Emily's reactions to Olympic goals

We watched the Canada vs USA gold medal hockey game tonight on telly.

I thought it would be nice for Emily to stay up so she could say in years to come she witnessed Canada getting gold on home ice.

Traditionally, Emily's broken out into crying when subjected to loud noises - bangs, yelling, etc. As Canada fought their way to victory, we had to temper each goal celebration with a hasty "yay Emily and get her involved." Of course, when the USA retaliated, the only voice in the room was Emily going a touch hysterical.

It's hard being a parent.

When the game ended in a draw after regulation time (around 10.15p), it was decided Emily needed to go to bed. Not only did we teach her to celebrate goals, we also kept her up WAY past her bedtime.

It's hard being a GOOD parent.

23 months going on 12

As Emily races towards her second birthday, her personality is becoming much more apparent. Her cheeky grin, her predilection  to making her teddies kiss, and her "terrible twos" temper.

In the past, Em has become moody for one of a couple of reasons - tired, hungry or thirsty. Now, she seems to be figuring out what all parents dread - when something's not going her way, crying and screaming help!

It doesn't help matters that she STILL can't talk, so when a happy go lucky mood turns to a sea of tears in seconds, it leaves Sue and I more than a little perplexed. Skipping to worse case scenarios, I continue to imagine that something's exploded inside (appendix perhaps?) or she's been poisoned and THIS is her last breath.

Of course, it's more often than not her attempt to tell us something, generally that she's not down with the current situation - don't want to be in the pram, grocery shopping isn't a job fit for little girls or there's no way in hell that bath water is going over this head.

All in all, I realise that the placid happy ALL the time Emily is a thing of the past, and that trying to sort out her moods and crying sessions is just the latest in a long line of "I have no clue what's going on with my child" scenario that I will continue to face long into the future

Bean bag sleeping station

Now that we've moved into the new place two things have happened - all our stuff is in one place and Emily feels a bit out of place. No longer are we in the two bed flat, the only home she's ever known. We're in a 3 bed house that's quite odd for her.

However, one plus side for her is that we've been able to get the bean bag out of storage. I imagine all kids love bean bags, but the last two nights running I've come into the living room to find her fast asleep, ensconced in all sorts of beany goodness. It's meant that she's actually fallen asleep when she's been tired, and not done her usual "fight it" stance which usually ends up with her going to bed way too late, and with dark rings under her eyes.

I'd like to think this scenario will go some way to acclimatising her to the new house, as going back to the familiar flat really isn't an option.

Juggling work and children

So far Sue and I have been pretty blessed with regards to our jobs and the impact on Emily.

Today, however, was a different matter. Our firm has recently expanded into a town about 90 minutes away. Today was a day I was to work over there. Best estimate was that I wouldn't get back to pick Em up until about 6.30pm. Then the traffic hit.

Work have been really good about me leaving on time M-W as those are the days I pick Em up. Today was just a bit different, with a late meeting meaning we didn't get on the road until 5.30p, the time I'm usually racing off to get Emily.

Thankfully Sue was able to wing her way out of work to get to Helen's, albeit over an hour later than the usual 6.00pm pick up time.

I'm just really glad we're able to maintain the juggling act of work and child most of the time. If this was the rule, rather than the exception, I'd be a nervous wreck.

A brown present in the bath

We’ve had all sorts of bath time mishaps, including Emily watching the bath fill up and weeing all over the floor.

This evening, however, Emily raised the bar considerably. When I went in to get her out, she was floating around in a brown poo casserole. It was everywhere, all over her toys, lapping up around her legs… She was quite oblivious to it as well which was funny.

For the last few weeks, she’s been doing wicked wet dumps, so the only silver lining you could conceivably grab from this was the brown gifts were quite solid in nature. Solid that is, until I had to airlift them to the safety of the toilet, where they landed with a smeary wet thud.

Needless to say we hosed Em down AND her toys and lived to fight another - hopefully cack-free day!

Healthy food for toddlers

Like most working parents, Sue and I sometimes find it difficult to find the time to make meaningful homecooked meals. We could out and about and Emily could intone hunger. It's always been quite handy and convenient to have a few baby ready meals at the "ready" just in case.

With most things baby and toddler related, you take it as read that the nutrition involved is geared to promoting the health and nutritional needs of growing children. Apparently, this is not always the case.

In a report on tonight's Panorama, the subject of baby and toddler grub, especially in the ready meal market, is discussed at great length. A lot of the discussion will apparently focus on daycare centres and the food they serve. Hopefully, with Emily at a private child minder, the food she receives is of a slightly higher nutritional value.

There's also discussion about the "nutritional traffic light" that appears on adult food to signal things like saturated fat, salt and calories. This type of nutritional info isn't required on children's food and stuff labelled as "children only" can sometimes contain things parents should be warned about, like increased sugar levels.

The secret in keeping our kids healthy is to make all meals at home from scratch, but this is never 100% possible. Hopefully watching Panorama tonight will steer me on the right path when we do need to supplement Emily's diet with ready made grub.

Panorama: What's Really in Our Kids' Food, BBC One, Monday, 25 January at 2030GMT.

The runny bum blues

For the last couple of days, Emily's had horrific nappies. We're talking sloppy chilli here, not the usual "moist but lumpy". It's got to the point at certain changes where she's overflowed her nappy, turning her clothes a stinky shade of brown.

Naturally Sue and I are quite worried, but a gleam of light was shone today when Helen mentioned that she might be teething with molars.

Apparently nasty nappies are quite a common side effect of back teeth coming in. Em dribbles seemingly all the time now, so we've stopped putting THAT down to teething but we're hoping this latest revelation turns out to be true.

Everytime I put my fingers anywhere near her mouth to check she tries to bite me, so we'll have to take Helen's word for it.

Christmas is now over

Image by nickstone333 via Flickr

We had a delivery last night that officially marked the end of Christmas for Emily.

Elmo Live was waiting for us when we got home, a present from Emily's uncles in Australia. She was enamoured with him in Kuala Lumpur airport and we thought it would be a nice present... rightly so.

Emily really didn't "get" Christmas, and I didn't really expect her to. She enjoyed the wrapping paper and the new toys that materialised, but I think Christmas is all about the build up, the anticipation. The actual day is always over FAR too soon.

I imagine that Em will start to really soak the festive season in when she 3 or 4. Obviously when she starts school it'll be drummed into her like every other mini-consumer in her class.

For Sue and I, the holiday season also meant spending loads and loads of time with Emily without having to go to work. That was one of the better presents this year.

Finding her way or becoming spoilt?

Emily's getting to that age where she's becoming quite independent ... or so she thinks. She wants to walk where SHE wants to walk, do what SHE wants to do and if she can't, we'll hear about it - usually with a scream in our ear.

Up until now, I always thought terrible parents were terrible because they were lazy or didn't care, but I really begin to wonder where the line is with children. Is Emily learning as she goes, or is she testing boundaries? Are these the seeds of an ASBO child that we have to guide, or is it a natural part of development to not want to hold hands crossing the road and spraying the wall with food?

If it is a natural part of development, how do we react?

Last night, Emily threw food on the floor, and I tapped her hand and sternly said no. As she's not an adult, she didn't look at me and say, "Gosh. Sorry dad, what the heck was I thinking?", she looked at me and balled her eyes out, as I picked bits of quiche out of the carpet and surrounding toys. I understand children have the attention span of a gnat, but I firmly believe I need to ensure Emily starts to know right from wrong, or is it too early?

Parenting is hard. I guess bad parents are those that understand this, and choose the easy route, I don't know.

Strop shop and jet lag

The last couple of days Em's really been acting up and I have to put it down to jetlag.

Sue and I have been spoilt as far as parenting goes. Em has been such a great kid, with a wonderful disposition that when she does get a strop on, it's really unexpected. Usually, she cries for one of a few reasons - including hunger or thirst. The last couple of days, she's really turned on the random shrieking, which has freaked Sue and I out, but we can only imagine what jet lag is doing to her.

Too many times we've had toforceably wake her from a VERY deep sleep for food or just to readjust her body clock. When she then awakes at 3am, she's thoroughly confused why we're not up to play.

During this whole jetlag ordeal, I'm reminded of what we might be able to expect when the terrible twos hit, as Em can be quite forceful in her crying and screaming.

I hope the honeymoon period of having a wonderful child isn't over and indeed never ends. This glimpse into a "what if" reality only makes me happier about the Emily we do have.