Welcome to the Hotel Cauli-fornia...you can chickpea any time you want but you can NEVER leaf. (10/10 club all welcome)

[fullmoonfiend]

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.

Ahh FMF have a hug

[Charlee hugs FMF to her womanly bosom and stuffs a pear in her pocket.]

I have done my excersise now, dp is hogging the t.v so i have used ds's toilet step to do my step up's on

Will do my sit up's before bed.

My stew was very nice, Jamies Oliver strikes again.

Am going to make Burgers tommorrow with a big wild rice salad and home made chips probably.

Peace out oh fruity one's.

Oh good. As long as you have wine. I love party food. When I collected DD from her friend's this evening she had a very large painting of a pink french fancy on a yellow canvas background. It was great. I think I need a painting of a french fancy.

Long phonecalls are wearing. I always get a hot pulsing ear that feels like it has cauliflowered when I stay on to long which is surely a sign to ring off. Hope you can lie on the sofa the rest of the evening.

'moff to bed. Book. zzzzz
xxxx

OB, I think I was giving you directions to the toddler group rather than here. Will FB in a mo.

Guad, raspberry booja booja? Wow! I still dream about the toffee apple crumble ones they did a couple of years ago I will look out for them.
Oh! There was somebody on the credits for some programme [vague] actually called Guadalupe!!

Glad it went well Fumf. Sleep well.

My eyes have gone all glassy at teh thought of a french fancy canvas

Actually I have been good today.

Four pieces of fruit, a whole avocado again , salad, stir fry with cabbage, carrot and peppers.

After last night's storyless moment, DS got into bed with me this morning and gave me lots of kisses and hugs and I love yous.

He then helped himself to a biscuit and a flapjack for breakfast in the small window of opportunity between DH going to work, and me coming downstairs and saying

"Have you had you breakfast, DS?"

I always need a poo if I'm on the phone for too long. I think it's because I'm standing up effectively doing nothing.

Hello FK

Hello all!

Glad you had a good party fumf, hope you are having sweet dreams and not too emotional

OOOOO an enormous fondant fancy - I can see it now! I always liked the pink ones most

Had salad, tomato, olives and apple and half a banana so I think I managed about 6 in all

swam 40 lengths

now ready to snuggle with DS - glad all better FK - my DS likes to "stroke" and "arrange" biscuits when he isn't really meant to be eating them and then says "oh Mummy, little bit broken off - just eat that little bit!!!"

night veggers

Poor DD, TF. about sad friends, fumf.

I want toffee apple crumble.

DS has done nothing but shout and scream at me and walked away every time I tried to talk to him today. Bedtime was miserable - he refused to get into his pyjamas so went to bed fully clothed without stories. Why is he so stroppy and defiant all the time? Is this just being 3 or is it more than that? Cos I don't think I can cope with much more of it.

A lovely lady who lives in my building brought him a plastic pumpkin stuffed with chocolate and cakes and sweets. I can't remember her name - is it rude to ask her so I can send her a thank you card?

No exercise
No fruit
No veg

Oh I'm sorry TF, I missed the bit abouit your dd. Can she eat okay?
Still, children do heal remarkably quickly.

SB, they were toffee apple crumble chocolate truffles. Vegan ones
Sorry things are hard. Do you think ds is tired? Having a growth spurt?
One good piece of advice I was given (actually as part of ds2's speech therapy but useful anyway I think) is to set aside 10 minutes each day where you do completely child-led play. No distractions, no leaping up to check on things, just follow the child's lead.
You may do this anyway, but I was surprised to find quite how distracted I usually was. Iyswim. Not sure I'm making sense actually

Wrt the card, I would bypass not knowing her name and just put Thank you very much from SB and ds. Unless there's a friendly neighbour you can ask?

hello all

TF

SB, I think it's a mixture of boundary-pushing and genuinely not knowing what they want and the smallest things mattering the earth at that age. I'll ask ds1 to do something 20 million times, then the chance will finally pass and he will be inconsolable for half an hour because 'I wanted to...'. I do tend to make a lot possible for ds1 - give him a lot of chances to do something, for example - as I think that if I keep the really important boundaries in place he will realise there are some and with the rest of it I can take account of his being-three-ness. This is causing quite a bit of conflict with dh atm, who is getting quite impatient with ds1, putting a lot of emphasis on him 'doing as he says' and is not very good at giving him notice of things happening and warnings. I know it is breaking a cardinal rule - united front and all that -, but sometimes dh is unjust to ds1 to the degree that I feel I have to openly defend ds1 so he doesn't feel wronged and my way of parenting him doesn't lose credibility iyswim. Sigh. - Oh, I am sorry. I have slipped from sympathising to moaning about my stuff.

Apple, banana, big bowl of redcurrants (surprise from dh - he is lovely really. Don't want to know how much they cost).

I have leave today. Child carer coming for interview later. We hadn't heard from the other one (the one with the immigration troubles) for so long that we've started looking for someone else. I'm not sure how to get round this now, as we signed a bit of paper at the employment office that we would give the other one a job - but they haven't sorted her work/residence yet despite us phoning them constantly, and we are really really losing so much time - dh needs the three mornings a week that she would be coming so he can work. And she couldn't survive on what we would be paying her alone.

Right, I am going to B&Q. Then I am going to TooT's. TooT - if you don't hear from me I am lost and have given up. There are 10 roundabouts between here and you.... That's a lot of room for cock up. And I also have no mobile. Pah!

OOO finger's crossed you make it Osba! I hope little Toot's and Osba's will be merrily playing soon!

TF so sorry about your DD hope she is fine

and SB and Bero sorry about DC problems. I think Toot is right about the jumping up and doing something else thing, it is very hard to devote some quality time and child led play but maybe SB your Ds is just trying to work out what he wants and using you to do it? I mean, sleeping in clothes isn't really THAT important IYSWIM?

Maybe he needs choices of his own in some sfae things (like clothes sleeping) so he will be more compliant in other things (like running into roads?) I don't know, just trying to help

I would just write "Thanks for lovely present" and mention no name!!

Bunny i agree with bero- its being-three-ness and you need to choose your battles.

Decide what is importnat and what you MUST have him obey immediately (road safety etc) and then, with other stuff, give him lots of chances. My DS always responds well to bribery a sticker for getting ready for bed (he hated getting ready for bed at 3 Is 4 now and much better if thats any consolation!)

TF hope DD is feeling a bit better today

bero - sounds grim, surely they can't hold you to employing t'other one when they haven't sorted it out, you can't hang on forever can you?

Osba - are your driving around and around 10 roundabouts at the mo?!

Morning all

DD much better today, thanks all for concern . The swelling has gone down, the tooth is not in fact wobbly although she maintains that it is and the scabby bits don't look too bad today either. She is eating fine, the day it happened she struggled with anything other than mush but ate normally yesterday. Lots of "OOOoooh DD you are so brave" helped with the return to normality . Am having Christmas present angst today though - she wants something off the telly that I have never seen but is convinced that Santa will know what it is - some sort of talking dog

SB Threeness or threenager behaviour can be the pits. They are exporing the boundaries and wanting to be more independent than they realistically can be. THistooshallpass. DD still needs a bit of a warning that things are going to happen or will strop massively if the mood takes her - especially bed time. We have a ten minute, five minute, two minute warning system before bed time so she has time to get used to the idea before it actually happens. Also I will ask nicely a couple of times, then warn her I will get cross if she doesn't do as she's told then it is stern voice and Paddington Hard Stares. This approach works best in the mornings. "Put your shoes on please dd", then "It's shoes time dd, shoes on feet please" then "If you don't start putting your shoes on straight away I will get cross" then "Shoes! Now!". It never gets shouty though. Oh no, never everm not at all [lies]

Best of luck with the roundabouts OsBa, have a good afternoon you two

Bero, hope you get the childcare thing sorted - sounds like an utter nightmare. Sounds like you're doing the right thing, you can't wait for beaurocracy (sp?) to grind into action and you would think that if the carer was bothered about the position then she would have been pushing it too.

Running in v briefly.
I am in LOVE with just-interviewed cild carer.
Shit.

beans on toast

child. gah.

I failed miserably.

Never trust AA routeplanner.

Is Toot waiting for you somewhere then, OB?

OB, I have eaten your portion of hastily thrown together mad, eclectic soup. And mine. And some of dd2's. It was nice.
Dd2 cried because you couldn't make it!

Bero, those parenting discrepancies are a bugger, aren't they?
Glad new child carer is lovely

I am tired.

No, she was coming here Guad.

Oh no! Poor little thing. I hope you reassured her that I'm not that great.

I am trying to get tiles off my kitchen wall. Somehow I think a hammer and a butter knife are not the tools for the job.

I tried to spread peanut butter with a fork the other day. It was much more hassle than just washing a knife.

Dd2 has recovered

Having said that, she has just asked, unprompted, "Why isn't she coming?"
Followed by a rather accusatory, "Doesn't she know the way to Sxxxxxx?"