wee wee wee all the way home

We started potty training this weekend and let's just say that I'm really glad that we have laminate flooring. We had made a bit of headway over the past few months because Jack was already using the toilet every now and then (more as a game, really) which means we've skipped the potty phase. Today I'm on my own, keeping an eye on a baby and piddling toddler on no sleep (Mia has decided that sleeping through isn't for her, so she's been waking every couple of hours for a feed for the past couple of weeks) and with a hideous sinus cold. Words cannot describe my glee.

So far, we've learned that:
-Pull ups are useless. They're surprisingly absorbent, so they aren't much different to regular nappies...although the Spiderman picture on the front is very, very exciting if you're a 2 1/2 year old boy.
-Don't ask him if he needs to go, just take him! And often! More often than you'd think.
-Toddler pee is limitless. Just because you have one "accident", it doesn't mean you're off the hook for the next little while. It'll keep on coming in surprisingly huge quantities, immediately following your last clean-up.
-Stickers and chocolate buttons provide good incentive. So does jumping up and down and clapping like a lunatic every time he wees in the toilet.
-If everything is about being a "big boy", he'll be much more interested in taking part. (e.g. we use the "big boy" toilet, we wear "big boy" pants, "big boys wee wee in the toilet", etc.)
-10 pairs of pants are enough for most of the afternoon and evening. Good thing I bought 20 or else I'd be doing laundry 24 hours a day.
-If he doesn't need to wee, it's because "it's sleeping right now". No, I don't know what that means either.

I feel guilty, but I'm actually really relieved that Jack's back to nursery tomorrow. It means less messes for me to clean up (which normally wouldn't be such a big deal but they seem to happen when Mia needs my attention) and it means less stress for me during the day. Which is selfish, I know. I'm secretly hoping that he'll come home from nursery tomorrow fully toilet trained.

Oh come now, a girl can dream.

bouncing babies

After a trip up to the loft, the door bouncer has made a comeback. Here's a photo of Jack in the same bouncer at the same age as Mia and one of Mia taken today.



Although her brother took to it right away and started bouncing up and down immediately, Mia is happy to just stand upright and observe the world. Also, I think I need to tie some sandbags to her so that she can actually bounce.

Sesame Street - Buffy Nurses Cody

This is so sweet, but at the same time, it makes me feel incredibly sad because I know that they would never air something like this now. Or maybe I'm just being too cynical. At any rate, I love this clip. Enjoy.

boo!

Yesterday, we had a Halloween party at our local playcentre (home of the annoying guy on the phone a few posts back) and had a hoot. It's hard to tell from this photo, but I had four spider legs coming out of Mia's baby carrier and Mia dressed up as a spider (although we all agreed that she looked more like a black Cookie Monster) and I was a web (i.e. dressed in white with lots of web/spidery jewellery on.) Jack was also a spider, which he enjoyed thoroughly. We've had several days of "I'm a scary spider! Raaaaaaawr!!" Paul was dressed up as...erm...disgruntled English rugby fan? About 13 little ones and babies got together for a very fun afternoon, and went home with treat bags bulging with goodies. At this age, I prefer doing something like this rather than trick or treating door-to-door (which still manages to confuse the English, although it is getting much better.)

Today, we went to Rectory Farm in Milton for more Halloween activities with our friends. We carved a pumpkin (and I really do mean "we" - Jack helped cut out the face and scoop out the seeds), and then Jack rode around on diggers and tractors, bounced on a castle, and we all ate a lovely lunch. Then we went to Tesco. Anticlimactic, I know.

More pictures from our day at the farm can be seen here.

due credit

...and I also need to add, the professional-looking photographs (i.e. the ones starting with NamingCeremony in the filename) were taken by Jean-Luc Benazet. He's our workmate, friend, and official wedding photographer. Book him now!

Mia's Naming Day

NamingCeremony0097, originally uploaded by Lisa Durbin.

On Sunday, the sun shone (for one day only) for Mia's naming ceremony. It was performed by the same celebrant at the same hotel as Jack's naming ceremony, but we changed the ceremony a bit to make it more unique.

This time, Paul and I did readings. Paul read this piece:

"Auguries of Innocence" by Francis Thompson and William Blake

Know you what it is to be a child?
It is to have a spirit yet streaming from the waters of baptism;
it is to believe in love, to believe in loveliness, to believe in belief;
it is to be so little that the elves can reach to whisper in your ear;
it is to turn pumpkins into coaches, and mice into horses, lowness into loftiness, and nothing into everything, for each child has a fairy god-mother in his/her own soul;
it is to live in a nutshell and count yourself the king/queen of infinite space;
it is:
To see the world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.

and I read this piece:

"A Wish For My Children" by Evangeline Paterson

On this doorstep I stand
year after year
to watch you going

and think: May you not
skin your knees. May you
not catch your fingers
in car doors. May
your hearts not break.

May tide and weather
wait for your coming

and may you grow strong
to break
all webs of my weaving

Yep, we both cried our way through these. Our friends Gary and Caroline (who are not a couple) promised to be Mia's supporting adults (that's like Godparents to you non-heathens), and the grandparents made promises about caring for and raising Mia.

It was an absolutely beautiful day for our beautiful little girl. Damn, I'm still weepy.

Photos can be seen here.

freebird

I signed up for the Hipp organic baby club with the hope of getting something exciting and free in the post. This morning, I did get something free, but not terribly exciting. Hipp sent me a "weaning pack" (more on weaning later) that included a bib, weaning spoon, a single serving of baby rice, and a sample of follow on milk (which I'm seriously doubting I'll use.) So, not bad but not really quite as thrilling as the freebies I remember as a child. We used to get all sorts of free things in the post and I'm talking good sized samples, not the ridiculous things I get through the post these days (the one tea bag with a 20p off voucher comes to mind.) I remember things like boxes of laundry detergent, cereal, and pudding. Free samples would arrive on a regular basis for all sorts of things. I wonder why companies don't do that anymore?

Anyway, weaning. Mia is 17 weeks old this week, which is the point at which most health visitors will tell you it's fine to start solids. I truly cannot imagine giving Mia solids right now. Maybe it's because she's so small and is still very wibbly wobbly when I sit her up, but there's no way I'm going anywhere near her with a weaning spoon right now. Which reminds me, one of the Claire Verity couples in "Bringing up Baby" were shown giving solids to their 10 week old baby while she was lying down in a beanbag chair. I could be wrong, but is it a good idea to feed a baby solid food while she's lying down? Mia seems too young to me for solids just yet, so I'm just going to wait for her to give me cues that she's ready - like the time Jack reached for my spoon and tried to shove it in his mouth when he was 5 1/2 months old. I'm observant like that.