Christingles

Had a lovely day today. Martha had a sore throat so I kept her off school and we went to toddlers at St Chad's. It was glitter today - Martha and Rosie both had a great time making several creations, which unfortunately we then forgot to bring home. I used to find toddlers exhausting as I was doing loads of the jobs there with a clingy 20 lb toddler under one arm but I'm getting better at saying 'no'. For example today I made all the juice, boiled the kettles and got the tea, coffee and biscuits out, put them on the hatch next to the mugs, then went and sat down with Rosie and her juice leaving someone else to actually serve coffee. Likewise I washed up but then had to go, so I left it for someone else to dry and put away.



We went on to our church to make Christingles for tomorrow's toddlers there , like this : http://www.thisischurch.com/christianinfo/christingle.htm
It was a really special time there, our church feels homely in the week when my friend and I can potter in the kitchen there.



I'm feeling a bit wound up now. I've just discovered that the school trip to the panto clashes with our family one, since on that day they won't come home til gone five, and I need to leave at four with them to get to Dad's work, plus who wants two pantos on the same day? Hmmmm I have no idea what to do about that.



Also I was noticing mothers on the breastfeeding line telling me more and more that they don't want to bedshare with their babies so I looked into it and the current fsid advice is not to bedshare at all until a baby is three months! Huh?!?! Bedsharing regulates a newborn's breathing, the gases it inhales and its temperature - it's not good for a tiny baby just out of the uterus where he or she has been snuggled up with mum to suddenly be placed down alone! Bedsharing also promotes breastfeeding which in itself has been shown to lower the rate of sids. We're not designed to sleep alone at first. I have no idea why Mary placed Jesus in a manger, seems a strange thing to do, but she was a 14 year old away from her family in a strange place with her firstborn, in a tough culture where they believed babies needed to be treated harshly to get on in life. It didn't do God's son any harm, for us less perfect humans it sets us up very badly for the rest of our lives.