Ben's First Soft Play Experience

Well it was an experience! Ben seems to start crying his eyes out every time we go in somewhere new, or somewhere that he doesn't recognise. This happened when we went out for a meal with my mum and sisters, and again when we went to soft play with one of my sisters.

So I had to put up with a screaming toddler whilst I'm trying to pay. He tried to go back out of the door, so I had to pick him up! And he wouldn't go to my sister.

Once we were in and through the gate to the first section, which was a quiet area with a few toys, he spotted some plastic blocks on a table, that had a hole in the middle with mesh to catch the toys. And he started playing with these, he loved them!

We tried to take him into the actual soft play bit, and he started crying again. I even tried putting him down and getting him to follow me, but that didn't work, he just stood the other side of the gate, and cried for me.

He then started teething, so I gave him some Teetha, and a few crackers, and he cheered up a bit.

He didn't like the outside bit with the ride on toys either.

I eventually got him to be happy in the ball pit, this took 2 goes of him going in it. I also got in, or sat on the edge so he felt safer. He loves putting things away, so as well as sitting in it, he also went around picking up all the balls and putting them back, it was so cute. I could only get photos of him in the ball pit, as it was very busy at the time we were there.

When it came to going home, he started crying - at least in the end he didn't want to leave and was enjoying himself.

It actually made me think how important it would be for him to go to nursery. But that's a whole other story. Will have to discuss it with Steve, about maybe starting him later in the year.

Ben's 22 month Update

So I decided to take a break from doing updates on Ben, basically me listing his new words every month can get a bit boring! Ben is now 22 months, can't believe that he'll soon be 2!

Ben love's reading, he'll pick up a book and bring it over and stand in front of us for us to pick him up, sit him on our lap and read him the book, it's so cute! I'm planning on taking him to the library soon, as we have one within walking distance. I may wait till we're on holiday from work though so Steve can come as well. Going to get Ben his own card so we can log books out.

With regards to talking, Ben knows numerous words, and actually comes out with little statements now linking 2 or 3 words together. Like 'Cracker on floor' or 'drink on floor' or 'bye daddy' or 'daddy work', and other similar one's. A couple of times he's actually said sentences. One time he copied what I said, and another time he made one up himself saying 'Oh no, mamam (raisin) on the floor'.

We've recently dealt with a cold, which lasted for about a week! He hadn't been ill for months and months before that. And he's also getting his canine teeth coming in, once again top before bottom like with the rest.

We've had a bit of a sleep regression, which I put down to the teeth! He didn't nap for 5 days straight, although at night he has done pretty good, and sleeping through apart from once. Before this he would nap 5 days out of 7, normally for around an hour and a half, and sleep 10-12 hours at night.

His favourite toys right now are his Toot Toot vehicles, Scout, stacking cups, his kitchen bits and play food.. He doesn't really play with the kitchen, he'll turn the nobs around or pretend to cook if we tell him to. He'll pretend to eat his play food too, it's so cute. He caught on to that pretty quickly, although sometimes he does bite them, haha!

Our Sleep Training Experience

When it came to wanting to get Ben to sleep in his cot, we hit a bit of a hurdle. When he was a baby he never slept on his own, apart from during the day in his rocker, at night he would never settle in his little crib or he would wake up when I put him down after nursing. So I just got fed up of no sleep, or sleeping with him in my arms. So I would nurse him whilst laying on my side, and him laying directly on the bed, with my arm around him.

Once we'd reached a year of breast feeding and co-sleeping I wanted to stop both gradually. With the sleeping we would try to rock him to sleep, and then wait until he was in a deep sleep before placing him in his cot, but time and time again he would wake up, either as soon as we put him down or a little later, he would go no longer than 2 hours without waking, and he would then end up coming into our bed, as we could never get him to settle again.

In the end I researched sleep training - as we were getting rather frustrated and really wanted Ben to be able to settle himself to sleep, that way if he woke up at night he would be able to settle himself back to sleep without one of us having to go into him.

I just searched sleep training on google, and loads of sites came up.

In the end I chose the controlled crying method, after researching I decided that this method would be the best for us, and most likely to work. As Ben would cry when in his cot, but I didn't want to let him cry it out.

Controlled crying is when you do your bedtime routine, put your baby down in the cot, and leave. Return after 1 minutes, 2 minutes, 4 minutes, 8 minutes. Which is what I did on the first night. Second night I left him for  2 minutes, 4 minutes, 8 minutes, 16 minutes. The third night I started at 3 minutes. One the fifth night I started at 5 minutes, and would then go in after 10 minutes, 20 minutes. By this time he was crying less, getting used to the time alone. I then jumped up to 10 minutes on the sixth night before I went into see him, and kept doing it 5 minutes later the following nights. Until we go to the stage where we just stopped going in and waited for him to fall asleep by himself before going and checking on him.

It was amazing and how quickly he took to it, and didn't cry too much after the first few days. He then also started sleeping through the night as well. Which he hadn't done since the day he was born. So we got a full nights sleep, and also time in the evening together, just us two which we hadn't gotten as one of us was generally trying to settle Ben to sleep.

I didn't try it earlier because he would fall asleep nursing. If there is another baby in our future then I will try it earlier than around 13/14 months, if we are in the same situation.

Toddler Haul - Tu, H&M, Next, Matalan and Nutmeg

Sorry it's another clothing haul for Ben, but I always find it's nice to see what is currently in the shops, without actually walking around them all, haha!

These items are all from Tu by Sainsbury's, my mum actually purchased these when there was 25% off their clothing (something the do quite regularly). The tops came as a pack of three, and are in perfect Autumn colours, and go really well with the trousers (which are double lined).

These shirts I purchased from H&M. I always like to have a few shirts for Ben to wear so he can look smarter if we're going out some where nice.

These were all purchased from Matalan - I hadn't been in there for ages. I chose these because they're both purple, a different colour, I like that. And he has that purple cardigan that his Great Nan bought him whilst we were in France, and it would look great as an extra layer. We also needed some socks, I was finding that I kept washing one of a pair and would be left with only a couple of pairs to choose from, plus these are actually done in shoe sizes, rather than by age. And they're slightly bigger than the socks he's been wearing recently so should last him a while.

I love getting into the Christmas spirit, and Ben is gradually growing out of his 12-18 month sleepsuits. These pair of pyjamas are by Nutmeg (find them in Morrisons) and was part of their baby range as that goes up to 24 months. I think these were £6.

I was on a hunt for some 18-24 month trousers/jeans with adjustable waist and would look good turned up and had an inner lining. Next came to my rescue! I love the children's clothes in there, every time I go in I find something I like. These all cost around £12.

Lastly some more Christmas items, these were from Matalan. He'll be wearing the elf top on 1st December. The reindeer sleepsuit I'll be saving to go in his Christmas Eve box, but the other he'll be wearing from the beginning of December. The top was only £4 (and is printed front and back) and the sleepsuits were a pack of two for £8.

Sorry I can't remember all the prices, but nothing was overly expensive.

Ben's 19 Month Update

Once again another month has zoomed by! I just swear they go by quicker and quicker.

His talking is still improving, definitely what his little body is improving on right now! He actually puts words or phrases together now. He will was 'Dada no home', and 'Pea all gone'. He'll answer questions, like if I ask him what he wants for breakfast - Ready Brek or Weetabix, or for lunch. Which I think is pretty amazing considering his age.

He finally seems to have stopped putting things in his mouth, and hasn't eaten his crayons in a while. And will actually draw with them now, where as before he would just put them in his mouth mostly.

Food wise, I've given up with bread for the time being, and now give him snack type of lunches, with crackers, cheese, toddler crisps, fruit, mini sausages or sausage rolls. His favourite foods right now seem to be crackers, cheese, pasta, sweetcorn and yogurts.

We're gradually changing over to size 18-24 month clothing. I'm trying to get a last few wears out of his smaller 12-18 month items before putting them away. I had to give him a major haircut this month, but think it will soon be time for a trip to the Barbour with daddy for a proper haircut.

No major teething this month, had a few days with read cheeks but I've only had to give him Calpol once. And he also co-operates a lot more when we brush his teeth.

We have had some sleep issues this month, with the clocks changing. And then my mum babysat which didn't seem to go down to well, and Ben was still awake when I got home at nearly 10PM. But it seems to be getting better now. He was taking a while to fall asleep at his nap time, and the past 3 days I have put him in his sleeping bag for them and it has made the world of difference. He now falls asleep quicker (although still not straight away - he never has done) and sleeps for longer. So he's a lot happier.

One major thing is we seem to be hitting the terrible two's already. Ben's having little paddies multiple times a day now, over tiny little things, or if he doesn't get his own way. This was bound to happen sooner or later, thankfully we haven't had any big major one's although he did have a little feet stamp moment last night, which I found funny! Haha!

Sergent Major - A French Children's Shop

Whilst we were on holiday in France, we went to a big city called Cahors, Steve's mum kept going on about a really nice children's clothes shop called Sergent Major, that was there. Some how we didn't go in it when we visited last year?!

She was right, it was lovely! And actually had a similar amount of boy items to girl items. Does that annoy anyone else, you go to look a baby/toddler/children's clothes and there's always a much bigger selection for the girls, us people with sons are very limited! They sell up to age 14 years, and even some of the older boy items I thought were cute, haha!

We did get Ben a lovely outfit, which we didn't pay for Ben's Great Nan did. I will worn you it is a bit pricey!

I love this coat, I was looking at the stand of coats and said 'This is nice' and Ben's Great Nan was like, 'Do you want it for Ben?' This cost €45.99. I love the check lining and that the mittens are attached to the coat, so you hopefully won't lose them.

We also chose these dungarees, which were €27.99.

This little polo top vest we got to go with the dungarees, this cost €13.99.

To match the dungarees outfit we also chose this cardigan, this was €27.99.

Lastly, Ben's Nanny (Steve's mum) bought these socks to match as well, these were €4.99.

I love that they have a little theme running throughout the items, this is obviously dragons and knights and castles. One of the girls themes were hedgehogs. Hoping to go back again next year, and purchase Ben some bits ourselves.

Ben hasn't worn any of the clothes yet, as he is still a bit small for his age, and we purchased all of these in size 24 months (aka 18-24 months), but he's beginning to wear a few 18-24 month items now, so hopefully it won't be too much longer before he's wearing these.

Another Zara Baby Haul

Sorry I haven't posted in a couple of weeks, this post I forgot to publish oops! And Ben's schedule totally got hit by the clocks changing, as well as an evening when my mum baby sat and Ben ended up falling sleep at around 11pm and then woke up at around 6am. We're finally getting somewhere now though!

I swear all my clothes hauls for Ben are from Zara, haha! Here's a few things that I picked up for him recently in size 18-24 months. Although the hat is 2-3 years as he has a big head!

Leggings - £6.99
Long sleeved top - £4.99
Shirt - £9.99
Hat - £6.99

Ben's 18 month update

So Ben's now a year and a half old! Another month has gone by so fast! It's getting harder and harder to take photo's of him, as he just won't sit still!

Back when we were on holiday (seems so long ago now!) Ben was picking up 1/2/3 new words a day, this has slowed down a bit now, but I can't believe how many words he has, he can't say them all properly but tries so hard. I particularly like the way he says curtain.

That 4th molar cropped up during his 18th month and all his others are now pretty much fully through, even had a couple of teeth brushing times when he wasn't screaming. He would cry every time I tried to brush them, I have to lay him down and force it, which I really hate. But he needs to learn they need to be brushed and it doesn't really hurt to do so.

Ben now loves sitting on the sofa, he likes to play with his little pack of Frozen playing cards that we got for free with a weekly shop. I did take them on holiday with us and he played with them for hours.

He'll now help me take the dry washing of the clothes horse and put it in the basket as well.

He is such a confident walker now, all he wanted to do whilst we were in France was go for walks, so that improved his walking greatly.

He now tells use nearly every time that he has done a poo, and also touches his nappy when he tells us. As you can see he does have a potty, and some big boy pants, and also a book. I'm just explaining to him what a potty is for at the minute, and once he's more aware we'll start the potty training.

This bus has to be his favourite toy at the minute, and he's beginning to copy the letter/phonics and words said.

He's also turned into such a cuddly little toddler, and goes Mumma and Dadda when he cuddles us, which we love.

What's in my Changing Bag

This is what I carry around with me, since Ben became a toddler.

My bag is by Summer, I got mine from Amazon.

This is pretty self explanatory nappies, wipes, changing mat, nappy bags and hand sanitiser. I always make sure I use our own changing mat, over the top even if there's already one there. As only Ben has used ours and we wipe it down, just more sanitary.

I always carry Ben's red book around - you never know what could happen! And also some sachets of Teetha for emergency's. If Ben has been having a rough few days I also try to remember to pop some Calpol in the bag as well.

These are my things, purse, phone, keys, sunglasses, and the lip product that I'm wearing that day - if any.

Since Ben started walking I keep the reins in the changing bag. Sometime's I'll let him out to have a little walk around, and he doesn't really like holding my hand much any more.

As we seemed to have an unusually sunny Summer this year I just kept Ben's suncream, sunglasses and hat in the bag. Right now as it's finally cooled down these things aren't in there any more. But will be replaced by his Winter hat and mittens when it gets colder.

Whenever we go out I put in a fresh cup of water, and some snacks, a bib and a muslin cloth for wiping off crumbs (saves on those baby wipes, haha!)