Sick kids again!

Will this endless round of coughs and runny noses ever end?  For the third time Julian and Erika are sick, Julian more so because he looks so miserable with his stuffy runny nose and moist cough, and Erika has a snotty nose and saying to me "Nose is blocked".

You know this mean every time I have a runny nose and I used to think it was change of weather or hay fever it might actually be a cold!  I had a runny nose for a day and then it went away and the next thing you know the kids are sick!  Now I have a sore throat and am wondering if this is a NEW cold or is it a continuation of the mild runny nose I had last week?

Julian has been great with his poos which are so solid and stinky now!  He has pooped in the toilet every morning for the past 3 days.  Or is it 4 days?  I lose track.  I know I have been up at 4am the past 2 days, I think the other day I got up a 5am.  Though with Julian sick I don't mind getting up early because he's been going to bed early.  Had to do Houdini nappy change last night because he went to bed in a BBH Hemp with no boosting and it was a few hours and he still hadn't woken up so I took his nappy off and managed to get his BBH Night nappy onto him and Flongies with minimal fuss, I managed to pat him back to sleep and he slept right through till 4am.

Rockin Green Laundry Powder - I want to try some!

Saw heaps of posts about Rockin Green Powder on nappyaddicts forum - it's a laundry powder that has been designed especially for use with cloth nappies.  Phosphate free and supposedly eco friendly it has been getting rave reviews that I want to get some now too to try!  People have been doing soaks and been amazed about how much crap is coming out of the nappies even after they're clean.

Link to Rockin Green on Facebook!

Unfortunately it's sold out from ecocubs.com so they won't have any till mid June.  Can't wait to get my hands on a sample and see for myself how great it is.

Trunki - my lastest "I want" item

I was looking for Gruffalo things and came across a Gruffalo Trunki.  But there are so many Trunkis, I thought I have to have one!  They're absolutely adorable!

What is a Trunki, I hear you ask!

It's a suitcase for kids - they can ride on it, sit on it, pull it along by themselves, and they can pack all their stuff into it.  It's got 4 wheels, and a nice saddle top, and they come in cute designs (like Grufallo!  There was also a cow one - both cow and Gruffalo are limited editions).

You can read more about Trunki at the Trunki website.

Peter's of Kensington has Trunki's quite cheap.  So tempted to get one.  Probably will end up getting one.

Constipated children

Michelle tells me both the kids are constipated today.  I think being on full formula makes Julian very constipated.  Perhaps I should try to keep him regular with pears and stuff.  That means more pears.  Erika too, she hasn't had pears for days.  I'd better push the kiwi fruits and water more.  For Julian I'll have to give him some pear.   Will have to do that this weekend.

He did a poo in the morning and no more poos during the day.   Must be the full formula.  At least having breast milk keeps him nice and regular.  Erika did hard poos and had a few accidents today.

I'd hate to have to bring out the parachoc again.

Controlled crying - the Julian experience

Julian's night waking has been driving us nuts.  I decided last Friday to try some controlled crying.  And surprisingly Julian is settling with it, though it hasn't really stopped his night crying.  At least I'm not having to pick him up anymore, I just pat him until he settles a little then leave the room.  He does pick up in volume then, and I leave him for 5 minutes before I go back in to pat him, sometimes 10 minutes and usually he stops and goes to sleep.

19/5: It's difficult to know if it's working.  I have to admit that him crying non stop doesn't seem to settle him... the last few days I've been putting him to bed and patting him till he stops crying.  This morning I put him in the cot when he wasn't crying and left him there to go to sleep by himself.  And he did.  I guess he's got to be quite tired to do that.  But I don't carry him to sleep anymore - he's too heavy!  But I still carry him around.

Favourite books for toddlers

I spent ages asking friends what books their toddlers liked and collected a little library for Erika.  Not all books are as hot as they make out to be though!  Here is a list of the top 10 books (as chosen by Erika) not in any particular order.

1) The Very Hungry Caterpillar
2) The Gruffalo
3) Maisy bakes a cake
4) Hairy McLairy sit
4) 10 Little Ladybugs
5) The That's not my (monster, dinosaur, dragon, teddy etc) series of books
6) The Going to Bed Book
7) Each Peach Pear Plum
8) Moo Baa La La la
9) Dr Seuss Wacky Weather
10) Runaway Rabbit

Books that I didn't like
1) Guess how much I love you

Parenting And Baby Expo Rosehill Racecourse

I love going to the Baby show.  I love expos, with all the demonstrations, all the stuff you never knew you needed, the crush of crowds, the freebies!

Last year I got a few useless but fun items - such as smallprints silver keyring with Erika's fingerprint, a cubie freezer, BBH nappies, a CGR nappy...and some Jazslings.

This year I bought a toilet seat, which is a child and adult one in 3 layers (lid is the 3rd layer) and it drops down slowly so no slamming fingers in toilet!  I also bought another baby food freezing container, I bought a food masher, some Brauer's stuff and a Cushie Tushie wetbag.  I was standing next to the Cushie Tushies stall and the Jazslings one was next door (and I was carrying Julian in my Jazsling) and the person at the stall noticed my sling and said "Oh you're using an older style Jazsling!" and went into the stall to tell the other demonstrators and they all came out and cooed over Julian who was sleep and snug in his sling, saying what a great advertisement it was.  The guy took a photo of me outside the stall too for the website.  Can't wait to look!  A few people also came up to me to look and ask me about the sling and if it was comfortable.

Saw Caroline and family just outside the Baby Beehinds Stall!  And I convinced her to buy a whole heap of BBH, I hope she likes them!  It was great to see that a lot of people were interested in cloth nappies, though I only saw four there - Cotton Bottom, Peapods, Baby Beehinds and IttiBitti.

I went to smallprint but Julian's fingers are still too small!  Next year I'll do it.