Potty trained

We had a great holiday in Inverness-shire and then in France but they were holidays, they were great, the time with the families was fantastic, Logan got on great with everybody and became so confident by the end of the week at the beach that he walked in the water with a body board totally forgetting about his armbands. So that's it summarised, not really worth a full blog entry unless I populate it with photos.

 

The main thing that's happened during the summer is potty training.

A lot of parents say that potty training was the hardest step in bringing up their child. For me it had been the introduction of solid food up until then. I loathed making the little meals prepared in bulk, all mashed up together and packaged into small plastic boxes and frozen, to try and then see if Logan would like them. Then doing the same again but not all mashed up so he would learn the different tastes and textures. How many Sunday nap-times spent in the kitchen doing my most hated part of housework, COOKING, so that my son wouldn't eat out of a ready-made food jar. I would do it all over again in any case, but I couldn't wait for him to be 2 years old and able to eat the same as us. 

The big trend at the moment is potty-training in a week. Well that's all well if you can take a whole week off work to do just that. But I really didn't want to waste a full week out of my 3 precious weeks of summer holidays stuck in the house when I could be over in France or having a nice holidays in the North of Scotland. We were extremely lucky with the weather this summer in Scotland, which allowed for lots of week-end afternoons with no nappy trying to get to the potty quick enough. That period wasn't very successful.


France turned out to be the best step forward. 9 days, including 6 days on the beach where no nappies are required. I think he really enjoyed not having the bulky hot thing around his groin in temperatures well over the 30s. We had 2 flats (there were 6-7 of us) and Logan had very few accidents. The most memorable and funny accident was the evening before we left, when we'd scrubbed both flats so that they would be handed back spotless. Logan needed the toilet but his cousin was using that flat's toilet. I'd already taken off Logan's pants, but we needed to walk round to the other flat and unfortunately we weren't quite quick enough. I had however not really noticed. He'd started doing his business in the kitchenette, I had stepped on it and carried it through to the bathroom, and smeared it on the mat!! Disgusting. But pretty funny given the circumstances.

Back home, Logan really struggled to get back into the routine of going to nursery 4 days a week. Cries cries cries every time his Dad dropped him off for the first 2-3 weeks. Because he was upset, he wasn't very good at the potty thing. I had to put 4 pairs of pants and 3 pairs of trousers in his nursery bag, and sometimes he would come home having used all of these, plus a pair of nursery's trousers and pants, wearing yet another pair! It was like he'd never even tried those days.

And now the past 2 weeks, no accident whatsoever. He wears a nappy when he sleeps, and it's been dry every time he's woken up. He wakes up during the night and calls out if he needs the toilet. I am starting to wonder whether he is ready to sleep without a nappy at all. I bet you the first time I try he'll wet his bed! 

Yes I have been frustrated at times when 3 times within an hour I've had to change his pants and wash them. Yes he has had a Number 2 accident in the lounge and Number 1 in several parts of the house. Yes sometimes I have ran out of pants and trousers, and I still wonder how I bought 5 packs of 5 pants and yet I can only seem to find 15. Where have those 10 disappeared to? 

But I have to say I have found it easier than the solid foods. I don't know if it can be done within a week. It has taken us 2 months and I'm pretty pleased with that. Logan doesn't need nappies anymore and that's just wonderful!

First Sleepover

Logan's Dad and I were invited to a wedding the other day. We've known the date for a year and had it all planned: Logan would be coming with us during the day time, and sometime in the early evening on of us would quietly disappear with Logan and take him to his grand-parents for the night. We decided not to ask them too early. Maybe we should have!

We then realised the date was a Friday. Not a problem: I took a day off work, and booked Logan into nursery. You never know how a 2-year old is going to behave at a wedding, the nursery was a safer option than taking him with us and possibly throwing a tantrum and shouting a loud NO! just at the wrong time in the church.

And then, when we asked the grandparents a few weeks prior to the wedding, they said they themselves had a wedding reception that very night!!!

We were stuck.

We thought about the babysitter, but she now works evenings in a posh restaurant.

When I mentioned it to Logan's best friend Freya's mum, she straightaway offered to take him. But I wasn't sure. He'd never fallen asleep anywhere else but where we his parents were, or at his grand parents. We decided to try, as it would be the best solution, so we agreed.

She had it all planned right from the start: hot dog sausages and chips for dinner (Logan ate 3 sausages!), sweets, biscuits and fruit for dessert, Cars movie on the TV. And then everybody into Freya's room for book reading and cuddling up. Freya was very keen to sleep in the same bed as Logan but Logan wasn't, so they chased each other for a while round the bed and the mattress that Freya's mum had put down for Logan. Logan lying on the mattress, Freya coming and lying down next to him. Logan getting up and going to Freya's bed, Freya following him them. And so on. Until it was REALLY time for bed and to avoid fighting and tears, Logan was given his own bedroom.

Freya's parents, those lovely friends of ours, dropped Logan off back home at 11 am the next morning... WE HAD THE FIRST LONG LIE IN 2 YEARS AND 3 MONTHS!!

Possibly the best part of the wedding!

New house!

It's been a few weeks since we moved into our new, bigger house in the village by the airport. We have so much space now!

I haven't had much time to spend on the computer, what with cleaning the house and frantically painting walls to try and personalise it a bit. The first room that we tackled and completely did over is Logan's room. It was a teenage girl's bedroom before, so the carpet was full of make-up stains and straighteners burns. It was pretty disgusting and I was adamant this was going to get changed as quickly as possible. We first repainted the walls (they were bland Magnolia like the rest of the house), 3 of them white and the 4th one blue. He has blue curtains too. And for the carpet, we thought a muted green would look quite good with blue and white. We went for bright, apple green! Once all this was done, we took a trip to Ikea and came back with extra bits and bobs. Logan absolutely LOVES it. In fact he would play in it all the time, which is the opposite of the old house.

 We also have a spare bedroom now, where we have put a keyboard. As Logan loves music, very often he goes in there and asks us to put it on, so he can press the Demo button and dance to the very repetitive tune that plays constantly!


But the best bit about the new house has to be the spacious and completely safe garden. Logan loves to go outside, even first thing in the morning. We've got into a routine when the sun is out and it's warm, and when we come back from work/nursery we go out to play. It was hilarious tonight: Logan asked for a carton of juice for himself, then sat himself down on the steps in the garden. Looked up and me and said: "Mummy! Beer! Sit!" So I obeyed of course! Got myself a beer and sat down beside him, and both of us enjoyed our drinks in the sunshine.

He's really coming along with his language skills now. Everyday there's something new that he says or does that surprising us. The other day, not really thinking he would succeed, his dad told him to go and put the music on. He went to the radio/CD player in the corner of the dining room, and slid the button the right way to put the radio on! 

Most of what he says is in English (although he understands all the French I tell him) due to spending so much time at nursery of course, but last thing at night, all he wants is a "bisou" before going to sleep :)

Barefoot Books

We discovered Barefoot Books back in November, during Logan's crazy "tractor" phase.

He'd sat on his Dad's lap a few times, watching youtube videos with him, and then started to say "tractor" to request tractor videos.

There's loads of them. So the choice was great. But then I found "Driving my Tractor" by Barefoot Books. Logan got addicted and we had to watch it every night! It tooks us over our download limit with our broadband supplier! So we got him the book and sing-along DVD for Christmas. The DVD lives in the computer so that it's only a click away whenever he wants to watch it.

And the book is excellent too, much as the DVD but with additional pages showing different types of farming machinery and vegetables.

So since this absoolutely brilliant discover, we have been watching more Barefoot Books sing-along videos on youtube.

Some of Logan's favourites are:

Portside Pirates: we hate this one, it's very repetitive, but it's a boat and Logan likes it

We go traveling by: that's a very good one, with bus, plane, train, colours, sounds, associations, very educative.

Up, up, up: or as Logan calls it, "Moon"!! This is a very sweet one about flying in a balloon to escape from it all and reach the moon. We usually play this one last.

Farmyard Jamboree: with animals and their offsprings! Super to teach all those names!

There are of course many more so I am going to try and get them from iTunes as all he's interested in are the videos, and iTunes has the advanatge of not needing broadband once it's downloaded.

Here's the Barefoot Books Youtube link for more of their amazing sing-alongs:
https://www.youtube.com/user/barefootbooks

2nd Birthday - Trip to the Cairngorms

For Logan's second birthday AND Easter, which fell on the same day this year, we went on a 4-day trip to the Cairngorms. Logan's French grand-parents came too, and we rented the extremely well appointed Allt-Na-Braighe cottage in Aviemore.

We stopped at Doune on the way up, to visit the Castle where Logan had great fun exploring all the wee nooks and crannies, and to have lunch at the Buttercup cafe.

The Cairngorms are such a great area for families. And so central that it is easy to take day trips to other parts of Scotland. We took a trip to Speyside and Elgin. On the way we stopped at Boat of Garten where we were lucky to see the steam train stop to take some passengers. A bit too loud for Logan though who freaked out a couple of times. He is still only 2!! Had lunch in Elgin and a look at the Cathedral, the boy had great fun running about in the sunshine.

The day of his birthday, which was also Easter, was fantastic. We had a really nice programme focussed around what he would like and he loved everything. First thing in the morning we had a mini Easter-egg hunt (only 1 chocolate egg, he's only 2!) and then he opened some presents. Absolutely loves his double decker bus! And then we went to the Highland Wildlife Park. He had great fun sitting at the wheel in the car while spotting all the different animals: polar bears, bisons, deer, camels etc... and then walking about saying "ello" to the tigers, wild cats, "gros birdies", owls etc... He walked for about an hour before lunch.

After nap we went to the Potting Shed tearoom at the Inshriach Nursery because they bake the best cakes in Scotland. And I thought that would be the perfect place for him to blow his candles. Lovely old fashioned bone china teacups and saucers, beautiful cakes, and he had to blow his 2 candles about 6 times before I managed to get the right photo!

And then we walked it off around the Uath Lochans path where Logan marched to his Babou's songs, absolutely loving it.

A great week-end, and fab photos to show Logan when he's older so he can remember what a fantastic second birthday he had. 

Cosy under the duvet

For the past 2 to 3 weeks, Logan has been learning to sleep under a duvet as opposed to inside a sleeping bag.

He had always slept in a sleeping bag before, from about 4 weeks old. Sleeping bags are great as babies can't get out of them, so you're sure they stay nice and cosy all night long.

At about 18 months old, Logan was starting to be annoyed with his sleeping bag as he couldn't move freely in it. So I got him a babyboum one. It's a belgian company and I found their sleeping bags on Amazon.co.uk. They are fantastic as they have removable sleeves for those very cold winter nights, and they can zip either round as a bag, or in between the legs. He loved the liberty of being able to sleep in whichever position he wanted thanks to the zip between the legs. He had a 12-36 months polar one in lime green, in 1.7 TOG. I can thoroughly recommend them! Especially since they can last up to 2 years so a very good investment!

And then I thought that he's not far away from being moved into his toddler bed, so he should really start learning to sleep under a duvet. A very good friend of mine gave me her daughter's cot duvet with some duvet covers (they are not pink!) and so for the past few weeks Logan has been learning to use it. He's struggling a bit as he gets really hot at the start, and then sometimes during the night he kicks it off and gets quite cold. So we've been getting up a couple of times a night to cover him up again. But he absolutely loves getting under it at bed time, so much so that he now wants to have his story in bed as opposed to sat on the rug beside the bed. We tried to put him back in the sleeping bag but he doesn't want it anymore!

Round about the same time, we changed him from the potty to the toilet booster seat. Again he's much happier about this (and it saves us cleaning the potty! yuk!) and has taken up reading on the toilet!! Just like his Dad! And the same sort of reading material!

The third big step that we've taken over the past few weeks is at meal times: we now all eat together at 7 pm, and we all eat the same meal! It is very nice not to have to cook something different for Logan. So around 6.30 pm, Logan gets his bath with me, while his dad prepares dinner. Logan seems to really enjoy this new set-up. Although sometimes he still acts up a bit. He had home-made Chinese for the first time last night! :)

Christmas and New Year 12/13

Oh no it's all over for another year! So much hype and it's gone in a flash. I just love Christmas, and with Logan now that little bit older, it was absolutely brilliant. He is now very dextrous at opening presents! He had a lot of practice as, like last year, we had 4 Christmasses again.

He got well spoiled :) and got pretty much everything he wished for without actually verbally expressing it (he doesn't have quite all the vocabulary yet!). In short, a garage, a laptop, a big truck, a plane, amongst others. His Pixar's Cars collection is growing fast!

We spent a week in France after Christmas, and it's incredible how much my wee boy developed during that time-span. He understands French quite well now and has more words. He calls his grandad "Babou" but still gets confused between "Mamie" and "Mummy/Mamma"!! It's very funny. He knows who his cousins are, and when their names are mentioned he gets all excited and starts looking for them.

He absolutely loves tractors, and was ecstatic when my Dad took him on a ride on his 50-year old red McCormick (it is maybe even older than that!). He was holding the steering wheel and concentrating hard on the road!!

The three cousins had great fun running around the house chasing each other. Thankfully no-one fell and got hurt. It was hilarious.

On one evening, the big cousins were engaged in a "bagarre" (pretend fight) with Babou on the soda while Logan was reading a book on a comfy chair across the coffee table. All of a sudden he put away his book, and crawled over the coffee table to join in the fun! He was not going to be left out!

It was such an improvement on last summer, when the 3 of them didn't play together as Logan wasn't really at that stage yet. I can't wait for next summer and see what mischief the 3 of them get to when we go in August!

The boys didn't stay with us the whole week, so one of the remaining days we went snowshoe walking. Logan was straped into his Patapum and promptly fell asleep! We had scheduled it so that we had lunch on arrival on the mountain, and walk at naptime. Perfect!