Say Hello to Molly Dolly!

Little Molly in my latest book!

Today marks a magical moment for Adams Cloud as today we're launching a brand new product, it's called the 'Molly Dolly'. So this week I thought I would tell you all about how the Molly Dolly came about.

Molly & Dolly in their pyjamas

As you may know we have a little Molly in our house. She is great fun and goes on all Adam’s Adventures with Robbie and Harry. You may notice in each of the books that Molly has a dolly with her and every time I read the stories to the kids at bed time we play a game to spot Molly’s dolly.

Molly wearing the 'Play' dress

I often thought the idea of a doll would be great and one day, as fate would have it, I was at a show in Donegal and met a woman who designed a beautiful Rag Doll with matching clothes for the doll & the little girls. I was immediately drawn to them and I bought my daughter, Molly, the full set of clothes & the doll. When I gave Molly the doll & clothes her reaction was amazing. That was the day we christened the doll Molly’s Dolly and now Molly and her dolly go everywhere together dressed in matching outfits, including at bedtime.

'Sporty' Molly

Excited by Molly’s reaction to her new doll I simply had to get in touch with the woman who designed them to see if there was something we could do together. It must be something Adam had planned as the reception to my suggestion was very positive. We shook hands and, well the rest is history.

Molly Dolly is here at last and is also illustrated into my new book Adam's Greatest inventions. I most definitely plan to set Molly and her dolly off on their own bedtime adventures in the very near future so watch this space for a new book on this very soon.

'Trendy' Molly & Dolly

I hope you like Molly Dolly and it's a hit with all Adam's little friends, and look forward to more new things next year.

So I guess the moral of this week blog is to always make that phone call if you think you have an idea or can work together with someone. There is nothing to lose in making that first phone call. It worked for me and has given me this week’s Magical Moment.

PS: we only have limited stock so if you think you would like them you can order them on www.adamscloud.com/mollydollies.html

That’s it for this week.

Hugs and Kisses

Benji

More Magical Moment Ideas To Have With The Kids

Robbie & Molly have just seen the tickle monster!

Ok, at last, a little break from telling you all about what’s going on and time for more Magical Moment ideas this week.

When I was writing this week’s blog another thought occurred to me.  Kids need to be taught how to play, be creative, have fun and they learn by example. So what I have concluded is that we as parents have to be as silly, funny and creative as possible and basically make a fool of ourselves to teach them how to have fun with lots of great games right from the start. This has been my parenting style and I have to say I am happy with the results so far with the younger two, Molly & Robbie, who are at this moment, preparing to perform a magic show as I type this blog from my kitchen table.

So here are a couple of tried and tested suggestions to get going with from a young age. As always if you have any suggestions please let me know so I can share them. So here we go…

What’s in your Tummy?                                                                                                                    
This is one that Jackie’s mum used to play with her as a kid and she loved it so much she couldn’t wait to try it out on the kids.  So next time you're all snuggled up with the kids on the couch, bed or anywhere put your hand on their tummy and knowing what you gave them to eat during the day simply tell them what you can feel in their tummy. “Is that an apple in your tummy?” “Did you eat a banana today?” or “I think I feel some toast in your tummy, yum yum!”. Keep going through all the things you gave them to eat during the day and the kids will be amazed at your hidden powers to see inside their tummy.

Tickle monster

The kids go mad for this one and it gets lots of giggles. I can only imagine that every mum or dad does this with the kids but just in case here it is. Put both your hands in front of you and shape them like a claw and tell them the tickle monster is hungry for some tickles. The rest is easy, just get tickling on the tummy ribs under the arms, neck, knees, elbows and anywhere else you can find a tickle. The kids love it.

Staring competition

I love doing this with Molly & Robbie and highly recommend giving it a go. I’m sure you know the drill. Stare into each other eyes and the first one to blink, giggle or twitch loses. I always have fun with this one but the best part is that I always get a magical moment that can’t be explained, when for just a couple of seconds our eyes simply say "I love you so much" to each other, it’s amazing.

Guess what I’m drawing on your tummy.

Again another way to have simple relaxed fun with the kids and as the name suggests simply draw a picture, letter or shape on their tummy and ask them to guess what it is. Of course all the answers will always be right it’s not mastermind so you will be able to give lots of those all-important hugs of praise for all the correct answers.

Sock puppet show

We're all into puppets in our house and have puppet pigs, sheep, birds and vampires which are brilliant fun and I highly recommend having some in your house for some creative fun. But when the moment catches you either after dinner at the kitchen table, on the couch or in bed with the kids, grab a sock put it over your hand and slowly creep it up in front of the kids face when they are least expecting it and simply make it say “Hello!”. The reaction is great maybe you should have a camera ready for this one.

Here's a clip of Robbie & Molly performing a puppet show for me:

That’s it for this week more magical moments on the way but something new coming next week I can't wait to tell you about!

Bye for now.

Benji

When You Were a Baby...

The last time the Olympics were on in 2008 I pretty much saw every event live from China in the early hours of the morning and was lucky enough to watch Michael Phelps win each of his gold medals.  For me those Olympics were part of one of the most memorable moments in my life.

The reason?  Well of course it was not because of Olympic Champion Michael Phelps but rather my very own little champion, 6 week old little Molly Bennett who finished every bottle in record time as I fed her her midnight feed. It was truly amazing as I watched history being made in between back patting, tummy rubbing, nappy changing and the odd burp as trapped wind escaped from her tiny tummy. Little did I know at the time how happy Molly would make us all today.

4 years later by total coincidence Molly was sitting with me on the couch and I flicked on the Olympics only to see Phelps in the pool again. With Molly snuggled into me I began to tell her the story about when she was a baby she got very hungry in the middle of the night and how I would have to get up and give her lots of kisses, feed her a bottle, change her nappy and settle her down in the stillness of an early summer morning so she could get her beauty sleep just as the two of us watched the man on the telly win all his gold medals.

Then something really lovely happened, Molly decided to simply pretend she was a baby again and I acted out the routine of feeding her in my arms rubbing her tummy patting her back and giving her hugs and kisses just the way I did when she was a baby. She loved it and we had magical moment as Phelps raced up and down the pool chasing another gold medal.

Why am I telling you this story? Well simple really. I have discovered that the kids no matter how old love to hear a little story about when they were babies, what they did and what they said. They particularly love the funny stories involving wee, poo, barfing or how they totally embarrassed us poor old parents. Harry’s favourite story is the one of him escaping from a dressing room as mum was changing and streaking around a department store when he was 4. Hilarious!

So to create this week’s Magical moment and get those extra giggles hugs and kisses tell the kids a little story about when they were smaller, they will love it and get the chat and communication going from an early age.

Let us know your stories and the reaction you got from the kids when you tell them their little story. You can post them below, or on our Facebook page www.facebook.com/AdamsCloud, or you can email them to me directly at benjisblog@adamscloud.com.

Don’t forget we need your help so please share the Magical Moments blogs with your friends and help make a hug.

Just in case you are interested here is a vid of Phelps winning his medals in China.

Lots of love, hugs and kisses,

Benji.