Zoo Poo

We'd fancied going to Whipsnade Zoo ever since we'd seen it on the Sing & Sign DVD that Munchkin's addicted to.  Along with Sweetpea's parents, we'd saved up a load of Tesco Days Out vouchers and were looking forward to our day out, even if it was half term -busy- and Munchkin and I were a bit under the weather.

It's around a two hour journey from Angmering to Whipsnade, but we didn't care... We love zoos!  Munchkin kept talking about animals and seemed to be looking forward to it despite having a sick day from nursery the day before.

We arrived to massive traffic queues.  You have a choice of free parking or taking your car in the zoo for £20.  We initially decided to park for free, then changed our minds, meaning that we unintentionally jumped half the queue to drive into the park.

Upon arriving, we were unsure where to go.  The sign posting wasn't great and we needed to find Sweetpea's family.  We parked up and went to meet them, thinking there would be made up footpaths suitable for buggies.  Whilst there were some paths meeting this description, many were waterlogged or non existent.  We didn't see the giraffes because it was too muddy.

The zoo is large and really spread out.  It would be a challenge to get round it without a car.  There are narrow roads without pavements going round it.  It's important to point out that Whipsnade is not a safari park, you don't see much whilst driving in your car.  Most zoos we've been to have had a programme of keepers' talks, we didn't see a keeper during our day at Whipsnade.

My sister-in-law was even less impressed.  She was underwhelmed by the number of baby change tables, and felt the service in the cafe we went to was abysmal.  Had it not been for the Tesco vouchers, admission plus the car -which wasn't covered by Tesco vouchers- would have been around £130 for four adults and a child -Munchkin is under 3 and therefore free- ZSL might do some good conservation work but a day at Whipsnade Zoo is a waste of time.  It's neither a zoo nor a safari park but the worst of both worlds.

I blame it all on the Two TT's

Things have been a bit trying round here recently, and it's mainly down to the TT's; Terrible Twos and Tommee Tippee, that is.  Munchkin has been testing boundaries, which is nice.  She is having to learn the hard way, that if you scream for 20 minutes solidly, it doesn't get you what you want.  On Sunday, she insisted that the only thing she wanted for tea was a chocolate chip biscuit.  Daddy told her she could only have one if she ate her sandwich.  She refused, and spent 20 minutes screaming, "Want a biscuit."  Daddy won.  She eventually ate her sandwich -amazingly, she ate it without deconstructing it in her usual manner- and had a biscuit afterwards.  Dummies have been the cause of many screaming fits.  At some point in the next year, dummies will be doing a disappearing act.  For now, we've told her dummies are for sleeping, and she's still allowed a dummy in the car seat... If she asks for one - I've noticed that she sometimes forgets that she needs one.  However, she's been screaming for her dummy at times when she's not allowed to have it.  The screaming fits always end with Mummy and Daddy winning and Munchkin turning back into a sweet little girl, but they're not pleasant.  I've got a perforated eardrum at the moment and all this screaming isn't helping it...

The Terrible Twos are also causing Munchkin to tell me she doesn't like me from time to time - usually alongside a screaming fit.  I don't think this is unusual behaviour as I believe my late mum told me I did this at the age of two.  All the same, it's quite disheartening to be told that your only child doesn't like you, even if she has said she loves you and every other family member at another point on the same day.

I've come to the conclusion that Tommee Tippee -other brands of infant feeding equipment are available- has a lot to answer for.  My daughter has been coming back from nursery with food round her neck for months.  I always blamed the nursery but I now know what the problem is... Tommee Tippee bibs.  The bibs we'd been using until recently fitted snugly around the neck.  We replaced them with Tommee Tippees -the brand that nursery use, only to discover that they're too loose, even when done up on the tightest hole. 

Tommee Tippee struck again when it came to getting Munchkin to drink from a normal cup.  I tried giving her a TT sippy cup with no lid.  This worked fine for a few weeks but now she insists on having the lid on just because she knows it exists.  I need to buy some child-sized beakers with no lids so that she thinks she's drinking from a "Big Girl Cup".  Tommee Tippee will be reserved for her one cup of milk a day, which Angmering Daddy wants to phase out anyway.  When I say "beaker", I mean a plastic cup with no handles.  I just thought I should be clear since Mrs Bucket and my mother-in-law -who are in no way related- seem to think a beaker is a ceramic cup with a handle.  Now, that's what I call a "mug"!

I'm really hoping Munchkin can make it to her swimming lesson this Friday, for the first time this term.  We both had ear infections last week -I think I've still got mine- so swimming was out of the question.  This weekend, we're off to her cousin, Sweetpea's, birthday party.  Sweetpea will be three and I bet her parents are rejoicing that she'll no longer be a TT!

Not the best of weeks....

I think it can safely be said that there have been better weeks in the Angmering Mummy and Daddy household.  Munchkin has basically been unwell since she turned two.  First it was chicken pox, then it was teeth with a bit of a cold.  Around the middle of this week, I noticed that her ear smelt and she had spots around her eye.  It turns out that she has a bacterial infection which has also spread to the back of her hand.  Well the good news is she's not allergic to penicillin, she's been taking it for three days without any issues (apart from loose bowels... ugh).

Until Saturday I was despairing, Munchkin had decided that she only loved Daddy.  All other family members were to be avoided, particularly me.  Every time she was mildly upset, she screamed, "Cuddle Daddy" and even told me that she didn't like me.  To add insult to injury, some members of Angmering Daddy's family told me it was normal in their family for little girls to love their Daddies and ignore their Mummies.  What kind of a culture had I married into?  I was getting rather upset, particularly when friends were writing on social networks that sometimes your little one just needs a cuddle from Mummy...  However, since the antibiotics have kicked in, she's started turning back into my little girl.  Today she was more interested in cuddling Mummy than Daddy.

Our search to find a Saturday morning group to replace the brilliant Sing and Sign continues. We tried a music and movement group called Boogie Beat twice but won't be trying a third time.  The main issue was that the class just seemed too advanced for a child of two, even though it's meant to be suitable for age two plus.  Munchkin didn't want to know.  She wouldn't join in anything apart from playing with the parachute, and then she was disappointed that nobody would give her a ball to hold.  Some parents were encouraging their children to join in by carrying them as they did the dance moves themselves.  Neither Angmering Daddy nor I have the strength to do that for long.  Munchkin is heavy and I still haven't fully recovered from my fall down the stairs.  Boogie Beat also seemed to be a misnomer; there was nothing that could be described as boogying and not much of a discernible beat.  It seemed odd that most of the songs were sung without any backing track.  This was made worse by the fact that the instructor's singing abilities were similar to mine, and I won't be auditioning for a choir any time soon.

Munchkin's social life has been a bit pants recently.  She hated the new group and hasn't been to swimming or gym because of my back.  I felt well enough to take her swimming this week but she wasn't allowed to get her ear wet.  Maybe we'll make it into the swimming pool next week!