Megan Lindsay McEwan Wansbrough - Megan's Gallery

Megan is two years and two months old! It's been a very quiet month, with our usual round of activities at home and, for once, no big trips away! Perhaps a good thing, in the run up to Christmas and all the excitment of the coming weeks.

We've been to various of the local parks, with Muiravonside Country Park (unless it's been too wet, in which case the steep muddy descent to the riverside is prohibitive) and Parkhill being firm favourites. Sometimes we go on our own, sometimes with friends. We've also had friends round to play, and visited them too. As winter has taken hold, we've found ourselves visiting the local soft play areas more frequently, with Space Bugs and Grangemouth's Little Chimps being favourites, and the occasional visit to the more expensive Cadwinkle.

We also went to a couple of local fayres - the Advent Fayre in Linlithgow, and the one at Aidan's school. Both were lots of fun, but the kids particularly enjoyed the bouncy castle at the school fayre.

For Aidan and Megan, one of the biggest excitments of the month was staying with Grandma and Grandpa for three whole nights (while Mummy and Daddy went to visit friends and celebrate their wedding anniversary).

The other excitment of the month was the arrival of the bunk beds. Megan loves her new big girl bed, but unforunately doesn't love it quite enough to stay in it, when there are so many other more exciting things she could be doing (for example, reading her books, playing with her bricks, going to the toilet or creeping quietly downstairs to see what Mummy and Daddy are up to).

After several nights of giving up and putting her into her travel cot, we tried the Rapid Return technique - poor Daddy stood outside her room and every time Megan got up, he put her straight back to bed again. It took about 45mins the first night, and fourteen returns to bed, but she eventually fell asleep. The next night was much quicker, and she did improve thereafter. However, more recently, we've found the most effective way of keeping her in bed is to shut the door. She now waits for the door to be shut, then quite happily (usually) goes off to sleep.

Potty training has been fairly hit and miss. While she is capable of climbing onto the toilet and using it, and is equally happy to use her potty, she's not really showing any interest in coming out of nappies. So, we encourage her to use the toilet whenever she does show interest, praise her lots, and don't worry the rest of the time.

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