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!

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.

The sunshine and children

  
The funny thing about parenting is…that it’s your job to protect your child, from anything that is harmful.

It’s coming in to the summer time now…okay so we’ve had about 1 proper day of sunshine, but you still need to be prepared. And to be prepared, that means you need items that will protect your child from the sun’s rays.

Paige, like her mummy and daddy, is very pale skinned and as such, she needs to be protected. Most of us as adults will use a moisturiser, and more often than not, these moisturisers offer us some protection-whether it be spf 15 (as mine is) or even less. But at least it’s something. And it’s not like I’m playing outside. I’m generally sat in my office.

Most children’s moisturisers don’t come with an spf, so they need protecting. At the minute, we are using Aldi’s own brand ‘kid’s’ suncream with a protection level of 50. I will only ever use 50 on her. Her skin is far too delicate and unblemished. I don’t want to ruin that. I’m lucky in the sense that Paige has always loved applying any sort of cream to her skin and so she gets involved and she usually ends up with a pile of cream still on her nose as that’s where she wants to put it-but hey-ho! She’s protected.

The one thing that does actually annoy me though is people laughing (in a good or bad way) when I put sunglasses on Paige. Seriously. My eyes are extremely blue. Paige’s are too. As an adult, do you wear sunglasses to protect your eyes and to shield them from the rays? Then why shouldn’t a baby or a toddler! Yes she may look cute and adorable. I get that. I also let her pick whichever ones she wants to wear for the day, but she sees mummy and daddy wearing them and I want to shield her eyes. I always have and I always will. I always carry a pair of sunglasses for each of us in my bag, as well as sunhats. It’s a necessity with bright blue eyes. Our eyes needs some level of protection as well, so don’t forget that!

We have as of yet, still to book our sun-holiday, but it hasn’t stopped me from stocking up on swimsuits with a level of protection in them and I find shopping around at all different times of the year means you get different bargains and different styles.

As I started this post the other day, we still had a semi-chance of Summer returning, but right now it doesn’t feel like it. It’s raining and dull again. But it’s slightly warmer…so that still gives me hope!

Shops that we find useful for summer stuff:

TK Maxx

Penneys/Primark

H&M

Zara

Aldi

Mothercare

Technology…

The funny thing about parenting is….that I found myself saying ‘When I was your age, I didn’t even know what an iPad was, let alone when I was 20.’

I said this to my 2 year old who was demanding the iPad so she could watch Youtube. Yes, I let my child watch Youtube. To be fair, she could teach me a thing or two as she really has the patience to go through it and find something she likes. She doesn’t have any screen time during the day-she’s at nursery, so she uses the nursery rhymes online as her wind down time. It’s a break from Peppa. But it really got me thinking.

I was always one of those parents who said ‘My child will never use an iPad or an iPhone’. I distinctly remember saying this when I was 3 months pregnant. I wanted my child to read, and flick through books and use their imagination.

Fast-forward 2 years and 6 months.

Sometimes I actually want to eat out without a tantrum. Sometimes Peppa needs to come to the rescue. Sometimes Little Baby Bum and their constant stream of nursery rhymes needs to be played to cheer a little lady up(and many other kiddies I’m told too!).

We can’t really expect our children not to be so caught up in the devices we use all the time. From the day Paige was born she was on FaceTime. We lived in London and all the family lived in Ireland. It was a quick and easy alternative to turning on a computer and kept everyone in the loop daily and they got to witness her every smile/kiss/laugh and even hug. It meant that Paige could hear/see all her grandparents/uncles/aunts/cousin etc.

And as time goes on, how can we really not expect our children to know how to use these devices. It’s kind of what they’re reared on nowadays. So many families are all over the world, and this just makes it easier to keep in contact. Youtube allows children to listen to other languages, visualise bright colours and potentially animals they may never see or even food (as per some of the random shows with random toy veggies). Another favourite of ours is SnapChat. Yes, we are slightly addicted, but it’s amazing. We post some of the random stuff we do and Paige usually shows off her vocal abilities by singing all of her favourite nursery rhymes. And I get to record this with just a click of a button and it pocks back into my pocket when she’s done. I get to share these with friends/family and followers. I get to have these little snippets stashed away online for her to see when she’s older and she will be able to chart her growth with a picture for every day.

Paige also has a tonne of books and I’m not kidding. She has the complete Mr.Men collection. She has pretty much all the Winnie the Pooh books. She has poetry. She has picture books. She has fairy tales. She has everything. The Hungry Caterpillar is in there, along with Paddington Bear. We’re not picky. We try to cover off all bases. And we love reading them. We don’t read stories online. We love a feel of a good book in our house. I don’t even have a Kindle. I like Paper/HardBack. So Paige has a good strong balance of screen and book time-so I don’t need to worry-just yet(watch this space-it all gets worse as teenagers doesn’t it!).

But have we lost a little bit of a sense of the old school? How many people just pop these pictures on the ‘cloud’ or a ‘hard-drive’? I know I do. And it’s such a pity. I should just print out my favourite and pop it in a frame. But most of the time I don’t. When I do want to pick out my pics to get them printed, out comes the hard-drive again and I need to trawl through thousands, upon thousands of emails(I’m actually not kidding). I approximate our collection of Paige to be around 50,000 photos – APPROXIMATE!!!

How times have changed.

One of my friends from school snapchatted me some old pictures-you know the one’s from the days when we actually had to print them out and before the whole thing of having a digital camera, let alone a phone with a half decent camera-yeah those types of pictures. Pretty old-school. But in hindsight, it was only 13 odd years ago that these pictures were taken. That’s not a long time. Technology has just grown so quickly and it’s become cheaper and more accessible-which is fricking amazing.

The fact that she did this on a day when I was looking back through old pictures of Paige just made me realise that I need to print more. I am doing my photo a day challenge, which I had to remove from Instagram as I was getting too concerned with making them pretty and perfect as opposed to really ‘real’ Paige. It’s working out well, but these are just small pictures. When I move, I can’t wait to go through all my old photos. I have heaps too of times from school and early college. Times when we didn’t really take selfies and posed stupidly for the camera, as we didn’t care. They either got printed or they didn’t. But one thing was for certain-they would only ever live on in the home of the person who printed them-either to be seen or not.

It’s absolutely amazing that I can capture every single moment that I need to, it’s amazing that I’ve got such a collection of photos/videos-all thanks to technology. But I just need to actually print them out.

 

 

On our way to mass one morning

 

Paige the rage and her fly swatter-this actually made me laugh so much the day I took it

 

I turned this one into a canvas in 2014 as it was too good not to

 

Baby Paige rocking it at the Yahoo offices for her first meeting of daddy’s team and our first tube trip alone-I should print this for the meaning behind it!

 

Paige’s first handbag

 

Paige being match ready

 

Ciara and I-circa 2002-3

 

Peppa and George are never far away

The funny thing about parenting is…that Peppa and George really are never far away.

Paige got two new dolls from her grandparents when they came home from holidays. They are two little cute things. But Paige has been walking around calling hem her ‘brother’ and ‘sister’. It really is great that we’ve got her off the idea of only wanting a ‘sister’. Just to clarify, I am not pregnant, Paige just really wants a ‘sister’!

I want to encourage her to start naming her dolls, as to be honest, I’m fed up calling every single one ‘baba’ and the frustration that causes when trying to ascertain which fricking ‘baba’.

Whilst chatting away on the bed last night, I suggested we name them. I rattled off a few names until I got to ‘George’. In my mind, this was a perfectly logical and sensible name that she can pronounce. She agreed. Hallelujah! Still nothing was twigging in my brain.

Since we so easily found a name for ‘George’ the boy doll, thought we’d tried our look at naming her ‘sister’. We thought Annabelle would be nice, or Belle. Daddy and I were really pushing Belle. Paige pops up with ‘Peppa’.

Still nothing twigs in me. I say ‘oh what a pretty name, where’d you think of that?’. Still nothing.

I’ll just go hang my head in shame now shall I?

So now we’re stuck with two dolls named ‘Peppa’ and ‘George’ and two goldfish named ‘Ben’ and ‘Holly’. I really only have myself to blame for my momentary lapse in parenting and forgetting all about the little characters who rescue us so many times.

How could I actually forget ‘Peppa’ and ‘George’?!

Wakey Wakey!

The funny thing about parenting is …that kids love to wake up bright and early at the weekend and you literally have to drag them kicking and screaming mid-week.

‘No more monkey’s jumping on the bed’

Yeap, Paige’s internal alarm clock is set for super early at the weekends, and she likes a good snooze during the week. I think she likes to wake up, snuggle in bed, eat her breakfast there too as it’s way too early to get up, and binge watch Peppa Pig and Ben and Holly. All while ‘entertaining’ us with a beautiful song and jumping on our heads/pillows/stomach or going looking for her crayons.

I did manage to snag a little lie on yesterday though and got an extra hour in bed, no thanks to the little angel though, as she kept rubbing my face and eyes in an attempt to make me get out of bed. Daddy had the lie on last week, my turn this week.

I did kind of regret it however, as that extra hour made me even more groggy and I kept thinking of all the things I could’ve done. Gone are the days when we used to vegetate on the couch and order in pizza whilst binge watching rubbish on the TV. Now we actually like to get out ‘while the weather’s good’ and have a coffee and a play in the park. I don’t actually think I could go back to those days of lazing and not caring about wasting one day of the weekend. Mind you, I don’t think I could stay awake as late as I used to. No more partying until 7am for us!

Paige’s internal clock is pretty amazing though and to watch the changes that she’s going through is pretty interesting. Once upon a time she could party with the best of us, and stay up until 11pm. Back in those days she was having an infinite number of naps though. Paige has decided since she is now 2, she wants to stop napping. Yes, she’s only 2 and has cut the habit. (Except for when she’s in the car or it just get’s the better of her and then it’s like WHAM! Where did that nap come from!). It does mean we lose on an extra hour in the evening with her as she is so sleepy and grouchy that it would be mean keeping her awake past 7, and the same goes for the weekends especially as we are generally a lot more active and out and about and on the go all day. But the whole waking up at 6am on a Saturday and Sunday thing means that mummy and daddy are exhausted. We find that trying to get to bed early at the weekend is key. But sometimes, being adults, we like to binge watch TV shows. Yes, we’ve not given up on the binge watching of TV and I highly doubt we ever will.

I think, my whole reasoning behind this post is that I feel bad not getting up when the hubby does. It’s something that I find hard to explain, but I think it comes from not seeing her so much during the week and the long hours we put in, that I feel guilty and I believe as parents we should share everything. It is something I need to get over, as I don’t even get my hair done on a Saturday as it’s generally family day.

I know from talking with other parents that this is the stage that probably gets worse and the kids start to get up earlier. So I might just have to get used to have one morning of a month. And same goes for the hubby. That’s sharing isn’t it. To be a good parent, you must be rested. Those bags under your eyes and all that coffee will only cloud your judgement and block you from seeing the beauty in everything. Sharing is caring after all and if someone is offering you a lie-on, don’t feel guilty. Grab it with your two hands. Now, if he made me breakfast in bed, he would’ve got a 5 star review, but that was all up to me!

This morning, however, it being a Monday, she was as bright as a button before 6:30am, and I did ask her to wake her daddy up at 7:10am so in usual Paige style, she got her juice bottle, raised it above her head and I grabbed it quickly. She thought it would be hilarious to whack him over the head with it (mind you, so did I but I can’t be encouraging or condoning that behaviour)! Off she went to nursery, happy as larry and tomorrow I guarantee, she’ll still be asleep at 7am. I shall update:)

Enjoy the first few months to all the first time parents, as they really are blissful, and although you may think that you’re not rested, you probably are. I look back on those days and think, crap, I should’ve slept more. It’s when they cut the naps that the real fun begins…

 

Toddler Party-Animal Style

The funny thing about parenting is…that sometimes as a fully fledged adult who is looking after that little toddler, you’ll forget to give out the party invites and time of said party.

Hands up who else has done this?! Can’t just be us surely? To be honest, it potentially turned out to be a good thing, as Paige really just prefers hanging around with a small number of toddlers/babies at a time. She likes to take stock of those around her and takes her time. My little mistake of forgetting the invites for the kids at nursery did mean she had a load of food and chocolate to eat-as you’ll see from the pictures.

I must admit, I can’t believe I created a pretty table like this. And it was super easy and quite cheap.

I picked the plates,bowls and napkins up in the euro store. And the table cloth and cups where from mr.price. So nice and cheap and did the job perfect. The other decorations were from Tiger, including the grass which suited the theme perfectly and meant easy grabbing for kids!

I made chocolate covered grapes, chocolate rice krispie buns, jelly (with fish decorations) and a lions head out of carrots and hummus. I also bought animal themed marshmallows and dipped one side in chocolate, and they were a hit with adults and children. Paige certainly liked munching on the last few in the bowl and ran away with said bowl.

We picked the cake up from Super Valu on the morning of the party as it’s what Paige picked out! She was super happy and it was super dee duper tasty and only cost €8! They even wrote her name on it and her age.

Dotted around the house, I had a load of balloons filled using a helium tank we purchased. Such a hit with every child. The goodie boxes made up of loads of little bits and pieces were such a since little treat, and Paige is still munching through the leftovers. We bought the boxes-animal themed obviously- on eBay and filled them using animal tattoos and stickers, with Kinder chocolates, Easter themed chocos and bubbles!

Seeing as this was the first party I’ve put together myself, I can’t wait for the next one. (I think I did an okay job!)

Moral of the story though, don’t forget to send out the invites and always shop around. You don’t need a big, fancy decorated cake. All they want to do is blow out the candles.

If you’d like more info on anything I created/used just leave a note in the comments and I’ll respond. As she gets older, I plan on expanding on the theme a bit more and potentially stock piling decorations to save money in the long run.

Toddler turns 2

The funny thing about parenting is that….we will always be busy, but sometimes we just need to switch off from the online world and enjoy each other.

We’ve been doing that a lot lately. House is on track. Toddler is now 2, and officially a toddler….none of this in between age stuff where she’s a wobbler. She’s even moved rooms in nursery.

We’ve been trying to get out and about and enjoy the outdoors, taking walks, going to festivals and making the move to life without the pram in tow. It works for some occasions, but not all.

I’ve been busy with work, and organising a toddler birthday that most other things have taken a back seat in our lives. We want to see Paige grow up, we want to encourage her to use her vocabulary, although, at the minute, it’s quite difficult as the terrible two’s are well and truly under way. The tantrums, the slapping, the biting. All of it. And it’s difficult when you live with family. As everyone has an opinion. Everyone thinks it’s funny but then it’s gets to a point when it’s not funny anymore. And then they chime in with ‘that’s bold’ or ‘say something to her’. I can completely and whole-heartedly understand why the child is getting frustrated. Sometimes all a toddler wants to do is relax, like so many of us. She has spent the whole day at nursery-longer than most people’s working day, from 7:30am until after 5pm. She’s all played out. Just let her be. I don’t like to talk to people after a long day, and neither do a lot of adults. So why should a 2 year old who can’t put everything she wants to say into one big long sentence.

I also had a quick read of an opening line on an article about ‘sharing’ and how can children be expected to share when another child wants a toy/book that said child is playing with. We as adults, don’t hand over our phones when someone says can I look at ‘blah blah blah’. And why shouldn’t the child who’s playing with said toy/book/spoon just hand something over because another child wants it. Aren’t we giving in to that child a little too easily and shouldn’t we be teaching them to wait patiently(as well as teaching our children to share, once they’ve finished playing with said object and let their little imaginations run wild). This was something that actually made me think, as I’m so fed up with people telling my child to share when she’s in the middle of playing with something. Why should she? Why should she just give up her toy because someone else wants it? As a mother, I am also there to protect her. To tell her it’s okay, finish playing with the toy as there are a dozen other things for the other kids to play with. Don’t get me wrong, she tries to take other kids toys too, and I swiftly step in and tell her gently that isn’t how it’s done and I hand her something else. (I’m not saying she’s an angel because she isn’t!).

I know once we move out, into our own space again, things will be easier! We will be able to parent a little more structured in a way. The toddler will love her new bedroom. She will love having the freedom to have her own play area. She will love sharing her new room and toys with whoever chooses to visit. She will love all of this, as she knows that it’s all hers. Mummy and daddy will love their own space too. Our own kitchen. Bathroom. Garden. And yes, we will sharing (if people want to visit, but they can bring whatever they want as we’ll be flat broke-so champers, wine, food are all welcome! Oh and the necessities, like chairs and stuff too!)

Weekend

The funny thing about parenting is…. we all love the weekends! That is of course, if you have the weekend off as not all parents do. My hubby has to work the odd weekend-always has! But we all love our days off – even if the kids are so set in a routine that sometimes they drive us crazy. (I’m not going to lie!)

Paige has a habit of not eating at the weekend unless it’s just yogurts, chocolate, crisps and juice. She likes to graze. She likes to pick at things. If kids are around, she’ll wolf down her food.

But the weekend for us is family time. We get out and about, and yes, most of that time is spent shopping, going for a coffee and maybe going for the odd dinner out. The odd dinner out, used to be every weekend we’d eat out in London in the fabulous restaurants that were all 5 minutes from the house. Since we moved home, we’ve been saving so cut down on the non-necessities.

This weekend however, mummy and daddy are going away for the night on Sunday. It will be the second time we’ve left her alone. We went to Monart Spa in Wexford when she was 5 months old for the night as it was where we got engaged, many years previously. Thinking about it now, it was easier to leave her with the grandparents back then, compared to now. Obviously nearing two means she is used to her surroundings, she’s used to having us with her and putting her to sleep. She is used to sleeping in our bed – her cot-bed has become redundant.

Now it’s time for some mummy and daddy time. I am entering my final year in my twenties. We have also just had an offer accepted on a house. We are both pretty shattered. We need a night away to relax and to enjoy each others company and as selfish as that seems, sometimes parents need to have that alone time and it’s fine. I do feel bad that we’ll be leaving early on Sunday, but she’ll be spending quality time with her grandparents who are just returning from holiday.

It’s time for us to put on our fancy clothes that we can’t wear around little grubby hands and to enjoy the surroundings of a hotel. Originally we were toying with the idea of taking Paige away for a couple of nights, but sometimes, as adults, you just need a break. You need that full night’s sleep. You need to eat a meal without it ending up all over you. And that’s OKAY!

I think I was and still am quite apprehensive about leaving her, as when she wakes in the night, she cries for mummy and daddy. Even if my parents went in to her, it was mummy and daddy she wanted. So that’s part of the reason we booked a hotel in Dublin. It won’t take us long to get to her if all hell breaks lose.

Looking back on that first night away as a couple and leaving Paige for the first time, it was easier than it is now. Yes, she was still small, but she was still small enough to fall asleep with the aid of a bottle. That all stopped as soon as she hit 12 months. But we just have to suck it up. My parents reared 3 kids and we’re all still around. They’ll be well able to handle my ‘angel’ (good thing they really know what she’s like!).

So this weekend, we as parents shall be enjoying family time for one day, and then getting dressed up, like little miss Paige above, and we shall be taking one night off duty. It won’t scar her for life. It will make her miss us even more! As she keeps telling us ‘I’m not a baby’.

And I shall celebrate turning 29 with a good night’s sleep, a Jacuzzi bath as well as a sauna in the room. All with a glass of bubbly in hand! And bonus, I’ve a day off work on Monday.

So here’s to all you hard-working parents, who work, don’t work – whatever it may be! As being a parent is a full-time, hard, and loving job!

Happy Weekend everyone!

Can you tell I’m excited?

P.S. Crown is from the amazing Fable Heart (Claire is amazing at what she does-so I might have to steal missy’s crown for Monday!) and the amazing dress is from Dunnes Stores (last year’s collection however and it only cost €14!).