The Beach House

Oh how my Facebook friends laughed when I told them this story!

We rented a pristine home on the North Kent coast for our beach holiday this year. The owners had obviously spent a fortune on tasteful decoration and lots of luxury extras for their first season.

We primed Dais for several weeks before the holiday. Whenever she committed a crime around our home, we told her we would not be allowed to go to the Beach House if she did anything like that there. Finally we were confident that she understood there would be no eating on the sofa and wiping on the cushions, no colouring on their walls and definitely no outdoor wees!

The traffic heading down was good so we arrived before our check-in time. The owners graciously agreed to let us in early as they had just finishing preparing the house for our stay. This gave us several minutes together with my sandy and wet kids in their immaculate hallway. Dais introduced her sister and told the owner Molly was famous for being in a magazine and that Dais herself was famous as she had her own "website". The lovely lady asked "Really? Which website is that?" Before I could stop myself I had told her "It's called Seek & Destroy Dais" ... shut up Lisa, shut up for heavens sake.

She laughed nervously and said maybe she should have asked about that before accepting our booking. She added "So your sister is Molly and you are?" Then my youngest announced "I am Daisy ... sometimes I pee the bed"

I thought the ground would open up and swallow me whole!

Summer Hols - Week 2

Days 2 & 3

Tuesday was just "one of those days" Great plans made. Auntie Mandy arrived to watch kids. Great plans changed. Auntie Mandy left to get back to her busy day - don't ask!

Wednesday I took the girls with me to do an Usborne Book Stall at DJ's Jungle Adventure. Helen, the new owner, is systematically upgrading the whole of our local soft play centre. Tuesday it was the turn of the loo's to get a make-over. Dais came desperately running up to tell me "those mens won't let me in the toilet". By the time I had shown her the Baby Change Room, it was all too late. I had to bundle her in the car and take her home. I left Molly in charge of the book stall, and this is the note that greeted me on my return!

Days 4 & 5

Luckily it rained on Thursday. (Been way too hot for a fat bird). I managed to get a boot full of give-aways and throw-aways to the charity shop and tip. I only had to carry a squeeling Dais back into the shop to retrieve a large pony, the rest has gone ... phew!

The girls have both been pretty good today. Having so much more room in the house has enabled them to discover long-lost toys, books and games. No that they did. They took every cushion off every sofa and built a large camp in the front room. Plus, their new life-jackets arrived. That kept them amused for hours. See YouTube clip

Daddy is home and offering to cook dinner. Time to drink a cold one in the garden and update my blog then?

Summer Hols - Week 2

Day One

This week has not been quite so full-on as last. It was Daddy's birthday on Monday and he worked from home, which meant we were able to go for lunch and a quick visit to the park.

Despite attending evening events there, we have never eaten at The Breakfast Club, but had always promised ourselves. Monday was the perfect time to try it out and Daddy and I filled our boots with Full English for him and Full American for me.

Dais ordered chips and ketchup, but we threw in a sausage for good measure. Whilst waiting for the freshly cooked order to arrive (well worth the short wait) she had eaten several packets of sugar, big sprinkling hand-fulls of salt but the main highlight was the pats of butter licked straight out of the wrapper. We could not snatch them off her fast enough ...

We finally decided to turn a blind eye and just enjoy our rare family lunch out. When the food arrived, she was all overcome by good etiquette and licked it off her knife instead!

Nothing new there then

I started this blog when Dais was 18months old to record the Terrible Two's and have something to look back on, and laugh at, when we were out the other side.

When she reached three, and was EXACTLY the same, I knocked it on the head. Obviously she just is who she is.

She will be turning six this October and friends STILL ask for their "Daily Dais" story. (It cheers them to realise their little ones are really not that bad). As the "crimes" are so numerous, and I am now getting a little senile, I have been persuaded to take up recording them once more.

Trying to fill the gap from then until now would be like writing War & Peace. Probably jusy easier to chose one incident since we broke up from school then?

I had this fantastic idea. I would borrow my mate's cutie pie dog for a long weekend and that would keep the children amused whilst I eased into the holidays. The reality was, the dog adored me, spent the four days on or near my feet, which meant the children and their pals were on or near my feet for the first four days of the Summer Holidays - not such a fantastic idea after all then?

When it was time for him to go home, my friend and I were so busy chatting that we forgot his doggie bed. Within minutes, Dais decided SHE was a dog, got naked and started sleeping in it. A while later, she suddenly leapt up and went thundering past into the garden. (Kids are always in a hurry aren't they?) Knowing her as I do, I could sense a crime was about to be committed so went to the door to check.

Sure enough, she was trying to cock her leg to have a pee. As she was a little wobbly on one leg she decided to put both arms and legs down on the grass until she was bum up, in a kind of "A-shape". Before I could react, there was a gallon of hot wee running down all her chest and dripping off her chin! Oh good grief ...

Pictured above: The Sleapshyde Mud Spa and Resort - earlier in the week!

Happy Now!

It's been a few months since I added to this blog. It's not that there haven't been any Daisy crimes to report, but a crashed laptop, a summer holiday and kids off school for six weeks sure does eat into your free time.

The body art continues unabated. Only this afternoon the girls found all the squeezy paints and redecorated the entire patio, and themselves, in vivid bright colours. This is something they never seem to tire of ... getting naked and re-designing themselves. I keep rushing in to see what all the shrieking is about in the downstairs shower, but it is just them have an absolute whale of a time!

We recently returned from a fab week on the north Kent coast. There is nowhere like good old England if you have the weather ... luckily we did!

Plenty of Blue Flag beaches with clean loos and ice cream shops makes for very happy bunnies. I am not a huge fan of the beach myself and prefer to "potter" in our self catering accommodation whilst Daddy and Grandad enjoy the wet towels, sticky ice-cream and sand EVERYWHERE!

On the odd occasion I do pop down to join them, the girls instantly stop amusing themselves with buckets, spades, inflatibles and newly made pals and want to glom onto me with a never ending list of "Mummy, can I have ..?, Mummy, can I have .? - bit of a busman's holiday then!

I finally found the way to get Dais off me was to give up my pefect spot, my beach chair, hat and sunnies. Asking her if she was OK now she smiled sweetly and said "Happy Now"!

Right, I'll get me coat then ...

What is wrong with this kid?

I am off for a well earned rest tomorrow. A wonderful three day weekend away with my scrapbooking pals, licking and sticking and recording great memories for our families to share. Just what the doctor ordered after the Christmas break, the Snow Days, the February half term and the long Easter holidays ... I'm pooped with it all!

I already have my photos, my patterned paper, ribbons and glues. Just need to pack my clothes and I am off on the open road straight after school drop off. I was upstairs for maybe five minutes selecting comfy clothes when Molly called out that I had to "come quick - Daisy is in your office and has your pen". Nothing new there then.

This is the sight that met my disbelieving eyes ... she is completely covered in thick, black permanent marker pen. Her response? "I am a pirate, girls love pirates, do you love pirates? well give me a cuddle!!"

Guess I need to print out one more photo before I leave then?

A New Invention

You remember that old ad for 2 in 1 shampoo and conditioner - "Why take two bottles into the shower?" Dais has just invented her own new product, and it looks set to revolutionise the beauty industry.



My hobby is scrapbooking, and I find it really relaxing to spend an evening (and sometimes even a weekend) with my scrapping pals, licking and sticking, playing with pretty papers and creating keepsakes and memories for the kids to look back on when they have children of their own. We all have boxes of photos from our own childhood, but couldn't really tell you where we were, when it was, who was in the pictures or what we were doing there. Journalling on the layouts about the little things helps to preserve some of the "moments in time" that can easily become forgotten amidst all the noise of the early parenting years.



For this reason, I have more than my fair share of glues, inks, stamps and all manner of items that Dais can use to redocorate ordinary household items. The discipline is often referred to as "Altered Art" - turning a plain box into a keepsake, redecorating a notebook - you get the idea.



Dais has taken to this form of art with gusto and most of our house has now been "altered". Her current favourite medium are my acrylic dabbers - especially the copper one. She has nearly finished the playroom now.



Anyway, this week's new discovery is a pre-inked stamp in bright pink that can be applied directly to the lip area. The world's first truly "all day lipstick" Clever girl Dais!