Due Aug 08 - This Way To The Tent Shop

[TwilightSurfer]

DUE AUGUST 2008 NEW THREAD!!

I'm sure you won't expode in three week's time. You'll be beautiful!!

pmsl - have you not noticed there is no photo of me on the profile, at the moment I look like a weeble wobble or Mr Wobbly man from noddy lol

Dizzy dear you will look beautiful because you are beautiful. A snapshot posted online is completely unnecessary. You even have the added bonus of being pregnant which only quadruples the beauty factor. People see what you WANT them to see....remember that!

Now I've surfed the UK web and found a few items. I realize you've purchase the tunic (as well as a few other items I think you returned already). I just thought you'd like to see what choices I'd make for you if I were your personal shopper. The items are from a wide range of shops. If you haven't noticed already I'm all about purchasing something great in a much bigger size instead of purchasing maternity (but I did include some maternity fashions). You may hate all of these things...it won't hurt my feelings in the slightest. The least this little fashion parade will do is give you more ideas to spice yourself up with...in the tunic.

This is a beautiful little black dress.

Or this little number.

How about this more casual dress.

Here's a pants outfit.

Here's a knock-out red dress.

And lastly, I think any one of these numbers would work perfectly.

NIGHT

ah TS you are such a star I love Oasis clothes but they only do up to a 16 in the shops and that just wouldn't go round the boobs there is a catalogue which do their stuff larger but its a limited selection and the top I'd been trying to get is out of stock

I think for the sake of my budget and sanity am just going to stick with what I have and treat myself to a hair do instead!

both girls slept through, dd1 up at 7.35 which isn't bad and dd2 still sleeping

needless to say dh hasn't got up to let me have a lie in [harumph] but then I was having dreams about me and Sean Slater from eastenders (WTF is all THAT about [blush) last night so I won't make him feel too guilty

looks like nice sunny day here too

Saz, am in Dublin, hurrah!

Morning ladies.
Loads of chatter last night. I seem to have stopped coming on in the eves. Am missing out on a lot :{

TS You are a great personal shopper!!! Those outifts are all beautiful!!!
Also loving the shower curtain map. I just had to get a new shower curtain (I counted that we've been here 5 years and we're on our 4th one - they get so icky (too long really so trail in bath) and i never get my bum in gear to wash them before they get irredeemable (in my defence the last one was not washable!)) but got a spotty dotty one from Ikea!!

Shazza Ooh pram shopping. I forget which one you were eyeing up....... What did you have with Dd??

Saz V impressed with your multi tasking while on the loo!!!!! This week wheile on the loo I've simply lookeda round thinking "my it's clean in here" (I'm talking clean by my standards, not Anthea clean probably) - cos it fell by the wayside over the hols ).

Am enjoying a few mins of guilt free alone time. Sat morn is my lie in (yay - lovely dh). Dh takes dd out for breakfast, and today they were going to church for dh to do a baptism rehearsal then poss out on her bike (won't take long- she's had it a year but only ridden it 3 times cos she gets frustrated that she can't get the hang of it. Is that bad for a nearly 5 year old??).

Vowing to kepe the tv off as much as possible today cos I'm worryingt hat I'm being a bad mummy wrt Cbeebies coonsumption. We'll get the Polly pockets and barbies out and if need be painting will have to occur .
Have promised her a trip to the ice cream shop later though....

Those of you with 5 year olds (Shazza, Dizzy and any one else i've forgtten) - whay do yours like doing, how much do you "abandon" them and how much tv do they watch?? Loads of questions....

Dizzy I should take your lead and go have my hair done as well. I've no special event but could really use some color. Your tunic outfit will be awesome plus you'll be comfortable...and that's most important.

Sazzles I make mental notes on the loo too but for some strange reason I loose the blasted things the minute I flush.

DD has soccer this morning. 9AM WTF...on a Saturday!! That means I have to be up by 6:30 to shower & dress so I can then get everyone else up and dressed and out the door by 8:30. Somewhere in there we eat..... Honestly I believe I have the short end of the stick in this deal.

Alittlebitshy we did the icecream shop trip last night after dinner. It was total surprise for DD and she LoVED it. During the day she does her own thing mostly. I'm not strict because I remember having a blast doing my own thing when I was little. She'll watch tv and play on the computer and play with her Barbies or run outside to play with the cats or put on a performance for the neighborhood. She's really big into playing her piano and of late manages to play it each day at noon for half an hour...singing away made up songs. She'll bump into a book and stop to read it (or ask me to read it to her). We've tried "scheduling" things but it doesn't seem to work well for her at home with me. She's great with the schedule at school but now that a whole different environment isn't it.

Thanks TS that helps.
One thing I know I am bad at is giving dd outdoors time. I'm not much of a go and potter in garden person, so never think to lt her out. Dh does though so i guess that's ok. we're getting her a trampoline for her bday, so that should give the incentive!

My dd loves the schedule at school i think. She relishes telling me "no mummy ICT is on Thursday" when i ask if she's done x y or z today. .

she has 3 things after school, which seems the top end of ok to me. But they're all GOOD things, (ballet, swimming lessons and Rainbows) rather than making her do extra maths etc iyswim (belive me I know some parents who do get some kind of math's classes or consider tutoring at this stage ) so she's not totally free range and vegging in front of TV.

Before she started at school I had rules on tv (she was allowed a bit while i made lunch and again while i cooked dinner), but since she started school, she seems to fill a fair bit of the chunk between coming home and dinner with cbeebies (we do do her reading too and she does potter as well, unless she is really tired) on the days she's not out..... I worry though. (don't i always?).

Thing is I am on only child and I know I never felt really lonely, and was happy doing my thing, but I just..... worry. Will it change when Dc2 comes? I hope dd will be as enthusiastic as she is at the idea and will want to entertain baby a bit, help me a bit.....

Am not v good at inviting school friends over. Have done it a few times but since i've been pg i've been in no state to look after extra kids and the thought of cooking for them (ugh food) has been awful!! I panic that her not having people over will mean she doesn't forgec lose friendships and will be left out.

I think I'm making myself sound like a mum who has the tv on from dawn til beyond dusk which i do not. On a week day it doesn't go on til after school (I never know how people get out the door if the tv is on the morning, i for one would be distracted lol). I think I just wanted some bench marks to examine our way of doing things by. Is that bizarre ??

Afternoon ladies and beans! I was going to type 'morning' but then realised it's really not anymore...DP and I both had an unprecedented lie in this morning and slept till 10.30am! We never usually sleep so late - I used to be a champion sleeper and would regularly lie in till, well, now when I was in my 20s, and DP used to be the kind of person who can't stay in bed when he wakes up and has to spring straight out. Over the years I think our body clocks have synchronised, so I've learned the value of getting up to enjoy the day and DP has got much better at dossing about It's a happy medium.

So, a long sleep followed by Saturday papers in bed followed by a sinfully enormous fry-up at the local bistro, and oh my god it's 2 o'clock already. DP has gone off to his friend's for the afternoon which means I've got a lovely afternoon doing nothing studying, then !shock horror! we're going out tonight for a friend's birthday. It's a rare occurrence for us to leave the house after dark, due to natural cosiness/laziness, so I'm looking forward to putting some slap on and seeing some friends.

Toilet pastimes: I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who thinks it's too boring to just go in there and do the business. When I was a kid my mum foolishly installed a bookshelf above our toilet which encouraged a terrible reading-on-the-bog habit in me, and now we have a small collection of lighthearted reading material in our bathroom, including Calvin & Hobbes, a copy of Lush Times, and the best toilet reading EVER: the Viz Profanisaurus Rex. I like to have something to read so I don't notice how dusty and cat-haired the bathroom is and start getting wild notions about maybe giving it a clean

Oh what a fab idea your mum had - a bookshelf in the loo!!!!!

Haha, I'm not sure she thought that during the many hours she spent hopping about outside shouting "Get out of there now, I need to wee!" while I was lost in a book

albs DD1 can be quite good some days and a complete PITA other days. We have quite a good garden for chucking her out into when its warm enough, i.e. not raining
today she has written an rsvp to a party, played in the toy room (because they can get in it now) walked the dog with her dad and played in the garden, watched a dvd with herself starring in it and is now playing her dora Explorer computer game on the tv. Oh and she helped me with some of the cake making.

when she starts school in august we'll have 3 or 4 other activities too - dance/swimming/rainbows and enjoy-a-ball. I wanted her to go to yoga but it clashed with her dance and she loves that

cyteen am VERY of your lie in and fry up and your grown up night out, dh off to work till 2am so will be me and the lap top again

sazzles how very dare you imply am a stalker!! tis a natural interest stemming from my degree in geography

ts hope you're having a lovely sunny day - how is dd keeping this weekend?

PMSL at that catsuit on TS's last link. Don't think anyone should wear a catsuit, let alone pregnant peeps! How often do we need a wee?

Talking of which, glad someone mentioned incontinence, freaked out thinking my waters had started trickling the other day and was appalled to find my pants smelt very distinctly not amniotic (which doesn't smell at all I believe?).

Re 5yr olds, my DD is 5 next month and watches way too much kids' tv. Generally she plays really happily by herself, as does DS and quite often she'll bully him into playing with her. But it's him that automatically turns the tv on when he comes into the lounge, whether he's watching it or not (not allowed before school until they are absolutely ready to go). She has no out-of-school activities (it's fairly impossible with no car and a DS that goes berzerk in new places) but is on the waiting list for Rainbows. We haven't yet invited anyone from school over for tea because I am too lazy to make the house presentable. Voila, I'm a lazy slut who pees her pants!

ALBS, tv between school and tea is a must I think! They need time to unwind and zombify after a hard day at the office and CBeebies can't be faulted, no adverts! My 2 love Playhouse Disney and Nick Jr unfortunately, really educational programmes but so many adverts. DD keeps presenting me with huge 'birthday lists' - ie all the toys she's seen advertised in an hour.

Evening all.

Well ALBS you have me thinking what my DD does and I do think she watches too much TV but sometimes it's a must in order for me to get cleaning/tidying/dinner cooked. We normally get in at 5:30 of an evening, she will either watch TV or play with DP whilst I cook dinner. Then it's bath/shower if I'm feeling energetic then stories, then bed. Of a weekend Saturdays I normally go shopping/browsing with my mum, or just have a bit of me time, DP will normally amuse her indoors/outdoors someway. Sundays we try to have 'family' day where we go to park/anywhere depending on weather. We do have a nice garden that she can happily play in when she wants to but not much chance at the moment. But DD does have a good imagination, often I will hear her talking away in her room and when I peep she would have lined all her teddies/dollys up and she will be reading to them or telling them off!! Think that's it. I do feel guilty sometimes that I don't do enough with DD but I don't think she loves me any less for it Plus she's doing really well at school so I like to think I'm doing ok as a parent.

With regards to prams. Decided on the Silver Cross linear freeway. New colours have been launched ready to order from end May. They have a dark grey/black denim coming out so plan to order that one

dizzy I love that top. Planning a trip to Matalan next week to see if I can spot it

shazza I got a couple of others but that one works best with my white linen wide legged trousers - £19.50 from markies

Oooh Dizzy, I've just ordered some cropped linen trousers from there, a black pair and white. So are the legs quite wide on the long leg ones too?? I have thunder thighs

Shazza I've gone for the Linear Freeway too and have it on order now from John Lewis!! I know it's mega early but I love it so much and know I won't change my mind so convinced myself that there's no point in waiting! I've gone for the pistachio one, I haven't seen the new colours yet though, they don't seem to be on the website. I really like the Silver Cross Dazzle, but it doesn't have the travel system option so decided against it.

On the topic of prams, has anyone been banned from keeping theirs in their house? A few of my friends, my Mum and MIL have all voiced their opinion on keeping the pram in the house before the baby's born. I hate superstitious stuff as most of it seems to contradict itself at some point (ooh a black cat crossed my path, that's bad luck, no it's good luck - argh!) and can only see it being bad luck to have the pram in the house if I fall over it! Has anyone else come across this?

Sazzles, I am in Buenos Aires, and we are currently under a cloud of smoke (bbc website)

NO PRAMS IN HOUSES TILL AFTER BABY ARRIVES

I MEAN IT!!!

NONE NIL NADA

(and if you HAVE to do it, lie to me and tell me you're not)

Aww, not you too dizzy! Can I at least have the car seat then??? Pretty please?

well for first pram/first baby combo - am not sure on the supersticion code for new pram but not for first born

I made my parents pick mine up on way to hosp to visit me and dd1

its not uncommon here, maybe a scottish weirdy thing