letsgo yes to LONSMA! The weather page is mine...
Another perspective about getting offline and offscreen is that having no screen can contribute to feeling alone and disconnected. When DS was tiny for the first year, I didn't have easy access to internet for a range of reasons. I had a lot of social contact but the inevitable hours and hours when I was the only adult with a screaming small person were HARD.
I didn't realise I felt isolated because I went out every day and met up with people. But my reality was that ideally I should have had grown up company much more of the time for the first few months. Ready access to internet would have made a big difference. And once we had it, it was two years before we had wireless - that made internet so much easier. I didn't have unlimited cell phone text either then.
And our TV was enormous, had to be wheeled in on a heavy trolly, and the picture was always snowy and wouldn't receive channels or play DVDs well. Makes me laugh when I think of it, was a real performance to watch anything! No laptop or iPad like now. More media at that time would have really helped. I was chained to the radio as contact with the outside world. I remember there was one very cheerful announcer who drove me crazy even though I liked him - he was so bloody happy, the b__d. Shows what state I was in!
So I see our media connection as a real blessing as well as an addiction that rots our brains and makes us sad 
I won't ever give it up entirely unless I have to. But the addictive side, especially social media... steady as she goes!
bertie I think you are fantastic for helping your friend out like that, sounds like it wasn't easy. And you knew it wouldn't be! But you still did it. More recently your zoo visit... not easy either. What's the bet your DS will remember it as a lovely day out rather than how you experienced it. Your thoughts about your DS taking out all the energy he might have expended on a sibling onto you instead makes a lot of sense. I think we will wear that too with our singleton DS. This last week I have seriously thought about DC2 but there are so many reasons it won't happen. One is DS's age - by the time another child came along (if they did) the age gap would be huge.
I experienced major age gaps with my own siblings and it does make a difference early on. It took many many years before we became close and I'm sure there is no guarantee of that. But it does niggle at me, the singleton thing.
A friend of mine once said to me, with some kids it is like the work they require is more like having two kids. Or more. With others it is easy peasy. She has several, all very different personalities. One is super super easy and one is very hard work. I think she was kindly saying that I had my hands more than full with our DS 
another you are going great guns! Your self care plan sounds so good, it is inspiring. And that things are going a bit better, all that is music to my ears. I want there to be people in the same boat as us AND for it to improve for us all!
Our DS has been mostly great company this last week especially. It is like glimpsing what things could be like, what I HOPE we will have more of. It is more of what I thought having kids would be like, actually being able to have a relationship instead of managing a continually grumpy, screaming, tantrummy, flailing, unhappy being.
dreaming good luck for holiday, it sounds like getting there has been a slog. Fingers crossed once you are on the road and then settled in things will go much more smoothly.
claires you are amazing to handle shifting with as much ease as you do. I find it incredibly stressful and that is with only the one DC.
The discussion about personal nature and fighting it, or not, with parenting gives me so many thoughts. It is true for me and not true. I think the sheer stress and exhaustion of the first years made it hard to even be in touch with my true self. I've often been told how gentle and patient I am, and that is true. But as a parent I have seen myself be the exact opposite of that. And that is also a true part of me, the shouty frustrated angry part. It depends what parts of my personality get squeezed out by the weight of pressure, of stress, of relentless slog and seemingly endless tantrums and continually interrupted sleep.
Now that we see more light in the tunnel (in the trench!) I feel much more like myself than I have for a long time. I think our true nature stretches immensely under extended, intensive strain like a big rubber band. It gets taut and thin and in danger of snapping. The less tension, the more relaxed it gets, back into a comfortable shape. That is how I feel lately anyway. And it is such a relief.
Sorry, a huge bunch of waffle there I am a bit wiped out at the moment, for all my talk of light in tunnels and rubber bands relaxing 