The guilt trip

Ollie has a new weapon is his armoury designed to manipulate adults and get his own way. It is called The Guilt Trip.

As his vocabulary gets ever wider and, crucially, as he gets to understand the meanings of what he says, Ollie is coming to realise how he can deliver those words with maximum chance of evoking a reaction.

His current favourite is dropping a very poignant "I love you Daddy" halfway through a conversation. It just makes me melt an inevitably softens me up for any later times when he wants his own way with something (which often follows just after).

The other one which grips me is delivered if I haven't seen him for a couple of days when I am out early and home late and that is "I miss you Daddy". There is nothing you can say or do apart from give him a cuddle!

Chicken pox-help from the carpet cleaner.....

So the stay-cation didn't quite turn out as hoped for the day after our Paultons Park outing, Ol came down with chicken pox and the next day, guess what? Yep, Josh brokeout in the rash.

Not exactly the holiday I was hoping for, a toddler and a baby covered in spots and house bound for at least a week!

Luckily it wasn't quite as bad as it could have been and that may have been down to the alternative theories as espoused by our carpet cleaner: baths with camomile and lavender in and a daily rub down with sesame oil meant neither of the boys scratched or itches despite being covered. We didn't even have to open the calamine lotion!

Paultons Park (& Peppa Pig World)- some tips!

Our Easter break this year is a bit of a stay-cation and for one of our day out we promised Ollie a trip to the new Peppa Pig World at Paultons Park near Southampton and not too far at all from us.
Against my better judgement, we decided today was the day to visit, or rather Ol did (I thought next week might be calmer as a lot of the schools would be back but how do you tell a two year old?).

Unsurprisingly the combination of school holidays and fabulous weather meant it was seriously busy so here are a couple of quick tips for anyone thinking of visiting:

1. If you are coming from the west then leave the M27 at junction one and follow the road parallel to the motorway. Doing so will bring you to Paultons nearly as soon as leaving at J2 but crucially, you are avoiding the rest of the world who use J2 and then queue before having to turn across traffic to access the park. You howeve will avoid these and also jus turn left straight into the park (it might even be worth doing this and doubling back if coming from the east)

2. Buy your tickets on line beforehand (you can do so even on the day you want to visit). Not only do you save a couple of quid each but you ge to jump some serious queues as you have to buy a ticket before going to the gate: we wandered past the hordes of impatient kids and harrassed parents (not the way you want to start the day) and sauntered in having paid less than they were about to!

3. Do not make Peppa Pig world your first port of call. As it is new everyone does that and as a result it is rammed in the morning- go in the afternoon and it is much calmer and far more fun. There are loads of other things to keep the kids occupied in the morning in the rest of the park.

It was a good day out all said. Ollie loved it and Joh hardly slept as he had loads to see. The down side is that they don't accept Tesco Clubcard vouchers and apparently never do offers. Considering the times we live in this is a shame: Ol got in free today as he is under one metre tall but it won be long before he is not and two parents and two kids are looking at £80 before you even start on food and visits to shops etc. Whether this reticence to discount is because they don't need to with the new attraction will remain to be seen but a bit of help to parents wouldn't go amiss.

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!