do in the day now because the kids are off school. So I am looking forward to colouring once they are back in school in September. I coloured one evening when the girls were in bed and when I took a break of blogging. I had a very stressful morning and as I was colouring I was concentrating so much on the pattern and colouring, my mind wasn't thinking about what happened in the morning or throughout the day.

Now it's your chance to win 1 of 2 Calm Colour Create books. If you love colouring, or if you get stressed often or too easily, then enter this!

As usual, please read terms and conditions before entering.

Terms and Conditions
- Giveaway starts 26th July 2015
- Giveaway ends 17th August 2015
- No cheating. All entries are checked.
- Winner will be notified via e-mail within 48 hours.

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