Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Practical Parenting magazine - Toddler Diarist #1


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Sun, sun, sun, here we come! Now that Jordy’s a little older and wiser, Rob & I are hanging to get out into the great outdoors and broaden our horizons with him a bit. Beaches and swimming pools, community fairs, zoos and parks are all ripe for the picking. The Hooley Dooleys DVDs have received a right caning over the Winter months and I will be happy to pack them away…hmm, perhaps forever?

The Wednesday Wrap-Up

I must have done something right in a former life, because this time around I scored really well with my two guys. The little one is sweet and even-tempered, and breaks hearts with his high cuteness factor, while the big one is an absolute God-send. Thanks to Rob taking every Wednesday off work, my mummy week is broken up into two days on and one day off so that I can concentrate on my journalism. Plus, he gets a day off work to hang out with Jordy. Each Wednesday they head off on some father-and-son bonding adventure or other and get up to all kinds of mischief. One week it was testing out all the drums in a music store. Another week it was rides on three buses, two trains and a ferry boat. One memorable occasion found Rob trying to re-claim a Jordy floater at the local pool, which apparently proved quite difficult without his glasses on. They’re off on another one now: goodness knows what they’re up to. It’s a top set-up, and we feel blessed to be in a position to be able to do it.


The Dreaded Lurgy

It really has been the winter of our discontent, with two bouts of gastro and a houes redolent with the aroma of chunder and other bodily fluids. Needless to say, the candles and incense sticks have been on high rotation and Jordy's cot has been pulled apart, disinfected and re-assembled on more than one occasion. Thank you, Ikea. And after five months of an all day runny nose and an all night cough, we finally booked in an allergy test for Jordy and, hey presto, he has a gluten and dairy intolerance. So that has meant a couple of hundred bucks spent in te health food section of the supermarket. The good news is we can tell people he has an allergy and not a cold, as I was getting well tired of people glaring at his runny nose. Not to mention wiping it.



Love hurts
Actually, I shouldn’t complain. The beautiful thing about having a chatty toddler is that he can tell me exactly what’s wrong with him, and where it hurts. Naturally if there’s blood gushing out of an open wound it’s a no-brainer, but when the only clues are screams or a fever, a growing vocabulary sure helps. The other night Jordy woke up crying, and when I asked him what was wrong he bawled, “Sore head!” and pointed to his noggin, just in case Mummy was being a bit thick (which, at 2am, was quite likely). After a sip of strawberry Nurofen, a cuddle and a quick bedtime story he went back down like a lamb. Easy-peasy. Over the past 2.5 years I must have spent hours dreaming of this moment, when his wails would break my heart and sometimes have me wailing with him. At last, the moment has arrived! Making it all better just got a thousand times easier.

Purr-fect Pets

We recently found a massive young tom cat hanging about the place and Jordan took to him straight away. Sure, he had ear mites, fleas and odd behavioural quirks but my son’s love for ‘Tom-Tom’ knew no bounds. So we lugged him up to the vet and got him cleaned up. Now they are the best of friends and we’ve never seen Jordan happier. We’re unable to have any more children, and I have always felt guilty about not being able to give Jordy a playmate, but I hope Tom-Tom might make a nice replacement. Plus, no sibling rivalry!