Christmas is so nearly here....

...The last few weeks have been 'go go go...rocked it out to Janelle Monae....got stuck in bed with flu and then fun fun fun'....but yes, I managed to finish off thestocking garland for Baby Girl in time for December 1st - hooray and Little Miss O successfully handed over her 'dum dums' to Father Christmas and we've not looked back since. It actually worked! Unfortunately, I've not had time to update my blog until now... Ooops! 

But, since we've been snowed indoors all day, it seemed the perfect time for a quick pre-Christmas update...

So, Little Miss O loves her advent garland - check it out...(needless to say, I'm no photographer and yes, you can see me (and the flash) in the mirror), but I'm proud nonetheless!)

Each day Little Miss O excitedly searches in the stocking to find some chocolate christmassy character or other... I have to admit, I was really disappointed that I couldn't find any 'religious' chocolates anywhere. I mean, let's all remember the reason for the season - Jesus' birth! I mean, it's not as though I am desperate for little children to eat chocolate Jesus' the world over, but if they can make chocolates in the shape of Santa, then surely they can make it in the shape of an angel or a star at least?!' Perhaps, I should have just bought Milky Way magic stars and told her they are the stars that guided the wise men!

Anyway, when preparing her advent garland, I Sat with about 30 chocolates in front of me and I felt that it was all a bit much and so I put a mini box of raisins into the 'day 7' stocking. What a mistake that was,  Baby Girl burst into tears and ran away from the raisins screaming 'that's not a treat'....OOOPS!!! I have never seen her so upset! I felt like such a Scrooge to have thought it would be a good idea to give her a 'healthy' treat in her advent calendar. So we're back to chocolate...she's happy...I'm happy! I am so pleased, however,  that I spent those evenings making the stockings and I'm really looking forward to Baby Girl and hopefully her future siblings enjoying the garland year after year...

To make sure our household does know the reason for the season, we've got lots of nativity story books, a nativity garland and we even acted out the First Christmas story with my lovely nativity figurines .... all I need is a bit if straw and it'll look like the real thing! : )

In other news, Mary had her stage debut. It was her first time speaking in front of people and she delivered her one line to perfect - 'welcome to our Christmas Concert'...I couldn't help but cheer and I think all the other parents felt they should follow suit --- each child got a big cheer following their 'bit'! ahahaha She said the words so loudly and clearly and we were SO proud. Go Little Miss O!

Here's Mary in the middle with her pals Joseph and Santa 'smiling' for their Mummies!

The concert was totally funny, with a one year old 'Rudolph', who stood on one spot wiggling her nappy! And a younger sibling of a cast-member going up to the front to help himself to a mince pie - a prop in the play!! Classic and so so  funny. Who knew being a parent would bring such experiences so early on. We loved it...and then treated Baby Girl to a babyccinno to celebrate her success! : )

The Christmas Concert totally marked the real child-like excitement for Mr O and I, and topped off by Christmas Parties in the evening, we are well and truly feeling the festive feeling! 

The only thing I have to work on and plan is how I'm gonna funk up our Christmas Dinner. Last night, my meal was, let's just say 'uninspiring' - thank goodness the company was good!

I hope everyone else's preparations are going well...

Mrs O

x

Father Christmas likes mince pies, milk AND pacifiers...

...I don't remember the exact first day that we started it, but I do know that Baby Girl has been using her 'dum dum' (aka binky/pacifier/dummy) for as long as I can remember.  It started because, whilst nursing, she was sucking a lot instead of suckling, and this was painful! Instead of encouraging her to find her thumbs, we chose pacifiers, thinking that 'at least we can take it away when she is older'... if only it were that easy, eh!?!

I have to say, I have no regrets about giving her the pacifier in the first instance. It certainly helped to settle her into a routine by 6 months of age. I wasn't bothered about a routine before that, but with us both being working parents, having a child who understands when it is time to sleep, is just priceless...

Granted we could have taken dum dum away once she was settled into her 'milk-bath-story-prayer-bed' routine, but by the time she reached 2 (the age that we thought we would get rid of 'dum dum') we weren't ready to give it up...and so we didn't.

So, fast forward a bit, and we find ourselves just one day away from giving up 'dum dum' - forever! Eeek! It's clear that Mr O and I are more nervous than Little Miss O is right now! I'm not sure why we're so nervous...I mean, she has been sleeping without 'dum dum' at daycare for over a year now!!!

Being keen for our first attempt to be our last, we searched online for different methods of weaning toddlers off pacifiers. I imagine that weaning a baby off a pacifier is a totally different ball game (hence we chickened out before she turned 2!)! There are so many tricks that I wouldn't have thought of, from telling the child that the pacifier is 'broken' to dipping the pacifier in coffee(!) Another method is to give the pacifiers to a baby that we know - this wouldn't work for us, unfortunately, as Little Miss O (and I'm almost ashamed to admit it!) has been known to snatch 'dum dums' right out of other kids' mouths and into her own!!! (err!)...

So, what we have decided to do is enlist the help of Baby Girl's daycare providers to wean her off 'dum dum' at home... We did think about giving up the 'dum dums' on Christmas eve, but we want Christmas to be stress-free for the whole family and so want to start the process now....

Source: medrounds

Here's our plan: 

- For the past 3 weeks, we have been telling Baby Girl that we will be visiting Father Christmas and that he will be taking her 'dum dums' away... Her keyworker at nursery has been telling her stories of other children who have given away their pacifiers in exchange for Christmas presents! : )P


- On Thursday we secretly took a super cuddly rag doll to her nursery. She is really observant, so we couldn't take it with us on the day we visit Father Christmas...just too obvious! : )


- Tomorrow, we will be going to nursery to see Father Christmas. Now, Father Christmas will be primed by the Baby Girl's keyworker and will ask Little Miss O for her 'dum dums' : ) On receipt of these 'dum dums', Father Christmas will tell Baby Girl how grown up she is and how she deserves a special reward...and then he will give her the rag doll....


- Hey presto, the 'dum dums' will have disappeared with Father Christmas...and our family will be dum dum-less! Baby girl will have a new cuddly rag doll pal to share her bed with and all will be right with the world again! : )

I am hoping...praying even, that Little Miss O is as on board with our plan as she seems to be. She did go through a phase of thinking that Father Christmas would be replacing her ordinary dums dums with a 'special dum dum'...(!) but, I think hope we managed to put her straight on that one...

So, tonight is the last night of dum dum and we have mixed emotions. We will probably miss out on a few nights/weeks sleep...but we're prepared for that. We may sometimes wish that dum dum was here...but mostly we're excited that Little Miss O is making this transition....to being a 'big girl'... and we're proud of ourselves already for taking the next step on the ladder to parental growth!

Fingers crossed....we will have some sleep tomorrow night......

Mrs O
x