This is the winter of our discontent

... and of COLDS. E is onto her third or fourth since the beginning of July and we are sick of being sick around here.

Robyn Barker, that guru of all things baby and toddler, assures me that children's immune systems are worst in the year they are two; apparently the immunity they have from birth/breastfeeding is lost by about 12 months and it then takes time to build it up again on their own. Supposedly it is sorted (well, at least improved) by their third birthday.

Bring on three!

28 months

• means an insatiable appetite and constant demands for "a bitey* apple, Mumma!";
• has not yet brought "why" but has brought endless renditions of "what dat?" ;
• seems to have spelt the end of daytime sleeps;
• except when it means falling asleep in the car at 4:30pm and sleeping until morning!
• is a much better ability to eat with a fork;
• sees a continued adoration of Bot (Spot) and Maisy and a relatively newfound love affair with Doralee the Dinosaur;
• has seen some quite complex sentences, for example, "look Granny, piggy dangling from E's finger!"
• involves size three tops and size two pants;
• is endless energy and requests to "go Kings Park";
• means a non-stop commentary on everything that is going on;
• is an unpleasant return to 5am waking because the sides of the cot are no longer present;
• varies between playing very nicely with friends and pushing, shoving and "mine!";
• heralded a return to nappies, because sitting on the potty is boring when you have so much else to do;
• can be wilful and defiant;
• is quite a random age but there is a lot going on, and other than toilet training all of it is really quite lovely so it seemed appropriate to reflect on some of it!

* a "bitey" apple is a not-cut-up apple.

Maisy and Spot resources

 I have written before about E's enthusiasm for all things Spot, but I'm not sure if I have said anything about her devotion to Maisy. The lure of both of them somewhat baffles me - after all, in a book titled "Maisy Goes Shopping" you can be sure that Maisy is going to go shopping, but nothing else whatsoever is going to occur. I also find the style of the Maisy pictures pretty unappealing, but I assume that toddlers love both Maisy and Spot partly because the pictures are so simple and easily recognisable. That, presumably, is also the simultaneous attraction of the stories for children and their banality after one read for adults - everything about them is recognisable, understandable, part of every day life. 

Anyway, I digress. I thought I would mention the Spot and Maisy websites in case they are of interest to anyone else. The Maisy website is www.maisyfunclub.com. It has a list of all the books as well as a few free books that you can read in their entirety online. However the main thing we have been using it for are the free printable colouring-in sheets. E is just addicted them - over the last few days every time she has a spare moment she has been going to the study door (where the printer lives) and begging "Mummy get Maisy, Mummy get Maisy." It also has a few things we haven't used such as recipes for gingerbread and lemonade, and printable game sheets such as spot the difference and matching.

The Spot website is www.funwithspot.com. It likewise has a list of all the Spot books and a few interactive games, but the main thing we found useful as the birthday party resources. E's Spot cake and banner were courtesy of this website.

I realise it's all just commercialism intended to make us spend more money on their products, but both sites have provided some useful diversion. Besides, at the moment if I want to preserve my hearing and my sanity, my choice about whether we do more Maisy colouring is pretty minimal!

The road to no more nappies is not for the faint of heart

Dear God, the road to no more nappies is a trying one. 

Today has been a mixed bag: success at the little loos at King's Park, complete disaster later at home. The kind of disaster that happened in the two minutes I was trying to put the shopping away, left me gagging (literally), required a lunch time bath and which meant that the shopping list now reads: Napisan. Anti-bacterial wipes. Hand sanitiser. Enough said. 

E is now "resting" in her room (with a nappy firmly on I might add) and I am airing the house out.

But I am grateful that we are getting there. It is a long, frustrating and occasionally disgusting road, but at the end of it is independent toileting, hurrah. 

And if anyone has any tips for how to ensure the solids wind up where they belong, I'd also be grateful for that!

 

Domestic Goddess One Pot Roast Chicken

We were having a bit of a blah afternoon until I decided to cook this and the smell of it wafting through the house acted as a multi-hour lift. I based it loosely on this recipe but we had different veggies so I used those instead. I also reduced the amount of veggies so it would serve two adults and a toddler about whose roast vegetable eating habits I am realistic enough that I didn't really cater for her.

1. Chop about 200gm of bacon into short strips, fry them in an oven proof and stove proof pot with lid until they are crispy.
2. Into the same pot put half a leek cut into rings, three small carrots peeled and chopped into chunks, two large potatoes peeled and quartered, and 10 button mushrooms. Stir veggies and bacon together.
3. Add half a cup of white wine (or more if you have it - the original recipe called for 1/2 a bottle but it also used enough vegetables for four people) plus two cups of chicken stock. Put the lid on the pot, crank up the heat and bring to the boil.
3. While that is happening, stick a lemon and a handful of rosemary up the chicken and slather the outside with olive oil and salt and pepper.
4. Put the chook on top of the veggies and put the whole lot in the oven.
5. Cook it for 1 hour with the lid on at 180C and then half an hour (or more if necessary) with the lid off. Baste several times during the lid-off time so the chicken browns.
6. When it is cooked, take the chicken and vegetables out and put them on a serving platter. Put the pot back on the stove, stir the sauce to loosen any bits off the bottom and thicken it with cornflour paste to make a gravy.
7. Tell your family that from henceforth you shall be known as Nigella.

A big girl room

 On the weekend we ticked off another box on the road from babyhood to childhood: the sides came off the cot.

E is very pleased. She told everyone at daycare on Monday (and everyone who will listen subsequently) about how Daddy "built" her bed and how it has blankets in it. (Her cot always had a pile of blankets fit for the Arctic, and exactly the same ones are in the bed, so where this came from we have no idea).

D and I are less pleased that our evenings have suddenly disintegrated: the thrill of being able to get out of bed on her own and come running into the living room, laughing hysterically ("E got out of bed! E running to Mummy! Now E running back to bed!!") is yet to wear off.

We are trying to focus on the nice parts: reading stories on the bed together before lights-out, the added space in the bedroom now we have rearranged it, the easier access when we want to sneak in after she has (finally) gone to sleep to give her a pat and a kiss. And hoping that the novelty wears off very, very quickly!

 

Late afternoon gratitude

Image from http://niteshok.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/storm11.jpg.

At the end of an afternoon that has been inexplicably stormy (both literally and metphorically) I'm making an effort to feel grateful for:

* A 15 minute walk in the pram in between rain and thunder. An uphill, blood thumping, nose warming walk. 

* Returning to the house with renewed patience and enthusiasm, the quick whizz-around-put-the-toys-away that followed, and the relief of everything being tidy-ish that followed that. 

* The deliciousness of chicken pot-roasting in our absence, in time for us all to eat dinner together in an hour.

* Playschool!