The Power of Sticker

I find it truly amazing that a little bit of shiny paper with some tack on the back has the ability to almost utterly control the behaviour of a 2&3/4 year old.

But it does. Even when the brain controlling the behaviour is half asleep, the voice still says "sticker", in a feeble and distracted manner.

Little Moo, bless her little cotton socks, has learned to climb out of her cot. Pitch black middle of the night or bright dawn, side all the way up or sitting on the bottom. Floods of tears or bright and bouncing. She's out.

Actually, to be fair, I kinda encouraged her. Showed her how and helped her a couple of times. I figured it was about time she was doing more than lying there waiting for us to come in in the morning.

Hm.

Well, it seemed a good idea at the time. And to be honest, I still think it was.

However, she's taken about five years off my life. Or at least the apparition that greeted me twice right outside our bedroom door at oh-dark thirty when I got up to go to the loo has. Or the one that appeared at the foot of our bed whispering "daddy....daddy". (Did I mention she's mastered bedroom door handles as well? Time to install doorknobs.)

Not on.

So one slightly tired morning I mentioned this little problem in passing to the excellent staff at the Welsh Nursery Of The Year (aka Marnie's Day Care). I got as far as "Not staying in -" when the lady said "Stickers! Stickers'll sort it." Yeah right, I thought.

After another couple of nights, Lil'Moo and I had a conversation, which ended in me promising her a sticker if she stayed in bed all night. I wasn't expecting much reaction, so the bright light that lit up the depths of her eyes and the "sticker" repeated rythmically as she drifted off to sleep kinda took me by surprise. OK, I thought. Well, we'll see.

Well, it didn't work out exactly from the get go. We had a bit of forgetfulness about the idea, and then about the time (it doesn't really make it better that she's asking for a sticker for staying in bed when she's standing at the bottom of our bed at what-the-hell-time-is-it?). And then a bit too much rigour in applying the idea, so that she lay in her cot screaming after a nightmare.

But gradually the idea's sunk in; she gets a sticker (and we get a massive grin and a bounce) each morning she kinda gets it right, and now she's pretty happy to be in her bed awake until we come in to get her - unless like last night, she has a bad dream and then the noiseless ghost appears again. But we can live with that.

The coda to all this? Advice from Day Care comes at a price. Daddy has to do a dance for the day care ladies each morning Lil'Moo gets a sticker. And given Marnie stomps in shoving her sticker in everyone's face yelling "STICKER!" whenever she gets one, there's no way of avoiding it. But if it means a peaceful night's sleep...

When I Grow Up, What Will I Be?

It's perhaps a little early to start thinking of Lil'Moo's long term future, but certain interests are (currently) strong in this one. These include:

• Trampolinist - Everywhere has to be bounced to (or on - speciality - the Moo-Slam!) by our little fizzy bottle of pop. Trampolines and beds just add extra height, although they do take the breath away when bouncing continuously for half an hour. Pretending to be a menagerie of animals while bouncing just adds to the respiratory problems.

• Assassin - A recently developed penchant for climbing up people's backs in the swimming pool and shoving their heads under water suggests a darker streak...

• Baker - Very keen on baking cakes and biscuits, which is great. As long as she actually manages to bake things rather than just eat all the raw ingredients.

• Climber - Anything, anywhere, any time, including people, faces, chairs, climbing frames, railings...

• There might be a touch of the mafia don in the mix too...

• ...and, surprise, surprise, there's shoes in there as well.

• Oh, and whatever she goes on to do, sounds like there'll be a bike involved. That's nothing to do with me, that's what she's told us. Every time a motorbike goes past. Bike and a hat, she says. So at least she's got the safety thing down. Sometimes.

But, according to the little lady herself, she's going to be - sorry, is - a boy.

Whatever else awaits her, I think there may be a shock waiting...

We're baaack (again) (maybe) (just don't count on it)

It's been a while, and I'd be surprised if any-one's reading this anymore, but maybe if we start writing again...well, it would be a start, wouldn't it? Anyway we will attempt to write more regularly.

So what have we been doing the in yawning chasm since the last time we wrote? Lots of stuff, really, seeing as it's been over a year. I'll try and fill in some of the more interesting stuff in the next few posts. A sort of Back to the Past in the Future, if you will.

But for the moment, a little on our trips around the UK this year:

• a (Glasgow) family holiday to North Wales (pics here). A week of Marnie being well-looked after, beautiful weather and visiting spectacular places like Prestatyn, Chester and Chester Zoo, Liverpool (much more impressive than we remember it), Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, Llangolen and the valleys, the Glassblobbery, Snowdon (on the mountain railway, of course) and Portmeirion (Much smaller than it appears on The Prisoner, very good camera work there, but what a place - that is what I call art on a grand scale)(pics), with a final visit to the sea at Rhyl (a downmarket Blackpool...)
• a week in Northumberland with friends (pics here), visiting Alnwick Castle, the peaceful Holy Island of Lindisfarne , the wonderful Cragside House and estate where Marnie got lift a mini (car) and ate in the fantastic Treehouse restaurant, which will now go down in history for those who were there.
• another week with the Ratagan family in West Wales (pics here) at St David's (if ever there was reason not to call a place a city just because it had a cathedral...) and the humbling Cathedral, Saundersfoot and Whitesands beaches (amongst many others this summer - South Wales is hooching with excellent beaches), Fishguard, Strumble Head and its ponies, Ramsey Island and the Boat trip, Tenby Dinosaur Park.

So, what with trips to Glasgow and London thrown into the mix as well, we've been about a bit this year. All this, work and raising a daughter too. How do we manage it, eh?