Going Potty!

Well I had hoped my next blog post would be to proudly state that Drew was now walking. However, she's yet to master that feat, although on Friday 13th March, she did start walking whilst holding one hand...its going to be a slow process...

But who cares about walking when your baby can pooh in a potty????!!!!! Yep - Drew's first attempt and it worked!

Drew's got this new game she plays with me and it's who can strain the most when you're having a no.2. She is well-rehearsed in this department and we all know fully well when she's trying to 'squeeze the cheese'.

So, I could tell she was having one of these private moments (I say 'private', but we were in the kitchen and Barney was intent on watching what was going on in case it involved food). I sat her fully-clothed on her new potty. It's called a 'Potette Plus' and comes with a neat little bag to catch the 'little items'. Very clever. She squeezed and squeezed. Her little eyes welled up and her face went red. I made the squeezing noises and face too and she thought it was very funny.

It's the first time Drew's been okay with sitting on the potty as normally I try to put her on there and she can't wait to get off. This time, it seemed to be working. After about 1 minute, all was calm. I stripped her down to check the contents of her nappy. Nothing, but a nappy full of methane which my nose evaluated instantly.

So, rather than take her off completely, I kept her with her nappy off and 'plopped' her back down on her potty, gave her something to play with and within minutes, she started straining again. I was able to put the shopping away and leave her on the kitchen floor next to me entertaining herself and Barney and when I next checked, we had a lovely (not really little) package was sitting in the bottom of the potty! Drew was excited as Mummy was excited and we both enjoyed some well-deserved grapes for her trouble. I know...I spoil her don't I. So, I understand the trick now is to catch them at it and do the same whenever you can. I'm SO glad I'm back in the office tomorrow for the rest of the week...phew!

Oh and for those out there who are doubting this story, you know I wouldn't let this momentous occasion go without photographic evidence would I??

Here it is below....BEHOLD! The "No. 2 from Drew"

Cough, Cough, Cough

I spoke too soon about Drew sleeping through for so long on my last post, 'Happy Slapper', me thinks!!!

For the last 2 nights, Drew's been coughing continually through the night. We'd forgotten what is was like getting up in the middle of the night. Being woken by an annoying cough every 30 seconds, shortly followed by a loud cry of help, pain and tiredness. The cough being Drew, the cry being me, Jerry AND Drew.

We tried everything as usual. Calpol, then 2hrs later, Nurofen, Calgel, Olbas Oil, raising the cot at her head end, Vicks on her chest, changing her nappy, giving her warm milk...everything. Both nights, she lay awake coughing for 4 hours. Poor little thing. We ARE so tired!

At 10.30am today, she had her mid-morning nap as usual. But this time, she slept 'til 2.30pm! I wish she told us...we would have gone back to bed too!!

Tonight, we thought we'd try something different. Something my Mum says she used to do when me and my brother had a cough. Instead of raising the cot at the head end, we raised the cot at her feet end...yep...guess what?

It worked! Well, it's 9.30pm and no coughing! So far so good! Maybe I've just jinxed ourselves again...ooops!!

Happy Slapper

Okay, so we can't complain...Drew has been sleeping right through the night, 12 to 13 hours, for weeks now. We do KNOW we're lucky. However, there is always a downside...Drew has become a 'Happy-Slapper'.

Urban Dictionary Definition : Happy slaps, Happy slapper, Happy slapping:
"Slapping a random person (they can be on the bus, walking down the street, whatever) whilst recording the act with a video camera phone".

Obviously, Drew doesn't have a REAL mobile phone, but give it time. However, she seems to like to smack other babies, usually those younger than her. She carried out a full-on slap to the head at 'Nursery Rhyme Time' at the library the other week. Thankfully, I didn't see it, but EVERYONE heard it. It was a loud slap which landed on a little baby boy's head. Thing is, it doesn't matter how much I say 'NO' and tell her off and move her away from the situation, she thinks its highly amusing and looks to me to see if I think she did a good job!!

Everyone says its just a phase and she will stop doing it, but in the meantime, I worry everytime I put her anywhere near smaller babies. You know when she's going to do it though...she has this cheeky little smile which forms. Then she looks at you and her smile gets bigger. She then turns her gaze back to her happy-slapper victim. You then have about 5 seconds to remove her before she carries out her attack. Sometimes I make it, sometimes (like at the library) I'm not so quick.

Let's hope this phase doesn't last too much longer. Whatever next? Grand theft auto??????