Help me dear readers....

First of all - hello! My friend Pearl actually rang me today to check up on me cos I haven't blogged for a few days! Its just hard to find a minute! We've all been ill - horrible colds that haven't gone away. Toby and I have still got a nasty cough - took him to the docs today to listen to his chest - she also insisted on listening to mine and whacked ME on antibiotics as I'm the one with the infection - the baby is fine!

BIG thank you to the lovely Ursula, who is now known as the book fairy in our house! She's always supplied Oscar with magical books that he loves and has now sent both boys a treat - though Oscar has purloined Toby's book I'm afraid...I'm going to get it off him when he's not looking and put it away! So thank you Ursi - ring me and please let's meet up soon!

Have started putting Toby to bed at the same time as Oscar - Rob does Oz, I do Tobes...it's lovely but I can't work out when to cook dinner....any ideas? Rob gets home from work around 6.15 ish - Oz has his bath at 7 so I've been going to put Toby down at that time too but it means I can't cook until around 7.45 so we don't eat until 8.30 usually which is a bit late...and I can't work out how else to do it so ideas from you are useful.

Second thing you can help me with - I've always made music a big part of bedtime. When Oz was a baby he had a CD for bathtime and then a bedtime lullaby CD compilation that I made. I've been using the same lullaby one for Toby but I'm a bit bored of it and it isn't ideal - some songs are perfect, some aren't.

So challenge for you - suggest some nice bedtime lullaby type music. Doesn't have to be a kid's lullaby as such - keepers on the current CD are:

• Go To Sleep Little Baby (from Brother Where Art Thou)
• Baby Mine (From Dumbo - Alison Krauss version)
• Wonderful Baby (Don McLean)
• River Lullaby (From Prince of Egypt Disney Film)
• Child of Mine (Carole King)
• Dream a Little Dream (Mine and Rob's "song" - Mamas and Papas)
• Gold (Stevie Wonder - from The Outsiders)
• Hushabye Mountain (Dick Van Dyke)
• St Judy's Comet (Paul Simon)

I've got a couple of Louis Armstrong songs on the current mix that I love - particularly Kiss to Build A Dream On - but it's got a super loud trumpet solo in the middle - not so appropriate for lulling a baby to sleep!

Tell me your favourite sleepy songs - and I'll burn Toby his own compilation this weekend.

Ok - dinner tonight is chips from the chipshop - I'm so healthy....and then a bubble bath methinks as baby boy should stay asleep until at least midnight. (Last night he was awake after midnight every hour....his cough woke him and so I had a rough night. Early night for me!)

Look forward to hearing your ideas chums!

Yes ok...I'm a natural blonde

I meant 60 CENTIMETRES....I've never been good with measurements......

Doh!!!

Toby the Porker

Just a quickie - results of the six week check - all is well with both of us (though I was told I was overdoing it a bit - no shock there then.)

Toby is now 12lbs 3oz. 3 weeks ago he was 9lbs so he's putting on about a pound a week which for a breastfed baby is fantastic. I knew he was feeding a lot but blimey! He's 60 inches long too - can't remember if that's similar to Oz at that age or not...

But all is well. Calm day. Bliss. I'm starting potty training tomorrow on recommendation from the nursery - so tomorrows entry may not be so chilled!

Just got this in an email

from Mumsnet - very appropriate so I thought I'd share it for all my friends with 2 year olds....

Two and a half is a distinctive age for one reason - it can be the age of negativism. While this sounds deeply unattractive, it is usually over by three and arguably its more unpleasant for your bewildered child than it is for you.

How he behaves: Negatively. He may have shown signs of resistance and stroppiness before the age of two, but at two and a half, he develops an attitude with a vengeance. He likes to follow his rituals and do things his way and is furious if you interrupt him. Sometimes he doesn't know what he wants to do but knows it isn't anything you've got on offer, even, incredibly, the park or an ice cream. It's hard to make him happy although funnily enough there is a sense of humour lurking - due to emerge closer to three.

You can feel that you are in a permanent state of war with your little two and a half year old, while he is trying to decide how to live his life (somewhat prematurely as it turns out) you are trying to fathom out just what on earth his problem is.

The trick is to be completely saintly yourself. Poor love, he doesn't like making himself or you unhappy. He's not really a manipulative, selfish little beast. Set aside enough time for him to try to dress himself, feed himself and bath himself without urging him to get a move on. My dad always told me that if I got into a confrontation with my children - I'd already lost the battle. Pick your fights, otherwise you'll be scrapping all day.

I've printed it off. Will stick it to the kitchen noticeboard to remind myself....

Another Shitty Monday

Ah the joys of having a two and a half year old......A very rough day yesterday. Started ok - Rob got Oscar up and dressed for me which is always a relief.....

We had a lovely day planned - a morning at the best soft play place Gambado with three of his little friends - Frank and Sam and also Elijah - son of Louise who used to childmind Oscar when I did Monkey Music. Oz and Elijah used to see eachother four times a week and do really miss eachother - they haven't seen eachother for about 2 months....so I thought Oz would be really happy to go. Afternoon we were invited to Liz's house for tea. Hoorah - one less thing for me to worry about.

I got Toby in the car....and Oz refused to put his coat on and get out the door. He threw the mother of all tantrums. I asked him if he wanted to stay at home and go to bed - he said he did - stupid me for asking cos there was no way I wanted to stay in with a grumpy kid.....I almost dragged him to the car - he screamed all the way there.

When we got there we were the first - and luckily Oscar's mood totally switched so I had a chance to grab a coffee and a flapjack which was hot out of the oven - that was the best bit of the day. Others arrived and Oscar and Elijah went mental with eachother - dashing around....hyper and manic.

Poor Sam and Frank were left in the dust. I managed to have a good chat with my Mum friends - then came lunch.....I ordered Oz sausages, chips and beans - his usual favourite. He wasn't interested. He sat in his chair shaking his head from side to side manically. And then banged his chin on the chair.......where he'd cut it last week.

It must have really hurt. He cried a lot. I was feeding Toby at the time - had to give him to Liz to hold and comfort Oz. The cut had opened up again. It was bleeding. I didn't know what to do. The hospital had said to bring him back in if that happened and they'd reglue it. I couldn't imagine getting them both to Casualty on my own - especially since Oscar was hyped up and knackered....

But I did. Had a fight getting Oscar out of Gambado....they both cried all the way to the Hospital. No parking place any where near which is what I dreaded....so we had to walk - Oscar wanted me to carry him - impossible. Took 10 minutes of crying to get in the place. Queued for ages. Told to go home as they wouldn't reglue it as it had been too long.

TOTAL WASTE OF FUCKING TIME

So ten minutes of wailing back to the car. Got home. It was 2.30 (Oz usually sleeps at 1). He was exhausted. I was so wound up. Toby was screaming for a feed. Oz slept, I fed Toby and resisted the urge to go out for a drive on my own to buy cigarettes and leave them both alone in the house.

Had to wake Oz up after an hour or he wouldn't have gone to bed last night. You can imagine how that went down. Then it took half an hour to get him in the car. He didn't want to wear his coat. So we went outside and I locked up and he threw himself on the floor screaming for his coat. So I went in and got it. He didn't want it again. I had to throw him in the car practically (and my scar is hurting because of that).

Got to Liz's at about4.15 - insane traffic and loads of roadworks everywhere (I hate this time of year when councils use their fucking budgets up by digging up roads for no reason). I was so stressed - like a spring in my head coiled really tight. Oh yeah - forgot to mention - have a stinking cold again.....

Oz was quite naughty at Liz's. Wouldn't eat any dinner. Wouldn't get in the car to go home. Thank god Rob was home when I got there cos I wouldn't have lasted any longer.

Rob was angelic...while I fed Toby (who was making up for getting interrupted feeds all day by feeding CONSTANTLY last night) he made me dinner - an interesting concotion - chicken and ham fried with onions and tomato sauce and marmalade....served with pasta. It was actually quite tasty (Rob likes to create in the kitchen when he rarely cooks). Then he ran me a bath and made me shut the door so I couldn't hear Toby screaming for more milk. Then I managed to get Toby down and was in bed for 10.

Toby woke 4 times last night - 2 times he wasn't actually awake - he was doing his grunting routine - so when I put him to the boob he sucked about twice and fell asleep again. I must wait a bit more before going in to him....

Anyway - Oz is at nursery all day. Toby and I have our 6 week check this afternoon. I've ranted here and feel much better.

Main regret from yesterday - Moxie rang me, I was out. I rang back she was washing her hair, she rang back and I was on the phone then out for the day...and last night I was in no fit state to talk to anyone even though I'm desperate to hear how she and Roxabella are....So Mox - sorry - I tried to ring you this morning but didn't let it ring for long in case you were asleep. I'm out and about a lot today but will ring you I promise. Hope your day was better than mine and that you, CF and Roxie are settling in at home as a family.