4 tips for dining out with your toddler

We went out for a family dinner on Sunday night. Not gonna lie we were nervous as hell. Having a toddler at the table is like having your wildcard bestie from high school out on a bender. You never know what you’re gonna get.

The night did not go to plan. But hey, it was still a fab night out so, here are my top four tips on eating out with a toddler. But mind you, I think the best tip of all is to just roll with whatever life throws at you (food included).

1.     If you can call to make a booking always ask if they have high chairs and/or room for a pram. This gives a clear indication on whether you’ll be welcome with your toddler. (That’s right I said call, don’t be lazy like me and just check the website because there’s a high chance it hasn’t been updated. So then you’ll sit down and go ahead and order a drink and wait for the kitchen to open for dinner. But it will never open because they are CLOSING. That’s right they aren’t doing ANY DINNER SERVICE).

2.     Get there early 12 noon on the dot for lunch or 5pm dinner (yep total granny timeslots) this is gonna help you avoid the crowds with the messy, loud and potentially food throwing toddler. (Or if you’re us and didn’t do point 1 properly, now you will be behind schedule and have another restaurant to find PRONTO that will most likely be totes busy because you are way behind schedule.)

3.     Bring toys! Yep cars, and trains and paper and crayons, and stickers and whatever else you can grab in the dash to get out the door. And if you’re really struggling there’s always old trusty youtube. Not saying it’s going to win any parenting awards but it does buy a solid 20 minutes to eat your meal. (And hopefully you’re not like us sitting in restaurant number two for the evening and all of the toys have been played with and tossed aside and you are getting desperate. Time to get creative! Why not push coins through the slots of the table over and over again? Sounds pretty drab but GUESS WHAT it was a roaring success. Austin thought it was hilarious).

4.     Bring nappy wipes. Duh. (Yes, I forgot the wipes. Yes, he did a big stinker). 

Now with these tips in hand you can go out in to the world and nail your family dinner, woo! Or not nail it. And you know, just roll with the punches. 

I like to move it, move it

Ok, that is a complete lie! Well at least when the 'move it, move it' is referring to moving houses. Which is probably pretty obvs from the photos because we were only in the new place for 24 hours when I thought it would be a fabulous idea to go explore the park down the road. And wear a pretty dress. And take some toys. And have a picnic. Because I am totally practical like that.

Let me just say moving homes with a toddler is nowhere near as hard as moving homes with a toddler and a baby, or a toddler and several kids or even a toddler while being pregnant (which I'm not)... but it is most def harder than moving without any kids.

So if you are about to do the big ol' move yourself and wondering what to expect, a little list for you:

1. One thing is for sure when moving houses with a toddler you can feel confident that as soon as you've done one task your toddler will create an equally as big if not bigger task for you (woooo isn’t this fun?!) My favourite from the weekend was when Austin found the box of rice bubbles (why did I think they would be safely hidden under the sink? Why???), poured them on the couch and then tried to see how many he could push in to the cracks of the cushions. Turns out he is pretty good at pushing them in to the cracks. And they are so damn small. Even after vacuuming I’m still finding them hidden everywhereeee. 
2. Toddlers will not nap on this day (or if they do it will take a HUGE amount of effort to get them to do so) so don’t under any circumstances rely on this precious time for unpacking (or resting yourself).
3. If you let your toddler watch the van being packed, in particular his unboxed toys being carted off (wooden trike, push oven, scooter) he will go BANANAS over the horrible men who are TAKING AWAY HIS TOOOOYYYYSSSSS. Damn. Letting him watch at the window seemed like such a good idea.
4. Although you will finish the day exhausted but satisfied don't get overly excited for bed and sleep because you know that there will be little of it with the small one in a new area waking through the night calling out for maaaaaaaa
5. The toddlers room will of course look pristine and perfect by end of day one while the rest of the house is a maze of unopened boxes and piles of 'things to put away'

Here's to the next three weeks (or months... or ever??) of getting the rest of the house in order. 

They see me rollin'

Best £4 we've spent and he hasn't even worked out how to scoot on it yet. He does lurrve to push it, and point at it and get excited about it. And in his usual style, it probably looks like he is so very unimpressed here, but I really promise this is just his 'concentration/super interested/I've got a new thing to look at' face.

How is that less than two years ago this boy was a little helpless blob and now he's his own proper little human, with a scooter and all. Time really does fly when you're having fun. 

Pretty views on Primrose Hill

Sunday Funday didn't fail to deliver this week. We were off on an early start (always the aim, but not always the game), and got to the very pretty Primrose Hill right before the crowds arrived. Austin wasn't overly impressed by the view (and well I don't blame him, he is only 22 months after-all), but he did enjoy seeing the dogs that were on their morning walk, running down the hill and picking out little daisies from the grass (CUTE!). 

I can totally imagine having an evening drink sitting on this hill in summer, watching the sun set, bottle of champagne and picnic basket by our sides... HAHAHA YEAH RIGHT IN OUR DREAMS. But hey, we did get the early morning view which was pretty damn good. 

The Zoo is right nearby too but errrm we didn't go (it is high on our Summer to do list though). After the gardens we walked down Regents Canal and landed smack bang in Camden Market. It was only 10am but who am I to deny my stomach from all of those AMAZING food stalls. So we ate sticky pork buns with crackling and slaw.... followed by ham and cheese croquettes. So very VERY satisfying. If I had room left over the cronut and donut stall would have had to watch out. 

Loving the holiday feels of an average weekend out and about. 

The queen of stuff-ups

Advice to me, from me (which would have been useful about a week ago in Edinburgh aka Edinbra):

1. When the hotel concierge suggests a fancy restaurant for dinner with your toddler, don't be fooled, this restaurant will be fancy (even at 5pm. Come on people, go home and come back for a normal people dinner).

2. When booking an apartment with the most amazing view of Edinburgh castle, ask yourself why does this apartment have this view? Is it because it is high up in the building? Does this mean it is up a flight of stairs? Or several flight of stairs? Coz woulda been hella good to know there was over 3 flights of stairs to carry up the suitcases, portacot, other various bags and oh yeah, Austin sleeping in his pram too. Massive d'oh. (And yes, I was in charge of all of the bookings). 

3. Make more of the time you have on holiday! Travel with a toddler can be stressful - trying to keep them occupied, happy, fed and dry... trying to stop them from running away in castles, pooing on the floor, and breaking all of the ornaments in the apartment you're in... you know just the usual but in an unfamiliar environment. But even worse is getting home and realising there were about 10 other sights you could've seen. Damn, damn, damn. (Mooooooore caaaaaaastles!)

What we did see of Edinburgh was pretty damn good though. Think castles, old buildings, princesses walking around…  ok no princesses but there may as well have been. I wish we had braved the bus trip to see the highlands as well but none of us really thought that would be ideal toddler territory so gave it a miss. Maybe next time we go, or when Austin is older, I don’t know, say in 20 years? 

Let's go Glasgow

Scotland was our Easter vacay destination with the fam. And I managed to convince hubby, and my parents and Austin (well let's be real that didn't require much convincing) to all come to Glasgow. Wooo. And then once they agreed I revealed that I had a sort of an ulterior motive (sort of, massively). A friends dancing competition on in Glasgow that weekend meant I intended to sort of (massively) sneak off for some catching up. 

So while I was mostly off at The Royal Concert Hall checking out the dancing hubby was in charge. And there was poo-gate. Yes that is a poo on the floor. And getting dressed-gate, and going-for-a-walk-gate and ..... uuuuh you get the idea. Poor hubby! But hey, as long as the place didn't burn down and everyone was still alive at the end of the day, I think it was a job well done.

We really didn't see as much as we would've liked between everything else, but we did see the Botanic Gardens and Byers street and the Concert Hall.... and then the train station as we left for part 2 of our holiday, Edinburgh. Talk about blink and you'll miss it. Glasgow was cute, and fun and really that's without us even seeing all of the main sights, so not bad eh? 

Horsin' around

We took Austin to the Freightliners Farm in Islington on Saturday. It's a cute little farm not far from Islington/Highbury station. It's free to enter (woohoo) and has a heap of different animal displays. I have a sneaky feeling that as summer gets closer there will be more on display but even in the middle of winter there was still lots to oggle. 

Austin led the way (as he does) charging from one area to the next. Ducks. Hens. Cows. Goats. And the cat. This was by far the most interesting (according to his reactions). There were no horses (sorry people, my blog title is a bit misleading), but plenty of birds, sheep and rabbits rounded out the animal displays nicely.

Babycinos and cake before we left made for one happy little boy at the cafe. But with no card facilities and a decent walk to the closest ATM it's probs best to bring cash (yep, wish we had the heads up on that one). 

Things that make my toddler cry #everything

Ok, these photos are totally not crying photos, because Austin has been waaaay better behaved this week. And also, when he is mid-tantrum it is stress-city people, so I’m not all jumping for the camera.

But for anyone with a toddler you’ll know that the smallest of smallest of things can lead to a full-blown ‘category A’ meltdown. Oh no.

Which leads me to this, a list of things that make my toddler cry:

1.     That he’s tired

2.     That he’s tired but doesn’t want to go to sleep

3.     That he does want to go to sleep but he can’t get to sleep

4.     Because he doesn’t want to get dressed (specifically):

a.     Putting on his jacket (it’s 3 degrees out in the morning peeps we need the jackets on!)

b.     Putting on his shoes. Full. Blown. Meltdown.

c.      Putting on his naaaaaapyyyyy…. but at least this one causes a laughing toddler running around the house getting chased. What a nice change from the TANTRUMATOR.

5.     Because he’s hungry (but doesn’t want anything I offer, and can’t tell me what he wants. Actually, that does sound pretty frustrating).

6.     Because he’s hankering for his bottle of milk like a crack addict looking for a hit (he wants it REALLLLLLLL bad). Oh gawd. We really gotta wean him off that.

7.     Because he doesn’t want to get in the pram.

8.     Because… well…. because I’m not even sure he knows half the time.

9.     Because he feels like it?

Pretty please, let this phase be done and dusted (overly optimistic? Don’t burst my bubble people!).

Sleepless in South Bank

I always give advice to get out the door first thing in the morning when sightseeing. But it can be a bit hard to take your own advice when your kid wakes up at 5am every day. 

The positive side of our late departure on our sightseeing adventure (aside from the much needed extra sleep we all got) was that Austin fell asleep on the way there (wooo) which meant we could have a lovely lunch at The Green Room. Burger + glass of wine + chats without simultaneously entertaining a child = it was pretty damn good (double woo).

The downside to getting out the door about 4 hours after we intended was that everywhere was soooo crowded. We wanted to walk around and check out the street art but found out pretty quickly that the majority is in the skate park. Literally, in it. So probably not the best place to go for a walk with a sleeping baby. You know, on account of the teenagers riding the bikes, and skateboards directly at you.

So we just cruised around anyway. There's a heap in this little spot, and if it wasn’t so cold we would’ve stuck around longer. Views of Big Ben, The Eye right next door, a cute as little merry go round (weeee), an adventure park for the kids and the shops and restaurants of the Southbank Centre. I’d say we’d go back in summer but really if it was this packed when it was freezing its gonna be all sorts of hell busy in summer. So thank you very muchly and see ya later South Bank. 

The seven BIG TIME risks we take as parents

There are SO many risks we take as parents, but here are my top seven (enjoy):

1. Putting a blanket on a sleeping baby. You KNOW this is a risk. And yet you can't stop yourself from doing it (what if they get cold?) Mama’s gonna keep this baby warm! And 3, 2, 1, WAAAAH.
2. Doing ‘no nappy time’ before 12 noon. Or any time. MASSIVE risk. Hello poopville. 
3. Using chocolate as a bribe… it’s a slippery slope to chocolate meals all day long… oh GAWD.
4. Getting the nail scissors out to cut fingernails. You would think having a sharp object near a wiggling child would be a bad idea. And yet here we go again, every two weeks.
5. Putting your kid in bed with you at his 4am wake up for a desperate attempt at some extra sleep ("you should be careful, you know, this could become a habit, you know" yes, yes, we KNOW).
6. That one last glass of champagne on your night off because 'you deserve it'. Because, like, everyone feels awesome at 5am in the morning after a few champers. WOOO. 
7. The old move the baby from the car seat to pram trick. SO RISKY. But when it pays off it is literally the best high five moment. 

So. Many. Risks. Just call us mama's (and dad's) modern day warriors.