And Then You Were 3 (and a half)...An Eliot Update

This update has been sitting in my drafts since just after you turned three back in June but I just haven't got round to writing it! So it's more of a three and a half update!

General/Milestones

You have progressed soooo much since I wrote your last update , I'm not even sure where to start!
You are a real chatterbox and your vocabulary has continued to grow, people have commented how well you talk for your age. You started reading print in the environment last year when your were two. Back in November 2015 Grandad told me you pointed to a jar of marmalade and said 'Tesco' as that's where it was from and you recognised the branding. Since then you have learned pretty much all the supermarket names as well as other familiar print that is seen out and about. Whenever we drive by a supermarket lorry, you always call out the name of the shop.

You still enjoy stories, especially at bedtime although you often request the same couple of books for several nights running! I bought you some alphabet cards and have gone through letter sounds with you, although we haven't done this for a long time! You recognise a few sounds but are definitely more interested in numbers at the moment. You count to 14 before getting muddled and recognise numbers to 12 and a few random numbers that you've seen on buses, like 88!
At the moment you're not really interested in 'writing' but will usually happily 'write' in cards for people, holding the pen/pencil/crayon with your whole hand.
Not much has changed with what you most enjoy playing with, you're still obsessed with buses and trains but you have also developed a liking for Toy Story after we went on your first holiday abroad to Disneyland Paris in the summer.

You play with different children at pre school now and often talk about them at home. It was lovely to hear that you've become 'best friends' with a little boy who struggled to settle at his previous nursery but you have helped him get used to his new setting. You do have a lovely caring side to you.
You are very confident and will happily talk to anyone and will wander off which worries me!

We've seen the podiatrist a couple of times but she's not worried about your walking on tiptoes and doesn't think you have any problems with your feet. It has improved a great deal and you don't do it very often anymore.
We have two big battles at the moment, potty training and your behaviour. Back in the summer you deiced all by yourself to use the potty by yourself to go for a poo and then did one again after that, you were so proud! Since then you have not been keen on the idea of using a potty or toilet, I thought you would get into the swing of it with your friends at pre school but unfortunately you got yourself in a bit of a state getting upset and holding wee in for hours, so we have stopped trying for the moment.

You continue to be a happy little chap, but your behaviour can be extremely challenging, you are a 'threenager' for sure!

You woke up with chicken pox on Christmas day but I suppose  a good thing is that we've got it out of the way now. I was due to book your immunisation boosters but have delayed that due to you having chicken pox. I'm dreading it because you have  massive needle hatred and hated having the meningitis jab.

Celebrating your 3rd Birthday with a trip to the transport museum

 Eating

Overall you are a pretty good eater, your current favourite has to be cheese sandwiches which you request way too much! You still enjoy pasta, yoghurt, cucumber and all the naughty things that you shouldn't eat too much of. Your love of banana has dwindled and you rarely eat it but you have begun to eat cooked carrot. I do know you eat more of fruit and veg at pre-school.
 

Sleep

You haven't napped for a very long time but I still  think you could do with a short one as you often fall asleep if we're in the car.

At night you usually sleep through but there are occasions when you wake up crying but you usually settle fairly quickly. I do have to stay with you until you fall asleep at bedtime.

 

Weight

You haven't been weighed recently.

Having fun at the river festival

Clothes

You are wearing clothes in sizes 3-4 and 4-5 years. It can vary so much though depending on where the clothes are from. 

Likes/Dislikes

Likes...

•  Trains & buses (still)
•  Toy Story
• Dinosaur Train (TV progamme)
•   Harrassing Mimi which upsets mummy...alot
• Playing with daddy

Dislikes...

• Hand dryers (still) although you use the one at pre school apparently
•  Smoke alarms
•  The dark.
• being told off
• consequences

The Parent Pod Launching Tonight 6pm!

I am so excited to be part of a brand new parent You Tube channel, The Parent Pod launching tonight at 6pm.

The lovely Hayley from Sparkles & Stetchmarks posted on Facebook a couple of months ago asking who would like to be involved in a new collaborative You Tube channel. I really enjoy making videos so was really keen to be part of an online community for parents.

We will be covering a range of topics aimed at parents with children of all ages from birth stories, to toddler life, to the teen years!

 

You can view our trailer below

You can subscribe to our channel here and keep up to date with new videos by following us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

 

Our Break At Disneyland Paris

As a child I would plead to visit Disneyworld in Florida, it was somewhere I'd always heard about being magical and was eager to visit and meet all the characters. When I was 15 my mum and dad took me there over Christmas but I was a moody, hormonal, unappreciative teenager then and don't think I truly appreciated the magical experience I was lucky enough to have.

It hadn't really crossed my mind to visit Disneyland in Paris until I noticed a bargain deal one Sunday afternoon. It came out at less than £500 for the three of us to stay in Disney's Santa Fe Hotel with breakfast, three day hopper passes into both parks and included return ferry crossing during the school holidays. I then priced it on the Disneyland Paris site and it came out at over a £1000 but that did include dinner.

It seemed like a no brainer as we wanted a summer getaway out of England and knew it would appeal to Eliot so I booked it.

On the 7th of August we headed down to Dover which was a fairly long drive but we were pleasantly surprised we didn't encounter any horrendous traffic like had been reported a couple of weeks earlier.

 The crossing was smooth and took around an hour and a half. Eliot absolutely loved being on the ferry and couldn't keep still, a success for the start of his first break abroad!
We then embarked on the three and a half hour drive to the hotel which I wasn't looking forward to!
 Thankfully there wasn't much traffic but as France is an hour ahead it meant our arrival would be pretty late. We stopped off for food around 8:30pm at a motorway service station but there wasn't a lot on offer and it seemed to be winding down for the evening so we decided to try the next service station which turned out to be closed. So that's something to note if you're planning a trip to France and arrive in the evening. The petrol garages were still open so you could still get hold of sandwiches. Unfortunately there wasn't anything Eliot would have eaten so we continued our journey hoping to come across a McDonalds! As we were switching motorways coming up to Paris there was a sign for KFC which also turned out to be a couple doors down from a McDonalds so dinner was finally sorted even if it was really late!

We finally arrived at the Santa Fe hotel just before midnight, we were all knackered! We were greeted by security after they'd finished rolling their eyes at me because I attempted to drive in on the wrong side! I was still getting my bearings driving on the other side of the road. Security checked our booking and looked in the boot of the car before allowing us to enter.
Next stop was reception where we were met by a very pleasant 'Disney Cast Member' who gave us our park tickets and character breakfast tickets along with a map and our room key. The hotel was a lot bigger than I imagined with different 'blocks' all named after the characters in Disney's cars, we were in McQueen!
After a little bit of faffing with the room key card, we were finally in! 

 The room was immaculately clean with the theme of cars throughout. There was plenty of space to put things away with a rail for hanging clothes along with a large chest of drawers. There was a safe for locking away valuables but we didn't use it as the other half had read a review about things being stolen, I'm not sure if it was one review or more but we kept our money and passports with us.
There was a TV with mostly French channels but a couple were in English and two double beds.

The bathroom had clean towels and complimentary toiletries, I just loved the hair and body wash with the Mickey Mouse ears lid! There was also a hairdryer in there which I wasn't expecting which was very handy as I hadn't bought my own. There was a bath with a shower which was ideal for us as Eliot has a shower phobia! 

Even though it was so late Eliot was so excited being in a new room it took him a while to get settled, even when he was in bed it took him ages to get to sleep considering he hadn't napped at all during the long journey.

I didn't sleep till a lot later and didn't have the best nights sleep, I was worried Eliot was going to roll out of the bed and the fan on the ceiling was a bit loud. Still, I woke up earlier than planned before my alarm went off!

Once we were all ready we headed to the buffet breakfast which is served between 7:30am and 11am. We arrived just after half past 10 which meant we had missed the most congested time (between 8:30am & 9:30am). There were four different cereals to choose from, three of them being sugary ones and Special K. There were obviously croissants, pain au chocolate  along we little French bread rolls and bread to toast. There was also mixed fruits, cheeses and meats. There were coffee machines and orange & apple juice dispensers to help yourself to as many beverages as you needed. We enjoyed breakfast here and took our left over croissants with us for snacks later on.

After breakfast we left to get the free shuttle bus to the Disneyland parks, the pick up point was near reception. As we walked through  reception I swiftly noticed a theme park style queue of people who had just arrived to check in. I felt relieved we'd arrived the night before, missing the queue madness! 

I would definitely stay at the Hotel Santa Fe again and recommend it to families particularly those whose kids are Cars fans!

We were dropped at 'Marne La Vallee Chessy' train station, a couple of minutes to the entrance for the Disney Village. It took under ten minutes to get there and with the shuttle buses running from 7am until 1am it means you can relax about getting to and from the parks.

Before you can enter Disney Village there is a security point to go through, bags get checked through an x-ray machine and you walk through a metal detector. It was always very swift and we were through in no time at all on every visit.

We decided to head into the Disney Studios first of all, I'd been enticed by the Hollywood Tower Of Terror which I'd gone on in Florida but wasn't brave enough to go on by myself  this time! The other half did though.

Whilst Eliot and I waited for the OH (as the queue time was only 15mins), we wandered around seeing what rides we could go on next. Eliot also managed to get his photo taken with Goofy which was quite lucky as it can be tricky meeting the characters around the parks without queuing or waiting for a long time. We seemed to be in the right place at the right time.

Once the OH had finally been on the Hollywood Tower of Terror we went on the Studio Tour ride which was one of my faves, as well as seeing lots of different props from various films you experience some of the special effects that are carried out on sets.

Part of A set on the studio tram tour

We then ventured to 'Playland' where the theme was the wonderful Toy Story. There were a few rides there but Eliot would only go on the Slinky Dog ride.

On Slinky Dog!

 After that we ventured to where the rather popular 'Ratouille' ride was. The queue was rather long, as Eliot had already had mini meltdowns queuing up we decided to find a ride that had a shorter queue.

We went on the a 'Cars' ride and also flew on Aladdin's magic carpet which for some reason made me feel quite emotional!

After that we headed into the main Disneyland Park which you enter under the Disneyland Hotel, once you put your passes through you walk onto Main Street USA. The OH and I were very quickly 'wowed' by Sleeping Beauty's Castle. There really is a 'magical feeling' when you step into Disney!

There are four different themed areas in addition to Main Street USA, Frontier Land, Adventure Land, Fantasy Land and Discovery Land. Fantasyland is where the majority of rides suitable for children are. You'll find the likes of the teacups, a carousel, flying elephants and the famous 'It's A Small World'. However there are rides in all areas that smaller children are able to go on. 

 There are several places to eat around the parks and in the Disney Village. There are price ranges but as you'd expect the lowest priced places to eat are still pricey. We paid just under 90 euros for the three of us to eat in the Plaza Gardens buffet restaurant. The food was ok, nothing special there were different dishes to choose from including meat, fish pasta and salad. The best thing about it was the dessert selection! Personally I wouldn't pay to eat there again, we really wished we'd researched dining options carefully!

We stayed in the Disneyland park till about half 10 as we wanted to see the fire works but we were all shattered and as we had to be up earlier to go to a pre-booked character breakfast we decided to leave and stay later the next night.

The next morning just before 8am we arrived at Café Mickey in the Disney Village for a character breakfast. I'd pre-booked when I booked the holiday. It was buffet style like at the hotel. There was hot breakfast available as well as a selection of cereals, meats, cheeses, pastries, fruit.
While people were eating or queuing for their breakfasts Mickey, Mouse, Goofy, Pluto and after the two chipmunks appeared, they made their way around the restaurant signing autographs and having pictures taken. As you can see from Eliot's face in the pictures, it was well worth the experience, he was so excited! I was disappointed there were no more characters, I really thought there would and should have been more characters like Donald Duck and Minnie to accompany Mickey! Still Eliot thoroughly enjoyed the experience and that was the main thing.

After meeting the characters Eliot had his first pony ride at Disney's Hotel Cheyenne which was next to our hotel. Eliot had seen the ponies the day before and had asked to ride one. Children had to be three and over and a certain height to be able to ride.

It was 6 euros for something ridiculous like a minute and a half but the staff weren't strict and let me walk the pony round for longer.

After that we caught the train into Paris which took longer than I expected (over an hour to the Eiffel Tower). I wasn't keen on going as the OH and I had visited in 2009 and apart from the train ride it wouldn't be as appealing as Disney to Eliot. The OH was desperate for 'escargots' and wanted to see some of the sights again. After a quick visit to the Eiffel Tower and lunch I decided to bring Eliot back to Disneyland. I also wanted to make sure we got back for the Parade.

We got back into the park about half 4 and people were already sitting down on the pavements ready for the parade at half 5, so I found us a spot on Main Street USA. I was concerned about keeping Eliot in one place waiting for an hour. I had some snacks that kept him occupied and luckily had a couple of toy cars with me too. He did sprawl himself out over the floor wheeling them along, accidentally kicking people as he moved around but it kept him busy.

Waiting for the parade

The OH arrived back from Paris just in time for the parade. It was amazing, if you visit make sure you make time to get a good spot to see it, it really is not to be missed! Disney pull out all the stops and the atmosphere makes it an unforgettable experience!

After the parade we headed for some more rides and spent the rest of the evening in the Disneyland Park.

View from the castle in 'Alice's Curious Labrynth'



Flying a rocket in Discovery Land

We stayed until around 11pm and watched the water and light shows on Sleeping Beauty's castle. They were fantastic, really worth staying up to see even if you are shattered!

The next day was sadly our departure day but we didn't have to leave to get our ferry till around 3pm so after breakfast, packing up the car and checking out we headed to the Disney Studios. The park was a whole lot busier than it had been on our first visit and plans to go on some of the rides we hadn't been on went out the window as the queues were really long. After a ride on slinky dog we made our way back into the Disneyland park for our last few rides Then when it was time we all left reluctantly!

I highly recommend visiting Disneyland Paris, we thoroughly enjoyed it and are planning to go back in the future. It really was a magical experience and so special for children.

Here's part 1 of our trip to Disneyland, lookout for part 2!



Have you visited Disneyland Paris?



Joules Summer Sale Picks

This time last year I was not enthusiastic about buying any clothing for myself as I didn't like the way I looked and only felt comfortable in clothes I was 'used to'. If I did try anything on I'd usually be left feeling miserable and rubbish about myself.

This year I'm much more excited about buying clothes for myself, since May I have lost 1st 10lbs and feeling blooming great for it! And now that we seem to finally be getting some Summer weather I've been enjoying some online browsing and making a wish list for myself.

I love the Joules Sale clothing range and have been adding some gorgeous bits to my online basket! Here's what's caught my eye.



 Amelie Dress

I am a huge fan of floral prints, especially in the summer and I just adore this 1950's style dress with capped sleeves. I love how feminine it is and how well the colours work together. I know this type of fit flatters my figure too so already feel confident it would look great. I would team it up with some summer sandals for a day out, if I had any weddings coming up I would definiyely wear this as I think it's perfect!

 Iris Top

As you can see I'm definitely going for a floral theme, I just love the print and the pastel colours on this sleeveless top and think it would be perfect to dress down on a hot summers day like above or it could be dressed up for an evening with some heels. 



 Helena Floral Dress

This caught my attention as soon as I saw it, I like that there is cross over at the bust and think this fit would be flattering too as it's fitted at the waist. Again I really like the colours and think they work well together.

What's caught your eye in the sales?

Our New Bathroom

Back in April, I wrote about our excitement about having a new bathroom fitted, it was something that had been on our 'to do list' ever since moving in. Our old bathroom had not been looked after by the previous owners and appeared to be much older than it actually was. It was a room that that my other half did not like to use and would frequently say 'it creeps me out'.

Thankfully since our new bathroom has been installed he is much more relaxed and we can have a bath (we wouldn't use the old bath!). It really has made a massive difference in our day to day lives!

Apart from the tiles, which we bought from Homebase we purchased everything from Victorian Plumbing.

My inspiration can from a variety if sources, browsing showrooms, other bloggers new bathrooms, my friends new bathroom and of course Pinterest!

From the outset I knew I wanted the brick tiles, I've always loved these and think they look fabulous. I wanted black grouting to give a bit of a contrast and not have too much 'white'. 



 We also wanted a built in toilet and sink, with a modern rectangular sink. After much browsing I found that Victorian Plumbing had the best value products that had caught my eye and I liked the fact there was a choice of delivery options.

So I went ahead and placed our order. We went for the Barmby Shower Bath with a hinged screen, even though shower screens can be a bit of a pain to clean I personally prefer the look and finish over a shower curtain.

I was immediately attracted to the Milan Thermostatic shower when I saw it. I love the large 'fixed' square shower head and equally love the smaller moveable shower head. It's so easy to use, you simply turn the bar backwards for the larger fixed shower head and forwards for the other one.

We ordered the Turin High Gloss White Vanity Unit Bathroom Suite, I couldn't wait to be able to hide lots of the bathroom bits in the cabinet.

To coordinate I ordered a bath and sink tap together which was the Milan Modern Basin Mixer and bath filler.

To ensure the bathroom had a more modern feel I also wanted a heated towel rail and went for the Diamond rail.

We also ordered radiator valves, the bath panel and bath waste.

We are all thoroughly enjoying our new bathroom, although it took Eliot a couple of baths to get used to the new one, he was asking for the old one back!

We still need to do a couple of things like paint the ceiling and get a blind fitted, which will be easy enough to sort quickly.

After that our next 'house job' is to get the downstairs toilet sorted, we had that ripped out over a year ago and had an idea of making it into a utility room but have decided it will better off as a toilet. Then we'd also like to sort the ensuite in our room but that won't be for a while.  

In my excitement of having a new bathroom fitted I also bought lots of bits to go in our new bathroom, you can watch the haul below to see what I purchased!



Have you had or are hoping to have a new bathroom makeover soon? I'd love to read about your ideas/see finished results!