Sprogzilla

Jun 29, 2012

Sprogzilla is Two!

So sorry for being MIA these last three weeks or so, we’ve had a lot on our plate here which I will perhaps explain in a later post. I don’t want to discuss it here, because I’d rather talk about the more positive event that was Sprogzilla’s second birthday!

We had a quiet day as usual, I’d hoped to have a little birthday do but it had to be on the weekend as Sprogdaddy is working. My closest friend couldn’t make it due to work commitments and our only nearby relatives were on holiday. That’s what you get for being born in the summer I guess. We’ll arrange a little gathering for him over the next couple of weeks, at this age it’s not terribly important that he has a party on his actual birthday. He did get to enjoy a rather tasty chocolate caterpillar cake along with some home-made fairy cakes though.

Please forgive the terrible composition of the photo, I had one chance to grab the perfect shot and realised I hadn’t setup the camera correctly! I bought a DSLR a couple of months ago and still haven’t figured out how to use it properly. It’s quite a learning curve! Only the night before did I figure out how to keep a subject in focus when taking videos. I miss my old camera in many ways….

Being that we’re skint these days, we couldn’t afford a lot of presents, but he instantly fell in love with the huge wooden barn we bought. A couple of his presents, a slide and a playhouse, had been opened early due to the nice weather. He also got a little bike, an animal torch and a trampoline from us and a selection of books from his Auntie. The weather was awful and rained all day, but we still had a great time. I’m glad I gave him some of the outdoor toys a bit early when the sun was shining, it would have been horrible to have him open them but not be able to play.

I’m particularly proud to say I’ve now been breastfeeding for two years. The difficulties of the early days are all but forgotten and I can barely believe I nearly gave up! I’ve no idea if we’ll make it to three, that’s up to the boy.

May 29, 2012

First Haircut!

Sprogmama hair, shopping Sprogzilla 0 Comment

Whoa there, Sprogzilla has had his first haircut at nearly two years old? Yes, it’s true. We love his gorgeous blonde hair and were loathe to cut it, but he was clearly uncomfortable with it sticking to his face in the hot weather.

Sorry about the quality of today’s photo, I forgot to take my DSLR and we had to resort to Sprogdaddy’s camera phone instead. Trust me to miss taking a decent photograph of an important milestone. We did remember to keep a lock of hair though!

I expected the session to be a bit of a nightmare, but he was no trouble at all sitting in the hairdresser’s chair. The whole thing took a little over ten minutes and I think he enjoyed being fussed over by three people. A couple of animal-shaped biscuits and mummy’s purse took care of the odd moments he got twitchy.

My goodness though, he looks like a completely different boy! I keep staring at him, it’s amazing how a change in hair style can make someone look so different. I miss the long locks if I’m honest, but it’s nice to have a change every now and then. I’ll get used to it soon enough, though it will be a while before we consider cutting it again. It’s weird, but he looks both younger and older at the same time.

We also nipped to our local second-hand kids/baby shop this afternoon. I didn’t realise just how few summer clothes we had for Sprogzilla, most of the ones we bought a couple of months or so ago are still too big for him so he’s back in 12-18 month kit for the time being. He has recently reached 80cm in height which is still right down on the 1st percentile, but at least he’s not off the bottom any more.

Now if only the sun would come back out and let us take that trip to the beach we were planning for today……

May 23, 2012

The Tootin’ Toddler

Sprogmama music Sprogzilla 0 Comment

Sprogdaddy made the boy a trumpet out of rolled up paper yesterday. It seems to have gone down a storm as Sprogzilla had great fun imitating us blowing into it. Pretty badly of course, but he certainly got an A+ for effort. That was, until he ate it. Unintentionally, he just stuck it in his mouth until it went all soggy and you can guess the rest.

I’m hoping he will enjoy music and not inherit his Daddy’s complete dislike of it. I’m restricted to wearing headphones whenever I fancy chilling out to some tunes, if I’m in the house alone I sometimes treat myself by pumping up the volume on the hi-fi! Sprogdaddy finds that music stays in his head and drives him crazy, plus he just doesn’t find it interesting. Odd and very annoying at times, but it’s not his fault.

Luckily the boy seems to appreciate music (see my earlier post for instance) and dances along to almost everything he hears these days.

May 19, 2012

Cannibal Sprogzilla

Sprogmama food Sprogzilla 0 Comment

Lately, Sprogzilla has developed an appreciation for those rather tasteless organic gingerbread men. Yesterday we went shopping and bought him a proper grown-up one, full-size and packed with refined sugar. Now we sound like dreadful parents, let me assure you we don’t give him this kind of treat very often. I prefer not to have a kid bouncing off the walls at bedtime.

He didn’t wolf it down quite as fast as expected, which hopefully means he doesn’t care that much for the sweet stuff, though it did take preference over the Organix box. He didn’t finish it until this morning, you can see the final remains in today’s photo.

What’s slightly disturbing is that he always bites the head off first and if he’s not bored by that point, the limbs come next. I caught Sprogdaddy trying to lure him into finishing one earlier. The choice was “lobotomised gingerbread man” or “decapitated gingerbread man”, the former having a large chunk of head missing. He didn’t care for either.

I don’t know whether that means he’s some kind of zombie toddler (mmmm… juicy brains!) or a reincarnated cat. Probably the latter as he tends to leave the guts lying all over the floor, which you can also see in the photo. Actually, he has quite a lot in common with cats, but I’ll come to that another day….

Perhaps I should offer some gummy bears or jelly babies and see how he eats those. Thinking about it, he’s always liked to rip the heads off broccoli stems and discard the rest.

Probably not a good idea to let him watch Silence of the Lambs. Ever.

May 14, 2012

Doctor In The House

Sprogmama play, toys, tv Sprogzilla 0 Comment

It was only a matter of time before Sprogzilla found Daddy’s collection of Doctor Who paraphernalia. So far he likes to play with the toy Daleks and this Tardis which lights up and makes sounds when you peek inside.

Doctor Who is a childhood rite of passage according to Sprogdaddy. It’s not really my cup of tea, although I sometimes sit down and watch the more exciting episodes. I even enjoyed Torchwood for a while, especially the two mini-series. I expect Sprogzilla will be indoctrinated into The Cult of Who as soon as he is old enough to understand what it’s all about.

My favourite Doctor was played by Sylvester McCoy. Don’t laugh, that was just my generation lol. I was a bigger fan back then in the 80′s and I really wanted to be Ace. Talking of which, isn’t it funny how she (Sophie Aldridge), her son and David Tennant are all in Tree Fu Tom? I digress…. Sprogdaddy, being a child of the 70′s, loved Tom Baker of course. In modern times, I thought Christopher Ecclestone was quite good (and Billie Piper made a great companion) while Sprogdaddy is enjoying Matt Smith’s current incarnation.

I love sci-fi, so I guess it’s a bit odd that I don’t enjoy the show more. It used to be more a kids and blokes thing I think, though that seems to have changed with the 21st century series. A lot of mums certainly seem to like it!

Perhaps when Sprogzilla is watching, it will become a family show for us and I’ll learn to appreciate it more. Won’t be letting him watch Torchwood any time soon though…..

May 12, 2012

The Lazy Sprog

Sprogmama naps, sleep Sprogzilla 1 Comment

Sprogzilla has developed an annoying habit of waking at five-thirty every morning for the last two or three weeks. We’ve tried putting him to bed earlier/later, making sure his room is dark, stuffing him with food and taking him out during the day. All completely in vain.

One of the side effects (for him!) is that he’s knackered by about 10am. I’ve had to bring his nap forward an hour, but as you can see by today’s photo, it’s still barely enough! Another five minutes and the monkey would have been slumbering away in his tent. I can’t let him nap too early because he won’t take a second and will be super cranky by dinner time.

You know, if kids just slept like ~~normal people~~ adults, I wouldn’t be so hesitant about having a second.

May 11, 2012

Tantrums and Trees

Sprogmama outdoors, play Sprogzilla 0 Comment

Today we decided to nip to the nearby village of Thornham, home to a large estate with miles of woodland walks. We’d been before, in the autumn of 2010, but were hoping to see some cattle this time as that’s what the boy is into nowadays. Sadly the only wildlife we saw was a couple of squirrels, a nervous peacock and some chickens.

On arrival, we went straight to the play area next to the car park. It’s quite cleverly laid out, with interesting equipment and a really wide slide built into a tree! The plan for the afternoon was to enjoy a brief wander around the estate, but we hit a snag when Sprogzilla did not want to leave the playground. His happy demeanour quickly changed to one of frustration and anger the second we tried to walk out the gate.

After carrying him a good half a mile as he squirmed, wailed and pointed back the way we came, we gave up and popped him in the pushchair. Once a peanut butter and marmalade sandwich was presented, he eventually calmed down and we enjoyed the rest of our walk.

The first photo is of me and the boy inside a “den” made out of fresh branches. I’m presuming it’s supposed to grow leaves at some point and look more like a hideaway. We shall have to return one day and see.

The second photo is of Thornham Church, a typically beautiful rural English church on a very tiny plot! I wanted to get a better picture, but with the uneven ground and an assortment of large trees and hedges, I couldn’t get a good vantage point.

May 9, 2012

Overtired & Poorly

Sprogmama doctor, illness, sleep Sprogzilla 2 Comments

My poor little monkey. For the last four days, he’s been having frequent, runny/mucousy poops that have varied from a lovely mustard yellow to a dark broccoli green. You didn’t want to know that, did you? Well, today there looks to be some pinkness in there too, so off to the doctor we went.

The surgery very kindly fitted us in with an appointment just before midday, which we were grateful for even though it’s bang-on Sprogzilla’s naptime. But I was not so pleased when, fifty minutes later, we were finally called into see someone. Goodness knows what the previous patient was up to, but he was in there for over half a bloody hour!

Anyway, the lovely doctor was very reassuring and not particularly worried. Looks like it’s probably gastroenteritis, but he’s sending off a sample to be tested as well. Have you ever noticed that doctors hate getting their hands dirty? We thoughtfully took in a couple of soiled nappies, but Sprogdaddy had to scoop out a sample and put it in a test tube before the doctor would so much as glance at it.

Following our visit to the surgery, we needed to nip to the post office and send an important letter. However, thanks to the delay, it closed just as we parked the car outside. Now Sprogdaddy has to drive to another village to get the darn thing posted.

It was now ninety minutes past the boy’s nap time, so naturally he nodded off in the car on the ten minute drive home and allowed Sprogdaddy a lovely photo opportunity. What a cutie.

1 2 3 4

Sprogzilla

Sprogzilla is Two!

First Haircut!

The Tootin’ Toddler

Cannibal Sprogzilla

Doctor In The House

The Lazy Sprog

Tantrums and Trees

Overtired & Poorly

Recent Comments

Networks

Sprogzilla

Popular Posts

Recent Comments

Networks