Chateau Gizzy - The Commune finally opens at the University of Milton North

[DumSpiroSpero]

Well, it's about time.

Now all we need are furnishings and decorations...

Vampy, I would want to stay home as well in your situ :( You say you feel you ought to be there for your FIL but he is your IL - you have to think of your children as much as your ILs, so if you think it will be better for them to stay then that's what I'd do.

Oops, crossed post with you there, Vampy. Glad you are holding up ok. It's awful how these things so often seem to happen around Christmastime - one wants to be all celebratory and happy and lovely at Christmas but that's at utter odds with one is dealing with :( But don't think of it as being selfish - think of it as keeping the babyVamps happy. There's no need for them to be all doom and gloom yet, and it wouldn't be fair to make them lose out on Christmas loveliness before time. That's my take on it, anyway. MWAH! to you.

Speaking of HPs, as LadyD was last night, do they keep people awake? I am getting so cross with mine that I'm wide awake at night a lot. I'm yawning my head off during the day and struggling to stay awake from 2-3pm yet it will be 1am and I'll be lying there wide awake.

Morning all!

Glad you're bearing up OK Vampy. FWIW I'm inclined to agree with Twigs about you being there for the mini Vamps as much as you can - it can be quite a bewildering time and if they need reassurance or to ask questions it's better they have you there to deal with it if you can be.

Long day at work today so won't be around much but will check in at lunchtime and see how things are going. Will cross my fingers and pray that she holds out for BIL and new grandbaby too.

Just re-read my post and can I just add something? When I said "you have to think of your children as much as your ILs" - obviously that's what you are doing anyway, I didn't mean to suggest that you weren't! I just mean that you are perfectly right to do that and that you shouldn't think of it as being selfish. Hope that makes sense :)

Made perfect sense the first time Twigs!!. Thanks.

Well the colonel has just left. Vampgirl seemed pretty bewildered at any suggestion that I may go too so I think staying back with them is a good plan! I'm planning on going up tomorrow hopefully just for the day ironic that we were all planning to meet in London tomorrow and I wasn't sure I could make it and now I'm going anyway!!

It is selfish in that I'm thinking of me, but not in that I'm thinking of the chikdren. PIL has no-one. We had a real honest talk last night and although it wasn't said out loud I got the feeling he thinks of me as a daughter which obviously I am but there are no blood daughters. I'm not explaining myself very well. Anyway I think the colonel will be more use to him anyway and I can phone undertakers etc from here at least initially to get the ball-rolling. I think we ought to go see the burial site once we've decided just to make sure it's what we're expecting.

Did make me laugh this morning as I rushed out of the door after the Colonel shouting "don't forget the angels!". Both kids had drawn Angel Gabriel at Sunday School this week and I'd said we would send them to grandma before I knew she wanted a humanist funeral! But decided they were beautiful anyway and she'd appreciate them from kids. Now the colonel is taking them with him and we joked about her not believing in Angels and here we are giving her two!! Quite symbolic I suppose!

Right need to get on with RL!

BTW What is an HP twigs? Been wracking my brain but can't make any sense! Heavy Panting was the best I could do?!. Hairy Partners?. Couldn't think of what else would keep you awake at night?!

Aw RA thinking of me too. "Sexy and I know it" just came on the radio!!.

HPs = Happy Pills, Vampy.

Twigs, mine did that to me when I first started on them. It took about a month or so to tail off, iirc.

Ah - good old Happy Pills!! Not sure where I'd be without mine!!! But yes, if I wake up at night, I'm awake for quite a while - very annoying!!

Hope all is well today Vamps , I'm sure your MIL will love the angels just because of who they're from.

I don't know about happy pills but a 4 yo wakes me up every night without fail for hours on end. I am absolutely knackered.

Sorry Vampy, LadyD used the acronym 'HP' yesterday so I assumed everyone knew it except me, as it took me a while to figure out too :)
My other ones never kept me awake but apparently these ones are more stimulating than the others. But I'd rather this than feel sick like I did on the others...

I think the angels sound lovely and I'm sure she will really like them as they are from the MiniVamps.

There was an interesting thing on a Derren Brown show a while back. He showed that almost everyone now draws angels' halos as being attached to their heads on a stick/wire, like on a child's fancy dress costume, rather than a 'free-floating' halo as they were drawn in the past.

I love the sound of the angels and as Small says, I'm sure MIL will love them because they're from the BabyVamps.

Small, I too have a 4yo who wakes me up in the night, usually in the early hours so I am just about dropping back to sleep as the alarm goes off.

One day. One day he will sleep.

::retreats to happy place where all children sleep uninterrupted for 12 hours::

::Decides not to mention that The Girl was a freak baby (possibly due to her mother's huge drug intake during the birth) and slept through the night from the day she was brought home from hospital, but seldom napped during the day::

Keeping you in my thoughts today, Vampy.

I think the Archangel Gabriel may look like this.

Shall we lock them in a sound proof room together Lady D? SB Minor just doesn't like being on his own and he is a bit scared of the dark. We leave his door open and a small light on in his room but it doesn't make any difference. He only sleeps through when he sleeps in SB major's room so my dilemma is whether to get bunk beds for them and let them share which will give me sleep but may also make SB minor dependant on having someone with him and also whether SB Major might get fed up of him after 6 months and want him out. Oh what to do!

I wouldn't think it will make him dependent, Small. I'm sure he will grow out of it in time but sharing a room now might just help him over this stage. But then I'm a big believer in 'solve peroblems short-term and worry about the long-term later'! Though would they just chat all night? That's what mine would do!

We have a bit of a bed dilemma too - TwigBoy is outgrowing his old toddler bed (and Mummy wants to hurry up and ebay it for Xmas whilst they are selling for loads!) but his room is pretty small so space is very limited. So I really want to get him this bed (though I'm not paying that for it!) but:

(a) MissTwigs has been after one for years and I found out that she had been sdecretly trying to break her own bed so that she could get a new one!! So I'd feel dreadful buying him what she desperately wants, she would be heartbroken!! But then he needs it and she doesn't.

(b) apparently they're only suitable for up to 10 years old though no idea why. I was planning his next bed to last him until he leaves home!

(c) this

Cute bed, Twigs but won't he be falling out of it? Or scared he might, he seems a sensitive little scrap.

Thats a lovely bed Twigs, I agree he needs it she doesn't. What I have said to SB Major is that we will do up his room maybe next birthday and he can have new bed etc as part of that. I was looking at high sleepers with a fold out chair bed under but now I'm thinking I might just get bunks.

If it puts him at window height then I wouldn't, SB Major has done stupid things out of his window and he's a relatively senisble 7yo, I have now locked all first floor windows to avoid a repeat.

Massive, it has a guard rail on either side, so it should be ok.

You can slip through guardrails though, if you are wriggly enough.

More to the point what would he think about it though, Twigs? Has he tried one out, at a friend's?

Pretty HP pic for Vampy

I have a new coat, meanwhile.

Are toddler beds really selling well at the moment, Twigs? Vampboy is still in his, but then I don't suppose sorting all that out really is very high on my list of things to do just now!!

Our plan though is to get a similar bed to the one you linked to, but for Vampygirl - although it had better last her longer than 2 years til she's 10 - bearing in mind she's already the average size of an 11 year old!!

And then Vampboy is going to get Vampygirl's current single bed until he's older and knows what he wants.

So Colonel just rang. Nurses are far more positive this morning and think they may be able to get things under control and are talking about "later this week" and "early next week" so doesn't look as imminent as last night. But I don't think anyone is expecting her to come home from the hospice, although I know she wants to I had a conversation with her about 2 months before this all started last summer and discussed old people's homes etc and she said she would hate it - she doesn't really like people! Although the colonel says that this place is lovely, her room looks like a home room, rather than a clinical room and there was a dog wondering around the public areas - so at least she's in her own private space. I just don't think FIL would be able to cope with her home in her current state - they can't get a drip in her as her arms just swelled up so much, so they are feeding her apple juice diluted with water to try and give her some energy, but she can't even hold the cup herself.

BIL has changed his flight and will be here on Thursday. Colonel is going to do a few jobs for FIL getting house ready for BIL and then come home this evening. I'm going to go up for the day tomorrow as planned and Colonel go to work, then he'll go back up on Thursday and we'll take it all from there. From what the Colonel just said though, I hope that she has a good day on Thursday and Friday to see BIL and family and then goes peacefully early next week - we don't' want her hanging around too much now I don't think!

Maud - thanks for the Angel picture it made me LOL - but I was expecting Spiro's Gizzy Angel photoshop affair - think that's the one MIL would like too!!

Massive ROFL at that photo!!!!!

I do hope she has a little time left to have some happy family moments, then, Vampy. You all sound wonderfully kind and caring to her.

Massive, you haven't got the Grace coat, have you?

Vampy, I don't know about beds in general (I doubt they sell for that much) but TwigBoy has this novelty Thomas the Tank Engine one. Score though, we got it on eBay a few years ago for about £70 and they are now selling for over £100!

Massive, yikes about them falling through the rails! He is dead excited about it, he's desperate for one.