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May 21, 2013

Bedtime skirmishes

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Prince of bedtime - Wendy GratzOn the bedtime front, things are looking up a bit with Little O and now probably half of the nights, he drops off to sleep within 15-20 minutes of being put down. Definitely, a case of a few skirmishes here and there at bedtime, rather than the full-on bedtime battles we had been having.

We adjusted his routine so that, in addition to reading him books with him for the last half an hour before bed, we then take him to sit on the potty (which is a whole other story…) and brush his teeth and then one of us lies down in bed with him and reads him up to three bedtime stories (depending on how tired he seems) before leaving him to settle down to sleep. And, as I said, at least half of the time, he is asleep soon after.

So, bedtime seems to be working much better, apart from the fact that I start to drop off during the stories!

• • • •

photo credit: Wendi Gratz via photopin cc
  
 
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May 20, 2013

Campadre goodies

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Campadre goodies

A few goodies available for the next day or so on Campadre. The website also has a sale of Pax and Speedo shoes for children and Boob Design clothes for pregnant women.
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May 19, 2013

Smart casual Sunday

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Smart casual Sunday

Phase Eight dolman sleeve top
$69 - houseoffraser.co.uk

Jeans
$60 - lindex.com

Steve Madden high heels
$105 - gravitypope.com

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May 12, 2013

Hello sunshine

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Hello sunshine

H M jersey t shirt
$7.68 - hm.com

H m
$9.21 - hm.com

H m
hm.com

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May 8, 2013

The Small Mice of Homesville – a review

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Small Mice of Homesville

Photo from Amazon.com

Over the past few evenings, Little O and I have been reading a book on the Kindle app called The Small Mice of Homesville by Linda May Kallestein and Elias Kallestein, who have set up Kallestein Publishing together.

This book – the third that they have published – is beautifully illustrated by Elias Kallestein with charming drawings of the mice and I loved the red thread illustration that runs along the bottom of every page, finishing in a ball of wool at the end of the book. Little O and I had fun tracing the pattern of it across the pages.

We split reading of the book over three evenings before bedtime because of Little O’s age; however, I think that if he was a year or so older, we could have read the story in one sitting (or maybe it is just his inability to sit still!). It is broken up into a number of short chapters, which does make it easier to stop reading at different points if you do need to read it bit by bit, as we did.

The story gives you many things to talk about, primarily taking care of younger siblings, so in that way, it suits us perfectly. I am looking forward to us reading it through again and seeing what Little O remembers from the first time. At almost three (this weekend, can you believe it?), I think Little O is at the young end of the scale to enjoy this book, and I think it is something that children would like for some years on because it could also be a book that children read themselves.

The book costs $6.24 on Amazon.com, which works out at around Skr 41, less than €5 or some £4. (I am not sure of the retail price on Amazon.co.uk as it does not allowed me to see the UK price of Kindle books.) Their first two books – Baby Animals and Animal Kingdom Alphabet – are also on Amazon and cost the same price.

Disclosure: I was given a free copy of this book by the author for review purposes. However, the review above is written solely by me, in my own words.

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May 7, 2013

Bedtime battle

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We are having a bit of a bedtime battle with Little O these days.

While I and then Husband were on parental leave, he was used to waking at around 7am, having a leisurely breakfast and then going to preschool for a 9am start. Now that both of us are back at work, however, Little O has to be at preschool at 7.30am – on the plus side, I can pick him up earlier and we have the long spring afternoons for play.

Over the past couple of months, we have had some problems getting him to stay in bed and go to sleep before about 8.30pm. This wasn’t ever night though, so we thought that it might correlate with how much he was sleeping during the day at preschool.

So we asked them to restrict his nap to 40 minutes and crossed our fingers that this would help. And at first it did, but then we realised that some days he would nap for half an hour or so and the next he would not nap at all, and we were again seeing him appear in the living room when he should be tucked up in bed asleep. (Another problem is just how cute he looks when he runs in to chat with us after bedtime – it is hard not to be amused – bad, I know.)

We decided that, at that point, there was not so much to be done as Little O would soon be switching from a 9am to a 7.30am start at preschool, and we thought that would solve the problem after a few days.

We’re now a week in to him starting earlier and the bedtime situation is only getting worse. We’ve had evenings when he makes every excuse possible not to sleep, nights when he has got up 12-15 times, and it culminated last night with me taking him in to our bed with me at 9.40pm when he still was not asleep. And the worst is that he was so very, very tired, but so very, very determined to stay awake.

What have you done in these situations? Do you think this just needs a few more days to resolve itself? Or a should we be looking for new strategies?

It really is something when a nearly three year old is awake later than his mamma…

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May 4, 2013

Settling in

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20130504-084820.jpg

After Baby E completed the three-day inskolning process at preschool, he had a week and a half of shorter hours to ease him in. However, it didn’t really turn out like that. Monday went fine – he spent the day at preschool from 9am to 2.30pm. Tuesday he woke with a fever, so we kept him home, and it continued on Wednesday and that night. On Thursday he woke without a fever but still not quite happy, so we kept him home again. He went back on Friday and had a great day.

This week, he was in on Monday and all was well. Tuesday was a half day of work for Husband and I ahead of Wednesday’s public holiday (1 May). I got home, got changed and got the call. Yep, fever again, please could I come and collect him early. The next day, Husband had the day off but I had to work, so he was home with the boys and all was fine. On Thursday both boys started early at preschool – the new schedule to fit in with our working hours: dropped off early, collected early. Little O was in his element as this meant being outside for an extra hour and a half. Baby E was not quite so sure – he really does not like to get his hands dirty and a few grains of sand leads to screams of terror and disgust – and he started to be upset when he saw other children being dropped off by parents. The staff were not worried though and he had a great day overall.

Yesterday it was the same apparently, with Baby E becoming upset when he saw other parents leaving their children. But again it was a great day overall. And we knew that he would find it a little harder than Little O ever did – he’s a more sensitive soul than his brother and he has had a much more disjointed settling-in period.

But once he has settled in fully, I might have to come to collect the boys 15 minutes after I have been doing. It took me 25 minutes yesterday to get Little O to stop making sand pancakes and it was only with the help of one of the staff that he would relinquish control of the spade and agree to come home…

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Apr 29, 2013

Brothers in arms

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An English Mamma in Stockholm: brothers siblings playing in a boxThe boys have reached amazing ages: Little O is chatting, chatting, chatting all the time and asking questions about everything; and Baby E is now walking and has started at preschool and loves being around the other children.

And they are getting to be good playmates. Of course, there are still fights and arguments and pushing and pulling of hair, but that won’t really go away, I think. What there is also now is hugging and kissing and holding hands and actually the start of them playing together. It is wonderful to watch.

I’ve written before about my concerns about how the boys would get on together, but now we’re at a stage when I can really only see the advantages of having two children. I think that I worried more because I am an only child; I have no real experience of what it is like to have a brother or sister (much as I used to tell people that the dog was my brother, I don’t think he really performed as a little brother should…). Husband is an older brother and he and his younger brother are close, which did give me confidence, but their stories of fights throughout their childhood did give me some cause for concern, I have to say.

I know that this phase with Little O and Baby E won’t last forever, so I am determined to enjoy it while I can.

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