Easy up... easy down

Sort of a warning, or rather a heads up, on the transition from normal nappies to those pull-up type pants.

Well, George is now in the pull-ups during the day and one thing we've noticed is that, size for size, they're slightly larger/looser than the normal nappies (although this could be because you don't have control over the tightness of any sticky fastening strips because there are none).

A couple of number ones and all of a sudden George looks like a teenager who thinks their waistline is below their bum and their crotch is between their knees. Then, he'll bend over to pick up Thomas the Tank and we get the view of a proper builder's bum in the making. Hmmm... the builder look or the teenager look? Perhaps we ought to get him some Calvin Klein pants and run with the lobotomised teenager look.

But the story doesn't end there... I was happily preparing dinner in the kitchen and George was happily playing in the living room. After a few moments he entered the kitchen holding something between his fingers, saying "little one, Daddy... little one". It suddenly dawned on me that he is no longer wearing his nappy and is holding... well, let's just say it looked like a Revel and I wasn't in any hurry to find out if it was coffee, toffee or orange.

The Easy-up nappy seems to have been just as easy to get down and was sitting on the mat in the middle of his train track. One good thing is that it didn't unfold like a normal nappy and retained all of its contents. So, it was just George who needed seeing to (luckily he hadn't sat down anywhere) and I decided it was probably best to start with his hands which were beginning to wander towards his hair, his ears, cupboard doors, walls and my trousers.

We've since bought the next size down and these fit a little more snugly and don't ease their way down quite so effortlessly. George loves his Easy-up pants and, as long as they stay up more than down now that we've got the right size, we quite like them too.

Cheeky

Aaah... the age of innocence. There will come a time when he won't be able to do this (or won't want to), but at the moment he walks straight past the fig tree and isn't even tempted to cover his modesty with one of its underpants-shaped leaves. "Hey, George... don't touch that apple!"

George's rules of outdoor play

It's a sunny day and we're enjoying a morning outside in the garden – we have set up the paddling pool and the water toys, the umbrella, the sunloungers, put a blanket on the grass, opened the patio doors to the kitchen and conservatory and put Bebel Gilberto on the iPod. Everything set for an enjoyable, fun and relaxing time in the sun for us all.

But George has his own rules:

1. Soil the last swim nappy without having been near the paddling pool.

2. Instantly jump in the paddling pool the moment he has a clean, ordinary nappy on.

3. Transfer as much sand from the sandpit to the paddling pool and as much water from the paddling pool to the sandpit as possible.

4. Play in the dirt or somewhere slightly hazardous, in fact anywhere apart from on the grass where the toys are.

5. Try to eat the sunscreen lotion.

6. Press as many buttons as possible on daddy's laptop when he's trying to check his email.

7. Ignore water toys and wash and dunk toys not designed for water play – ie. those with batteries or engines. Rosie the engine, one of Thomas's pals, has been almost fully submerged and has passed this test admirably.

8. Wee on a sunlounger (mummy's thankfully).

Needless to say George is the one having the most fun. Hopefully, mummy's sunlounger will be nice and dry by the time she actually gets to sit in it – probably this evening, after George has gone to bed and the sun has gone down. Well, perhaps a glass of wine will make up for it.