Oof, we don't want any more of this.

 

Katie woke up before 5 am this morning.

 

Not good. Maybe she slept too long during her Saturday afternoon nap and as a result wasn't so tired overnight.

 

Urs got her some milk and I stayed up with her in the hope she would go back to bed. No such luck. After lying down on the floor with her for a while I gave up once she started rushing around saying: "I want to run about."

 

We went downstairs and put on a Teletubbies video. She watched while I dozed uncomfortably on the sofa.

 

Urs went to an NCT Nearly New Sale while Katie and I went to a soft play area where we had our usual fun.

 

She lasted an hour and a quarter before she started doing her usual random things (wandering around, refusing food and drink etc) which signify she's getting very tired.

 

We both had an afternoon nap but a shorter one than yesterday.

 

She's doing very well on the potty training now.

Hurrah!

 

The Saturday toddler group for dads that I take Katie to once a month is back after the summer recess.

 

True to form, Katie remembered that they bribe dads with sausages or bacon sandwiches which she takes from me and eats.

 

This time it was bacon.

 

I enjoyed the bread roll.

 

We always get up to some fun activities.

 

 

Can't remember where this was but thought I'd better take a photo of Katie admiring posh-looking shoes.

 

 

We've made it!

 

The 5,000th nappy.

 

 

We have a Mr Clever book which Katie loved us to read to her.

 

It was originally bought for Urs when she was 18.

 

So then I bought a Mr Men DVD so she could watch some more of the characters.

 

Then I got a Mr Greedy book and Mr Tickle. I used to have a Mr Tickle t-shirt when I was younger.

 

Now our friend Paul has found a load more in a charity shop.

 

Katie loves them.

 

 

On the back of the book there are small images of every single one of the Mr Men.

 

Depending which edition you have there can be up to 46 of them.

 

Katie has quickly learned to identify the whole lot.

 

Recently when we were at a friend's house she started reading all out their names as usual and for some reason I decided to cover up the images. Without being able to see them she recited all the names from memory.

 

Not bad when you're two and a bit.

 

Well he does when Katie sings the 'Farmer in the dell' song.

 

Confusion due to potty training, perhaps?

Big leap forward this week after a challenging Bank Holdiay weekend.

 

We had had a few, er, accidents last weekend and during the early part of the week but when I picked up Katie on Thursday night from nursery the staff were very pleased to hand over a piece of card with six stickers on it, each one representing a time when Katie had sat on the potty.

 

That was followed by a further five stickers on Friday.

 

Through good encouragement she is now very proud every time she gets it right.

 

We also have a sticker star chart at home with 12 stickers already complete; 28 to go to qualify to be 'Potty Perfect'.

 

Could this put the 5,000th nappy in jeopardy? We're at 4,986 right now.

 

We still put a nappy on her at night and for her afternoon naps so it looks like we'll just make it.

When we tell Katie we are going to take her to a soft play area she gets quite excited and repeats the words over and over.

 

Last weekend I took her there by myself because Urs was a bit under the weather.

 

We had a fun time.

 

There is a big slide you can go down but you have to climb 23 steps to get to the top. Kaite did it 11 times in a row at the start of the morning. That's 253 steps.

 

Which a lot for toddler.

 

And her dad. Phew.

 

The ball pits are fun too.