Terrible Twos (and stressful late twenty somethings) are here!

WEll, not officially, we have to wait until December to be actually 2 but little man is starting to have more tantrums, yesterday he had one when Daddy went to work. Later that day he had one when he went upstairs for his bath. Both had no obvious trigger but it didn't really matter and they both lasted at least 15 mins, ho hum.

There was one in Tesco's when he didn't want to go in the trolley. It happened right in the entrance/exit - yes where all the people were looking. I was really proud of myself, I ignored him and just very firmly and calmly repeated that it was time to do the shopping.

There have been one or two at bed and bath time recently, I am assuming these are due to over tiredness.

These I have been learning to cope with, recently husband has been having his fair share of tantrums too!! That I can't cope with, him=stressed at work= take it out on me when anything is not as it should be!! Also I am getting no help at all with little man, especially after dinner.

We shall have to see how they both cope on Wednesday when I'm going out!!!! Woo hoo!!

Hence not much posting recently...weekends are not good and I wish the evenings away some nights.

Nearly New Bargains

We went to a Nearly New Sale in Preston on Saturday. It was organised by the NCT. We left little man with Grandma and Grandad and drove up to Preston.

We had to pay £2 to get in (£1 each) and there was quite a queue. Inside was lots of stuff, loads for babies, toys, books, clothes, prams, cots, bouncers etc...

We were amazed at the prices for £13 we bought:

A t shirt, 2 fleece jumpers, a pair of jeans, 4 sleeveless vests, a noddy ready bed, a large floor jigsaw, a mecanno style make it yourself bike and a pair of bob the builder slippers.

We got to meet all grown up and her husband, with boy and missus. She was delighted at the price of real nappies.

Everything second hand of course but all in great condition, lots of clothes for the younger ones and loads of girls stuff, not as much for older children and virtually nothing for children above 5 years old. Even maternity clothes were on sale and breast pumps, cot bedding, blankets,

We also had the satisfaction of supporting a charity as 25% of the purchase price for each item went to the NCT, the rest goes to the individual seller.

There is another sale coming up in Chorley on 7th November. If you choose to go I will see you there. You can also sell your stuff if you register with them. The website for more info is www.nct.org.uk for more info.

If you do go to one be prepared to:

1) to queue to get in and pay £1 each for entry
2) for there to be lots of people in a small space
3) to queue for even longer to pay & exit.
4) I would recommend that you leave your children at home if you can or take a friend to help you.

Super sleepy tot??

Little man slept in until 9.50am on Saturday morning and Sunday morning!!!

At least we think he slept in, he made a bit of noise at his usual waking up time but then went quiet. Hubby and I fell back to sleep until 9.50. Little man had got out of his bed, drank the remains of his milk from the night before, got a book and his toy triangle and was sat on his bed playing with it. He sat there smiling at me when I walked in and was all happy!

On Sunday morning it was same thing except he had also put his sun hat on!!!!! Unfortunately no nappy can cope from 7pm till 10 am and although he declared he'd done beebies as soon as I opened the door, he had done lots of wee wee and the bedding was wet, including his favourite teddy.

I am a bit concerned he might have been awake from 7am till 9.50am - did the darker mornings confuse him? Why didn't he shout for us if so?? Why did he get back in his bed? Did he go back to sleep and why us he so sleepy all of a sudden?

Hmmmm, they do like to bamboozle us these little tots!

His new word for today is miaow!!!!!

Toddler - English dictionary

Little man's talking is really coming on, today's best sentence was

"Mummy, a geen didi duck" which translates as "Mummy, a green tractor stuck" He spotted his small tractor underneath the radiator and delighted in telling me this.

He does use a lot of his own words for common everyday things and I often have to translate. Here is a small selection. You can see some common sounds and some themes but I have no idea where dousche came from for his bed!!! It's all wonderful and amazing to watch them learn and I'm so glad I am at home with him to hear this everyday!


didi = tractor or any vehicle bigger than a car also including diggers
mummy gig = breast milk
gig = milk
dousche = bed (no idea where this one came from )
nar, nar, nar, nar = fire engine and other vehicles with flashing lights and sirens!
baa = sheep
booo = cow
brrraaacck = chicken
de-dum = bye bye
choo choo = train
git = buggy/pushchair
beebies = poo
bubbies = bubbles
duck = stuck
a yaaarrjhjj = anything scary
oohh ooh oooh = a monkey
roll-roll = road roller
choo = cheese
troo = tree
mup = pick me up
a weey = go that way mummy!

Being Brave & breastfeeding

I am being brave tonight. I have taken the decision to not breastfeed my son before he goes to sleep. I have been doing this almost every night for the last 22 months and 6 days.

Since he has been 13 or so months we were down to just the morning and night feeds. I took the decision to cut out all day time feeds and gradually replaced the afternoon milk feed with a cup of cows milk after he had turned one. I chose not to let my little man have mummy milk in the daytime and one the rare occasions he asked for it and said no, it only comes at morning or night. That way I could feed him in bed where it was warm too!

I was going to push onto 2 years as per WHO guidelines, however recently I've not been enjoying it at all. Little man has started calling it "mummy gig" not a problem but it just doesn't feel right anymore.

We also want to conceive another baby soon, we might even have one in there now! I have read that your milk supply stops at around 17 weeks and then starts up again. Either way I didn't want to be feeding a newborn and an almost 3 year old. I know some people do keep feeding their children beyond a new baby and well done you - I have decided that it's not for me.

So with little man's recent interest in farm animals I dug out a sippy cup he's hardly used. It was a freebie in an Ella's kitchen lunch bag I cost on special at Tesco ages ago. I warmed up some full fat cows milk in a pan (our microwave is in the shed and it's too cold to go out there) and we gave it him in his bed. Before this happened I showed him the empty cup and he can all the animal names on it, well he gives them his names anyway.

It was successful and I told little man the mummy milk had all gone and he was having special milk in his farm animal cup now.

I cried after I left his room, he fell asleep well and very quickly which helped as he wasn't screaming for "mummy milk". I don't know how I'll feel as time goes on. I remember dropping from 2 feeds a day to 1 and how my hormones went mad and I was very weepy for a few days. We will have to see, I expect engorgement will happen but all depends how the next few nights go.

I am very pro breastfeeding, I think it is a wonderful lovely thing to give your baby/child and the benefits for you and them are a great bonus. I understand that some people have problems at first and that it is not easy. Yes it hurts, your nipples will get cracked, bitten, sore, blistered but you have to brave and persevere. Get help from anyone you can if your midwife or HV isn't too great on breastfeeding as not all of them are trained in this area. I was lucky - I didn't need any help this time and next time I hope to BF again.

I am not having a go at anyone who formula fed their baby for whatever reason. Everyone makes their own choices for their own reasons.

baby holiday

We've had a fantastic week in Scotland with our friends from West of the Pennines, their parents for 2 days and another couple and their toddler came for the first 3 days also.

The babies as we referred to them had lots of fun, taught each other new words/sounds and baby signs.

Little man has picked up the baby signs for car and chicken and learnt to say baa and moo! He knows which animal makes these noises but can't say their names yet.

They bathed together, kissed and cuddled both in the bath and out of it. Of course there were many squabbles over toys, the sit on car, toy teapot and dolls pushchair being the favourites. Little man was showing his first signs of being naughty by pushing his little friend, something we need to watch I think.

The grown ups enjoyed looking after more than one toddler at once whilst mummies went to have showers and daddies slept, lots of wine, more wine, evening meals being cooked for us (we took it in turns) and having company. It was lovely to chat to everyone and we all got on great. We swapped recipes and adapted our own to meet the contents of the food cupboard or simply to enhance an existing dish.

We had lots of lovely fresh air, walking in the woods, going to various secluded beaches and the thing I love the most about Scotland - the quietness of it and being the only people there. We went to shops, looked at castles, went on a small boat trip to Threave Castle and

We had a great trip to Mabie Farm Park where little man and Sir Whingealot had a fantastic time and we will highly recommend it to anyone with young children. I must admit that my husband, our friend from West of the Pennines and I had great fun jumping on the "air pillow" I will put a picture here later to show you all us having just as much fun as the tots did.

Communal living worked well, everyone was very amicable and my initial worries were quickly erased.

I loved cooking on the aga and the warmth it provided in the farmhouse style kitchen. I also want to try the recipes my friends showed us, a slightly different bolognaise sauce to try, husband wants me to make a prawn frittata ala Jamie Oliver but minus the chopped chili and we've already tried the tuna pasta with cheese on top for lunch today!

We will definitely do it again, already thinking of a possible location - can we go next week??!!!

Definitely becoming Scotland addicts and been looking at the property for sale in the area already! However that is a different subject altogether.