The blog...

Disaster Strikes....

Tue, 2 Mar 2010 21:11:23 +0000

When I got home from work Maria greeted me with the statement “today I had a bit of a problem”. Of course I asked what sort of problem and Maria told me that she had to take James to hospital today. Then she told me the full story.

Apparently after cooking a fragrant lunch the house, and in particular the kitchen, stank. So Maria lit a vanilla scented candle to help get rid of the smell. Maria and Beth were sitting in the lounge room with James when he ran into the dining room. Next Maria heard a bang and James scream....

Somehow he had manoeuvred a large white plastic toy box into a different position so that he could reach the candle. It would seem that when he grabbed the candle, which is not dissimilar to a drinking glass, he must have tipped it over, putting the flame out and covering the wall with hot wax. Maria assumes he then thought it was milk and took a sip. Hence the scream. On hearing this scream Maria ran straight into the dining room, where James had entered only seconds earlier to discover his face with a warm wax goatee. His mouth also had a large ball of wax in it.

Maria instantly cleared the wax out of his mouth and took him to the sink to wash out his mouth and face. She started to pat him on the back, which helped him to throw up. A good move in my opinion as this would of cleared any wax had he swallowed it. Thankfully only food came out.

Beth then rang 999 and spoke to the operator. Within 5 minutes an ambulance arrived and the paramedics attended to James and reassured Maria that he was fine. By this stage he was his usual jovial self, talking almost continuously. As a precaution they loaded James and Maria into the ambulance and took them to the hospital to make sure there was no serious damage. James was sat in a special seat in the ambulance and watched the paramedics every move. Every time they would write a note in their little book he would say “What are you doing doctor?”.

The hospital did a number of tests including checking his pulse and looking in his mouth and throat for damage. The staff were very calm and reassuring and asked James a series of questions during the consultation...

Did you drink hot wax?
YES
Did it hurt?
YES
Did you hurt your throat?
YES
Are you saying yes to everything I say?
YES

On this note the doctor provided Maria with the verdict...that all is fine. It appeared that James has no burns in his mouth or throat and he is fine. Within 45 minutes they were in a taxi on their way home after quite an eventful afternoon.

I can’t believe I have never been in an ambulance at my age and James has already done it.....let’s hope it was his last ever trip in one!

I’m really sad....

Sun, 21 Feb 2010 20:04:24 +0000

James has a new habit and it is one that makes Maria and I feel terrible every time we hear it.

When ever James doesn’t like something we are doing or trying to do he says “I’m really sad” This is said in a very sad voice and he pulls a sad face. Examples of this include when we want to brush his teeth at night. If we are at friends and he doesn’t want to go home we also hear it.

It is like he is trying to guilt trip us into submission, but I wasn’t expecting that technique this early. The bad news for him is that it makes us feel bad but doesn’t achieve the desired result. His teeth still get brushed and we go home when we are ready....

Papier Mache

Sun, 21 Feb 2010 09:35:23 +0000

We like to try and expose James to as many things as possible. Although we do allow him a little television he was addicted at one point. The first thing he would say when he woke up is “Sofa and TV”. Since then we have tried to limit his viewing to 30 minutes a day or less. The only thing he is allowed to watch also has some kind of educational benefit to it.

For this reason we are always looking for new ways to entertain, educate and amuse him. I decided Papier Mache could be a fun idea. One morning James and I set about making a big bowl of water and flour glue and tore up the local paper. We then covered a couple of balloons in newspaper and glue. James loved it. I was not able to get photos of this as James and I were covered in glue and Maria was not about. But after a few sessions it was time for James to start painting. He enjoyed this.

At the top of the page you can see the end result for one of the pigs. I am supposed to be working on a penguin and there is a request for a rocket at some point. Unfortunately work gets in the way and limits my construction time....

The bed

Sun, 21 Feb 2010 09:03:52 +0000

Last Saturday we decided it was time to convert James’ cot into a bed. When to put a toddler into a bed seems an interesting decision. Many friends and acquaintances have had their toddler in a real bed before they even turned two. For some this decision was forced due to the fact their child worked out how to climb out of the cot, which leads to a fairly large drop from the cot edge to the floor. We had none of these issues.

Our decision was based on James’ behaviour in the mornings. At night we have had things good for some time now. Providing James is not sick we put him in his cot and he just sits quietly playing in their until he goes to sleep. In the mornings he wakes up between 0700 and 0800 and again he just sits quietly and plays. We decided to let him try his bed thinking that when he wakes in the morning he can play with his toys and have some fun.

On the first day we were quite nervous putting him to bed. He also didn’t seem too sure of what was going on. But he went to sleep fairly quickly with almost no problems. At 0500 he was whimpering and when Maria went in to check on him he was sleeping on the floor. It looks like he fell out of bed at some point in the night and was not happy that he was sleeping on the floor. Thankfully his bed is only a few inches high so the fall wasn’t far. That day we went out and bought a barrier to stop James from falling out again.

Since then we have had no problems at all. He has grown to love his bed and now after his bedtime story he gets in to bed himself. The one thing that has surprised us is that he is yet to get out of bed himself. He acts like it is still his cot, despite the fact he can easily get out and mess about in his room (which now has a gate on it) , he choses to stay in bed and since and talk.

Everyday he surprises us with his change of behaviour. He is quickly growing into a big boy.

Running free at Tesco

Sat, 13 Feb 2010 20:26:17 +0000

Last night we went to Tesco to do our shopping, which in itself is not an unusual thing. However to make our lives easier we have always put James in the child seat in the trolley, allowing us to move around efficiently and with limited disruption.

But last night we decided to let James explore. Maria had the trolley and walked about behind James, ready to stop him smashing up the store. He loved it, running from aisle to aisle shouting with delight as he did. He was also very well behaved. I would get an item off the shelf and hand it to him and tell him to put it in mummy’s trolley, which he would do happily.

He was running round with the biggest grin I have ever seen in Tesco (you rarely see a grin there as people in London must be the most miserable on the planet, and the staff must have less job satisfaction than those who clean toilets for a living). James would run between trolleys and duck around people at speed. I didn’t have time to feel stupid as I had to walk very briskly to even keep up with him. This was made harder by the fact that I couldn’t fit through many of the gaps that he chose so I was diving over trolleys and knocking people all over the place to keep up with him.

At one stage we lost Maria and I told James to get some green milk. Our milk is actually white like the rest of the world but it has a green label to indicate that it is semi-skimmed. James drinks the blue full fat milk. James grabbed the milk of the shelf and started to walk down the aisle saying “where’s mummy?” After a few moments he said “this is too heavy daddy” and gave it to me. I then carried the green milk and sent James off to get a small blue milk, which he was happy to carry. This even managed to get a smile from some of the miserable shoppers in the milk aisle.

Another highlight was when we were near the biscuits. He grabbed a packet of chocolate biscuits and said loudly “I like chocolate biscuits” and we managed to get another smile from a member of the public.

All in all it was a very fun experience, but it took about three times longer than a normal shop....