Thoughts on Emily's general safety

With Emily getting older and more inquisitive, it's only natural she wants to do things she shouldn't and poke her fingers and head into places they shouldn't go.

I've been doing some research on the web for child safety stuff and came across a pretty decent blog that deals with the safety of children. It was my initial search on safety gates that lead me there and to their main site, but they have a load of info about all manner of child safety.

Sue and I are concerned with making sure drawers stay closed when needed, and that Emily is generally safe from herself (at this age). I managed to find some helpful tips for kitchen life, which we have been able to put into practice.

Ill child and work

Last night Emily wasn't herself and we put it down to being overtired.

This morning she woke up hotter than the sun and incredibly listless. I wasn't all that sure what was wrong with her until she vomited down herself.

This proposed quite a quandry - how do I handle to situation? I can't take her to the child minders as no one wants to look after Barfy. I also can't go to work due to point one. Do I have to use this as a sick day for work? As a holiday? Is there a statutory child illness pot of days I can dip into?

I'd love to get some feedback on this.

As much as Sue and I are quite independent, it's times like this that really hammer home the importance of a support network. I'm not saying fob a child off on nana and grandad at the first sign of trouble, but close friends etc. who could share the "burden" if you will.

As it is, I'm trying to work from home and sod's law being what it is, Emily's listlessness has turned itself around and she's now wide-eyed, awake and running around the house, albeit with a temperature and very pink cheeks.

My biggest concern today however remains, I am currently out of coffee.

In the night garden live

Image by kenjonbro via Flickr

I received a notification from Twitter yesterday that Night Garden Live was following. Usually, these accounts are not what they seem. 

However, I was delightfully surprised to find that not only was it a legit account, it was also an account for the live on stage version of In The Night Garden. Having not known there was such a thing, the notification from Twitter served a number of purposes. 

I really have no idea what the stage show will involve, but I do hope I get to meet Sir Derek when we go.

According to the website for the stage show, there's two different shows each lasting an hour and takes place in a purpose built dome. Tickets (at least for Liverpool which is the only city with tickets on sale so far) range from £15 to £20, so it won't break the bank.

I know Emily would go absolutely mental so going is on our "must do" list. 

Waybuloo schedule shock for Emily

Image via Wikipedia

It's no secret how Emily feels about Cbeebies' "In The Night Garden". It's her favourite show by a country mile.

Part of dinner making time for me now is to let her watch Iggle and Upsy but also the lead in show "Waybuloos". The show is odd as hell with obviously overdubbed children acting (badly) against blue screen, but Em likes it and it has it's own odd charm.

When we got home tonight, I was able to coax her in the house and away from a neighbouring straying cat by offering her some Waybuloo time. Alas it wasn't meant to be. When we turned the telly on there was some animated zoo show instead.

Thankfully we have Sky + so I can just find the next time it's on and tape it. Pain in the ass though, and I'm sure a lot of parents who use the Cbeebies schedule as their own sort of comfort blanket will also feel just a touch violated.

Holidays and funny t-shirts

As we're currently on holiday in Spain we do, buy and eat in ways we don't usually do when we're at home. One thing I came across at a market here was a t-shirt based on the film "The Hangover". Anyone who's seen this film will know all about the bearded dufus who walks around with a baby strapped on his stomach.

I didn't pick this up as I had insufficient Euros at the time, but a quick search on the internet and I found a place called Nerdy Shirts that sells the hangover t-shirts!

Having found this shirt, I thought it a good place to hunt for other funny t-shirts, something quirky and nerdy for Emily to wear as well. We usually dress her up at X-mas for the photo on our home-made Christmas card and I found a wonderful Santa t-shirt that (if it's in her size) will be perfect for our x-mas card 2010!

Second birthday celebrations come to a close

So we had a house-warming bbq / birthday party, then my parents looked after Emily on her birthday (petting zoo and soft play!) and this past weekend we had a birthday celebration featuring the extended family and children.

I think it's got to the point where Emily thinks "Happy Birthday" is just another song.

We've taken stock of Em's first two years, especially in light of her visit to the health visitor for her 24 month checkup.

I've noticed she's getting much more responsive and receptive to things she used to dismiss outright. I read her a book tonight and she was quite attentive, whereas before she'd get bored of the photos and try and turn the page. She was SO interested I read it to her three times.

Also, I have an app on my phone called Toddler Lock. Anything she does it makes noises and bright lights... she used to look at it for a few seconds and dismiss it outright. Tonight she was actively playing with it for about 10 minutes.

I don't mean to make it sound like she's uber maturing over night. We played with plasticine tonight and I think I can best sum up her attitude as "confused". It's the first time she's seen or played with the stuff (at least at home) so I'm not expecting her to create an amazing 3D work of art, ready for the stop motion camera... but I can secretly hope a little!

Emily's coming along well. She's just shy of three foot, can say about as many words and I wouldn't change these past two years for anything, as far as she's concerned.

Emily is now two

It's Emily's birthday today. I, for one, can't believe she's already two years old. It was two years ago Sue and I sat (well, I sat and Sue laid out on a bed) on that hospital ward waiting for the next stage of our lives to begin.

When I think I've been in my job almost a year, it feels like yesterday I started. It feels like a lifetime ago Emily was born - and for her it was.

We celebrated her birthday by having a joint housewarming / birthday party yesterday. Mum and dad are looking after her today and we have a family do on Sunday.

It was quite funny this morning singing happy birthday to her, as she really doesn't understand a) the song or b) the concept of a birthday. She was happy to sing, but we could have been singing the theme song to Cbeebie's "In The Night Garden" for all the personal impact she felt.

Jo Frost scared me

I happened to catch a small snippet of some Jo Frost thing on channel 4 tonight and it worried me no end.

In one part there was a obesity experiment to see if kids would keep eating if they were fed ... of course they would. A control group was given one portion, another given two portions. The two portioners would continue eating as parents have no idea how much to feed them.

I worry sometimes about portion control and this just made me think. Apparently up until 2 years old, kids have a good build in "I don't need anymore food" awareness. After that, Fatty McFat-Fat takes over and they'd hoover up McDonald's everyday given the chance.

The second part I saw had what I can only describe as a street walker in training. This 13 year old girl who HAD to have a toned body so she could barely wear anything out to teenage discos. Apparently she wanted to be noticed for her. She'd be noticed alright, but not for any female empowering reasons she'd deluded enough to believe.

I understand parenting is hard, I'm currently doing my tour of duty. It just seems to get harder the older they get. Right now Em doesn't have any (real) friends so there's no peer pressure to do anything. I just hope we're strong enough to steer her right when the big choices do rear their ugly heads.

Watch  Jo in action, if you dare.

Sorting out Emily's birthday present

With Emily's birthday fast approaching - next week she'll be two!!! - I've been on the prowl for some cool stuff to get her as a present.

I stumbled across this site recently which caught my eye. It's a shop in North Carolina called Lou Lou's Corner. I was looking for a few brands like Jellycat toys (Emily LOVES jellycat), Barefoot Dreams blankets and this Norwegian clothing brand I've just discovered called Appaman.

I was probably drawn to the site with the lure of a 10% off coupon for Jellycat stuff.

I'm still not decided on what to get Emily for her birthday, but this shop has made it a lot easier to decide.

Emily's ongoing speech issues

It's no secret that Sue is scared stiff about Emily's speech and lack of progression in said area (I'm taking more of a wait and see attitude, but am getting quietly worried).

While all her friends are able to string words together to make childish sentences, and to point to things they want, Emily does very little. We get the hand pushing something away when she's not interested and the odd word that has to be coaxed out of her.

I found a website called Speech Quest that aims to help people in our situation. After a questionnaire and assessment of a child you're then given activities to coax the inner linguistic genius out of your child. While there's a cost involved, I'm quite eager to do what I can to give Emily a leg up in life (btw, I found a voucher code for 20% off - BVT1015 - valid until end of March).

It's got to the point now that it's not only verbal communication that may be of issue, it's also her physical ability to communicate as I mentioned she only seems to push away things she doesn't want, as opposed to pointing to stuff she does.

Links: Speech Quest