Pains, Painting and Playing

It's Grumpy Central in our house at the moment.  Munchkin is teething... again.  She seems to have been teething almost continuously for a year.  Munchkin does not teeth well.  The only thing that really seems to help when she's at her worst is paracetamol.  She's been really clingy on and off for about two weeks and has cried doing activities that she'd otherwise enjoy.  The worst thing is that she sometimes vomits with teething, usually after eating/drinking dairy products or banana.

We've tried some summer holiday toddler groups in the past few weeks.  Creation Station was a real hit. Munchkin loves painting and drawing and is always asking to do "rawing" so this was an obvious choice.  We went to a couple of one off summer holiday sessions in East Preston.  Unfortunately we can't attend during term time as sessions clash with our swimming and gymnastics classes.  Creation Station sessions begin with a group activity which includes opening a "magic box".  In the first session, this contained paper in different colours and textures.  In the second session, the box contained a brightly coloured parachute which everyone lifted up and the children hid under.  Munchkin is going through a shy, clingy stage and wouldn't join in with this.  Apparently the holiday groups are much bigger than the term time ones and she'd probably find these less daunting.

Our Creation Station Space Picture

Munchkin really enjoyed the creative part of Creation Station.  The first session was sunshine themed and we made a sunshine stamper which we used to make a print on a piece of fabric; Munchkin also got to paint a picture.  The second session was messy, messy, messy.  It was space themed and we made planet shapes to stick on a black background.  The black background had a star effect, achieved by lots of children flicking paint across a giant piece of paper which we then cut pieces from.  Many of the children, including Munchkin, decided to try their hands at face painting... with poster paint!  The children are given overalls to wear, parents aren't so it's best to wear old clothes.  Holiday sessions are aimed at 1 to 5 year olds and cost £5 a child (with a reduction for siblings).

On the Friday in between the two Creation Station sessions, we went to Boogie Bugs at East Preston Children and Family Centre.  This didn't go so well.  It's basically a group music and movement session.  The whole session is similar to the warm up at Munchkin's gym club.  Sometimes she'll do the warm up and other times she doesn't want to know (the coaches accept that this is par for the course with toddlers).  She was more interested in the babies in car seats at the edge of the room than anything else.  When I tried to get her to join in with the group activity, she screamed.  The group is aimed at age 18 months to 5 years.  Munchkin and her peer group (under 2s) all seemed more interested in other things in the room, chiefly the toys in the corner, than 45 minutes of music and movement.  She started asking to go home before the group had even finished!  I'm not saying it was a bad group, it seemed really popular.  It just wasn't for Munchkin.  On the way home, she told me that she had pain in her mouth.  I never got to give her anything for the pain because she fell asleep.  She awoke half an hour later in so much pain she almost had a fit.  It took what felt like forever, but was probably about 5 minutes to get her to open her mouth for pain relief.  Boogie Bugs only cost £1 a session.  It's next on in East Preston on Friday 30th August and is also held regularly at the Wickbourne Children and Family Centre in Littlehampton.

After my park related whinge in my last blog, a friend recommended the Gull Island playground by Splashpoint.  We went this weekend and I'm pleased to report that it has much more for Munchkin's age group than the playground at the other end of the prom.  She loved playing in the sand and also went on the medium sized slide, the baby slide, the roundabout, rockers and the monkey swing (well that's what I call them because I first saw them at Monkey World!).  The only thing this playground seems to be lacking is swings (it just had the one).  Are swings out of vogue with playground designers?  I can assure them they're not out of vogue with toddlers!  There was a fenced off area where either something had been removed and/or something new was being added.  I'm sure we'll go back, so it'll be interesting to see what's going in that space.  If we go again, we'll take a bucket and spade.

Next weekend, Munchkin's cousin Sweetpea is coming to stay, so we'll be going to Blackberry Farm near Lewes.  There's a blog in my head about parenting advice I've been given and would give to other people, so I need to write that at some point... not yet sure if it's one for here or Worthing Mums.

The highs and lows of a day out in Worthing

On Sunday, we spent the day in Worthing.  This isn't something we do often, despite it being on our door step.  The main reason for the visit was that we'd won a Pizza Hut voucher in a raffle at Munchkin's nursery.  We decided to make a day of it rather than just popping in for lunch.

Our visit began with a trip to the beach.  We set up camp near theWaterwise playground.  This playground looks great, if you're aged five to twelve but there's nothing for preschoolers.  Even the one and only rocker (a funky looking seagull) is twice the height of Council playgrounds' usual offerings.  It seemed rather short sighted of the Council to forget the little ones.  I've since looked up the playground on their website and see that they claim it has equipment for children as young as two... I couldn't see anything sufficiently small, not that Munchkin is two yet in any case.

We had a pleasant lunch in Pizza Hut.  The waitress noticed it was taking ages to feed Munchkin, so she arranged for our pizzas to be kept warm whilst Munchkin caught up.  She was obviously a good listener, as she realised Munchkin was saying "drawing" as soon as she handed her some crayons.  (I've been wondering who "Rory" is for weeks!). The children's menu has a good range of options and kids are given an activity booklet to keep them amused.  It's also one of the few restaurants I've been to with two baby change facilities.

Baby changing brings me on to my next point.  We went for a walk on the pier after lunch, then stopped at Macari's kiosk for an ice cream.  It was then that I realised Munchkin stank! I marched her to the nearest public toilet, only to discover there was no changing table. l asked at the Pavilion Box Office, hoping we could use their facilities, but they directed me to Cafe Nero.  I decided to ignore this advice and took Stinky to Mothercare, knowing that the facilities were clean, on the ground floor and we wouldn't be asked if we were customers.

We then took Munchkin to the "Wilde About Worthing" sandpit at the west end of Warwick Street.  This was an instant hit with us.  Buckets and spades are provided, and it's all free.  There's music playing, a few deck chairs, and those picture postcard things where you stick your face through a hole and someone takes a picture (no idea what they're called!).  I know of the connection between Wilde and Worthing ("A handbag?") but have no idea why it's being plugged so much this year, if anyone can enlighten me, please leave a comment!

In conclusion, Pizza Hut and the "Wilde About Worthing" sandpit are great for small children but baby and pre school facilities were sadly lacking on the parts of the seafront that we visited.  We're off to some summer holiday toddler groups in the next couple of weeks so there should be more reviews coming soon.

Ireland with Munchkin

I'm finally getting back into the swing of things after our family holiday, my 40th birthday and my step-sister's wedding.  Maybe the blogs will be a bit more regular now... Or maybe not!  Munchkin's potty strike is over, though she hasn't done anything other than sit on it recently.  The journey back from Ireland wasn't as bad as expected, normal service has been resumed!  I think part of the problem on the journey there may have been teething.  Munchkin is still teething, but it was molars on the way to Ireland.  Now it's canines and they don't seem to be as bad.

We spent our holiday in County Monaghan in the Irish Midlands.  I got confused, and told everyone we were going to County Meath!  We stayed in self catering accommodation just outside the small town of Ballybay.  We had a great time, though I wouldn't call the area a tourism hot spot.  On the first two days, we visited small tourist attractions where we were the only guests and were given personal tours by the owners!  The Wildlife and Heritage Centre is worth a visit, though I was initially put off going by the emphasis on its collection of stuffed animals.  We managed to avoid most of them and concentrated on the live animals and birds.  The following day we went to Sam More open farm (so small it doesn't even have a web site!) where we saw lots of animals and birds, went on a buggy friendly walk, and Munchkin played on the vast array of bikes, toy cars and toy tractors.

We were close to the border with Northern Ireland and visited the north twice.  There's no form of border crossing and two things gave away that we were in Northern Ireland: the British road signs and fortified Police stations (:-().  We were there in marching season and there had been trouble in Belfast, so we gave it a wide berth.  Thankfully there was no trouble elsewhere (to be honest we weren't expecting any, so the idea of going to Northern Ireland didn't bother us at all).  We made use of our National Trust membership and went to The Argory.  Our walk around the gardens was enjoyable but I don't recommend the house for small children.  Admission is by guided tour only.  The tour is long, and at entirely the wrong pace for a toddler; she was bored and tearful and we eventually asked if we could leave.  It didn't help matters that the guide was a little nervous and forgot what she was saying every time Munchkin cried!  Our other NI visit was to Enniskillen.  This was much more successful.  We took a boat tour departing from Brooke Park, which has the best toddler playground I've ever seen.  The tour took us past Enniskillen Castle and several other sites of interest before stopping off at Devenish Island, where we saw the remains of a monastic site.  We took the first tour of the day, which I would definitely recommend as the later tours appeared to be packed.

There was a brilliant soft play close to where we were staying.  GR8 Entertainment in Castleblayney is free for children under 2 and has special offers for repeat users in the school holidays.  We also took Munchkin to the beach for the first time, at Blackrock near Dundalk.  The beach is sandy and child friendly, but not really suitable for swimming since the tide goes out a really long way.  All in all, it was a successful holiday and we'd like to go to Ireland again.