Taking it back to the Old Skool

There is never a boring week when bringing up a toddler but this week has been as run-of-the-mill as you could hope to have.

Daddy has clearly not been flavour of the month. We had a boys day on Sunday as mummy had a Bridal shower to attend and we gardened, ran in many Olympic races, said hello to the neighbour, got her name wrong again and wrestled. It was what men do!

The next couple of nights though daddy couldn’t get a look in. As soon as I was home from work I threw on my wrestling/jumping/salad eating kit and challenged H Boss to a wrestle. He is usually a huge fan and runs into whichever bedroom he chooses and tries (with a mixture of success) to get onto the bed, or should I say “ring.”

This didn’t happen though. I was greeted by a palm off and a ‘no no no daddy’ and then he ran off to cuddle mummy’s leg. The main problem was that Lis had to work on her business and had dealt with this lump all day so quite wanted the breather, but our little terror was having none of it. After much coercing had failed we found rest bite in the form of his high chair and the Audio Book of Peter Pan.

How good are Audio Books! Talk about taking it back to the Old Skool. I remember listening to an Audio Book to help me get to sleep, I can’t believe they are still going, and I am delighted to find that they continue to grow from strength to strength.

The Audio Book is his new obsession and I have to say, as obsession go, it isn’t his worse. He sits in his high chair, happily turning the pages (sometimes even being on the right page) as the book goes along. This is great for a couple of reasons, 1) we know exactly where he is, he isn’t going anywhere 2) we can get on and do other things without him getting in the way of ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING!

On Tuesday he was in his high chair a good 30 mins before dinner, my lord that must have been boring, but I suppose when you are 2 and you still find the patterns on the floor interesting, you can amuse yourself with something.

Wednesday evening was lad’s night this time. I must admit, I approached it with slight trepidation following the previous nights antics and at the start it went as feared. Lis went out, Harrison bawled. I tried all my tricks but got nothing so I just sat down and spoke to him. He came over, sat on my lap and all was good with the world. I honestly wanted that moment to carry on for ever. Nothing was said, I just sat there stroking his back as he killed dragons with his two swords made up of a coat hanger and whisk (he always bloody gets that whisk out!). I can’t really think of a better image to end this on so happy fathering.

A mistake never to be repeated

aI only have myself to blame. The obsession with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has hit epic proportions. After playing him the theme song once, and I mean once, we now have to play it the second we wake up and the second I get home from work. He literally greets me with ‘I can have Ninja Turtles once’ as soon as I walk in the door. Lis and I had to impress upon him that he can listen to it once and once only in the morning and evening without crying and throwing a tantrum when it is over, or there will be no more. I am secretly hoping he throws a tantrum so it can be no more. Never again will I make the same mistake.

It doesn’t stop there though. When he has exhausted his allocation of iPad Turtles tunes, he then makes Lis and I sing the bloody song. There are now times when I catch myself humming it for no apparent reason and I hate myself for it. When that isn’t enough, or mummy and daddy get well and truly over the song, he himself can sing most of it now and that is without actually watching one episode of the programme. Lord only knows what will happen when he actually does watch it!

There is no more Gymbaroo. H Boss got quite a lot out of it when he first started going, but now he just seems bored and doesn’t listen to anyone when there. He just wants to do his own thing and mummy has had enough. I was getting a phone call every Monday and you could tell by the tone in Lisa’s voice that it had not gone well. Clearly he isn’t that into it, so that is some money saved on our end. We continue with Little Kickers though, which he absolutely loves. Good lad.

This week has also been the week that we have started to push his dinner time back to 6pm. That means that we bring our dinner time forward to 6pm which in turn means I am starving by about 8.30pm. I know this is something that has to happen, and when he is eating with us and eating the same food as us, he eats really well, feeds himself and everything. When he is not eating with us the struggle is real. We have reverted to half feeding him again as that is what it takes to get him to eat. I am slightly more at ease with this because trust me when I say it pissed me off no end when it started, but lots of people that we talk to are all at the same point with their kids at the same age. He loves his food, but gets so easily distracted.

Harrison really doesn’t take long to rev it up when he wakes up. One second you are hearing ‘mummy, daddy’ from his bedroom as he has just arisen, the next second he is tearing about, wanting you to play with him and creating all sorts of havoc wherever he can. I wish that I could do that on a daily basis! This week has been good though, his little personality is really coming out now. He is a bit of a perfectionist and certainly knows what he wants, and most of the time it is really bloody cute. Happy fathering.

A new bestie

What a superb weekend we had last weekend. We went on our little family adventure to visit friends in Canberra, and it was great. Harrison was in superb form and it was interesting for Lis and I to learn and to take him out of his little comfort zone.

The first challenge was getting there. It is about a 3 hour trip to Canberra, which is about double the longest time he has spent in a car (although not the longest time he’s spent travelling – that was the thoroughly enjoyable plane journey to and from the UK last year). We timed it so that he would have a bit of sleep in the car, so the first part of the journey was fine. As soon as we were on the motorway he nodded off and had a good hours’ sleep.

As soon as we stopped in Goulbourn and got out of the car, the icy wind knocked us for six. The Big Man had never been in conditions so cold and initially he didn’t want to put his jacket on. As soon as he got outside and a slight whinge happened, it didn’t take a lot to convince him to put on his beanie and jacket.

Our friends have a 3 year-old daughter and a little dog as well. As soon as we got there the dog jumped up and licked Harrison all over. At first he liked it, but very soon he didn’t and he was scared of the dog for the rest of the weekend. This was tough as the dog was the nicest, most excitable and licky dog I have seen in a while, but it was banished to go sit in it’s bed most of the time we were there.

Harrison and Lil played so well together. There was the initial fight to show who was dominant, with both not giving an inch or sharing toys, but that was quickly ironed out. Obviously at bath time it was a joint effort, and photos were taken to be brought out at their 18^th or 21^st birthdays, but that is what parents are supposed to do. Next up was the big test: bed time.

Harrison was sleeping on a mattress on the floor in the same room as us. I put him down at the same time as Lil went down as well and went downstairs. It had been about 10 mins and we heard some scuttling upstairs, so up we went. There they were on the landing, thick as thieves. Lil asked if Harrison could sleep in her bed. It took me 18 years to get an offer like that from a girl, and my son has done it in 2! So into her bed they both went, and downstairs we went.

Again 10 mins later more scuttling. Up I went and caught Harrison red-handed as he was new to this game, but Lil had jumped into her bed. It was decided that now they would sleep in the double bed as there wasn’t enough room for them in the little toddler bed. Back to dinner we go. The final act of fighting off sleep was the two little ones whispering seriously to each other. What they could have been talking about who knows, but they clearly didn’t quite understand whispering yet, as they were whispering almost at the same volume as talking. Up we went, and this time Harrison requested to go to bed. It was 9.30pm – the latest he has ever been awake – and he conked out.

The rest of the weekend they were both thick as thieves, playing together, reading books together, holding hands and cuddling. It was so cute – it looks like he has a new bestie. How can we compete this week? Happy fathering.

 

We Tried but We Failed

This week we tried and failed to get Harrison a haircut. We had let it go to a point where Lis and I would look at each other and say ‘something has to be done about that mop.’ His hair would bounce up and down when he ran it was that long and thick – it was time for a haircut.

We had a plan of attack. We would bribe him with a chocolate lolly and the promise of seeing the puppies in the pet store window, and get this thankless task done. I was positive when we got there. The DVD player was brought out and there was a dinosaur movie on. This was great – he is a big fan of dinosaurs and he happily hopped up onto the chair.

Everything was going smoothly, this was going to be a belter. We had given him a bickie to eat as well to take his mind off anything that would be going on around him, and we were ready. The clippers started up, approached his head and boom, all hell broke loose.

Big H pulled away, a look that can only be described as a mixture of fear, confusion and disgust came across his face – he was not having it. No matter what we tried, the crying got worse. The chocolate bribe came out very early. He was interested, he wanted it and we got a bit of the back of his hair done, a small victory. Harrison soon got wind of our tricks to distract him and pulled away again crying.

By this point everyone else in the hairdressers and I am sure passers-by were wondering what kind of evil torture we were inflicting on our son. Well stuff you and you come and help then! Plan B went into motion. I sat on the chair with him on my lap. He calmed for a second, one side of the head got done. How dare they trick me again thought H Boss, I will respond with lots of movement and crying. He didn’t like the hair on his face so started rubbing his face and blowing raspberries to get it off. This obviously made it worse which had a knock-on effect that was exactly what you were thinking it was.

Lis and I knew this wasn’t going to get done, but we couldn’t leave the hair how it was. We needed to get the other side done. One final point at the dinosaur film, one desperate bribe of chocolate lolly and eventually having to hold him still for a minute led to us getting the minimum requirement and getting the hell out of there – not doing that again for a long time!

We are about to embark on our first long car journey down to Canberra to see friends. Hopefully he will sleep a bit of it but the longest he has been in a car is about 2 hours, this will probably double it. I am sure it will be fine but there is still that trepidation of how he is going to go, oh well we won’t know until we do it. Watch this space to find out. Happy fathering.

An early version of why

We have discovered the 2 year-old version of ‘why?’. It is ‘what’s that?’. Every book we read, every time the TV is on, every time we walk down the street, we have to stop and answer the question.

Initially, I loved it. It showed that H Boss was interested in knowing what he was looking at and what he was reading. Now we are well and truly over it. As you are all aware, we read the same books over and over and over again. Throw into the mix being asked ‘what’s that?’ at the same point in the same book for the 3^rd or 4^th time that day. Yep, that is exactly how we feel.

The latest obsession (as it seems to change on a weekly basis) is Finding Nemo. We went to Nanny and Poppa’s place for the long weekend last week. There Harrison got a Finding Nemo book from Grandma. This came complete with little figurines which I am pretty sure we have lost at least once already (I am surprised it took as long as it did). Unsurprisingly, Harrison now knows all the names of the characters and needs ‘Dory’ to help him have dinner and sing to him to go to sleep. He hasn’t seen the film yet, but we plan on showing it to him soon.

He had a great time at Nanny and Poppa’s. His older cousin Patrick was around everyday so Lord H had someone to tear around the house with. I don’t think that they sat still for one second if they weren’t eating. We took them to a park that was near the beach, it was a bit nippy so no chance of a dip or any time actually on the beach, but it was so cute to see Harrison follow Patrick around and play with the things that he played with.

This also meant that Lis and I got a little bit of a break. Rather than being ‘on’ all the time, it was just most of the time. Reading duties were often delegated to a more than happy Nanny; pooey nappies were sometimes delegated to a slightly less-enthused Nanny, and dinner time was not just us two having to deal with it – there was a team of us.

Dinner is still, at times, the unmitigated disaster that it was a few weeks ago. A good effort is still when he finishes within 35 minutes, which very rarely happens. We still have some work to do here, but at least he eats pretty much anything put in front of him, albeit at a snail’s pace.

Also this week we had our first meeting with his primary care-giver at daycare. They are more than happy with his progress, as are we. Those early days when he would cling onto our leg when we were going are long gone. Now, I have to work hard to get a kiss and cuddle goodbye, as it would distract him from his playing. The objectives that we set at the start of the term have been met and honestly we are at a loss as to what we can set next. He’s already ahead and we don’t want to push him.

His one downfall is actually bloody clever. He doesn’t like getting dirty. When there is food or mud on his hands he wants it off immediately – he loves playing in the mud, but he doesn’t like being actually dirty. We have tried for a while to get him to drink out of a cup but he isn’t interested. At daycare they think that a reason for this is because he hasn’t mastered it yet and gets it down himself. He doesn’t want to do it until he can do it without spillage. If that is right then this kid will be at uni by the age of 8! I am excited. Happy fathering.

I hope I don’t jinx it

I know this will come back to haunt me, but it appears we have turned a corner. After last week’s raving success, this week has continued in the same vein.

Last weekend there were some major storms in Sydney, basically washing out any chance of doing anything outside of the house. The last place we wanted to go was to an indoor play centre. I am pretty sure that would have been most parent’s idea of hell, so we took the executive decision to not do that.

Unfortunately, that meant that the beast was kept inside for most of the weekend. Now, imagine one of the most excitable and energetic 2 year-olds you have ever seen, multiply that by at least six, and you have Harrison. All he wants to do is run around, go outside, splash in puddles and do anything that involves running.

We did manage to get to swimming lessons on Saturday morning though. Some people might think that means just going into the front garden and doing it in the swimming pool that was our front yard, but no. I braved the conditions, bunged a coat and wellies on him and off we went. The walk to and from swimming was very much enjoyed by Big H. He went into pretty much every puddle that had formed between the car and the pool. It took ages, but eventually we made the sanctuary of the pool/car.

The fun was not over when we got home. After being released from his car seat, the short walk across the front lawn was one that couldn’t have occurred without the resumption of the puddle jumping. Ten minutes later and Daddy was cold and wet, so he decided to be the party pooper and inside we went. Only the bribery of a cupcake could bring him inside – again, he has learnt from his Dad.

The rains got heavier, so that was it for outside fun, but it was all good. Harrison decided to ruin a couple more books for Lis and I by making us read them 23,985 times over the next couple of days, but he also watched Madagascar for the first time. This makes me extremely happy as I bloody love the Madagascar films. I know there are some parents out there that frown upon kids watching TV, and each to their own, but this was a god-send. We have had to curb the How to Train Your Dragon watching, as this has led to an increase in his interest of his little toy knife and he now wants to cut anything and anyone with it.

The other excitement for the week was Nanny coming down to stay a night. She came down on Tuesday to spend some time with H and Lis. Harrison was very excited to see her, and he knows already exactly how to play her. He claims he doesn’t want any food, knowing full well that Nanny will feed him, rather than making him eat it on his own like his parents do. He will get even more Nanny time as we are headed up there this weekend for the public holiday so here comes spoil street. Happy fathering.