I don’t think James is the biggest fan of our recent hot weather, and to be honest nor am I. British people are renowned for complaining about the weather as we are usually too hot or too cold, but as a country that doesn’t really have extreme temperatures do we really have that much to complain about?  Maybe we just like complaining.

During the current spell of hot weather, and by hot I mean over 30 degrees C, James has turned into a devil child.  It could just be because he is a toddler and can be like that anyway, but it also seems much worse due to the weather, and who can blame him as he potters around looking all hot and sweaty.  Everything seems to be more of an effort or an annoyance to him and his reactions are definitely more extreme.  The bridge coming unlinked on his train track was a particular annoyance that led to an almighty scream and then throwing himself down on the kitchen floor as if the world had ended.

I also thought I would see how he would get on with the potty outside.  I didn’t put a nappy on him but did put swimming shorts on him, as knowing James I think he would have really kicked off if I let him outside naked.  He is not fond of being naked unless he is going in the bath, any other time he will go to his washing basket and pull out his dirty clothes because he wants his clothes back on.  I told him if he needed a wee to go on the potty and frequently asked him if he needed a wee on the potty and every time I was met with a no.  At one point he went and sat on the potty in his swimming shorts so I leapt to him and went to pull them down hoping he was signalling that he needed a wee.  However, I was met with a scream and he was not going to let me pull his shorts down to sit on the potty.  He even signalled for me to then sit on the potty.  I therefore came to the conclusion that maybe the hot weather isn’t the right time to potty train James when everything I want from him is so out of the question.

During the hot days we have been spending at least some of the time in the garden.  Our garden is definitely not very child friendly, consisting of concrete and stones and it is on two levels.  James on the other hand seems to quite like our garden, mainly because he likes stones.  When he was younger he used to frequently put stones in his mouth, but luckily we seem to have passed that stage, and he enjoys putting them in the paddling pool or any ponds we see when out and about (providing there are no fish that he could harm).  He seems to enjoy looking at the splash the stones make.

Even though the garden isn’t perfect we both enjoy it, if only outdoors play didn’t take so long to set up! Getting everything out of the shed and then putting it all away again. Maybe I sound lazy but it is a faff.  Then there is getting James changed into swimming clothes, because I know he is going to get wet.  Getting him changed to go outside rarely goes smoothly as he is in a hurry to go outside and doesn’t have the patience to get changed.  What is even worse though is when we come inside and he kicks off about having to put his normal clothes back on again.  Our cat also has a habit of catching mice when we are in the garden and if I haven’t plucked up the courage to pick them up and move them James ends up not looking where he is going and treads on them numerous times.

Then there is bed time in the heat.  We give James a cooler bath and with being so sweaty all day he definitely needs one.  His bedroom has been hot at around 29 degrees at night so he hasn’t been falling asleep until about 9 and then he wakes at 6:30.  Hardly enough sleep for a toddler so our mornings can be quite challenging.  On the positive side he has been having some good naps, although this could be why he is taking ages to fall asleep, not just the from the heat.  However, I doubt the heat helps and luckily James is quite happy to chat away in his cot until he falls asleep so it doesn’t really impact upon us.

My husband always tells me to look on the positive side, so I will say James is great at having sun cream put on him and as soon as I say sun cream he is there ready for me to lather him up.  He is also very good at wearing his hat, so much so he doesn’t like taking it off.  When we went out this morning we didn’t have his hat as I had put it in the wash after he had got it dirty the day before.  He kept saying hat to me when we were in the sun, which made me very proud that he knew he needed his hat, but also very guilty that I didn’t have it for him.

My own grudges with this heat are that I hate feeling too hot and sticky all day.  I long for when I get a chance to have a shower and feel clean for all of about 5 minutes.  I would much rather be wearing jeans than shorts or a dress because I hate how James decides to climb over me which pinches my skin against his sweaty skin.  Everything that needs to be done around the house becomes more uncomfortable, especially cooking and even hanging the washing on the line breaks me out in a sweat.  My favourite place to be at the moment is the air conditioned car.  I am now starting to look forward to Autumn.