To quote a genuine “potty mouth”, Gordon Ramsay, “Potty training, done!” 

It arrived on the “to do” list when Little H turned two years old in April.  I’ll be honest and say it wasn’t a chapter in his or my life or the childcare books I was looking forward to but the more nappies I changed the more appealing it became.  Deciding when was right for toddler H was obviously important but almost not as critical as when the time was right time for us a family.  Everyone says “do it in the summer, its easy in the summer, just let them run about naked” blah, blah, blah.  Well Summer 2009 involved us moving out of Lancaster Towers for a month whilst a new kitchen and a new bathroom were supposed to be installed!  The one month project became a four month project which left us April to September with only our ensuite bathroom functioning on the second floor.  It also made me a stressed out & heavily pregnant mummy!  I’m now a very proud mummy of two with only one of those bottoms in nappies, so this is what we did – proof you don’t have to wait until it’s Summer! 

We started back in August, we introduced the potty at bathtime started taking his nappy off before bathtime and encouraging him to sit on it, occassionally he would do a wee & we’d be delighted and he’d be pleased.  Then we started taking his nappy off after tea ’til bathtime, mixed combination of success & accidents.  Summer was passing, Autumn was looming, everything says don’t do it with a new sibling on the horizon, I was getting more pregnant, more tired, patience, in fact everything, was becoming an effort and carrying the potty up two flights of stairs was something I didn’t have to do.  So we stopped.  Just like that.  I just stopped taking his nappies off and left things as they were, Little H became a big brother and we all got used to being a family of four. 

We read lots of stories about going the the potty, there were always some in the library and we bought our favourites which include Pirate Pete’s Potty by Andrea Pinnington, Peek-a-Poo what’s in your nappy? by Guido Van Genechten and Nappy Duck and Potty Piggy by Bernadette Ford and Sam Williams – I’ve put hyperlinks to these on amazon.

I wanted to do it at home, I didn’t want nursery to do it, happy for them to support but wanted to get the back of it broken at home.  The next  “window” I could see was Christmas when H would be off nursery for a few weeks as would Mr L.  Everyone thought I was mad – Winter, Christmas, Baby G less than 12 weeks old etc. etc.  but we were accident free in three days!  Having now trained him this week I can look back at our half hearted attempt/introduction to the potty in August and see that H didn’t have anywhere near the same bladder control as he does now.  He was having a wee within 40 mins or so, when we took his nappy off last Monday he could go 2.5hrs between wees so he definately had markedly more physical control.

Potty training, I was still not really sure what I was training to be honest when I started, but there is no point if they don’t have some element of physical control.  I’d read the books and I still hadn’t found the list of “what I am training” and now I know you are training:

1. Sitting on the potty, sitting still for long enough to use it!
2. Recognise the sensation of needing to go
3. Communicating the need to go in advance

I used the Gina Ford potty train in one week guide as the basis for my plan of action. Our efforts a few months ago at bathtime pretty much meant he knew what the potty was for and we would let him watch tv to encourage him to sit on it for long enough.  I also had a big jar of smarties, maltesers etc. I put all the Christmas chocolates in it and when he used the potty he could have one for a wee and two for a poo.  Day one we just let him be in pants and had a few accidents, day two in the afternoon we had pants and trousers and two accidents.  Every time we had an accident I said when you feel that your wee is coming tell mummy and we can use the potty.  Day three we had no accidents but we were still having to ask him and put him on the potty every two hours to use it.  Day four it clicked, he started saying “I need the potty” without it being a mad dash too. 

I took H’s nappy off last Monday and our last accident was last Tuesday!  H still has a nappy on at night but I have noticed this is barely wet in an morning now and I have no plans to night train him for a good while.   We are moving on to the toilet – now its a smartie only for using the toilet.  I am sure there are accidents ahead, everyone warns of a relapse, whether that is you or them getting remiss in reminding/remembering who knows but I shall carry trousers & pants and continue to be one very proud mummy. 

I’d just like to thank my Twend, Bec, over at Beetroot and Gherkins for her support and advice – she too has a toddler bottom which out of nappies and in pants – High Five Bec – we rock! xx

A pre-post warning – if you are under 3 years old this is a sad story, if you are older I hope you will find it amusing! 

 Two months ago when Baby G was born both Baby G and Lil H were given helium balloons to celebrate  their arrival in this world and promotion to big brother respectively.  Lil H has always been a big fan of helium balloons and has had a lot of enjoyment over the last 8 weeks with it.  But 8 weeks on and what was a big, full, round balloon bobbing & bouncing along the ceiling had become a floppy, saggy, crinkly bit of foil limping around the living room floor.  Mr L put H to bed whilst I put the living room back in order returning the toys to their correct boxes and refilling the toy box in anticipation of it all being emptied again tomorrow.  This pathetic bit of foil limped towards me.  On the basis that it frankly didn’t qualify as a balloon anymore, I mean it didn’t even float for gods sake!  I didn’t think anything of picking the flaccid foil pocket up, swiftly putting it out of its misery with the kitchen scissors and then unconsciously I stuffed it in the kitchen bin.  I did all this without a first, second or any other kind of thought.  If it’s not there my little H will never notice nor know or care.  Shortly after Lil’ H appeared downstairs holding his cup requesting more milk, he then spied his consumed “fruit squeezy” from tea time and decided he’d prefer that to milk.  I told him to go back to bed and I would bring his milk up, I also told him to “pop that in the bin on your way please”.  Again I did this all without thinking, the total absence of thought is very evident at all times throughout this tale isn’t it?!

H reappeared at the kitchen door holding the flat, lifeless, bounce free bit of foil.  “Mum you squashed my balloon” he accused.  I didn’t know what to say, I think I may have even started to blush!  “Mum you squashed my balloon” he repeated louder and even sadder.  I had to turn away as I felt a bad case of the giggles coming on because he looked so, so, so disproportionately sad about this!   H was soothed with the explanation it had “popped” and returned to bed with the promise of a new one. 

Phew – thankfully he isn’t old enough to examine the evidence, if he has he would have seen the clean, sharp, deliberate cuts of the kitchen scissors wielded by his mother in the unprovoked slashing! 

I confess I am a Helium Killer!

At Lancaster Towers one of the daily unknowns is what meal times will bring with my toddler Lil’ H.  I hated weaning and perhaps the fall out of all the emotions of that is the picky, or not picky, unpredictable toddler that faces me for three meals a day.  I have a handful of balanced meal options I can present with minimal nonsense – spaghetti bolognese, sausage and mash, lasagne and fish pie.  Alongside this handful of “bankers” there are cookbooks, a bin and a freezer full of “denied” alternatives.  Just to be clear the rules around the refused meal options has small print attached – what is denied at home will be consumed (often with second helpings) at nursery – oh the power of peer pressure!

The difference in H’s eating between home and nursery is huge, probably massive and definitely really annoying.  Armed with my Annabel Karmel cookbooks I have cooked more meals for H than I have ever cooked for myself or for anyone else.  So to watch the food go from shop, to home, to oven, to table, through negotiation, some pleading, to low down tricks like dipping some in yoghurt, to flat refusal, to the bin (OK I confess I eat some!) is upsetting and being honest can be anger inducing. 

The difference between home and nursery got me thinking, what’s different and what can I replicate at home to improve my toddlers consumption?  Inviting his classmates round for tea everyday ain’t an option but helping me in the kitchen and the garden is.  H attends a Montessori nursery, one of the major appeals for me is the outdoor nature focussed activities they do, planting, growing & harvesting food from the vegetable garden, collecting eggs and helping create lunch from their efforts.  Taking involvement as the key thought I have managed to add “broccoli trees” and homemade pizza to the Toddler menu at Lancaster Towers over the last few weeks.  I don’t grow broccoli or wheat to grind flour to make pizza but H enjoys “chopping the trees” and decorating the pizza.  We talk about the food we’re using, where it comes from and it gets eaten with the special magic ingredient – pride.  Of course these are baby steps and if you were a Peeping Tom at my place last week you would have seen me cajoling Lil’ H with birthday candles using the chance to blow them out as an incentive for a mouthful of cottage pie – another of my parenting lows/tips shared – but hey it worked, we made it through another mealtime and this time had an empty to bowl at the end – success!

So when I was contacted by the people driving The Potato Story I was really keen to support and help spread the word about food provenance.  Especially so having my own domestic challenges overcome by some of the key thinking behind the programme that undertsanding where food comes from is a key part of developing lifelong healthy eating habits in children. 

‘The Potato Story’ is part of a wider campaign by McCain called ‘It’s all good’ and is focussed on educating kids on food provenance visiting UK schools in 2009 trying to combat the shocking stats below that:

• 1 in 10 children aged 7 – 11 think chickens lay potatoes!
• 1 in 5 have no idea that potatoes are grown in the ground
• 1 in 5 didn’t realise that chips are made from the humble spud

‘The Potato Story’ has been delivering its message from a purpose built double-decker bus visiting over 130 UK primary schools and has to date reached out to in excess of 17,400 primary school pupils.  My Lil’ H is preschool in age so has “missed the bus” so to speak but I wanted to write about the campaign as I have taken inspiration from it and started at home.  Come Spring time we will be planting veg in the garden and I will write more in 2010 about what we grow, cook and eat, well hopefully eat anyway!

You can see pictures of all the fun of the tour here and learn more by visiting www.thepotatostory.co.uk

So preparations for baby number two are well underway.  I am not willing to tempt fate by saying “nearly there” as my new kitchen, that’s the 20,000 swear word kitchen, has taken 83 days and still counting (it justifies a whole post in itself that tale!)  

However number one son, H’s, big boy bedroom is finished and he’s moved in – out of his cot and into a single bed – I am delighted to report the transition couldn’t have gone better.  He remains, touch wood, a great sleeper and couldn’t love his new room or the Elephant beanbag I bought him more.  I took a really lovely photo of him this weekend chilling in his room – an similar image of him age 13 in front of a computer game is, I am sure, inevitable! 

I am so thrilled he loves his room as much as he does.  With so much changing in his world – from cot to bed, nappies to pants (not going quite as well admittedly!), from only child & only grand child to having the imminent arrival of a sibling in October on his horizon.  For him to love his room so much make me really happy.  His new room is where he wants to be if we’re at home, everyone who comes to the house gets “come play upstairs in my bedroom” – so sweet!

So household maneuvers continue – a bit of background for you … we thought about moving prior to baby number two but with three bedrooms and the housing market, or should I say lack of housing market, being what it is, we decided to stay put for a year or two.  Now we are rejigging how we use the space we have.  So the spare room and also my office/study have been converted into H’s new big boy bedroom freeing up his nursery for baby number two.  We have a sofa bed in the living room so will give up our master suite as and when we have guests.  Lets be honest who wants to visit anyone with two kids under three?!  More often we meet friends for weekends or holidays away as they all have babes too. 

I have set up my office/study in our loft area and I absolutely love it, just putting the finishing touches to my “hub/den/retreat” (trip to Ikea planned on Tuesday – wish me luck!) and I will post up some piccies of the finished space for you. 

The less positive side of increasing our household occupancy is that I am having to relinquish / share wardrobe space with my other half, ARGHHHH!  Some quite heated discussions have been had about clothing quantities and on that note I’m off, as R is out tonight, possession is nine tenths of the law and squatters rights rule when is comes to hanging and drawer space, well in my book they do anyway!

Ahhh, just previewed this post, I so love this photo of H, wish I’d taken it on my decent camera and not my phone though – does that happen to anyone else? 

Claire x

I am 31 weeks pregnant, my due date is 5th October and according to my iPhone I have 62 days left to my due date – that sounds organised doesn’t it?  But I am so not organised.  So not ready.  Getting ready for baby number two is what I am SUPPOSED to be doing, but I actually, weirdly don’t really know where to start.  I feel so not ready that today it actually scared me! 

What little time I have when my 2 year old is sleeping is filled with project managing house renovations, trying to work out how to prepare my toddler for the imminent arrival, getting the Christmas 2009 collection for Dandelion Lounge finalised and general anxiety about “hitting reset” and rewinding to where we were two and a bit years ago being responsible for a newborn life.  Add my bestest little guy, H, into that equation and I can’t see how life will add up from October onwards.  Life at Lancaster Mews since H arrived has revolved around him and his routine, so who’s routine is going to be followed when there are two, very different routines, needs and agenda’s?  How the devil do you prepare for and do that?  Answers on a postcard/comment box please! 

So to my getting ready list … OK so I have “the stuff”  – the moses basket, the cot, car seat etc.  I have some experience – I know which way round a nappy goes, that babes cry and eventually I’ll start to understand why and to make sure the frill isn’t tucked in to the inner liner on nappies to help avoid busting nappies (one of my top tips for first time mums that one!).   But this time getting ready isn’t about stuff or just about me and Mr L its about H.  Its a teeny bit about delivery and a lot about making it right and positive for my toddler H.  The latter I really don’t know where to start with.

I know me, H and Mr L all survived labour & delivery.  I know it was a long 36 hours.  I know gas & air doesn’t start to kick in until inhale number 10 so I know to start just before the contraction begins (another top tip!)  I know I couldn’t have loved anyone more than the anaesthetist who gave me my epidural after 28hours and that in the end it was all worth it, but that is about it.  I have successfully blanked everything else from my brain.  I also know that I wrote in my diary on the day I gave birth …*Remember c-section planned next time* – I left myself a message – surely I did this for a reason?! 

First time round Mr L and I spent 2 hours a week for 9 weeks attending NCT classes, learning all about the choices and options.  As yet I have yet to pick up a pregnancy book.  I have loads and they are all still in the loft – first time around I knew exactly the size of my foetus, embryo, baby throughout my 40 weeks in relation to various, generally edible items, from coffee beans, to plums, to apples to grapefruit etc.  This time I have to check my iPhone between nursery runs, toddler classes, play dates, phone calls, work, home and the odd occasional splash of a social life!

Last time labour started and I went to hospital around 1am, we can’t just go to hospital with a toddler in the house!  I really don’t  want to be seen by, or subject my parents to, having to see me in labour.  So I am hoping that I will go into labour on either a Monday, Tuesday or Thursday morning between (9am & 1pm) while H is at nursery.  That way Mr L can simply call the Grandparents to pick him up, we simply shimmy off to the hospital when we’re ready, welcome baby number two and return home with new babe in arms to little H who’s had a fabulous day and possibly overnight sleepover with his Grandparents.  Is that a plan?  No it clearly isn’t but that is all I’ve got right now, so if you’re listening to me reviewing this post out loud baby number two – Monday, Tuesday or Thursday morning work for us, and that includes you – OK?  Please?  OMG I am begging my unborn child to do things, next I’ll be attempting bribery with colostrum, the power has already shifted, she already holds all the cards!

Whilst pregnant in 2007 I turned my office into H’s nursery which is to be “baby number two’s” nursery – choose baby name is on the to do list!  Now H is being promoted to what was, until a few weeks ago, our guest room and I am just putting the finishing touches to his big boys bedroom with his own “big bed”!  I plan to move him from nursery to bedroom and from cot to bed hopefully next week (blackout blinds & John Lewis permitting!)   Also at 27 months want to tackle potty training, that may afford me a few nappy free weeks before I return to 12 a day – but wondering if I have left it too close to a new sibling arriving?  Had planned to start on Thursday but now H has come down with a virus & it feels unfair to try to start if he’s under the weather, sigh!  Definitely one that needs more thought! 

Well you know what I feel better just having blogged this out, I’m sure all these things will happen, in their own time and if they don’t they don’t … but deep down, well not that deep at all really, I am a planner and I would them all to be done, quickly, easily and preferably by now! 

Anyway I am signing off for another restless, uncomfortable, dare I say it “bumpy” night ahead!  More to come on the ever evolving “to do”, “to get”, “to order” lists I create as I count down the … 62, nearly 61 days to baby number two … all advice, warnings, tales & recommendations received with mucho thanks!