What we're reading: The Tiger Who Came to Tea (reimagined)

Have you ever been reading an old favourite to your kids and found yourself cringing at how it's dated, or wanting to talk some sense into the characters?  The Tiger Who Came to Tea is a classic, and a favourite in our house, but on the last read through I noticed it needed a bit of an update...

 Seriously, what self-respecting four-year-old drinks tea?

Notice how it's only men knocking on the door?  Only these days it's more likely to be a courier with something you've bought off Trademe, rather than the milkman or the grocer.

And then, without a thought for their own safety, or even checking to see who it is, they open the door!  Foolish mistake.

This tiger has no manners.

See what I mean?  No manners at all.  But look at Mummy and Sophie's perfect manners.

Mummy was floundering a bit here, and seeming a bit useless.  Sophie knows better than to tell her to buck her ideas up, but thought it would be helpful to point out that Daddy was a dab hand in the kitchen and could probably get his own dinner.

Mummy knew just what to do about the lack of water.

Doesn't this picture just shout "Honeys, I'm home!"?  This is one cool daddy-o.

A cool, beer-drinking, plaid-wearing dad.

Daddy's also very rational and sensible here.  First things first, sort out the tiger sighting, then we'll do fanciful things like go to a cafe to eat dinner.

Mummy hadn't had a great day, what with opening the door without checking who it was, letting in a tiger, letting the tiger eat ALL their food (AND drink Daddy's beer), and then floundering around seeming a bit silly once he'd left.

That's right, they'll certainly be more careful next time.  Or maybe they just like having tigers to visit?

2014 Mother's Day Awards

I wanted to write this post for Mother's Day, but I've been busy.  Was it just me, or did mother's day seem like a big deal this year?  There seemed to be a ton of mother's day activity on facebook, and companies doing all sorts of mother's day promotions.

Anyway, I've got a few Mother's Day awards:

Mother's Day more-viral-than-chickenpox award: This one about the world's toughest job was a bit of a viral hit.  Not sure what the company was selling, but if 1% of the 19 million-odd viewers bought whatever it was, I'm pretty sure it was worth the effort.

Mother's Day will-make-you-cry-like-a-baby award: goes to The Honest Toddler for "I Don't Know if I Love You".  So, so, beautiful.

Mother's Day most interrupted sleep-in ever: goes to me.  By the sixth interruption at 8.30am I gave up and just lay there, pretending to sleep.  But faking it wasn't quite as good as the real thing, so after 10 minutes I got out of bed and headed for the shower.  Interruptions as follows:

• a baby needing a full outfit change (I hopped out of bed to help)
• a toddler saying he just needed to "calm me down" [cue hair stroking]
• a falling stack of DVDs [cue exclamations from mother in law]
• the baby being brought back in to our room for a sleep
• the glass shattering on our oven door [thanks to Captain Boringvoice and his brother who thought they'd do some house renos]
• the vacuum cleaner sucking up the shattered oven door.

Thankfully the rest of the day was not quite so disturbed.

As the day ended, and I rocked The Sailor to sleep, I realised that this would probably be my last Mother's Day with a baby.  I rocked him a little longer that night, savouring his warm little body tucked against me, feeling the fuzz of his head against my lips.