Emilia the Dog

**Firstly, Emilia, I'm sorry for posting this and I'm sure it'll come up in the Father-of-the-Bride speech**

This week we officially started potty-training.

I've been reading a book called "Potty Training for Girls" and it pretty much does what it says on the tin.

The idea is that you introduce the concept gradually; going nappy-less for an hour (closely supervised!) and suggest the potty a couple of times in that hour - or when you notice "signs".

After they've got the hang of pottys, you suggest that

Today I took her nappy off and we sat on the floor and played with her Peppa-Pig figures. The potty was to one side and towels were on stand-by incase of an accident.

I suggested she may need a wee and she thought about it for a second before making a "psssss" noise but refused the potty. She got up and made her way straight out of the back door onto the lawn where she squatted slightly and wee'd right on the grass!

I honestly didn't know weather to chastise her for peeing on the grass; or congratulate her for knowing not to wee on the floor!

Apparently we've been watching our dog go outside for a wee and decided that that's the place to do it.

I'm glad it wasn't raining!

So TIRED!

I've just been re-reading my first blogs from 2013.

I complained then about having to get up at 0500 but "21 minutes later, she was back in her cot and I was drifting off to a lovely 2 and a half more hours of sleep".

Our son is a different beast. He also wakes at 0500 (on the dot) every morning but will not go back to sleep for at least 2 hours. Emilia then wakes at 0700 (or 0730 if we're lucky) and so we're up for the day! If I'm lucky they both nap at the same time in the afternoon - but that only happens 50% of the time.

It would be a very long day except for my lovely wife who takes over when Emilia wakes up and lets me sleep for an hour or so.

I am still exhausted!

That is all. Goodnight.

Daddy or Chips?

For those who never saw the ad...

So Emma was holding Emilia last week and had the following conversation in front of me: 

Emma: Who do you prefer, Daddy or Mummy?

Emilia: Daddy

Emma: Who do you prefer, Daddy or Tal?

Emilia: Daddy

Emma: Who do you prefer, ;Daddy or Char? (one of our neighbours who has a son the same age as Emilia called Jake)

Emilia: Daddy

Emma: Who do you prefer, Daddy or chocolate?

Emilia: Daddy

Emma: Who do you prefer, Daddy or chips?

Emilia: Daddy

Emma: Who do you prefer, Daddy or Donna (her Nanny for the last year)?

Emilia: Donna

It's fair to say that I have now renamed Donna "The Witch" in my phone and Emma isn't talking to any of us!


*Edit*
Just for fun, I have just asked the following:

Me: Who do you prefer, Daddy or Jake?
Emilia: Jake

Me: Who do you prefer, Daddy or Jayden?
Emilia: Jayden

Me: Who do you prefer, Jake or Jayden?
Emilia: Jake

(Sorry +Rupert Key but "you snooze: you lose")

Argh. It's all fallen apart... again.

I'm sure that I've never said that this was going to be easy.
I'm sure that I've never looked at multi-child households and thought: "Pah. I don't know what all the fuss is about".
I'm sure that I've never looked at childminders and thought "I could do that job"

In fact there was a period when Tal was 4 months old that I wondered if I wanted to do this stay-at-home thing with 2 children at all!

Emma seems to be taking great joy in my struggling today though.

It was my mistake. I broke routine.

The day normally starts with Tal waking at about 0600. I take him downstairs and give him a bottle. We then sit and play for an hour until Emilia wakes at 0700 and I hear "Nun's up. Nun's up" on the monitor (We've given her a Gro-clock for her room that stays dark - with a picture of a star - until a set time and then lights up and changes into a sun, she can't quite say sun yet).

From there it's organised chaos involving Emilia playing with her toys, Tal being put somewhere where he can entertain himself or strapping him to my chest while I feed them, dress them, brush their hair and her teeth before putting them into the buggy and going to whatever morning entertainment we have in store. Occasionally I'll get dressed too. Very occasionally I'll shower!

Yesterday I got all ahead of myself and thought that today I'd go food shopping with Emilia and Tal. I thought it'd be a fun little trip out...

The day didn't start as planned. After waking at 0610, Tal went back to sleep at 0830 until 1030 by which point we had missed most of this morning's group. Because I had put him down in Emilia's room (she had woken at her usual time) I couldn't get her dressed. There was a certain amount of rushing about when he did wake up.

At the end of group Tal was very upset because I'd forgotten to feed him and I hadn't warmed a bottle. Luckily I had the components so I just stuck a cold one in his face and found a quiet place to sit while he drank it. He was less than happy, but hungry enough to drink it!

I persevered though. Off to Sainsburys we went (other supermarkets are available) and I realised that I'd not changed his nappy since he woke 6 hours earlier. It was bulging so we all piled into the baby-changing room (trolley and all) and I realised that my bag was void of nappies because Emma had knicked them for her bag the day before. Back to the car we all went; collected the spares and back to the baby-change!

As you can imagine, Tal was wet, Emilia was getting bored of going backwards and forwards and I was starting to feel a little frustrated (and foolish)!

So we got the nappy changed (I was going to change Emilia's too but in the end I couldn't bring myself to sort that - and it wasn't that wet anyway) and went to the fruit and veg aisle so that Emilia could choose some healthy foods. I thought it would be an interesting thing for her to do and help connect the food that's on her plate to the shop it comes from. At some stage we'll go to a PYO and she can see where it grows... but that's a whole different adventure.

Anyway, I soon discovered a flaw in the trolley design. It was one with a baby-seat and a child-seat next to each other. Unfortunately the positioning of them put Emilia's hair directly in grabbing range for Tal so all he kept doing was yanking at Emilia's hair! I told him to "Let go, Dude" the first time he did it (Not because I expected him to listen but just to add some verbal association with me taking stuff from him) and immediately Emilia repeated "Lego Doo". Every time he grabbed hair after that, I heard Lego Doo. Lego Doo. Lego Doo. - She'll be saying it for weeks.

Anyway, Emilia got bored of looking at veg and having her hair pulled; Tal got bored of me stopping him from pulling hair, I got bored of stopping him pulling hair so we bought some potatoes and peppers and walked home.

Disaster! Maybe Emma was right with that one when she insists she goes shopping when they are in bed and I am home.

Introducing Taliesin

I have tried to write this post about 3 times now. I sat down when I thought I had 5 minutes but as soon as I'd start typing one of them woke up so I gave up.

It is now 9pm on Friday evening and I think I've got 5 minutes...

...

... still "Q" so I'll carry on.

[Emilia's monitor has literally just come to life with Emilia moaning and groaning - I knew I should never have started typing!]

I know I put up a quick blog 5 months ago when Tal was born but I am now officially starting APL Part 2 so thought it'd be nice to introduce him properly:

"Internet, this is Tal; Tal, this is Internet.

Tal is the younger of 2 children and, although born a little early he is now growing well and is (last checked) a touch over the 50th percentile.

He is a generally chilled baby although gets very upset when Emilia cries. 

(Just this evening, she jumped onto her bed and cracked the top of her head on the headboard. Before she had let out the first wail, he was sobbing his little heart out!)

He also appears to be Lactose intolerant.

I'm sure you'll get on well!"

 Taliesin trying to chomp on a pepper

So Tal is now almost 6 months old. I am now (mainly) responsible for a 2 and-a-half-yr-old and a half-yr-old I have a feeling it's going to be a challenge!

Emma is out to sabotage my efforts too! On Monday she tried a little "experiment" and swapped him from normal formula with Colief to "Comfort" formula with less lactose in it initially, but removed the Colief

"Colief® contains the naturally occuring enzyme lactase, which helps to break down lactose for digestion."

Emma did this on my first day; He stopped sleeping through the night; He was grizzly all day; He wouldn't sleep in the day; He became really clingy.

I really struggled.

Even Superman takes a nap when he can!

But now he's on Lactose-free Formula and much happier! (So am I)

***

SoI am going to count this week as "Handover Week" and say that it takes a little while to get into the swing of things. We'll see.
I still have the same group of Mummy friends that I inherited from Emma last time round but have lost +Rupert Key  as he is working most days. Hopefully I can squeeze a couple of coffee-shop adventures as the 6 months progresses.

One thing that I think I may struggle with is what to do with a 6 month old and a 2 yr old at the same time?

• Emilia is slightly too little (and at the moment loves her Daddy too much) to enjoy soft-play activities on her own while I sit with Tal and supervise but I can't carry him around it either!
• I can't take Emilia to all the Baby-sensory groups I went to last time because she will get bored and shout "Dad" "Dad" "Dad" at the top of her lungs until I respond.

Any suggestions from you, Internet, would be most appreciated.

***

And finally:

I saw this today and it made me laugh. a lot.

And then there were two!

So I signed off the last chapter saying that I would recommend Additional Paternity Leave to anyone because of all the things I learned, all the things I saw and all the friends I made.

But in about 6 months I'm going to have to do it all again - this time also with a daughter who's going to be in the middle of her Terrible Two's!

So far I've found out that I have forgotten most of what I found out 2 years ago!

For example, I've forgotten how hard it is to change the nappy of a newborn. I've got used to having a cooperative subject - or at least one who understands what needs to be done even if she refuses!
With a newborn, he's so small and fragile-looking but his legs flail about with enough strength to knock nappies from your hand or put nappy-cream where nappy-cream shouldn't be!

So I'm learning it all again!

For those interested, here's a pic of my little boy, Tal.

Tal. Just a few hours old.

...and the beginning of another.

So as I'm not a man to do things by halves, I decided that the only way to return from 6 months off was to start with 7 night shifts. Starting on a Friday night! 

To be honest, the fact that they were nights wasn't an issue. It meant that I was double-crewed and Emma's mum came down for the week to help out so I could sleep during the day.

I tried to spend as much of the day with Emilia as I could but by the time I'd fought my way through traffic to get home, then walked the dog, and had breakfast it was almost midday and I had been up for 18 hours. I was flagging! 

I did get up in time for bath and bedtime. So I would spend about an hour a day with her. 

She's a fickle little thing... On Saturday morning, I got home to a baby who crawled over to the front door, sat up on her knees, raised her arms for a cuddle and give me a big grin. By Wednesday, she would let me pick her up but she didn't come over when I came in.

By Friday morning, she didn't even raise her arms for a cuddle. She had no interest in me what-so-ever. Far more interested in "Nana". 

What a short memory they have at this age though. It would break my heart if I wasn't able to see her any length of time. I'd really worry that she would forget who I was!

It's now the following Monday and we've just been swimming. I've had lots of cuddles, lots of talking and lots of climbing on. It looks like I've been remembered and forgiven!