Top tips on how to potty train

Hey readers

I am always thankful to find peoples blog-type experience posts really helpful when I am at a lost.

 Therefore I thought I would provide some tips to help with potty training that has helped me.

I knew pre-training the thought of potty training scared me to death; all the scare stories seemed to really make me anxious at the prospect.

I had heard of experiences that had been bad with training their young ones but I think that was down more to the pressure to use the potty. 

Personally, that was not my style but below I have listed what I did to train my child to use the potty. I know this is boasting but it only took me a week when the time was right to do it. 

However, with my second child, it took a couple of months. But you have to play it by ear as each child is different and some take longer than others but that is ok.

 I have listed my top tips below.

Firstly listen to your child and watch out for the signs that they are ready, for example, if your child is holding their genitals or asking about the toilet etc. These are good indicates that your child wants to explore using the toilet.

Let them see you use the toilet; this helps them be aware of what the toilet is and what happens when you use the toilet.

I got a child friendly 'potty book' personally I love pirate Pete one but that is my personal opinion and it is not an ad either.

 With the book, I liked it because the child can interact with the sounds, colourful and simple to understand for my boy to see the process of using the potty.  

Also, it is best to get a gendered one because girls and boys have different anatomy and use the toilet differently.

Be relaxed don't put pressure on yourself or your child, they pick up on the tension and it could potentially cause a delay or regression in the training process.

I started with simply having a potty in the room so that my son could explore it and get to practice sitting on it.

Then after a while when my son got confident with sitting on the potty I give him periods where he would have nappy free time to try out using the potty. 

Now bear in my mind that accidents do happen with wees and poo on the floor but over time with encouragement, they will get used to finding and using the potty. Though, as a parent, you can watch out for signs for your child needing the toilet when they appear to be squatting or holding themselves crossed-legged calmly place them on to the potty.

Praise them for sitting on the potty and don't criticise them when they do little accidents on the floor. Just keep praising the positive behaviour and slowly they will move forward.

Have a reward chart with star stickers- kids’ love getting involved and this really helped reinforce positive behaviour.

Using pull up nappies is essential to help introduce them to the idea of pulling up their nappies/underwear.

Remember every child is different so take your time and though my son took a week to potty train we had months where we would constantly go back and forth due to illness.

Hope this helps and the prospect is not too daunting for you.

What tips have helped you when potty training your child? Love to hear your thoughts in the comment section down below.

Cheers for reading X

My Sunday Photo 16/08/2020

15 fun things you can do with chalk.

Hey readers,

It is the summer and weather is drier during this period so a cheap and fun way to entertain children is giving them some chalk to use on pavements. 

I have come up with 15 ways you can get creative with chalk down below. 

1. Draw around your body with chalk.

2. Play naughts and crosses. 

3. Draw hopscotch and then jump along with it.

4. Draw a wibbly-wobbly line and walk along with it the best you can. 

5. Using chalks and making mosaics is a fun way to be creative.

6. Can always sort out a maths problem out.

7. A great way to teach children the alphabet is by writing it out on the pavement.

8. Draw a picture of yourself.

9. Something a bit different is use chalk and make firewalks art with it. 

10. Have a game of hangman.

11. Draw around objects such as bowls and plates to make art with it. 

12. Do a piece of art using chalks and one shape, e.g circles and everything that is drawn have to be a circle. 

13. Create a scene such as on the beach, the weather or spider anything that inspires you can create with some chalk. 

14. Make a map of a city - different type of size buildings and roads. What really can be effective is to use toy cars or figurines to make the picture come alive through play.

15. If you are near pavement slabs you can brighten them up with different colours to create fun designs on the pavcing stone. 

Do you like chalks? Have you any ideas on how to incorporate chalks for fun with kids that I have not mentioned above? Love to hear your thoughts in the comment section down below.

Cheers for reading X 

Observations of what happens in a heatwave

Hey readers,

 Have you noticed that it is a tat on the hot side, yep, me too and I am terribly British in which I love a good moan about the weather. 

So let's look at my accurate portray of what it is like to experience going through a heatwave.

You know you are going through a heatwave when every sentence, every hour of the day is announcing to anyone who is listening, 'It's hot'.  Because no one obviously has noticed that big yellow ball in the sky.

You go bat shit crazy in the supermarket for multi-packs of ice lollies like your life depends on it.

You love your fan like a family member.

Never has a cold shower felt so good until your child decides to walk in on you and declare you have a hole.

You get beyond frustrated at stupid questions asked by children about who is the smelliest when really all that matters right now is trying to concentrate on cramming as may ice cubes as possible into your cup.

You worry your bladder may explode because you have drank your weight in cold drinks in just one day.

Your pillow has never felt so pumped then during this heatwave with constantly turning over the pillow at night.

You suddenly become a raging manic woman over the tiniest of things because you fuse has finally blown and throwing wet pants on mummy's head tips her right over that edge.

The dreaded bedtime you have to do. The ultimate question, should or should you not open the windows? Where the bedroom is like a fucking sauna and outside is just noise from people constantly revving and horn beeping timed just around the bedtime hour. 
Don't they know these people outside having fun at bedtime hour makes this mama very, very angry?

You pine for autumn so hard, please bring it back, because I don't know if I can cope with any more under boob sweat.

 Do you like the heatwave? Or like me too much sun makes me go a bit crazy? Love to hear your thoughts in the comments section down below.

Cheers for reading X

Gummy bear show, but why oh why?!

Hey readers,

if you have small children then you have been sure to be have had the privilege of having to hear the gummy bear song.

 If you haven't heard of it then I beg you do not Google it or else you will never erase that memory from your mind.

Well, my youngest absolutely loves the gummy bear song, it is dame awful. It involves the popular American sweet a gummy bear, bright green bear singing a dreadful song called I'm a gummy bear, yes I am a gummy bear.

Now if that is not bad enough, the producers go further and milk it for all its worth and have only gone and done a blinking show, called the Gummibar and friends. It is wrong and traumatic to have to sit and listen to it.

It is full of nasally singing, bright colours in the show and al the way through it is none stop singing. I need to wear glasses to watch it. 

The story is so silly and I quite like to punch the gummy bear in the face truth be told.

I just hate it, it is a crap storyline and clearly milking it for all it's worth.

 Ok, fair enough you have to earn the doh but you killing me slowly with getting my son hooked on it and that is all he ever wants to watch now. FML!

I just want to point out that Gummy bear really needs to invest in some bigger pants as every shot when he is wiggling his butt I see his crack, it is not attractive and he is constantly dancing or singing, which is so painful to my poor little ears and eyes.

One final thought, the song is attractive and a total earworm, whether I want it going round and round it appears I am these days permanently singing it.

Rant OVER!!!

Cheers for reading X

Chocolate chip cookie recipe

Hey readers,

Looking for a fun recipe for a six-year then you need to try this chocolate chip cookie.

Ingredients.

* 15g of Chocolate chip cookies or chocolate.

*100g Brown Sugar.

* 1 egg.

* 125 unsalted butter.

* 225g self-raising flour.

* 1/2 tsp of salt.

* 1 1/2 tsp of Vanilla extract/essence.

Method.

1. Preheat oven 200c.

2. Put the butter and sugar into a bowl and mix well.

3. Add the egg and vanilla extract/essence.

3. Sieve the flour and salt and mix into the mixture.

4. Add the chocolate chips and mix in. Then roll the mixtures into a ball and place on to a tray with parchment paper.

 Make sure there is plenty of space between the cookies as they expand when baking.

5. Place the cookies in the oven and cook for about 7-10 minutes.

6. When you take the cookies out leave them on a cooling rack for about five minutes before eating them.

Cheers for reading X

My Sunday Photo 09/08/2020