26/6/18 – Dad Joke of the Day

What’s for Dinner. . .

An elderly dad was concerned his wife of fifty years was going deaf so he went to a hearing specialist who gave him some sound advice ( no, that’s not the joke )
“Stand behind her but at some distance and ask her something…the closer you need to get before she answers will determine the severity of the hearing loss and we can rectify accordingly.”
So the husband goes home to find his wife preparing dinner and from the other side of the room he asks her a question. “What is for dinner love?”
No response so he walks a few steps closer and again asks
“What is for dinner, love?”
Still nothing so he takes a few more steps and becoming concerned, raises his voice
“What’s for dinner love?”
Still no response so he gets right up behind her and yells
“WHAT IS FOR DINNER LOVE?”
and his wife turns around and says.
“For the fourth time…curried sausages!”

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Weekend Adventures

Its the Weekend! As good of a reason as any to celebrate. Its also my weekend off work, which means its definitely a reason to celebrate.

For those not local we have gone through close to 2 weeks of cold, wet, and windy weather. Your probably thinking to yourself that its Winter, What do I expect from the weather.

The weather isn’t generally something that bothers me. It does however ruin your plans to go outside with your 2 year old who would spend all day outside if you let him. 1 or 2 wet days, that’s manageable, 1 or 2 weeks, and your toddler starts to get cabin fever (no, not the 2002 horror movie about flesh eating bacteria, honestly who would write about that), the kind that drives you a little insane as the limited activities inside the house get repetitive after awhile.

Getting back on track, The weather is Dry, Sunny, and not windy. What does that mean? well its finally a chance to go adventuring outside.

The Hair Cut

This one had been planned for a few weeks, and to be honest was going to be happening rain, hail, or shine. A Haircut for the little guy!!

Now this isn’t exactly a momentous occasion, he has had them before. However with his 2nd birthday rapidly approaching we thought it best to get him trimmed before hand so in the photos it actually looks like we look after him.

note, that wasn’t a dig at parents who choose not to get their child’s haircut. It was stating a fact, his hair tends to grow pretty wild and needs to be kept in check.

Now I don’t know any toddler that actually enjoys getting their haircut, we have found a place that specialises in child haircuts though. They will keep cutting even if your child is screaming. Sure the child will be sitting on your lap and if will be your to hold them still but they will get the hair cut done.

Based on that description you can probably guess how it went.

Yes they even let you sit in a car or a plane while you get your hair cut. If that isn’t going to make you happy not a lot is. Note, the above picture was taken after the hair cut, when he was more then happy to have a play. 

Hair cut complete it was time for our next activity. . .

The Park

As I mentioned earlier the weather was about as good as you can get in the middle of winter in this part of the country. The opening of a brand new park a short drive away was the perfect destination to get over the trauma of a hair cut, soak up some vitamin D, and let out some energy. Apparently everyone else had the same idea.

A little bit of shyness around a big crowd was quickly cured by some reassuring looks from mum and dad and a slide down the smallest of 3 slippery dips and the little guy was in his element.

Of course after we decided to explore some more of the play equipment, the slide designed for toddlers was not enough for our little daredevil who had to climb the netting to go down the next size up slide, over and over. Once Dad got bored of this we decided to check out the biggest of 3 slides, which requires a fair bit more climbing for a toddler. After a couple of practice runs on Dad’s lap, he was going down by himself and loving it

What had originally planned to be a quick stop, turned into almost 2 hours of playtime! What does this equate to? one tired little child.

A Quiet Afternoon

The rest of the afternoon was a bit more relaxed, consisting of lunch, a nap, some cooking, and some outdoor art. A concrete driveway and some chalk is all we needed for some more fun outside, and while it didn’t last that long, it was still nice to be outside.

Sometimes the simplest things can be fun for a toddler.

The day was finished off with a visit from a friend and an early dinner. Unfortunately an early dinner doesn’t always mean an early bedtime for our toddler – see Toddler Sleep Regressions

More Fun in the Sun

Today the little guy was lucky to have his Grandma and Pop and one of his aunties come to see him. Again the weather was perfect so we decided to head out for the afternoon.

One of the best parts about where we live is the proximity to the ocean. Newcastle is known for its beaches for a reason. Not only are they beautiful, but the surrounds are perfect for spending a sunny afternoon.

While waiting for our lunch to be ready we spent our time chasing the birds and watching the waves on the beach.

We also raced. What is racing you ask? racing is our latest trick where we count 1, 2, and he says “Go!” and runs forward. Once you get started you often don’t even need to count, he will just say Go and run.

Once lunch was over we walked back towards our car past another park!

While the equipment at this spot wasn’t nearly as exciting as yesterday’s, it still provided entertainment for awhile.

After spending a few hours running around in the sun, it was time to head home. A short walk to the car, and a short drive home. The little guy was asleep within 2 minutes of us starting the car.

Unfortunately all good things must come to an end, which means back to work tomorrow, but what a fun weekend we have had. One thing about outdoor adventures is that they certainly are a great way to entertain toddlers – Go To Tricks For Entertaining Kids

How did you spend your weekend? What adventures did you go on?

Toddler Sleep Regressions

The term every parent doesn’t want to hear.

You think you finally getting the hang of raising a toddler, your sleep patterns have gotten a little more regular, you no longer act like a zombie during daylight hours. Everything seems to be going pretty smoothly, and then it happens.

Your toddler starts to take a lot longer to go to sleep of a night, your toddler goes through a couple of days without naps, or what starts off as one bad night of sleep turns into multiple nights.

You start to wonder if you have done anything different? or if your child might be sick, and then it clicks. That dreaded term you had only heard rumors of or read about online comes back to haunt you. That’s right

Yes they are a real thing that the majority of us will experience. They are not just a legend told to scare parents.

Thankfully there is plenty of information available online from experts about what exactly a sleep regression is: A sleep regression refers to a period of time when a baby or toddler who’s been sleeping well suddenly begins waking at night and during naptime, or even refusing to go to sleep at all (Baby Sleep Site).

So at least you will know if you are going through an actual regression, or you know, your child is just being painful.

If you have been following for awhile I have actually written about this before in A Good Nights Sleep Is this a reoccurring theme? maybe, all well, this is a Dad Blog after all.

Our Current Situation

Last night our toddler decided to wake up at around midnight, to a non parent this might seem funny, to another parent this may seem like a common occurrence and something we should be used to. Either one would be fine, if he had decided to go back to sleep before 5am.

note, I need to be honest here, it wasn’t actually last night this happened, it was earlier in the week, but yesterday I was too tired to write something that at least made sense.

If this was the only ‘refusing to sleep’ event that had occurred recently I would put it down to a bad night, unfortunately its not.

As a shift worker I am not home most evenings when its time for our little guy to go to sleep, so the ‘falling asleep’ routine has fallen upon my wife. She is fine with this (as far as I know), what does get to her is when a routine that used to take all of about 10-15 minutes to complete, lately has been taking up to 2 hours. Yes, that’s 2 hours of comforting, watching, settling, before he falls asleep.

As you can imagine this tends to have an impact on our sanity. It does help to know we are not alone though. Baby Sleep Site has written a good article on the topic here. However as parents know, every child is different and it doesn’t matter how many articles you read or strategies you research, sometimes you just have to wait it out.

 

 

 

 

22/6/18 – Dad Joke of the Day

the name is Zimer, Al Zimer

An elderly gentleman walks into an upscale cocktail lounge. He is in his mid-80s, well-dressed, hair well-groomed, great looking suit, flower in his lapel and smelling slightly of an expensive after shave. He presents a very nice image.
Seated at the bar is a classy looking lady in her mid-70s.

The sharp old gentleman walks over and sits alongside her. He orders a drink and takes a sip.

He slowly turns to the lady and says: “So, tell me; do I come here often?”

Shopping for Kids Toys – With Kids

Shopping for kids toys has got to be one of more fun jobs that comes with raising children, albeit an expensive one.

The Down Under family has just returned from an after daycare / after work, impromptu  shopping trip. The occasion? The Annual Big W toy sale. You can read about previous shopping trips with kids here – Shopping with Kids.

note this isn’t an ad, just a rundown of our afternoon.

As we discovered this time last year when our toddler was about to turn 1, Big W has an annual toy sale during which not only are a lot of their toys on special (duh), but they offer extended lay-by services until Christmas. Unfortunately last year we had already bought his presents for his birthday, but were able to get our Christmas shopping started.

This year we knew it was coming, in fact it started at midnight last night. While we were planning on leaving it until the weekend, reports from friends told us “all the good toys are selling out”, so this afternoon we ventured out.

As I mentioned before this was an after daycare trip, which meant our toddler was already tired, was that a risk we were willing to take? absolutely! Did he play up while we were there? it could have been worse.

Above photo was taken during a pit-stop, here I am trying to get a laugh out by sitting in the tiny car next to him, as you can see he is not impressed.

The thing about these toy sales is you generally know what you want to buy before you go in – we had a catalogue circled ready to go. If you have been following for awhile you already know my thoughts on Kids Toys. The other thing about these toy sales is the toys aren’t just confined to the toy section of the shop, they are everywhere. What does this mean?

Firstly is it takes a lot longer then you would expect to find what you are looking for. You want cars? better check the book section, looking for Lego? check the home-wares, Dinosaurs? clothing. I could go on but you get the idea.

Secondly is that you have no idea if something has sold out, or if you just haven’t found it yet. Sure you could ask someone, but then they have to go check. Got a few things you can’t find? you are going to be asking a lot. If someone from Big W happens to be reading this, next year make a map. Seriously it wouldn’t be hard, and would make shoppers lives a lot easier, in fact give me early access to get exactly what I want without the crowds and I’ll even make one for you.

Now I won’t go into detail around how many times we walked around the store, or how long we waited in line for lay-by. But if you happened to be there, our child was the one riding around on the trike getting in everyone’s way.

I’m also not going to spoil the surprise of what we bought. If you keep following his 2nd birthday is only weeks away so you will see then what he gets, Christmas is also closer then you think so you will see those too.

If your after a clue, checkout my post – Vocabulary of an Almost 2 year old, it lists a few of his favorite words which match some of his favorite things.

After a couple of hours shopping, an early dinner out as well. Sometimes its the simple things that put a smile on your child’s face.