Monday 28 June 2010

Potty training

it's a subject we've been dancing around, but trying to avoid at the same time - toilet training.

It's one of those things I really need to bone up on, as the thought of it just makes me shrug my shoulders and ask "where the hell do we start?".

We bought Em a potty a few months ago, but she hasn't made the leap that this plastic seat is to replace her nappies. Try as we might to drop her trou at the first sign of pushing, it's still come to nothing.

From what I understand, toilet training is a very touchy subject. Done wrong, and the child can regress, associate poops and wees with being bad and generally be in a bad way. Done right, obviously the cost of nappies can be put to something more useful.

Having talked to Helen this evening when I picked Emily up, she was saying that Em needs to give us the nod when she's ready to drop her brown friends off at the pool, as opposed to smearing them all over her cheeks. I'd love to take the wait and see approach, but as we've done this with her speech and it's backfired, I'm not too keen.

Ah the wondrous trials of parenthood.


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Sunday 20 June 2010

Trip to the miniature village

Bekonscot - Historic Model VillageImage by kotomigd via Flickr
On Saturday we decided to go off to Bekonscot miniature village in Beaconsfield.

The decision behind this was really me as I like miniature villages and hadn't been to one since a 2005 holiday to the Isle of Wight.

We weren't really sure how Emily would react to the joys of being a Gulliver-sized giant to the Lilliputian-sized model townsfolk.

We needn't have worried - she loved it. The village has a number of trains running through it and Emily couldn't get enough of these. Sue and I continued to yell "Train" whenever one went by and Emily would come running with a sense of wonder and joy on her face to see the train whizz by.

Likewise, a number of village houses and exhibitions had actions and Emily really enjoyed seeing those, as I guess would any child.

They also had a playground area and Emily spent far too long going down the slide over and over and OVER again. We capped the day off by going around the place on a ride-em train.
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Tuesday 15 June 2010

Emily's supermarket tantrums

Despite her inability to want to actually talk, Emily's been quite expressive lately and has actually been a joy to be around. A joy as long as I'm not hauling her around the supermarket.
She can be in any type of wonderful mood, having had a lovely sleep, etc. when I pick her up from Helen's.

She screams when I take her into the bathroom as she assumes she's going to be forced to have a bath. However, it takes her about 5-10 minutes of being in a supermarket before the screaming, crying and random tantruming seem to happen.

Like bathtime, I don't know what happened. She used to love going to the supermarket, helping me unload the shopping cart on the belt, etc. Now it's just a game of "placate the child" with drinks, biscuits, etc.

I guess the golden answer is to continue to try and do my food shopping at lunch time... oh Emily.

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