Trapped toddler parents:"Where else can you post tuff tray pictures and moan about your husband?"

[PinkDaydreams]

Following on from the previous thread. Thanks @footprintsintheslow for the thread title inspiration 😁

SS, not DS..

Welcome @Anurulz! Sounds like a rough day. So frustrating when the dishwasher can't do the one job it's literally built for. You're doing a great job juggling, and it's okay to hate it sometimes - we all do! Just in case you needed to hear that I often do...

We had yet another 4am start even with blackout curtains and I'm starting to lose my mind. But DS is definitely sick, has had a fever all yesterday and today, so I'm hoping that's why. We don't need to quarantine or test because we all had COVID 2 months ago but I still worry that's what it is - our council told me there's no point getting tested though as we'd all come back positive regardless. Have cancelled all plans to see people just in case...

After copious amounts of Calpol DS is running around like a maniac, the Norwegian version of Calpol literally tastes like pure sugar so I'm like but hey as long as it works right?

@MonkeyPuddle glad you had a good night. That trail does sound fab, and it'll be great if the weather holds!

@PinkDaydreams I hate Father's Day. And my dad's birthday. He's literally the hardest person to buy for I've ever known. One year my siblings and I got him a tie, fast forward to a couple of years later and a clean out and he's holding it up talking about how horrendous it was...turns out he'd forgotten we gave it to him, of course. I get major anxiety about it on Father's Day, his birthday and Christmas. I think we'll just be sending cards this year...As for DH, he gets nada since Norwegian Father's Day is on a different day but he's gradually smashed all his mugs so we'll probably get him a new and suitably cheesy one next time.

@Motherofmonsters sorry to hear your DS is struggling again. Sending support. DS is lucky to have such a support network around him

@Chocolatetrifle I bet it is possible to have both at the same time. Hope the test went well. Since DS began nursery in January he's had like 4 tests because obviously he's sick all the time with normal nursery germs. He cries during it but mainly because we have to hold his head and restrain his arms, he's totally fine a second later. I think I feel worse about it than he does!

@Camomila crossing fingers for you, not long hopefully until life gets back to some kind of normality...

Thanks @squishymamma.. I don't know why autocorrect turns DS to SS and vice versa.. it literally did that in the post where I wanted to correct it ugh.. hopefully the 4am waking is coz of the little one being ill.. virtual hugs.. hoping you all is well soon..

@Camomila, sorry you are isolating too, hope the results come through quickly for you. My DS2 is 17 months and DS1 will be 4 in Oct. Got the test done, was relieved it was just up his nose, he screamed but did it as quickly as I could. He has a viral infection awaiting results of the test now. Thankfully the fevers have gone, was up all night with him and fevers really scare me, especially when they are high ones, he was boiling and babbling then decided to get up for an hour and a half at 2 am.

@Motherofmonsters, how are you feeling about things now? I do think things will settle for your DS once he starts school, a whole new world and start. Glad the preschool are so supportive.

@squishymamma, I don't know how you are getting through the days getting up at 4 am. You must feel on your last legs. Hope you are ok and your DS feels better soon too.

@Anurulz, welcome and hope you are feeling better now. It's good to chat and get things off your chest. It's impossible to do everything and it's ok to say when you are fed up. Tomorrow is a new day.

Sorry to hear of the isolations that are going on, just as things are feeling a little more back to 'normal'. Also sorry to hear of the sleep problems! My ds has woken in the night this week but he's got a cold (negative covid) and also had his preschool boosters too so it's defo down to him feeling out of sorts.

Oh gosh @squishymamma ddiddid you tell him it was a gift from you? I remember years and years ago receiving a Christmas present that I'd given the

Sorry phone or site playing up!!
I remember receiving a Gift that I'd given to them a couple of ChristmasChristmassChr before!!!!
This is really playing up so I'll message later on as it's a pain tplayingrying trying to type!

@Pinkdaydreams yes in the end we did, but not before we'd let him go on for ages and asked questions that made him say things that were even worse! Oh no, this is why I don't like regifting presents a while later - I can never remember who's given me what...

Hope everyone had a good night. DS was up all night pretty much with a fever, but DH took him so I got to sleep which was lovely. For some reason I wasn't worried at all because I had a gut feeling it was all due to the vaccine he got, and lo and behold he's totally normal and feverless today (thank God). Planning a trip to the playground later, it's almost 20 degrees here already which is crazy! Also our last day before DH goes off on his military service for a week and I'm really going to miss him and his being "on duty" in the evenings...just praying for extra energy now

Oh dear. I'm seriously not going to survive bedtime alone this next week. Totally aware how privileged I am having a DH that does this/that I have someone round to help at all, but I just tried for like an hour to get DS to go to bed and he just refused...DH goes in and he's down within 15 minutes

The only time he'll fall asleep for me is if he falls asleep while I'm feeding him, or if we have a really drawn-out battle and he eventually gives in. It's exhausting. I wish we had the willpower to do sleep training...but I can't stand hearing him cry.

Bleh. Thanks for listening to my rant. I feel a bit better now... Hope your nights go better than ours!!

I sympathise @squishymama, bedtime is always a disaster when I do both by myself. DD will always wake up as I'm putting DS down.
You will get in the swing of it and it'll take as long as DH at the end of the week.

@squishymamma,. Could you feed him to sleep whilst you are by yourself next week? Just a thought, might make it a bit easier and less stressful for you. Is that an option? Understand it might not be if it's not something you usually do or if you are trying to get away from that.

Not much to report here today. DS2's covid test was negative, thankfully. We've spent the day doing not much trying to help boys recover from their colds.

Thanks @Motherofmonsters

@Chocolatetrifle I usually feed him to sleep and it had been going generally well until a few weeks ago when he decided he wanted to stay awake and party afterwards...now it's really hit and miss. Feeding is always the last thing we do though. So glad the test was negative!

@Motherofmonsters that is such a worry, I'm sorry. DD1 had similar although her behaviour was "odd not bad" iyswim, quirky and young for her age... She's in Year 1 now and just gradually outgrew it. So it may be nothing, but if it's something sounds like they are helping. It's the kind of thing you just can't get out of your head, though, isn't it!

Does anyone else just feel that their life is full of poo? DT1 poo'd in the bath tonight and I had to clean it out with my hands....eurgh. there is just not enough Dettol in the world. Then DT2 soiled her pull ups when we were putting her in bed. I made DH do that one!

They are also in that stage of loud embarrassing completely random comments. DT1 told me he liked my moustache in front of the neighbours and then yesterday, I was walking the twins home from nursery and they utterly mortified this poor young man who was waiting for a bus...

We'd been talking for some reason about picking people up (as in, from school etc) and suddenly DT2 pointed at this poor bloke and hollered, "he's going to London to pick up a man!"

I mean wtf, no idea where London came from, then they both started doing it, pointing at him and bellowing "a man! He's off to London and pick up a man!" Whilst I hauled them away by their reins as fast as possible talking over them.

@JohnnyMcGrathSaysFuckOff I empathize.. DS chose his nappy-free time to poo today.. since DH was the one who wanted the nappy-free time so close to dinnertime, he was the one who cleaned it.. DS also made us laugh while trying to say 'bucket' coz it was suspiciously close to 'f**k it'..
I hope the sleeping gets easier soon @Motherofmonsters and @squishymamma.. I still thank the universe the nights DS sleeps through..

I've just absolutely lost all patience with DS, 5 times he's walked downstairs instead of going to bed. I feel really bad as I proper shouted, I just want an evening. I'm trying to watch a 40minute episode that I'm already on day 2 of trying to watch. My tea is going cold, I just want to switch off from 'mum'

@Motherofmonsters, I hear you, I am blaming the bright nights. My DS1 has just gone to sleep. I feel like ai have no evening either at the moment.

Good morning all!

DH is now dropped off at the military camp after a tearful goodbye (100% on my side - we did long distance for ages and so I hate when he's away for any length of time even though its only a week and he's still in the same city...) and we're off out soon for a playdate then video calling my family in the UK. There's highs of 24 degrees here today...any idea what on earth I can do with a 15 month old in that heat??

@JohnnyMcGrathSaysFuckOff I'm sorry but I did have to laugh a bit at your DTs. Reminds me of my brother, who at around the same age shouted really loudly to us while at a petrol station "wow, how fat is that body on that lady?"...with the window down. I wanted to disappear into a hole!

@Motherofmonsters so understand that. I view the few hours between DS going to bed and me going to bed as precious and I get beyond the normal level of annoyed when he doesn't sleep...hope you managed to finish your show in the end.

We had a horrendous night, DS is really struggling to sleep in the heat and he was basically awake from 10pm to 3am. DH took him despite me telling him not to so he's running on about 3 hours sleep and I'm not far ahead. Nights have literally become the most dreaded thing in our household...gah.

Has everyone got good weather today? It really makes a difference when the sun is out I think. Boys are in their shorts! Lovely blue sky here. We've been to a duck pond and playground and pottering in the garden giving the tortoise a bath in the toddler wheelbarrow.

Good luck for bedtime tonight @squishymamma, hope DS settles for you.

It's been amazing weather here, we've been to PIL's for a BBQ lunch and DS is stayed over. So we are on night weaning attempt 3!

Good luck for tonight @squishymama, your DH will be back before you know it.

Thank you all! So appreciate the support on here.

Tonight went really well, I made sure we spent lots of time being active so he dropped right off at the boob thankfully! I'm just a bit worried the heat will wake him up - despite multiple fans and cold buckets of water (DH is adamant that works) it's 24 degrees in there. Not much we can do though!

We had a lovely playdate, lots of playtime inside too, DS spoiled me by napping for 2 hours, and I've managed to keep the house relatively straight. But does anyone else's DC turn into terrors at like 4pm? I thought the witching hour stopped after they graduated from babyhood...today we had loads of tantrums over the most random of stuff, including that he was gesturing into thin air for something and I had no idea what it was so didn't get it for him...

Good luck with weaning tonight @Motherofmonsters! Have everything crossed for you.

Glad tonight has gone really well @squishymama. DD is also asleep, took 20mins but the first time it took 40mins. She was stood up crying and shouting for milk but I just sang (Moana her favourite) and rubbed her until she lay down and then she was gone. Need to just stick with it now.

My DS goes feral around that time, really hyper and unreasonable. I think it's when he's really tired and starts winding down.

Evening all.

We’ve had a glorious weather weekend wise and I feel full of the joys of spring!

Lovely day out yesterday, kids behaved, only a couple of strops, timed coming home right, you know when you come home before they start turning into whiney little fucks but when they’ve had enough fun, tricky spot to find.
We’ve spent today with my mum, sister and her fella in the park, DS just played and play and played. Dropped him at his dads, came home, the baby just went to sleep like that and DP is bringing a Chinese in!

Obviously tomorrow will be hellish in order for the universal balance to be restored.

@Motherofmonsters good luck!! May the gods of Free Time for Mum be with you!

@squishymamma 4pm is witching hour here, kids getting hungry, I’ve had enough of being mummy for the day, house a mess, everyone’s tired. Yep.

But now I’m gonna tuck into my sweet and sour chicken and drink my IPA!!

Ah, that's great news @squishymamma, glad your DS has settled, you deserve a nice glass of wine or something now. And you too @Motherofmonsters, good luck for your weaning tonight, hope you get to watch your programme this evening.

Random question, has anyone ever bought a marble run? Thinking of buying one for DS1 for his birthday when he will be 4 but thinking he might still be too young for it, plus there would be the added worry of DS2 getting his hands on them. Perhaps I won't bother with that yet.

In other news we have a rocket launcher! Thinking of testing it out tomorrow in some open grass near the playground.

Hope everyone has a good sleep tonight. I'm going to set up a bathroom spa again after DS1 goes to bed although usually he doesn't settle asleep until 9.