Tuesday 16 February 2010

Soft toy washing trauma.


But I be done seen 'bout ev'rything, When I see a elephant in a washing machine.

Miss D loves her Dumbo soft toy, It pretty much goes everywhere with us. If she’s tired or grumpy then she needs that elephant and bedtimes are a non-starter if he’s not around… I know she’ll grow out of this phase so it doesn’t bother me, but my only stipulation is that Dumbo MUST have a wash on a regular basis to keep him vaguely fresh and clean.

This requirement stems from a story my wife told me a while back. One of her cousins had the original “Linus from Snoopy” style security blanket, he could never be parted from it and would never allow it to be washed. You can imagine how gruesome this piece of fabric was; I’m sure if it were left alone long enough in a controlled environment, a whole new lifeform would have evolved from the fibres of this dribbly, snot-riddled abomination.

So, with that image permanently engraved on my brain, every couple of weeks it’s bathtime for Dumbo and Miss D’s postpartum tantrums begin. It’s strange, she can leave him on the sofa and forget about him all afternoon while we’re doing something else but as soon as I pick him up she wants her elephant back. I’ve tried the sneaky approach, the quick snatch while she’s watching a favourite TV show but she always manages to catch me.
When I finally manage to convince a (usually) tearful Miss D that Dumbo “really needs a wash because he’s smelly” and that “when he’s finished he’ll smell lovely and clean”, we’ll put him in the washing machine and then spend the next hour and a half going backwards and forwards as Miss D is anxious to check how he’s getting along. The glum expression eventually turns to a smile and the spin cycle makes her laugh as we watch him travelling round at several hundred RPM…

Program finished, door open, and the once grubby, stinky elephant looks and smells like new, albeit a little damp. “Can we hang him up to dry?” I ask. No chance, he’s back in Miss D’s vice-like grip and going nowhere for a while, well, until dinner time when I’ll steal him back and give him a few minutes on the radiator!

Wednesday 3 February 2010

Feeling out of practice.

With what? I hear you cry… Well, keeping my blog updated for starters! So indeed, a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to anyone that might be reading this! The last couple of months have been pretty manic and I’ve got a lot of jobs to get finished around the house before our next little one arrives (the due date being 19th April). I’m working hard though, whilst generally running around like a headless chicken. Mrs D just spent the week at the in-laws with Miss D, giving me a chance to get ahead with the main project – refitting our bathroom.
Much progress was made although at the moment we have no bath, no plaster on most of the walls, and a “to do” list as long as both my arms. I loved Miss D’s reaction when she first saw it – “Mummy, what happened to the bathroom? Daddy broke it!”. I love that toddler black & white kind of logic, I smiled and told her that “Daddy will fix it” as he does with all the toys and books that Miss D manages to damage or break!

I’m feeling a bit out of practice with the parenting too, which sounds silly as it was only a week on my own but whilst the ladies were away, Miss D’s daily routine was changed a little to compensate for the fact that her New Year’s resolution seems to be “I’m not having an afternoon nap anymore” :(
So, rather that spending a couple of hours running up and down the stairs putting her back into bed for that illusive afternoon snooze, my very clever and very lovely wife decided to bring mealtimes forward a bit and put her up to bed earlier in the evening. I guess I’ve been a little blinded by the “she must have her afternoon nap” mantra and hadn’t really considered the alternatives.

So I’ll stick my neck out once again and say that so far, things are going pretty well. Meal times have been brought forward by an hour, as has bedtime. Okay, a downside is that I don’t get a break in the afternoon to catch up with a few DIY jobs or to just chill out for a bit, but that’s no big deal. Now, when Mrs D gets home from work, Miss D has already eaten dinner and they can play for a bit, then we pack her off to bed and get to eat our dinner at a reasonable hour and have a bit more of an evening together. Miss D’s legendary late-afternoon tantrums haven’t been an issue either – clever mummy!

Still, after a break of just one week and with daddy back at the helm, Miss D has so far developed a nappy rash out of nowhere (she was fine last week, typical!), threw up her yoghurt last night for no apparent reason (she loves yoghurt) and woke up this morning with a runny nose (as did I). So much for 2 year olds testing the boundaries, I think somebody up there is testing me…

It’s not a problem though, I’ll keep on keepin’ on, and always in the back of my mind is the fact that soon there will be another little one to look after and things are only going to get more complicated from then on. I’m looking forward to it immensely though, Miss D got a baby doll and crib for Christmas so she’s been practicing how to feed and hold the baby, it seems to be very instinctive behaviour with minimal input from us and she’s very gentle and caring with the doll, I hope this is a good sign of things to come.

I’d better sign off now, I’m going to take Miss D for a walk to the shops to get a big box of tissues for our runny noses!