making albuqueque

random parenting tips

Today I

• ate porridge for breakfast
• am tired, stupid Terry Pratchett book keeping me up till 11pm
• hate that there is no chocolate in the vicinity of my desk
• love thick woolly hats

So I haven't got any photos, but I thought it was ages since I've done one of those random preachy parenting posts. So here it is, some random parenting/time saving tips for those with rugrats.

• Always carry a bottle of hand-sanitizing gel in your handbag. You never know when you're going to have to change a nappy in the middle of a park with no handbasin in sight. At least if you have the gel on you, you don't have to worry about it.
• For that matter, always carry a travel pack of baby wipes in  your handbag. Neither of these items take up much weight or room, but they can get you out of a very messy pickle.
• If your kid is toilet training, then make sure you've got a spare pair of undies, socks and leggings in your bag. It's the time you don't take them that you're really going to wish you had.
• Also if your kid is toilet training, and particularly if they are a little tacker that can't really perch on a normal toilet seat yet, leave a spare potty in the boot of your car. I did this and was very thankful that we did, since it meant a whole bunch less wee accidents.
• If you've got a toddler and you like to go out for coffee, or to restaurants, or you have to go wait for an appointment with said toddler in tow, then pack a few things in your handbag to entertain them. Things that I constantly have on hand are a couple of small wind-up toys (which also entertain adults at the pub!), a palm sized dolly, a bracelet, a very small notebook, a sheet of stickers, and a couple of pens or pencils. This has really got us out of a jam on many occasions.

It might sound from all that that my handbag is huge, but it's not, none of these things weighs much, nor takes up much space

Other things

• Those nappy wallet things, they're brilliant, I only got one just before Bella toilet trained, but I wished I'd bought one sooner when I did get it
• If you are folding washing, then find something that your toddler can put away themselves, and hand it to them one by one. I did that with Bella's bibs recently, and it meant that I got to fold the washing in peace and she had a great time playing at helping mummy.
• If you've got a kid still in nappies, then practically the first thing you should do when you walk in the door, is to restock the nappy bag.

Look there's heaps of other things, but they tend to fall in the 'put this in your handbag type'.

Bella's neurology follow-up

Today I

• ate weetabix and juice for breakfast
• am proud of my little girl for cooperating with the doctor
• hate snot
• love that the follow-up went so well

So Bella finally had her follow-up with the neurologist this morning and I thought I'd better write it out before I forget.

We got to see the consultant rather than a registrar. They don't see that many cases of Guillain-Barre as young as Bella so she's an interesting case.

Overall it was a pretty positive follow-up. The neurologist is really happy with her progress, although she's not 100% yet. She still waddles and walks very flatfooted, but that's to be expected at this stage, and he was very happy with where she's at. She can't run yet, but she couldnt' before the GBS so that's neither here nor there.

Bella is being referred back to the speech therapists, to check her swallow again, because she still coughs when she drinks. I don't think it's terribly worrying, her swallow was fine when she left hospital, I don't expect that will have changed, but they do need to check.

What else, oh, she still doesn't have any reflexes in her arms or legs. The neurologist said they may never recover, but that shouldn't prevent her doing anything she wants to. And hey, lets face it, with her family history she was never destined to be a sports star anyway!

We've got to go back again in February for another check-up, at which time he'll decide whether she needs a course of oral steroids or not to help her along. But otherwise, very happy with her progress.

I am relieved, and also feeling a bit weird about the reflexes possibly never coming back. Now that I'll have to answer yes to ye olde 'ever had any serious illnesses' question for Bella, I expect that there will be a lot of checking her reflexes out of idle curiosity.

radio static?

Today I

• ate weetabix and juice for breakfast
• am enjoying the almost sun
• hate slipping on wet, decomposing leaves
• love that first cuddle in the morning, where they snuggle right down into your chest

Yeah, my bad, not posting for ages. We've been battling epic amounts of snot. Oh and we took a 4 day weekend. We were intending to do a couple of day trips, but the clutch is about to go in our car, so we're not driving long distances.

Friday we sent Bella to nursery and had a day date, coffee, lunch, a movie, all uninterrupted by a bored 2.5 year old. Pure bliss.

Saturday was the usual chores and stuff, combined with some milkshakes and duck feeding.

Sunday we took Bella to a very bizarre exhibition at a modern art gallery. The best bit was the cubby house of books. That was Bella's favourite bit too. We also went to the natural history museum, which has heaps of running space for madame.

And monday was a giant cookathon, I barely left the house, although Matt and Bella did escape a couple of times.

So in apology for boring post, here's what you all come for.

Last night, crap cropping job, but I don't have decent photo editing software on me to do any better today.

This morning, she was snuggling into my chest, not woken up properly yet. Such a magical moment, it makes up for all the 2.5 year oldishness she has going on.

And this was pre our cup of tea on the weekend, wearing dressing gown and slippers just like mummy.
Don't worry, Bella gets Rooibos with milk and honey, I get Earl Grey with milk and sugar. She's really getting into the tea drinking ritual now, and will ask for tea when we get up on the weekends. Ah a girl after my own heart.

radio silence

Today I

• ate marmite toast for breakfast
• am disappointed in the hot chocolate I had
• love Bella cuggles
• hate that Bella and mattman both seem to assume that all attention is good attention

Sorry for the radio silence. No excuses this week I'm afraid, here's some photos of Bella in apology.

At dress up day for Halloween at nursery. Bella was being a white summer witch (necessitated by that being the only dress-ups we had in the house and my not being an alpha mum and making more the night before)

Knits in action from this morning, the tulip hat I made her.

And a slightly less than flattering photo of me that Bella took this morning. What can I say, it was 7am, there'd been no caffeine yet, and we were running late getting ready to walk up the hill with the neighbours.

So I'm in the office at work by myself today. Everyone that is usually in for a couple of hours on a Friday is not in today. In reality that means I should probably try and find Nova on the net and play that really loud, but what it means is I've checked my email, now I'm blogging, and I was a few minutes late this morning because I decided to detour for a very disappointing hot chocolate. It needed about half the amount of chocolate, and about twice the amount of milk.

What else has been happening? Hmm, not a lot. I got a second screen for my PC at work yesterday. This is going to take some getting used to, but does mean I have a gorgeous photo of mattman and Bella as the background on the second screen that I can look at while I use my main screen.

We've had a pretty quiet week. All I can say about Bella is that she is still driving me up the wall, and the only minor break in the clouds is that she's giving some really lovely, unprompted cuddles in those very brief moments between being a sulky, whiny, 2.5 year old girl. I swear that having a 2.5 year old girl would put anyone off motherhood for life, and if you wish to reinforce your decision not to have children (should that be the decision you've made), then borrow Bella. Every single request is met with whinges, whines, tantrums, or running off into a corner to sulk. She also seems to have inherited her father's position on attention, in that when you want attention, all attention is good attention. Therefore the best way to get attention is to attempt to irritate me as much as possible.

I will not be sorry when this stage passes.

On the upside (and fair warning, this is a total mother brag), Bella's talking is way off the charts, she's as good as if not a great deal better than most kids a year older than her. She can now do 12 piece puzzles on her own.  She's largely toilet trained, and she's got the most sensational memory. I am so incredibly proud of everything she can do, and can't help but look at her sometimes and think we made her, and marvel about what a wonderful little girl she is. So while I complain about her current behaviour and how trying it is, I also love her to death and wouldnt' change who she is for anything.