I've survived!

Well the day has finally arrived! My parents get back from their 2 week holiday late tonight and I have just about survived.

Despite:
My OH doing a week of nights (which meant getting in from work AFTER son had gone to nursery and waking up in time for dinner but leaving for work before the BATH and BEDTIME arguments).

A trip to my BFF's for her daughter's (my god daughter's) 3rd birthday party. 5 hours trapped in a car with son with no other adult to entertain him - and no knitting to keep me same because I was driving. I experienced the fact that my son's behaviour deteriorates directly in proportion to my desire for good behaviour.

My OH finishing his night shift and GOING FISHING! - OVERNIGHT - FOR 3 DAYS. On the final day he was summoned home after I told him if he stayed away a second longer one or both of us would be missing when he got back.

My reward - son hasn't left his dad's side for 3 days. Has been displaying all his bad behaviour traits (that I was 'imagining') and added demands for cuddles at 3am.

The bad side - husband has expanded his childcare repetoire from sticking him in front of the TV to buying him a Thomas the Tank Engine PC game and sticking him in front of the computer so they still haven't left the house to let me get on with some work.

My parents don't know it yet but we'll be on their doorstep as soon as nursery finishes tomorrow.

The holidays are coming

I spent 3 1/2 hours in a fundraising meeting yesterday morning and I'm in charge of the children's craft stalls so I'll probably try making some of Sarah's play dough - there's a link at the end of her post to her book of play recipes which might come in handy over the school holidays.

So far today I've confiscated several games and threatened to cancel his birthday on Thursday and his party on Saturday (dangerous as I can't follow through) but tonight he was asleep before 9pm (he was still awake at 11pm on Saturday - despite being put to bed at 7!).

Tomorrow I am tackling the train cake - the air might be blue!

Planning a holiday

Planning a holiday is like a military operation nowadays. Because we are visiting my sis in law ALL of my OH family have rung up with 'can you take ...?' recently. They have been a bit flabergasted at my response of 'no'. They seem to think that as we are taking a 'small person' who will have the same baggage allowance as us that THERE WILL BE LOTS OF ROOM. I don't need to tell you that they either don't have children or it was a long time ago that they did :-)

Because of the stopovers we will be taking 4 flights each of around 12 hours with a gap of at least 3 days in between. Part of the journey will be with British Airways and part with Quantas - this is the start of the problem - we have more baggage allowance with BA and also more hand luggage but the rules haven't been relaxed with Quantas. So although it appears that we have more luggage allowance, we don't, unless we dump half our stuff en route.

These same relatives have been buying cute little outfits for DS to wear on his trip - we have about 30 pairs of shorts for a 21 day trip - and will expect photos! Once you factor in all the suncream, swimming equipment and nappies for bedtime and swimming in the pool I don't think there is going to be much room for carrying things too heavy to post. Not to mention that we will also be carrying the buggy.

With only 4 days to go I'm starting to worry about the flight - not just keeping a 3 year old entertained for so long (his Christmas presents of a Fisher Price FP3 player and a LeapPad Leapster should help) but I keep having nightmares about the toilets. You see after months of struggle our DS is toilet trained and can go without a nappy in the day time but airline toilets are scary for an adult - or it was for me en route to New York when the lights went out and I couldn't get out - let alone a child! The last time we flew with him he was 15 months and hated being changed in the toilets because of the noise. I'm terrified it will undo all our hard work.
We've already decided to take the dummy - the last vestige of babyhood that we've managed to confine to bedtimes but haven't quite gotten rid of yet - for the sheer sake of a quiet life (and I don't think the other passengers would appreciate the tantrums that usually occur when he is denied it).

At the moment he is really excited because he is going to see his auntie and nursery have said that he can take their mascot (a stuffed lion) on the trip (oh great another thing to worry about losing!) with us.

So my next post maybe from our first stop off proclaiming that we're never going on a plane again and are staying there for the duration!