Expat Mums Blog

Yummy Mummy? Not quite yet

Who knew what having a gorgeous baby could do to your body? It's amazing to watch your body grow and change when you're pregnant. There's a bit of bemusement on the day when you can't see your feet anymore. And did you ever imagine that you'd need your hubby/significant other to put your shoes on for you? After 40 weeks (or 42 for some of us!), a lovely, fantastic creature leaves your cocoon and starts to change your life in new and exciting ways.

Your body also continues to change in bizarre and shocking ways. All depending on the amount of weight you put on during your pregnancy (3-4 stone/42-56 lbs anyone??) your body will respond accordingly. There are lucky mummies who managed to turn down the 4th and 5th muffins at the breakfast table so their weight gain was mainly baby. These are mummies that are difficult to like!

Please, leave your sick kids at home!

PLEASE, my fellow moms -- if your child threw up last night’s dinner or had the loo permanently stuck to their bottom last night, DO NOT SEND HIM TO SCHOOL.

I don’t care if you asked him if he wanted to stay home and he said no. I would want to get out of the house too if I was faced with the choice of helping a grumpy mommy with the growing mountain of laundry the size of Everest or playing with my friends.

The thing is, when you send your sick child to school, they spread their germs. They don’t do it intentionally – they cough or sneeze and the virus suspends itself in mid air, non discriminate on where, or on whom, it lands.

Confessions of a binky addict

I have a deep, dark secret.  I have hidden it from my closest friends for years.  I tried to hide it from my mom, but she eventually found out.

My children used dummies until they were practically young adults (binkys for you yanks!)

OK, I'm exaggerating, but it sure seemed like my life was governed by dummies for ages. I should have given them up earlier, but as the years went by they became harder and harder to extricate from our lives.

Coffee mornings and threadworms

I love coffee mornings. Women get together and discuss all sorts of things that they wouldn’t dream of mentioning on the playground or at a dinner party.

This week the topics drifted from Sarah Palin (the UK is actually frightened) to Jerusalem artichokes (I had no idea!) to threadworms.

My ears perked up when the discussion turned to threadworms. It’s one of those topics people don’t often talk about in public, like flatulence, headlice, and sex.

It turns out that threadworms (knows as "pinworms" in the US) are quite common in the UK, and most of the mums at the coffee morning had dealt with them at one point.

Oh, my.

A couple of my daughters have been complaining lately of itching “down there” and I had put it down to, how shall I say this, a lack of understanding on how to use toilet paper properly.

The end of finger sucking?

I was dreading the dentist. I knew that he would comment yet again on how my 4 1/2-year-old should not suck her fingers.

I also knew I didn't have a plan to combat this habit -- apart from the occasional “serious” discussions about my daughter's future beauty and other equally unsuccessful activities.

However, this time the dentist had a plan...or at least tangible advice.

He produced a leaflet about thumb and finger guards which are sold in the UK and are apparently quite successful. Our dentist gave the product a resounding thumbs up and that’s all I needed.

I promptly went to Thumbguard and bought a finger guard for £49.99 plus the usual extras.