Baby grows or baby clothes ????

My lad is now 10months old and he regularly heads out for the day in a vest and baby grow. The baby grows seems so much more comfortable for him. The big advantage is that he does not get cold feet, as he insists on doing the typical baby thing and making his socks disappear like some kind of magic trick.

 

 

 

We also have two beagles, so spending a good 2 hours out in the woods is the norm for us, and trying to be sure his mid drift is covered when he is wearing clothes is next to impossible. He will frequently have his back and tummy exposed with just a vest to keep him warm, if he wears baby clothes.

 

I have never been a fan of some of the baby clothes, many of them seem uncomfortable, heavy, impractical and covered in bits that will only dig into him. I am certainly not delicate or precious about my kids, but I would rather have him be comfortable.

 

As with most baby related decisions some mums seem to almost think that he is neglected just because he is not dressed up. Its annoying as the baby grow and vest are clean ( or atleast they are before he smears food, sick, dribble and snot all over them), so what difference does it make. Rant over!

 



You do have to be insane to live here!

Today was our 10th wedding anniversary, but that gave us no let up from the parenting.

After school today yet again confirmed to me that we must definitely be insane. My oldest had a friend over for tea, so atleast they were squirreled away somewhere playing computers most of the afternoon.

However Elliot is going through both seperation anxiety and teething, so is a mass of crying screaming snot. Every time that he is put down he will scream until picked up again. Combine this with the two girls who are exhausted after the year 1 and year R starts at school!

When the girls are tired they don't sit down, they just keep moving trashing the place, fighting, screaming and falling over until I lose the will to live.

Add in the two hyperactive beagles and the lovely husband, and I am suprised that my head does not explode.

Starting school - a slightly bonkers possible solution

So I blogged about my youngest girl crying when going to school ( and how much it sucked).

Today I had a plan, as I really wanted to break the crying habit before it got established. With Caitlin she was fine and excited about going, but it hit her as we walked across the playground, and thats when the tears started to get ready, and they then burst out as soon as she set foot at the classroon door.

I will set the scene for you. I had to be at work at 9, we had dropped the baby at the childminder and arrived at the school at 8:45 ( when doors open). Luckily we managed to find a parking space not to far from the school. Typically it was raining, so we carefully crossed the road.

Then all hell broke loose. I pretended we had to run as we were in a real hurry, so there was my 9 year old, the two girls, a slightly unfit me, various bags, lunch boxes, coats and water bottles. Did we sensibly walk to the Year R classroom, no we ran like a stampeding herd screaming and whooping all the way.

As we crossed the playground I could feel Cat tensing up and pulling back, but we pressed on. In through the door she flew, into the arms of the teacher, with a shout of I love you from us, and we were off.

Not only did I make a muppet of myself in front of any watching parents, but the head teacher and two other teachers were stood at various doors thinking we were all bonkers.

The good news is I got my breath back by about 3 pm, and my red cheeks died down about Midday. The really good news is that it seemed to work. She got her reward sticker and there were no tears.

Hip hip horray!

Starting school

Child number 1 - cried when settling into Nursery started school no problems at all

Child number 2 - never cried at Nursery or starting school

Child number 3 - onto day 4 of screaming, wailing and gnashing of teeth when going in ( but loving the day after that 5 minute moment)

Child number 4 - God help me when the time comes!

So Cat started off great, but suddenly seemed to decide that it was a good idea to miss Mummy, and scream at going in time.

The first day was a shock, as there I was gossiping and thinking she was long gone, when out she runs screaming and crying. Arrggghhh silly me, number one rule of starting school dump them and run.

Day 2 I was prepared in case, so when the crying started she was quickly hurled into the teachers arms, as I tried hard to walk very quickly away while hiding the upset.

Day 3 After a long chat from mummy and daddy, I thought we would be ok, no luck. The lovely teacher promised her a sticker if she came in with a smile the next day.

Day 4 Cat was determined not to cry, but the tears won out. Plan so far teacher has offered her a sticker and certificate if there is a smile tomorrow. I am planning on turning getting to class into a race, in the hope that she won't have time to think about crying.

Watch this space..........

Is there a right or perfect kind of parent???

Is there any such thing as the right or perfect parent?

Running the toddler group, working with a diverse range of families in my job, and during daily life I have now realised that there really is no one right way to be a parent.

We are all different and every mum or dad can bring something unique and amazing to the job.  I guess the one thing that matters to kids is consistency and knowing that someone is always there to watch their backs.

Us parents get so much advice and their are so many experts telling us what to do. Thats not to mention all the pressure and judgements that we feel on a daily basis. Amongst all this its amazing that parents manage to find their way.

Boys arrrrrrrrrrrrggggggghhhhhhh!

6 weeks ago while in a break from a water fight the lovely Aidan decided to show his sisters how high he could jump. Being a complete muppet he proceeded to jump into the sharp wooden corner of a hanging bannister.



Now get this image of:

me in end of day post water fight wet filthy clothes, unaware of large quantity of sons blood smeared all over my face from cuddling him.

hot baby just wearing a very grubby vest.

daughter number 1 withour shoes, fully clothed but dripping wet.

daughter number 2 without shoes and minus skirt.

son without shoes with very wet and dirty clothes, bleeding profusely from the head.

I don't even want to know what A and E thought as a car journey and hike from the car park later I dragged us all into their department!

Fast forward 6 weeks the same darling comes out from school saying he had hurt his finger. Fine, no bleeding or screamin and he can move it so off we go home.

He has some drugs and seems happy to go to bed. However down he comes in the morning holding up a purple little finger thats swollen to 4 times its size, and asks me if thats normal!

Off he goes with his dad to A and E where they strap him up and diagnose a buckle fracture.

How did he do this, well he was sitting on a bench.
How do you hurt yourself sitting on a bench.
The reply I get is:
Doh playing bench shove obviously with his friends at shcool.
Apparently I should be an expert on this very popular game of seeing who you can shove off a bench. I do know one tip for the future, and that is don't shove your fingers down between the slats of the bench while playing the above game.

The start at school, commonly known as "snot week"

    So I have one at the childminder, one started in year R, one now in year 1, and one moving on to year 5. After 6 weeks of solid non stop childcare I have so been looking forward to their return to school.

     In fact I think I used the word happy or party possible hundreds of times while talking to others on their first days in their new classes. Here was me dreaming of an imminent return to a nice organised and non chaotic routine

     Sadly that is not to be,  I forgot that if a baby starts at a new childcare setting, or a child moves into year R you are for many many many weeks living under a very big and dark cloud. That darkness comes from the curse of the bugs, viruses and and other disgusting thing the little darlings can pass between each other.

   If your child does not get a snotty nose, full blown, cold, exhaustion, dairrhoea and vomiting ( or any combination fo these) during those first few weeks, then I would consider investigating if they are in actual fact an artifical robot child.

When children meet new children they spread those lovely bugs. This year we are only just over 2 weeks into the term, and I already have a victim of the Year R curse. Cat my youngest daughter has bought home a lovely hacking cough and cold, which she has very kindly shared with her baby brother ( and possibly me).

So I am about to confront a weekend of:

broken sleep.
more snot, dribble and slime than you can imagine.
screaming, crying and any other unpleasant noise you can think of.
rush trips to the pharmacy to top up the calpol, ibuprofen and vapor rub supply.
endless amounts of dirty tissues hiding around the house.
an increasing number of ill people ( as it spreads through us all).
a baby who rubs snot immediately into his eyes and hair.
moany unwell over tired kids.
smelling of vapour rub and looking like death.
sitting in the bathroom for hours as they sweat and steam away the snot

Wish me luck( I am gonna need it)!
( and feel free to send your sympathy and support my way)

My carpet is now composed of about 90% baby sick

After 4 children, 2 dogs and 10 years of wear and tear, I believe that my carpet may now be a living being in its own right.

First you have that lovely new baby sick, nice!

Then you have the accidents when you are changing nappies, and the baby boys decide to wee like a little fountain.

Next we have the nappy off time, when they decide to wee ( or even poo everywhere)

Onto the general sickness and diarrhoea bugs they all get at times, and its compulsory that they will never quite make it to the toilet.

Then we have the muddy or wet feet that they drag in from the garden or outdoors.

Of course they also spill food and drink of various kinds all over the place.

Add to that the toddler phase of drawing on everything, so you end up with a nice array of marks throughout the house.

It does not help that the dogs run in after digging in the mud, and will not learn to wipe their feet on the door mat.

We also had a fair amount of wee accidents from the dogs while they were adapting to living in a house.

So in conclusion I think its safe to say that our carpet has now offical achieved the scientific classification of  :- GROSS.