November 2014 - the one where they test boundaries.

[MrsAukerman]

New thread ladies. Jump on board.

Oh wow MrsA! I can see myself and DH shouting our heads off to get down and be careful

He's so cute! Impressive climbing skills too!

lady I hope it all works out for you soon. I think with a CM things tend to work very well for a certain period of time and then they naturally run their course and it's best to get out asap when that happens. Fingers crossed nursery has a place for DD soon. She'll love it.

Anna 'a little rock in my eye' that is so adorable and so right. I love how little children are right about things and make perfect sense!

I'd say he's doing the morning poo just after he wakes up alright. Having to get up quickly in the morning is kinda one of the downsides of toilet training alright. Although many kids don't go dry overnight at the same time so it might not change much in the shorter term.

Both dds were up last night with coughs and trips to the toilet, and I had insomnia on top of it. Very tired this morning. I got up early to make coffees for dh and I to wake up slowly over in bed, but plans were scuppered by dd1 who was up like a shot demanding breakfast. Had to peel DD2 out of her cot at 8.15 on the other hand

We are preparing to go on holiday later this year and have been trying to get the DDs' passports sorted. DD2 has never been abroad and DD1's baby passport has expired. DD2 is so interested in the whole process and keeps yapping on about it. She's very much looking forward to getting 'my little book' with a picture of herself in it.

We are going to a campsite in Italy. I think they will love it and I just hope it won't be too hot and insecty. We all seem to have tasty blood

P.S. strawberry I too am wondering what a formal learning plan is! I am almost sure there is none of that in our nursery. I never get told anything at all beyond what she ate and how long she slept for. Anna, how about yours? Maybe this is a standard we don't have over here. Or maybe I should start asking more questions.

I love picking DD2 up from nursery I must say. I always get such a welcome and a koala baby hug. When I used to pick DD1 up she was having such a great time she would run away and hide at pickup time

Well we definitely don't have any learning objectives!

The blurb on the website expouses play as the most important thing - fine by me!

They spend a lot of time blitzing about in the garden and painting and having stories etc. They seem to be hot on manners as he's become incredibly polite. He's also very very well socialised and can approach any strange child.

So that's all I want! A polite socialised child who can play!

Mind you it's also bilingual (didn't pick it for that, it's just their thing). I am delighted he's getting a head start on school with the Irish as it can only help, like numbers etc, but it has made things a bit more challenging when you can't figure out what he wants and eventually you twig that he's saying "leaba" and he wants to go to bed! He also always calls shoes brogaí and that sort of thing. But there wouldn't be any target or anything dreadful like that.

Here in Ireland there doesn't seem to be the culture of metrics and targets that exist in the UK.

When I pick him up they just say "had a nap, ate all his lunch, no tantrums". I say "great" and leave.

I feel the need to share that I'm having great success getting loads of spinach and kale into the dds at the moment. In smoothie form that is. If i pile in the berries and bananas and a squeeze of honey, turns out they'll drink it by the gallon. And don't even mind that it's bright green.

Please nobody burst my bubble by telling me liquidised spinach is no good

This is the recipe if anyone's interested smoothie

Dd2 was being annoyingly fussy for a while there so now anytime dh and i see her guzzling spinach smoothie we have to do a little 'in your face' dance

Sat here trying to get ds2 to bed who is screaming he wants to to go on an aeroplane on holiday (don't we all) in between the screaming am getting go on a green bus first then yellow bus and aeroplane will go in sky. He talks about our holiday every day.

I should try that smoothie halfstar! DD's food fussiness has hit the level of absurd. I am getting some fresh fruit in her by making chocolate icecream with blitzed up forest fruit inside, but its hardly enough.

DD is regularly asking 'what's that noise?' when she hears something. This weekend I went to the loo and heard DD asking it on other side of the door. And then she went on to answer herself 'oh, mummy wee wee, mummy poo poo'.

Hahaha strawberry don't you just love the little darlings

I'm wondering can you come over and make me chocolate ice cream with blitzed up forest fruit? Sounds amazing!

Waiting here from the call from nursery...dd2 came down with a temp yesterday but seemed OK to go in this morning...but you know how it goes.

lady what's the latest on childmindergate?

Can somebody inspire me...I have some chicken breasts in the fridge, what can I cook that will give me leftovers to freeze? Chicken curry probably out as the one I make is different to the nursery one which makes it yucky

Pasta bake with chicken? The result of big volume and its beige, so high probability DD might even consider try some of it before saying "yuckie!"

Chicken biriyani we add cauliflower as well

BBQ chicken literally chop and marinate the breast, bung in wok with onions & mushrooms for 25mins we have with mash and brocolli

Rustic chicken - par boiled new potatoes, diced breast browned, diced onion, Rosemary and 100ml stock or wine in a pan for 20-25mins served with foccia or garlic bread

Home made garlic Kiev's my boys love them or hm goujons

Chicken and mushroom risotto (and veg because I have a weird veggie loving child), I do a big batch and freeze small portions for dd.

Childmindergate continues. Dd is holding her poop for home. No accidents last week but little one this morning so she's in the trainer pants since that was what was in the bag.
This friday is our trial and the lovely nursery, hope to find out more about availability then.

Sleep is baaaad at the moment, takes ages to go down with a million delays (another story, a drink, a cuddle) and then up several times in the night. She's dry at night so wonder if she just needs a wee.

Thanks guys for the suggestions. Didn't get them in time so ended up just making a bean, lentil & vegetable stew (which was frankly delicious but which they both whined about and had to be cajoled into eating) and giving them slices of poached chicken on the side.

east you always have great ideas for dinner! I must try that rustic chicken some time, sounds easy and tasty. please can you give me your recipe for homemade garlic kievs? Sounds like your boys eat very well.

lady I never think of risotto but I'd say they'd like it -interested to hear that it freezes well.
Have you been trying babydolly on the loo when she wakes in the middle of the night or just resettling her? If not I'd say bring her for a wee the second she wakes then straight back down. Night wakings here are pretty much always due to needing a wee and me too

Oh and same goes for bedtime if it's dragging on for bloomin' ages - often it's because dd2 needs to squeeze out one last extra wee before bed!

I bet you're right... she did a last minute wee last night and we had less fuss at bedtime and only one wake up. She still wear a growbag/suit thing so getting her out for a wee is a ballache, I was hoping to get to summer and do it then, as well as getting rid of her nappy (which is dry every night anyway). So roll on warm weather!!

Defrosted risotto is more sticky than creamy but that works well for 2 year olds with a spoon :)

Good recipes guys, I really need to try cooking some different stuff for DD, it is all chicken nuggets / fish fingers and waffles here (well, the 4 nights a week I have to do her dinner), because it is the only stuff she will eat without a fight and right now I just cba with battling and cajoling her. Lunch is basically cheese (I do put it in a sandwich or pitta but she just takes it out!).
I have started giving her squash with meals as drinking water was becoming such a battle. Just so noone gets the wrong idea - I don't think there's anything wrong with squash for toddlers - but it was like the very last thing I was holding on to! She has such a sweet tooth already and toothbrushing is another battle :-( and I never know if it's better to give her full sugar squash or stuff with artificial sweeteners. Anyway she drinks cups and cups of the stuff (very dilute) which is great in time for potty training which is starting the bank hoilday weekend.

We have chicken pox here :-( Poor DD is really covered, the spots are in her ears, all over her scalp, all around/in her bum and genitals, in her armpits where she already battles with eczema which gets infected, on her nipples!, on her fingers, and everywhere else too. As long as I keep her dosed with calpol she is not too grumpy and not scratching them too much which is amazing considering how many spots she has. My mum is being an absolute saint at the moment with childcare I've got to say, we are so lucky to have my parents so close to us.

What else? Oh we went on holiday to Bluestone in Wales which was amazing and I thoroughly recommend it, especially the mid week breaks which are super cheap out of season. We had lovely warm weather for most days and the funniest bit was DD's reaction when she saw Tenby beach!! (she LOVES building sandcastles and was absolutely speechless when she saw all that expanse of sand!)

Halfstar the smallest eats better than biggest I forgot the chopped smoked bacon in rustic chicken 😀

Garlic Kiev we bash out a chicken breast flat, pop large knob garlic butter (2 crushed gloves garlic to 3 tablespoons butter) roll chicken around it dip in flour egg and breadcrumbs (just blitz dry bread with blender) we double coat, bake in oven for 40mins. Making your own does make huge ones I make 4 and freeze two, the boys ha e about 1/3 of one and we have 2/3 of one.

Sleep been bit shit here too often ends up in our bed

Suddenly around here everything is about fairies. DH has told all the stories about the fairy door in her room and them getting out while she's asleep. So now she knocks on the fairy door before bedtime to say goodnight. DD even prefers watching cartoons about fairies instead of Peppa. Peppa is definitely out of fashion suddenly. I have to have a good look around the shops for tooth brush with fairies because DD isn't interested in brushing her teeth with peppa brush anymore.
In fact, the fairies are so hot on the list, I am planting fairy garden this weekend. Excuse my PFB...

The other night I was putting DD to bed and she started counting. I thought "Oh, counting helps to fall asleep!" and went on counting up to 40. For the first time DD repeated numbers beyond 20. But she got very excited about the new skill and it took for ages to get her sleep.

Am definitely getting a fairy door for the garden when we move house. He's started realising what magic is, and pretending sticks are magic wands etc. I want to get him a proper glittery wand rather than the Harry Potter "socially acceptable for boys" ones cos I feel very strongly that it's only at this age society will let him get away with these things (which is crap). I bought him glittery shoes which are the only ones we never have to fight to put on him!

DS still enjoys Peppa but he has gotten a lot more sophisticated in his tastes. It's all about Dinosaurs and pirates. And still bloody diggers/trucks/buses/fire engines. He's discovered Fireman Sam. Which means I have to watch Fireman Sam which drives me insane fucking Norman Price

He's actually waking up more at the moment than the 8 month old. Once a night for the last week. Nightmares? We don't bring him into the bed as he'd run riot but it is a struggle getting out of the room as he wants you to hold his hand. The Seahorse I mentioned before is helping us get out of there actually as he finds it so soothing. And giving him a bottle with a bit of water in it. (He has definitely regressed to water out of bottles rather than cups now he sees the baby drinking out of them)

Yes to fairies here too (I think because of Ben and Holly) not so much about having fairies as being them, she turns ANYTHING stick like into a wand, says an adorable toddler version of ‘abracadbra’ and turns us into frogs. I got her a cheapo plastic wand with a flashing star on the end and she LOVES it and it’s still alive 6 months later so £3 well spent.

anna I wonder if this is a growth spurt/sleep regression. DD is hitting me with the triple whammy of not wanting to go to sleep, waking in the night and getting up earlier. Although I think halfstar is right and this is to do with potty training. She’s still dry at night and needs to go as soon as she gets up, I need to get her up for a night wee but while it’s cold and she’s in her grobag suit thing I’ll wait. Roll on summer!!

Putting on a baby shower tomorrow, am broody as hell now we’re officially ‘trying’. Hope it’s not a long wait but I am pretty ancient in the baby making window…

Nursery verdict is in. DD loved it and didn't want to leave. They don't have a place until september :(

I haven't posted here for a little while (compared to my usual posting most days): I have been busy being too overwhelmed and exhausted by life in general to string a few sensible sentences together...

We have reached one of my least favourite parts of childhood: the phase of saying 'Why?' to everything I say, over and over again until I want to say 'because I bloody well say so!!'

She is also interested in magic, but I had thought it was DD1's influence but it seems like it is a common thing at her age. DD1 has kept an old worn-out toothbrush that has a red flashing light on for some reason. DD2 found this and it is her "magic". She waves it round saying 'magic, magic'. She also role plays Winnie the Witch (from the picture books which are really for older children but she discovered them via DD1). She instructs me "I Winnie Witch, you be Wilbur." (Wilbur is the cat), and kind of acts out stories from the books!

We have not had a fully functioning bathroom in our house since Easter when DH decided that he could single-handedly take out our bathroom and replace the entire thing including floorboards and plasterboarding the walls in a week. We do now have a toilet almost all the time and now a bath that can be used as long as you are careful not to splash the untiled walls, but DD2 has decided she hates baths now. Her response to the suggestion of a bath is to shout "No, no like that water, no want bath, no, no." I don't know why because she used to love baths. She claims to want to go swimming after watching DD1's swimming lessons, but I am not convinced that she would like that water any more than the water in the bath.

Happy good to see you back! I have been reading that toddlers tend to go off the bath from time to time. Last few weeks I can't get DD to sit down in the bath no matter what I do.

The other day DD saw video for Sia's Chandelier with the young girl dancing in the nude body suite. DD must have decided she was naked as she requested we took her top and leggings off and was running and twisting around in her nappy, pretending she was dancing just like the girl.