Our Day Out to ZSL London Zoo - Noah's Report!

At the weekend Mummy and Daddy took Isla and me to London Zoo. Mummy had been prepping us for it all week, I'd read Dear Zoo with Mummy about 25 times at bedtime and Isla had a cool new book about going to the Zoo called Tabitha Posy Was Ever So Nosey, so we were properly excited - although Isla didn't want to end up like the little girl in that book getting swallowed by the Tiger! Mummy asked us what animals we wanted to see, I shouted LIONS and Isla said Sheep! 

We had to set off really early in the morning to get the train and we nearly didn't get on because it was so busy - then we got the big red bus where more important Zoo prep took place - we ate a bag of Cadbury's Animal biscuits - Yum.

We got to the zoo and made our way round to see the animals - here's our photo tour......

I was also lucky enough to meet a nice young lady, Pixie, who's my mummy's friend's little girl. I think she liked me....my mummy and daddy's first date was to London Zoo many moons ago, so it's clearly the place to go courting!

I couldn't wait to see the lions - my favourite film ever is The Lion King! 

We had a really nice day at London Zoo and the sun was shining which made it all the more special. Once Isla and I started to get a bit tired Mummy decided that it was time to go home, so I snuggled up to Mummy and let the C2 bus rock me off to sleep and I dreamt of all the animals I'd seen at the zoo. 

Isla couldn't wait to get her new Giraffe home!

Here I am with Isla telling mummy what we saw at zoo.....thank you for a lovely day!

 

Over to Mummy.....

Our Day Out to London Zoo was paid for by Virgin Money - so thank you so much for giving us a lovely family day! 

Virgin Money Travel Insurance was voted “Best Online Travel Insurance Provider 2012” at the Your Money Direct Awards. They are worth checking out particularly for families as they offer good packages like their Family annual travel insurance and kids are covered free - up to 3 and under 18's per insured adult. Other perks of being a Virgin Travel Insurance customer are extra discounts on airport parking (13% off) and car hire (10% off) - all things to consider when conserving those pennies! 

If you want to check out how much fun the other blogging families had on their trip to the zoo, check out their blogs:

More Than A Mum 
Chelsea Mamma 
Tired Mummy Of Two
Babes About Town
Super Amazing Mum

The Gallery - Boys

This is my boy. Looking cool in his shades. Holding his best friend 'Rabbit'. In about 15 years time he'll still be looking cool in his shades I'm sure but 'Rabbit' will be long gone. He'll be all grown up and he'll be all like 'Mum, stop taking photos of me' - I don't think I'll ever tire of taking photos of him (and Isla). Everyday there is something I need to capture, something that I don't want to forget. And just like with my 'Girls' post last week, I don't want him to grow up too quickly. I love my little boy. 

The Gallery - Girls

This is my girl. I love her more than any other girl in the whole world. She makes me laugh, she makes me exasperated, she makes me want to kiss and cuddle her all day, she gives me a different perspective on the world, she invigorates me but at the same time wears me out. There are days when I feel she is so grown up for 3 and half and worldly wise then other days when I'm reminded that she's still a baby really. We talk about school a lot lately, I tell her that she will learn to read and write and count to way beyond 100 and her response is "will I learn to write 'S's'?" - the only letter in her name that she's not quite mastered, these are the kinds of things that trouble her. I want to keep her world so small and safe but I know that it's not meant to be that way. I've been reading The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey in the last week and there is a passage where the male character in book mourns the loss of his little girl as she has now grown up and is about to have a family of her own. I can feel that in me sometimes when I see my children getting so big. They can't stay little for long but lets enjoy them to the max while they are.

My Toddler at 18 Months - The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.....

A lots been happening with Noah the last couple of months and I've not been very good at documenting it! So here goes:

The Good:

There's lot of good! Noah is really talking lots and most of the time I can understand him and I love that. I love that he can communicate. Obviously we have plenty of words that we can't understand and he has the frustration that comes with that. He sings recognisable nursery rhymes (Twinkle Twinkle) and TV theme tunes (Postman Pat/ Get Well Soon) and rather randomly he sings "Appy Birday Dear Mummy" whenever the mood takes him! He is always pointing at things and saying "Whassat?/ Whoddat?" - love it when he does this. He is joining lots of words together now as well, "sit there mummy", "breakfast time", "very hot Daddy", "Put on table" etc etc. His latest funny thing is that he's discovered that Mummy and Daddy have 'other' names - and he finds it hilarious calling us Sharon and Tony! Hmmmm.

He can count to seven, misses out eight and then does nine and ten. He also knows his shapes - circles/ squares and triangle and can pick out a few letters from the alphabet - seems to like that 'G' for Grandpa the most! He knows loads of animals, lions being his favourites followed by dinosaurs.

He has 'Obsessions' and what I mean by this is that he becomes fixated on random things. One of them was a his welly boots, for a time it was a struggle to get his shoes on, he would always demand "Boots, boots!" and get quite stressed if he didn't get his way. The next obsession was The Lion King. This is the first ever film that he showed a full on interest in and watched it from start to finish. We went through a fair few weeks where he would point at the TV and keep saying "Lions, lions, lions" over and over again until we put it on. He loves it, particularly Hakuna Matata! Amongst other obsessions: his toothbrush and his Rabbit (which was originally Isla's but she's been so good at letting him have it).

He is now very adept at feeding himself, he has been since about 14/15 months and this has been great as it means that when we're all sat round the table no one needs to let their dinner go cold while they're feeding him. He can use a spoon and a fork. 

He is excellent at playing his own games and can play for ages just with his cars or trains. He has lots of matchbox cars and he can tell you what quite a few of them are: "Mini, Beetle, 'Ghini" (Lamborghini!). He loves playing with Play Doh, doing painting and sticking. He loves tickles and rough and tumble which I love - he giggles his head off!

He has used the potty! Only a handful of times but it's happened and he likes to sit on it. More often than not when he says he wants to use the potty he doesn't do anything but I know he understands what it's for, and he likes to go on it when Isla is using the toilet. Having an older sibling might be helpful for this? Maybe.

The Bad:

Eating is sometimes a struggle with him in the same way that it was with Isla - his range of foods that he will eat are limited and there is absolutely no persuading him yet to eat anything other than his favourite things. The fortunate thing is that as we've already witnessed this with Isla and she is now eating relatively well (there's still room for improvement!) so we're not worried and we know that this will change and he will add to his repertoire. However I do wonder if the food things does cause the sleep thing below, if he doesn't eat his lunch or dinner I don't make him anything else and he generally doesn't get dessert as I'm trying to teach him that puddings don't follow if you don't eat your dinner and also that by not eating dinner Mummy won't get you something else instead. I now make one dinner for all and if the kids don't eat it all then that is their problem.

Sibling jealousy has reared its ugly head already and Noah is very territorial over me, in fact it can be very suffocating at times. If Isla is sitting on my lap he wants to be sitting there too, he always looks very put out if I'm doing something with her and not him. When I get home from work he is by my side straight away which is obviously very endearing but when I need the toilet and I try to go upstairs he is instantly inconsolable until I've hurried back down stairs and I've picked him up. Then he's all smiles!


The Ugly:

The really ugly is that we're not doing very well with the sleep situation. Noah has regressed. He has gone from being the most easy baby to put to bed at night to being very demanding. Gone are the days where he would have his bedtime bottle, I'd put him in the cot, say night night and walk out of the room. I can't even pinpoint when it went wrong but what happens now is that he has his bedtime bottle, we read some books together, I decide we've read enough, I put him in the cot, say night night, go to walk out of the room and he screams and cries. On returning to the room, he points at the chair and says "Sit there" and what he wants is for us to "sit there" while he falls off to sleep! It's preposterous that we're even entertaining this behaviour but we feel like our hands are tied as Isla and Noah share a room and we don't want him screaming his head off stopping her from getting to sleep. She is the worlds most deepest sleeper though, so on the odd occasion where we've thought leave him to scream and see if he gives up, she falls asleep despite the noise. 

Then on top of this we also have the nightly wake ups. Once if we're lucky, twice if we're really unlucky. And again we get told what it is he wants. "Nilk" (this is how he says "milk" - funny as Isla always used to say "malk") and if "Nilk" isn't produced then again he goes into a massive break down and again we can't risk Isla being woken up. So these are both connected problems and we do need to sort them out but we don't know how without disrupting Isla's sleep. Anyone with any ideas then I'm all ears...... please......we're desperate.

Apart from the sleep issue, Noah is a really fun and happy little boy and I love watching him change and grow and make his mark on our family! Love you Lots Noah x

Postcard from Ghana - Celebrating Comic Relief doing #goodwork

I've been sent my very own unique digital postcard from 3 very special bloggers who are currently in Ghana with Jonathan Ross and Davina McCall witnessing all the good work that Comic Relief have contributed to over the past 25 years! Yes it really is 25 years since this wonderful charity started - 25 years we've been wearing red noses! The photo I've been sent is from a vaccination centre and when I think that in Ghana diarrhoea causes 10% of deaths of children under 5 I feel very lucky to live in a country where our children are immunised without any problem. 

Dear Sharon

Mums and babies at the Health Centre here in Ghana waiting for lifesaving vaccinations. Diarrhoea accounts for 10% of deaths among Ghana's under-fives. Rotavirus, which causes gastroenteritis, can lead to severe dehydration and accounts for 40% of these diarrhoea-related deaths.^[i]

Comic Relief has given GAVI a grant of $200,000 to provide rotavirus vaccine in Ghana to help prevent against this potentially fatal condition.

Love Penny

This is a digital postcard sent from TeamHonk (www.mammasaurus.co.uk;www.aresidence.co.uk; www.mummybarrow.com) during their travels with Comic Relief in Ghana celebrating #goodwork. 

For the past 25 years the money raised through Red Nose Day has been changing the lives of the poorest and most disadvantaged people in the UK and Africa. Let’s Keep Up the Good Work. Find out how at rednoseday.com

For other digital postcards please do join up and check out the linky on www.teamhonk.org

Disney's Wreck It Ralph 3D

Official film synopsis:

From Walt Disney Animation Studios and Emmy®-winning director Rich Moore comes “Wreck-It Ralph,” a hilarious, arcade-game-hopping adventure. For decades, Ralph (voice of John C. Reilly) has been overshadowed by Fix-It Felix, Jr. (voice of Jack McBrayer), the good-guy star of their game who always gets to save the day. Tired of playing the role of a bad guy, Ralph takes matters into his own massive hands and sets off on a journey across the arcade through multiple generations of video games to prove he’s got what it takes to be a hero.

On his quest, Ralph meets tough-as-nails Sergeant Calhoun (voice of Jane Lynch) from the first-person action game Hero’s Duty, and feisty misfit Vanellope von Schweetz (voice of Sarah Silverman) from the candy-coated cart-racing game Sugar Rush, who may just be his first real friend. But everything changes when a deadly enemy is unleashed, threatening the entire arcade and Vanellope herself. Ralph finally gets his chance to save the day—but can he do it in time? “Wreck-It Ralph” crashes onto the big screen on February 15, 2013, in Disney Digital 3D™ in select cinemas.

What did Isla and I think of it?

This was Isla's third experience of 3D, so she was comfortable wearing the 3D glasses which was great as she didn't take them off once this time. We saw the film at The Empire Leicester Square and it felt amazing seeing it there as it's an enormous theatre and the film was fantastic on the big screen. Prior to the film there is a really cute little short film (many Disney Films have these nowadays) called Paperman and she loved this (as did I). Then the main feature started and I realised that I'd had no idea before going to the film what it was about and I was really surprised that it was about video game characters. I immediately wondered if Isla would like it as she hasn't really played video games and would have no idea who any of the characters were - but then this is where Disney films like this are clever - they appeal to the adult and the child by inserting 'in-jokes' that a young child wouldn't understand - it brought about a kind of nostalgia and reminded me how gaming is very different now! I felt that the film was rather like Toy Story in that the characters all come alive when they're outside the game, they have personalities and feelings and that's what I loved about Ralph he HATES being a bad guy and he just wants to make friends. It's like a peep into a world that you don't realise exists, when the game is not being played, the characters aren't dormant, they have their own stuff going on. Isla loved Ralph and Vanelope and she was firmly on Vanelope's side from when she first appeared. I don't need to say a whole lot more about the plot really as I've given the synopsis but all that is left to say is that we LOVED this film and we would thoroughly recommend seeing it. It's a really great Disney film to add to the many others, and enjoyable for adults too. Thanks for inviting us! 

For all details about Wreck-It Ralph check out the following:

Official Website: http://www.disney.co.uk/wreck-it-ralph/ 

Official Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/WreckItRalphUKandIRE

We were invited to a free preview showing of Wreck It Ralph before Christmas in order to write this post. All opinions are our own.