Our carpet cleaner is an alternative therapist

So, recently V has got Josh wearing beads around his neck to ward off teething pains.

I got home yesterday to find her ordering something colloidal silver which apparently is the antidote to all things.

This highly secret special formula (have you ever heard of it?) is souch a closely guarded secret that apparently it can only be dispensed by the most highly qualified medical practitioners or, in our case, the bloke who came around to fix our carpet after Ol burned a hole in it with a hair dryer!

A Dads blog: The "why?" phase has started

A Dads blog: The "why?" phase has started: "Recently we have been admiring Ollie's ever expanding vocabulary In the last week or two though, the consequences of this have manifested t..."

The "why?" phase has started

Recently we have been admiring Ollie's ever expanding vocabulary

In the last week or two though, the consequences of this have manifested themselves in a whole lot more scary phase...the "Why???" phase!

Every time something happens now or every time we do something, a little voice wants to know why that is just so?
Now, there's nothing wrong with that in itself: you want your little ones to understand why things happen. The issue is that despite the fact you give them an answer, the next words uttered are always another "why?"....and then another ......

The thing you never know about this game is where and when the last "why?" will come!

Angry baby + early start = @#!...

At last Josh is over his early onset of manflu and so we are determined to get him back to sleeping through the night.

He did it on Monday night so last night V was determined that this should continue.

What she didn’t tell me was that if he woke, we were going to let him cry. So, at 3am, Josh wakes and decides, whether out of habit or need you never quite know, that it is feeding time.

V went in to him, gave him a few soothing words, switched on seahorse (best invention ever by the way- see an earlier post) and came back to bed. Cue one very angry (not upset, definitely angry because there was clear growling among the crying) baby. Ten minutes later it was my go to see him. V pointed out that he might cotton on that I was unlikely to be able to provide him with his night time breast feed.  He did calm down, until I left the room that is…

This went on for half an hour which, upon reflection, is not pretty good because he did wear him self out and go back to sleep. He was till sound asleep when I crept out of the house this morning (as was V….). When you are in the eye of the storm however in the middle of the night you don’t think quite the same way. At least I did avoid starting a barney as the temptation was there to suggest V feeds him for a quiet life but you are wasting your time trying to sleep through it, especially when the monitor is right next to your ear so you can hear Josh live AND in dolby surround sound!

I know the mid only remembers what it wants but I can only recall Ollie sleeping through pretty early on and without any drastic measures from us.

Still, I had better steel myself because I can see this going on for a few nights yet until the habit is broken and Josh gets the message!

Where do you draw the line in getting toddlers to stand up for themselves?

Ollie came home from nursery today and said he had been pushed over.

Aside from the fact that he couldn't make his mind up whether it was a teacher(?!) or another kid, I know he shouldn't just accept it.
My dilemma is what he should do: it is all very well saying that he should tell a teacher and let them deal with it but that will only get him so far as he grows older. If he does he will be seen as a snitch, tell tale and much worse and is likely to attract more trouble if he tells every time something happens he doesn't like

BUT we can't encourage him (much as I would like to) to get him to push the other kid back again as otherwise he will become a bully

Ohh, the confusion of being a parent!!!!!

Kids are odd sometimes- Ol woke me in the night. He was crying because he had no room in his bed. Why? He had every toy he could find in there for some reason.

Am in trouble- baby still awake and it's my fault!

Got home tonight and took over responsibility for getting the boys into bed and dinner done so V could go swimming.

All went well to start with: milk done, stories read and lullabies (football songs) sung and Ollie's straight to sleep- tick

Josh however was not so straightforward. He decided he wasn't ready for bed and that some Daddy time was in order because he cried when in his cot and then emailed and laughed when out of it. I love the fact that he is just starting to express himself and the chuckles melt you so what could I do....

Unfortunately that meant that dinner went a bit by the wayside. Not too popular as late food and Josh out of routine. Never mind, playtime was worth it!