Reverse Advent Calendar

The funny thing about parenting is…that I see more now than I did when I was young, free and single!

I know I’m super early to be thinking about this, but every day on my way to work and on my way home, I’m seeing so many homeless people. I’m seeing people who I see daily slowly fade away. This morning I bought a guy a coffee and a sandwich. But it really got me thinking. I’ve got so many things at home which I no longer need-clothes/toys and food that I forget about. What I’ll be doing for the lead up to Christmas is creating a reverse advent calendar. But I’ll also be going through our wardrobes and toy collections and dropping them off to charities. I’d love to know if anyone else would love to get involved with me and I can then reach out to charities to see what they’re greatest need is and create an advent calendar for us all to work to (prompts if you will!) and hopefully we’d be able to create a #dublingivingcommunity and #Irishgivingcommunity Anyone else with me? Christmas is such an expensive time of year for everyone but adding a couple of basics to your shopping would be a huge help! It would also remind us to do it! Let me know if anyone wants to join in x

Drop me a message to thefunnythingaboutparenting@gmail.com or on Instagram or Facebook.

Be prepared to be pooped, peed and spat on

The funny thing about parenting is… that you get spit at quite often.

We’ve all been pooped and peed on, puked on and spat on right?

The little one ended up in A&E a few weeks ago, the first trip wasn’t too horrific except for the spectacularly long wait given we were classed as ‘not urgent’.

The next trip, 4 days later, with a very ill looking toddler who’d been up all night the nigth before screaming and couldn’t eat or swallow was still a long wait to be seen. Long enough for her to puke all over right as a nurse said “Is she okay, she looks like she might be about to throw up” and yeap, right on queue. All over me. All over my jeans. All over my top. And yeap, I had to sit there for a good 6 more hours in puke. I really stank. She was then admitted as her bloods were all over the place, and she wasn’t eating or drinking so was dehydrated.

The reason for our numerous visits to A&E are long and complicated and involved several GP visits, blood tests and a child who was not able to walk and screaming in agony with sore legs.

Alas, so hence our 2nd visit to A&E in 4 days after another GP visit. As a parent, you just know when something isn’t right with your child. It really is a parent’s instinct and luckily, our GP’s trusted that we weren’t over reacting.

The second trip to A&E saw them take more bloods, which actually showed something was wrong – the first set of bloods exactly a week before had showed inflammation and as per our GP’s orders, we traipsed back to the hospital and were sent home as she ‘seemed’ well.

The bloods on the second visit showed her white blood count was off, her inflammation levels were through the roof and a number of different issues….but none could be married.

So at about 6pm, we were given word she would have to be admitted. I hate seeing my little one so ill, and I hate seeing all the pain she had to go through for bloods and canullas. A drip was hooked up and promptly taken off when the registrar asked (demanded to see her walk) – keep in mind, she hadn’t eaten all day. Was extremely weak and lethargic and was extremely upset. We once again got the feeling that we were ‘those’ parents.

Upon admittance, we were given a room in isolation and had numerous visits from pretty much everyone – neurology, ortho and RCSI.

The Pediatrician was lovely. She assured me that we were not over-reacting. Something was wrong. They just don’t know what. She is still lovely, and she has since said to us she was extremely worried as Paige looked so, so ill.

We got taken out of isolation and put on the main ward and got to know all the other parents and nurses and babies. Paige was a little bundle of energy that as time went on began to feel much better and was singing to all the tiny 3&4 month olds.

Mummy and daddy were totally exhausted and drained. Thankfully, I had an angel in disguise who just happens to be the aunt of my brother’s boyfriend who works in the canteen and made sure I was fed each and every day.

On the Friday we met with more specialists – this time, Rheumatology, Infectious Diseases and Physio and we discovered she is hypermobile!

I finally got my shower on the Saturday morning after being puked on the previous Wednesday. Yes I stank. I wreaked.

But she got day release over the weekend so off we went to various places and had some fun.

Back we went on the Sunday night, ready for more bloods and a bone scan on the Monday and my god did she fight the sedation. It was rather cute to watch her wander round and chat with me really dazily. But she had been on a strict nil-by-mouth from 9am so it was heartbreaking to watch her as she was so hungry.

We finally got the all-clear to be released. There was nothing major showing up – it was all very odd.

It was very, very nice to get home to our own beds for all of us, and this brings me to the spitting.

I got a call on the Wednesday morning to say she needed penicillin. She tested positive for Group A Strep which we all carry, but it could potentially be Strep Throat. I was actually told it was Strep Throat but after meeting with the Dr on Monday, it isn’t.

Our prescription also got lost which was heaps of fun and we had to organise a new one, but with our own GP. We were told that this stuff is particularly vile. And she wasn’t wrong.

Paige has since spat it out, even in our faces whenever we’ve tried to give it to her. We’ve hidden it in everything. Yoghurts, nutella, juice. But nothing would work…well until we found the squashums yoghurts that come in fruit shaped pouches. They worked a treat-until we went to find more and we couldn’t. They’d sold out- so every other parent must have been aware of this truck to hide medicine in them but us.

But she was going back to nursery anyway the next day.

So now that she’s at nursery, she’ll happily take her medicine for them. Not a bother to her at all. She doesn’t spit in their faces. That’s reserved for us…yes child,   I only gave birth to you and you spit in my face. Cheers for that.

So our way round trying to administer her prescribed penicillin is to pawn it off on others. I’m not ashamed to admit that. At this stage, if it works, why fix it.

She’ll be back in 2 months for more blood tests, as her bloods haven’t gone back to normal and it was potentially a virus or strep. But either way, they can both take months to leave her system, or even a year! Hopefully, we’re on the road to recovery. But her fear of doctors is now real, and she’ll give them as good as she gets.

In essence, be prepared to be shit on, pissed on, spat on and not be able to complain. They’re your offspring and it’s the joys of parenting. Welcome to parenthood.

 

Social Media Boasting…sorry Bashing

The funny thing about parenting is ….that shock, horror, parents post pictures of their children online.

I read a piece recently in the Irish Times. It actually didn’t have any purpose, any opinions so to speak except for being a little vent about all the latest photos of kids online.

But hey, what would I know. I am one of those mothers that posts pictures of my child on Instagram, on Facebook and on Twitter. And I surely must be doing this to just show off as I must not mention the bad times.

This actually couldn’t be further from the truth.

I did not post my pregnancy news on Facebook. Very few people knew I was pregnant. This was probably down to the fact that subconsciously I was afraid of people being ‘judgey’ and by that I mean as in ‘oh look at her posting her pregnancy news, now all we’re going to hear about is the baby this and baby that’. Interestingly enough, when I eventually posted a photo of myself and the hubby posing beside a pram-it actually got more likes and comments than even my wedding photos. With that came ‘where are the baby pictures and why didn’t you post pictures of your bump?!’. I lived in London at the time and family were kept up to date via various means of communication-from FaceTime to album sharing. It was only when Paige was 7 months old that I realised that there was this huge community online that I knew nothing about and probably could’ve utilised when I was on maternity leave. It was also 3 days before I returned to work that I posted an actual picture of Paige on my Facebook. One where everyone could see her cute little face and hairless head. Since then, I have gone on to post hundreds(and I mean hundreds) of pictures of her on Instagram and not so many hundreds on Facebook. But the reality is, my pictures of me apparently boasting on Facebook receive many, many more likes than me tagging into Coppers (one time people, one time!). Surely I can’t be the only one who looks at my Facebook Staus Bar thinking really?! What am I meant to say?!

If you’ve been on Facebook for X amount of years, you’ve probably checked into tonnes of places and in reality now you’re just sat at home watching X Factor on a Saturday night. I think the reality is that as we grow older, we evolve and yeap, that means people start having babies and they pretty much consume all their time. I also think we kind of get fed up checking into places as we’ve probably been there already.

Within my friends group on Facebook, the majority are settling down, getting married, buying houses and along come the little sprogs who manage to get more likes out of us rather than us being absolutely twisted in a bar. Who knew? (Aren’t we all secretly cringing at the absolute state of us all back in 2005/2006 and so on when we took pictures on a digital camera🙈).

This leads nicely to the whole thing of embarrassing our children. Really? I think we embarrassed ourselves hideously when digital cameras and iPhones and any phone with a camera came out. Our generation invented the selfie for christs sake-so with any luck our children will look at that and think-god you embarrassed yourselves way more than the pictures you took of me😂

I look at my postings on Instagrams as memories that one day Paige will be able to look through and go ‘wow, you truly love me’ and with that I mean through everything. Through the tantrums, through the sickness and through the blissful moments. My aim is to chart her growth, her inner beauty and her wonderment of the world around her-from pointing at stars to getting acquainted with the sea and sand. I want to capture everything that I can. Working full-time means that from time to time, I do miss precious ‘firsts’ so to speak, but I try to be around to capture everything I can. I want to have memories that she will eventually be able to look upon and for her to show her children, her friends, partners, family later on down the line.

I love looking back at albums that my parents have stowed away, but now it’s so much easier. I am also terrible at printing out photos and usually upload and empty pictures from my phone every month, so having this ability to go online and remember a picture by looking at the date and remembering why I posted it is special. I’m not asking people to like them. I really couldn’t care less whether they like it or not, just unfollow me or unfriend me.

I’ve unfollowed people for posting the same stuff day in day out, I don’t have to like their posts. I am still friends with them, I’ve just unfollowed them. I’ve also seen people repeatedly post stuff that they have no idea about. At least we’re not posting cryptic messages saying how much someone has annoyed us, but won’t say who or why!?!

I’ve also made some amazing friends online all through the power of our mutual adoration of our children and we’ve all been their to handhold if something isn’t quite right, if they’ve needed a vent or even just needed to see if something is normal. The power of this has been amazing. To know that you’re not alone, as sometimes parenting can be so isolating- as you do tend to lose touch with some friends- because we may not want to always air our frustrations with potty training or how our child is tantrumming because they wanted ‘something nice’ but everything you gave them was not ‘nice’ is a huge relief.

Instagram and Facebook, and for those that I follow is a huge support. It’s an amazing network of parents who want to help each other – don’t get me wrong, there are a few out there who will bash other parents for doing something wrong or will say everything in their lives is perfect – but I choose not to follow them, for my own sanity.

I suppose this whole idea of oversharing works both ways, and no matter which way you look at it, we all move on. We will always lose friends as time goes on. We are all growing up in the world of social media, and if someone wants to unfollow me for posting pictures of my child because they don’t want to see her, that’s fine, it doesn’t bother me. Just like I don’t really have time to go out that much anymore now that I’ve bought a house, and have a child to look after. That’s evolution. We’re all slowly growing up and our priorities change and thus our outlook on life and what’s important to us changes. And is posting pictures of our child on Facebook or Instagram really any different to posting a selfie or a picture of our OOTD or dog any different?

I don’t think so. We post what we care about most, and what makes us smile each day. Surely that’s all that matters.

 

 

Sadness

The funny thing about parenting is…that when something like what happened in Nice happens, so many emotions come to the forefront. Those pictures, my god those pictures.

Hug them, squeeze them, tell them you love them, just look at them, stare away to your hearts content-even if they look at you funny. Take in every detail of their little faces. Promise to look after them forever. Promise to love them forever. Kiss them. Kiss them again. Hold their warm hands. Forget about all those things that frustrate you, even just for a few short minutes. For all those things that frustrate us, some parents, families, friends, grandparents, aunts, uncles, sisters, brothers will never get to experience that again. And even those frustrations we take for granted as it’s what makes everyone of us unique. But for some, they will never get to see the beautiful faces of those who were so cruelly taken away at such a joyous time, walk back in to the room to annoy them. They will not get to hold their warm hands again. They will not get to stare so intently at their features and get that look back that says ‘stop being weird’. Don’t take these moments for granted. They are and always will be in the back of your mind. Hug them, kiss them, love them, forever.

We are all human, we all have our own beliefs, and we are all entitled to them, but at the heart of it, we are all human. We have feelings. We hurt when others hurt. When laugh when others laugh. We are all human.

Staycation Number 2

The funny thing about parenting is … That kids really don’t care where they are, they just want to get away from the norm too!

We are off on our second staycation so far this year. This time however, it’s all planned for us. Dinner reservations-done. Activities-arranged. All that we need to do is get there and enjoy it. 

I’m not going to lie, the ease of not having to pack for a foreign holiday is amazing. No airports, passport control or throngs of people rushing. All we’re doing is hopping in the car for the drive (1 and half hours away) and voila! Paige is excited-she told me under no circumstances are we to order to the room-we are eating out. God I’ve got a diva. Or a child who truly enjoys the high life. 

Keep your eyes peeled on our snapchat-the.rit, Instagram- @toddling_along, and Twitter-@ritawhyte for updates on our trip to Ireland’s Anciest East and Athlone! 

Teething Sucks

The funny thing about parenting is…that we (thankfully) forget the pain of teething, but that also means we can’t remember how the little ones feel.

I feel that we have been in a constant world of teething. It feels like it will be never ending.

Paige started teething at around 4-5 weeks old, well that’s when we really notice it. So off we went to the Health Nurse who promptly dismissed our claims in a tone of ‘Sure, what would you know?’ and ‘I’m 100% certain she’s not teething, you’re just being over-dramatic as first time parents’. Sure enough, we definitely were not being overly dramatic as she cut her first tooth at 4 months old, which would put everything into perspective.

Being first time parents had nothing to do with asking her if there was anything she would recommend for such a young baby to help with teething pains. We just wanted to help our little one through the pain that she was obviously in. The chemist on the other hand was a lot more helpful and offered great advice and products to try at her age.

When the first tooth reared it’s little head, the excitement in the house was amazing-‘It’s here’! Role on 2 years and 2 weeks since we found that tooth and we are still going through it. This time however, Paige has the ability to tell us where hurts and if it’s bad.

We’ve literally gone through every single symptom for teething-

• Teething poo (although we actually had a doctor tell us there’s no such thing and we were bad parents for thinking that teething poo’s exist-but my god they do!)
• Nappy rash (This used to get so, so bad I actually nearly cried as he bum was so sore)
• Drooling
• Chin rashes
• Chesty cough (this has been a consistent one for our house)
• Cheek rash
• Pink cheeks
• Biting
• Grinding of gums
• Puking
• High fever
• Blocked nose
• Crankiness
• Disrupted sleep
• Wanting an Actimel at midnight(yeap, all week this week and every single night)

I’m pretty sure that we’ve experienced a few more symptoms but these are what stick out for me!

I’m hoping with all hope that this is in fact the last molar to come through as boy do they suck. They appear to take forever (Paige’s molars have been coming through since last year!).

A big consistent element throughout this whole teething experience has been to trust your own instinct. Doctor’s and nurses can offer advice but when it comes to teething, each and every child has a different reaction to it. Each and every child and parent has their own way of dealing with it. But as parents, we are there to soothe their pain and help them cope by using what we feel is right-whether it be amber bracelets, teething gel, or Sophie the Giraffe and other teething rings/rubbers etc.

Go with your gut is effectively what I’m trying to say, and nobody should put you down. Mother’s instinct is a great thing and something that we all possess. It just clicks in. Father’s have it too 🙂 So lets call it ‘parents instinct’ going forward!

We are all trying to do the same thing, raise our kids to be the best that they can be. We’re in this together.

The funny thing about parenting is…that we’re all not experts, We’re all in the same boat. We all have our own ways of getting through the challenges, the ups and downs and we’re all here for each other.

Our kids are smarter than us

The funny thing about parenting is…that our kids are actually way smarter than us.

On Sunday, I asked Paige “What’s this?” and her reply, “A letter mummy.” I go on to ask her “What letter?”, and her reply once again “That letter mummy” and queue her falling around in hysterics.

Yeap, I was outsmarted by a two year old as she was by no means incorrect. It’s not the first time she’s done something like this, and boy did I feel a fool. I even turned to her and said “fair play, you are absolutely right” and what I can take from it is that I need to be clearer in my instructions.

It still makes me smile thinking back and seeing her little face light up as she knew exactly what she had said. She knew the letter was a ‘p’ but damned if she was going to tell me again.

So in essence, our kids will always be one step ahead of us, but it’s a good thing, we just got to keep up with them, and hopefully, by the time they’re teenagers, we will have copped on to their smarts and be able to outwit them-it’s cute for now, but not at 13!

Pix the Fairy

The funny thing about parenting is…that seeing is not always believing.

I have been waiting until we moved house to move Paige’s fairy in. And although we moved in on Sunday, we had to make sure that Pix’s home was ready for her. We had to make the space special and Paige loved helping me decorate.

Pix made an appearance on Monday night, whilst Paige was fast asleep. She left little glitter footprints all over her room and on her pillow! Paige was so excited. As adults, we sometimes forget that our imaginations are amazing. We don’t need to see everything to believe it and childhood is proof of that. Paige loves the idea of having her fairy share her bedroom with her. She gets so excited to think that this little fairy has been checking in on her when she’s asleep and looking after her. The Fairy Door has made our move that bit easier and allowed Paige to be involved in decorating her room. She has giggled, and looked on in awe with tired eyes as she saw all the glitter. It’s amazing and such a simple idea! Even though Paige is only 2, this little job that we’ve undertaken together has gotten her so excited and she really does understand it.

As parents, it’s our job to encourage our children to let their imaginations run wild and we should enable them to do so.

Pix the fairy will be getting up to plenty of mischief to help us settle in to the new home, so be sure to keep checking in 🙂

Let their imaginations run wild!

To get your own fairy door, check out: http://theirishfairydoorcompany.com/

 

Home Owners

The funny thing about parenting is….that moving house sucks the life out of you and makes you stress out!

We have finally moved in to our new home. All that was needed was a lick of paint in a few rooms and voila, we were ready to move in.

We scrubbed and scrubbed. Moved in all our furniture. Bought new furniture and appliances.

We still haven’t unpacked everything. We still haven’t managed to find everything. But we are getting there.

The most rewarding thing about this whole move was seeing Paige’s face light up when we were driving to the house on Sunday to officially move in, and she exclaimed ‘We’re going to the new house, YAY YAY YAY!’.

It was really amazing. I will never forget that. EVER.

She is really in here element. She loves all her ‘new’ toys, which had been in storage for 1 whole year. It’s now more difficult to get Paige to bed and out of the house in the morning as she loves it so much and wants to continue exploring and playing with everything.

But we did it. We bought our very own house.

4 whole days off

The funny thing about parenting is…that we don’t get away as much as we like.

I’ve had two nights away from the munchkin in over a year. I’m prettying exhausted…and what with the whole buying a house and the fact that we were actually meant  to exchange tomorrow we decided to book a short break away.

It is short-only 2 nights away in a hotel and a further night with the in-laws. But it’s still 4 whole days that neither of us have to work. 

We are heading off to Sligo to stay at The Glasshouse Hotel, and we’ve booked the deluxe suite. I cannot wait. I cannot wait to pop down to breakfast without rushing. I cannot wait to just chill with Paige and the hubby. 

I am also excited to eat at Eala Bhan tomorrow night. I’m excited to sample some of the local dishes and bring Paige out for a treat!

We also plan on potentially trying one of the fish restaurants in Mullaghmore. 

We also plan on doing the lough key forest park as well as popping along to Strandhill and popping in to see family!

I’ll do a little blog post after, but we’ll be popping off from tomorrow to relax and recuperate before we move house!!!