Toddlers and advent calendars
Bizarrely, N seems to be going in reverse in terms of his interest in Christmas. A month or so ago he was pulling out his Christmas books with Father Christmas in and enjoying reading them, but now it’s December it’s…
Thoughtful discussion
Born in a Barn? Not in our house
My mum used to ask us all the time if we were ‘born in a barn?’ when we left doors open. We have the opposite with N and it drives me mad. We generally leave doors open, especially when it…
Master No – the answer’s ‘no’
We have a bit of a ‘no man’ at the moment. I might change N’s name to Master No. It all started with the swimming meltdown at the weekend, but it’s now followed through to nursery. I’m trying to get…
First Swimming refusal
Oh dear. This week saw a major meltdown and swimming refusal. Because we’ve been visiting my mum in the mornings, he has his lunch there, then we head to swimming with him having his nap in the car. Before we…
How do children cope with serious illness?
Illness, more specifically terminal illness, is something that you’d never wish on anyone and their families, but with children involved there’s always a worry about how they’ll cope and deal with it. I have to say, so far, N’s been…
Playing together as toddlers
N’s very definitely now at the starting to playing together stage, rather than playing alongside other children. It’s lovely to see the development of this, and how it differs when he’s with different children. At his day nursery, he’s the…
Say cheese – It’s school and nursery photo time
A couple of weeks ago N had his photo taken for the standard round of nursery photos. I was pretty optimistic we’d get lots of choice and some pretty good photos out of them for various reasons: Obviously N is…
Toddler habits: staring and people watching
N is terrible at staring at other people. He definitely takes after me in being interested in people watching (not in a stalkerish way, just in an interested in people way!). There are two things in particular he’s awful at….
Toddler excuses for everything
N is building up his bank of toddler excuses. He’s moved on from just saying no. In fact I don’t think I’ve heard him just say no for ages. Now we get ‘too dark for me mummy, turn the light…
Emotional bonding with babies
I still say I’m not a baby person even though we’ve had one. Considering that fact, I was surprised at how easily and automatic it was to bond with N even when he was just a tiny yellow bean. I’m…
NHS Choices or not? Not many in this case
Today I decided I needed to get my leg sorted out. A couple of days ago I thought I’d pulled a muscle, then yesterday it was lumpy and felt bruised behind and above my ankle and at the back of…