There must have been a little magic dusted over me as I wrote last weeks blog. Finally admitting how tough, and embarrassing I was finding Aurora’s toilet issues. Other than me unloading all of my feelings on to here and telling myself to alter my reaction when the next accident happens, I didn’t get a chance to put any of it in to action because… there have been no more accidents. It feels as though a switch has flipped and I expect it has. I made the conscious decision to change my mindset, and the situation changed it for me. I feel like a new person, and it seems like Aurora does too. She suddenly seems 2 years older, so grown up.
The taking away of the baby bottle at bedtime is no longer an issue and on the occasion that she mentions it, we have a simple and easy conversation about how she no longer needs it and has her cup instead.
She has spoken in her baby voice a handful of times, and I have completely ignored it and continued talking to her as usual, and she has usually stopped doing it after a few sentences.
The biggest challenge was that I stopped her from watching Cocomelon, Little Angel and Bebe Finn. She had become a little obsessed with them and it had occurred to me that all three (they are basically the same programme) had a baby as the main character, who couldn’t talk properly and in some episodes was being potty trained, but otherwise wore a nappy. She was pretty unhappy at first with this being restricted, but after a few days she wasn’t even asking for it anymore, so hopefully that will help as well.
We have also been giving her a coin at the end of each day, if she can get all the way to bedtime with no accidents (we had tried a few things before, and they didn’t work) but she is so excited to put a new coin in her moneybox that she painted and decorated. The bonus being, she has absolutely no concept of money, so we showed her a selection of coins and she is keen to have the biggest. There have been a few coins left over from our travels, a couple of 10p’s and now she seems to be favouring the 2p’s based on their size alone.
Bedtimes in general have been getting better and better, and Luna has even had a couple of nights this week where she has slept from 7.30 – 5.30am! Absolute win! Aurora is getting better too, and once she has messed around a little with sending me out, and calling me back a few (hundred) times, she settles down, asks me to lie with her, and then whispers, ‘Mummy, I want you to go, so I can go to sleep by myself’. That is absolutely fine with me, no offense taken!! She told me the other night that she wanted me to go so that she could ‘make a dream’. It was going to be about a rabbit and a hare apparently. The pure innocence of that. Gorgeous.
As it was Bank Holiday this week, Luke’s restaurant was open on Monday, so he had to work all day. I therefore couldn’t work, as we had no one else to have the girls. They didn’t get their usual day with him, and I missed out on one of our three precious evenings we usually get each week. That dinner time we had our music playing as usual, and I started dancing around the kitchen with Aurora. It made me really want to go to a festival, or party, or event of some kind where we could get dressed up and dance to some good music. So, I suggested to her that we have a disco one evening. The following day, our one family day together, we invited Daddy to our disco that night. We were out in the day and didn’t’ get home until 5pm – dinner time. I could have easily shunned the plan entirely, opting for a quick dinner and then on to the bath and bed routine. But I didn’t. Despite it being late, as Luke headed straight for the kitchen to get their dinner started, I took both the girls upstairs and we all put on our party dresses (Aurora OBVIOUSLY chose her witches outfit, a firm favourite!) We came back downstairs; Aurora had a pair of my heels on too to match mine. We blew up some balloons, had the ‘Kid’s party playlist’ booming, dug out the colourful plastic cups and paper straws – Top Tip, it's a good way to hide the fact that you’re actually drinking a gin and tonic...!
The girls loved the balloons, it was so much fun, and made what is usually a tricky time of day so much more fun and enjoyable. It probably got them a little hyped up just before bed, but I honestly think it was worth it. It’s something that I am going to remember for a long time, and also, I will definitely be doing it again! Aurora kept shouting ‘Happy New Year’ which was cute and funny.
The balloons have been such a hit today as well and Aurora and I spent a good 15 minutes playing while Luna napped, trying to keep all 10 balloons off the floor repeatedly. I was absolutely shattered by the end!
I saw something on Instagram at the weekend about tackling the issue of toddlers repeatedly getting down from the table during mealtimes, and this lady had introduced a ‘Dinner Time Candle’. So, on Sunday evening, I explained it to Aurora, and it has worked so well. Obviously, Luna is unable to get down from the table during meals as she is strapped to her chair, but Aurora stayed put. She therefore ate more of her dinner because she stayed seated. It also helped with me being able to stay sat down and actually consume some of my dinner while it was HOT, instead of adhering to 816 different demands like I usually do. We all ate our entire meal, then I stand to get the girls their yogurts, and even then, Aurora got out of her chair to come to the fridge, giggled and then ran back saying, ‘Oops, I got out of my chair.’ She is a changed child.
At the end of dinner, when everyone has finished eating, we all blow the candle out together (Luna watches with a smile on her face, not really sure what we’re doing!) Now instead of either getting down from the table or saying that she is finished, Aurora asks excitedly if it is time to blow the candle out yet. I see a sweet new tradition being born.
We have all been enjoying our after-dinner walks, and really looking forward to them throughout the day. A couple of days had been wet, which in turn meant lots of puddles. This would have been fine if Luke had been there as well, and we could have had one child each. But on my own, with two children running in different directions to get to different puddles, along a main road, was a little stressful. Luna also doesn’t have a splash suit or wellies so was soaked through, especially because she fell over and sat in one particular puddle. On this specific walk Aurora was not listening as well as she usually does and I was feeling panicked that she would run off or on to the road, so that was when I decided that we would no longer walk along those main roads on the nights it was just me. The wet weather definitely made it worse, as if there were no puddles, there would have been less distraction etc, but still, it’s also just less attractive than other routes. So, from that night onwards, I’ve directed us straight to the big park and playing fields a few roads behind our house, and then the girls have free rein of the field. That has worked a lot better.
This evening Aurora chose to go a different way when we got to the bottom of the park. It’s a slightly longer way home, and again it is largely along some busier roads, and both girls started flagging pretty quickly. Aurora was pretending to have stand up naps on any garden wall she walked past. She also slowed down to an actual snail’s pace, which was difficult to motivate her out of. Luna was tired so either wanted to be carried, or screamed to be put down, to then either try and repeatedly walk in to the road, or peoples gardens, or pick up every single little thing she passed on the floor, and all I could think was that we were still pretty far from home and it was already bath time and why the hell did I let Aurora pick to go left when we should have gone right?!
But we eventually got to a little grass clearing with some beautiful tall trees. It is essentially a roundabout in a little close, but it’s cute and I think that will be our destination for our next walk – a lot less hassle! Luna was starting to lose her mind because she wanted to get down and Aurora was dragging her heels, so we crossed the road, got to this grass, I put Luna down and stopped worrying too much about how fast Aurora was then walking as I knew we were 5 minutes from home, and off the path/road. Luna immediately wanted to be carried and then was completely content for the rest of the walk, Aurora walked slowly, but it didn’t matter as much then, I was able to enjoy it again without being attacked or led astray by a 1-year-old.
It clearly tired both the girls out sufficiently though, so we had a quick and easy bath, read our two stories without any drama, and then put Luna in her cot with her bottle, and went back in with Aurora, who settled pretty quickly – after gathering a few apparently essential teddies to join her. Luna drifted off on her own with absolutely no fuss at all, so keeping my fingers crossed that this could be a sign of things to come. Aurora was asleep by about 7.45, so all in all that is an incredible achievement.
I really do feel as though things are starting to settle again, and almost everything that had been worrying or stressing me out a few months ago, has worked itself out. Either down to me making changes or taking actions to do so, or simply nature figuring it out for me. I’m sure it is because the summer holidays are coming to an end, and by this time next week Aurora will be back at Pre School, so it’ll all be shaken up again.
We shall see, but for now I am going to enjoy this last week we have together and keep my fingers crossed that we can continue to have more of these good days.
#motherhood #mum #mom #mummy #motherofdaughters #family #raisingchildren #children #daughters #kids #babies #baby #child #kid #drama #dramatic #hints #tips #recommendation #familytime #friends #soulfood #positive #positivemind #postivementalattitude #positiveattitude #thinkpositively #goodvibes #talking #talkthingsthrough #blog #mummyblog #motherhoodblog
Comments