PLEASE we need your advice!!

Well another week has gone by and apart from some hearty colds my family has been fantastic, we celebrated my Nephew Alex’s first birthday with an awesome sunny family BBQ with all of my Hubby’s family. I made a giant teddy bears picnic cupcake for him.

And I was thrown back to my own childhood when all four cousins ranging from 4 to 1 year were popped in the bath together to save time and water, they all enjoyed it splashing and playing. They had all been playing barefoot in garden so you can imagine how dirty the water was at the end, as all adults in the bathroom showed their shock at how dirty their kids had been, the kids just did not seem to care!

Well this week ladies and gents I really need you to post your helpful tips and advice, my hubby are desperately trying to find a way to prize C away from her much loved Babies bottles at bed time. She is not a big eater and struggles to put on weight so she still has a bed time bottle (this I have to say is in no way helping getting her dry at night!). C turns 3 in October and we really feel it is time for the bottle and milk to go BUT she has become so dependent on the bed time milk to help her get to sleep I feel it is going to be a hard battle.

We have tried a lot of things like telling that only babies have milk and she is not a baby like her cousins she is a super big girl. We have offered her the milk in a variation of cups but they are just rejected and she cries for her bottle. We have tried just not giving her the milk at all and not mentioning it at bed time, but normally after half an hour she is crying for it and we are so tired that we give in, on the rare occasion she does fall asleep without it she wakes in the night crying for it, and to me this is worse as I hate interrupted sleep when we have only just got her sleeping through the night.
I know she is only 2 and half so maybe asking a bit much of her, but we have got her toilet trained and we would love to get rid of the night time nappy to but the milk at night is stopping us doing that and we really would like to have her totally dry by the time she is 3.

So please post your comments as we really do need some help with this one, any titbit of advice would be very welcome, and I will do a follow up blog letting you all know how we got on and what advice we found useful.
Thank you in advance
H,R & C

Out The Mouth of Babes!

Well I missed a week of writing my blog as I was ridiculously busy baking cupcakes for a yummy mummy event at a local spa in Brighton, it took up so much time but I loved every second and felt like my new venture was really happening Flour and Sprinkles is here for good. Little C is now convinced that all cupcakes made in our house are for her and has discovered the love of having the last little bit of butter cream frosting squirted into her mouth from the piping bag, it is her little treat for being so patient with me and all the baking I have to do and it is only ever a tiny bit so really does no harm (I hope!)

My blog this week is about the comedy lines my daughter comes out with as I really want to keep a record of some of the classics my beautiful and very articulate 2.5 year little C has come out with over the last few months, her speech is astounding and she never ceases to amaze me with her comments and one liners:

• While standing on a chair in a service station waggling both her fingers at us with a really stern look on her face “listen I will not be eating a ham sandwich and that is final!!”
• Man walking past us on the street at the top of her lungs “that man belongs to the church” me “why??” C “ because he is tall and he talks!”
• While walking past a church “look mummy Jesus, he lives in a castle with a dragon”
• Briefly waking up in the car searching for her dummy she giggles her head off just says “eew bogies” pops her dummy back in her mouth and falls straight back to sleep!
• That is just ridiculous Mummy!
• My daddy is at work; he works really hard and is a dude! (this was said to a random stranger at the park)
• When asked are you beautiful C she turns round looking horrified and like you are totally dumb and says “no I am a princess”
• When she does something wrong and you point it out she turns round and says “silly me”

My how she manages to make you feel so small sometimes yet have you in stitches the next!

Whilst booking our holiday the shop assistant started to admire the picture C was drawing and said “wow isn’t that a beautiful picture is it of Mummy and Daddy?” to which C replied with a look of pure are you stupid and a little humph “nooo it is dolphin cant you see that!” the tone of her voice was one of are you totally stupid? The shop assistant laughed and said she had never been cut to the quick so fast by a 2 year old, thankfully everyone found it quite funny.

While doing something she is not comfortable with C will chant “oh God” like when she goes down the waterslide at the swimming pool. And when she hits the water “goodness me”.

Sometimes is not so much what C says but the look on her face and the tone or intonation in her voice it is of a child much older than she is. I feel that when she hits her teens I am going to have a very hard time, if she can answer me back so well now what will she be like when hormones kick in!!!