The Life of a Lavery Toddler

And like that, the holidays are over. Does anyone else tend to find Christmas and New Year pretty anti-climactic? Is that even the word? That sort of looks like I'm talking about the climate? I'm not. I'm talking about how there is literally two full months of build up to Christmas. And then it's all over quicker than you can say "Cian, stop cuddling the Christmas Tree!"  I'm not making it up. We did have to say that more than once during the holidays. But maybe that was a slightly Grinchy start to a post-holiday post? But what else do you expect? I'm writing this on the eve of my return to work. But please, stick with me reader, it'll get better, I promise! I had a fantastic Christmas, honestly it has definitely made it into my top 3 Christmases. Not that I have a ranking system. But hypothetically if I did, it was up there. There are a few reasons for this, and of course I will tell you each one. I'll probably go off topic slightly dur...

Me and my Bro Mum enjoyed bright colours Since as early as I can remember, I knew I wanted to be a mother. I would go well and truly gaga for babies from a young young age. I actually remember regularly pleading with my mum to have another baby. Is it weird that I was broody at the age of 7? I mean, I just googled it there, and it would seem that it is weird? Who knew!  Anyway, my ideal childhood scenario would have been my mother having another child when I was about 7 years-old. Really, it would have only been smart from my mum's perspective. I would have been an absolute asset to the care-giving process. Raising a child would have been a breeze. If her back was sore, I could have pushed the pram. If she was busy with housework, I could have entertained the baby. Really, if she had only seen it from my perspective, it would have been an absolute no-brainer. Instead, my dear naive mother had other ideas. She, like many, opted to have her kids close together. What a foo...

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...

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...