The Life of a Lavery Toddler

Spot the hat. One clue: Not where it should be. Good evening everyone! I say that because obviously I am writing in the evening but of course please squeeze me into whenever suits your busy schedule. I wanted to share with you what happened the other evening.  On our walk home from nursery, Cian and I were victims of Backseat Parenting. A phrase I have coined to describe someone who offers up their opinion on your parenting without provocation. Basically, unwanted parenting advice. If I was submitting my expression to be entered into the dictionary, my definition would be: Backseat Parenting (verb) [Bak-seet-pair-uh n-ting] 'A person who offers unsolicited advice or criticism relating to your parenting.' Sounds professional right? I did work quite hard on that, so I'd appreciate some laughs. So, what happened? Well, Cian and I were walking along the road, quite happily, as we always do. I try to walk from the house to work/nursery ev...

Seeing as I pride myself in being pretty honest when it comes to parenting. I thought, what better than writing a post all about my  experiences of parenting. Because for me, being a mum has ended up being very different to what I had expected. Of course, I had expected to have an undeniable bond with my son. And I got that. I still just stare at him sometimes with so much love. Really, it could be seen to be bordering on obsession. But that's normal right? It's the part of parenting, that I did not anticipate, that I want to talk about. Just the parts that no one else tells you about. The on the job learning stuff. Of course, the good things do outweigh the bad.. most days. Unless you're going through the terrible twos.. You just need to stock pile the wine and chocolate in then. Sleep when the baby sleeps! So, the hardest part of parenting for me, has hands down been the lack of sleep. And if I am lucky enough to get sleep, I struggle with the number of interrup...

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...

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...