Arty Farty

When it's been raining all week, and you’ve run out of all of the indoor rainy activities you can think of….time to commission your (nearly) 2 year old son to make a piece of art. Posca on canvas. I had visions of an abstract art piece to hang in the lounge room. Don’t get me wrong, I think he did pretty damn good, and if anything else he hella enjoyed it (and it occupied him for a good while). Maybe we can hang it in the hallway?

And daddy's poor posca’s. I think Austin sent them off to art heaven. It was a sweet death. 

The sweetest of summers

So after doing two looong winters in a row, summer has finally arrived (wooo!) and a little bit of vitamin d goes a long way in this rainy city.

Everyone goes a bit crazy; half days are given at work so that people can ‘soak up the sun’, it’s a holiday frenzy for young and old, and the sun doesn’t go down until 930pm (what the whaat). When there is even just a glimmer of sunshine people set up base camp at the park for the day. Deck chairs, books, picnics, portable bbqs. They may as well bring the kitchen sink with them.  

And now that Austin has learned what icy-poles are he is completely hooked (let's be real he likes sucking on ice cubes, so an icy pole must seem like a rainbow on a stick). And it is all fun and games until he pushes his callipo too far up and it splats on the floor. Don’t worry I think he will learn very quickly how to master the old callipo icy-pole.

I like piña colada's, dirty nappies and days by the beach

Ah, the things we do on holiday with our toddler. To anyone without kids they would seem oh, so very wacky. But this is just normal life people, nothing to look at here, keep it on moving! 

Just a few of our fave holiday past times are: 

• long walks along the beach holding hands... oh, oops I mean, long walks through back alleys pushing the pram to get your toddler to have his daytime nap
• afternoons spent lazing by the... couch indoors and out of the sun. Yep, this means coming home pretty damn pale
• acting like a one hour time difference is a gift sent from god. That's right, a one hour time difference means instead of your kid waking at 6am every morning you get to sleep in until 7am! (I am not even being sarcastic right now, this is actual pure joy)
• flying with 300 of your closest friends! Yay! Thomas and Lightning McQueen and Pepper and Mr Bulldozer and just about every single toy and book that will fit into every crevice of our beings
• perfecting your best 'I'm really trying my best but sometimes there is only so much you can do and my toddler will still keep crying no matter what I do' face when walking through quaint little towns
• treating midday nap time like a vacation from your vacation. Oh my god what are we gonna do for the next two hours? Go shopping? Go for lunch? Cocktails at a bar? Cocktails on the beach? Cocktails on the beach while having a massage? Eh, let's just fall in a heap and sleep. Yeah, that sounds good.
• Running around the pool like absolute mad people playing dinosaurs. Thank god we rented a house and weren't staying at a resort. Or actually I don't know, that could've been kind of funny too. Raaaaa.

I’m not gonna BS holidays are so different with our little man in tow, but they’re still fun as hell. 

You scream, I scream

You scream, I scream, we all scream for ice cream. And in the car seat, and in the middle of the night for no reason. You know, standard business for a toddler.

But we are all screaming (for joy) coz we really love Sitges. Its small and cute, with pretty beaches and tapas bars tucked away in laneways. And also every afternoon everything shuts up shop for siesta time (equally quaint and super annoying). We've eaten jamon, fromage, tapas and paella, fresh pastries, empanadas, whole fish, king prawns, 95 day dry aged steak (holy moses), beef tartare, tuna tartare, and just about everything under the sun. Let's just say the beach diet is in the toilet. 

4 tips for dining out with your toddler

We went out for a family dinner on Sunday night. Not gonna lie we were nervous as hell. Having a toddler at the table is like having your wildcard bestie from high school out on a bender. You never know what you’re gonna get.

The night did not go to plan. But hey, it was still a fab night out so, here are my top four tips on eating out with a toddler. But mind you, I think the best tip of all is to just roll with whatever life throws at you (food included).

1.     If you can call to make a booking always ask if they have high chairs and/or room for a pram. This gives a clear indication on whether you’ll be welcome with your toddler. (That’s right I said call, don’t be lazy like me and just check the website because there’s a high chance it hasn’t been updated. So then you’ll sit down and go ahead and order a drink and wait for the kitchen to open for dinner. But it will never open because they are CLOSING. That’s right they aren’t doing ANY DINNER SERVICE).

2.     Get there early 12 noon on the dot for lunch or 5pm dinner (yep total granny timeslots) this is gonna help you avoid the crowds with the messy, loud and potentially food throwing toddler. (Or if you’re us and didn’t do point 1 properly, now you will be behind schedule and have another restaurant to find PRONTO that will most likely be totes busy because you are way behind schedule.)

3.     Bring toys! Yep cars, and trains and paper and crayons, and stickers and whatever else you can grab in the dash to get out the door. And if you’re really struggling there’s always old trusty youtube. Not saying it’s going to win any parenting awards but it does buy a solid 20 minutes to eat your meal. (And hopefully you’re not like us sitting in restaurant number two for the evening and all of the toys have been played with and tossed aside and you are getting desperate. Time to get creative! Why not push coins through the slots of the table over and over again? Sounds pretty drab but GUESS WHAT it was a roaring success. Austin thought it was hilarious).

4.     Bring nappy wipes. Duh. (Yes, I forgot the wipes. Yes, he did a big stinker). 

Now with these tips in hand you can go out in to the world and nail your family dinner, woo! Or not nail it. And you know, just roll with the punches. 

I like to move it, move it

Ok, that is a complete lie! Well at least when the 'move it, move it' is referring to moving houses. Which is probably pretty obvs from the photos because we were only in the new place for 24 hours when I thought it would be a fabulous idea to go explore the park down the road. And wear a pretty dress. And take some toys. And have a picnic. Because I am totally practical like that.

Let me just say moving homes with a toddler is nowhere near as hard as moving homes with a toddler and a baby, or a toddler and several kids or even a toddler while being pregnant (which I'm not)... but it is most def harder than moving without any kids.

So if you are about to do the big ol' move yourself and wondering what to expect, a little list for you:

1. One thing is for sure when moving houses with a toddler you can feel confident that as soon as you've done one task your toddler will create an equally as big if not bigger task for you (woooo isn’t this fun?!) My favourite from the weekend was when Austin found the box of rice bubbles (why did I think they would be safely hidden under the sink? Why???), poured them on the couch and then tried to see how many he could push in to the cracks of the cushions. Turns out he is pretty good at pushing them in to the cracks. And they are so damn small. Even after vacuuming I’m still finding them hidden everywhereeee. 
2. Toddlers will not nap on this day (or if they do it will take a HUGE amount of effort to get them to do so) so don’t under any circumstances rely on this precious time for unpacking (or resting yourself).
3. If you let your toddler watch the van being packed, in particular his unboxed toys being carted off (wooden trike, push oven, scooter) he will go BANANAS over the horrible men who are TAKING AWAY HIS TOOOOYYYYSSSSS. Damn. Letting him watch at the window seemed like such a good idea.
4. Although you will finish the day exhausted but satisfied don't get overly excited for bed and sleep because you know that there will be little of it with the small one in a new area waking through the night calling out for maaaaaaaa
5. The toddlers room will of course look pristine and perfect by end of day one while the rest of the house is a maze of unopened boxes and piles of 'things to put away'

Here's to the next three weeks (or months... or ever??) of getting the rest of the house in order. 

They see me rollin'

Best £4 we've spent and he hasn't even worked out how to scoot on it yet. He does lurrve to push it, and point at it and get excited about it. And in his usual style, it probably looks like he is so very unimpressed here, but I really promise this is just his 'concentration/super interested/I've got a new thing to look at' face.

How is that less than two years ago this boy was a little helpless blob and now he's his own proper little human, with a scooter and all. Time really does fly when you're having fun. 

Pretty views on Primrose Hill

Sunday Funday didn't fail to deliver this week. We were off on an early start (always the aim, but not always the game), and got to the very pretty Primrose Hill right before the crowds arrived. Austin wasn't overly impressed by the view (and well I don't blame him, he is only 22 months after-all), but he did enjoy seeing the dogs that were on their morning walk, running down the hill and picking out little daisies from the grass (CUTE!). 

I can totally imagine having an evening drink sitting on this hill in summer, watching the sun set, bottle of champagne and picnic basket by our sides... HAHAHA YEAH RIGHT IN OUR DREAMS. But hey, we did get the early morning view which was pretty damn good. 

The Zoo is right nearby too but errrm we didn't go (it is high on our Summer to do list though). After the gardens we walked down Regents Canal and landed smack bang in Camden Market. It was only 10am but who am I to deny my stomach from all of those AMAZING food stalls. So we ate sticky pork buns with crackling and slaw.... followed by ham and cheese croquettes. So very VERY satisfying. If I had room left over the cronut and donut stall would have had to watch out. 

Loving the holiday feels of an average weekend out and about. 

The queen of stuff-ups

Advice to me, from me (which would have been useful about a week ago in Edinburgh aka Edinbra):

1. When the hotel concierge suggests a fancy restaurant for dinner with your toddler, don't be fooled, this restaurant will be fancy (even at 5pm. Come on people, go home and come back for a normal people dinner).

2. When booking an apartment with the most amazing view of Edinburgh castle, ask yourself why does this apartment have this view? Is it because it is high up in the building? Does this mean it is up a flight of stairs? Or several flight of stairs? Coz woulda been hella good to know there was over 3 flights of stairs to carry up the suitcases, portacot, other various bags and oh yeah, Austin sleeping in his pram too. Massive d'oh. (And yes, I was in charge of all of the bookings). 

3. Make more of the time you have on holiday! Travel with a toddler can be stressful - trying to keep them occupied, happy, fed and dry... trying to stop them from running away in castles, pooing on the floor, and breaking all of the ornaments in the apartment you're in... you know just the usual but in an unfamiliar environment. But even worse is getting home and realising there were about 10 other sights you could've seen. Damn, damn, damn. (Mooooooore caaaaaaastles!)

What we did see of Edinburgh was pretty damn good though. Think castles, old buildings, princesses walking around…  ok no princesses but there may as well have been. I wish we had braved the bus trip to see the highlands as well but none of us really thought that would be ideal toddler territory so gave it a miss. Maybe next time we go, or when Austin is older, I don’t know, say in 20 years? 

Let's go Glasgow

Scotland was our Easter vacay destination with the fam. And I managed to convince hubby, and my parents and Austin (well let's be real that didn't require much convincing) to all come to Glasgow. Wooo. And then once they agreed I revealed that I had a sort of an ulterior motive (sort of, massively). A friends dancing competition on in Glasgow that weekend meant I intended to sort of (massively) sneak off for some catching up. 

So while I was mostly off at The Royal Concert Hall checking out the dancing hubby was in charge. And there was poo-gate. Yes that is a poo on the floor. And getting dressed-gate, and going-for-a-walk-gate and ..... uuuuh you get the idea. Poor hubby! But hey, as long as the place didn't burn down and everyone was still alive at the end of the day, I think it was a job well done.

We really didn't see as much as we would've liked between everything else, but we did see the Botanic Gardens and Byers street and the Concert Hall.... and then the train station as we left for part 2 of our holiday, Edinburgh. Talk about blink and you'll miss it. Glasgow was cute, and fun and really that's without us even seeing all of the main sights, so not bad eh?