November 2010

Second Child Syndrome: Weaning

by geekmummy on November 23, 2010

We started weaning the geekdaughter at 6 months. To the day. As per current guidelines. In all honesty she was showing signs of being ready from about 5 months, and we kept her going to 6 months by using “hungry baby” formula milk and my own stubbornness. Prior to the big day, I read all the books and guidelines, and had everything planned out. We’d start with baby rice, then move on to puréed fruits and vegetables, introducing one new food every two days in order to check there were no allergic reactions to anything. I still have the notes I kept of what she ate and when for the first couple of months.

When the big day arrived, the geekdaddy and I got all prepared. The geekgranny came over to join in as well. We all crowded around the geekdaughter, sitting in her Bumbo, and we gave her her first ever taste of real food. She loved it! The geekdaddy took pictures, we all clapped, it was great.

The geekdaughter enjoys her first meal

I’m noticing that a lot of things happen differently when you have a second child. The geekson was 25 weeks on Sunday, and I’ve said all along that if he looked ready for weaning early I wasn’t going to doggedly hang out until 6 months again just to follow guidelines. However, in contrast to his older sister, he really hasn’t shown any interest in food, or been showing any hungry signs. So it looked like we were going to hold out until 6 months anyway.

We’re in the habit of eating our main meal together as a family at lunchtime at the moment, mostly because we can – with the geekdaddy working from home and me on maternity leave, we’re all around, and it frees up our evenings a bit. The geekson is in a much more predictable routine than his big sister was by this age, and is always awake over lunchtime, so for the last couple of weeks he’s been joining us at the dining table to watch what we’re doing. I even gave him a sugar snap pea to play with at one point, which he rather half-heartedly put into his mouth, and then dropped on the floor.

So I was planning to wait until next week, when the geekson was 26 weeks, and start on the baby rice. Well, Sunday just gone we went over to the geekgranny’s house for Sunday lunch. The first time since the geekson was born, and it was lovely. We got to pudding, and there were some stewed pears. The geekson had been getting fidgety, and so was sitting on his daddy’s lap, and playing with a teaspoon. And in a very impromptu and off the cuff kind of way, we decided to see what he thought of pears. Well, to be fair, it was mostly the geekdaddy and the geekgranny’s idea – I was still all for holding off another week.

The geekson gave the pears a good go. He had some of the juice quite happily, wasn’t convinced about the mushed up solid parts, but he tried.

So yesterday I was still in two minds as to whether to continue what we had kind of started, or whether to hold back for that last week. Until I got the geekson up from his morning nap. I brought him downstairs, and the geekdaddy was just having a bowl of cereal. I couldn’t stop the geekson from reaching out and grabbing the bowl, and he was definitely very interested in the whole thing. So after his lunchtime bottle I gave him a bit of baby rice. And he did very well, eating quite a few spoonfuls. About halfway through I called the geekdaddy in and he took a few pictures.

Nowhere near the pomp and ceremony of first time round, but lovely and probably more relaxed. The second child doesn’t always get the short end of the stick.

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Review: Lazy Larry Lizard for iPad and iPhone

by geekmummy on November 21, 2010

I’m still on the quest to find decent children’s books for iBooks or Kindle, as previously mentioned. I’ve not had any success with that, but there are an increasing number of books being released as “Stand-alone” apps, and there are some great ones out there.

I can’t remember how I found Lazy Larry Lizard for iPad by Wasabi Productions, but I’m glad I did. It’s an interactive story of a lazy lizard where the reader is encouraged to poke the lizard to wake him up at regular intervals. Thankfully the story ends happily with the reader stroking the sleeping lizard instead. The story is a good length, and keeps the three-year-old geekdaughter engaged throughout. You can choose to read the story yourself, or to have it read to you, and here’s one of the things that sets this app apart from the similar offerings that are available. The narrator is a lady with a lovely, warm Australian accent, very clear and easy to understand. The geekdaughter has played this book over and over again, and I am still quite happy to listen it, which can’t be said about all of her apps!

The main thing that sets this app apart however is the quality of the animation. Each illustration is beautifully drawn, and the movements that Larry makes when interacted with are really well done. I must confess I have been known to take a trip through this book when the geekdaughter isn’t around, just to appreciate the cute sounds and the smooth movements of Larry! Navigation is very easy as well – to turn each page all you need to do is tap the bottom corner of the page. Bottom right to move forward, and bottom left to move back. Although the geekdaughter is pretty good at “swiping”, that action still stumps her in some book apps, but she has had no trouble navigating her way around this app.

The new "Leapin' Larry" game

A recent update to the app has also introduced a little game – “Leapin’ Larry” – where you have to make Larry jump over various obstacles that get in his way. The geekdaughter has only tried this once, and she got the idea very quickly – the controls are very easy – but didn’t quite have the coordination to get the lizard to jump at the right time. She did get a lot of enjoyment from making the lizard jump though, and I think she’d quite happily play the game without any obstacles at all – she’d just get the lizard to jump again and again!

The only slight complaint I have about this app (and it is a very small one) is that the lizard can only be interacted once per screen of story. Quite often the geekdaughter wants to poke Larry the minute she can see him, and he does his cute movements, but then the narrator will encourage her to poke him but that doesn’t work.

I think Lazy Larry Lizard is excellent value at £2.39, and you can get it from the

Lazy Larry Lizard - now available on iPhone

And there is good news for iPhone owners as well. Until recently, Lazy Larry Lizard was an iPad only app, but the author has just released an iPhone version. This is the same story and narration as the iPad version described above, with just one small change. Due to screen size limitations, the book is displayed by showing the page of text first, followed by the animation, rather than displaying both at the same time as on the iPad. This actually addresses my small complaint above, in that the geekdaughter can’t poke the lizard too early, as the animation is not displayed until the right time, so I think this adaptation works really well.

Lazy Larry Lizard for iPhone is FREE for a short while, so there really is no excuse not to get it from the

My thanks to Graham from Wasabi Productions for giving me permission to reproduce images from his website in this post. If you hop on over to Wasabi Productions web site you’ll be able to see a video of the Leapin’ Larry game, and also read about his future planned releases – there should be another two books out before Christmas! Graham has also been kind enough to share with me a sneak peak at the animations for Ten Giggly Gorillas and they look to be of a similar high quality to Larry Lizard – I can’t wait for the whole book!

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Cybermummy 2011 – I’ve put my money where my mouth is

by geekmummy on November 17, 2010

I’ve been hesitating over actually paying for my Cybermummy 2011 ticket because my beloved husband, also known as the geekdaddy, suddenly expressed an interest in coming along too. This immediately added a level of complication, as we’d have to sort out childcare arrangements if we both wanted to go. Personally I think he just likes the idea of being surrounded by a roomful of (mostly) women!!

We finally decided… to put off the decision for a bit. We agreed that I would buy my ticket, and get my own hotel sorted out, and then if he was still interested in coming along and we could sort out childcare we could pay for him later. I’d actually quite like this to be my own thing, after all he has a lot of his own things, mostly photography-related. And it’s so unusual for me to feel brave enough to do something like this on my own that I’d like to actually do it on my own, you know?

So today I purchased my “early bird” ticket. And at the end of the month I’ll get my hotel booked. I’m probably going to try to get into the London City Travelodge – does anyone know when the next Travelodge room sale will be?

Looking forward to meeting loads of other mummy (and a few daddy) bloggers there!

*squee!*

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Potty Training Take 2

by geekmummy on November 16, 2010

I wish there was some kind of geeky way to make potty training easier, I really do. An iPhone app, or techie device that would help the geekdaughter learn about correct use of the toilet. But I haven’t found anything yet, so I’m stuck to doing things the more traditional ways. And as time goes on I’m starting to sympathise more and more with my friend Jana and her opinions on the subject… In fact the comments of mine on that post sound rather naive now…

We had our first go at potty training the geekdaughter about a month ago. She’d just moved up into the pre-school room at nursery, where pretty much all the other kids are potty trained already. She’d shown some interest, and was able to sit on the toilet and produce a wee when required. So I stocked up on “big girl” knickers, and we gave it a go.

I was prepared for the accidents, but I wanted to see some signs that she was learning. After a week, when she still seemed unaware when her knickers were wet or dirty, the final straw for me was her both wetting and dirtying her knickers no more than 30 minutes after she’d successfully produced a wee on the toilet. Not once during that week had she asked to sit on the toilet, and more often than not I was arguing with her about whether it was time to go.

So the sticker charts went away, as did the big girl knickers. The pullups came back, and she and I were much happier that way.

This morning, for the first time, she said to me that she wanted to wear big girl knickers again. We had a little chat about what that would mean, and decided we’d give it another go.

I was optimistic when, early on in the day, she told me she had caterpillars in her bottom. We tried sitting on the toilet, and she produced a wee. Excellent! She then went on to have two accidents, but both times knew she’d had them as soon as they happened - “Mummy, I leaked”. We had a bit of a wobble around lunchtime when she refused to try sitting on the toilet before lunch, and I felt ready to get the pullups out again, but we got around that, and she managed to stay dry until her afternoon nap.

This afternoon things went a little pear-shaped, when, about 30 minutes after successfully using the toilet, she proceeded to both wet and dirty herself, and apparently didn’t notice until I pointed it out. I’m still worried that she hasn’t developed the right amount of bladder control – surely she should be able to go more than 30 minutes between wees?! – and I’m still fighting the urge to put her back in pullups. I’m hoping if we stick with it for a few days she’ll start learning how to anticipate the times that she’ll need the toilet, and will hopefully stop having the accidents. Given that she know exactly what is expected when she sits on the toilet, and can usually produce something “on demand”, the approach I’m taking this time is to offer a reward for keeping her knickers clean and dry for a particular period of time, rather than giving stickers for successful toilet use.

We’ll see how it goes, but, *sigh*, I’m apprehensive…

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Toddlers and iPhones

November 7, 2010

This post is inspired by Momlogic’s article iPhone: A Toddler’s BFF? posted on October 20th 2010. Comments in this post prompted me to find and read the American Academy of Pediatrics policy statement on Children, Adolescents, and Television which is referred to. I have seen similar guidelines issued in the UK, but my Google-Fu has failed [...]

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Inspiration when I needed it the most

November 5, 2010

I’ve been taking part in NaPodPoMo (National Podcast Posting Month) using Audioboo, and yesterday my topic was about how I seem to start lots of things, have a rush of enthusiasm, but then lost my momentum and motivation. I have several examples of that, not least this blog. As if in answer to my prayer, [...]

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