'Too much...'

'Too much' is one of Daniel's frequent used phrase at the moment. He understand this phrase very clearly. he say that word when I try to force him something or when he really can not cope what's going on around him. Lasst weekend we took him to see his grandparents down south. It was bonfire night in town that night, so we took Daniel out first time in the evening for such an event. Daniel firstly was very excited about seeing every children holding a flashing light. But after the parade, especially after the steamy engines' whistling, Daniel really had enough, he started to say 'too much, too much... go home... go home...'

Life has been really hectic recently. firstly, Terry started to work away from home, which mean there are just me and Daniel at home during the week, his new work is beyond the commuting distance. This is not the first time Terry has to work away. We worked away from each other many times in the past, but for Daniel, it is the first time to live without Daddy. Secondly, Daniel now moved up the class, which he is very resent to. Nursery tried to move himto Toddler Room in September, but Daniel was crying very hard , then I asked them not to too pushy on him. Two weeks ago, on a parent evening Karen raised this issue to me again and I said Ok, Daniel has to move on and grow up anyway, he is the oldest one in the Baby Room. And now it seems that the clock has been moved back to exactly one years ago when I finished my maternity leave and dropped Daniel off at nursery first time, last year it was in Baby Room, this time in Toddler Room, again, lots of tears, lots of guilt as Daniel virtually like plead me not to leave him there. Every morning for the last two week, once I mentioned that Mummy have to go to work today, Daniel immediately throw himself on the floor crying' don't like nursery... don't like nursery...mummy...mummy...' hevwould refue to put shoes on, coat on. Then I had to say things like 'Mummy will sit with you in nursery' to calm him down and got him in car. He murmured 'mama sit nursery...mama sit nursery...' all the way to the nursery... , which made me feel very bad as I can't sit with him in nursery all day. The following day when i tried the same tactic in the hope to get him in car but it didn't work as he knew mummy didn't mean it through the previous day's experience. Then i had to say 'you'll go baby room today...' he calmed down a little bit once he heard 'go baby room...' On the way to nursery, He murmured something like 'go Jelly Bean... go jelly bean...' at the back of my car all the way there, I thought Daniel was using kind of self-denial as the coping strategy, he knew he wasn't going to baby room anymore and he recognises the route to nursery, but still he would like to think we go to Jelly Bean, one of his favorite soft play center we go regularly.

Also, now I drop him of fand pick him up everyday. With my new work, I finish at 5.30pm, which mean he is always the last one to be picked up at nursery. So, there has been too much change for Daniel to cope in such a short period of time. No wonder he keep saying 'too much... too much...'

winter walk

It was so sunny on Monday morning, i took Daniel to feed duck in our local Cannon Hall Park . Since Daniel can speak sentence, ' I don't like...' has become one of his favorite and most frequently used sentence, he likes to say 'don't like...' to everything I suggest him to do, however, 'feeding duck' is one of the thing he would say 'yes'. So off we went.

It was so cold in the morning though it was sunny, and windy too. Daniel was in a light fleece jumper when we got out the car. Getting him in the new thick winter coat always needs a bit battle, but to my surprise, after he wandered around the park being chased by all the ducks for a good 10 minutes, he didn't tantrum a bit when i put his winter coat on and he even allow me to put the hood of the jumper on his head. It must be really cold that day!

Dinner party

I hosted a dinner party for Daniel's best friend Justin and his parents last Sunday evening, which, in my opinion, was s success. Terry was a bit apprehensive with my choice of menu at start as I was planning to do a Thai meal, he thought it would be too spicy for Joanne and Andy, also it wouldn't be suitable for Daniel and Justin, therefore I have to cook separate dinner for babes. Terry suggested to do Moussaka, a dish with Aubergine layers on top of lamb mince then with cheese on top, which would be suitable for both adults and babes. I wasn't keen on this idea as we had lasagna at Joanne's Dinner party, Moussaka would be too similar. Terry started to practise for two weeks on this dish, in the end, I still insisted to go back to my original Thai idea, but ditched his idea of having Chinese dumplings as starter ( because that would be too much hassle for me). In the end I decided on Thai pumpkin curry as main course with some shop-bought desserts as pudding.

I cooked Thai Pumpkin curry with chicken, this idea came- from Waggamma restaurant in Leeds. It is very easy to cook and taste great, both Joanne and Andy liked it. The most time-consuming bit of the whole cooking was peeling the pumpkin and cut it into small pieces, but I prepared this in the morning when Daniel was settle and playing around in the kitchen. I shopped all the ingredients on Saturday and cleaned house on Friday. They came around 3.30pm, the idea was Daniel can play with Justin and I can get on with cooking. But I cooked the Thai dish just before they came and pop it in the oven for slow cook pumpkin so In the end I can still sit down for talk in the lounge while keeping an eye on cooking in the kitchen. The main focus at this stage was left for cooking Daniel and Justin' meals. As Justin preferred fish fingers and peas (lucky i asked Joanne beforehand), I cooked some roasted potatoes and fish fingers and peas for him and Daniel. Terry was in charge of wine and dessert, Daniel played with Justin very well, Justin seemed to like Daniel's toys, Daniel is just the same, Daniel likes Justin's toys when we visits Joanne's house. We had a really good evening.

The key to throw dinner party with little kids is to organise! organise and organise! and keep it simple!

Fashion Conscious or Too Stubborn?

Daniel has been chosen his own outfit every morning for a while and I've been very happy to leave him to do so, I thought all the toddlers of this age would want to show their independence by making choices to some degree, but here comes the trouble: while the winter draws in and the temperature is getting down fast, Daniel seems still insist to wear his summer clothes, e.g. his bus top, which is a short-sleeve T-shirt , and it is Daniel's favorite. Every morning when I try to dress Daniel for going out he always tell me: ' choose one... choose one...' then he opens his shirt drawer and pull the 'bus one' out or his Bee Top out or pull some other summer clothes like shorts out. I have bought 7 new long-sleeve shirts for him since last month and Daniel would cry over each single new clothes I bought for him. First I thought maybe he doesn't like the pattern on the new shirts, then I bought some more with cars, fire engines etc. on them. It still ended the same with Daniel crying over it. Then I took him shopping and asked him ' do you like this one with diggers on it!' Daniel answered: 'Put away... put away... don't like it...'

Yesterday I was getting so stressed in the morning to get Daniel in his clothes because all his favorite tops and coat has been washed. I had to force a new top on him and he screamed as usual and said 'take it off...take it off... too much!...too much!', He made me laugh by saying 'too much' also made me felt so bad about forcing on him. I don't know where he picked up this phrase 'Too much' from and I certainly didn't teach him.

Terry think Daniel is fashion-conscious, which is taking after me. But I know Daniel just doesn't like the things he doesn't familiar with...