Tales of the unexpected with The Boy, my pride and joy.
Indulge me because I'm putting two in for today. We've been drawing faces to go with this meme, and The Boy needed a little guidance on how to draw a face so I drew one first. He then went back and overdrew on it. He added to my picture, look:
No, he hasn't gauged out the eyes; he's drawn glasses on because Daddy, Nana and Grandad all wear them.
I chose to start a family; we wanted a child. When The Boy was born I vowed to myself that I would do everything in my power to protect him and keep him safe, if not forever, then certainly until he grew up into a happy and healthy adult who could care for himself and his own family.
And there in lies the crux of the matter.
I am able to do this; I am able to ensure that he is healthy, well-fed, vaccinated against illnesses which could otherwise kill him. I've read two blog-posts this week about vaccinations, one of them (Reluctant Housedad) was centred around receptionists' attitudes, and the other (Thinly Spread) is focused on a child's right to not die from a preventable illness.
Last year, I ranted and raved to a friend of mine when she was considering not having her child immunised with the MMR vaccine. Quite frankly I cannot understand why anyone would not have their child immunised against these three diseases. This friend wasn't sure if she should or not, but was unable to provide a valid reason why she shouldn't. I think she was afraid of saying "because of autism" and quite rightly so. There has never been a proven link between the MMR vaccine and autism, and the doctor that suggested it (for his own gain) has since been struck off. In 2009 more than 100 people (mostly children) contracted the measles virus in mid and west Wales. How many of those children hadn't been vaccinated? How many need not have suffered?
We live in a country where we are fortunate to have free healthcare on tap, and where our children are vaccinated against the world's deadliest diseases as a matter of course. It is our responsibility, as parents, to ensure that our helpless offspring are protected and able to grow into healthy and happy adults.
What about children who live in a country where there is no free healthcare? Where there is no little red book dutifully listing weight, height, head circumference and immunisations? What about them? Don't they have the same right as The Boy?
On June 13th, one day after The Boy's 2nd birthday, there is a Vaccine and Immunisation Conference in London. We have a chance to persuade world leaders to save 4 million lives in 4 hours. Twitter has been in the news a huge amount this week, all based around silly little superinjunctions. But what if we were able to use twitter, Facebook and our blogs for a more important message: that all children deserve the chance to actually grow up! Linked to the Save The Children campaign is an online petition which takes about 30 seconds to complete, please do so.
Now I have been tagged by the lovely Christine from Thinly Spread in a meme, started by Maggy at Red Ted Art and Josie at Sleep Is For The Week. This meme gets my contribution most definitely. The very simple idea of it is:
If you give a child a chance to grow, what will they be?
Now Christine reckons that the challenge is simple. I would like to point out to her that her youngest child is a lot older than nearly two like The Boy. However, she tagged me and I can't refuse because it's Christine and she is a goddess.
1) Get your child to either draw or craft a self-portrait of themselves now or in the future. Check out Maggy’s self-portrait post for some tips to get the littlies interested!
Now, I do not hold up much hope with The Boy's contribution. I suspect if he understood the question then he would say i-time-Pod tester (yes he means the iPod) or landscape gardener (he loves playing outdoors). I could waffle on about what I want him to be but that's not the point. So I had to get him to draw a picture of what he wants to be when he's older. This has proved interesting (he may have had some assistance).
I helped him to draw the circle and pointed at the areas where to draw the eyes, mouth and hair; he did the rest. I've no idea what he wants to be when he grows up and neither does he. He doesn't even know what 'in a minute' means, let alone in 20 years. However, it does show that he will have a well dodgy haircut.
2) Sign the Save the Children petition and then pass it onto your friends
Did that earlier in the week when Christine blogged about how she has been chosen to follow 'The Cold Trail', a route that a vaccine takes once it has left the city and reaches its destination in a rural community.
3) Write a blog post about it as soon as possible, including info about Save the Children and the petition. We want as many people linked up AND signed up the petition by Sunday 29th May 2011.
You're reading it.
4) Tag 8 fellow blogger friends
See below.
5) Link up your posts up below to the blog-hop or to RedTedArt or Sleep is for the Weak
Done.
6) If you have time, visit each other posts and say hello!
So, I'm tagging:
The Blog Up North
The Real Housewife of Suffolk County
Mum2Four
You can add your link here by clicking on the Linky doo-dah at the bottom.
It's coming up to The Boy's birthday and today, with my little boy feeling poorly and needing a lot of cuddles, I've come over all reflective of when he was a tiddler.
Every Monday during term-time we go to Monkey Music. He adores it, loves the group leader and gets quite a lot out of it; which is just as well because neither of us are musical. I've got a piano in the dining room and yet it sits there unplayed, just waiting. It's waiting for The Boy to play it and it's very patient.
I bought the piano from the school that I work in six years ago; it was the old infants piano that was used when I went to that school. They were having a reoganisation of the pianos in the school, and that one was destined for either the tip or to be bought by the piano-tuner and reconditioned. Mwha ha ha, I got in there first! My old headteacher sold it to me £100 which I consider a real bargain. We spent the best part of a week sanding it down in the evenings, teachers are terrible creatures for leaving coffee-mug rings.
I didn't start this post with the intent of waffling on about my piano, bear with me; I've gone off on a tangent.
Oh yes, so when I was feeling nostalgic earlier about my little baby I found this video. It was taken around about this time last year and the change in The Boy since then is immense.
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Now pop over and check out the other Flashback Friday entries on Cafebebe's linky
I had been wondering if the day would ever come when he would sit and watch this, but I've tried him again and he's enthralled! Guess the film…
Oh God, what have I done?
I've done this about ten times before and normally it's fine, but this time I think I've really screwed up? I cried, I actually cried. One half was perfect. If I could have stopped halfway, then I would have done, but of course you can't just leave a job half done can you? You've got to finish it, especially when it's hair. Especially when it's your precious child's hair and you don't want him looking like a muppet.
Which is exactly what he now looks like.
Oh God, what have I done?
My gorgeous boy's beautiful locks have gone. Hence today's Silent Sunday. I've tried taking him to the hairdresser's and the first time she did it brilliantly, the second time was horrendous; he looked like he had a pudding-bowl cut. So I had to tidy it up anyway.
He sat on daddy's lap watching our dvd of Poppy Cat and was really focused, especially when I gave him the spray bottle to take apart. The right hand-side was literally perfect, the back was brilliant although I always struggle with the nape of the neck. Then the boys switched sides so I could do the other side and that is when it all went tits-up. They were sat at an angle so The Boy was leaning, I cut from above rather than below and basically it was too short. At this point, I cried. I may have stopped my foot. I certainly had to get a grip and even up the other side. When I'd finished it was even, and the actual cut itself is ok.
But it's too short and I don't like it.
Problem is you can't stick it back on can you? Does it really look awful?
Thank the God of Hairdressing Scissors that it is four weeks today until his birthday and our photoshoot to celebrate it. By then it might be halfway decent, halfway back towards looking like this:
Sorry, but I have a feeling that this blog is about to take a downwards spiral into the porcelain world of toilet humour. I'm not about to join Ade and Rik in the sphere of poo jokes and fluff gags, but we are venturing firmly into the world of potty training. It happens to us all so don't grimace! You had to do it once (unless you're 37 and still wearing nappies) and if you've got children then it has either happened or is going to happen to them too.
A few months ago I decided that it was time to get down the potty that has been stored in the attic for the past year. It's a Fisher Price Throne potty that my sister passed onto me, no don't worry it wasn't hers; her children used it. It does mean that it's seven years old but then it's moulded plastic so is going to be fine for the next 500 years really isn't it? This potty has a removable tray for easy cleaning and a 'red-eye' beam which triggers a cheer when something breaks it. Upon my sister's recommendations, it doesn't have batteries in at the moment otherwise he might follow his cousin and stick his hand in the potty (and urine or worse) to hear the cheer.
I explained once to The Boy that you sit on it to do a wee-wee and he had a little practise getting on and off it in the kitchen (fully-clothed). We then took him upstairs to bed and he had his first 'go' on it. He performed! We clapped and cheered him feeling immensely proud. Then we did the recommended thing of getting him to wave goodbye to it down the loo, flush, wash hands etc. At which point he went back on it and went again. In total he went five times! FIVE! On his first go! Wahay The Boy!
We've been taking it really slowly with him, knowing how important potty-training is and not wanting to get it wrong. For the time being we put him on the potty when we change his nappy and he always, always performs. Sometimes he's even attempted more than just a number one, thank God hubby dealt with that one! However I'm beginning to think that the time has come to progress onto it properly, but I'm hoping to put it off until the summer holidays for various reasons; he's my child and I don't want my mum doing this with him, I need a good week or two (or six) to devote to this important procedure, and it's easier in the summer because of drying clothes. On my part, it's also to deal with nappies on holidays than a recently trained toddler. Lazy, I know.
What makes me think that I'm being unfair in making him wait is this:
On Wednesday evening, he went upstairs to get ready for bed. He took his trousers and body off, pulled his nappy down, put it in the bin, sat on the potty, did a wee and then went and washed his hands. All by himself!
We stood open-mouthed! When did my baby get to be so grown-up?
The lovely Lauren at The Real HouseWife of Suffolk County recently pointed out that I post a fair amount about Learning Through Play. I've just done a search on my blog and she does appear to be right, there are 25 posts with that tag on my blog!
There's a reason for this; The Boy has reached the age where he is really beginning to discover his world and investigate how things work and interact. It's fascinating to watch, and with a small amount of careful guidance he can learn so much. My natural pedagogical instinct has kicked in slightly and I'm suddenly remembering all of my nursery nursing training which encourages learning through play. Also, I'm a big kid and like toys.
This weekend, I want you to share your tales about play: cooking, painting, gardening, craft, playing with toys, beach trips, soft-play, pillow-fights, card games, team games, role-play, playing with teddies. You name it, I'd like you to link it up. Simply use the html to add the badge below to that post (you don't need to repost) and then enter your url below and feel the blog love.
Go on, Show Off The Ones About Play!
