Turn around stir fries, every now and then I feel a part (of a mango)

[FrannyandZooey]

For anyone who wants a boost to their general health. The suggested goals are:

EAT 10 PORTIONS OF FRUIT AND VEGETABLES EVERY DAY - if you don't usually eat much fruit and veg I would build up gradually or you could upset your digestion.

DO (AT LEAST) 10 MINUTES OF EXERCISE EVERY DAY - can be yoga, stretching or something more energetic. The plan is that the idea of doing 10 minutes is not too daunting, and having started you may well find you want to do more.

There are no restrictions on what you eat so long as you get your 10 fruit and veg as well. The focus is not on weight loss but on improving our energy levels and hopefully our general mood and well-being. Sign up below and post here to tell us how you're getting on and how you are feeling.

Basic guidance on what constitutes a portion of fruit and veg here and you can download more detailed information by following the link at the very bottom of the page

Great news about Lully's DS

Boco, your evening sounds fab. Am rather

I'm watching the Red Carpet show too. Whilst looking through gardening books so I feel like I am being productive.

Good on you for both wearing the same dress. You are not the same person so why should it matter?

Your ball sounds fab.

No the ball was at the zoo, about half an hour away. Yes Bee, you should come next year!

My ONE day without children has been scuppered as dd2 has upset tummy so no preschool, just dettol and whining. I don't sound sympathetic do I. She's not really ill, just explosive and in a very bad mood.

How were the Oscars?

Oh no Boco

Ds sped through the nursery door this morning into the arms of his beloved fave teacher shouting
I did it,I can ride a bike!
Mummy bought me one & her friend who is a hundred told her how to teach me

lololol

Hooray for DS! Clever boy. Well done 100 for top advice.

DD is FINE now Lully, demanding food and being bored

Hurrah for lully's ds and 100'd advice which I have carefully stashed away for dd.

And hurrah for Boco's ball which sounds like the best fun ever.

Am grazing on mandarins. Bought a couple of mangoes yesterday... watch this space for the results of the grand mango unveiling later this evening...

How funny Lully - DH AND DCS were in Greenwich park yesterday too while I had tea. Maybe you passed each other!

Tea was amazing. I wish I could afford to do it more often. We had the comfy sofa in the corner and the sandwiches were so dainty: brown ones with lemony salmon, ham (which of course Franny loved), egg and cress, cucumber, then the next tier had tiny light fluffy scones with clotted cream and jam, then the top tier was tiny delicate cakes like macaroons and mini chocolate slices and tincy rude rhubarb pies. God it was delicious and as soon as the plate was finished it was replaced again and again and we ate fairly constantly for, about three hours.

It was fun walking around Picadilly too, most of the jewellery shops were closed but Asprey had an exhibition of outfits and tea-sets and silver and enamel. I drifted about looking but then I saw a lady with a trolley and thought it must be Franny and it was so we went in and Tatties came soon after. I was the only drinking so I restrained myself to one glass, there's nothing worse than the slightly drunk person talking bit too loudly and hogging the conversation.

Boco - your ball sounds like a hoot. Can we all come next time, please?

Oh that is good Lully. I feel quite made up about it. Having ds2 is interesting actually because it makes you think about how to do things, and then to break them down into doable sizes and then how to join them up again.

I am therefore master at how to do up a seatbelt, how to go to the loo, how to put on socks, how to use a fork, how to pour water into a cup and judge when full enough, how to sit on a chair. I am Master of Small and Easy Life Skills.

Though if ANYONE has some tried and tested technique on how to teach how to tie shoelaces I shall love them forever and make them cocktails once a night for a fortnight.

The Oscars were good and boring all at once. Why is everyone so thin? Why does Faye Dunnaway now look like a fish? Why does everyone look the same? I think plastic surgery is awful. I can't understand it.

Oh Mrs C how civilized and up to town. I love that you all went to the tea set and outfits exhibition too.

You all did lovely poncy swoony things at the weekend and all I did was go to Ikea for a bookcase that wouldn't have fit in the car so we didn't buy it.

Oh the afternoon tea sounds lovely. Would like to eat it all now!

did you say put on socks 100?

.....oh wise one that I love....tell me more

me too, I am positively craving white bread this morning but I must resist. My stomach doesn't feel too bad but it will if I carry and this is the hard bit, not carrying on once I've started.

I did this at the birth too, ate the tea and toast and enjoyed it so much that I ate tea and toast for days but eventually I was so bloated I looked like I hadn't had the baby and DH said you better stop eating bread now.

I know this isn't really the place for this, and don't wish to soil the veg thread, but need to ask a poo question and don't want to start a whole thread for it.

So, don't read below if you don't want to hear about poo ok?

__

DD2 has upset tummy - and she's done done a poo that is cream coloured, like...custard! Never seen anything quite like it - is this normal?

what has she eaten?

Nothing unusual or different. Some toast and butter and honey for breakfast, an apple chopped up about an hour ago. Yesterday she had peas and potatoes and carrots and fish, and a sandwich for lunch, and blueberries and kiwi fruit for pudding. She's not hot or ill, but woke up in the night with bad tummy ache and did a poo in her bed - never ever happened before - and today been another 3 times.

Hmm, has she eaten any barium meal recently? I don't know why it would be white, I suppose it must be an absense of what usually makes poo brown, and I'm not sure about that.

Have googled quickly but it only brings up things about white dog poos.

Boco,ds has had this several times with tummy bugs

the barium meal was a joke btw

maybe it was the rhux tox?

or like lully says, normal diahowever its spelt

I think it is bile that makes poo brown isn't it? So if she's been sick a lot then she just hasn't got any bile left in her tummy.

I remember it happening here when people have had vomiting things. I'm sure it's nothing to worry about. If she eats today, and poo browns up then all fine.

I am having a taxing day. Have my three here as is an inset day, and another two children for the day as mother just started new job. Is noisy and tiring and I am ready for all children to go back to school.

What a lovely time everyone has been having!

100 - try different coloured shoes laces on a cardboard template for shoelace tying. If my son can learn that way, anyone can, I promise!

Talk me through it FMV. So you say, now take the black one and cross over the white one? Like that? Can you explain it in excruciating detail please.

no, I need to show you...

Make a carboard foot shape with extra bit stuck on with the holes. Get 2 different coloured laces and tie together at tongue base (of shoe), cutting to manageable length. It is just easier to get it if the child can see two different colours IME. There are rhymes and poems to help, but ds wasn't so goot at remembering those.

TigerFeet's patented method to get rid of shoelace tying problems...

Buy shoes with velcro

In all seriousness though, most girls' shoes these days seem to be velcro fastened and it causes me irrational annoyance... when dd was little she could undo them and chuck the shoes overboard which isn't so much of an issue now that she walks everywhere but a buckle seems so much more secure and proper somehow.

Okay. I like it. I'm going to try that. Neither ds can do their shoelaces. It's a constant source of annoyance to us all, it's too left and right brain at once for this house. It's only their football boots that have laces but it is a stressful thing.

I like the two lace thing. Actually I think it's absoluuute genius idea. Thank you.