'You've got your hands full'

Multiple mayhem -- a carnival of posts about twins and more

PHEW. Thank you so much for all your support of this special week on You've Got Your Hands Full which has reminded me why I set this blog up in the first place and put me in touch with some fabulous blogs, some already familiar, others new to me.

If you can say one thing that unites all parents of multiples, well it's that they're busy.

Forgive me for stating the obvious. So I didn't know what to expect with my planned carnival. I've ended up with a dozen or so entries and so I'm delighted.

In all honesty this was very short notice so if anyone wants to make this a more regular feature, with us taking turns to host a monthly carnival, then please shout up and we can kick off an on-going Multiples Mayhem carnival?

The guest posts this week and the carnival entries have made me laugh and made me cry. I hope our small but perfectly formed carnival informs and entertains. 

Twins, Triplets and More week 2010: Guest posts, blog tour and carnival

I SET up this blog to offer information and support for parents and carers of twins, triplets and more. Years on, people searching for help with post natal depression still find us and I'm touched that I can be of help.

I've also a longstanding association with Tamba, the Twins and Multiple Births Association, being a member and former magazine editor and PR helper.

That's why when the hardworking people at the charity got in touch to tell me about their annual awareness bid, Twins, Triplets & More week, and the fact that they want to publicise free help for multiple mums, I thought it would be great to spread the word.

It runs from Monday, June 28.

The Gallery: Motherhood

 
   

 

THIS is my first Gallery post. I like simple pictures. These images are from a few years back, they make me laugh. They were taken at my mum's caravan in Wales where we have gone on holiday every year since my girls were born.

The next image shows Melissa pretending to be a mermaid, using a Stewarts' Seconds beach towel, a kids' umbrella and for some reason, an ornamental cat.

Wanted: Tips for first 'family' holidays

GOING on holiday with your children for the first time can be a bit of a culture shock.

I've just shared a disillusioned mum's story here.

I'd love to know thoughts/advice/tips for first family holidays.

If anyone would like to respond to Aqeela's story and offer any words of wisdom, that would be brilliant and I would like to include the responses in a later piece for www.havealovelytime.com

Thanks for reading.

Because families come in all shapes and sizes...

I'VE just posted about this at Have a Lovely Time, but it's something that I also wanted to add here in case anyone who just so happens not to have a family that fits into a neat 'two by two' box is reading. I know families with triplets or one child then twins can feel the pinch so I hope this can help!

Plus I absolutely love Quentin Blake so I wanted to use the picture again!

DOES your family fit the shape of a standard family ticket?

Or perhaps it's Mum plus her four kids, Dad plus his only child, and the young cousin who lives with them.

Maybe it's grandparents and their grandchildren, for whom they care or big sister and very little sister, whom she looks after. Mum, Dad, Auntie and her daughter.

Yet what’s the shape of a typical family ticket to a museum or gallery? Two plus two.

In the words of Ronan Keating: Life is a rollercoaster, you've just gotta ride it...*

I'VE shed a lot of tears in 2009.

Some came through joy and wonder as I lapped up sights I thought I'd never see, surrounded by people who love me or by the most fantastic of newly-found friends.

Anyone who has followed this blog over the last 12 months will know that blogging has taken me to the Bahamas and to Florida, to London and hey, Bognor Regis, among other places.

Holiday of a lifetime

THE above video from a blogger called Classymummy shows how tourists can feed stingrays on Castaway Cay, Disney's private island.

I've finally written up an account of our holiday aboard the Disney Wonder which took us to Castaway Cay and to feed the stingrays, as well as swim with dolphins off the coast of Nassau. Thanks again everyone for the good wishes before we went.

You can read all about it here.

Tales from a Travelling Mum out now - with a bit from me...

I'VE just updated Have a Lovely Time with this so thought I'd add it here too. Hooray.

I'm one of the mums, along with Gail Mowat from the wonderful Big Beluga Baby who has contributed to travel writer Alice Griffin's new book.

How exciting. I hope this inspirational mum finds plenty of support in the blogosphere. Go Alice!

My contribution is about how much I love family holidays and breaks in the UK, what fun there is to be had and an explanation of why we wanted to set up Have a Lovely Time.

But most of all, of course, Tales from a Travelling Mum: Navigating Europe with a Babe-in-Arms is Alice's story of adventures across Europe with her baby daughter.

It sounds absolutely brilliant and I can't wait for my copy to arrive. Once I've read all about what Alice has been able to get up to, she's also kindly agreed to be interviewed for Have a Lovely Time.

Help find Madeleine McCann and other missing children

MUM bloggers are being asked to help publicise this video in the hunt for Madeleine McCann.

As the appeal slips further from the top of news agendas, the hope is that some momentum can be maintained.

The video is from the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre.

If you are interested in learning more about other missing children in the UK, and how you can help, please also check out Missingkids.co.uk.

Back but shattered

THANK YOU again for all the good wishes before we went to The Bahamas.

If you are in any way interested, we are now back and loving the various delights of being at home - rain, sorting out car tax, gas leaks, terrible wind, that type of thing.

Yeah, I know. Possibly too much information.

I hope to post all about our cruise adventure as soon as I can. A small matter of a shedload of work stuff is in the way at the moment. Am not even going to attempt the terrible wind thing.

Seeya.