Best friends at Two.

We had Master L's best friend over yesterday morning for a few hours, which I always look forward to. They generally play well together, which is a good thing as I tend to spend a good amount of time with his mum too.

Funnily enough, our oldest two - Master D and her eldest - are in the same class at school. Master L and his friend - her second child - will also be in the same class, as will Miss DL and her youngest. Funny how things work out!

Anyhow, he came round and they were both playing lovely. We had sandwiches for lunch, with a yoghurt and some juice. They barely sat still long enough before they were off sword fighting, squishing cars with dinosaurs and bouncing on the trampoline.

But you know when one of them starts getting tired and the other winds them up, or one of them is playing with something that the other wants? This happened. Or we have "muuum, he said he's taking that toy home!"

But in between the fighting (which isn't often to be fair), its lovely to see two young boys who get on so well, who have a lovely connection, who I know will grow up friends for life.

They genuinely care for each other and I know Maser L is always talking about his friend. He waits for him at the door in playgroup, and shouts for him when he seems him. He's sad when he realises his friend wont be in playgroup that morning, and when we pick them both up, Master L wants to go to his friends house and play!

Its a good thing they get on so well, as I said we spend a lot of time with them. As we have children the same age, we have a lot in common and find ourselves chatting for hours, before realising its well past tea time and no one has been fed! (I joke, no children were harmed in the making of this friendship!)

Although they get on well for the most part, when they rub each other the wrong way, they do it properly. Screaming, snatching, pushing and shoving, but typically, like many children, 30 seconds later they are friends and playing nicely again.

Essentials for a morning with friends!

 

I have friends who I went to high school with (some 12/13 years ago) and although our lives are busy (and different), we still try to meet for a catch up when we can. I hope this will be the case with Master L and his friend, but should that not happen, I'll be forever grateful to them for bringing myself and his friends mum closer together. We have formed a great friendship which doesn't feel like its only a few months old. A friendship which I hope will last a long time.

H.x

Ewan The Dream Sheep.

I did a review of sorts for this product when Master L was a few months old. It was a life saver and we still use it to this day - ok its not the same one; we had to replace his - but it is still a firm favourite in this household. I thought I would put it up here for you all to read :)

May 2013
Master L has been sleeping in our bed since being diagnosed with Colic, and whilst I loved the cuddles and easy access to feeding during the night, it was something I wanted to discourage. I wanted him to sleep in his own bed and get used to it for when the time came to move him into him and Master D's bedroom.

We got the from birth travel cot back from Nanas last weekend (left there from when Master D slept over before he outgrew it) and put it up at the end of our bed ready for that night. It didn't take us long to realise, though, that Master L was not for one minute, going to give his new sleeping quarters the time of day. He kicked off big style. That first night when we put him to bed, it took us 2 hours of running up and down the stairs, lots of shushing, picking up and rocking, and returning his dummy before he settled. For 20 minutes he slept before waking up for round two, so I brought him down and he fell asleep with Daddy, on the couch, for an hour.

In the end I gave up and he slept with me that night. I tried again Sunday night, and Monday night but the same thing happened, he screamed, I gave in and he slept in our bed. That was until a friend told me about Ewan the dream sheep. I knew a few girls had bought this sheep for their little ones but I wasn't really sure what it did, where to get it or how effective it was. I asked around, it seemed to play white noise and a lullaby and was , in their words "magic".

I must admit, I was a bit sceptical. How can a sheep that plays music be that good? Surely its just like any other lullaby playing baby item? But the more I asked, the more I was sold on this singing sheep. The more I heard it was successful, the more I wanted it. I had to try it. If it had such success with my friends babies, its got to have some kind of success with mine. But then Master L is particularly "high maintenance" and I wasn't sure anything would work too well.

I had a look online, and found my local Mothercare and Boots stored sold Ewan. It was decided, after picking Master D up from the Child-minder's, we would go on the hunt for Ewan the sheep. Mothercare, it turned out, didn't sell them in store, only online and if was to try him out I wanted to try him out that night. So off we went to Boots.

Thankfully, we found him in Boots. We snapped him up and got him home ready for bedtime. Master L was washed, fed and in his baby grow and I put him down with Ewan in his cot. I'm not going to say he instantly went off to sleep, end of story. We did have a bit of crying,  I did have to pick him up and settle him a few times. But it took, what,  20 minutes before he was asleep. I was shocked. Truly shocked, but also wondering if this was too much of a good thing.  Too easy. Will this happen every night?  I couldn't see it personally.

But I was wrong. The second night with Ewan, I put L down, turned on the womb sound (he seems to like this one best) and went downstairs. I had to go up three times, once to return his dummy, the second to give medicine for a slight temperature (from his needles given that day), and the third to turn Ewan back on. And that's it he was asleep.

And that, my fiends, is how our nights are now. He goes up to bed around 7.30 after Master D is asleep and we switch Ewan on, pop dummy in and leave him to go to sleep.
I am know a fan of Ewan the dream sheep. I take him out with us, he takes naps with Master L, and never fails to get him back off to sleep after his 3am feed.

Ewan really is magic!

 

We used Ewan until Master L was around 2 years old, every day for naps and every evening at bedtime. It was put on so many times and the batteries changed over and over, but unfortunately, with that amount of use it had, it couldn't last forever. Around this time I found I was expecting Master D and Master L's baby sister. I entered a competition on a Facebook page to win a Ewan the Dream Sheep and, surprisingly (I never win anything) we won!! As Master L had stopped using the sounds within the sheep a short while before me entering the competition (he used to use it as a teddy!) I decided to keep the new one for our new baby.

 

Miss DL uses Ewan too, Master L still has cuddles from time to time and Miss DL uses Ewan when she is particularly struggling to drop off to sleep. He is a definite winner in our household. We LOVE Ewan!

 

 

 

H.x 

When your child becomes THAT child at soft play.

Do you ever have those days when you think to yourself "why did I ever bother leaving the house?" But then you think back to the squabbling and the 3 loads of washing waiting to be done, and the dishes piling up on the side, and you remember why you ventured out into the scary world with your three children.

Master L definitely woke with the devil in him today. After taking his older brother to his swimming lesson, my friend and I decided to take our brood to a soft play centre for the afternoon and get some lunch there. I was quite looking forward to going as it was a new centre just opened and local to us, so trying it out was a must.

I should have known it was a bad idea when my friend told me "he's not listened to a word I've said when you were out there getting the older two" (referring to Master L). I should have taken the hint and turned that car right around and gone back home. But no, I clearly like to punish myself, or similar.

We all know the child I'm talking about, the one who's mum is forever on edge, looking to see where her child is, to make sure he is behaving and playing nicely. The one who shouts "NO" when his mum is crouched down trying to drum into him that we "be gentle" and "play nicely with others", and the one who likes to have his turn with a toy before its time for his turn. The child who likes to grab before asking and, shock horror, the one who hits!

Well, it was Master L's turn to be "that" child today. He quickly found a softer hearted, more mellow child and decided it was his afternoon's goal to annoy him (and his mother). He took it upon himself to follow this boy, snatch from him, tell him not to do something "naughty" but then continue doing it himself. He was causing mayhem. My apologies and explanation's of "sorry, he has mischief in him today" were falling on deaf ears and I could feel those disapproving looks from the boys mother, burning holes into the back of my head whilst I made Master L apologise to the boy and move him away to play with something else. The type of looks that scream at you "your parenting all wrong! Your child is the DEVIL!"

Master L isn't a "naughty" child. He is what you call 'strong willed'. He's very independent, he argues back and thinks he has the right to get his own way, all of the time. He's a mini tornado (think the Tasmanian devil), very full on all of the time, and he terrorises the hell out of his big brother. But he is also the most loving and caring 2 and a half year old too. He'd give you his last smartie if you ask nice enough, and completely drown you with kisses (and licks too - gross!) He gives the best hugs and always makes sure you're OK if he sees you hurt or upset.

What people forget in the heat of the moment - and I have been guilty of it too - is these little people are still only 2 and 3 years old. They're still learning about the world and their place in it. No matter how old we get, we all have bad days, and behind the child having a bad day is a mother (or father) having an equally bad time, thinking they are doing everything wrong and feeling pretty confident in the fact that they aren't good enough as a parent.

 

Obviously, though, some kids are just little sh*ts!

H.x

One way ticket to TantrumVille

Master L is 2.5 years old & is definitely making headway in the tantrum department. I am not quite sure where his attitude comes from - well that's a lie, its clearly his older 5 (going on 15) year old brother - but he'd give a teenager a run for their money that's for sure!

I recently took my three to a local Macdonald's for a "treat" after a busy day - I basically had no energy to cook - and the second we got there I instantly regretted it. See, my two year old enjoys making things into a game of 'lets see how quickly mummy gets flustered' and when I say he is the master at this, he is THE best. And when they all join in, I soon feel my eyes glazing over, my "happy place" coming into view and the autopilot switching on, so I can do what is needed to get us out of there and home in as quick a time as possible.

Here are 6 ways to get yourself a one way ticket to TantrumVille whilst eating out:

1. Ordering him the drink he asked for, because it isn't the same as the drink his brother has. Everything Master L has, has to be the same as what Master D has. Obviously. Any fool would know that, even if the thing in question isn't even liked by Master L. He would still like one of his own, you know, just to remind himself why he doesn't like it.

2. Giving his brother one of his chips, after he pinched one of his brothers. Because may I point out - and everyone with a 2 year old should know this - he is allowed to pinch food, but heaven forbid anyone should take a chip off of him. Whether he wanted the chips or not. If he was done with the chips & someone else wanted to finish them off, he now wants to eat the entire bag of chips. So, who's turn is it to sulk? The 5 year old who has had a chip stolen, or the 2 year old who's chip you are taking to replace the one he stole from his brother?

3. Flushing the toilet instead of letting him do it. Now I hate public toilets at the best of times, the germs all over them give me goose bumps just thinking about them, so I try to make toilet trips as short as possible. This means doing everything really, really fast and before the 2 year old makes a beeline for it. Yes, I would prefer to flush the toilet, but, alas, Master L has decided this is his all-time favourite thing to do at the bathroom.

4. Opening his toy for him. This is a huge no-no, especially before he has chance to. He and I both know he can't do it; those little plastic bags are far too hard to open when you are two. But hell hath no fury like a 2 year old who cant at least try opening them!
 
5. Insisting he sits whilst eating his food. Because that's ridiculous. Who sits still whilst eating?!

6. Telling him he cannot, under any circumstances, leave the restaurant on his own, whilst Mummy is popping Miss DL's dummy back in. Yes this actually happened. A lovely gentleman stopped him and caught my attention by saying "is this your little one trying to escape?" Of course that's my little one. Who else would he belong to *sigh*.

H.x