I wanted to get my big boy involved in my new hobby, mostly so he will stop tugging at my arm every time I try and get on the laptop for 2 minutes!

I asked him if he wanted to tell the other children in the world about his favourite books and he immediately ran to his puppet theatre! What a showman!

I will try and do a video next time, first night nerves kicked in today!

So this is what he chose to share, the ELC favourite the Old Mac Donald puppet book (I think he may have been influenced running into the theatre!).

It was a gift for his first christmas when he was 7 months, he loved reaching for the animals and by his first birthday it had helped him learn the animal sounds. Now rapidly approaching his third birthday he can sing the song in its entirety, wiggle the puppets individually in turn and is playing the perfect big brother role encouraging small boy to join in!

It has helped with developing all sorts of skills and I’m sure we will have many more years to enjoy playing with it!

Find it here http://www.elc.co.uk/Old-Macdonald-Hand-Puppet-Book/114653,default,pd.html

I have taken a few “pregnancy photoshoots” lately and I have looked on in awe and slight envy at the blooming ones beautiful blemish free bumps. Like a smooth giant Easter egg with no hint of a tan, they look like a ceramic wonder compared to my tummy that resembles the craters of the moon.

I lovingly applied bio oil three times a day during my first pregnancy even though at times I did feel it made the stretchy itch you get around 22 weeks even worse. At the end of week 36 I had a belly worthy of an advert for their miracle oil.

However, by week 38 my beach ball had started to drop and suddenly the now my stretched skin, pulled taught like a tight rope, gave up it’s fight for elasticity.

A second pregnancy, 2 years later and I bear even more scars of the journey that is pregnancy.

I have tried every cream in the book. If I see a review rating the latest cream/oil/lotion/potion I rush out to buy it. These are my current collection of potions and I am not sure any have made a dramatic difference.

I am always looking for inspiration for pregnancy shots and I don’t think I have ever seen a single stretch mark in any of the perfectly light, beautifully edited photographs.

Part of me wishes I had used the power of photoshop to make the photographs my husband took of me stretch mark free but then I think what on earth am I doing?!

Those marks are the proof that I have carried two beautiful boys, sacrificed my smooth skin for something much more precious. I shouldn’t be embarrassed on the beach if god forbid, I put on a bikini this year. I should be proud of the handprint that creeps over my belly button and the pinky lines, which are very slowly turning silver and when I look at my stomach have the glimmer of a shoal of fish swimming down.

So here I am in all my stretch mark glory for everyone to see.

The reason we refer to our eldest son who will be 3 in May as the big boy is because since the day he was born he’s always been, well, big. He was a perfectly average 8lb 5oz but within 6 weeks had doubled his weight and within 12 weeks he had almost tripled! That was when a bottle became my saviour as I think he had taken everything I had and more!

So my big boy, who is still only 2, needs something more exciting than a bonnet this Easter. Bonnets were so last year.

So here is my attempt at a cool big boy hat for the Easter parade tomorrow. Not the most polished crafty project I know but he had great fun and I think it should win top marks for effort!

The cockerel cowboy hat, ta daa! 

I found the cowboy hat in The Range but saw it in Hobbycraft too £1.99, had black rope around the top so I changed that for more Easter-like ribbon!

Will post a photo from the parade tomorrow!