June 2013 - the terrible twos aren't so terrible

[Biscuitswithtea]

Here goes with a new thread!

It was day 3 today but she was refusing to poo so had to put a pull up on. And she's at preschool tomorrow morning, so it won't carry on then. I think we will have to give her a choice about what she does and maybe try again at Easter when I'm off work for 10 days if it's not been cracked before then!

What are you using to bribe with Sunny? DS has suddenly become sticker obsessed and was very proud of his sticker from nursery that he was given as a thank you for helping tidy up :)

We're about to get a new bathroom fitted. A deceptively big job as a loo is going into a room that's never had one, likewise a shower. (We have a separate loo already, so have only been living in the 20th century rather than the 19th ) Perhaps when we have got over that it would be worth our while revisiting the potty/toilet thing.

We started with chocolate coins (leftover from christmas) and stickers. Now she's moving onto bribes of anything she fancies - babybell, crisps, raisins, yoghurts etc. Think we need to start reducing the bribes but worried the little ratbag will start having accidents to punish us

I wouldn't worry with the days it seems like it's all gone wrong.
Dd can still have days where she seemingly totally forgets she was ever using the toilet! I smile, clean up and gently remind there is the toilet/potty if she needs it. She soon gets back to it.

I was at work yesterday looking in my bag for something and pulled out a spare pair of toddler leggings and knickers! Figured then that how you know you have a toilet training toddler usually in tow.

Wow, those girls are doing well! I'm ashamed to say we haven't made much of a start on this yet. I had 2.5 in my head as the starting point and that's been and gone so better get to it! DS does occasionally say he wants to go to the toilet and he sits on it then says 'finished' though nothing has happened. Once he did do a pee though !

To rewind slightly, HH - did I read correctly that you wrote 'After a 13- hour sleep...'. What is this of which you speak ? A 9-hour sleep is becoming the norm here from the small person...Grrr.

Haha sunbeam I was so impressed with HH saying about a dry nappy I totally didn't see about the sleep!
If it makes you feel any better dd averages about 9 hours too - and she has recently made bedtime later. But she can sleep thru the night now - although that is still rare!

She was sent home from nursery yesterday with conjunctivitis. Dropped her off and she was fine an hour later and her poor eyes the nice pharmacist has given us eye drops - the nice pharmacist probably hasn't tried getting eye drops in a wriggly 2 year old for a long time - I'm pretty sure when he said every 2 hours for the first 48 hours my face expressed how I felt about that.

I think you've inspired me to go pull-up free from this weekend. I've got a nice stash of undercrackers, most of which DS chose, so might as well just go for it. He's not stoked on the potty so we just use the loo. No idea if I should be doing that or not. I literally know nothing.

Oh sweet jesus, help us all.

Rae we go between potty & toilet which ever dd picks at the time! Think it's helped as at nursery they use toilets so helps with that but if she is also desperate she'll opt for the potty rather than tackle the stairs and not make it!

Be prepared for never having enough pants and wondering how many you can go thru in a day. And you will find them everywhere but the good days totally outweigh the mind blowing bad ones!!

Thanks pinky - good advice! We have 17 pairs of undies to hand. I'm hoping, oh god, that that'll be a good supply.

Nursery have loos and so far he seems to prefer either of our loos at home so we shall see. He has a potty which he's sat on before but rather more for fun than actual evacuating!

DD is - in the main - an awesome sleeper! DS not so!

We stopped with the potty training as it was upsetting her too much. Her overnight nappies are a touch wetter now but not like they were, so we are clearly getting somewhere. It's a tough one, but unless she asks to do it I think we will wait until Easter now when the weather is better and I'm off for 10 days.

Oh...anybody else sick of hearing 'why?' Coming up with answers is tiring!

We normally have "Whats that?" over and over again. I warn people not to join in her game and the fools ignore me and get sucked into a vicious cycle of "Whats that".

Lil is poorly today and feels ever so small again. All curled up and cuddly. Poor wee poppet

Why and 'ooose this?' When she hears a noise or someone one talking, but can't see them.
I honestly naively though I had a bit longer until this happened. We were also in the car with some friends older kids the other day I now also get 'we nearly nearly there yet?' When going anywhere now. And she loves to announce she is 'really really hungry' and rub her tummy.

Oh god. We had the nearly there question a few weeks' ago! I was also naive about when it started, Pinky.

Preschool laughed about it. Said they all do it but they hadn't seen DD do it until yesterday.

She is also obsessed with going on a train - and it has to be 'right now' I swear if she could there would be a foot stomp to go with it. I can't wait as she gets older and learns the meaning of things properly and there is real force and attitude - it endures enough eye rolling from me now.

Nursery still tell me she is on the quiet side. I refuse to believe this. There is nothing quiet about her. Unless she's sneaking into bed beside me in the middle of the night. She does that very quietly.

Sunny, hope Lil is feeling better soon. As well as gunky eyes today dd has sprung a temperature and lovely nose discharge which is covering everything. There are enough hankies or hands to keep it wiped.
Poor little ones - get well soon

These posts are bringing back memories! We had 'what's that' all the time around a year ago when she was learning words for things; a book with the same title started it off!

I posted a while back that she'd started asking 'are we nearly there yet?'. Luckily she doesn't say it very often as it's very annoying (the first time we were on a short walk and despite knowing we were nearly there she asked it continuously). I remember asking it myself as a child though (on long journeys)!

She's only asked why in an annoying way a couple of times so far. Yesterday she asked why the clouds move but she accepted my answer straight away!

Hope the poorly ones are better soon.

A horrible little girl came to our tots group for the first time this week. And I hate saying that about a child. Smaller than DD but pushed her in the face a couple of times. Parent nowhere to be seen when it happened. I didn't think it was my place to tell her off when a parent was around so I just moved DD away from her. Then at the end of singing the same girl went over pushed her and a little boy right over! The mother took her and left the group at that point. I really hope they don't come back! It makes me feel so though DD just takes it all.

I hate that Cup. I always think about her starting school next year and older kids being mean to my little girl! When does your DD start nursery? September? Polly gets into the odd scrape with kids there but they tend to help them resolve it much better than I ever know how to in the situation you describe. What are we actually meant to do? If she gets pushed are we meant to say walk away or actually defend yourself? My instinct would be to push back but I'm sure that's not right!

Yes, we're just about to apply for her to start in September. I hope they keep a close enough eye on them as it worries me. I wish we had training for situations like that. I know what I'd like to do but I suspect it's not the right answer. DD just stands there (or sits where she was pushed!)! Doesn't defend herself or think to walk away.

Polly just stands there looking sad! She doesn't fight back. Though at centre parcs she was basically attacking a little girl who she thought had taken Juno's cat. It just so happened that this girl had the same cat. I can't really fault her for defending her sister?!?

They don't keep a close eye as such because the ratio is 1:4 now and there is always someone in need of a nappy change etc. But there are obviously always people about. They try and encourage them to share and play together and to try and resolve things between themselves. Most of the time this works!

I still maintain that I will be getting the calls into school when dd has done something. And there won't be a doubt in my mind on whether or not she did do it.
She has a fight or flight response to these situations. Thankfully she rarely seems to be the fire starter, but she will happily finish it.

On one hand I don't worry so much about her at nursery, and there are some rough kiddies there, she can stand up for herself. But I really do encourage her to tell an adult rather than bash them back! She has her fathers hot headedness and that needs controlling!!

DS always looks surprised if he's pushed. He can be a bit pushy with us if he's frustrated, but seldom others. He gets confused if other children play with his toys at home now - he's used to sole custody to these. I assume at nursery there is an understanding that all toys are shared.

We're deferring ds going to council school nursery by a year. His private nursery has a pre school room that he will go into in August, and stay in until he starts school in 2018. We can use our funded hrs at either private nursery or council nursery. So he will have one year more of solid private nursery, and then he will have a year of council nursery combined with a bit of private nursery. The private nursery offer wrap-around care for the local nursery and primary school too which is a god send, given our respective long working days and complete absence of family near by!

Do you start school later in Scotland then? Ours go to reception next year!

We are in a private nursery where the funding means nothing. It's just passed on to us; so they get £3.71 an hour for 15 hours, 38 weeks a year. This is just knocked off our bill to the tune of about 170 quid a month. Better than a kick in the teeth but not amazing.

Wrap around care scares me. I'm assuming it will work out as I don't know anyone who doesn't work. But at the moment I can't quite see how!

Grrr. Lost my post.
Anyway....
Yes, I think they do start later. DS will have not long turned 5 & will be one of the older children in his class.
Our private nursery works in a similar way by the sound of things. From Aug/Sep - June, his fees for 3 full days will be 200 and something rather than 500 and something.
Wraparound care is surprisingly pricey - I assume because of the staffing required to take children between places. So the year that he straddles two nurseries may well cost us much the same as what we pay now. But - for the "cheap" year we will be overpaying on childcare vouchers by around 200quid a month. That will be jolly handy in the subsequent year(s)!

I'm with you, Bean , finding it hard to imagine how it's all going to work. J's nursery school does 9am-3pm hours at most (although they are considered 'extended days' - normal finishing time is 1210pm !!!), and so we still have his childminder on the payroll and she collects him most days. He starts in his proper school for the pre-reception year come September this year. It's in Notting Hill/Kensington and so is going to require bus ride to get there and back. Getting there is fine as DH doesn't start work till 10 but Christ knows what we will do about him finishing at 3. His childminder can't get there to collect him.

Actually at a loss. Waiting for magic childcare fairy to sort it all out for me.

We have a lot of 'what's that noise'. Then he answers his own question. And repeat.

Snotty town here too - hope everyone starts to feel better soon! I can't wait to take him home to Oz in March for a bit of a dry-out....

Is J going to private school, Rae? We've decided to keep DD at her preschool as she loves it, rather than sending her to one that's attached to a school as now the preschool children aren't guaranteed a place at the school we decided it's not worth the hassle, especially as DS is joining her there in September.

Many moons ago DD got twatted round the head with a toy car by an older girl at a playgroup. I actually said 'Don't do that!' to the girl and her mum heard. DD just stood looking baffled. I'm not sure how she'd react now as she's not averse to pushing DS, so it could go either way!