Teeth

Teeth are the Bain of most parents life's. From the age of approximately 6 months any unexplainable thing that happens to your child from nappy rash to dribbling will be blamed on teeth. "Sorry he's a bit grumpy, think it's his teeth", "sorry not sure why my daughter is having a tantrum, think it might be teeth". Didn't sleep well? It must be teeth. A bit hyper / quiet? Teeth. Anything can be blamed on teeth - my previous GP even said that when he first started teething could be cited on death certificates of infants.

We've been lucky in general with teething but have had our ups and downs and certainly aren't through it yet. My daughter had two bottom teeth through at 6 months and then nothing more for ages and ages! In fact another 6 months! The first two were fine but the next few caused more issues. On her first birthday she was fine, next day nursery called she had a temperature of 39! We picked her up but also had lunch plans at the hand and flowers so she had to come too. They were brilliant but it was slightly embarrassing her spitting out two Michelin starred chips and carrot! She sat on me the whole time and despite calpol was getting hotter and hotter  so when we came back we went straight to he doctors to hear she had a chest infection, tonsillitis and an ear infection. Poor little lady and then  a few days later two teeth appeared. This pattern happened for the next 3/4 pairs of teeth that came through, she would have a very high temperature and require antibiotics then a few days later more teeth would appear. Her fangs came through quite late (end of last year) and seemed ok but we had a sigh of relief, no more teeth for a while before those dreaded molars came through and a dentist appointment in January it confirmed they didn't seem like they were coming anytime soon. Then tonight as I was brushing her teeth I spotted something - to my shock it was half a molar! The gum is still covering half the top but it feels like it appeared out of no where! So the little lady got an extra sticker before she went to bed for her new tooth which had probably been there for some time. It looks like the other bottom molar will be greeting us sometime soon.

With our son things are happening a little quicker although it started exactly the same. Two bottom teeth on the stroke of 6 months. However at 10 months he has 6 teeth as four massive top teeth have also greeted us. I've been grateful that he has more teeth before he started nursery in the hope that he won't be as ill as his sister was at times. So far he has had grumpy stages and much like his sister really bad nappies when the teeth cut - think the worst nappy rash you've ever seen which weeps plus horrendous poo, which isn't that rare for my children! But we've been lucky so far and I'm hoping it continues!

Some tips for teething:

1. Funky giraffe bibs for dribble
2. Bongela / teething gel
3. Cucumber 
4. Teething rings cooled in the fridge
5. Calpol and nurofen - keep them topped up. Don't worry about giving them it. If they're in pain then give them something to relieve it
6. Nelson's teething powder. It's a natural powder and I don't know how or even if it works but it does seem to provide some relief to them
   
7. Remote controls - you know at the end of the day you can have as many teething toys as possible (Lamaze toys with some teething parts on are good) but they are still going to want to chomp on your remote control or phone or glasses... Anything that's solid!
8. Gin - obviously this is for you not them! But after a day with a grumpy baby perhaps it's you that needs the relief and I often find that gin is a good help!

So if you're going through teething, good luck! It will end and isn't always as bad as you hear (but it sometimes is!). Each child and actually each tooth is completely different. 

MAD Blog Awards

This weeks Monday's moment is a little self indulgent so please excuse me.  Last week I found out that someone had nominated me in the MAD blog awards under the category "Most entertaining blog".  Now I'm not going to lie I was utterly shocked but also over the moon!  I started this blog about 6 weeks ago and have been amazed at the response and feedback I have received and to receive a nomination just put me on cloud 9!

Since I mentioned this on my facebook page a few people asked how to vote, so here is the link and the categories I'm eligible for: Blog of the year, Best blog writer, Best new blog and most entertaining blog.  I would love it if anyone who has a spare minute and likes reading my blog votes for me.  I don't for a minute think that I will win (I read some amazing blogs) but I'll be truthful with you, it feels amazing to know that someone has taken the time to vote for me.  So thank you if you're the person who has voted and thank you to anyone who does vote; I really, really appreciate it!!

Free guilt service with your eye test

I thought I should get my eyes checked before returning to work as I knew that I needed new glasses from the headaches I've been getting lately.  So I went along and had my eyes checked, brilliant but did you know that you can now get a free guilt service along with your eye test? Actually since my eye test was also free I felt like I must have won the lottery or something to be given so many freebies in one morning!  Let me explain about this free service but I will caveat that it probably isn't constrained to opticians I think you can get this service in a variety of places...

Optician "So you're going back to work soon?" 

Me "Yes, next week"

Optician "How many hours will you be on the computer"

Me "8"

Optician "Full time or Part time"

Me "Full time" (just so you get the full effect I pull a sad face here)

Optician "And you say you've got another child? What are you doing with the children"

Me "They're going to nursery"

Optician "Wow, that's expensive isn't it.  It'll hardly be worth going back will it?"

Me "Umm, yes but needs must..." I tail off here because yes we will have hardly any money after but I don't really have a choice and my financial status or lack of is none of her business.  I then decide I must be having a particularly scruffy looking day and obviously look like I can't afford it.

Later on..

Optician looking at my baby "Oh you poor boy, you'll be going to nursery full time you won't see mummy anymore" then looking at me "You're going to miss out on so much, in a year you won't recognise him he'll have changed so much and you will have missed it all"

Me.... Speechless.

So everyone if you want to have the free guilt service with your eye test I can point you in the right direction (ish, I haven't got my new glasses yet!).  And if anyone else has found where else you can get a guilt service do let me know because I do love someone trying to make me feel worse than I already do... Honestly I do, I think it's so brilliantly wonderful that people just speak without thinking and even without having met you before manage to make you feel terrible.  Luckily I just shrugged her off and didn't actually feel guiltier because I know the children are going to have a wonderful time at nursery and learn so much but it's me that's losing out and there is no point worrying about what you can't control.

Would love to hear about any free guilt services you've received too.

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The return to work is here

So today is the eve of my return to work (well eve, eve as I'm returning Tuesday) and I'm feeling pretty rubbish about it.  It feels really different returning this time to when I returned to work last time, not least because last time I was 4 months pregnant!  But also as a second time parent I'm not nervous about my children, it's me that I'm nervous for!

My children will be going to nursery full time.  It's a sad fact and one I wish I could change but under current circumstances this is the way it is and that can't be changed.  The nursery they will go to is the same one that my daughter has been at since 9 months (since I've been on maternity leave she's continued going two days a week) and it is a wonderful nursery.  Last time I was nervous about her attending a nursery, I had in my head a vision of snotty, ill toddlers that were crying most of the time and just doing messy play.  I also had a conversation with a childminder (who I'd turned down) who said she hated the thought of a child going to nursery and "staring at the same four walls all day everyday".  Well none of this could be further from the truth, well apart from the snotty nose thing except they teach them to blow and wipe their noses and dispose
of the tissues!  Their nursery is brilliant and really stimulating.  They have a ballpool, garden with a couple of rabbits, go on walks, have an imaginary room etc, they have a brilliant time there whilst also building really good social skills.  For my daughter at 9 months going to nursery was actually the best thing for her as she was a bit of a mummy's girl and was / is shy in some situations and was starting to get a bit clingy.  Going to nursery was brilliant for her socially as she's not clingy now at all and although she is still shy (that part of her won't change) once she's settled into a place she's herself again.  I wonder if she had gone to a childminder full time if she would have just become clingy to them as well as / instead of me, we'll never know.  Nursery also has some unexpected benefits; they tend to be good eaters, they learn how to use cutlery from a young age, they learned from a young age how to climb and descend stairs safely etc.  So, overall I know the children are going into a really good environment.

The downside to this stimulating environment is the tiredness.  I didn't really realise until I was on maternity leave the second time how much it takes out of them.  I just thought my daughter was grumpy on Saturday's because we weren't stimulating her enough and because the house isn't as child friendly as nursery (therefore she her the word "no" a lot more).  They get so tired that you then lose part of your weekend because they're exhausted from the week that has just been and when children are tired they test boundaries, a lot.  But at least we're prepared for this and I will keep everyone posted on how we deal with this.

Most of all I feel like I'm losing my freedom.  Sure we do certain things on certain days but we have plenty of free time to do what we want, when we want - within reason as you always have to think about nap time! During the week I'm in charge and I can choose who we see, when we see them and what we do and it's lovely.  Don't get me wrong, I love family time at the weekends but I have to compromise what I want to do with what my husband wants to do.  And now during the week if I want to go away I have to request leave and I can't just come and go as I please.  I also won't see my friends and their little ones who I will miss just as much as my two and I'm finding it hard to think about not seeing these lovely little people all the time.  I will make more effort to see people at weekends but it does require effort, when you're all off at the same time it's easy and that's what I've been used to.
In an ideal world I wouldn't work or I'd work part time and still send my children to nursery as there are so many benefits from going but I guess it's the real world and I just need to suck it up and I just need to put my game face on and get on with it.  But the real world sucks doesn't it!!

Product Review H&A Bubbly Bath

As I've discussed before bedtime is my favourite time of the day and a big part of this is bath time.  My children both love the bath and have done from a young age, in fact my son has never cried in the bath and has always loved being in the water.  It's been great since he's been old enough to share a bath with his sister and they have their final play time of the day together in the bath.  Since my husband and I love swimming and want our children to love the water we have always encouraged plenty of splashing and squirting with toys in the bath although this sometimes does leave my husband and I wetter than the kids!  But they're having fun and that's the main thing!

My son has quite bad eczema so we have never really added products to the bath unless we can help it because we don't want to dry his skin out anymore.  But when Tots 100 offered the opportunity to try H&A Bubbly Bath I decided to give it a go.  I loved the Disney packing on the bottle we were sent as it had Nemo on the front of it and I'm a sucker for Disney films however my daughter (2) doesn't yet have the attention span for a film.  I have had Finding Nemo on in the background recently though as she played elsewhere in the room so was impressed when she recongised the character.  So come bath time I added the bubbly bath and was really looking forward to seeing the children's faces when they saw a rare treat of a bath full of bubbles.  Sadly this didn't happen as the pictures will show.  I was expecting lots of bubbles or some sort of foam but was disappointed not to see this.  However, this product isn't just about bubbles but about being soft and gentle and is approved by pediatricians and I have to say that is really is soft and gentle.  The product certainly didn't dry my sons skin out and actually felt slightly softer.  This may not sound like a big claim but my sons skin is very coarse at the best of times and has tried all sorts of treatments from the doctor so for something to make even the slightest difference then it's a good product.

So overall, this product isn't a great bubble bath because I didn't see many bubbles! But it is a good product to add to your bath if you want something to soften the water on delicate skin. I've seen that H&A have a Minnie Mouse range which I'm tempted to try as my daughter loves Minnie Mouse at the moment and would bring lots more smiles to bath time!

* I was sent the product to try but all views are my own.

Friday Favourites... Cold Defence Spray

Ok, apologies in advance but this isn't a glamorous post but then who said that parenting was glamorous?! So this weeks favourite is Boots Cold Defence Spray.  I'm sure you may have seen cold defence sprays in the past and I have to say that I'm a total convert.  First sign of a cold and this spray comes out and up my nose - but not only mine but my daughters as they can be used from a year (and whilst you're pregnant). The idea of it is that you take it at the first sign of a cold and it can help prevent it coming into a full blown cold and / or reduce the duration of a cold.  Obviously colds are part and parcel of winter and are even more prevalent when you have children so something that can help reduce the duration or even help stop it is a winner in my book! I urge you to try it!!

Now another good thing to try is to try a Vitamin C plus zinc effervescent tablet when a cold starts to take hold.  It might be all in my mind but I do feel that if I take one of these when I start to feel a cold coming on that sometimes it does help to stop it becoming a full on cold.

Does anyone else have any top tips for colds in toddlers... And their parents?!

Midweek Meal Makeover 5/52 sweet potato, broccoli and Feta Frittata

So we're into the second month of the year and my new years resolution is still going strong, this is pretty good right?!  So meal number 5 is a first for me - a frittata, I've made omelettes before with plenty of fillings but never a frittata so after this recipe card from Waitrose had been sitting in my file for over 2 years I thought it was time to give it a try!

Ok - Before you look at the pictures, please again excuse my laziness for using my I-phone again as I failed to get my canon out! And please excuse the broken plate in the background! My only saving grace is that for once it wasn't me who broke it!!

This frittata should be served with salad, please excuse me for just having cucumber - it was all the salad we had in the house!
Now about the frittata... Yum!! It serves four and since it used 7 eggs (yes 7!!) I decided just to have my quarter and try and be good about portions for once, especially after last weeks massive portion.  It was seriously yummy, I urge you to try this one and now think a frittata could be a regular meal for us; it's healthy, packed full of veg and the leftovers will be perfect for lunch for the children! And of course it's cheap to make, is there nothing not to like?! I'm looking forward to trying new combinations and think grated courgette maybe a great one to add in as well as spinach and peas!
It's also got to be well done to Waitrose - Their recipes always hit the mark and I can assure you that there will be more Waitrose recipes featured here in the coming weeks!

How are your new years resolutions going? Am keen to hear whether people are sticking to them or not!

What to buy when your child only wants to wear party dresses!

Christmas and then a January birthday meant that there was plenty of excuses for my two year old daughter to dress up into a party dress.  This now has the consequence that she only want to wear party dresses which to be honest I'm not that upset about except for the fact that it's still cold and she insists on taking off her tights and cardigans!  Luckily I have been able to get her to wear trousers to nursery since they have soft play there and a party dress just isn't practical!

We've been lucky that we do have a good supply of dresses that can fall under the "party dress" umbrella but I thought it would be a good excuse to have a look around at the cutest dresses for girls just in case you have a special occasion coming up or like my daughter you just want to make the everyday a little bit more special!

Joules Rose Print Dress

A gorgeous rose print dress that is very girly without being pink! Love the contrasting red bow.  £39.95

JoJo Maman Bebe Shirt dress

This isn't a traditional "party dress" shape but it makes it more practical (sorry to be boring!). We have a similar dress from The Little White Company and our daughter wore it to a christening last year but it's also versatile enough to be worn day to day as a light summer dress.  This is £18.

Boden Party Dress

I do try and have my daughter in girly clothes but not head to toe in pink but sometimes a dress comes along that just looks right in pink and this is one of those! Again we have a similar one from Next that someone bought for us last year and it looks gorgeous in the summer! We had some family pictures taken with our daughter in this dress and she loves wearing it too! This dress is £38.

Sainsbury's Horse Print Dress

If your little girl loves prints and having things to point at on her dress then she may well love this horse print dress from Sainsbury's.  It's £16.

To see all these dresses and more please check out my Pinterest board

All the Small things

So a couple of weeks ago I stumbled upon mummy never sleeps and in particular her linky about "all the small things".  I love this idea and really think that it's a great idea to take a little bit of time out and give a little bit of space and time to the small things that happen in life because really they may be small but they amount to big things in the end!

Strangely like mummy never sleeps my small things post this week starts with a poo story!  Walking into my 2 year old's room I knew that there was a great big poo waiting for me, it stank! But poo, what's special about that when you're a parent? Well when I turned on the light my daughter and I realised this was no ordinary poo.  Oh dear, she's out of her sleep bag AND it's a leaky nappy! Argh! And cue the crying from my toddler as she realises she has "dirty hands mummy".  It had got everywhere as these things do so everything was stripped and cleaned and she was put in the bath to have a quick shower which she hates.  So, not the best start today but onward we went down to breakfast and all was fine.  In fact it was all "fine" until we got the little one up from his morning nap when she started playing up a little.  This I can cope with but she refused to sit on the step when asked so the whole morning went downhill from there and she gave me those "couldn't give a damn eyes" which got me wound up!!  I was so looking forward to nap time although in typical style she didn't nap!  As the afternoon passed we went out and had a nice day but she still played up some what and a text from my husband around 5.30pm saying he wouldn't make bathtime actually gave me great joy as I decided that a slightly early night was in order.  It was when my husband got home that the small thing happened.  My husband said "oh I'm too late to see the kids, that's a shame" and I thought he was being sarcastic as he knew what type of day I'd had, then he said that he wanted to go in and see our daughter but as she'd just gone down didn't want to disturb her and said that all he really wanted to do at the end of a day at work was see the kids and spend a bit of time with them.  This made me smile, my husband wanted to see our kids and not only see them but spend time with them, even when they're being a little on the naughty side!  I knew this about my husband already, it wasn't a surprise but it was so nice to hear.  I, like most probably often don't take enough time to appreciate my husband and how good he is with our children and how much he loves them so when I heard him say that he wanted to see them I gave him a hug, just a small thing but good none the less!

Monday's Moment... Let's celebrate our differences

I was recently reading a great post by Charlotte Taylor on being a single mum which then led to us having a twitter conversation and her saying that "motherhood should be about embracing our differences" which got me thinking.  She is so right!  As I have previously said in my mind the (age) gap post sometimes it feels like if you're not doing what others see as right (I.E. what they do) then it must be wrong.  But isn't this really narrow minded and should we be bringing up our children to be this narrow minded? No, as Charlotte says I think we should embrace our differences.

I would love us to start embracing and celebrating all our differences.  Differences in where we live, how / when / if we work, child care, how many children we have, age gaps, routine and so on and so forth.  We are all different and we all have different circumstances, I'm fed up feeling like I have to explain my circumstances when I say I'm going back to work or justifying a 15 month age gap with our children and so I'm going to (try to) stop doing this.  My husband and I are different people but we're a team and we're different to everyone else, why don't we all enjoy being different to each other rather than judging others and their choices and the circumstances that are forced upon them.  I know that I've been lucky with the people I have met since I became a parent and I have met some really nice people and have some great groups of friends.  I love how different all these friends are and what they each individually bring to my life now and the support they give me as a parent.  I have different people to go to depending on the circumstances and this is a great thing to be celebrated!

One of the most annoying people that is around at the moment is a certain ex-apprentice "star" who's initials are KH.  I refuse to put anymore than that or link to her because this gives her publicity and I think as long as she's getting publicity she's going to continue coming out with controversial statements.  But I feel that she is very narrow minded and of the impression that if people aren't doing what she is then it must be wrong and her children must not come into contact with them.  I actually feel like some of views are almost dangerous in the sense that she is a parent of impressionable young children and I worry how narrow minded they are going to grow up to be.  If they are not allowed to go to a party of a child the mum doesn't like the name of then they're not going to learn about people different to them and often this is where you learn the most.  We're supposed to be moving away from a class based society but if our children are already having it drummed into them that they are better than others just because of their name then this is never going to happen.

So before I rant anymore especially about KH let me sign off.  Parenthood is a journey (argh hate saying "journey"!) and we are all going on separate ones.  Let's enjoy the differences that meeting other parents brings and enjoy the differences that our children will encounter.  Of course we won't like it all but we can learn from almost all of it and surely that's important for us and our children? I feel that it's such an important thing to bring them up to be more open minded and accepting of the people they meet and to judge people on the values they live their life by rather than the house they live in.

If you want to follow Charlotte on Twitter it's @charltaylor

Shopping with a toddler

So shopping with a toddler in a high street shop (I.E. not supermarket shopping where you have a trolley) should be renamed extreme shopping.  It's such hard work!!

After a library trip we headed into town to get a coffee and a babycino (I think these are cute and my daughter loves them!) and then go into a couple of shops.  My first mistake was not having the second seat on my Phil and Teds pushchair to stick her in if required and my second was not having any stickers to hand (note if you have a toddler keep stickers in your pocket AT ALL TIMES!).  So into Superdrug we go, my third mistake was saying "don't touch that", I should have remembered from my swimming teacher training that all my child is going to hear is "touch that".  So I was duly ignored and she grabbed everything; lipsticks, moisturiser, sanitary towels and I tried to remain calm especially to the peering public, then she grabbed the cotton wool pads and realised I actually needed those!  And like a light bulb moment I suddenly had a brainwave - I needed to occupy her. Cue asking her to hold not one but two things for me, one for each hand!  She did try and pop one under her underarm to free a hand but we moved round the shop quickly. We managed to get round the shop unscathed and managed to walk back to the car whilst she carried on holding onto my make up remover and cotton wool (don't worry I did take them off her to pay!) which was brilliant until we got to the car and I took them back again and she screamed "MINE, MINE, MINE!" oh well, you can't win them all!

It would be fine if it wasn't for the fact that I have an awful memory and always forget something that I need to buy so have to repeat the whole process tomorrow!  I will try to remember stickers and to occupy her hands!

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