The Toddler Turns Three...

I always seem to do these updates sporadically, rather than on specific but today I am in time for his third birthday . But I am always glad when I do publish them as you think you will remember all the little things, but already his first year is becoming hazy in my mind and now confused with his sister so some things I want to remember about this age...

For me it is the best age. The terrible two tantrums have calmed down and you make me laugh all the time. You've lost the baby cheeks and dimples and now you've grown into a solid little boy, you look light but are very heavy - must be all the muscles.

Your favourite things to do:

* Go really fast on your scooter down a hill

* Make 'fwends' with older boys at the park or soft play and join in their games

* Complete puzzles for 5 year olds

* Play with other peoples toys

* Make up little stories using his Batman legos or dinosaurs

* Watch tv - especially 'wetwix' and youtube which you call 'game' as you watch it on the tablet and you used to use the tablet to play cbeebies games but now you're all about Thomas and Friends stop motions, Ryan's toy review and watching other people play computer games

* Be chased and play hide and seek - your hiding skills have vastly improved from when you used to hide behind the curtains every time. You barely cover your eyes and say, "1,2,6,9,10 ready I come!" Plus if you don't find him quick enough he shouts, "I'm here!" or just pops out from his hiding place.

* You're obsessed with ghosts and monsters and every random noise is always one or the other.

Your speech has improved a lot this year and you've progressed from saying a few words and phrases to sentences. Some of my favourite things that you have said lately, "mummy I yike your tshirt." "Rara is my favourite." You call upstairs downstairs and nothing will change your mind about that. You sing along to all your favourite cartoon theme tunes and often only actually know a few words and just sing them really loudly - its very cute. 

Your favourite foods are pasta, sausages, fish fingers, chips, pineapple, toast and porridge. When I say we're going to the supermarket you say, "supermarket?Popcorns, sweets, guagagine (magazine) ..."

Friends: 

Your best friends are Nancy and Annabel as you see them the most. You also like playing with your other nursery friends Jessica, Huxley, Miriam and the 'twins'. You love 'Sasher' (Asher) too and go swimming with him and Jon and the 'gerls' every Saturday morning.

Quiz your toddlers: Ellis at 2 3/4

What's your name? Ellis

How old are you? Two

When is your birthday? Batman

How old is your mummy? Umm…

How old is your daddy? Daddy sleep

What's your favourite colour? Blue

What's your favourite food? (Big pause) Pasta

Who's your bestfriend? Mia

What's your favourite tv programme? Wescue Bots

What's your favourite film? Monsters Inc

What's your favourite song? Popcorn Popping and Twinkle Twinkle

What's your favourite animal? Wions

What are you scared of? Doggy

What makes you happy? Puzzle

You really are such a fun, lively and charming little boy. Parenting you can be exhausting as you're so full of energy and love to run off in public places. However our lives would not be the same without you in it. You are the loveliest big brother and really make your sister laugh and are always very concerned when she's crying etc. We are so blessed to have you in our family!

Let's talk about maternity leave...

So I've been reading a lot of blog posts and articles lately about the division of labour in parenting. Who is the one doing all of the work in a family? The dad who goes out to work and then helps out with the kids when he gets home or the mum who is at home all day? Now I'm not an official stay at home mum as I returned back to teaching part time after having my Toddler. However I'm now on maternity leave so living the 'dream' for a while. 

Now I think The Belgian (my husband if you're not a regular round here) thinks that all I do is sit around and eat cake with my mummy friends. We've been having a few 'discussions' lately about whose turn it is for a lie in (if there is such a thing for a parent) or whose turn is it to do the dishes and he very kindly remarked that I shouldn't be tired as all I do is 'go on jollies all day long.' 

So this is dedicated to the one I love. 

I want to tell him all about the jollies I go on in seven easy steps:-

1) These jollies usually start some time around four or five am when the Baby needs a feed. You're usually asleep for this - or at least you do a very good job of seeming asleep as I dig you in the ribs and hiss, 'your turn!' I usually don't fall asleep for around an hour or sometimes the Toddler wakes and joins the party too and I have to settle him back down to sleep too.

2) After vegging out in front of CBeebies whilst simultaneously making three different breakfasts as the usual 'powidge' didn't cut it and he didn't touch the toast so dry cheerios it is. I start the mammouth task of packing the mum bag. It seems like a Mary Poppins bag but creating it is not so effortless. We can't leave the house until it packed full with tools to ease any emergency situation - nappy blow outs, toddler tantrums, hungry children, snow in May...

3) Then comes the easy bit getting there. Travelling half an hour or more is usually necessary where we live to get to the decent places for days out with the kiddos. The Baby doesn't like the car to stop so every set of traffic lights, roundabout, zebra crossing etc and she's seriously crying so I am driving at a snails pace as we approach a red light willing it to turn green. 
Then The Toddler (don't let the photo below deceive you) drops his book, drink, toy and expects you to somehow be able to turn around and retrieve it. Or he sees the DDD' player and starts demanding Thomas when its not charged and, of course, you are still driving and trying to meet your mummy friends on time. So a tantrum ensues and you have the cacophony of a small baby's wail and a toddler's full blown hysterics. Bliss. Or should I say how 'jolly.'

4) You arrive at the destination. I will use the example of going to a big park - for example Kirkstall Abbey or St.Ives - these are the types of places I go on my 'jollies.' Not a leisurely stroll around the White Rose Centre or trying some street food at Trinity Kitchen - where I'd like to be going on my jollies. 
So we enter the park and The Toddler immediately disappears. Pretty standard behaviour from him. There is always a part of the park designated to under fives (similarly in soft play) but this is far too tame for him and he would rather attempt the monkey bars and give mummy a heart attack. Or he says, 'mummy help' as I have to rescue him from the leap of death.

5) Squabbles. An inevitable part of any jolly. When you mix toddlers and toys you will often hear the phrase, 'my toy, 'my turn' and 'stop it!' So you try the softly softly approach, 'please share with your friends' they point blank ignore you and you end up chasing them, pinning them down and trying to prise the offending object from their clutches and offer it back to the other pouting toddler - who has wondered off and isn't interested any more as they were just in it for the hustle. Very jolly. 

6) Food. Now if we've opted for a 'picwic' half of it has already been consumed in the car for bribes. The Toddler doesn't usually stay in one place long enough to actually eat and so you have to chase after him with a soggy sandwich before letting him mostly eat crisps. In fact when we got to Bolton Abbey and have picnics on the sand the food is usually 50% sand and they seem to enjoy the extra crunch. As you wrestle to get any goodness into The Toddler the Baby is screaming for her lunch. And so you're feeding her with one hand and feeding yourself sandy crisps with the other hand, whilst the Toddler disappears into the distance. Really must get him signed up for the Olympics 2036 long distance - unless they introduce a hide and seek category. 

Or you could brave lunch in a cafe. Eating in cafes with The Toddler and The Baby should really be saved for another blog post. But suffice to say it is a case of finishing your food as quickly as you can so that you can leave with minimal damage done to the establishment and to your sanity. And if you happened to go Jakes in Harrogate after we had been there last month I have no idea how all of the salt and pepper and sugar sachets ended up all over the floor. Ahem...

7) When it's time to leave your children always very willingly leave the park and get in the car and are perfect angels all the way home. In fact this face never makes an appearance...

Then you arrive home and have to unpack the Mary Poppins bag, Laundry must be done, dinner must be made and grubby children must be bathed. But wouldn't it be more jolly to sit on the sofa and go through your news feed or watch silly videos on youtube? Or taking half an hour to go upstairs and get changed after work - perhaps getting distracted by a nap along the way? Of course! But then this "important task" can only be earned by somebody who has spent the day earning real money instead of going on a 'jolly.'

We love you daddy.... 

.         

Night out at Bradford Leisure Exchange

The boyfriend I had in my late teens was obsessed with Pizza Hut and that is where a lot of our dates took place. Deep pan pepperoni pizza, salad bar and free refills. He had it down to a fine art of building cucumber slice and carrot stick walls to fill the salad bowl with as much goodness as he could. He could down down his coke in thirty seconds and so the waitress' always brought us a jug. Oh yes he was a cheap date.
Then in my uni days the Pizza Hut buffet was the ultimate challenge. Just how many slices of pizza could one student consume? Too many! Your food baby hanging heavily over the low slung nineties jeans.
So imagine my surprise when I was invited to a blogging event to try the new Pizza Hut menu and its all grown up - American classics and even super thick and tasty milkshakes. Its a far cry from my previous memories. We were loving the choice of new flavours for the pizza like Philly Cheese Steak and Beef Fajita. I opted for the Heavenly Veg which was topped with goats cheese, black olives, caramelised onions, cherry tomatoes and fresh rocket. It looked like a classier high street pizza chain. We also got sides of hot crisps with melted cheese - an amazing combo that I'd never tried before. All topped off with one of their new milkshakes - that come with extra in a metal container just like true American diners. I opted for the salted caramel and loved the little pieces of honeycomb in it. You need to hit the hut to try some of those bad boys!

Next up was a round of bowling. I don't think I've been bowling in about a decade. You get cute little stickers when you score a strike and once we discovered this we tried even harder - there is a little kid in everyone of us! Sadly I didn't really earn mine - I got a spare but no strikes.

Next up was the part I was most excited about - trying the new dessert menu at Frankie and Bennies. They have gone for American style desserts too - in keeping with their menu and their decor. I loved the cinnamon waffle crunch and the raspberry trifle sundae. The Can't Decider gives you a little bit of everything and would be a great sharer for a couple.

The kid in me was loving the Ice Cream Candy Shop from the kids menu. Its an extra £2.25 on top of the kids menu and I think it would be so exciting for a child and help to retain their attention at the end of a meal when they often get squirmy. It has ice-cream, sauce, popping candy and little glass bottles of sweets. A really interactive and cute dessert.

The evening ended with a film at cineworld. I like this cinema its clean, never too busy and they have security coming into the films to make sure people aren't on their phones or chatting - because nothing worse than having screens glowing out of the corner of your eye or teens chatting during the best part of the film. I'm such an old woman now who actually goes to the cinema to watch the film rather than to fool around with my friends! Haha!

Thanks to the Bradford Leisure Exchange for a night out and to my mum date Robyn!

Family day out at Geronimo

We were lucky enough to be invited along to Geronimo last bank holiday Monday. We'd never been to a 'festival' or even on a big day out to a kiddies theme park. We were excited but also slightly apprehensive about taking the Toddler out due to his tendency to wonder off.  However since it was a bit of an overcast and windy day we were able to put him in a really bold snow suit so he could always be spotted - plus he didn't really wonder off.

The highlights for us were:
* Watching his little face on the rides. Normally there is a tantrum as he wants another go - but if there wasn't a queue he could just go round again. These types of rides always cost a few pounds each so I thought this was good value as its all included in the entrance fee.

* My little boy loved the Crocodile Joe tent and has absolutely no fear in standing inches from a tarantula and even touching a snake!

* Being able to try out lots of different rides

* The cup and saucer with great views of Harewood in the background. We didn't realise that our ticket included entry into the lower parts of the house and we would have enjoyed shielding from the wind and rain in the house.

* We really enjoyed Sam Sam the Bubble Man's show in the main circus tent. He blew smoke out of bubbles and even made bubbles big enough to fit a small child in. I took some pictures and videos of his show but it was so dark in there that they didn't come out very well.

* He enjoyed seeing some of his CBeebies favourite on stage - like Andy and Mr Bloom. I would agree with some of the critics that it was hard to see the stage and it would have benefited from screens either side - we were okay as the Toddler is still okay on our shoulders but I can understand this isn't plausible with older children.

* There was a good variety of food trucks. I had a delicious stone baked pepperoni pizza and we all shared some churros from the Churro truck. The Belgian got some chicken and the Toddler was adamant that he wanted a corn on the cob and although he NEVER eats sweetcorn he does when its on the cob!

* We loved the helter skelter - this was about a twenty minute queue once it got busy - and daddy and the Toddler went down together. The Belgian did say that it was so windy at the top he thought that it would blow over!

* The Toddler loved joining is with the warm up games and played an actual football match with these guys - I can't remember their name! This was probably his favourite thing of the day. The coaches were very sweet and inclusive - even though he's too young to play a proper football game he had a few touches and was very chuffed.

* We chanced upon the meet and greet with the Clangers and so got a photo and had a story.

* The soft play tent was good to help the little man blow off some steam.

* He enjoyed the balance bike course.

Ways to improve the event would be:-

* A map or floor plan as there were so many exciting things that we missed as we didn't know when they were going on. I've read about a press tent in another review but this was never pointed out to us. As mentioned we chanced upon certain events - the Clangers and the bubble show - but only through being in the right place at the right time.

* I think that the queues were poorly managed on the Sunday and it was a lot busier. Luckily we had chosen to go on the Monday and it was a lot quieter and so we were able to do most of the things we wanted to. However the guy at the pizza truck said they'd been queuing two hours on the Sunday for a pizza - he said his pizza was good but not that good! Haha!

Overall we had a fab day out, even though the weather was a bit grim and we would go again. Although there were lots of things for toddlers to do - baby sensory, soft play etc - there seemed to be better activities for older children like rock climbing, craft activities, graffiti tshirts etc so I may go again when the Toddler is about six.

Project Life // Week Three

Week three has to be my favourite week yet. I love the colours and textures. Turquoise and pink are a real Glitter Girl combo and worked well with the mix of newborn baby girl pics and toddler pics. I used a post-it note to make the title card and love this background paper with its feminine alphabet print.

The left hand side has stories and pictures about my girly day out with The Baby where we went for lunch in Harrogate and then got her birth certificate, cute pram and snuggle baby pics, The Toddler having sensory play threading cheerios onto spaghetti and soft play fun with my friend and her little girl.

I liked the angle of this picture and how adoringly they are both looking at The Baby. I stapled the embellishment on to add some texture.

The right side has a black and white SLR shot of the siblings, her six week update, pictures of our family walk to Swintsy Resovoir, The Toddler going on his early Saturday morning swim dates with daddy and building a snowman in the garden.

Stamping, sequin, wood veneer hearts and washi tape were the main embellishments on this side. 

I adore the happy look on The Toddler's face in this picture with his arm bands on. I love that they spend that quality time together and that I get to bond with my baby girl and possibly have a little lie in - depending on her napping.

Let's talk about breast feeding..

I have spoken before about my struggle with breast feeding with The Toddler and the guilt I felt when I had to bottle feeding after the first few days. So this time around I was ready to be more assertive with the decision that I made about feeding. I decided I would give it a go again, but if it didn't work out than I was fine with bottle feeding too and I wouldn't allow myself to feel pressured into it.

S, how was it that the day after she was born history repeated itself? There I was sobbing uncontrollably in the very same maternity ward and feeling all those feels again? I was meant to be more confident and in control second time around - wasn't I?

But she latched on - which he never did. Straight out of surgery she was whimpering and the midwife informed me she was hungry. 'Here we go,' I rolled my eyes. At least he had given me a day before he was hungry and the drama began.

So I gingerly placed her to my chest and she just latched on and started feeding. It was amazing. I couldn't believe it could be this easy. The midwives all joked that girls are so much better at latching on than 'lazy boys.' She fed briefly and then I was rolled back to the maternity ward feeling really pleased with myself. 

As the day went on she fed some more and it was okay. However it only seemed to work well on one side and so I got quite sore. The midwives were really busy and I kept buzzing them for help and support and often it would take a while for them to arrive. Being terribly English I resented having to push the buzzer and get help every time she wanted to feed.

That night was okay as she wasn't terribly hungry and they brought me one of those perspex cots that attaches to the side of my bed and so I could just put my hand on her belly and rock her to sleep rather than feeding her every time.

The following day things got more intense and sore. She seemed to want to feed all day and she had a really strong suck. My nipple was getting more and more sore and I was starting to dread every time I heard her little hungry whimper. I couldn't go gooey over her cuteness, bask in her newborn scent and enjoy the moment as feeding was the only thing on my mind.

Around me other mothers were having the same battle and through the none-too-discreet curtains you could get a sense of their experiences. Not able to latch on. Struggling to get the sleepy baby to feed. Not able to go home until they could feed the baby. Not wanting to 'give in' but finding breast feeding such a struggle. Milk not coming in yet. 

I felt for them and wanted to break down the barriers and share with them how the struggle is real. But you know we're all English so...

By the evening the battle of supply and demand continued and I was weary and wounded. The Belgian was going to stay for the night to support me (as they changed the rules and now allowed partners to stay overnight if you wanted to.) However he got a phone call and the Calvary needed him.

My very vocal meltdown was apparently not very subtle and a midwife nipped in to see how things were going. Cue full on waterworks and feeling very silly. They were more understanding this time around and talked me through different options. They suggested feeding her with a plastic cup that she would lap up like a little cat. It was very cute.

But I felt like a failure again.

Even though I had promised myself it wouldn't be like this and I would be fine with whatever decision I made.

Shortly after The Belgian left my favourite support worker came in saying she'd been so excited when she'd seen my name on the board. So apparently there was a most needy board and I was top of the list that day. 

She sat with me for an hour and we just chatted like friends, about her kids and motherhood: the struggles, the triumphs and all the emotions linked to newborns. She was really understanding and open. She helped me to feel human again as she fed my baby with the little beaker. Half an hour later (with the help of some ear plugs) I was sleeping like a baby and I had a much better night.

In the morning I was ready to leave. I'd made peace with my decision. I was going to mixed feed  - pumping and bottles. So the baby was fed and my poor engorged breasts got a rest. I knew from friends that when they say that breast feeding doesn't hurt, it is mostly a lie, as its always tricky and especially when you aren't used to it. I also know some mums who took to it like a duck to water and found it a really positive and beautiful experience. 

I have so much respect for women who breast feed as it is so time consuming and you can feel like you are chained to your bed or sofa. With a toddler it must be twice as hard - the pumping certainly was. I know mums who have breast fed twins and this must be exhausting. So yes we should champion it, but we should also realise that it is not possible for every woman. 

Some people had barely even said hello before they were asking if I was breast feeding and how else can you respond but go through the whole saga? Men too - as if I want to discuss my boobs with you, And why should you have to justify yourself? It is your baby. Your (slightly defective) nipples. And your decision.

Wild Ones // Yorkshire Sculpture Park Kaws

Ever since we saw about this exhibition at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park we knew we wanted to go and check it out. The Toddler is obsessed with Mickey Mouse and these giant sculptures definitely have a Disneyesque feel to them. 

It was pretty boggy, due to all the recent rain, these two were equipped for the conditions in their wellies but I wore my converse and they are still caked in mud now. I think the toddlers favourite part was splashing in the puddles - as per usual.

There are loads of interesting exhibits and sculptures to see that are there all year round. It's a really big site and a long route if you walk along the whole thing - we took a shorter route but The Toddler was still shattered by the end.

Everyone was taking pictures of these sculptures and they were definitely the main attraction. I thought that the name of the artist sounded Scandinavian but he's actually American.

The above was one of my favourites as it looks like a toddler peeking out behind his mummy. 

The Baby was having a little jaunt in the carrier. I was worried about her little feet being cold - but they get so warm against your body that I didn't want to put her in a snow suit.

I loved The Toddler's curiosity and how he could just roam around freely checking all the exhibits out.

Near the end of our visit we had a walk up a very steep and muddy hill to get back to the car. We had to play a very time consuming game of throwing a penny ahead for the toddler to fetch to get him up the hill. He wanted a 'carry' but he was too muddy and heavy for that - plus I was already carrying The Baby and he's been a bit of mummy's boy lately - it's always 'mummy turn' for everything. In the end we bribed him with an ice-cream - only a two year old could want a mini milk in sub zero temperatures.

I would recommend anyone living close to go and check it out as it is only on until June 12th. Even from further afield it is worth a road trip. One guy were chatting to was from Surrey but his mother lives in Wakefield and so he specifically planned a visit to her so he could see this exhibit - after watching it on the news. More information on the exhibit here and do watch the video of the construction as its fascinating.