The Life of a Lavery Toddler

Cian, one week old As a woman with shoulder length hair I am quite low maintenance when it comes to any hair-related grooming. I probably get my hair cut every six months in a good year. I think my last haircut was April and it is just while I write this that I am considering booking an appointment. It's not even the price that is a deterrent for me. That's only because I found a salon which is quite reasonable, and doesn't charge you a week's salary for a trim. For me, it is just not at the top the priority list of things to do at the weekend. For men however, hair grooming is a whole different ball game. For the first six years of our relationship, I was never conscious of the frequency of Jack's haircuts. I think he must have been barbering in secret. Now I realise that it's not just Jack, it's all men. My male colleagues are just as bad and my Dad is probably the worst topping the charts with at least three visits a quarter. So now having a son...

Nappy change at 3 days old I am not even going to waste my energy attempting to make this blog post high brow. This post is all about poos. You can package them up any way you want. I guess some people might find other words less offensive? Maybe saying poo-poo sounds cuter? I don't know. But in reality, you can't polish a turd, so why try. For the record my poos will not be discussed here, just my son's poos. He's only 2, so that's more acceptable right? One thing that never really bothered me about having a baby, was the poo. Actually, from birth you are encouraged to monitor your child's poos quite closely. I would always be pretty pleased when he produced one. It was far better than the alternative. Constipation is not funny. I think it helps that for as long as I can remember, talking about bowel movements has been encouraged in my family. I honestly believe that's the way to do it. Get it out in the open. The discussion, not the poo. I do know...

We are now 4 weeks into potty training. Not that I'm counting or anything. And I personally feel we have come miles from when I last wrote about this. I'll get to how far Cian has come in a minute, but I feel personally I have developed a lot throughout this project. How Zaz? How have you developed as a person and a mother? Well reader, let me tell you. I have always been a pretty patient person when it comes to Cian. It takes a lot for me to lose my sh*t. But in those rare scenarios (I'm being kind, they happen more frequently than they should) the only effective method I have found that has truly kept me from throwing my child, or myself, out the window, is the 'tag-team approach'. I'm sure many of you use it, and not necessarily with a child, maybe a pet, or a drunk friend? This approach basically has you taking five minutes to calm down, and letting someone else deal with the child, dog, or drunk friend. In this scenario my someone else is Jack, and m...

So for once, this is actually going to be a relatively serious post. Yeah, I'm going to give one of those serious posts a bash. I started my blogging journey because I wanted to share the daily pleasures and struggles of parenthood, and this post definitely falls into that latter category. I wanted to share this story because I feel pretty strongly about this one subject. I don't tend to have much I feel genuinely passionate about. I'm not opinionated on climate change, or recycling, or team sports. Does that make me a bad person? I don't know. But recently I have become extremely passionate about one thing. Febrile seizures.  Hospital after Seizure No. 1 January 2018 So, what is a febrile seizure? Very good question Mr/Ms Reader. I have taken the definition from the NHS website just for you!  A febrile seizure is a fit that can happen when a child has a fever... They most often occur between the ages of 6 months and 3 years. They are relatively c...

If you know me, or have read my About Me page, you might know that my son's middle name is Thor. Some might think naming him Thor was quite a bold statement. You know, the God of Thunder and all that. But to be completely honest, the meaning had nothing to do with it, well for me anyway.  When Jack and I found out we were expecting, we were very excited but also very anxious (obviously). Neither of us had been pregnant before. I come from a small family so was never really around babies or pregnant women, and well Jack's a typical man so even though he had been around it, he was a little oblivious! So to clue myself up, I took to researching everything baby related on Google and sites like Babycenter. And I mean everything! When would I start showing? When would I feel movement. Had they grown ears yet? You know, all the useful stuff you need to know about your unborn child. If I hadn't been so into googling everything I would have missed out on some pretty cool infor...

Firstly, I'll set the scene. My son, Cian is now two-years old (3-years in March). And with a nudge from my parents, and the girls at Cian's nursery, I felt it was time to start potty training! My baby was going to throw away his nappies, and replace them with some big boy pants! It was quite exciting. So, anyone who knows me knows I rely on google heavily . So, naturally I started our potty training adventure on Google. The more I read, the more I felt Cian was ready to embark on this journey. Cian was ticking off all the "Is your child ready to potty train?" checklist questions which in my mind was a great first step.  So, as I like to think of myself   as quite a chilled out person (my husband,   Jack might think differently), I thought what would the harm be in taking a 'relaxed' approach to potty training. Phase 1 of my relaxed approach, was asking Cian on a random Tuesday evening if he wanted to use the potty. I know, a Tuesday? What was I thin...