The dreaded nursery flu!

So Oliver had been to nursery twice, totalling two hours in nursery and he caught the dreaded nursery flu! Apparently its normal for them to get a cold when first starting nursery lots of new germs and bugs and toys to put in their mouth (yum). This was Ol’s first ever cold, he is almost two and I am extremely proud of his immune system. He has never had a cold before this and only ever been sick once, he is not a sickly child at all. This cold hit him hard! Because he is not used to being ill he did not know how to cope or deal with this cold at all, he was very whiny and felt very sorry for himself. His nose constantly run and his temperature was up and down and his throat was really sore, all I could get him to eat was ice pops. The worst part was there was nothing i could do to help other than comfort and dose him up with cough medicine and Calpol (other brands are available haha). He then passed the nursery flu to his dad, who then contracted tonsillitis and was bed bound, who then passed it to me (thanks guys). I quickly realised why Oliver would only eat ice pops, the sore throat that come with his is horrendous!

Anyway two weeks later and lots of passing it around the house, we are finally on the other side of nursery flu and we sincerely hope that we don’t bring it home again!

Catching up!

So in the past few weeks I haven’t posted as we have been super busy starting nursery and college and getting into the swing of a routine! in these past couple of weeks we have had a lot happen so i have a lot to catch up and blog about.

Oliver has;
Had his first ever cold!
Moved into a toddler bed!
And done two full weeks at nursery 🙂

I have;
Dealt with my first ever baby cold!
Dealt with transitioning a toddler from cot bed to toddler bed!
And done two full weeks at college

And Nathan/Daddy has;
Dealt with his first ever baby cold and tonsillitis
Dealt with transitioning a toddler from cot bed to toddler bed
And been busy with work and had a super exciting interview

Baby Bore Alert!

Oliver had a photo shoot for a charity calendar a while back and we have just received the printed photos! at 18 months he raised £100 for charity! I thought id share some of the photos 🙂 I know i’m bias but my child is stunning!

Oliver’s Nursery Adventures #4

I was supposed to update this last Thursday when Oliver had his second visit to nursery, his solo stay and play. However things went ‘tits up’! Oliver had his stay and play and absolutely loved it, he had bonded so well with the teachers and other staff and he cried when we had to leave. I was feeling so good about the nursery and about how Oliver was handling starting nursery… BUT (to cut a long story short) my childcare funding wouldn’t stretch to pay for the session hours and I was told all this last minute. I have been so stressed!
1. Why did the nursery (after me enquiring many times) wait until a few days before Oliver was due to start to tell me that they wanted me to pay full sessions and my funding wouldn’t cover the costs
2. Why did college leave it until a few days before Oliver was due to start nursery to tell me that they wouldn’t pay session hours and they would only fund the exact times i was in college, no overlap? (I also enquired about this many times!)

SO… that left me 2 days to find a new nursery that had places, had flexible sessions/pay per hour and were obviously registered and reliable! Some how me and my other half found one. But this only leaves one session for him to meet everyone and explore and this nursery is totally different!! it is set up in a home environment and is really small, although this should be a good thing, he will get a more 1 to 1 care, it has kinda freaked me out that it is soooo different to the one i set my heart on!

Oliver goes for a play session at his new nursery on Thursday!

Why cant everything be straight forward?! I hate not being organised 😦

Oliver’s Nursery Adventure #3

Today was the day! Oliver has his stay and play this morning.

The teacher walked over to us to say hi, Oliver took her hand, went off to play and didn’t look back! He absolutely loved it, he was interacting with the children straight away, he was running about, showing off his dance moves, drawing on the ground with chalk, he sat and cleaned his own hands and face and had a snack. Every worry I had was well and truly put to rest. Today Oliver showed his daddy and I how ready he is to start his own adventure, we was totally in his element.

On Thursday I will have to leave him on his own for an hour to play, I now know that he is going to be fine and I am so revealed. Obviously we still have to see how he reacts when I leave, but I honestly think he will be so occupied that he wont even notice. The teachers were all singing his praises, saying how advanced and confident he is. He makes me so proud!

We go back on Thursday so there will be an update then 🙂 Here is a few pictures of before we went, he looks so grown up, I cant believe his is nearly 22 months old!

                                                                      

Oliver’s Nursery Adventure #2

Tomorrow Oliver has is first session at nursery. Its a stay and play! as part of the introducing the child into the nursery environment process, there are a couple of little sessions to begin with, the first is a stay and play with mummy and daddy (tomorrow) and the second is stay and play solo (Thursday). I’m personally a huge fan of the fact we have to opportunity to break him in a little, I am not just dumping him there on a Monday morning with him having no clue of where he is.

Tomorrow he gets to explore his surroundings with me and my other half there for a sense of security and he can also see that we are comfortable with the teachers and the children, he can see that we trust them and there is nothing to worry about. Also, we can see that he is comfortable with where he is, we can see him making connections with people and him feeling it out for himself.

I am so nervous!
I know I am going to be there with him, but I am already feeling very emotional. Tomorrow is the first step in letting him go a little bit and as much as I don’t want to, I am excited to watch him flourish!

Update tomorrow! eeek

Gellibaff Review

My mum bought this for my little one a while back and I had put it away and totally forgotten I had it, So I thought since I had started a blog that we should play and I could have my first attempt at a review!

Gellibaff – Gelli play

You are given to packets of powder. One is to turn your water into jelly and the other is to turn the jelly back into water (mostly). We used just a litre of water, as this was the first time we had used it and i didn’t want to stick my little one (aged 21 months) in to a bath full of jelly, for him to freak out at the texture. I decided to jelly proof my kitchen and put a litre of water into a washing up bowl. Then you are instructed to add a sprinkle of jelly powder into your water (warm) and mix with your hand, the more you add the thicker your jelly will be. At first I added around a teaspoon worth of powder but it was still quite watery, so I added more (another teaspoon sized amount). The longer your leave it, the more the jelly grows.

Then its time to play!

Personally i was not a huge fan of the texture, the only way i can describe it is; If a wet nappy rips… yeah well the inside of that! like a lumpy wall paper paste!

But my son absolutely loved the jelly. He had loads of fun picking it up and squishing it, pouring it from cup to cup… and then things got messy! Oliver decided that he much preferred the jelly on the floor so he could feel in on his toes! This did make my kitchen into an ice rink though, very slippy! This product didn’t have a smell to it and thankfully Oliver didn’t try to eat any!

Once we had played for about half an hour, Oliver’s attention was wearing thin. So it was time to try and clean up this jelly mess. I tipped it all back into the bowl (thank god I jelly proofed) and then added some of the second powder to turn the jelly back to water, it says to add double the amount as you did with the first powder. It doesn’t turn it all back to water (but it does state this on the packaging). I then tipped the remains down the sink, with any little remaining bits I ran the taps and just scooped them down the drain. Any bits of jelly that escaped onto the floor, I swept up and put in the bin.

Would I use this product again?
Yes definitely, my son loves playing with water, so this offers different sensory play and messy play! I will also be buying some of the ‘Slime bath’ that the company also offers so we can explore different textures.

What would i change about my experience?
Next time I will be using this product in the bath, now I am sure my little one enjoys the texture. I’m going to put it in the bath so we can make more jelly but keep it contained!

Did Oliver enjoy this product?
Oliver LOVED this product, he was amazed at the different texture

I found this product on amazon for around £4 for two boxes, a perfect, fun and different stocking filler!

Glad it isn’t just me.

So after my last post I found this and I nearly cried, but I’m glad im not the only one that has those feelings. Lovely Poems!

(Found on http://www.netmums.com/home/have-you-seen/a-poem-for-starting-school )

Oliver’s nursery adventure #1 (this is going to be a long one)

Oliver is nursery ready and has been for a while now, but because of our financial situation, we just couldn’t afford to send him (child care is expensive!). Oliver is an extremely intelligent and advanced child, he was climbing before he could crawl, he was crawling at 4/5months and walking at 10months, there is no stopping this child. He is really confident and social, he loves meeting new people and I know he will fit right in at nursery. Not only that but he is very independent and has never been a clingy baby, so I know that he won’t have a problem going off and doing his own thing.

That aside, here are a few of my pre-nursery thoughts and feelings..

Guilt- I have read a few posts and talked to a few people and they all say that this is completely normal. As his mum, I’m going to feel so guilty leaving him with new people and not taking care of him myself. I have a feeling that this will reside as he gets to know the staff and children and they become a normal part of his life. Another question that arises is, what if he cries when I leave him? How will I react? Will I feel fine, knowing that it won’t last and he is safe, or will I panic and feel bad?! Or infact what if the total opposite happens, and he doesn’t cry when I leave? Will I be happy and releved that he is happy and sure of where he is or will I feel as if he doesn’t care? Selfish I know! And most of all, what if he doesn’t like going to nursery? But he has to go in order for me to go to college, will I feel guilty dropping him off every morning?

Nervous- I’m such an anxious mum, not in the sense that I keep Oliver from doing things, but in the sense I check his windows are closed three times before he sleeps, I panic if he goes quiet for to long or I can’t see him when he is playing in the garden (ducking down, hiding behind the shed). So what if he has an accident at nursery and I’m not there? I’m going to feel awful that I wasn’t there to comfort him or prevent it!

Jealousy- Now this is my biggest pre-nursery fear! I cannot stand the thought of someone taking care of Oliver or seeing him more than me. What if he comes to prefer being with his teachers than me? Since he has been born, other than sleep overs with nanas, me and nathan have been the only ones to ever look after him so handing over a little part of that is going to take a lot of getting used to!

On a more positive note… I’m excited!

Im excited to see Oliver spread his wings, to do his own thing, to grow and learn new things! I can’t wait to see his already amazing character change and develop, to watch others make an impression on him, and for him to make friends and for him to share his cheekiness with them. I’m looking forward to the first time he brings me home a picture and to know that he is out there making things on his own and he is discovering himself outside of the family unit.

Let’s wait and see…

Getting Started

So i am very new to this and do not have a clue what i’m doing, but i shall just go for it.

I’m Kirstie and 21! i have my own little family, a fiance (Nathan) and a little boy (Oliver,aged 2). I love family life and my little boy is my biggest achievement! I am a fully qualified beauty therapist and currently i stay at home with Oliver, and Nathan has worked as a support worker for vulnerable young adults since leaving school. But recently our lives have been tipped on their heads and we are all heading in new directions and starting very different adventures!

I have decided that beauty therapy is just not for me. I have no love for the job and its not where i see myself in years to come, so i have decided to retrain and i will be starting college in September and studing ‘Early years education’ and be training to be what was formally known as a nursery nurse (now an early years educator/practitioner). I have spent my life surrounded by children, and having one of my own has pushed me to thinking that this is the right path for me and something i would be good at!

Nathan has changed paths completely and decided that support work isn’t for him and he needed new challenges, he is now training to be a track operative! He has fallen in love with the line of work!

And little Oliver will be starting a little adventure of his own! A nursery adventure. As i start college Oliver will start nursery, he will get to spread his wings and independently learn new things and meet new people and make lots of friends!

I’m aiming to use this blog to document and share my experiences as a first time mum, studying, watching her little one go and grow and develop at nursery, family life and trying out new activities with Oli to transfer into my college work

fingers crossed it will be worth reading!