Finding a nursery school: The search continues

Many months ago, I filled out a preference form for my Little Monster nursery place. We chose a place that is about a twenty minute walk from our current home and which had a good inspection report. The form only allowed for one preference to be noted.
This week, I finally received the letter I have been waiting for: A letter from our local council, telling us whether or not our daughter has been a given a nursery place. It did not contain good news. Due to other applicants living closer to the nursery than we do, she does not have a place. Despite there being nothing else I could have done, I feel guilty that she might now miss out.
And so, the search goes on. The council helpfully sent a list of nurseries with places still available. Two were in the area we're probably moving to. We are now on the waiting list for one, as it is now full, and have applied for a place at the other. The waiting has now started again as we wait to find out if she has a place at this new nursery.

To those who were lucky enough to be given a place at a nursery, I congratulate and envy you. For those of you who are now waiting as well, I sympathise. I recommend calling any potential nurseries as soon as possible as the remaining places seem to be disappearing very quickly.

Surviving the Summer Holidays with a Toddler

I am thrilled that the sunshine has arrived. Looking out of my window at the blue sky does make me smile. But already, I'm dreading the idea that for the next six weeks, my usual mums group is closed up for the holidays. Its a reminder of how much I rely on that one group to provide me with two hours of adult socialisation while my Little Monster's in the crèche. There aren't many activities for under-5s on at all actually and play centres are due to be packed with older children. So here is my guide to surviving the summer holidays with a toddler...

1. Keep Cool. Tantrums are far more likely to strike when your toddler is getting too hot. My daughter loves an afternoon shower to cool off. She splashes about it in the water and the whole thing becomes a game of me chasing her around the bathtub with the shower hose.

2. Keep a good supply of arty crafty stuff. On a really hot day, leaving the house may not be the best idea with your toddler. Plus, daily trips to the local park can become a little boring for all concerned. If there are days where you have nothing to do, get out some paper and paints/stickers/glue and various scraps of wrapping paper and tissue paper. Baking is another great indoor activity.

3. Make a play-date. All those mums I miss seeing during the holidays do actually exist outside of the group. Now could be the perfect time to turn a playgroup acquaintance into a friend. Invite someone who has a child of a similar age to yours over for lunch. Or arrange a big meet up of all your usual group at the park or even the beach if you're fortunate enough to have one nearby.

4. Don't feel guilty about having the occasional lazy day. At least once a week, we spend the day indoors. We watch DVDs, read books and play games. Its actually really nice to have a day of simply enjoying each other's company. There's no need to arrange activities for every day and if you try to, you'll probably run out of ideas very quickly.

5. Have a picnic. My daughter gets ridiculously excited at the prospect of a picnic. It must be the combination of yummy food, a break from the usual routine and being outdoors. You needn't go far - if you're lucky enough to have a garden then use it. Unfortunately, I live in a first floor flat but the park isn't far away.

6. Keep an eye out for any activities that are on. As I said, there don't seem to be many activities for under-5s on during the summer holidays. So it would be a real shame to miss them! Keep up-to-date using local authority websites or your local paper. If you search the internet, you might find a website giving listings of events in your local area.

7. Remember the sun cream and a hat! I know we hear it time and time again but make sure you have a good supply of sun cream and a few hats for your toddler. I'm the kind of person who looks out the window and rejoices at the gorgeous weather, only to realise that I have no sun cream and my Little Monster's sun hat has completely disappeared. Plus, my daughter has been known to lose her hat on days out so I always try to remember to carry a spare.

Most importantly, have fun! I hope everyone has a great summer!

A Sunny Day of Swimming

I am having a wonderful day. Its not often that a day goes so very well and so I felt compelled to blog about it. This morning I was awoken by my alarm clock but I happily sprang out of bed, rather than curling under my duvet for a few extra precious minutes of warm relaxation. The Little Monster woke up as I was helping the Other Half get ready to leave for work. It really does make such a difference to the entire day when she can say bye bye to Daddy before he departs. 

As she quietly ate the bowl of porridge that she had politely requested for breakfast, I announced that we were going swimming today. A huge grin spread across her little cereal smeared face. "Swimming! Swimming! Swimming!" I was thrilled that our planned activity caused such delight. The meal entirely finished, she popped her bowl neatly onto the kitchen worktop before leaping about the room in excitement. We got dressed with very little fuss, apart from a mini tantrum over covering up her Charlie and Lola swimming costume with a top, and organised towels and other swimming paraphernalia. I left the house, for once feeling confident that I had remembered everything that we needed, with a very happy toddler sitting nicely in her pushchair. Outside we encountered glorious sunshine accompanied by the slightest of breezes, keeping the air just cool enough. My favourite kind of weather. I was almost disappointed that the walk to the swimming pool was only five or ten minutes long. 

Paying for my ticket and getting changed passed without issue. Of course, I couldn't expect perfect behaviour from my Little Monster. Whilst I was attempting to cram our two full bags and shoes into a locker, she tried to make an escape. I had to leave the contents of our swimming bag falling on the floor as I dashed after her. Luckily she didn't get far but the previously empty changing rooms were suddenly full of fellow swimmers who all found the incident rather amusing. I managed to see the humour of the situation and my good mood remained intact.  

 

We waded into the slightly warm water until it reached her shoulders. She made her way to the closest edge and sat herself up on the side. I spent about ten minutes coaxing her into the water. We haven't been swimming many times due to moving about so much and lack of facilities in our old neighbourhood. This means she's a little unsure of the vast expanse of water. I assured her that it was really just like a big bath, which seemed to do the trick. She spent the majority of the rest of our visit wading about in the water, occasionally clinging to me so that she could lay back and kick her legs. She even made a little attempt at a doggy paddle. After a while, she didn't even want me holding her hand, although she changed her mind when the fountains and sprinklers were turned on. Far above us was a very large container which periodically filled up then tipped its contents down a ramp and into the pool. The older children found this very thrilling but the Little Monster was a bit scared by it. She soon got used to avoiding it and the wading and splashing continued. 

She was upset when I told her it was time to go home so, because she'd been such a good girl, I promised to get her a nice lunch from the supermarket on the way. This was enough to calm the growing rage and getting dressed was fairly quiet and orderly. At one point, I spied her little hand inching towards the changing room door lock but I quickly put a stop to that before she exposed me at the worst possible moment. 

The walk home was just as pleasant as the outward journey had been that morning and I picked up some cooked chicken pieces, salad and some nice smoothies for our lunch. I know that doesn't sound very exciting but considering I had been planning jam sandwiches, it was much appreciated. Now I'm sitting at the laptop while the Little Monster does some drawing with her crayons. I've managed to do two loads of laundry and applied for two jobs. An  enjoyable and productive day! 

The Dreaded Half Term

Half Term used to be great. It meant no school, maybe a holiday, meeting up with friends and generally having lots of fun. Now the news that its Half Term just fills me with dread. Because now it means no playgroups and that anywhere else I can take the little monster for a bit of sociable fun is utterly packed with much larger children and if you fill a room with room with children, they're bound to bash into each other occasionally. If a five year old bashes into my two year old, she'll be squished. It's nobody's fault, it's just simple physics.

I've managed to arrange a playdate at my house on Friday. Now I'm desperately trying to arrange another meet up for some time earlier in the week. Many might ask why I don't just enjoy a quiet week with my little girl. And of course I'm planning some nice arty activities and maybe even some very simply baking. But unless she's regularly set loose in a large space with others of her age, my little girl quickly becomes bored and mischief ensues. We didn't go to our usual playgroup on Friday and, since then, she's worked out that she can turn off the monitor at night so that we don't know when she gets out of bed. I'm certain that there's a connection. If she's kept occupied, she doesn't have time to work things out. 

Many child-centred places organise special events and activities for children during half term. But none of these are ever appropriate for pre-school children, it seems. They are all for the children who would usually be at school. And fair enough, they deserve some fun during their time off. But what on earth am I supposed to do with my non-school attending child who isn't having time off? 

This has actually reminded me of another subject that I wanted to blog about: home educating. We have been vaguely considering the idea of home schooling pretty much since our daughter's birth. It began because we weren't too keen on the schools in our old neighbourhood. Now that we've moved, there are a few good schools. But we still find ourselves questioning just how good they are. Could our child gain from us teaching her, rather than leaving it to the professionals? I would really love to hear from anyone that has any amount of experience on this subject. 

Family Favourites

Me and the Other Half have very similar musical tastes. Not exactly surprising though, since we both like a very wide range. Of course, there is some music that I don't like that he does and vice versa. We've always enjoyed having a good sing along to our favourite tunes. Following the birth of our daughter, these sing alongs became useful in calming her down and getting her to sleep. So it shouldn't really come as a surprise that she, now nearly two and a half years old, now also shares our favourite songs. Its seems a bit bizarre for a toddler to love listening to Pink Floyd, Meatloaf and Offspring.

Obviously, we have to be a bit careful with what songs we actually put on when she's around, especially since she now repeats anything she hears. Unfortunately, this has also vastly limited which of our DVDs can be played during the day too. It was only when an impressionable, innocent little baby was suddenly around that we realised that a very large portion of our film collection are completely unsuitable for a younger audience. Even most Doctor Who episodes are a bit too scary. Examples including the weeping angels, people with gas masks for faces and people without any faces at all. 

Luckily, all of my beloved period dramas are entirely suitable for all ages and come with the added bonus that I can claim I'm teaching my daughter about our cultural and social history. She was leaping around the room with joy when Edward asked Eleanor to marry him at the end of Sense and Sensibility. Unluckily, the Other Half despises the works of Jane Austen and anything like it. So if we're all at home and wanting to watch the television, we all too often end up watching CBeebies or repeats of Frasier and Scrubs. 

I'm very much looking forward to my little girl being old enough to start sharing my love of books. She already has her own large and always growing collection of small children's books and she loves me to read them to her over and over, never tiring of the story. Once she's old enough, I really love the idea of reading all of my favourites together: A Little Princess, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Harry Potter. But what if she doesn't like these? I suppose I shall have to get used to reading all of her favourites. I suppose it's a bit silly and sentimental to imagine that she's going to enjoy the same things I did as a child. And I suppose really I wouldn't want her to. I want her to have her own favourites and her own taste. It's just nice to have some in common. 

Hooray for pee in the potty!

Potty training. One of the subjects I usually avoid bringing up around other parents. Because I fear either they'll sneer at me for not having potty trained my daughter before her first birthday or they'll think I'm crazy for trying to accomplish this before her third birthday. Who would have thought that how you teach your child to move from peeing in a nappy to peeing on a potty or toilet would provoke such strong opinions? But indeed it does.

We have had a potty for about a year, all in all. We actually bought two. One was a bog-standard, cheap thing that I thought would do just fine. The second, which replaced the first, is more like a chair, much more comfortable looking and it seems to be the winner for my little one. It is her potty, rather than the potty. It lives in her bedroom and she chooses to use it whenever she wishes. I switched to this method after spending months and months trying to ask her to sit on the potty periodically through the day. Since taking a more laid back approach to the whole thing, we have had three wees in the potty within a week, two just yesterday. Something else which seems to have helped was my husband's idea of buying this book. 

After reading this a few times, my daughter is now desperate to have "special princess big girl pants". So I have made a deal with her. If she can use her potty and keep her nappies dry for a whole day, I'll take her to the shops and she can choose some pants. This seems to have had an impact. Despite no consistent results, she seems to understand the concept now much more than she did before. 

I'm not getting over excited though. I am staying calm and expecting nothing. Of course, I jump about and clap and cheer when she actually does something. I've never seen her look so smug either. 

The only advice I will ever give to a parent over potty training is this: calm down. Don't panic because you're child is refusing to pee or even sit on the potty. Keep at it or maybe try something new. Ignore people who claim that their little darling was perfectly potty trained within a week so yours should be too. I know this a massive cliché but this really isn't a sprint and if you try and make it one, your child is going to give up well before the finish line. Good luck to all!

Greetings and Welcome

Hello Readers, welcome to my blog. I plan to share with you my experiences of being a stay at home, a wife and a student. I have started this blog because, quite simply, I love to write. My dream career is to become a professional writer and if that's ever to happen, I probably get as much practice as possible. A secondary reason would be that I hope to amuse and inform other students, stay at home mothers and wives (and indeed fathers and husbands). Or I least hope that I don't cause anyone to feel that they have wasted precious moments by reading my ramblings. Yes, that is something I should warn you of at this point: I am a rambler. I regularly veer off subject and natter away about something completely unrelated until everyone involved has entirely forgotten what the subject was to begin with. As if to prove this point, I have now started rambling about rambling. Oh dear.

A bit of background, perhaps. I married my best friend in 2009. Later that year, our daughter was born. Roughly a year later, I started my Open University Degree. This decision took a lot of thought before I finally registered. It was a daunting prospect; I was already looking after a very energetic and, especially at the time, clingy little one year old full time. Could I really cope with studying at university level aswell? Now on my second module, I seem to be managing fairly well. My study hours are limited to when my daughter sleeps. This was simple whilst she still napped during the day but now that naps only happen after long journeys in the pushchair, all of my studying really has to be done after her bedtime. Of course, some evenings I'd much rather be lounging on the sofa, television remote in one hand, spoon in the other and a tub of ice cream on my lap. But luckily the courses seem to be structured to allow for this kind of indulgence. For this reason, and for the great sense of accomplishment gained, a highly recommend Open University learning to anyone who wishes to further their education but already has many demands on their time, be it small children hanging on your legs (my daughter likes to do this) or a full time job. 

As for being a stay at home mum, I mostly like it. There are times that I long for the adult conversation that comes with employment but the internet is very useful for days when we're stuck indoors and I'm very concerned that the song stuck in my head is the theme tune to 'In the Night Garden'. My little monster is two years old and so very clever and over dramatic (both traits she has gained from her father). I am constantly amazed at how quickly she learns new things. 

I shall leave my first post here and look forward to many posts to come. Thank you for reading.