Parenting Tips

Q: How do you know when your toddler's nails need cutting?

A: To confirm this, do a quick test... If, when your toddler scratches his nails on the kitchen table, it leaves claw marks.. the scissors may need to be used...



Q: Do you find that it is difficult to find one thing that will amuse both your toddler and teenager?

A: No.. Not really. Most teenagers will revel in the chance to pretend they are 2 again. As long as they can be given as much money as possible. At any time.





K x

Brandy works, right?

Before I start.. it's 10.34. PM. Lal is playing with his rocket ship, cars and animals. Normal children, normal toddlers.. normal 2 year olds go to bed at 7.30 - 8. Not Lal. Oh no. Nothing but the night owl for my boy. *sigh*

He woke up this morning with the sniffles. A little runny nose. Not the unattractive snot dripping, just a delicate touch on the top of his lip. This made him miserable, and forced me to allow him to nap for an hour at 1pm. That hour turned into 2.5 more hours as he refused to wake up.. even when I stood him on the floor and attempted to make him dance. Nope. Sleep please mummy. It'll be at least midnight before he sleeps now.

Oh, that reminds me.. he was up last night as well.. from 10-2... Will it harm him if I made him lie on the sofa with me, watching Fringe and CSI? I have a half formed worry that with him watching criminal and icky type programmes, I am only honing his future serial killer tendancies.. We'll see anyway.

G. My dear, daft G. She has exams starting tomorrow. The pressure is on. She has been forced to revise every night for the past week..and for the most part she has. For the most part. I am pretending that I can't hear the tell tale "ping" of her msn buddies calling for a chat. Honestky? She stands no chance with the exams if she can't even turn the volume on the pc off. I worry.. I do.

Ok. I'm off to get the brandy out. It's times like this I wish I had a prescription for sleeping pills.

OH! I almost forgot. Lal used to only get to watch BabyTv. No adverts, no merchandise.. and well he liked it, I liked it.. all fine. He now likes Nick Jr and Peppa Pig. (For some reason Bob the Builder now scares the B'jaysus out of him... he crawls away from the tv with a wobbling bottom lip whenever he appears. Poor baby) His all time favourite show though, and it's a good one... is the Cillit Bang advert. It actually makes him talk... "Bang... all GONE mama"

Marvellous.

K x

My helper

K and Lal did a bit of gardening yesterday.

K was too slow for Lal, who got very frustrated with his lack of effort.









What can i say? We make the boy work for his supper..

K x

PS: Check out a brand new Opinions Forum..
http://whatsyouropinionon.top-forum.net/index.htm

The Artiste

I blogged a while ago that Lal hated colouring in of any description. Literally. Neither colouring pencils, nor crayons nor poster paints would sully the pristine whiteness of his paper. Nuh uh. No way.
Nursery seems to have brought about a change in him. He has been 4 times this week..and on three of those occasions, well, I have had actual art work come home. He now has paintings on the kitchen cupboards. No one can believe it.
Marvel at the (non) talent of the boy..

Tuesday:

Wednesday:

Thursday - ST George's Day:

He's an artist! Meh..

K x

My unexpected life

I've been thinking about this since it was given as a topic..and realised that it is currently what I am living. An unexpected life.

Growing up, I was so secure in what my future would be. I always knew I would marry K, and that we'd just be a happy family.. no crisis, no problems.. I'd marry my prince (I was 14, shut up) and the whole Cinderella thing would come true.

I never expected that life would be so hard. That sometimes, every day would just feel like a struggle to survive. I'm a bit bleak at the moment, so my outlook on things is a little distorted, and that is some excuse for the feelings.. but blimey.. It was never where I expected to be.

The first 10 years of marriage were good.. he was away (that always makes it good, lol) but we coped with that with no fuss. Anything bad that did happen, we dealt with. I never expected long forgotten, or got past issues to rejuvenate themselves with so much pleasure. Seriously, my life has become like one of those terrible childhood trauma books that are everywhere at the moment.

When you are young, you never consider, or I didn't, that things can go wrong. Marriage.. you get married, you are not going to become a statistic.. You are in it for the long haul. You just know that you will be one of those couples who are finishing each others thoughts when you are 92... dribbling next to each other in matching beige cardigans. Of course, K and I might still acheive that.. but I never expected that he would be unfaithful, that he would blame me for it.. or that I'd be so destroyed when it happened. I never expected the strength it would take to work on that. To try and forgive it, understand it. But how could I? Fairytales.. that is what I believed in.

I never expected that one day, I woudl ahve to give evidence against the man I love for domestic violence. It wasn't really that of course, undiagnosed PTSD that manifested itself as an attack on me. That wasn't expected. And I'd never have believed it possible. But it's another thing to get past. To forgive. To not flinch away from. It would be expected that if someone raises a hand to you, you leave. Never look back. But when you see the man you love in so much pain, knowing that there has to be a reason for it... You do what you do. What you need to do.

I never expected that a pregnancy could end in miscarriage. Very naive, but I really didn't. It wasn't an option for me. When I wanted a baby, I would have one. But here I am, the mother of two children instead of 6. Not that I'd have had 6, but that is the number of pregnancies. I also never expected the pain of knowing that my body wasn't good enough to nurture the babies. The feelings of guilt and the bone deep jealousy of other women who can do it.

I suppose I should now look for the unexpected. This morning, I was unexpectedly happy when K and G woke me with breakfast in bed. Or that last night, I unexpectedly slept upstairs for the first time in 18 months and slept properly, without dreams, wrapped in the arms of the husband who hurt me so much.

Maybe I should stop being so cautious, and embrace what's left of life looking for the unexpected. I never knew that a website would provide so many wonderful friends, so many people I can call best friends. (Yes Hushy and Helen.. that's you *sigh)

Ok, so I wasn't expecting (lol) to be so deep this morning. I haven't had my cup of tea yet, so I'm obviously still half asleep. I'm off to be shallow on WYOO..and maybe buy a nappy or two.

K x