Mummy Badger

Parenting with a Yorkshire attitude, being a working Mum & giving the illusion of house-wifery

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Project teepee complete!

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Max managed to learn the whole alphabet in the space of a week (not in the correct order obviously), now we can't go anywhere without him trying to spell out everything. I'm amazed how clever he is

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Lies we tell children...

I’ve had no cause to lie to my children (yet) probably because neither of them would understand, but today I was thinking about the biggest lies that my parents told me as a child:

1. Mummy tax - I genuinely believed this was a real thing. Mummy tax was taken from any delicious food me or my brother had, generally a bear-sized bite.

2. El Sid’s sword - The legend of El Sid. Dad brought a “famous” sword home saying he’d dug it up on a Spanish beach, and it belonged to the legend that is El Sid!

3. Biting your nails gives you worms - certainly put me off!

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Life with a 2 year old...

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Defying the laws of physics on a daily basis!

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4 months old and so beautiful

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Trying to keep a number-obsessed toddler happy

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So close to a perfect 10

Max’s counting is coming along, so far we have 4,5, 7, 8, 9 & today 10 joined the party! He points and counts along - we’re just missing 1,2,3 and 6, let’s see if we can get them before my Birthday :)

Extra words learnt this week: Skunk, “Hi, I’m Andy” (CBeebies), Bee, Goat, Well done, Good boy!

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Someone's very happy with themselves!

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Sometimes Poppy has no idea how close to danger she is... I mean, who would expect to find a Poliwag in the material isle of Boyes?

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Max has been trying to take selfies with Poppy

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Trying to make a cuppa with this starring at me!

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Max has been very interested in numbers & letters for weeks now, so yesterday I decided to use a bit of scrap paper to write 1-10 & the alphabet on because he likes to point & ask what they are (he’s still not making sense so he asks “se-buh?” for letters and “seben?” for numbers).

Anyway, this morning as I was bringing him down stairs he said “a…b…c…” then a load of little letter sounds in a random order. Such a great day when we’ve been waiting for him to speak more. This evening he pointed to the numbers & said “five” & “nine” in the right place!

I think this is it, the day the world started making sense to Max :)

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I wish I knew that...

Having a second child really helps you to reflect on all the things you were clueless about as a first time parent. I was thinking today about all the things I wish I’d have know first time round - could have saved some time & money:

Don’t buy smart outfits - babies are comfy in sleepsuits, leave them to it!

Nappies have a colour-changing pee (or worse) line on them - took me months to work it out

The flaps on the sleeves of sleepsuits double as scratch mits - they just fold over

You don’t need many bibs - muslin cloths are the best thing ever & when you get to feeding real food it goes all over their clothes anyway so whats the point

Don’t buy “just in case” formula if you are breastfeeding becuase people have convinced you that it might not work - you will set yourself up for failure

Ignore the advice of anyone that isn’t a medical professional - science has shown us a lot & things have changed in the last 50 years

You don’t need a lot of toys - just the basics… or a cardboard box

Ditch the sudacrem - 2 babies & I’ve not used any barrier cream, despite having loads of it kicking around the house

Do you need a steriliser? Apparently you don’t need to steralise anything used for breast milk!

The back of a nappy is bigger because it’s supposed to be folded over to creat an envelope effect to catch any nasty poos from leaking - I only found this out TODAY! 2 years of changing nappies & I’m only just finding this out now

You probably don’t need a moses basket - it got used a handful of times, hated it, bought a Nex2me cot, which made night time so much easier

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Mixed emotions from bath time last night - Poppy is really starting to enjoy it & Max, well... Max refused to sit down, made his angry noise all the way through, and did a huge wee in the bath water so we had to hose him down with the hand-held shower attachment! 1 victory out of 2 isn’t bad

Top tip: For those of you with babies that have big ol’ fat rolls that are hard to keep dry, ASDA’s liquid talc is miracle cream!

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Toddler haircutting tip

If you want your child to look like they haven’t been chased around by Edward Scissorhands use a high chair & a distraction that will survive being covered in hair!

I went with the good old faithful iPad with the CBeebies app Although you can’t see the rest of this picture, Max is wearing blue shorts & I’ve accidentally dressed him like an extra in a Where’s Wally book (also, please excuse the mucky face - he’s just seen off a chocolate chip brioche)

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Mealtimes

Now Max has turned 2 he has been a bit of a pain to feed - he runs to the cupboard & swipes a packet of crisps, giving them to the nearest chump in the hope they will open them for him!

I’ve had to rethink dinner times & start cooking with the mind of a toddler, while still keeping things healthy & not so bizarre that Ben won’t eat them either.

I started a new blog today to document my toddler meal journey in a bid to remind me from time to time what work & what doesn’t

Follow Max’s Meals here: https://toddler-meals.tumblr.com/