We seem to be having bedtime success

I've not wanted to post about this just yet in fear of horribly jinxing it and having to write the total opposite, but we seem to be having success with bedtime. We always did anyway but that was before we decided to turn the cot into a bed, nighttime was a breeze and often got a 7/8pm to 8/9am out of him. Yes, feel free to hate me but just think this one will be the total opposite to make up for it. Can feel it in my bloody already, I'm going to be seeing 5/6am with this one. If you see tumbleweed blowing across this blog in a couple of year's time then you know I was right.

Sunday we took the plunge and took the sides off and replaced it with a bed rail, we've been putting it off for so long now. It's like the last step in our toddler journey to helping him become a little boy, we've got the potty training going on and we're slowly saying goodbye to the pram. Guess one reason I put it off for so long was the thought of losing those lovely hours sleep that both him and us got. I feared that he would be so excited about being able to get himself in and out of bed that he wouldn't be interested in sleep. It was tweets from both Rebecca and Heather who've both got twins each and have introduced them to beds which kicked me into getting my one toddler into his own bed.

I thought we would have another delay when we realised the stair gate wouldn't fit across his door but fitted it to the tops of the stairs instead, so much for having a stair gate-free house until the next one came along. When Sunday evening came we took out his storage unit full of toys and put it in the hallway so that he wouldn't be tempted by his toys, though we did keep his bookshelf in the room with all his books on and some of his toys. Did you take toys out of the room as well?

We took him upstairs where he climbed into bed, snuggled up with his duvet. We stood outside expecting little feet to go wandering, but heard nothing so came downstairs and got on with our evening. This has been repeated the last two nights with no issues other then a sea of books on the floor in the mornings which we don't mind at all. I really did think we would have issues with this, what was I so afraid of? Though maybe leaving it this point helped us, him still being in a cot was causing no harm at all though it was getting a struggle for me getting him in and out with this bump sticking out. It will be nice when we go away and not have to worry about a travel cot, but can just put him in a normal bed.

I know some people don't have it easy when it comes to introducing children to a bed, if you have any advice then please go and share it with Laura who sounds like she's having a nightmare of a time with her toddler and introducing him to a bed.

Win a £75 Amazon voucher with Appliances Online

We've teamed up with Appliances Online to offer you a fantastic competition to win £75 worth of Amazon vouchers which you can choose to spend on whatever you like. We want you to share photo's of your kids at their messiest in a blog post and then come back to this post and add it to the linky below. Just make sure you put a tagline under the photo saying 'This is my entry to the Appliances Online messiest kids competition, check out all the other entries over on Me, The Man & The Baby'.

It's as simple as that!

I've been searching through my photo albums to see what photos I have of Oli at his messiest, I found some of him getting messy with both paint and food. I actually think the mess we've created in the past has been quite tame compared to the mess he could create given half the chance!





The competition ends on the 5th February 2012 which gives you 2 weeks to catch your kids at their messiest. Good Luck and have fun getting messy!

Learn how to manage your stress

Everyday stress and strain can take its toll on our overall happiness and, more importantly affect your child’s happiness, for this reason, it is important to look after ourselves and manage our stress levels to ensure that it doesn't snowball into a bigger problem that is harder to deal with.

The unstable British economy has made times difficult for a number of individuals, especially given higher cost of living and job losses. However, if you feel like burying your head in the sand to escape a financial burden - or any burden for that matter - it is important to seek help.

There are a number of methods you can turn to in a bid to reduce your blood pressure, improve your health and relieve stress, such as those available from an online pharmacy service. For example, some parents find traditional herbal medicines like Passion Flower extract useful to help them regulate their stress levels.

Some of the best stress management tactics are affordable - or don't cost a single penny. These include exercise, laughter, or spending some time in the fresh air. Exposure to natural light and the great outdoors can help the body generate positive energy and remind you of some of life's simple pleasures. The current recommendations for a healthy mind and body include at least 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise each day, so why not spend some quality time with your family and take a walk together in the countryside?

Listening to music, slipping into a warm bath and aromatherapy are also great to keep high stress levels at bay, and they are even better when you combine them! Run yourself a warm bath, light some candles, pop on your favourite CD and add a few drops of lavender to the water. Kick back and relax and feel your troubles drift away.

This is a guest post

Second Hand Buys - Week 3

I really didnt think I would be able to post anything this week following on from my first second hand buy post I put up last Sunday. Thanks to falling down the stairs at the beginning of the week and making one backache even more of a backache, I hadnt really left the the house. This meant no trawling through charity shops or carboots for me. Didnt even leave me wanting to browse ebay, though I was hoping that I could post about 2 bargain bedside tables which I thought I was going to get for £20 which stayed the price for the last couple of days of bidding until it jumped straight up to £60 in those last few seconds! Always the way with ebay, have to be quick.

I guess that's why I much prefer the other means now a days where you see a item in front of you and its pretty much yours as soon as you pay for it. Have found a nifty 21st century way of buying and selling things which I didn't get round to sharing last week and that's using facebook.

It's like having a local freecycle but its somewhere you can advertise items you have for sale as if you were inserting it as newspaper ad, the advantage is that it happens in real time. The moment you click send your item is there being advertised for sale to locals around you. I've become a huge fan of my local group after shifting half a garage and attic on to it in exchange for some ££. I know it's became a really popular option around my area as the newspaper ads have certainly lessened. I wanted to see how popular it really was so picked random towns from the top of my head and search 'for sale' followed by that town name and I got a result each time. So good news if you're in Bradford, Winchester or Milton Keynes. If there isn't a site local to you why not set one up, invite a few local friends and go from there.

Friday evening I struck gold on one of my local sites with this Tomy Universal Bed Rail, the ad read that it was a bed rail for sale which had only been used for a short time and that the going price was £10. It was only just a couple hours after browsing one on the argos website that I saw this, so knew if I was to grab this that I would also be grabbing myself a baragin. The lady even dropped it off for us, so guess what went up in place of a cot bed rail this morning. The bed rail is like she said perfect condition and we saved ourselves £15.99 by going second hand.


Did you get any great second hand buys this week?

Vax Ultra Rapide 2 Carpet Washer

You cant review a more appropriate item when you about to move house then a carpet cleaner, we had a few carpeted rooms that needed doing and a rug. We were asked to review the Vax Ultra Rapide 2 Carpet Washer which we put to the test on the rug one evening before bed so that it could dry over night. Now this rug has been proper abused by our toddler, it did off the year as a cream coloured rug and it ended up looking more like a brown rug.

Was impressed at how easy it was to assemble following the step by step instructions in the instruction booklet. The washer handle, tool caddy and hose was simple to put on and took barely any time at all to do.

We started off with the pre - treatment kit which we applied to a more obvious mark on the rug. We simply brushed the wand against the mark and left for 15 minutes. Then we (I say we, I actually mean the man) took to using the Carpet Washer on the rug. The washer glided along the rug without a problem even with the powered water jets spraying out the bottom with the rotating brushbar. We were seeing results as we were going along, and you could really see how much dirt it was picking up by looking at the dirty water tank.

Dryness had started to kick in straight away which shows how good the powerful dual v suction was, means that we can use it on the carpet without waiting until the summer where we would need to leave the doors and windows open to help dry it.

See the below pictures for before and after shots of the rug, the before photos were taken with the light on as it was in the evening but you can quite clearly see the lack of creaminess in the rug. Overall we're so pleased with the results, you can see for yourself in the after pictures how fantastically it has worked. The cleaner has really bought life back into the rug and has made look as good as the day it was bought.

The next thing we plan on using is the wash tool on our sofa, it's easy enough to put the cushion covers in the wash but we cant exactly put the rest of the sofa in the wash so will be a refreshing change to use this instead of scrubbing the sofa with some kind of mousse or hot water. Expect another youtube video with how that goes.

Now that we've moved from a house with laminated flooring to a house which is totally carpeted we expect the cleaner to be put to use on pretty much a weekly basis, what with a toddler who is potty training and another baby on the way and we all know what babies mean, baby sick! We've already had one drink spillage this morning (may not of been the toddler) where the cleaner was needed to make sure it didn't leave a red stain on our cream carpet - yep we just don't learn our lesson!


Video of the Vax Rapide Carpet Washer 2 in action





Before





After





The Vax Rapide Ultra 2 is available directly from the online Vax shop for £279.99 which includes a free 2 years guarantee and free delivery. Plenty of support available online as well buying those extra products, refills and access to user guides just in case you've mislaid yours.

How to talk so toddlers will listen

I've been lucky enough to of been given a sneak extract from Joanne Mallon's new book - Toddlers : An Instruction Manual. The book brings together tips and advice from parents who have survived the toddler years and are now passing on essential information on to parents of toddlers like me and you. The book is helping to raise money for the charity homestart and is available in both paperback and in kindle edition.

How to talk so toddlers will listen

To a little kid, you the adult can be pretty imposing (whether you mean to be or not) simply because you’re so much bigger than they are. Therefore if you want to ensure that your toddler takes in what you’re saying, it can help to get down on their level and look them in the eye when you’re speaking to them. It’s a simple thing but it really does make a difference - it makes a welcome change for the child who may be more used to hearing your instructions boomed from on high. Obviously it’s not always practical to do this, and you might get arrested if you tried it whilst driving down the fast lane of the M4, but give it a go when you can.

The other advantage of speaking to your child on their level is that you won’t have to shout (nor should you, unless your intention is to frighten the child). If you can feel yourself veering into shouty parent mode too much, getting on to your child’s level is a good, calmer alternative.

It can also help to hold your toddler’s hand as you speak to them – the aim is to slightly still their naturally physical nature and help them concentrate on what you’re saying. Also it may prevent them from running off if they don’t like what they hear.

Use simple, straightforward language that your child will understand. This doesn’t mean you have to boom in one syllables like a children’s TV presenter. But think about the language you use and the concepts you take for granted and ask yourself – will my toddler really know what I’m on about?

Keep it direct and don’t over-explain. They don’t have to know every why when and wherefore of the fact that it’s time for bed.

Be aware of your own tone of voice. Do you sound hesitant, like you don’t really believe what you’re saying? Do you phrase commands as if they’re a question (“Why don’t we start getting ready for bed now?”). Toddlers will pick up on this hesitancy and crush you like the mini-tyrant they are. So practice a firm and clear tone of voice. You’re going to need it.

Potty training - introducing him to pants

So still continuing our potty training journey, which has been going really well. Whenever we're at home and he needs the potty he'll go on it. Though this is through him spending most days half naked and heating cranked up. We decided to take it to the next step of introducing him to big boy pants. He's been using the pull up pant nappies which aren't the small packs which are suggested for potty training but just ones without tabs (any other parent who buys nappies on a regular basis knows what I'm babbling on about!) for over a year now. They were needed when he just stays still for the tabs to be put on and plus we found these much easier when out and about.

It was a couple of days ago that we tried him with some pants, he was really against putting them on. We did everything we could to explain to him that these were ok, we explained that we wear underwear and that his cousin wears it too. They were even Peppa Pig pants! We got them on him but he really wasn't pleased about it. I feared this wouldn't help with the potty training, and whenever I suggested having a wee he would take the pants off completely and not sit on the potty with them around his ankles. We then have a fight putting them back on him again.

Is this just another obstacle like the pooing on the potty? Which is going ok, its been happening though I think he would still rather do it in his nappy. Am trying to take this to the next stage of getting him to do this on the toilet instead of on the potty. Though I much rather him do in the potty then anywhere else, I doubt my delicate tummy could handle cleaning poop of the carpet. Bet you wish you didn't read this paragraph now.

Any tips on what I can do to help him come to terms with pants?