Nearly New

I sold some of Munchkin's stuff at my first nearly new sale this weekend. I opted for a NCT sale since they're popular and well organised. It cost £3 to register, and NCT will take 30% of what I make. I feel better about giving a percentage to a charity than I would a private individual.

I was lucky enough to win an early bird shopping slot at the sale. Had it not been for this, I'm not I would have gone there to shop. I was there to drop off items to sell at 8.15, the sale for non members started at 10.15, and I was back to collect unsold items ay 12.30 - too much to-ing and fro-ing (no idea if I spelt that right).

It's taken me weeks to launder all the baby clothes, select 70 of the 300 odd items to sell and price everything up. I was disappointed to be handed two bags of unsold items and a ride-on ladybird, after all that hard work, though have since realised that quite a lot did sell.

Please someone, buy this ladybird!

I spent £22 on clothes, and a baking set for Munchkin. As always, NCT popped lots of promotional leaflets in with my purchases. Handily, one was a flyer for 10% off at JoJo Maman Bebe, where I was planning on spending money later that day.  I still have shed-loads of stuff to sell. I think I'll try eBay next. If you know of anyone who wants to buy a rocking ladybird, please send them my way.

In other news, my mouth still isn't better, we took Munchkin and Sweetpea to Peppa Pig World this week, and Munchkin was as sick as a dog yesterday.

Birthday Party

Munchkin turned three over a month ago, and I've just found this blog entry sitting in my drafts folder! The Terrible Twos are officially over.  I'm hoping I don't have a threenager.  She hasn't been the best behaved over the past couple of weeks but it may have something to do with the fact that I've been getting increasingly stressed about my imminent wisdom tooth extraction.  I had all four wisdom teeth out on Friday and am currently a little the worse for wear.  I look like a chipmunk with mumps, and will NOT be posting any pictures of myself online.

The birthday party was a roaring success.  We booked a Bouncy Castle Party at Worthing Leisure Centre.  Although we'd booked two or three months in advance, it was the last slot available that weekend, so they're obviously very popular.  We made a last-minute change from cold buffet to hot buffet but this was fine with the Leisure Centre as they only need confirmation of numbers and menu option a few days before the party.  That was the only thing that didn't go smoothly - they got Angmering Daddy's phone number wrong so couldn't call us to make final arrangements.  When we arrived on the day, there was a staff member to help us get organised.  They ensured children went to the correct party, and that everything ran to time. 

Munchkin and her friends had fun on a large bouncy castle and a range of ride-on toys, and there were also bouncy balls for them to play with.  Food was served in the Committee Room, which is also the creche room so it was decorated in a child-friendly way.  The food was pretty good.

Some of us agreed to meet at Out of Bounds later in the afternoon, this didn't go so well.  Although it's our favourite soft play, they don't seem to have got the hang of organising things at peak times.  We couldn't get in because it was packed and children weren't coming out when they were meant to, probably because their parents were unable to hear the tannoy.  Several weeks later, we went to a birthday party at Out of Bounds, this wasn't nearly as well organised as the Leisure Centre's offering.  Parents had to perch anywhere whilst their children played, there didn't appear to be a dedicated staff member helping to organise things, then the staff started clearing away food before the children had left the party.

I found myself a blogging app for my phone so will try to blog a bit more regularly again.  It's called Blogmate and seems to work OK.

Letters to Santa

For the first time ever, we have written to Father Christmas on Munchkin's behalf.  It's her third Christmas and she has a pretty good idea what's going on now.  I wrote a letter to him, asking her what she wanted to say.  Having already decided to send a reply via santa.co.uk, I included things in Munchkin's letter that I knew would be reflected in Santa's reply.

Letter to Santa

There were about five letters aimed at Munchkin's age group, so I picked the one with the story that I liked best.  The only thing that could have been done better is the way the child's best friend's name is used.  In some of the letters, the friend is referred to as "they".  Surely it wouldn't have been difficult to include one extra field to indicate whether the friend is a boy or a girl?  The best friend thing was difficult for us in any case.  Munchkin's closest friends are twins so it was difficult choosing which one to name.

Letter from Santa

We really liked the letter from Father Christmas.  I'm not sure Munchkin was quite as impressed and Angmering Daddy and me, though she did like it.  Perhaps she'll be more interested next year.

Santa Special at the Bluebell Railway

We went to the Bluebell Railway to visit Santa last Sunday and Munchkin loved every minute of it (almost).  The Bluebell has several Christmas packages and we opted for this one because it seemed to include the most for our money. We had originally intended to book a first class compartment, but  the helpful man on the booking line explained that you see Santa for longer in a standard class compartment; he only pops his head round the door in First Class.  Even standard class wasn't cheap, but I think it was worth the money.  Munchkin is still young enough to travel as a toddler, but I paid the child rate so she could have her own seat.  Standard (aka third) class tickets prices are: Adult - £20, Child £13, Toddler - £9. We were on the first train of the day, which I'm glad about because it meant it was relatively quiet when we arrived.  People who arrived later on had to use the overflow car park in a field down the road.

The Santa Special goes between Sheffied Park and Horsted Keynes stations.  There was a children's roundabout and a few fairground type stalls at Sheffield Park.  The roundabout was meant to be free for the first go, and £1 thereafter but they weren't very strict about this.  Munchkin won a doll on the Lucky Dip but I wouldn't describe this doll as lucky.  So far her head and one arm have fallen off!

When the train arrived, we found our allocated seats.  We didn't know whether we'd be seeing Santa on the way to Horsted Keynes or the return journey.  It turned out that we saw him on the way there.  Munchkin was given an embroidered red bag containing a gift.  It was a cuddly lamb, who is now called "Bluebell".  Munchkin loves Bluebell, and she's been everywhere with her for the past week.  Munchkin was also given Smarties, and the grown ups were given mince pies.

Munchkin was a bit overwhelmed at Horsted Keynes.  She didn't want to have her photo taken with Father Christmas.  The Victorian fairground games and sideshows on the station were fun and good value (6 goes for £1, I think) but mainly a little grown up for Munchkin.

Upon our return to Sheffield Park, we went to the carvery restaurant for Christmas lunch.  This was OK, but nothing special.  Given that the Santa Special is aimed at children, I think they could have done more to promote children's meals. We were able to get child sized portions, despite there being no mention of them on the menu enclosed with our train tickets, and the waitress got Munchkin a tub of ice cream from the cafe downstairs because the desserts on the carvery menu were too big and rich for her.

We loved the Bluebell, and will be signing Munchkin up to the Stepney Club. She'll get a newsletter about Stepney (who appears in the Thomas the Tank Engine series), a birthday card, invitations to special events, and reduced rate train travel for just £8 a year, £12 for 2 years, or £16 for 3 years.

Adult £20.00  Child £13.00  Toddler £9.00

Adult £20.00  Child £13.00  Toddler £9.00

Adult £20.00  Child £13.00  Toddler £9.00

Soft Play and Santa

Since I last blogged, Out of Bounds has opened in Rustington.  We're very impressed.  It consists of indoor climbing, soft play and ten pin bowling.  It's the largest, newest soft play in the Worthing area.  Munchkin has been there twice so far, once with me and once with Daddy.  Although there is an area aimed at under 4's and another aimed at under 12's, we found that Munchkin was able to navigate everything by herself, which was good going as she's nearly 3 and small for her age.

The soft play is on three levels.  You enter and leave through (an apparently) child proof gate so it's all pretty secure.  There are loads of tables within the soft play area, though the cafe is outside so I'm not sure how easy it would be to negotiate the gate with a buggy and a cup of coffee. The soft play cost us £4 off peak, with no time limit.  The whole experience was a complete contrast to the soft play at Worthing Leisure Centre that I mentioned in my last blog.

Other than soft play, we've been planning for Christmas.  I can't remember the last time I'd got this much Christmas shopping done in November.  Munchkin has been very clear about what she wants for Christmas this year: Skye from Paw Patrol, an oven, a till and a Peppa Pig car.  Thankfully, I found out that my step-brother was coming over from the States at around the time she decided she wanted Skye.  Nick Jr haven't released Paw Patrol toys in the UK and I didn't really want to spend £15 + on an imported toy that costs around £6 in the US. 

Munchkin and I wrote her letter to Father Christmas today.  He will be replying via santa.co.uk.  This website enables you to generate a letter from Santa with lots of personalisation.  It costs £4.99 and a percentage goes to RSPCA.  I looked into Royal Mail, which is free but I don't think there's much personalisation and NSPCC which is £5 suggested donation.  NSPCC came highly recommended but I wasn't that impressed.  I don't just want a letter from Santa, I want something that reads like a reply to the letter we've written; santa.co.uk gives me that option.

We're off to see Santa at the Bluebell Railway next weekend.  Blog to follow...

Poogate and Parties

It's been over a month but I'm finally writing another blog.  In the world of Angmering Mummy, there are three things going on at the moment, Munchkin has taken to saying, "Are we nearly there yet?" in addition to "Why?", Angmering Nanny is very poorly, and we're trying to plan a third birthday party.

Due to Nanny's illness, we've been staying with Sweetpea's family.  This has involved Munchkin and Sweetpea sharing a rather large single bed.  In addition to the usual staying awake at all hours and group trips to the toilet, we've had Poo Gate.  Child A did a poo in her PJ's in the middle of the night, then threw it on the floor.  She said Child B did it.  Child B said Child A did it.  Neither were budging on these stories, however Child A said, "B did a poo in my pyjamas".  To top this off, Child A has a history of pooing her pants, hadn't pooed during the day, and her end of the bed smelt.  The jury is still out on who threw the poo on the floor.

Munchkin is going through a really shy phase at the moment.  When we go to groups, she refuses to join in, even though she claims to enjoy them and wants to go back.  As a result, we decided to arrange a birthday party for her that wouldn't involve group participation.  Soft play seemed the obvious choice so I made enquiries about Amazon Adventure at Worthing Leisure Centre.  They had availability of the right date, and the party package seemed to be what we were looking for - an hour in soft play plus 45 minutes for food in a separate room.  Since we'd never been, Munchkin and I made a trip to check out Amazon Adventure... We will NOT be having a party there.  The equipment has seen better days; it's threadbare in places.  The slide is a nightmare.  If you were there with a group of three year olds, you'd either need to man it to help them get up there, or ban them from using it.  We've considered every other soft play in the area and ruled it out for one reason or another:

Not my choice of a party venue.  That red star definitely looks ready for retirement.

• P.LA.Y. - You're just in soft play with members of the public, then you get called to a small party room.  Although not as run down as Amazon Adventure, it's seen better days.
• Harbour Park - You're just in soft play with members of the public for 45 minutes, then you go to a party room.  Apparently their catering is attrocious.  I've never been, but my friend says the coffee is undrinkable.
• Flying Fortress - As above, you're sharing the softplay.  It's so big, we'd probably lose a toddler along the way.  Might be a viable option next year.
• Wyevale Findon - No party room, you sit in the open plan cafe.
• Old Barn - According to Angmering Daddy, the soft play is smaller than Wyevale's.  No party room, though it's less open plan than Wyevale.

 As a result, we think we've settled on a bouncy castle party at Worthing Leisure Centre.  This has come highly recommended by other parents.  It's £76 for 20 children, plus catering (£3.49/£3.99 a child for cold/hot buffet or £26.50 room hire if you do your own catering).  One of Munchkin's friends has a bouncy castle party in November so we'll be able to check it out then.  In actual fact, she's going to two parties at the Leisure Centre on the same day, with most of the same children.  The other is a soft play party...

 That brings me up to date with our news. Must try harder to blog regularly.

Why?

We have finally entered the "Why?" phase.  The fact that this didn't happen until Munchkin could talk in full sentences hasn't made it any less frustrating.  My friend's little boy is a month older than Munchkin and she has tended to do things a month or so after him, but not on this occasion.  I was vaguely worried that she was developmentally slow, but secretly pleased I didn't have to deal with it.

I am currently dealing with around seven "whys" a day, excluding the supplementary ones.  I wouldn't mind but I find them so difficult to answer.  The answers I give are often met with a "why?".  We still haven't established why there are big and small roads, and why weeds are so called.

We were driving home from swimming yesterday when Munchkin asked me why we had to drive round the roundabout.  I explained at great length that roundabouts allowed cars to drive onto different roads more easily, otherwise we would never be able to get from the small roads (single carriageways) onto the big roads (dual carriageways).  As a result of this, she asked me why there were big roads and small roads.  I told her that big roads were for getting from one town to another and people usually lived on small roads, but I'm not convinced she was satisfied with that answer.

Image courtesy of iamharin freedigitalphotos.net

I was doing some weeding yesterday, when she asked me what I was doing.  I explained that I was pulling up weeds like Grandpa Pig in Peppa Pig.  This is going to be easy, I thought, I just say what Grandpa Pig did.  Grandpa Pig said that weeds were naughty plants that grew where they weren't meant to.  The next thing I know, I've been asked why Grandpa doesn't like weeds, and why he says "weeds".  After trying to explain that they were called weeds because that was their name, I gave up.  Every time I tried to use a comparison, it resulted in another question.

You would think that as a Business Analyst, who spends my working days asking, "Why", "What", When" and "How", I would welcome this but it's making me use my brain more at home than I do at work.  I'm used to adapting my communication style for the business area or IT but now I'm having to think like a toddler. WHY?