I can’t believe it finally happened. I have loved Take That ever since I was 16 years of age, and now 14 years and three children later I finally got to see them live.

I spent yesterday afternoon making Take That t shirts for my sister and I and as soon as I could slip away, off I headed to the Odyssey Arena in Belfast to see the boys.

The concert was superb, even though Robbie Williams didn’t show up. I never was a huge Robbie fan anyway so the 20 foot tall hologram during ‘Could It Be Magic’ was good enough for me.

I really felt for the fans in the first few rows, no only did they get roasted alive with the fire effects during ‘Relight My Fire’, but they then got soaked by water jets during ‘Back For Good’.

My concert highlight had to be when the whole band walked down the overhead walkway to a smaller stage in the centre of the arena. That little stage happened to be right in front of our seats and I had to pinch myself in order to believe that I was actually that close to Howard Donald!

I felt like I was a teenager again, especially when my sister and I realised that the dance routines hadn’t changed, so we were able to join in with the ones we remembered. It really took me back to my younger years, when my sister got the Take That - Live At Wembley“>Take That Live At Wembley video for christmas and we spent the next week in the sitting room drooling and fighting over who was the most handsome, and worse who was the most gay. We often came to fisticuffs over the last question.

The boys didn’t look one day older, Gary Barlow’s dance skills even seem to have improved with time. I will always have a soft spot for Howard, but all the boys looked and performed brilliantly. The show went on for a full two energetic hours. The night was well worth every penny and more.

My poor kids have been subjected to my Everything Changes“>old Cds and videos all day, they will be the new generation of Take That fans! I just hope the band is indeed ‘Back For Good’!

Where have my children gone….I haven’t seen them in days!

That is a bit of an exaggeration, but since the sun started shining earlier this week, I haven’t been able to keep Rachel and Jake indoors for more than 15 minutes at a time.

A month ago jake couldn’t ride a 3 wheeled scooter, now he is like a speed demon on the two wheel version. A month ago Jake was just learning to ride a small two wheel bicycle with stabilisers, now he zooms up and down the street on Rachels much bigger model. Rachel can cycle with no hands and rollerskate without falling over at every step. Daniel loves the baby swing and eating sand!
The time outdoors has been great for me too. Since the kids are too young to play outdoors alone, I have been spending most of my time on our garden bench watching over them. This has resulted in my usual blue/white skin obtaining a much healthier glow. My skin normally burns and then goes white again, but this year due to my vigilance with the low spf lotion and the lengthier periods outdoors I have a very very slight tan.

Long may this fine weather continue! If only I could convince Gerard to clean out the barbecue then it really would feel like summer time!

Babyfirst TV has announced its first 24 hour TV channel aimed at children aged 6 months to three years old.

When I first read this I couldn’t believe my eyes. I have just about gotten used to 24 hour shopping, and 24 hours music channels, I can’t imagine there would be a need, or even a want for 24 hour television for children. Apparently the American Academy of Pediatrics agree with me!

I’m not in any way saying that children should never be allowed to watch TV. My children love to watch their programmes and I am guilty of setting my eight month old boy in front of the screen every now and then, in the hope of buying myself enough time to use the toilet, without him realising I am gone.

However, my children are also stimulated in other ways, and get plenty of outdoors play. They mainly watch TV in the mornings before school and I specifically don’t allow them to watch cartoons all day long.
At night children should be sleeping, or winding down for the day. Why would you want your baby to watch TV at 3am? I ask you!

I love our local library. Its a fun, educational place to take the kids….and even better its free! 

We got Jake his first library card when he was only two months old and Rachel was just turned two and ever since we have been regular visitors. 

Our local library is very small, but the librarian knows everyone, and always has a smile and some kind words for the children. 

On entering, Rachel and Jake make a beeline straight to the childrens tables and chairs at the back of the room, and always play first with the bead frames and jigsaw puzzles. While they are occupied Gerard and I can choose browse the shelves and choose our books, I laugh at his weird choices, and he admonishes me for picking yet another piece of ‘chick lit’. 

The we settle at the back and read a few stories before letting the children pick some books to take home. 

Children model their reading behaviour on on their parents, and many studies have shown that children who don’t have parents who read, often don’t see any purpose in learning to read at school. 

Cultivating a love of books in your children at an early age is vital to ensuring they develop good literacy skills. Visits to the library are a great and enjoyable way to enforce their love of reading. 

I am especially grateful for the library in the winter time. The storytelling and craft sessions that they host for children are a great way to keep the family amused when the weather is too cold or wet to play outside. 

Ireland is not renowned for its great weather, but sitting in our garden today, basking in the sunshine, watching the children cycle up and down the street with their friends, I couldn’t think of anywhere else in the world I would rather be.

With the good weather comes a more active social life, as us mums get together and let all the kids play outside. All you can see for miles around are bikes, scooters and roller skates. And while the children are busy we even manage to fit in the odd bit of gossip and chit chat.

I think that I will keep my posts quick today, much as I love you all, I’d much rather be catching some rays while I can!

Last week I told you that we had decided to take Jake out of night time nappies (diapers) and were anticipating a few weeks of wet sheets and blankets before he got the hang of it.

Once again we had underestimated our child and a week and a half later, he has had one very small accident and is now dry at night.

I am one very proud mummy!

Mind Hacks  are producing a programme for BBC2 beginning this week called ‘The Happiness Formula’.

In a bid to find out what makes people happy, the BBC have put up their own Happy Tips webpage. It is well worth a look. Suggestions for finding happiness include

* Practicing Forgiveness
* Being Grateful For The Good Things In Life
* Being a Little Crazy Now and Again
* Don’t Make Money Your God
* Stop Reading The Newspapers

I have to say there’s not much there that I would disagree with!

What makes me happy……thats an easy one: my friends and my family. I try to avoid negative people wherever possible, avoid needless worrying, avoid debt (that’s a big one!)and try to concentrate on the positive things in my day and my life. It works for me!

Dana pointed me towards Salary.com who have developed a great tool called the Mom Salary Wizard. It basically works out what a mums salary should be based on the amount of children they have, whether they are a stay at home mum or working mum and where they live.

As I don’t live in the USA I couldn’t personalise it, but a general analysis showed that I should be getting paid £72,000 or $134,000.

If only!

I mentioned yesterday that we intended to take Jake out of night nappies last night and how much I dreaded the prospect.

Before going to bed last night, Gerard and I put Jake on the toilet one last time. I fully expected to have to change the bedclothes at least once if not twice during the night. I was dreading the midnight wail, and the subsequent running about in the dark looking for clean sheets and blankets.

Imagine my surprise at 6.40am when Jake called me and I found him standing at his bedroom door completely dry. I checked his bed to make sure and sure enough he hadn’t spilled a drip. I could have kissed him (in fact i did), the pleasant surprise even made up for having to get up so early.

So here we go with night two. I hope I can report equally good results tomorrow.

I don’t like The Pill. Never have. I don’t want to pump hormones into my body, I don’t want to increase my chances of getting breast cancer, I don’t want to put on a ton of weight.

For these reasons and also the fact that it can be so ineffective I have never used The Pill as a method of birth control.

We have always relied on charting my time of the month and condoms. My first two pregnancies were planned but my third was a complete surprise and evidence that condoms can be useless too!

We now find ourselves in a bit of a dilemna. I don’t want to take the pill, especially as I am still breastfeeding Daniel. Gerard has been on the waiting list for a vastectomy for the last year and is not likely to get an appointment with the consultant for at least six months and then he will have to wait just as long for the actual operation.

So what do we do. Daniel is now 8 months old, by the time both Rachel and Jake had turned one I was already pregnant again. I am starting to panic about history repeating itself. Not just because I don’t want another baby, but also because due to my tendency to develop severe SPD I don’t think my body could cope with another pregnancy.

I would like to try some natural means of contarception, something that doesn’t involve hormones being pumped into my already unhealthy body. I would feel much more at ease if I had some added protection instead of just condoms. But what? My GP hasn’t any good suggestions, maybe I’ll google it when I get a minute.