23 months - eek nearly 2

Wow, less than a month before my little boy is 2.

Well, a lurgy disease finally caught up with Callum. This week he caught Hand, Foot & Mouth Disease. It is a pox virus that is similar to Chicken Pox virus. However, the spots are smaller and seem to congregate around the obvious hand, foot and mouth area as well as bottom/genitals and knees. It is one of those childhood diseases that you normally get before you are 10. You can be quite poorly with it but thankfully Callum has been quite happy...just contagious.

It did mean we had to keep him off nursery a couple of days - Tuesday and Wednesday - but they were happy to accept him back today even though he still has spots. I think it is because the main infectious period is 3-5 days including the 3 before any spots show. As long as you are hot on hygiene then it seems to be OK.

Nursery had dropped a uniform on us! They have bought in a polo shirt and sweatshirt in a multitude of colours for all children. We are not too impressed for many reasons.

• One being the practicalities of it. They currently change them in the afternoons into clean clothing so they don't go home dirty. They did say they wont continue with this so, as long a they aren't sick or have a nappy explosion, they'll go home in whatever state they are in. Problem being, they play with water, paints, dirt!!! Even if they don't change them they are likely to need a change of top for the next day - making a need for 5 polo shirts and a few sweatshirts for winter. At this age, you can't expect them to try to stay clean - being this age is all about exploring, getting dirty and having fun.
• This leads on to the second concern - the cost. With this number of 'uniforms and then they grow quite a bit in a year. This is all on top of a 5% fee rise in September. Oh and the uniforms have to be in place in September and can only be bought from the Nursery.
• Then there is the very non-uniform uniform! There is about 8 choices of colours for the polo shirt and 6 for the sweat shirt. They are hardly going to look 'uniform'!!

Ultimately, I just think they are too young to have a compulsory uniform. I'd understand it more if it was optional for pre-school and would probably take part but for a 2 year old (or 1 year old as that is the minimum age of admittance - though they have taken younger), I just don't think is practical. In fact, I have no doubt that it is purely a money making scheme for the nursery - to fund the Manager's new nursery and the extensions to the current one.

Phew! Rant over, I'll get off my soap box now!

On to more positive things.

Callum is still attempting new words. He said cuddle today. He can now say blue and red. He can say train, plane, car, outside, on. Starting to lose track now as there are new words all the time. Sometimes they are not the clearest of words and non-toddler speakers may need a translator but he is making progress. He is trying to join more than one word together too. I didn't count 'all gone' as it is more of a phrase whereas now I think he is trying to say things as two separate words in a sentence. For example 'light on'. I am pretty sure, before long, we'll be hoping he'll shut up again as he turns into a little chatter box.

So, with the big 2 approaching, thoughts turn to birthday presents. We have decided, with the help of grandparents, to buy him a trampoline. He just loves bouncing! Not a huge one, probably about 6ft. It is meant to ok until they are about 10 so should last him a while. Not sure that we will actually do much to celebrate it - mean mummy - but we are going away 2 days later and I realised last year that they really aren't that aware yet. Maybe I'll bake him some cakes and go out somewhere he'll enjoy with him the weekend before. We'll do something next year when he'll appreciate it more.

The NCT mums are arranging a group birthday celebration so, assuming we can make it, he'll do something to celebrate.