Very traumatic start to the morning. Akra Jr opened his under-bed drawer all the way completely blocking the door so we were unable to get in. He was screaming to be let out, we were alternately trying to calm him down enough to get him to close the drawer and trying to break the door/drawer down to get to him without him getting hurt.

We eventually managed to get him to understand what we needed him to do and he closed the drawer, got a huge tearful hug, then shunned us for ages thinking that we’d done it deliberately to him!

We’ve moved the bed back a bit, and now have to figure out how we stop toys being chucked down the gap between the head of the bed and the wall.

Stupid what you think about in a crisis – all I could think of was how crap it was that something else was getting destroyed in the house (we pulled down loads of plaster last night trying to put up a TV bracket on the wall – so much for our home improvements) rather than being worried that Akra Jr was stuck in his room. How pathetic is that?

I have some positive things about Akra Jr to relate today though: he said the longest sentence ever – “Lofty dropped water tank down the hill” – pretty impressive for a 26 month old, huh?! Oh, he was relating a Bob the Builder episode that had left an impression on him, for those who are reading this with a blank look at the moment. And people say TV is bad for kids… *grin*.

Also, a few days ago he sat down to dinner and pointed to something unrecognisable on the plate “Mummy, what’s that?” I told him and much to my surprise he immediately picked it up and tried a little bit of it, rather than pick up anything else on the plate that he already knew he liked. A very proud mummy moment that.

A recent Colourfool entry has got me thinking too. I so loved her comments about her toddler being “very, very two” as I could completely relate to that feeling. More importantly though, it reminded me to get back to basics as far as parenting skills go, and dig out some of the books out of the boxes.

As she says, it’s not about parenting from the book but reminding yourself of your focus, and taking the useful bits out and applying them. With all the upheaval recently, I’ve been so focussed on my own stress, that really I haven’t been paying as much attention as I ought on how it’s affecting my son, and I’m sure that’s partly why he’s been playing up so much recently (the other part being “very, very two” of course).

So I’m going to make a commitment to reread some of the toddler sections of my books. I’ve also started this morning to be more aware of how I play with him again – trying to stop my incessant question asking (when I already know the answers after all: “what’s the colour of this?”, “where’s your mini?”, “would you like to do x?”, etc) and focussing more on child-directed play. For those that don’t seem to have swallowed as many parenting manuals as me, that’s where you comment on what they are doing occasionally, showing that you’re paying them attention, but let them decide what to do and only getting involved when they ask you to be involved. I managed about half an hour, and it was noticeable how much better behaved and less whiny he was this morning, so hopefully I’m on the right track.

I’m not doing so well today.

Everything seems to be taking Herculean effort… getting out of bed, entertaining Akra Jr, cooking, watching telly, writing this blog… I think I did a pretty good job of forcing myself through the day (at least, I think Akra Jr enjoyed himself – I made very sure that my bleak mood wasn’t on display and rubbing off on him), but now he’s in bed I’m just exhausted. I don’t want to watch telly, my mind has gone blank as to what to write (I had big plans for either a discussion on the 5 pushchairs I’ve owned, terrible parenting as portrayed on a television documentary last night, or the long-awaited mooncup review but I just can’t summon the right level of cheerful banter that would do the thought meanders justice), and even net surfing isn’t looking that appealing.

Akra went out to a pub quiz with a mate last night which I think really rubbed in how miserable and lonely I’m feeling at the moment. I wasn’t even invited – I know I couldn’t have gone because someone had to stay and look after Akra Jr, but it would have been nice to have been invited anyway. It’s not even as if I could go out another night while Akra babysits as I don’t know anyone here to go out with – that kind of makes a social life of any kind slightly more complicated.

If the weather would just pick up a bit so we could go out wandering a bit more it would help. Maybe. But not too hot so it would be too uncomfortable to go out either please.

Fussy, aren’t I?

… has sort of ground to a halt at the moment. Mainly because the desktops are still in their boxes as is the card reader for the digital camera. July is rapidly ticking away and I still have the vast majority of the project to complete.

I was enjoying it too :o(

Will have to just take lots of pictures and hope they come out well enough I can just put them all up sight unseen at the end of the month.

Can someone order a rain-free sunset please?!

Akra Jr and I have signed up for several activities now: Tumble Tots, nursery school for two afternoons a week, put our name on the waiting list for swimming lessons, found some local parent & toddler groups. There’s only one problem – they all start in September (i.e. don’t run outside term time).

Just what are you supposed to do with a toddler who loves social activities during the summer holidays in a new area where you don’t know anyone?! I’m going to go insane if we’re at home every day until September – either that or my spending at Tescos is going to increase even more as I end up popping down there daily just to get some adult interaction.

There are lots of summer activities available, of course, but they all appear to be aimed at children aged 5+. Obviously, pre-schoolers are self-entertaining and don’t need social contact at all (that sentence contained sarcasm, in case you missed it).

I’m trying to wrack my brain to remember what I did with Akra Jr last summer, but I have a nasty feeling it involved lots of playing with local friends’ kids which isn’t really an option this year – a seven hour round trip to Croydon for an afternoon play date seems a bit extreme somehow.

There that got your attention.

Yes. It’s late (ish … for me anyway) and I’m slightly merry. Okay, am pished. Have suddenly realised I haven’t blogged for the day. Oopsie.

Major DIY day today, lots of shelves putting up and stuff. Well, Akra has done the work, I’ve mainly cooked a roast chicken dinner then watched. Um… watched the shelves going up occasionally… mostly watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer DVDs.

I’ll let you guess which episode I watched tonight by the title.

*breaks into a song and dance routine*

hic.

One thing I’d like to make clear from the start – I don’t actually mind cleaning and tidying as a rule. I like making our home nice to live in and thanks to Flylady it doesn’t actually take me that long to maintain (before that I had a big motivation problem and I would just live with the mess and hate it and myself for not doing anything about it).

It’s just, at the moment, it feels like all I do all day is tidy and do chores. Akra Jr seems to be on a major destruct mission at the moment and it’s really getting me down. It’s not just toys all over the floor – I can deal with that (have done for 2 years already, after all) – they get tidied up at the beginning and end of every day. No fuss no muss. No, he’s actually destroying things.

Recent demolition activities include (not an exclusive list by a long shot): ripping a cable off the wall, ripping up favourite books, standing on his toy cars and breaking them, reaching into his nappy and wiping poo on the furniture before I’d realised he’d filled it (okay, that was a one off so I’m prepared to cut him some clack on that one), chewed up a jigsaw piece and ripped up the box it came in, climbing up to the nappy change drawer and pulling out every single baby wipe out of the box and piling them all onto the bed.

I know this sort of behaviour comes with the toddler package, but I’m beginning to find it really upsetting. I enjoy getting nice things for him and ensuring he grows up in a nice environment. It’s not like he gets extra attention for doing it – after all, I’m not then able to play with him while I go into repair mode yet again, and I end up feeling very cross and resentful. Yesterday, I was almost in tears – particularly about the books as we both love reading together.

And it never used to be this excessive.

It’s okay. You can all relax now. We have CBeebies back.

We’ve been without all the BBC channels since we’ve moved in – not so much an issue I thought, until I tried to entertain my toddler this week. TV (in this household at least) is vital for the half hour meal preparation times to avoid “toddler-clinging-to-knees-while-Mummy-carrying-hot-things-around-kitchen” syndrome. However, as Nick Jr was unaffected I thought we’d be safe.

I was so, so wrong.

Due to bad planning on the part of the Nick Jr programmers, or bad mealtime planning on my part, the shows he watched pre-lunch are the same shows repeated pre-dinner. Even the same damn episode. Plus Akra Jr started asking for shows that only appeared on that Other Channel.

Argh.

Anyway, the Sky engineer arrived today. Apparently it’s something to do with the Beeb recently changing their broadcasting frequency (although, I kind of phased out during the techy explanations so I could have got that a bit skewy) meaning that some customers have had to realign their dishes.

Cost us 40 quid for that call out (still, I suppose we were lucky it was part of a moving house package, or the call out would have been ?65 apparently). I’m sure Sky was in league with the Beeb to rake in a bit of extra cash.

Still, Akra Jr has been thrilled with getting Balamory and The Shiny Show back and Mummy gets to return to sanity (well, an approximation at least) so it was all worth it.

There’s a huge disadvantage with living 5 minutes walk away from a Tesco’s Superstore – it’s a bloody expensive corner shop.

I know what you’re thinking – it should be cheaper, but it never really works out that way. The problem is, I just end up popping down there on a whim and end up buying loads. We need a pint of milk, or I fancy some chocolate, so off I trot. What should have been a one item purchase morphs into a full basket worth of “essentials” that I just happen to remember as I wander aimlessly around around the aisles.

I’ve visited about 4 times this week, and haven’t come out with less than 20 quids worth of shopping yet…

Today, Akra Jr stood up suddenly in the middle of the lounge and said:

Akra Jr: Go home now!
Me: We are home.
Akra Jr: NO! Go home now!
Me: But this *is* our home now, sweetheart.
Akra Jr: No, this is new *HOUSE*!

Poor love, but out of the mouths of babes and all that…

Am in a better mood with him today – he said “I luv yoo, mummy!” for the first time ever this evening – *melt*.

And a big welcome back goes to The Weblog Review. Nice to see you online again.