Paint Eating Artist.

I've heard of starving artists, but never an artist that eats paint ;). 

So let me tell you about painting in the living room. You have to be pretty relaxed about mess if you allow this. You'll also need a plastic cover/sheet to protect your carpet from the worst of the spills and to let your child go half naked or wear an old top they've outgrown; it's going to get messy.

Roman successfully managed to cover himself in blue paint, make a right royal mess and work out some frustrations through painting. When he started to get annoyed with his toys, I decided it might be the time to let him paint this morning. Well, it worked out very well. As soon as the easel and paints were out his frustration cloud disappeared, replaced with this big smile. I was a very happy mum at this sight, very happy indeed.

The fact that the mess left in his trail was strenuous to clean up and a bath required to wash down the boy I didn't mind and I surprised myself with the ease of how much of a damn I didn't give about cleaning up the mess. Not that I'll be in much of a hurry to paint in the living room like this again, but I'm okay with mess - I suppose I have to be and that there will be a time in my life where I can have breakables below eye level and walls without paint on them...but I know when that day comes I will be wishing for these days; days where paint was consumed, days when I painted my hand blue and splatted it onto a clean piece of paper and Roman (and Bryan) followed suit, days where I spent a while scrubbing blue marks out of our landlord's carpet ;) and days where impromptu painting put this smile on Roman's face. 

Haircup.

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His hair grows like mine; thick and fast. A haircut (or 'haircup' as he calls them) is in order nearly every single month and that can be a pretty stressful event for everyone. He twists and turns as the clippers come near him, usually followed by tears. It's usually awful and I dread it. I hold off on the haircuts as long as I possibly can but lately I've noticed he was sporting a barnet Donald Trump would be proud of - complete with his own toddler ponytail - and so it had to go.

He wasn't keen on the haircut but he's slowly growing to deal with them a little better. In the end we were reduced to putting him on Bryan's computer chair which worked out to to be the best solution to our little problem. Along with this letting him cut* 'Char-ey Bear' (Charley Bear's) fur made him less strange with the whole thing.

*A little note for my mum who made Charley Bear: the clippers weren't actually turned on so no bears were harmed in this process ;).

The Humble Digestive.

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It's been a while since I have had one of these myself but while we were at the supermarket getting our 'messages' (shopping/groceries) I was struck with an idea. 

Digestive biscuits - or better known as 'digestives' - are a British staple. Roman, not unsurprisingly, loved them. After he'd filled his tummy with a fair amount of food, I decided it would be nice for us to make some iced biscuits. He was impressed by being allowed to share in the icing process but wasn't too keen on iced biscuits and preferred his digestives plain - even with a sweetie on top! 

I'm Ready, MUM!

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I almost didn't want to put this picture up because I felt it was too similar to the one I shared yesterday - not exactly the same pose, but in the same room with similar lighting and colours. 

With that being said this is one of 5 photos I took today. All in a mad rush to get out the door and be back in time for bedtime. I was in such a rush that I got my little 'helper' to get his own fleece. He was also in such a rush that he put it on the wrong way up ;).

"Hiya!"

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Roman on the phone to Auntie Jeannette.

When the phone rings he runs around, looking for it, shouting 'PHONE! PHONE!' and once it's in those chubby hands it's very hard to pry those little fingers away from it.

April.

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I think April is, by far, one of my most favourite months.

Everything can change when you mix April and Scotland together. The weather, mostly, which has been known to range from mad snow to shorts and t-shirts weather. And April is my mum's birthday month.

Which means that I spent a bit of today preparing something special for her - with my assistant, Roman, at my side. I'm really excited to have a little side project because mostly everything else is crazy busy and this helps me to stay focused on what's really important in life: family.

I am most excited to share this gift with my mum - and in time, your good selves. I know that she'll be able to treasure it for a long time and I'm confident she'll love it.