The Life of a Lavery Toddler

Are you even a new parent if you haven't received your fair share of "helpful" parenting advice? I challenge you to find a parent who hasn't received at least one piece of unsolicited advice. Over my short 3 year parenting journey, I've been blessed/cursed with a lot. Hell, I've  already crossed over, and started giving back out this unsolicited advice! But I like to think that the advice I give is only the best... The creme de la creme of parenting advice. Don't get me wrong, there is the rare occasion, where the advice you are given is actually useful. And anyone on the receiving end of my advice will know that well! Of course, helpful advice is great, you know the sort of advice that would change your life. Advice that you would happily pass on to another mum with no hesitation. For example, being told to use Metanium nappy cream for nappy rashes. That was mind blowing. Haven't tried it? Try it now. Cian had the worst nappy rash - his poor bu...

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...

Cian at 3.5 months old - July 2016. Exclusively  breast fed. If you're a mother, you will have probably heard this. It doesn't matter if you chose to breast feed or bottle feed. At one point in time I'm positive these ridiculous words were said - "You can't overfeed a breastfed baby". Midwives say it, healthcare professionals say it, mothers say it, god even the internet says it. But it's BULLSH*T. And I have proof. Don't get me wrong, I think breastfeeding is great in so many ways. It's cheaper, it means less cleaning (bottles), you don't have to move much during the night for feeds, and the health benefits for the child are fantastic! What is not so great, is not being able to tell how much your little peanut has drank at each feed. Was it a snack or a three-course meal? In reality, it is impossible to know! Like so much of parenthood, it's a complete guessing game. I feel it important to note, I also think there are so man...

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...

This is a story that many of my friends and family would have heard before. It happened before I had taken to blogging, but it is a story I have been told, is worth sharing. So firstly, I’ll set the scene. It was a lovely Sunday afternoon and the family and I had been out to the park, for lunch and to Ikea. Isn't Ikea just such a typical Sunday shop to visit? Cian's toys were starting to take over the whole flat so we needed a toy chest to hide the kiddie clutter. When we arrived home, Jack started embarking on the building work. I would have no idea where to start nor would I want to, thank god Jack thrives on building things. I thought the safest thing to do would be to get Cian away from the hammers and nails, so we went off to Aldi for our weekly food shop, just before dinner time. I love Aldi, I always have a delightful shopping experience there. It's big enough to have everything you need, but not too big that you could lose a child (I hope). So, Cian w...

After some thought of how to shape this blog and some very heartfelt advice from Jack in the words of "you're not going to write a blog every  night are you?" I have come to the conclusion that I will post twice weekly. I feel that way I should have enough material to make it interesting enough, but it won't be too much of a drain on my time, 'cause let's face it, I only have space in my life for one drain and his name is Cian. Of course he is as adorable as little drains come! So as I alluded to in an earlier blog, Cian has hit the 'Terrible Twos'. I used to ask myself, 'how will you know when your child has hit this most talked about period of toddlerhood?' But oh believe me, you know. So Cian has never really enjoyed listening to me, but recently it has become about 10 times worse. He's now so bad at listening that it has g enuinely  crossed my mind that he might be deaf. I mean not completely deaf, but maybe a little deaf? My mum wo...

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...