Poor Gabriele Had His Triple Immunisation

Half term is finally over and boy what a busy time it was! As is expected of every holiday, the entire week was cold, wet, windy and grey but it didn’t stop our fun. We drew pictures, played with teddies, had a bedroom tea party and wrote stories.

We took Gabriele for his first visit to Zoomania indoor kids play and he absolutely loved it. Obviously Millie is a seasoned professional and knows her way around all of the local play venues, showing Gabriele the best bits to play on, where to get some juice and walking with him to the toilet. I didn’t think Gabriele would be quite old enough to play along as the squashy equipment is quite physical and he’s used to sitting and playing with toys, so it was more of a visit for Millie to burn off some energy, but he loved it just as much as his big sister. It was adorable seeing them both play together and I beamed with pride as I watched Millie holding his hand and leading him up a slide as they slid down together. I love how cute they are together and how play times are becoming so much more physical now that Gabriele is growing and developing. He’s aware of so much and listens and responds to us when we ask him to stack, place or put away his toys and he rewards us with a lovely smile when he completes each task.

Millie is also becoming quite a teacher, reading stories to Gabriele, drawing pictures for him, giving him cuddles and always eager to feed him his milk and yogurts. She’s my little angel and the most perfect big sister in the whole wide world. Recently she’s started to tell white lies and fib about things that she’s done and we’ve been having little talks and I’m trying to keep the lines of communication open and explain to her that telling lies can cause upset and offend people who are trying to help. I think the problem stems from Millie growing up, being at school and seeing the world through the experiences of other children, and coming from a family where she has two sets of parents and several grandparents. Millie has always had everything she’s ever wanted, given love and toys from every angle and has a kind and listening ear from all around her. The only problem now is that Millie has discovered the art of getting her own way by playing us all off against each other! If Millie wants an ice-cream and hasn’t tidied her room then Luca and I would ask her to put her toys away first, which she normally would, but now she’s agreeing to tidy her room, not doing it, getting sad and then asking another family member for the ice-cream instead as she feels hard done by for not getting it straight away and so she gets rewarded with a sympathy ice-cream. Our rules and routines haven’t changed, but our little girl is growing up and working out how to cheat the system! And I know that it’s typical of children her age to test the limits and tell little white lies, so we’re implementing some changes to cope with this new found fibbing.

So as not to alienate Millie, we’ve acknowledged her untruthful behaviour as attention seeking and alerted all of the family as we do not want to punish her for turning to those around her and making up unhappy stories in order to get toys and treats. Instead we’re using this time to remind Millie of how children should behave by getting her to make a book of rules and giving her to position of a ‘police lady’. We sat at the table and talked through the naughty things that children could do that would be seen as bad behaviour and upset their mummies and daddies, and then wrote down a list of rules that we could all follow to make sure that we behave properly and are nice to people. Some of the rules Millie wrote include: don’t tell lies, always use your manners, remember to be clean and tidy etc. And Millie carries her little book around with her so she can look back on it throughout the day and educate family members about good behaviour. If she see’s somebody breaking the rule she can tell them what they are doing wrong and how they can make it right, so by policing others she is in fact managing her own behaviour as well.

I had a great time filming in London again this week for Sky at the Waterloo film studios and am loving being back on camera again. I feel so at home in front of the lights and buzz of filming and am looking forward to a week of adventures up and down the country this week for various television channels! It sure beats sitting in an office, and as Millie is at school all day Gabriele gets a nice afternoon with his grandparents so it fits our lifestyle so well. I’ve got some fantastic bits and pieces coming up and I’m bursting with excitement but my lips are sealed so keep an eye on my blog and all will be revealed shortly.

Poor little Gabriele had his one-year injections at the end of the week which was a triple set of needles consisting of the MMR, Menitorix and Pneumococcal vaccine. And despite him having had his needles since his first ever heel-prick as a newborn, it never gets any easier to see my little angel cry. I’m rubbish at worrying for the children and in the doctors surgery I hugged and cuddled and kissed him to within an inch of his life like he were emigrating to Australia! He was so cheerful and giggling in the waiting room, totally oblivious to what was about to happen, which was reassuring to know that he wasn’t as stressed as his Mummy but it didn’t make it any easier.

I couldn’t help but fill to the brim with guilt as I carried him into the nurses office and he gave her a beautiful toothy grin as she talked me through the various boxes and needles that she would be using and the side effects of each. For the next twenty-one days I’m expecting little Gabriele to have an increased temperature, sore and red arms and leg around the injection holes, body rashes, grisliness and feeling out of sorts. His first needle was in his arm which surprisingly didn’t even make him blink as I tried my best to hold his arm down at his side whilst talking to him, but the second injection in his other arm made his bottom lip roll down and he gave a little whimper, making his third injection in his thigh reduce him to tears as he climbed up me to try and get away from the nurse. My poor little chicken, the whole thing was over with within a minute and the nurse dabbed the injection marks with cotton wool and put a little round plaster on each of them as I rocked him in my arms to calm him down. Minutes later he forgot why he was crying and was back to his smily self, giving me a beautiful cheeky smile as I popped him back into his car seat minus his cardi and trousers to visit his grandparents for an afternoon of treats and cuddles. My brave little soldier.