So Proud!

I'd been wondering what to blog about, then Munchkin achieved a major milestone so problem solved!  She did a poo and a wee on the potty this morning.  Daddy and I are so proud!

We've been familiarising her with the potty for about four months (I don't think you could call it potty training).  She sits on it every night at bedtime and we've recently started getting her to sit on it first thing in the morning.  We give her books to look at to encourage her to stay in one place.  This sometimes backfires (so far not literally) as she wants to sit on our laps bare bottomed to have the books read to her. 

We've had a couple of breakthroughs in the past couple of weeks.  She did a wee on the potty about two weeks ago and then there was today's performance.  I know they're probably lucky accidents, but it's a step in the right direction.  She's not even 18 months yet so I'm really pleased with her progress.

I'm currently reading "Early Start Potty Training" by Linda Sonna.  It's subtitled, "Potty train your child by age two," and that's my intention.  Munchkin and reading don't really mix so it's taking me a long time to get through it, but it's an interesting read.  Apparently children are potty trained much later in the western world, particularly in the author's native USA.  She cites examples of Chinese and African culture where babies are trained to use the potty from as early as three months old.

Dr Sonna claims that research suggesting that children shouldn't be potty trained before age two is all sponsored by disposable nappy manufacturers.  She says that potty training is quicker if cloth nappies are used since they allow children to feel when they're wet.  I'm currently sticking with my compromise of eco disposables (maybe one for another blog, or I'll be here all afternoon) since they're more convenient than real nappies and less absorbent than traditional disposables.

Next stop on the "Potty Train" as Dr Sonna calls it, will be increasing the number of potty sessions.  I can't get the song "Groovy Train" by The Farm out of my head and I blame Linda Sonna!

Mummy actually gets a social life!

In my last blog it was Munchkin who had all the social invites.  This week I acually got some "me time".  Munchkin still managed to keep me busy though, most notably with the Sudocrem incident on Wednesday. She was getting grizzly on the way to nursery, so I let her hold her ruck sack.  We were almost there when Daddy asked me if I'd just put perfume on.  I said, "No, but I can smell lavender."  As I said it, I thought, "Lavender = Sudocrem" and looked round to see a small child and a car seat caked in the stuff!  As anyone familiar with nappy changes knows, Sudocrem is thick stuff that doesn't clean off easily.  Even after a steam clean, there's still nappy cream on the car seat.

Anyway, the Mummy Time: On Thursday, I went to my step-sister's hen do.  She'd booked a spa break / ladies night at Old Thorns hotel.  We didn't stray too far from good old Sussex by the Sea, as Old Thorns is just over an hour's drive from Angmering.  The bride had invited around 20 friends and family ranging in age from late 20s to 60s.  We started our day with coffee at the on site Starbucks, followed by lunch in the sports bar.  In the afternoon we checked into our rooms, went for spa treatments and made use of the facilities.  I relaxed in the hot tub, then had a facial, followed by a short swim (where I tried to keep my product soaked face and contact lenses out of the water... in other words I did three lengths of girly breast stroke).

We knew that Ladies Night included entertainment from the Dream Boys, but some of us were getting increasingly worried as the day progressed.  We were expecting the act to be quite tame but the spa receptionist told us it was "no holds barred"!  After a change of clothes, a glass of wine and a short panic, we made our way to the ball room.  The evening began with a three course set meal.  (I had to have "special food" because I'm allergic to mushrooms and they were in two of the courses.)  This was followed by 80s disco music and the opportunity to use a free photo booth.  (Some people made more use of this than others.  My advice would be, if your pictures are going to be posted to an open Facebook page, don't get your knockers out! )

The Dream Boys finally arrived.  Apparently they were stuck in traffic. I found the whole thing highly amusing.  They weren't the best dancers and had a look that reminded me of one of the blokes from my office!  Two of the girls in our party were over 6 foot and couldn't stop commenting on how short the strippers were! In the second half, we were promised, "the biggest cock you'll ever see in your life".  I was slightly disappointed but at least the bloke who came on to do the full monty was a better dancer.  He dragged a woman from the audience on stage.  We later saw her drinking with the Dream Boys in the other bar so suspect she was part of the act.

We really enjoyed our stay at Old Thorns though some small things could have been better (and I'm not talking Dream Boy anatomy!) there were a few isolated issues with cleanliness and maintenance and breakfast was a bit mass produced.  Despite this, I'd definitely go back.

The social life of a one year old

There's no doubt about it, my daughter has a more active social life than I do!  In addition to her usual Monday morning swimming class and Saturday morning baby signing class, this week she got to spend Monday afternoon with her favourite cousin in Lewes, on Friday morning she went to gymnastics for the first time, on Saturday afternoon she was invited to a garden party (!) and on Sunday she went to Drusillas Zoo for the first time.  However, the trip to the zoo was as much for Mummy and Daddy's benefit as Munchkin's.  We've always loved anything to do with animals and it's great to finally have a child to use as an excuse!

I've been aware of the existence of baby and toddler gymnastics classes since I was pregnant, but this was my first opportunity to find out what it was all about.  There are two clubs in the Worthing area, alllowing parents to take their child to a a class every day if they're so inclined!  We went to Wickers in Lancing, which takes little ones from "competent walker" onwards.  (The other club, Teenie Tigers, takes them from crawling, but only does one under 2s session a week, on a day we can't attend.)  Wickers offers 7 sessions a week for Munchkin's age group; we attended one of the Friday morning sessions.  The sessions are drop in - the first one's free, then it's £3.70 a time.

There are a number of reasons why I want to get Munchkin involved in gymnastics.  First and foremost, I was convinced she'd enjoy it as she's always climbing on things, and loves bouncing on inflatables.  Munchkin's late granny was a gymnastics coach when I was a child, and I think a good way for her to learn more about her grandmother is by doing something that Granny would have liked and helped her with.  I was keen for her to do BG affiliated gymnastics as opposed to a pre school physical activity as this is something she can continue when she's older, if she wants to, of course.  (BG is British Gymnastics, I think it's the same organisation that was known as BAGA when I was a child.)

Wickers is located on Lancing industrial estate.  It's easy to find if you've got the instructions from the website with you, but I left them at home and overshot the entrance!  It's a purpose built gymnastics club within one of the industrial units.  The club has all the equipment you'd expect such as beam, vault, uneven bars (when did they stop being asymetric?) and a large floor work area.  Additionally it has toddler friendly equipment such as a mini trampette and soft play type items.  There's currently a trampoline there, but I understand it's going soon.  There are also lots of pre school toys to keep small people amused.

The session started with a structured warm up.  I was concerned that Munchkin wasn't interested in this, but Emma, one of the coaches advised me that there were always some who joined in and some that didn't.  The warm up was followed by free use of the gym equipment.  Munchkin's favourite was the trampette, though she tried everything the coaches suggested and they taught me how to support her doing forward and backward rolls.

Gymnastics was definitely a hit, and we'll be going back as soon as we can.  Munchkin was the youngest in the class by about a year; I'm trying to encourage some of her friends' parents to give it a go as it would be nice if there were some children closer to her age.

Getting Started

I'm nearly 40 (shh... don't tell everyone!) and mummy to a little girl who's currently 17 months old.  We live in the village of Angmering in West Sussex.  There are four in our family, the other two are Daddy and an ageing siamese cat, who still hasn't recovered from the arrival of a small person!

I used to write pre-baby and want to use this blog to get back in to writing.  The main things I'm hoping to blog about are parenting related.  This will include details of activities we've done with our little one, who will hereafter be known as "Munchkin", my experiences as a new mum, and anything parenting related that I happen to have an opinion on.  My writing style tends to be quite light hearted, so I'll try to keep this as amusing as possible, even if I end up having a rant about something!