Alice's birthday party

Sleep

Elliott woke at about 7am.

He had a nap in the car on the way from Alice's birthday party (which was near Theale) to Granny and Grandpa's house, and he slept for about 1 hour and a half.

He went to bed at 8pm with no problems.

Food

Elliott had honey nut corn flakes for breakfast.

He had fish piece in breadcrumbs, potatoes and peas for lunch with a yoghurt pudding, though he did not eat many peas.

For tea he had 1 slice of toast with margarine and thinly spread marmite.

At Alice's party he also had some cocktail sausages, a rice crispie chocolate cake and 2 chocolate fingers (more information in the activities section).

Toilet

Elliott had 1 "dirty" nappy in the morning today which was very solid.

I now have a toilet seat for little people so during the morning when he had his nappy changed and before his bath I sat him on the big toilet with this seat. He didn't manage any product, but it did look like he was making an effort and he seemed quite at home on the big toilet. He also flushed the toiled each time he had finished sitting on it.

Naughtiness

He was well behaved all day. At Alice's party he seemed a little reluctant to sit down to eat, but I used the counting to 3 method eventually and he sat down. Once sat down he was very well behaved and in fact asked each time he wanted a new bit of food.

Activities

During the morning we went for a wander around Wokingham and picked up some food shopping. We did this without his push chair and he was very well behaved and held my hand throughout with no complaining. By the end I did have to carry him home, but again he was well behaved.

After lunch we headed straight off to Alice's birthday party which was in a Village Hall near Theale. When we first got there everyone (about 25 kids) was in the hall playing games organised by Jo (musical statues, pass the parcel, ring of roses, etc). There was also a table set up with paper crowns that could be enhanced by sticking on stars, sparkley bits, etc. Elliott was very shy at first and for 5 mintues or so buried his face in my chest. So I took him over to the crafty table, we sat down and I encouraged him to have a play making a crown. He liked the stickers, but wasn't that interested in anything that needed glue or the crown in the end. However he did start watching the games from the safety of this table and spotted both Alice and Fi which I think helped reassure him. So I waited until I thought he seemed comfortable enough and then we started joining in - and I made sure when we joined the circle of kids we were next to Fi so he was next to someone he knows. We took part in pass the parcel and (kind of) in a dancing competition. He was really shy again at first when we joined the circle, but as pass the parcel went on he became more comfortable. Then it was time for nibbles so we all filed into another room. At first he was reuctant to sit down, but through gentle persuasion and eventually counting to 3 method he sat next to Fi and seemed pretty happy. He then unfortunately ignored the grapes / carrott batons, etc and went straight for the cocktail sausages. And then he asked if he could have a rice crispie chocolate cake and a couple of chocolate fingers and I thought it would be ok seeing as it was a party! Next it was time for Alice's cake so the lights were dimmed and in came a cake shaped like a princess with candles. Alice blew out the candles and we all sang happy birthday - Elliott I don't think knows it, but he looked pretty curious throughout and giggled when the candles were blown out. After the cake it was back to the hall. Following the chocolate possibly, and with increased confidence, Elliott started playing with 2 other little boys at the party (Nathaniel and Tom) and they had some races and kicked / threw around some balloons. I was really pleased to see that he was now comfortable enough to interact with new acquaintances through his own initiative and, of course, to see he was having lots of fun. I'm not sure how much the chocolate contributed to the increased energy and confidence, though there was quite a lot of other kids who went pretty bonkers themselves after the food. I also wondered if Elliott might have joined in with the games from the start if the games had come after the nibbles. Anyway after about quarter of an hour of play time it was time to go and Elliott left with a party bag complete with slice of cake, box of raisins, bouncy ball and balloon to blow up.

When we got to Granny and Grandpas there was time for Elliott to complete his Thomas jigsaw pretty much on his own before tea - and that was really impressive as he hardly needed any help from me at all. After tea we blew up the balloon from the party bag and played with that for a while, before Grandpa produced a blow up Mr Blobby that Elliott found hilarious. We even  both read Mr Blobby a bedtime story as part of storytime before sleep, but I made sure Mr Blobby disappeared before the final story to make sure Elliott was really calm before I left him to go to sleep.

To see photos of today visit http://www.flickr.com/photos/elliottsweekends/.