I’m delighted by this and totally agree. Nothing drives me straight to up rant factor ten than the churches influence on education (a rant for another time!) I see the formal inclusion of a religious activity as part of councillors business as completely anachronistic.

Anyone can stand to become as a Councillor and if elected all should be equally included within formal council business. Prayers shouldn’t ever be a part of our legislative frameworks, at any level. Why should a non-Christian councillor sit through these prayers? Or alternatively miss the start of a meeting he’s been elected to attend?

I also find it shocking Prayers are said as item one on the days agenda in Parliament. By tradition MPs who attend this session can reserve their seats for the day so get a big advantage on those who don’t.

Nothing against anyone saying prayers, just do so before a meeting not during it.

I’ve attended parts of council meetings before and seen ‘prayers’ on the agenda. I presumed this was a weird historical term and didn’t actually mean that prayers were said. I’m shocked we ever included this as part of our council meetings.

What do you think?

I wonder if I’m alone in feeling uncomfortable about this?

It’s not that I don’t appreciate the impact of increasing income inequality. But this doesn’t feel like a concerted effort to address these issues or to reduce high pay more generally. Hardly ever do discussions around bonuses refer to the wider remuneration package. Someone who gets a £4m pay/shares package alongside a £1m bonus? It’s not the bonus I’d be most inclined to shout about. I don’t think there’s anything intrinsically wrong with having a bonus element to a pay packet, so long as there’s clarity and consistency over what does and doesn’t warrant the award of the bonus. If the government were making noises about high pay more generally, or even showing the slightest concern for the fates of those on low to middle incomes, I’d perhaps feel more comfortable with their current uncharacteristic stance.

Some of the poor sods who’ve fallen foul of the anti-bonus lynch mob this week include those working at Network Rail. Now I get as frustrated with the trains as the next person. But as far as I’m aware these executives have met expected performance and their pay agreements include the award of these bonuses. It seems like their only mistake was the have their bonuses made public one week after RBS. If this had come out in early January or late March we’d probably have moved onto the next storm in a teacup and they’d have got away with it.

I feel no affinity for those in receipt of sky high bonuses. And I’d love to bring the salaries of the super rich down to a level that’s at least in the same universe as the average worker, if not the same ball park. But this lynch mob approach doesn’t feel like it’s doing anything except hide the massive welfare benefit cuts which the coalition pushed through parliament this week. Or the rising levels of unemployment, especially amongst the young. Or the fact that cuts in local services have only just begun. Getting occasionally hysterical about bonuses is just a distraction. It sets up a straw man or two for all who are struggling in ‘austerity Britain’ to scream at. Instead of focusing on the real people who are screwing us over – our politicians.

Such an odd and eventful weekend. Did I mention we all feel ill too? In many ways it’s been my crappest few days in a long while. But it’s also given me a bit of perspective and an appreciation for my usual hum drum normality. And made me appreciate just how lucky I am to be here, with my Bub and his daddy and our family around us. Love them all!

Such an odd and eventful weekend. Did I mention we all feel ill too? In many ways it’s been my crappest few days in a long while. But it’s also given me a bit of perspective and an appreciation for my usual hum drum normality. And made me appreciate just how lucky I am to be here, with my Bub and his daddy and our family around us.

Remember that Bub is VERY behind in his speaking. Two years old and all he can say is ‘dada’, ‘no’ and ‘I’. All in context though, with cute head shaking accompanying the ‘no’. He can also do a monster growl, a kissy noise (of the sort you’d make to a cat), and a ssshhh train noise.

So today’s tiny steps forward need to be put in this context.

This morning we saw a cat out of the window. I asked him if he could say cat and he stopped, thought about it a while, and said ‘te-ke’. He then did it again. Clearly it’d have been better if he’d said ‘ke-te’ but hey, I’m just impressed he got the ‘c’ and ‘t’ sound in there regardless. Previously his only attempts at saying cat, when he didn’t just ignore me, were to say ‘da’.

This afternoon he was playing with a balloon with his daddy. And after some prompting firstly he said ‘ooo’ and then ‘bl-ooo’. Another real breakthrough.

All this probably sounds ridiculous. But when you’ve tried for a year to get your son to say cat and only ever got back silence or ‘da’ this is pretty special. Here’s hoping this is start of some major speaking progress.

Well I certainly can’t pretend I wouldn’t rather click my fingers and have him back in his old cot. But given his prodigious climbing ability that’s not an option so we have to persevere.

Actually it’s going pretty well and not half as bad as I’d feared, all things considered. The baby gate on the bedroom door is a godsend. He does often take an age to settle for a nap or at night but at least he’s contained to one room. Most nights he falls asleep on the floor by the door, which isn’t ideal. But at least he falls asleep without a huge amount of intervention from us. Plus getting to pop him back into bed gives me the chance for a sneaky sleepy cuddle.

Once asleep he wakes up no more often than before, the bedside rail works wonders at preventing falls. (Quick aside here – Why is it so bloody difficult to get bedrails for toddler/cot beds? The Lindam and Summer ones, which are the most common in the shops, don’t fit. Only one I could find was a Babydan wooden rail in Toysrus. All very stylish but twice the price of the others and a pain to track down. Sorry, rant over!)

However getting him to sleep is another matter unfortunately. He’s always struggled to switch off at night, many months of routine were required to get us sorted before. The bed has thrown all this a bit. So much more to do/climb/break when you have a whole bedroom to explore. All this means that it takes a fair while longer for him to drop off. This has pretty much destroyed his naptime. He now takes three times as much or longer to doze off. He’s therefore waking up much later and not tired at bedtime. And then this can take HOURS longer than usual. The result has been that we now wake him strictly at 5pm if necessary. He also doesn’t always fall asleep for naps at all and I’m wondering if we might soon lose naps altogether. Hope not but it’s certainly heading in that direction.

So that’s where we are at. Bed itself ok but not my favourite ‘growing up’ moment. Naps probably on the way out, definitely not a top moment either. How did you find switching to a big bed? Or phasing out naps when they ruin bedtime sleep? Any tips??

Can’t begin to express my love for this little fellow. He’s such a darling. Still not speaking a word but otherwise a real proper grown up boy. Climbing everywhere, playing and dancing and (almost) jumping. He loves to read and watch tv and play on the iPod (Angry Birds the game du jour!) He’s also getting into colouring and using stickers. Lego, toy trains and cars – in this respect he’s a real boy. And his imaginative play is fab too, so cute as he pretend shops imaginary items from our living room.

Two very long and also very short years in which my Bub has gone from this:



To this:

Happy second birthday Bub!!

Which side of the family my son got his climbing genes from I don’t know. But this is getting ridiculous. He’s just moved from cot to bed, aged 23 months, because he can now vault over the top even whilst wearing his bag. And now he’s climbing the furniture too…

Things went ok first few days of new bed, all things considered. However it’s going downhill now as compounded sleep deprivation increase and his tiredness builds. He’s grumpy all day, it’s taking longer for him to get to sleep, and he’s more distressed doing so.

We have a roughly 30% ‘fall asleep in bed rate’, with most sleeps taking place at random spots on the floor. Almost all sleeps involve some crying, or at very least lots of grumpy shouting. And all bar about two sleeps have taken over an hour for him to drop off.

He’s also teething which isn’t helping. I’ve been up since 5.30am today with a particularly nasty early wake up.

I can see us struggling with this for some time whilst he adjusts. Hate to hear him cry at bedtime after such a long time of near perfect sleep. And a grumpy, tired toddler is just no fun at all

Any ideas gratefully received, please!!

I’ve now decided to spur myself on, or at least bag myself a serious runners t-shirt, by entering a race. So I’ve put in for the 2012 Bristol 10k in May. This is about three times further than my usual run so feels like an appropriate challenge. And with over 10,000 runners I surely, surely, surely can’t be the slowest person….. Can I??