Chatting, ranting and some stepping! Come in and have a brew with us.

[carrotsandcelery]

A place to have a blether, and a . All chatters are welcome, stepping or otherwise.

Come inside and settle down on the sofa.

I'm tired and my back hurts. Thank God MrScout's not home tonight so I can watch crappy TV, eat junk and not have to be pleasant.

You are not alone Cats. I am struggling with our dcs at the moment. I think ours are ready for a holiday tbh.

In my shopping spree today I bought a pack of Moshi Monster reward charts. They are like a little contract, the same as the IEP Ds has at school where you agree on targets and the reward at the end of it etc. They get stickers every day for the the targets they have achieved and have to achieve a certain number out of the possibles to achieve the reward.

I sat ds down tonight and agreed 5 targets with him, which he wrote on the chart, and agreed the number of stickers he had to have to get his reward (a cuddly Wenlock). He seemed really excited about it but the proof will be in the outcome as I have done similar things before and they start out great and then fizzle.

Dd was very interested though and asked if she could have one too so we did one for her as well. Her requested reward was to go for a bra fitting Tbh I would have done this anyway but I am happy to make it a reward

I will try to remember to report back on how the chart is going.

Btw you are not being a crap mum. Kids are just like that sometimes and sometimes we just can't stand it. You are just being normal and human imho

I can tell from all of my Guiding activities that the kids are fed up with school and fed up with the weather (and not being able to go out and run around both during the school day and after).

Someone pointy stick me, please, to get me up off my a$$ and do some jobs.

Do you have to get up Scout?

Sorry, I am no help am I?

I should:

wash up
bring the bags in from the car
photo copy the badge order
put the badge order & check into an envelope
finish the caterpillar order & put into an envelope
find stamps (for badge and caterpillar orders)
empty bags brought in from the car
find my wallet (purse, I believe is the correct British term) so I can order some coloring books and funky crayons
go to bed

Instead I am sitting on my a$$.

Hmmmmm! Scout it sounds to me like you should stay there.

I'm watching Call the Midwife.

Quality sofa time is very important

I loved Call the Midwife (but found the book very disappointing).

Dh is in from his golf competition. He came 11th. His friend came 5th though

I have made a bracelet for ds's teacher. I made one for dd's teacher last night but didn't have the right colours for ds's teacher until my shopping trip

Does anyone have any experience with the Usbourne sticker books? Are they good for DCs? Or are they more a use in one go and done with?

I've resisted the urge to buy the book, having a feeling it wouldn't be as good as the concept/hype. But MrScout recorded the program so I am watching.

Can you do a link to the book Scout? We have had a number of sticker books over the years and some are great and some are not.

If you mean something like this one then they are lovely.

Iirc you can reposition the stickers and redo the scenes. There are more stickers for each scene than you can really use on the scene.

They are very thick books too iirc so even if you only used them once you would get value for money as it would take while to work through all the pages.

Great for imaginative little people and also great for fine motor skills.

Bingo, carrots, that was one of the ones I was eyeing.

And there are some that are coloring books and sticker books in one.

I was thinking of getting TS one for holiday (annual holiday to south coast with lots of beach/sea time) and maybe the airport/airplane ones for our trip in November. He really likes coloring, painting & drawing -- though so far we've done it on paper so I can hang pictures up, not in a book. (I have some coloring books but I've copied the pictures so we can do the pictures again and again).

Or something like this. Though, I have to admit, the partial colored pages drive me a bit batty.

I don't know about the colouring books Scout. Mine will rarely tolerate colouring in for reasons I cannot fathom as I love it always used to love it when I was little.

I would say the Airport book would keep him going for a long time though, unless he is some kind of super speedy stickerer

We have 2 crates on our landing full of activity books as my dmum has a bit of a passion for them. When we were dcs they were a HUGE treat and totally savoured as my dparents were not that wealthy when we were little.

My dmum has bought my dcs so many though that they sit upstairs with guilt written all over them.

I used to donate them to the nursery so that they would at least get used but now they are aimed at an older age group and my dcs can talk coherently I am too chicken to give them away.

I have begged my dmum to stop it though, after a holiday we went on together where she produced one each every day of the trip (a week) and I was expected to manage them all or my ddad got cross about the mess [stress]

She has got the message and has vastly reduced her donations. I do feel a bit bad for her because she obviously remembers what a thrill we got from them as dcs. Part of the thrill was the novelty factor though.

Anyway, sorry, I digress.

It's okay, carrots, digress away.

Toddler's never had a proper coloring and/or sticker book where he could write and/or stick away to his heart's content. The closest we've come are paint books (paint with water or paint books that come with those paintbox paints). I've mostly been printing pictures from the internet or making photocopies of paint book pictures.

My MiL will undoubtably get him a new toy and a new outfit for holiday (we go on holiday with the whole family -- eek!) but MrScout & I usually go a day or two early and have a mini break before joining the rest so I thought it might be a nice treat to have a book and maybe some new markers or something. When TS decides he wants to color he'll go for ages and the other day, after breakfast, he kept asking me for "paint, paint, paint!" And I'm already thinking about things to keep him busy on the plane back to the States (he'll be 3 this year so much more aware of what's going on) and I don't want to fill our carry on bags with loads of heavy toys.

Noooo Cats you're not a crap mum, they're just being kids and it gets too much for all of us at times. I told one of mine to go away tonight. No-one here gives me a second's peace to get things done and I'd had ENOUGH.

Both DDs are off school with what the Dr said is flu, but they are not ill enough to be in bed. OH has it too and I'm feeling drained but not ill. One of the puppies has blood in her poo, vet came round, says to treat as gastroenteritis and talk to him tomorrow. It's fresh blood so he's not overly concerned today.

I'm off for a little sofa time, it's nearly 11.30 tho, so nit much time left before I fall asleep.

Hello folks, anyone around?

Just remembered - haven't had my tablet today I better have it with lunch in a mo. DD clingon is sat on my lap. Enjoying the cuddles though!

What you having for lunch today?